Dorduan - Slashdot User

Submission + - Amazon's Cloud Now 1% of Interet (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @08:50AM

An anonymous reader writes: A Wired story claims Amazon's cloud now hosts enough companies and traffic to generate 1% of all Internet traffic (and visits from 1/3 of daily Internet users). An amazing number if its true. And a little scary for one company to host this much cloud infrastructure.

Submission + - Facebook To Buy Instagram for $1 Billion (facebook.com)

Submitted by Dorduan on Monday April 09, 2012 @01:16PM

Submission + - Besy Buy lays off 400, closing 50 stores (wsj.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30, 2012 @12:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: The U.S.-based electronics chain said it would close 50 big-box stores this year, test new store formats in San Antonio and Minneapolis, and lay off 400 corporate and support workers as part of a plan to trim $800 million in costs and restructure its ailing business.

Submission + - Drug Turns Immune System Against All Tumor Types (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by sciencehabit on Monday March 26, 2012 @03:41PM

sciencehabit writes: A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a "do not eat" signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells.

Submission + - South Korean Scientists to Clone Wooly Mammoth (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16, 2012 @04:07PM

An anonymous reader writes: Last year Russian researchers discovered a well-preserved mammoth thigh bone and announced plans to clone a mammoth from the bone marrow within — and they just signed a deal with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation to bring the project to fruition. The Sooam scientists plan to implant the nucleus of a woolly mammoth cell into an elephant egg in order to to create a mammoth embryo, which would then be placed in an elephant womb. “This will be a really tough job,” Soaam reasearcher Hwang In-Sung said, “but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals.”

Submission + - From Anonymous To Shuttered Websites, The Evolution Of Online Protest (huffingtonpost.ca)

Submitted by silentbrad on Friday March 16, 2012 @11:49AM

silentbrad writes: The days of screaming activists marching with signs in hand to voice their displeasure at a particular politician are changing rapidly – just ask Vic Toews. Canada's public safety minister was the latest in a string of public-policy lightning rods to feel the wrath of Anonymous, a loose coalition of web-based activists who went after Toews for his overly vociferous promoting of the government's online surveillance bill. ... Graeme Hirst, a professor of computational linguistics at the University of Toronto, says that while Anonymous does share some properties of older protest movements, sometimes its motives can be called into question. "It's a kind of civil disobedience, so we can immediately make analogies to the Civil Rights movement of the '60s," Hirst said in an interview. "On the other hand, it's not entirely clear that Anonymous is as altruistically motivated as those protests were." ... Hirst viewed the January showdown as "the first legitimate online protest" that was really only about the online world and suggested that the key to its success was that it was organized not by individuals but by organizations — and ones with clout. ... Another apparently successful online campaign was the Cost of Knowledge protest started by an international group of researchers in January, following a blog post by Cambridge University math professor Timothy Gowers.

Submission + - Canadian Police Recommend Online Spying Tax for Internet Bills (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16, 2012 @11:11AM

An anonymous reader writes: One of the major unanswered questions about Bill C-30, Canada's lawful access/online surveillance bill, is who will pay for the costs associated with responding to law enforcement demands for subscriber information ("look ups") and installation of surveillance equipment ("hook ups"). Michael Geist recently obtained documents from Public Safety under the Access to Information Act that indicates that the government doesn't really have its own answer. But he reports that the police do — a new "public safety" tax to be added to Internet and wireless bills.

Submission + - "The Hobbit" pub threatened with lawsuit. (bbc.co.uk) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 13, 2012 @07:44PM

An anonymous reader writes: "The Hobbit" a small pub in Southampton, England has been threatened with a lawsuit by lawyers representing the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) in California. the pub which has traded under the name for the last 20 years without incident now faces closure if it does not change it's name. Yet another example of big business trying to use it's weight to get it's way.

Submission + - Indian Govt uses special powers to slash cancer drug price by 97% (indiatimes.com) 1

Submitted by suraj.sun on Tuesday March 13, 2012 @05:12AM

suraj.sun writes: In a landmark decision( http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-uses-special-powers-to-slash-cancer-drug-price-by-97/articleshow/12240143.cms ) that could set a precedent on how life-saving drugs under patents can be made affordable, the government has allowed a domestic company, Natco Pharma, to manufacture a copycat version of Bayer's patented anti-cancer drug, Nexavar, bringing down its price by 97%.

In the first-ever case of compulsory licencing approval, the Indian Patent Office on Monday cleared the application of Hyderabad's Natco Pharma to sell generic drug Nexavar, used for renal and liver cancer, at Rs 8,880 (around $175) for a 120-capsule pack for a month's therapy. Bayer offers it for over Rs 2.8 lakh (roughly $5,500) per 120 capsule. The order provides hope for patients who cannot afford these drugs. The approval paves the way for the launch of Natco's drug in the market, a company official told TOI, adding that it will pay a 6% royalty on net sales every quarter to Bayer. The licence will be valid till such time the drug's patent is valid, i.e. 2020.

Submission + - Publishers warned on ebook prices (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 08, 2012 @11:06AM

An anonymous reader writes: The DoJ says Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins conspired to raise the prices of ebooks.

The report originates from the WSJ but the BBC adds comments from an analyst bizarrely claiming increased prices are somehow a good thing and thinking otherwise is the result of "confusion". I'd like to see an explanation of why the wholesale model, while continuing to work fine (presumably) for physical books, somehow didn't work for ebooks and why the agency model is better despite increasing costs for consumers.

Submission + - Apple Wins Patent for "iWallet" (ibtimes.com) 1

Submitted by

redletterdave

on Tuesday March 06, 2012 @08:12PM

redletterdave writes: "Apple won a major patent on Tuesday for its "iWallet" technology, which is a digital system that uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to complete credit card transactions and manage subsidiary financial accounts directly on your iPhone. On the home screen for iWallet, users can see their entire credit card profiles, statements, messages from their banks, and even adjust preferences or add additional cards. Within preferences, users can schedule credit card payments and set parental controls on their children, which allows kids to use their iPhones as wallets but limits the extent to which they can use it. Users can track their payments and statements within the iTunes billing system, which keeps the credit card information safe and secure."

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Report: Air Force Kills Plans for iPad Order - PC Magazine (google.com)

From feed by feedfeeder on Thursday February 23, 2012 @12:32PM

TabTimes

Report: Air Force Kills Plans for iPad Order
PC Magazine
By Leslie Horn The US Air Force has cancelled its plans to order thousands of iPads to be used as electronic flight bags, NextGov has learned. Earlier this month, reports surfaced that the Air Force's Air Mobility Command would buy anywhere between 63 ...
Air Force Unit Cancels iPad ProcurementInformationWeek
Air Force Drops Plans for iPad Flight Bags Over Security ConcernsThe Mac Observer
Air Force Special Operations cancels iPad buyNextgov
Bizjournals.com-Apple Insider-The Verge
all 34 news articles

Submission + - LinkedIn Buys Rapportive (ibtimes.com)

Submitted by

redletterdave

on Wednesday February 22, 2012 @05:46PM

redletterdave writes: "Business networking site LinkedIn acquired Rapportive on Wednesday, which is a Gmail add-on that provides information about your social contacts as you e-mail them. The deal was reportedly already in place by Dec. 8, but Rapportive confirmed the acquisition on Wednesday in its company blog. Rapportive, which is still available over Gmail, adds an e-mailer's social networking accounts, including their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and overlays the information over open messages and e-mail drafts. Neither Rapportive nor LinkedIn would release the financial details of the acquisition, but sources close to the situation say the deal closed in the 'low teens' of millions of dollars."

Submission + - Damaged US passport chip strands travelers (kdvr.com)

Submitted by

caseih

on Tuesday February 21, 2012 @12:30PM

caseih writes: "Damaging the embedded chip in your passport is now grounds for denying you the ability to travel in at least one airport in the US. Though the airport can slide the passport through the little number reader as easily as they can wave it in front of an RFID reader, they chose to deny a young child access to the flight, in essence denying the who family. The child had accidentally sat on his passport, creasing the cover, and the passport appeared worn. The claim has been made that breaking the chip in the passport shows that you disrespect the privilege of owning a passport, and that the airport was justified in denying this child from using the passport."

Submission + - Electric Rockets Are Set to Transform Space Flight (txchnologist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 21, 2012 @12:29PM

An anonymous reader writes: The spectacle of a booster rocket lifting off a launch pad atop a mass of brilliant flames and billowing smoke is an iconic image of the Space Age. Such powerful chemical rockets are needed to break the bonds of Earth’s gravity and send spacecraft into orbit. But once a vehicle has progressed beyond low-earth orbit (LEO) chemical rockets are not necessarily the best way to get around outer space. That’s because chemical propulsion systems require such large quantities of fuel to generate high speeds, there is little room for payload.

As a result rocket scientists are increasingly turning to electric rockets, which accelerate propellants out the back end using solar-powered electromagnetic fields rather than chemical reactions. The electric rockets use so much less propellant that the entire spacecraft can be much more compact, which enables them to scale down the original launch boosters.

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