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The Courts

Supreme Court To Hear Aereo Case 211

schwit1 writes "The Supreme Court will hear broadcasters' challenge to the legality of startup Aereo, in a case that may not only determine the future of digital streaming of station signals but of network television itself. Without comment, the justices on Friday agreed to accept ABC Television Stations vs. Aereo, in which the television networks are seeking to halt the Barry Diller-backed venture, contending that its offering of streams of station signals in New York and other markets violates the public performance provisions of the Copyright Act. Justice Samuel Alito took no part in the consideration of the petition, the court said, without elaborating. Typically such recusals are for a potential conflict of interest, and Alito has previously said that his family owned stock in the Walt Disney Co."

Comment Re:Most interesting point (Score 1) 157

Assuming the average song is around 3:30 minutes, that comes out to 7.4 cents per play. This doesn't seem to bad, especially when compared to the rate of 0.1-0.2 cents per play for "pureplay" and "run-of-the-mill" webcasters [1]. This guy's songs seemed to be around 30 seconds each[2], but that would still be more than 1 cent per play. (It seems odd that the pay rate doesn't take into account the song length. This is probably just to keep things simpler.) And this is all ignoring the fact that this was only three "users" who were listening to the songs.

[1] $2.5 Billion: The Big Number that “Big Radio” could owe each year if it paid music royalties at Pandora’s rates Info a little less than half way down the page

[2] John Matrix

Comment Dial-up by the minute (Score 1) 410

In 2009 I was renting a house/apartment in Germany and the only internet option I had was dial-up for which I paid by the minute. It blew my mind that such a thing even existed. Anytime I wanted to go on the internet I could choose between various providers who all had different connection charges and rates. The landlord even gave me a special program which would find the optimal provider based on when and how long you planned to be online, and then make the connection.

Some people described the house I was in as a rental "vacation home" as I was in a scenic part of the country which many people would come visit for periods of time. I guess most renters were of the demographic/mindset that they didn't need internet during vacation. I assume that my neighbors had better options available if they wanted something installed.
Transportation

Judge Rules In Favor of Volkswagen and Silences Scientist 254

sl4shd0rk writes "Samsung-is-not-as-cool-as-Apple Judge Colin Birss, rules in favor of Volkswagon to ban Flavio Garcia, a computer scientist, from revealing details about 'Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobiliser' at USENIX in August. Volkswagen says the flaw could allow someone to 'break the security and steal a car' so it is justifiable grounds for blocking Flavio's paper. No word yet on how soon Volkswagen will have a patch."

Comment Re:A whole 100,000 bucks? (Score 2) 141

Doesn't even pay the tuition plus living expenses for an *average* college.

That certainly more than pays for tuition and living expenses for in-state residents at a public school (often above average schools).
Spring 2013 Tuition at University of Wisconsin-Madison: $10,400/year [1]
Which would leave $14,600/year for living expenses. More than enough.

Non-residents have to pay $26,600/year so tuition would be nearly covered, but not living expenses. However, I think most states have an "average" public university, or reciprocity with a near by state which does. I've even heard of state universities offering free or highly reduced tuition for students who have decent grades or ACT/SAT scores. These numbers, of course, don't include any other financial assistance or scholarships.

[1]http://registrar.wisc.edu/tuition_&_fees.htm

Comment Re:steps (Score 1) 385

This isn't energy you can run your TV on, but in this Mother Earth News article they describe how one acre worth of poplar trees can produce enough wood to be "firewoodselfsufficient." (See "Wood?Lots!") Obviously, the entire world population can't do this, but I thought it was an interesting and semi-relevant article.
Hybrid Poplar Tree Projects

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