Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Submission + - Why Tesla Really Needs a Gigafactory (mp3newswire.net)

Hodejo1 writes: Tesla has already put over 25,000 cars on the road with more to come and, presumably, most will still be running well past the 8-year battery warranty. What would happen if it is time to replace the battery pack on an old Model S or X and the cost is $25K? Simple, it would destroy the resale value of said cars, which would negatively affect the lease value of new Tesla automobiles. That’s a big part of the real reason why Tesla is building its own battery factory. They not only need to ensure enough supply for new cars, but they have to dramatically bring down the price of the replacement batteries low enough so owners of otherwise perfectly running old Teslas don’t just junk them. The Tesla Roadster was not a mass produced vehicle, so the cost of replacing its battery is $40K. The economies of scale of a gigafactory alone will drop battery costs dramatically. Heavy research could drop it further over the next decade or so. The good news is that if they do it right Tesla will have the replacement battery business to itself — without a gigafactory of their own non-OEM battery suppliers won’t be able to compete — which will bring more profits rather than headaches.

Submission + - Amazon Bothches Sales Tax. Overcharges NJ (mp3newswire.net)

Hodejo1 writes: On July 1 Amazon started to charge sales tax to NJ residents, which is 7% in the state. But something was not right when I attempted to buy a book for my daughter. Just as I was about to finalize the order I noticed the charges were way off. The book cost $8.09. The tax I was to be levied was $0.85. That's a 10.5% tax rate! Why am I being charged 10.5%? It turns out that Amazon is also charging me tax on the $3.99 cost of shipping and handling. That's a problem, because New Jersey does not tax shipping and handling as I confirmed on the state's web site. I then checked a purchase I made from Amazon on October 7th of this year. Guess what? I was taxed on the $13.50 shipping and handling charge for that order. Now it is very possible — probable most likely — that this is nothing more than a coding error on Amazon's site. But it's a whopper! Just consider the hundreds-of-millions of dollars in sales Amazon makes in New Jersey each year. These extra dimes add up very quickly. Has Amazon been overcharging NJ residents’ sales tax since July? If so, why haven’t they picked it up by now?

Submission + - Apple Leaves Journalists Jonesing

Hodejo1 writes: Apple traditionally has big product announcements in the early spring, so around February both the mainstream press and the tech blogs began to circulate their favorite rumors (the iWatch, iTV). They also announced the date of the next Apple event, which this year was in March — except it didn’t happen. “Reliable sources” then confirmed it would be in April, then May and then — nothing. In withdrawal and with a notoriously secretive Apple offering no relief the tech journalists started to get cranky. The end result is a rash of petulant stories that insist Apple is desperate for new products, in trouble (with $150 BILLION dollars in the bank I should be in such trouble) and in decline. The only ones desperate seem to be editors addicted to traffic-generating Apple announcements. Good news is on the horizon, though, as the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference starts June 10th.
Google

Submission + - Another YouTube Conversion Site Clipped (mp3newswire.net)

Hodejo1 writes: This morning we learned that Google fired the first volley against YouTube conversion sites by blocking YouTube-MP3.org's servers from accessing its service and sending a letter threatening legal action. It looks like the fast growing Clip.dj also got the letter based on the note posted on the site: "We're sorry to announce this, but Clip.dj has shut its service down for good".

Comment Hydrodynamic Girder and Panel Set (Score 1) 458

A company called Tekton bought the molds for the old Kenner Girder and panel sets and manufacture them in Boston. The best of the sets that would fit your needs for the higher end of your age range is the Girder and Panel Hydrodynamic Deluxe Set (Amazon has it here http://www.amazon.com/Girder-Panel-Hydrodynamic-Deluxe-Set/dp/B000PVVQMU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1290302783&sr=1-3 ). The company also makes the bridge set, which I have in it's original 1960's Kenner version. I have played with this set as an adult and it too makes an excellent choice.
Apple

Submission + - The Apple Broadcast Network

Hodejo1 writes: In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild. That makes a proprietary amalgam greater than what the TV networks had in 1959 and one that easily serves as a foundation for a pending broadcast network that will be delivered not through tall radio towers, but through small wireless hubs and the Internet. Call it the Apple Broadcast Network. iAd is how Apple plans to pay for it.
Government

Submission + - Making Sense of ACTA

Hodejo1 writes: This past week Guadalajara, Mexico hosted the 7th secret meeting of ACTA proponents who continue to ignore demands worldwide to open the debate to the public. Piecing together official and leaked documents from various global sources, Michael Geist has coalesced it all into a five part ACTA Guide that offers structured insight into what these talks might foist upon the populace at large. "Questions about ACTA typically follow a familiar pattern — what is it (Part One of the ACTA Guide listing the timeline of talks), do you have evidence (Part Two), why is this secret (Part Three), followed by what would ACTA do to my country's laws (Part Four)? Countering the momentum behind ACTA will require many to speak out" (Part Five).

Comment $25K Adds Barrier of Entry to Control net Radio (Score 5, Informative) 270

A big reason that traditional radio stations are in the hands of conglomerates only is because the cost of the antenna, broadcast equipment, and the scarcity of available frequency makes it extremely expensive to start a new terrestrial radio station. A Net radio station only needs a Net connection and some open source applications. The 25K means individuals are no longer able to run a free Net radio station. It will also knock out college radio stations who simultaneously stream the terrestrial broadcasts they deliver for no fee. Hobby Net radio is dead in this country. Of course, the agreement only applies to the US so overseas folk can pick up the slack...for now. A shame really and not the win Pandora calls it. It just helps the mid-sized VC-funded
Television

Submission + - Economist on television over broadband (economist.com)

zxjio writes: The Economist has two articles discussing television over broadband, and the effects of DVR use:


"Cable-television companies make money by selling packages of channels. The average American household pays $700 a year for over 100 channels of cable television but watches no more than 15. Most would welcome the chance to buy only those channels they want to watch, rather than pay for expensive packages of programming they are largely not interested in. They would prefer greater variety, toosomething the internet offers in abundance. A surprising amount of video is available free from websites like Hulu and YouTube, or for a modest fee from iTunes, Netflix Watch Instantly and Amazon Video on Demand. ... Consumers new-found freedom to choose has struck fear into the hearts of the cable companies. They have been trying to slow internet televisions steady march into the living room by rolling out DOCSIS 3 at a snails pace and then stinging customers for its services. Another favourite trick has been to cap the amount of data that can be downloaded, or to charge extortionately by the megabyte. Yet the measures to suffocate internet television being taken by the cable companies may already be too late. A torrent of innovative start-ups, not seen since the dotcom mania of a decade ago, is flooding the market with technology for supplying internet television to the living room."

"Families with DVRs seem to spend 15-20% of their viewing time watching pre-recorded shows, and skip only about half of all advertisements. This means only about 5% of television is time-shifted and less than 3% of all advertisements are skipped. Mitigating that loss, people with DVRs watch more television."


Music

Submission + - $0.69 Tracks MIA as iTunes Shifts Pricing

Hodejo1 writes: Steve Jobs vowed weeks ago that when iTunes shifted to a tiered price structure in April older tracks priced at $0.69 would outnumber the contemporary hits that are rising to $1.29. Today, several weeks later, iTunes made the transition. While the $1.29 tracks are immediately visible, locating cheaper tracks are proving to be an exercise in futility. With the exception of 48 songs that Apple has placed on the iTunes main page, $0.69 downloads are proving to b a scarce commodity. MP3 Newswire tried to methodically drill down to unearth more of them only to find: 1) A download like Heart's thirty-four year-old song Barracuda went up to $1.29, not down. 2) Obscure 90s Brit pop and 50's Rockabilly artists — artists most likely to benefit from a price drop — remained at $0.99. 3) Collected tracks from a cross-section of 1920s, 30s, and 40s artists all remained at $0.99. Finally, MP3 Newswire called up tracks in the public domain from an artists named Ada Jones who first recorded in 1893 on Edison cylinder technology. The price on all the century-old tracks remained at $0.99 (Since they are in the public domain the same tracks are available for free on the Archive.org). Wonder where the price savings on deeper catalog cuts went? The problem may reflect the fact that the labels themselves decide which price tier they want to pursue for a given artist and they are mostly ignoring the lower tier. Meanwhile, Amazon's UK site has decided to counter promote their service by dropping prices on select tracks to 29 pence ($0.42).
The Courts

Submission + - Pirate Bay Day 5 - Calling Perry Mason

Hodejo1 writes: On the old Perry Mason TV shows it was a common site to see someone burst into the crowded courtroom at a dire moment and confess aloud that they, not the defendant, killed so-and-so. In reality courts do not allow evidence to enter trial without a chance for the opposing council to view it and for a judge to rule on their admissibility. Yet, in the fifth day of the Pirate Bay trial lawyers for the prosecution again tried to sneak in surprise evidence while questioning defendants. The judge put his foot down this time telling lawyers for the state "If you have documents which you eventually plan to use, you need to hand them over now." The prosecution continues to struggle in court. In one humorous moment prosecutor Håkan Roswall tried to show how "hip" he was with technology when he questioned defendant Peter Sunde. "When did you meet [Gottfrid] for the first time IRL?" asked the Prosecutor. "We do not use the expression IRL," said Peter, "We use AFK." "IRL?" questioned the judge. "In Real Life," the Prosecutor explained to the judge. "We do not use that expression," Peter noted. "Everything is in real life. We use AFK — Away From Keyboard." "Well," said Roswall. "It seems I am a little bit out of date." The defendants are not out of the woods yet. Lawyer and technology writer Richard Koman wonders aloud if the Pirate Bay's I-dunno defense is all that much better.
The Courts

Submission + - Pirate Bay Day 3 - Defense Requests Dismissal

Hodejo1 writes: Yesterday was a big day for the Pirate Bay when half of the charges against them were dropped leaving only the lesser charges of assisting making copyrighted material available in place. TorrentFreak is following the English twitter feed of the trial in the wee hours of the night, documenting more missteps by the prosecution. "The Pirate Bay trial is moving forward rapidly and again the day in court has ended early. On the third day the prosecution presented the amended charges. The defendants all called for acquittal while Carl Lundström's lawyer scored points with the already legendary 'King Kong' defense".

Slashdot Top Deals

Chemist who falls in acid will be tripping for weeks.

Working...