Comment Re:lol capitalism. (Score 1) 76
Who says it must be hostile?
Comment Re:Canada Big, Slovenia Small (Score 1) 238
The cost of laying fibre from coast to coast would be astronomical. There are plenty of densely populated areas in the country which could be implemented more effectively.
Comment Re:Good luck with that. (Score 1) 743
Thanks to global warming, by 2020 you won't have to worry about sliding on a sheet of ice.
Will The iPhone Kill The iPod? 338
Edward Sinovian writes "According to Cnet.co.uk, the days of MP3 players, digital cameras and satellite navigation systems are numbered with cell phones about to take center stage. "PDAs have already been crushed by smart phones and the same thing looks to be happening with standalone MP3 players, particularly the smaller flash ones — a theory supported by Apple's recent entry into the world of music phones. If you then take into consideration the convergence of camera, GPS, TV and laptop-like functionality into mobile phones, it raises the question of how long it's going to take before all you need is a mobile phone." With that in mind, do you think that the iPhone will kill the iPod?"
Submission + - SCOTUS Case May End Sale Prices
An anonymous reader writes: If you own a mom & pop store, and can't get rid of some of your inventory, you can always clear out some shelf space by holding a sale. If the Supreme Court sides with business interests in a case they heard today, however, such sales may no longer be possible.
Since 1911, it has been illegal for manufacturers to force retailers into price manipulating agreements that forbid the retailer from selling the manufacturer's product for less than a certain price. This means that individual retailers get to decide how much they sell their products for, and the market gets to decide what the prices should be. Today, however, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn this longstanding rule. Should the Court do so, it would drive up consumer prices as retailers could be forced into agreements that prevent them from offering discounts or trying to offer lower prices than their competitors. This case is particularly salient in the era of internet shopping. Thanks to Google, consumers are now able to shop around to multiple retailers and find the best price for whatever goods they are seeking. If the Supreme Court overturns the 1911 ban on price floors, internet consumers would no longer have this advantage.
Since 1911, it has been illegal for manufacturers to force retailers into price manipulating agreements that forbid the retailer from selling the manufacturer's product for less than a certain price. This means that individual retailers get to decide how much they sell their products for, and the market gets to decide what the prices should be. Today, however, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn this longstanding rule. Should the Court do so, it would drive up consumer prices as retailers could be forced into agreements that prevent them from offering discounts or trying to offer lower prices than their competitors. This case is particularly salient in the era of internet shopping. Thanks to Google, consumers are now able to shop around to multiple retailers and find the best price for whatever goods they are seeking. If the Supreme Court overturns the 1911 ban on price floors, internet consumers would no longer have this advantage.
New State of Matter Boosts Quantum Computation 41
Matthew Sparkes writes "In theory, quantum computers can be superior to classical computers for some kinds of problems; in practice their building blocks, qubits, are extremely fragile. Even a slight knock can destroy information. A radical solution to this problem was proposed in the 80's — instead of storing qubits in properties of particles, such as an electron's spin, it was suggested that qubits could be encoded into properties shared by the whole material, and so would be harder to disrupt. Unfortunately, no material with the needed properties existed. Scientists now think they have made a material in the lab, thought to be an example of a new state of matter, that might do the trick. It's an ultra-purified form of a mineral, herbertsmithite, first discovered in Chile in 1972. Its electrons are arranged in a triangular lattice. Researchers say it could become the silicon of the quantum computing era."
Journal Journal: All story submissions should be journal entries! 6
While perusing the Firehose I came to the realization that most of those stories are going to be lost to antiquity. Oh, they'll be discussed on other websites, but slashdot actually provides us journal functionality so that they can be discussed here even if your submission doesn't make it as a story.
Verizon Wins Injunction Against Text Spammer 92
bulled writes "CNet is running a story illustrating the US court system's ongoing harsh opinion about unwarranted communications of any kind. Verizon Wireless recently won a lawsuit against a company that was delivering massive numbers of spam text messages to its customers. Specialized Programming and Marketing and Henderson was ordered to pay more than $200,000 in damages to Verizon Wireless, some two years after Verizon filed the suit against the company. In 2005 Specialized Programming sent some 100,000 emails to Verizon phones. Verizon now has an injunction against the Marketing firm, another win for a company that has developed a reputation for going after spammers."
Submission + - China Says Internet Addiction a Mental Disorder
eldavojohn writes: "China has taken new extremes in preventing internet addiction in youths and is even offering boot camps to parents who want their child weened from the electric teat. Some go as far as electric shock or drug treatment while others seem to embrace a cold turkey stance. The article notes that "no country has gone quite as far as China in embracing the theory that heavy Internet use should be defined as a mental disorder and mounting a public crusade against Internet addiction." The article mentions the story of Sun Jiting who "spends his days locked behind metal bars in this military-run installation, put there by his parents. The 17-year-old high school student is not allowed to communicate with friends back home, and his only companions are psychologists, nurses and other patients. Each morning at 6:30, he is jolted awake by a soldier in fatigues shouting, "This is for your own good!"" Sun found himself spending 15 hours or straight on the internet. Thanks to his parent's intervention and the treatment, he now has life mapped out until he's 84. Maybe this is a little extreme — I have no idea what I'm doing yet from 24 to endl, and I'm not too concerned about it."
Pthreads vs Win32 threads 385
An anonymous reader writes "It's interesting when different people have different opinions. While I was searching for something on Intel's website, I came across an article on why Windows threads are better than Posix threads. Curiously, I also came across this article on why Posix Pthreads are better that Win32 threads. The thing is, both of these articles are written by the same author!
So who is right (metaphorically speaking?), or what has changed since the first article was written?"
So who is right (metaphorically speaking?), or what has changed since the first article was written?"
Submission + - EMI: ditching DRM to cost you
33rpm writes: EMI has told online music stores that selling its catalog without DRM is going to cost them a lot of money. 'EMI is the only major record label to seriously consider abandoning the disaster that is DRM, but earlier reports that focused on the company's reformist attitude apparently missed the mark: EMI is willing to lose the DRM, but they demand a considerable advance payment to make it happen. EMI has backed out of talks for now because no one will pay what they're asking.'
Sun Releases ODF plugin for Microsoft Office 50
Verunks writes "Microsoft Word users now can easily import and export to the OpenDocument Format. The StarOffice 8 Conversion Technology Preview, a plug-in for Microsoft Word 2003 that allows users of Microsoft Word 2003 to read, edit and save to the OpenDocument Format (ODF) is now available"
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The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. Seek simplicity and distrust it. -- Whitehead.
