Comment Prepare for short shrift here, methinks (Score 2, Informative) 135
Never personally met anyone with an MBA who knew their ass from their elbow about engineering. Or had an agenda
Submission + - 4chan Does Something Nice (nytimes.com)
Hugh Pickens writes: "Members of 4chan aren't known for doing things that are cute and heart-warming and when they decide to go after someone, it's typically to subject them to ridicule. But not this time. Someone at 4chan decided that the Internet should get together and wish 90-year-old WWII veteran William J. Lashua a happy birthday, and soon Lashua's local branch of the American Legion was deluged by birthday calls from people as far away as Sweden. The account someone set up for Mr. Lashua's birthday on facebook had 3,956 "likes" and over 500 comments, most of which wished him a happy birthday and thanked him for his military service. It's not clear how 4chan originally came across a photo of Lashua, but a member of the site posted a snapshot of a flyer that was on the bulletin board at a store in Ashburnham, Massachusetts asking for guests to attend the nonagenarian's birthday on at the American Legion hall and the post took off. In contrast to their usual behavior, 4chan members "were giving him nice phone calls and sending him nice notes" and discouraging those who wanted to do something stupid or mean. "They were all being.. well, shucks, awful nice.""
Submission + - Google Wave to Live On as 'Wave in a Box' (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "Google Wave will morph into an application bundle for real-time collaboration, according to a blog post by Google Wave engineer Alex North. 'We will expand upon the 200K lines of code we've already open sourced (detailed at waveprotocol.org) to flesh out the existing example Wave server and Web client into a more complete application or "Wave in a Box,"' North said, adding that the future of the recently flat-lined Google service will be 'defined by your contributions. We hope this project will help the Wave developer community continue to grow and evolve,' he said."
Submission + - 2010: The First Year YouTube Turns a Profit (nytimes.com)
eldavojohn writes: Analysts are saying that this year will be the first year YouTube turns a profit. From the New York Times article, 'In the last year, the video site has become a significant contributor to the family business at a time when Google, which makes more than 90 percent of its revenue from text search ads, is seeking a second act. Though Google does not report YouTube's earnings, it has hinted that it is hovering near profitability. Analysts say YouTube will bring in around $450 million in revenue this year and earn a profit. Revenue at YouTube has more than doubled each year for the last three years, according to the company.' Of course a little over a year ago we were being told that YouTube was losing around $1.65 million each day. Regardless, when you pay $1.65 billion for a business you probably don't expect it taking three to four years before you start to make your money back.
Submission + - Your Smartphone Is Safer Than Your PC -- For Now (infoworld.com)
snydeq writes: "InfoWorld's Galen Gruman reports on the future of mobile security — one that will see a significant rise in exploits as valuable information increasingly migrates to mobile devices. To date, sandboxing and code-signing have helped make mobile OSes relatively secure, when compared with their desktop brethren. But as devices store more valuable information than email, they will become more enticing to hackers currently breaking into Windows PCs. And the biggest bulls-eye appears to be on Android, in large part because its architecture is most like that of the desktop PC but also because there are so many variants in use — too many for Google or the carriers to patch securely. And as the PDF-jailbreak vulnerability showed, sandboxing has its limits when it comes to securing the browser — the most likely point of entry for exploits not due to the rise of extensions, helper objects, and plug-ins on the mobile Web."
Submission + - AutoCAD Returns to Mac
mkiwi writes: Scientific and engineering Mac users rejoice! The New York Times reports that AutoDesk has announced a new Mac version of AutoCAD to be available in October. The last version of AutoCAD for Mac was released in 1992, and customer support ended in 1994. While it remains to be seen how well the software will perform compared to the PC version, Mac users should expect better graphics drivers and more availability of high-end workstation graphics cards.
Submission + - Cheaper L.E.D. bulbs may encourage more energy use (ecoseed.org)
renewableenergywade writes: Light-emitting diodes (L.E.D.) devices are often touted as a greener, more cost-effective alternative to light bulbs, but a study from Sandia National Laboratories suggests that these devices are unlikely to decrease the world’s energy consumption.
Jeff Tsao and Jerry Simmons, researchers at the laboratories, pointed out that L.E.D.’s might even encourage more use of energy, rather than promote energy efficiency.
Jeff Tsao and Jerry Simmons, researchers at the laboratories, pointed out that L.E.D.’s might even encourage more use of energy, rather than promote energy efficiency.
Submission + - EU implements system to monitor radical groups
An anonymous reader writes: The European Union is setting up an extensive framework for the surveillance of radical groups and gathering systematic information about the nature of such groups. This will take the form of a database, which is officially coined as "Instrument for compiling data and information on violent radicalisation processes." The tool is intended to be flexible. It will not only focus on organized terrorism, but can be adapted to apply to other radical groups as well, including political opposition for example against EU institutions.
Submission + - Intel to buy smartphone chipmaker Infineon for $2B 1
sylverboss writes: Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, is close to an agreement to buy Infineon Technologies AG’s wireless business, three people with direct knowledge of the discussions said. When it comes to desktop, laptop and server chips, Intel’s pretty much got a lock on the market but everyone can see the writing on the wall: mobile chips and architectures are the future of computing thanks to the popularity of smartphones, but Intel doesn’t have anything to offer in that regard. Don’t know Infineon? You should: they are the guys who have supplied Apple with their iPhone baseband chips since 2007.
Submission + - Gun buy back in Aust --stunning fall in suicides (smh.com.au) 6
Phurge writes: TEN years of suicide data after John Howard's decision to ban and then buy back 600,000 semi-automatic rifles and shotguns has had a stunning effect.
The buyback cut firearm suicides by 74 per cent, saving 200 lives a year, according to research to be published in The American Law and Economics Review.
A former Australian Treasury economist, Christine Neill, now with Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, said she found the research result so surprising she tried to redo her calculations on the off chance the total could have been smaller.
''I fully expected to find no effect at all,'' she told the Herald. ''That we found such a big effect and that it meshed with a range of other data was just shocking, completely unexpected.''
The buyback cut firearm suicides by 74 per cent, saving 200 lives a year, according to research to be published in The American Law and Economics Review.
A former Australian Treasury economist, Christine Neill, now with Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, said she found the research result so surprising she tried to redo her calculations on the off chance the total could have been smaller.
''I fully expected to find no effect at all,'' she told the Herald. ''That we found such a big effect and that it meshed with a range of other data was just shocking, completely unexpected.''
Comment Re:ASUS AiGuru SV1T (Score 1) 253
Yes - but they'd apply to the AiGuru if the OP chooses that option. For completeness (and anyone who's still reading), the skype fair use policy is at http://www.skype.com/intl/en/legal/terms/fair_usage/.
Submission + - Prosecutor Loses Case for Citing Wikipedia (inquirer.net) 1
Hugh Pickens writes: "The Phillipine Daily Inquirer reports on a recent case where the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) lost an appeal after seeking to impeach the testimony of a defendant's expert witness by citing an article from Wikipedia. In her brief, the defendant said "the authority, alluded to by oppositor-appellant, the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders DSM-IV-TR,' was taken from an Internet website commonly known as Wikipedia" and argued that Wikipedia itself contains a disclaimer saying that it "makes no guarantee of validity." The court in finding for the defendant said in its decision that it found "incredible ... if not a haphazard attempt, on the part of the (OSG) to impeach an expert witness, with, as pointed out by (the defendant) unreliable information. This is certainly unacceptable evidence, nothing short of a mere allegation totally unsupported by authority.""
Comment Re:ASUS AiGuru SV1T (Score 1) 253
A link: http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=YBiaw0wVP6GVZdpn.
In the small print, though: "Unlimited calling: All calls are subject to Skype's fair usage policy which is set at 10,000 minutes per month (with a maximum of 6 hours per day)." Still, something to consider. Good luck.
Submission + - UK insurance firm garners £2.3m fine for dat (bbc.co.uk)
myocardialinfarction writes: What it says on the tin. Don't have time right now to write this up properly or even check it's not a duplicate submission, so merely for the enjoyment of the firehosers.
Comment Re:His motives are showing... (Score 1) 973
I just wish he'd ended the sentence with 'bwahahaha'.
