Comment Re:Are they manufacturing their own hardware, too? (Score 1) 285
Yes, in fact, they are. Brazil has enormous import duties and generally it is not profitable or feasible to manufacture goods outside of Brazil for sale in Brazil.
Comment Re:Carriers are already required to unlock phones (Score 1) 378
The guy at the store said it stopped being Verizon's company policy back in May.
Comment Re:Carriers are already required to unlock phones (Score 1) 378
I did this just this week with a new Lenovo laptop I bought. I took it to the Verizon store and they put a Verizon SIM card in it for their LTE data network and added it to my account, no problem.
Comment How many fingernails does he have left? (Score 1) 349
Does anyone know?
Comment Re:Obama and the FCC dont get cell phone tech (Score 3, Interesting) 378
You can't have that many antennas in the phone without it being too big. There are half a dozen frequency bands ranging from 700Mhz all the way up to 2100MHz, and one antenna will not do it all.
Sure, it's easy enough to have a software defined radio like they do, but the amplifiers, LNAs, matching networks, and antennas are all cut for one or maybe two bands.
Comment Re:Doesn't matter (Score 2) 378
Nobody is holding a gun to your head and making you sign that contract. All of the carriers will give you a no-contract plan or sell you an unsubsidized, unlocked phone.
Arrested Chinese Blogger "Confesses" On State TV, Praises Censorship 349
Koreantoast writes "As part of a broader, chilling Chinese crackdown on Internet dissent, Chinese blogger Charles Xue appeared on Chinese state television in handcuffs on Sunday, denouncing his blog and praising government censorship. He 'confessed' to becoming drunk on the accumulated power of his Weibo blog, which peaked at 12 million followers, and confessed to recklessly spreading unverified rumors and slander, disrupting social harmony and becoming a vent of negative emotion on mainstream society. He also praised new government legislation cracking down on Internet freedom, stating how dangerous the Internet would be if left uncontrolled by the government. Xue was arrested on prostitution solicitation charges though his television confession did not discuss that. His arrest was also suspiciously around the same time as a broader government sweep that picked up other Chinese Internet activists."
Comment No, dammit, they see into the FUTURE... (Score 2) 176
... at least I am convinced of that every time I try to sneak up on one and kill it...
Comment Re:H-1V Escapees (Score 1) 356
Boulder is not a high tech incubation region. Denver's high-tech region is south and east of the city.
Boulder is an incubation region for dirty hippies, far-leftists, organic Rastafarians, and art history majors.
Comment Re:FEMA, as usual, screwing up big time (Score 0) 356
All of that typing just to say "this is Bush's fault."
Sad, indeed.
Comment The only victims in these battles (Score 5, Insightful) 225
are the consumers who end up paying for both sides.
Chinese DRAM Plant Fire Continues To Drive Up Memory Prices 112
Nerval's Lobster writes "Damage from an explosion and fire in SK Hynix's Wuxi, China DRAM fabrication plant will drive up global memory prices for PCs, servers, and other devices, according to new reports. Most of the damage from the Sept. 4 fire was to the air-purification systems and roof of the plant, according to announcements from parent company SK Hynix, which predicted the fab would be back to full production in less than a month. The Wuxi plant makes approximately 10 percent of the world's supply of DRAM chips; its primary customers include Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell and Sony. SK Hynix is the world's second-largest manufacturer of memory chips, with a market share of 30 percent, lagging behind Samsung Electronics with 32.7 percent. In an update published Friday, market-research firm DRAMeXchange reported that damage from the fire, smoke and power outages left at least half the plant inoperable or at reduced capacity. The plant is designed to isolate damage in case of disaster so that at least one of its two parallel production facilities can remain online. The facility itself restarted production Sept. 7, according to a statement from the company."
How a Grandmother Pioneered a Home Shopping Revolution 94
eionmac writes in with a story about the humble beginnings of an industry that is worth over $186.1 billion in the UK alone. "Grandmother Jane Snowball, 72, sat down in an armchair in her Gateshead home in May 1984, picked up a television remote control and used it to order the groceries from her local supermarket. She was part of a council initiative to help the elderly. What she - and everyone else with her at the time - didn't realise was that her simple shopping list was arguably the world's first home online shop. With her remote control she used a piece of computer technology called Videotex. It sent the order down her phone line to the local Tesco - the goods were then packaged and delivered to her door. Mrs Snowball never saw a computer - her television linked her to the shop. 'What we effectively did was to take a domestic TV in a home and turn it into a computer terminal,' says Michael Aldrich, the man behind the technology for the system. 'That was the big leap.'"
Comment Quality of Life (Score 1) 182
Why is Quality of Life measured by whether and how fast someone can access the Internet?
The Internet is not the end-all, be-all of whether life is worth living.
DoD Declassifies Flu Pandemic Plan Containing Sobering Assumptions 337
An anonymous reader writes "The Department of Defense has just declassified a copy of its 2009 Concept of Operations Plan for an Influenza Pandemic. Among the Plan's scary yet reasonable assumptions are that in the United States, such a pandemic will kill 2 percent of the infected population, or about 2 million people. The plan also assumes that a vaccine won't be available for at least 4 to 6 months after confirmation of sustained human transmission, and that the weekly vaccine manufacturing capability will only produce 1 percent of the total US vaccine required. State and local governments will be overwhelmed, and civilian mortuary operations will require military augmentation. Measures such as limiting public gatherings, closing schools, social distancing, protective sequestration and masking will be required to limit transmission and reduce illness and death. International and interstate transportation will be restricted to contain the spread of the virus. If a pandemic starts outside the US, it will enter the country at multiple locations and spread quickly to other parts of the country. A related document, CONPLAN 3591-09, was released by DoD in 2010."
