Dave_Minsky - Slashdot User

Submission + - Mexican Village Creates Its Own Mobile Phone Service (indiatimes.com)

Submitted by Dave_Minsky on Friday August 30, 2013 @09:24AM

Dave_Minsky writes: The small indigenous village of Villa Talea de Castro (pop. 2,500) in the state of Oaxaca is showing the world that it doesn't have to rely on major cellular telecommunications providers for service.

With the help from indigenous groups, civil organizations and universities, village residents put up an antenna on a rooftop, installed radio and computer equipment, and created its own micro provider called Red Celular de Talea (RCT).

Service costs only 15 pesos ($1.2) per month and a few pennies per minute to make calls to the United States. However, there is one catch: calls are limited to a maximum of five minutes to prevent saturation of lines.

Submission + - Students at Lynn University Get iPad Minis Instead of Textbooks

Submitted by Dave_Minsky on Friday August 23, 2013 @09:23AM

Dave_Minsky writes: About 600 students will enter Lynn University's freshman class this year, the largest since 2007, and they will all be using iPad Minis instead of textbooks.

The iPads will cost $475, up to 50 less than what a semester's worth of textbooks would cost a student, estimates Lynn. Students will be able to access core curriculum classes on their iPads that are "enhanced with custom multimedia content," and will come with "at least 30 education, productivity, social and news-related iOS apps — some free and some paid for by the university."

This seems to be the beginning of a new era for American colleges. The Boca Raton university is not the first to give iPads to students instead of textbooks. Back in 2010 New Jersey-based Seton Hill University announced it would give students the tablets rather than books.

Submission + - FOIA Request Shows Which Printer Companies Cooperated With U.S. Government (scribd.com)

Submitted by

Dave_Minsky

on Friday February 17, 2012 @12:45PM

Dave_Minsky writes: "The U.S. Secret Service responded to a FOIA request on Monday that reveals the names of the printer companies that cooperate with the government to identify and track potential counterfeiters. The Electronic Frontier Foundation revealed in 2005 that the U.S. Secret Service was in cahoots with selected laser printer companies to identify and track printer paper using tiny microscopic dots encoded into the paper.

The tiny, yellow dots--less than a millimeter each--are printed in a pattern over each page and are only viewable with a blue light, a magnifying glass or a microscope. The pattern of dots is encodes identifiable information including printer model, and time and location where the document was printed."

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