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Comment Re:An awful lot of wet blankets in here (Score 1) 82

by Absentminded-Artist (#30057506) Attached to: Esquire Launches First Augmented Reality Magazine

Downside for Esquire is that with a web image of the front cover (or of Gillian Jacob's page, etc.) viewed on my iPhone, I could trigger the AR event in their Mac software and enjoy the content without buying Esquire.

I'll still buy the magazine anyway since a) my iPhone's reflective glass screen is not optimum for recognition and b) I'd like to support their ingenuity and effort.

Comment An awful lot of wet blankets in here (Score 1) 82

by Absentminded-Artist (#30057386) Attached to: Esquire Launches First Augmented Reality Magazine

It's a gimmick. Obviously. Meant to generate sales. And it will work for some people and not work for others. It's not meant to be new technology to people such as slashdotters who are generally on the cutting edge. Magazines using marketing gimmicks to boost sales isn't news. However, it is a use of technology that we haven't seen magazines do before. As e-ink becomes more affordable and viable, we'll see more magazines trying to stay in business with interactive gimmicks, perhaps even on the page itself. Where's the harm in it? I only hope they sell enough magazines to recoup their investment.

Esquire most likely paid RDJ and other actors to produce video content for a special edition magazine. They had software for both PCs and Macs produced. And they're advertising it on the web. It's all pretty slick, even if it IS limited. Has your favorite blog produced something like this lately? Personally, I'd like to see more ad campaigns using current technology in creative ways.
Books

Submission + - Kindle DRM Limits How Many Times You Can Download (geardiary.com)

Submitted by
Absentminded-Artist
Absentminded-Artist writes: "According to a story over at Gear Diary, the Kindle's DRM has reared an ugly head: Download limitations. Upgraded your iPhone recently? Bought a new Kindle? You may not be able to reload your entire library. There's an unadvertised flag:

"You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn't say 'this book can be downloaded this number of times' even though that limitation is there?" To which [the rep] replied, "No, I'm very sorry it doesn't.""
United States

Google, Yahoo!, Apple Targeted In DoJ Antitrust Probe 166

Posted by Soulskill from the hand-in-the-cookie-jar dept.
suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has launched an investigation into whether some of the nation's largest technology companies violated antitrust laws by negotiating the recruiting and hiring of one another's employees, according to two sources with knowledge of the review. The review, which is said to be in its preliminary stages, is focused on Google; its competitor Yahoo; Apple; and the biotech firm Genentech, among others, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The sources said the review includes other tech companies and is 'industry-wide.' By agreeing not to hire away top talent, the companies could be stifling competition and trying to maintain their market power unfairly, antitrust experts said. ... Obama's antitrust chief at the Justice Department, Christine Varney, has said she plans to look at the network effects of high-tech companies and how their grasp on markets has cut out competitors and hurt consumers."
Security

Secret US List of Civil Nuclear Sites Released 167

Posted by Soulskill from the no-harm-no-foul-right dept.
eldavojohn writes "Someone accidentally released a 266-page report on hundreds of sites in the US for stockpiling and storing hazardous nuclear materials for civilian use. While some ex-officials and experts don't find it to be a serious breach, the Federation of American Scientists are calling it a 'a one-stop shop for information on US nuclear programs.' The document contains information about Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia, and opinions seem to be split on whether it's a harmless list or terrorist risk. One thing is for sure: it was taken down after the New York Times inquired to the Government Accountability Office about it."
United States

Battle Lines Being Drawn As Obama Plans To Curb Tax Avoidance 1505

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the getting-worse-before-they-get-better dept.
theodp writes "Barack Obama has squared up for a major battle with big business, announcing a crackdown on offshore tax avoidance and evasion by US multinationals that's designed to raise $210B and make it easier for companies to create 'good jobs here at home'. Obama cited a building in the Cayman Islands where more than 18,000 US companies are housed: 'Either this is the biggest building in the world or it is the biggest tax scam in the world,' he said. 'I think the American people know which it is.' The administration says that more than a third of US foreign profits in 2003 came from Bermuda, the Netherlands and Ireland, and noted US companies paid an effective tax rate of just 2.3% on the $700bn they earned in foreign profits in 2004. Among tech companies affected by the crackdown, Microsoft joined 200 companies who signed a letter complaining that the proposed tax changes would put them at a disadvantage with their rivals, Cisco moaned that the measures 'would adversely impact our ability to invest and grow our business in the US,' and Google declined to comment for the time being."
Security

New Mega-Botnet Discovered 257

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-internet dept.
yahoi writes "According to the DarkReading article, 'Researchers have discovered a major botnet operating out of the Ukraine that has infected 1.9 million machines, including large corporate and government PCs mainly in the US. The botnet, which appears to be larger than the infamous Storm botnet was in its heyday, has infected machines from some 77 government-owned domains — 51 of which are in the US government. Researchers from Finjan who found the botnet say it's controlled by six individuals, and includes machines in major banks.'"

Comment Re:Why Pay for a Degree (Score 5, Interesting) 469

A degree isn't everything. All it does is prove you took a certain number of units at some universityâ¦

You're absolutely correct. I couldn't agree with you more. However, it still doesn't change the fact that degrees are used to filter out applicants. If you're able to get the jobs and experience without a degree that look good on a resume then more power to you, but not having the degree will make that a harder task, as well as affect your pay scale.
Medicine

Obama To Reverse Bush Limits On Stem Cell Work 508

Posted by Soulskill from the stem-cell-stimulus-package dept.
An anonymous reader sends this quote from the Associated Press: "Reversing an eight-year-old limit on potentially life-saving science, President Barack Obama plans to lift restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using embryonic stem cells. ... Under President George W. Bush, taxpayer money for that research was limited to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001, lines that in many cases had some drawbacks that limited their potential usability. But hundreds more of such lines — groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes — have been created since then, ones that scientists say are healthier, better suited to creating treatments for people rather than doing basic laboratory science. Work didn't stop. Indeed, it advanced enough that this summer, the private Geron Corp. will begin the world's first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered a spinal cord injury. Nor does Obama's change fund creation of new lines. But it means that scientists who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches."
Earth

Arctic Ice Extent Understated Because of "Sensor Drift" 823

Posted by samzenpus from the give-it-a-few-taps dept.
dtjohnson writes "The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has been at the forefront of predicting doom in the arctic as ice melts due to global warming. In May, 2008 they went so far as to predict that the North Pole would be ice-free during the 2008 'melt season,' leading to a lively Slashdot discussion. Today, however, they say that they have been the victims of 'sensor drift' that led to an underestimation of Arctic ice extent by as much as 500,000 square kilometers. The problem was discovered after they received emails from puzzled readers, asking why obviously sea-ice-covered regions were showing up as ice-free, open ocean. It turns out that the NSIDC relies on an older, less-reliable method of tracking sea ice extent called SSM/I that does not agree with a newer method called AMSR-E. So why doesn't NSIDC use the newer AMSR-E data? 'We do not use AMSR-E data in our analysis because it is not consistent with our historical data.' Turns out that the AMSR-E data only goes back to 2002, which is probably not long enough for the NSIDC to make sweeping conclusions about melting. The AMSR-E data is updated daily and is available to the public. Thus far, sea ice extent in 2009 is tracking ahead of 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, so the predictions of an ice-free north pole might be premature."
United States

New Bill Would Repeal NIH Open Access Policy 223

Posted by Soulskill from the knowledge-is-power dept.
pigah writes "The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act has been reintroduced into Congress. The bill will ban open access policies in federal agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These policies require scientists to provide public access to their work if it has been funded with money from an agency with an open access policy. Such policies ensure that the public has access to read the results of research that it has funded. It appears that Representative John Conyers (D-MI), the author of the bill, is doing the bidding of publishing companies who do not want to lose control of this valuable information that they sell for exorbitant fees thereby restricting access by the general public to an essentially public good."
Privacy

Utah Mulls a Database of Bar Customers 623

Posted by kdawson from the legislating-adulthood dept.
sundancing alerts us to a political dustup in the state of Utah, which doesn't have bars like the rest of the country does. Instead, "private clubs" require you to fill out an application and pay a fee if you want to have a drink outside the home. While there is pressure to reform this arrangement — one argument is that it's bad for tourism — the head of the state senate recently floated a proposal to create a database of every bar patron's visits. Now Utah's governor has called that idea "almost Orwellian," adding that "it's very difficult to legislate adulthood," and its supporters seem to be backing off. The idea of requiring bar patrons to swipe their drivers licenses as proof of age is still on the table, though.
Windows

If Windows 7 Fails, Citrix (Not Linux) Wins 638

Posted by kdawson from the expedient dept.
Julie188 writes "Microsoft blogger Mitchell Ashley, who has been using Windows 7 full-time, predicts that Windows 7 will fail to lure XP users away from their beloved, aging operating system — after all, Windows 7 is little more than what Vista should have been, when it shipped two years ago. But eventually old PCs must be replaced and then we'll see corporations, desperate to get out of the expense of managing Windows machines, get wise. Instead of buying new Windows 7 PCs, they could deliver virtualized XP desktops to a worker's own PC and/or mobile device. Ashley believes that Citrix's Project Independence has the right idea."
Government

Obama To Launch Website For Tracking Tax Expenditures 358

Posted by Soulskill from the government-two-point-oh dept.
internationalflights tips news that Barack Obama, in his first weekly address as President, has mentioned plans to set up a website for tracking "how and where we spend taxpayer dollars." Details about the website, Recovery.gov, are available within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (PDF). The website "shall provide data on relevant economic, financial, grant, and contract information in user-friendly visual presentations to enhance public awareness of the use funds made available in this Act," and will also "provide a means for the public to give feedback on the performance of contracts awarded for purposes of carrying out this Act." The site itself currently contains a placeholder until the passage of the Act.

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