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Comment Re:Peak Apple 2012 (Score 1) 79

by jjp9999 (#45768647) Attached to: Apple Forges Agreement With China Mobile

I had a friend who worked at the Apple Store in NYC. He said they used to get huge lines of Chinese people every day when they opened who would buy as many iPhones as they'd be willing to sell. Apparently they were jailbreaking the phones and reselling them for huge markups in China. Not sure if this is still going on, but from what he was telling me there's huge demand for iPhones in China.

Submission + - Image of Europe Getting Nuked Used in Promotion for China's Moon Rover (theepochtimes.com) 4

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: In a promotional exhibit for China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover, an image in the background showed a nuclear explosion over Europe. The image they used was public stock photo titled "Nuclear Explosion on Earth from Space." How it got picked up for the exhibit remains a mystery. The exhibit was shown in November at the China International Industry Fair 2013 in Shanghai ahead of China's recent lunar landing.

Comment Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. (Score 5, Insightful) 264

by jjp9999 (#45504995) Attached to: NSA Infected 50,000 Computer Networks With Malicious Software

I enjoyed the response of Europeans a lot more when they learned their governments were doing the exact same thing. Americans care about this stuff. When people in other countries learn their governments do the exact same things, they try to excuse it then turn the conversation back to America.

Submission + - Pre-hacked Electronics Come Straight From China's Factories (theepochtimes.com)

Submitted by jjp9999
jjp9999 writes: Cybercriminals may be taking a new route to hack your computers, and are taking their attacks straight to the factories. A shipment of Chinese kettles and clothing irons was recently picked up by Russian customs agents who said inside the products were WiFi chips and microprocessors. If the devices were plugged in, they would search for unsecured WiFi networks (which are still common in Russia) and infect them with malware. The devices were far from the first though. In the past few years we've seen spying devices in Hong Kong cars, Olympus cameras and Samsung smartphones with infected memory cards, infected TomTom GPS systems, and the infamous Best Buy digital picture frames that were pre-loaded with a virus that could bypass firewalls and over 100 security and anti-virus programs. The US government seems to know about the problem, yet has been oddly silent. Among the only public discussions was in 2011 when Greg Schaffer of Homeland Security said he was aware of the problem, adding 'This is one of the most complicated and difficult challenges that we have.'

Submission + - New Design for Airline Seats Allows for Adjustable Width (futuretravelexperience.com)

Submitted by dragonguyt
dragonguyt writes: British design and innovation consultancy Seymourpowell has unveiled an adjustable economy airline seat concept, which allows for seat width to be increased or decreased depending on passenger needs.

The concept – named ‘Morph’ – uses a sheet of fabric that is stretched across three seats and held in place using armrests and dividers. One sheet of fabric is used for the seat base and another for the seat back.

The seats also include formers, which can be moved to adjust the individual seat size. So, in a configuration of three 18-inch wide seats, one seat could be increased to 20 inches, one could remain 18 inches and the third could be reduced to 16 inches.

The company says airlines could choose to charge more for wider seats and less for the narrower seats. For families travelling together, the adults could widen their seats, while the children could sit in the narrower seats.

The launch of the Morph seat concept comes just two weeks after Airbus called on all airlines to offer a minimum 18-inch seat width in long-haul economy.

Submission + - Bionic Eye Implant Available In U.S. Next Month (singularityhub.com)

Submitted by kkleiner
kkleiner writes: Starting next month, Americans suffering from degenerative eye diseases can get excited about the launch of the Argus II, a bionic eye implant to partially restore vision. Designed for those suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, the Argus II is a headset that looks akin to Google Glass but is actually hard wired into the optic nerve to transmit visual information from a 60 electrode array. The device opens the door for similar "humanitarian" implants that both reduce the difficulty in getting government approval and increase the adoption of brain implants.

Submission + - Building a (Virtual) Roman Emperor's Villa (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: Scientists have been using everything from supercomputing clusters to 3D printers to virtually recreate dinosaur bones. Now another expert is trying to do something similar with the ancient imperial villa built for Roman emperor Hadrian, who ruled from 117 A.D. to 138 A.D. Hadrian’s Villa is already one of the best-preserved Roman imperial sites, but that wasn't quite good enough for Indiana University Professor of Informatics Bernie Frischer, who trained as a classical philologist and archaeologist before being seduced by computers into what evolved into the academic discipline of digital analysis and reproduction of archaeological and historical works. The five-year effort to recreate Hadrian’s Villa is based on information from academic studies of the buildings and grounds, as well as analyses of how the buildings, grounds and artifacts were used; the team behind it decided to go with gaming platform Unity 3D as a key part of the simulation.

Submission + - New Island rises in southern Japan after Volcanic Eruption (rtoz.org)

Submitted by rtoz
rtoz writes: A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, Japan. (Video showing the creation of New Island )

Advisories from the coast guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency said the islet is about 200 meters (660 feet) in diameter.

A volcanologist with the coast guard told that it was possible the new island might be eroded away. “But it also could remain permanently,” he said.

The last time the volcanos in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s. Much of the volcanic activity occurs under the sea.

Submission + - Retro is back: Hyper Light Drifter interview (redbull.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Kickstarter has birthed many game projects, each to varying success, but the anime-inspired Hyper Light Drifter is heading to the top of the pile thanks to its 16-bit visuals and gameplay. But did you know it was a culmination of creator Alex Preston's lengthy stay in hospital, his favourite anime, comic books and sheer determination that added up to the project's Kickstarter success? In an article published yesterday, Preston details his journey, and also says that he wants to keep the game experience as close as possible across all its platforms, he still wants to de-make the game on SNES and he won't be done with just the one game. Will you be wanting more from the world of Hyper Light Drifter?

Submission + - Airline Pilots Rely Too Much on Automation Says Safety Panel

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Nearly all people connected to the aviation industry agree that automation has helped to dramatically improve airline safety over the past 30 years but Tom Costello reports at NBC News that according to a new Federal Aviation Administration report commercial airline pilots rely too much on automation in the cockpit and are losing basic flying skills. Relying too heavily on computer-driven flight decks now pose the biggest threats to airliner safety world-wide, the study concluded. The results can range from degraded manual-flying skills to poor decision-making to possible erosion of confidence among some aviators when automation abruptly malfunctions or disconnects during an emergency. “Pilots sometimes rely too much on automated systems," says the report adding that some pilots “lack sufficient or in-depth knowledge and skills” to properly control their plane’s trajectory. Basic piloting errors are thought to have contributed to the crash of an Air France Airbus A330 plane over the Atlantic in 2009, which killed all 228 aboard, as well as a commuter plane crash in Buffalo, NY, that same year. Tom Casey, a retired airline pilot who flew the giant Boeing 777, said he once kept track of how rarely he had to touch the controls on an auto-pilot flight from New York to London. From takeoff to landing, he said he only had to touch the controls seven times. "There were seven moments when I actually touched the airplane — and the plane flew beautifully,” he said. “Now that is being in command of a system, of wonderful computers that do a great job — but that isn’t flying." Real flying is exemplified by Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, says Casey, who famously landed his US Airways plane without engines on the Hudson River and saved all the passengers in what came to be known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.” The new report calls for more manual flying by pilots — in the cockpit and in simulations. The FAA says the agency and industry representatives will work on next steps to make training programs stronger in the interest of safety.

Submission + - 720K Patient medical records compromised after laptop theft (garfieldmedicalcenter.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The medical records of more than 720,000 people have been compromised following the theft of two laptops from an office in Alhambra on Oct 12th (Southern California, Los Angeles County) from AHMC Healthcare Inc. AHMC Healthcare runs 6 medical centers and hospitals in Southern California. The laptops were not encrypted. The laptops contained data from patients treated at the following AHMC hospitals: Garfield Medical Center, Monterey Park Hospital, Greater El Monte Community Hospital, Whittier Hospital Medical Center, San Gabriel Valley Medical Center and Anaheim Regional Medical Center

Official Press release: http://www.garfieldmedicalcenter.com/documents/AHMCPressRelease_10-21-revised1.pdf

Report from ABC: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9296421

Report from CBS: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/10/22/laptops-containing-patient-information-stolen-from-alhambra-hospital/

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