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Submission + - Unlocked Firefox OS ZTE Open is Now Available on eBay for for $80

Submitted by SmartAboutThings
SmartAboutThings writes: We’ve been hearing quite a lot lately about the Firefox OS, but there are actually only a few Firefox OS phones launched on the market. ZTE Open is one of them and is actually the first Firefox OS phone for consumers. Even if Firefox OS has support from carriers all over the world, it’s pretty hard to sell devices in more locations across the world. To remedy that, ZTE is going to sell the Firefox OS Open phone on eBay for eighty dollars, which is actually ten dollars less than the launch price. A real great thing is that the handset will be off-contract and unlocked which means you will be able to use it on all mobile networks. ZTE didn’t mention when exactly the device will go on sale on eBay, the company just mentioning “soon”.

Submission + - Royal Navy Deployed Laser Weapons During the Falklands War (gizmag.com) 1

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: Despite recent demonstrations by the US Navy, we still think of laser weapons as being things of the future. However, previously-classified British documents prove that not only were the major powers working on laser weapons in the 1970s and 80s, but that they were already being deployed with combat units in war zones. A letter from the Ministry of Defence released under the 30-year rule reveals that laser weapons were deployed on Royal Navy ships during the Falklands War in 1982, and that the British government was concerned about similar weapons being developed behind the Iron Curtain.

Submission + - BlackBerry Officially Open to Sale (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: BlackBerry is considering whether to sell itself off to the highest bidder. The company’s Board of Directors has announced the founding of a Special Committee to explore so-called “strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale,” which apparently includes “possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.” BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins added that, while the committee did its work, the company would continue to its recent overhead-reduction strategy. Prem Watsa, chairman and CEO of Fairfax Financial—BlackBerry’s largest shareholder—announced that he would resign from the company’s board in order to avoid a potential conflict of interest. News that BlackBerry is considering a potential sale should surprise nobody. Faced with fierce competition from Google and Apple, the company’s market-share has tumbled over the past several quarters. In a desperate bid to regain its former prominence in the mobile-device industry, BlackBerry developed and released BlackBerry 10, a next-generation operating system meant to compete toe-to-toe against Google Android and Apple iOS—despite a massive ad campaign, however, early sales of BlackBerry 10 devices have proven somewhat underwhelming.

Comment Re:Basis for discrimination (Score 1) 684

How many white men would change places with a black woman, for example?

Depends on who the black woman is. If it's Oprah, with her vast wealth and media presence, the choice is somewhat easier than if the black woman is a welfare recipient living in public housing with six kids from six different fathers.

It's not always about race, gender, etc. Oprah is a black female who made something of herself instead of suckling off the government teat.

Comment Re:already passing it (Score 1) 414

by XanC (#44453571) Attached to: Are We At the Limit of Screen Resolution Improvements?

> > 2x2 for lowercase. Right. That's 16 possible "characters"
> Correct.

> > with one of those being empty space and 4 of them being single pixels.
> Wow you figured out not every possible combination is -> useful - all on your own? Here is your sticker.

So how does one display 26 letters of the alphabet with only 16 different combinations even possible, many of those being useless?

Ah. It looks like those lower case letters are 3x3, not 2x2.

Comment Re:Cost of nuclear fission (Score 1) 221

When we evaluate algorithms we consider all cases, with probability and outcome. We should start doing that for nuclear power too.

You are apparently blissfully unaware that such studies *are* done already before siting a nuclear power plant. Permission to construct and operate one of these plants requires extensive studies on what kinds of disasters -- natural or manmade -- the plant could be subject to, how those events would affect the plant, and what steps are taken to mitigate those effects.

Comment Bost Rent-a-Cops, observations (Score -1) 835

I had to laugh at the hundreds of fat Boston rent-a-cops decked out in their SWATware tried to apprehend skinnly little Djokhar Tsaraev for a whole day, while the unarmed resident sheep shivered behind closed doors.. It was hilarious. Then the cops shot up the boat Djokhar was hiding in like something out of Rambo. The sad fact is most of these useless people will be on pensions at 50. Oh well. Glad I don't live there.

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