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Submission + - Can Micropayments Save Digital Publishing? Bitwall Says Yes

Submitted by cagraham
cagraham writes: Startup Bitwall wants publishers to drop their monthly subscription models and instead charge users small micropayments to read individual articles or access specific content. The service runs off Bitcoin, which allows publishers to charge much smaller amounts (as little as one cent) while still making a profit due to the currency's low transaction fees. The idea is to capture readers who might be willing to pay for one article, but aren't willing to commit to a full subscription. The service also allows users to access content in exchange for tweeting about the article or watching an ad.

You can see the service in action at the Bitcoin news site ZeroBlock.

Submission + - Utility sets IT department on path to self-destruction (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by dcblogs
dcblogs writes: Northeast Utilities has told IT employees that it is considering outsourcing IT work to India-based offshore firms, putting as many as 400 IT jobs at risk. The company is saying a final decision has not been made. But Conn. State Rep. and House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz, who is trying to prevent or limit the outsourcing move, says it may be a done deal. NU may be prompting its best IT employees to head to the exits. It also creates IT security risks from upset workers. The heads-up to employees in advance of a firm plan is "kind of mind mindbogglingly stupid," said David Lewis, who heads a Connecticut-based human resources consulting firm OperationsInc, especially "since this is IT of all places." The utility's move makes sense, however, if is it trying to encourage attrition to reduce severance costs.

Submission + - Universal Flu Vaccine 'Blueprint' Discovered (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by minty3
minty3 writes: Scientists say they used the pandemic as a “natural experiment” to discover how the body’s immune system builds resistance to the flu. The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed how certain immune cells helped some avoid the severe illness.

Comment Not quite the same thing being compared here (Score 5, Insightful) 218

There is a BIG difference between a judge ordering someone to disclose their facebook password to collect evidence and a school teacher or principal doing it. Also, the person in question here is the plaintiff. The defense generally does have a lot of latitude when it comes to evidence collection. My only complaint here is that the plaintiff's sexual behavior outside of work should not be relevant or admissible, but it looks like from some of the statements that the defense is going to push to get that stuff admitted. The judge should put pretty strict criteria on what evidence may be collected and presented to the jury. We aren't really getting those details here, though.

Submission + - Puerto Rico votes to become 51st state (yahoo.com)

Submitted by DrEnter
DrEnter writes: Not really getting much attention in all of the presidential election coverage was the fact that Puerto Rico voted to become a U.S. State yesterday. The option has come up for a vote several times in the past, but never had much popular support until this year when it won with 53% of the vote choosing to change the government structure and a surprising 65% of the vote for choosing statehood as that change. The other choices were a sovereign-free association (31%) and independence (4%). Obama has already committed to supporting the will of the voters and there is currently no major opposition in either the House or the Senate. It looks like the U.S. may have a 51st state in a few months! Now this Wikipedia page can get some attention.
The Internet

Submission + - Protect Global Internet Freedom (protectinternetfreedom.net)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "On December 3rd, the world’s governments will meet to update a key treaty of a UN agency called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Some governments are proposing to extend ITU authority to Internet governance in ways that could threaten Internet openness and innovation, increase access costs, and erode human rights online. We call on civil society organizations and citizens of all nations to sign the following Statement to Protect Global Internet Freedom."
Medicine

Submission + - Do Recreational Drugs Help Programmers? (itworld.com) 1

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Among the winners of last night's election: marijuana users. Voters in both Washington and Colorado approved referenda that legalized marijuana for recreational use, though the drug remains illegal under federal law. There's been a long-standing debate among programmers as to whether recreational drugs, including pot and hallucinagens like LSD, can actually help programmers code. Don't forget, there was a substantial overlap between the wave of computer professionals who came of age in the '60s and that era's counterculture."
Businesses

Submission + - Elon Musk Will Usher in the Era of Electric Cars (vice.com)

Submitted by
pigrabbitbear
pigrabbitbear writes: "There’s a reason why Elon Musk is being called the next Steve Jobs. Like Jobs, he’s a visionary, a super successful serial entrepreneur, having made his initial fortune with a company he sold to Compaq before starting Paypal. Like Jobs, he saved his beloved baby Tesla Motors from the brink of oblivion. Like Jobs, he’s a genius generalist with “huge steel balls” (according to his ex-wife) and a knack for paradigm-shifting industry disruption. Which means he’s also demanding. “Like Jobs, Elon does not tolerate C or D players,” SpaceX board member and early Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson told BusinessWeek.

But while Jobs was slinging multi-colored music players and touchable smartphones, Musk is building rocket ships and electric-powered supercars. It’s why his friends describe him as not just Steve Jobs but also John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes all wrapped in one. His friend Jon Favreau used Musk as the real-life inspiration for the big screen version of Tony Stark. Elon Musk is a badass."

Submission + - How CoreSite Survived Sandy (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, the combination of high winds, rain, and storm surges wreaked havoc on homes and businesses alike. With a data center on the Avenue of the Americas, CoreSite Realty escaped the worst the storm had to offer. But was it coincidence or careful planning?
Slashdot sat down for an interview with Billie Haggard, CoreSite’s senior vice president of data centers. He’s responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, facilities staffing and uptime, reliability and energy efficiency of CoreSite’s data centers. He described what it took to weather the worst weather to hit New York City in decades."
Government

Submission + - Voting doesn't have to end on election day 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In this latest election cycle, Americans got to participate up to two times: once in a primary and once in Tuesday's election. Now it's over, and voters will have no more say in the processes of their democratic republic for another two years. This may seem strange to the younger generation, who are used to being able to provide continuous input into anything and everything through modern technologies such as the Facebook and the internets. Conventional wisdom says that people can be trusted to choose the next American Idol, but should never be trusted with government-scale decisions. No, we leave that up to corrupt, brain-dead, power-hungry, self-consumed politicians because they are, um, better at it? So what if we could have a real democracy using internet technology? It would have to be consensus-based (not majority rule), which would then avoid the tyranny of the idiotic. Can you imagine a world where you get to participate in government more than once every couple of years? Here is how it would work, and here are scores of groups working on making it happen. Before you criticize: remember the alternative, which is the status quo. Are you willing to defend your current disenfranchisement because politicians are better at ruling over you than you are?
Data Storage

Submission + - Death of cassette tape is greatly exaggerated (torontosun.com) 1

Submitted by Meshach
Meshach writes: Interesting article from Toronto about how although they have been virtually abandoned for music cassette tapes are being actively used an an inexpensive storage medium. Companies looking to archive large amounts of data are always looking for a cheaper solution and cassette tapes are the newest fad. Apparently when access time is not a priority they are perfect and they require zero energy use when not in use.

Comment Use a VPN Service (Score 1) 218

by DrEnter (#41454321) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Ideas and Tools To Get Around the Great Firewall?
Use a VPN service. I've used a corporate VPN and one based out of India (to avoid U.S.-centric blocking issues) called SwitchVPN. While they both worked fine, this was a year ago. The best thing to do is look at the current VPN companies and see who is being blocked today and why. If several from one country are getting blocked, choose one based out of a different country that doesn't have close ties with that country. It changes all the time, but it doesn't turn on a dime. It seems like the blocking happens in fits and starts (a bunch blocked a couple months ago, a bunch of different ones blocked next month, etc.) One thing I've found is that corporate VPNs seem to almost never get blocked, so if you have access to one of those, it is a good backup.

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