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Technology

Gartner Says 3D Printers Will Cost Less Than $2,000 By 2016 170

Posted by samzenpus from the get-you-one dept.
colinneagle writes "Widespread adoption of 3D printing technology may not be that far away, according to a Gartner report predicting that enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for less than $2,000 by 2016. 3D printers are already in use among many businesses, from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals to consumers goods, and have generated a diverse set of use cases. As a result, the capabilities of the technology have evolved to meet customer needs, and will continue to develop to target those in additional markets, Gartner says."
Privacy

Submission + - Mozilla Breaks Ranks With Tech Industry To Denounce CISPA (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: Mozilla has taken a public stand against the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, saying that it has a "broad and alarming reach" that "infringes on our privacy." That makes it the first major tech firm to speak out against CISPA. Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Oracle and Symantec are all included among the companies that support the bill, which passed the House late last month and is now being considered in the Senate. Google has so far declined to take a stand supporting or opposing the bill.
Businesses

Submission + - Facebook To Go Public On Friday, May 18 (ibtimes.com) 1

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes: "The IPO on everyone's minds for the past few years — and possibly the biggest one in history — is upon us: Facebook will finally make its Wall Street debut on Friday, May 18, 2012. Sources also say Facebook will begin its IPO roadshow on Monday, May 7, and will eventually list its shares on the Nasdaq (not NYSE) with the ticker symbol "FB." Facebook looks to raise anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion during its roadshow to achieve a $100 billion valuation, which would make it one of the biggest IPOs of all-time."
Shark

Submission + - Finally, a Shark With a Laser Attached To Its Head (wired.com)

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Marine biologist-cum-TV personality Luke Tipple attached a 50-milliwatt green laser to a lemon shark off the coast of the Bahamas in late April. The escapade was sponsored by Wicked Lasers, a consumer-focused laser manufacturer based in Hong Kong that produces some of the most brilliant — and potentially dangerous — handheld lasers in the world.

“This was definitely a world first,” Tipple told Wired. “Initially, I told them no. I thought it was a frivolous stunt. But then I considered that it would give us an opportunity to test our clips and attachments, and whatever is attached to that clip, I really don’t care. It was a low-powered laser that couldn’t be dangerous to anyone, and there’s actually useful applications in having a laser attached to the animal.”
Government

Submission + - How Apple Sidesteps Billions In Global Taxes (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An article at the NY Times explains the how the most profitable tech company in the world becomes even more profitable by finding ways to avoid or minimize taxes. Quoting: 'Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero. ... As it has in Nevada, Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands — some little more than a letterbox or an anonymous office — that help cut the taxes it pays around the world. ... Without such tactics, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study (PDF) by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A. Sullivan. As it stands, the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent.
Australia

Submission + - Aussie parliamentary enquiry into software pricing announced (theage.com.au)

Submitted by elphie007
elphie007 writes: Australian consumers may finally see the end of being overcharged for software, simply because they live outside the US. Minister for Communications Senator Stephen Conroy (champion of Australia's National Broadband Network), is reported to be finalising the terms of reference for a parliamentary inquiry into software pricing in Australia. Users Down Under have been paying more for software from companies like Microsoft, Apple and Adobe for years. Last week, Adobe announced Australians would be charges up to $1600 more for Adobe CS6. With the ongoing strength of the Aussie dollar against the US dollar, Australians should really be paying less, not more for software & music purchased online.
Transportation

Submission + - Fly-By-Wire Contributed to Air France 447 Disaster

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "The Telegraph reports that although fly-by-wire technology has huge advantages, Airbus’s 'brilliant’ aircraft design may have contributed to one of the world’s worst aviation disasters and the deaths of all 228 passengers onboard Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. While there is no doubt that at least one of AF447’s pilots made a fatal and sustained mistake, the errors committed by the pilot doing the flying were not corrected by his more experienced colleagues because they did not know he was behaving in a manner bound to induce a stall and the reason for that fatal lack of awareness lies partly in the design of the control stick – the “side stick” – used in all Airbus cockpits. “Most Airbus pilots I know love it because of the reliable automation that allows you to manage situations and not be so fatigued by the mechanics of flying," says Stephen King of the British Airline Pilots’ Association. But the fact that the second pilot’s stick stays in neutral whatever the input to the other is not a good thing. “It’s not immediately apparent to one pilot what the other may be doing with the control stick, unless he makes a big effort to look across to the other side of the flight deck, which is not easy. In any case, the side stick is held back for only a few seconds, so you have to see the action being taken.”"
Australia

Aussie PM Office Calls For Government Ban On Gmail, Hotmail 178

Posted by samzenpus from the no-gmail-for-you dept.
aesoteric writes "The Australian National Audit Office has called on all Australian government agencies to block free web-based email services like Gmail and Hotmail to mitigate security and information integrity risks. The auditor noted that such public email services 'should be blocked on agency IT systems, as these can provide an easily accessible point of entry for an external attack and subject the agency to the potential for intended or unintended information disclosure.' Not surprisingly, the move is seen by some as an attempt to prevent a WikiLeaks-style disclosure from occurring."
Microsoft

Submission + - No Sex Please, We're Microsoft 2

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Microsoft's Kinect has been out for less than two months and already there's an adult company looking to produce a 3-D sex game for the Xbox 360 console (PG-13ish YouTube demo). But Microsoft immediately shot down any speculation that the game will pass the certification process. 'This isn't the first example of a technology being used in ways not intended by its manufacturer, and it won't be the last," a Microsoft spokesman said in a statement. 'Microsoft did not authorize or license its technology for this use. Xbox is a family friendly games and entertainment console and does not allow Adults Only (AO) content to be certified for use on its platform, and would not condone this type of game for Kinect.'
Facebook

The Queen Joins Facebook 155

Posted by samzenpus from the royal-farmville dept.
H3xx writes "The Queen is set to have an official presence on Facebook when a British Monarchy page launches on the internet-based social networking site. Buckingham Palace says it is not a personal profile page, but users can 'like' the service and receive updates on their news feed. The Queen has reportedly embraced the web and sends e-mails. A British Monarchy Twitter feed is also available. The Facebook page is due to go live from Monday morning. The page will also feature the Court Circular, recording the previous day's official engagements."

Submission + - Virtualising workstations for common hardware

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: We have approximately 20 workstations which all have different hardware specs. Every workstation has two monitors and generally runs either ubuntu or windows. I had started using clonezilla to copy the installs so we could deploy new workstations quickly and easily, when we have hardware failures and the likes, but an struggling with Windows requiring new drivers to be installed for all new hardware.

Is it possible to have a very basic virtual machine beneath to provide hardware consistency whilst still allowing multi-monitor support? Obviously we could be booting into Ubuntu and then load a Windows Virtual Machine after that, but I'd prefer not to have the added load of a full GUI underneath windows — we want maximum performance possible. And I don't think the multi monitor support would work.

Does anyone have any experience with this?
The Courts

SCO v. Novell Goes To the Jury 67

Posted by timothy from the perhaps-it's-the-oj-jury dept.
Excelcia writes "Closing arguments in the six and a bit year old slander of title case between SCO and Novell occurred today and the case is finally in the hands of the jury. It's been an interesting case, with SCO alternately claiming that the copyrights to UNIX did get transferred to them, and that the copyrights should have been transferred to them. 'Judge Ted Stewart said, after the jury left to begin to deliberate, that in all his years on the bench, he's never seen such fine lawyering as in this case.' We're not going to find out the results until at least Tuesday, however, as one juror is taking a long weekend. Great lawyering notwithstanding, we can all hope next week that the Energizer bunny of all spurious lawsuits will finally go away."
Education

Submission + - The Wi-Fi on the Bus

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: For students who endure hundreds of hours on a school bus each year in a desert exurb of Tucson, the Wi-Fi on the bus goes round-and-round, all through the town. Last fall, school officials mounted a $200 mobile Internet router from Autonet Mobile to bus No. 92's sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. What began as a hi-tech experiment has had an unexpected result — Wi-Fi has transformed the formerly boisterous bus rides into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared. 'Boys aren't hitting each other, girls are busy, and there's not so much jumping around,' said J. J. Johnson, the Internet Bus driver.

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