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Submission + - Prosecutors Want "Open Source" AIG Investigation (nytimes.com)

Submitted by VValdo
VValdo writes: As you may recall, the citizens of the US shelled out about $85 billion to bail out AIG and its creditors (Goldman Sachs in particular) last year. But as 80% owners of AIG, we still don't know what happened exactly. That may change. In an NYTimes Op-Ed, former prosecutors (including former NY governor Eliot Spitzer) are calling for the US Treasury to force to AIG release its treasure-trove of emails to the public before allowing AIG to "break free" of our control. As the prosecutors put it, "By putting the evidence online, the government could establish a new form of "open source" investigation. Once the documents are available for everyone to inspect, a thousand journalistic flowers can bloom, as reporters, victims and angry citizens have a chance to piece together the story." Good idea?
PHP

Submission + - Facebook (PHP) is not very Kopenhagen (webtoolkit.eu) 3

Submitted by Kensai7
Kensai7 writes: Recently, Facebook provided us some information on their server park. They use about 30000 servers, and not surprisingly, most of them are running the PHP code to generate pages full of social info for their users. As they only say that "the bulk" is running PHP, let’s assume this to be 25 000 of the 30 000. If C++ would have been used instead of PHP, then 22 500 servers could be powered down (assuming a conservative ratio of 10 for the efficiency of C++ versus PHP code), or a reduction of 49 000 ton. Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code.

But I think it is fair to say that using PHP, especially for large deployments, is not very Kopenhagen.
Censorship

Submission + - auDA moves to censor internet filter protest site

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Friday The Sydney Morning Herald reported that an internet censorship protest site had been setup under the Banner "Stephen Conroy: Minister for Fascism" and was ironically registered under the very name of the Australian Communications Minister responsible for trying to mandate the compulsory filtering scheme in Federal Law, stephenconroy.com.au

Within hours of the story being published, auDA, the Australian Domain Name Authority, had shut down the site giving the owners only 3 hours to respond to a request to justify their eligibility for the domain. Under normal circumstances auDA would allow several days to weeks for this process and an appeal to request an extension was denied with no reason given for the unusual response.

The site was quickly moved to a US domain, stephen-conroy.com in order to stay active whilst the dispute with auDA is resolved.

Submission + - Verizon Defends Doubling of Early Termination Fee (cnet.com) 2

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Verizon is defending its decision to double its Early Termination Fee from $175 to $350, after being called to account by the FCC. They claim that it's because it allows them to offer more expensive phones with a lower up-front cost and that, because they prorate the fee depending on how much of your contract is left, they still lose money. Apparently doing something about the Verizon customer service horror stories isn't as good a way to retain customers as telling them that they have to pay several hundred dollars to leave."
Image

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.
Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."

Comment Re:Reminds me of the old Star Trek arcade game (Score 1) 130

by moxsam (#29323079) Attached to: Re-examining the Immersion Factor For First-Person Shooters
No, it's the people's habits that didn't change. But really their brains and eyes are capable of so much more. If your brain is accustomed to high FPS games, then you will know what I mean. That is if you get past the motion sickness. On the other hand, watching too many movies ruins your perception of reality, really. I wish TV and movies would have a minimum framerate of 60 progressive images. Stuff in the TV studios is produced in 30 Hz or less, btw, and not 60 Hz.

Comment Re:And I thought... (Score 0) 551

by ncc74656 (#29300413) Attached to: iPhone Straining AT&T Network

Heh, i made the mistake of taking my iPhone on roaming mode through Europe. I knew it was going to cost me SOME... but I got an $875 bill for four weeks - and that was making about 10 calls. The rest.... internet usage.

Add an international data plan before you head out of the country. They're still kinda spendy (starting around $20-$25 for 20 MB), but not as bad as the pay-as-you-go rate. You can drop the plan as soon as you're home. I did that for a recent trip up to Canada, and it worked out fairly well.

(Now that my iPhone is unlocked, though, I'd be more inclined to look into buying a SIM in-country and popping that in.)

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