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Networking

The FCC Says ISPs Aren't Hitting Advertised Speeds 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the stop-dropping-my-packets dept.
MojoKid writes "The Federal Communications Commission has released the results of a year-long scientific study it conducted with regard to the upload and download speeds of thirteen American Internet service providers. Most of the ISPs hit 90 percent of their advertised upload speeds. Of the 13 providers tested, only four (or less than a third) averaged at or even above their advertised download speeds (Charter, Comcast, Cox, and Verizon Fiber). The tests were performed by a private firm that has run similar tests in the U.K. It measured performance at 6,800 'representative homes' nationally in March."

Comment Re:Obvious flaw: (Score 1) 491

by Osurak (#32870384) Attached to: Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3

The assumption that the longest one is the oldest and most reliable is invalid, Since anyone can peer, there's no reason that a peer can't fake itself as 20, 30, 100 peers, and, working on a very fast machine, produce a longer chain quickly than an older peer.

Yeah, just wait until the bot herders get a hold of this. I'm sure they would have no problem either generating huge chains, or just flat out generating coins faster than anyone else.
The Almighty Buck

Obama Awards Nearly $2 Billion For Solar Power 514

Posted by Soulskill from the proactively-cleaning-up-sunlight-spills dept.
crimeandpunishment writes "President Obama says it's time to heat up solar power, and he's willing to spend a big chunk of federal money to do it. Saturday the president announced the government is giving nearly $2 billion to companies that are building new solar plants in Arizona, Colorado, and Indiana. The president says this will create thousands of jobs and increase our use of renewable energy."

Comment Re:Saving lives?? (Score 1) 128

by Osurak (#29860365) Attached to: Android Goes To the Battlefield

Why do breathless writers always say "saving lives" when they refer to military applications? They're about taking lives. Just taking different ones.

Probably for the same reason it's called the "Department of Defense" rather than the "Department of War"

Comment Best part of the article (Score 1) 300

by Osurak (#29283853) Attached to: How Many Bits Does It Take To Kill You?

The best part of the article is the random "All Your Base" reference.

Researchers are still discovering more about the H5 port; the Nature article indicates that perhaps certain human mutants have lungs that do not listen on the H5 port. So, those of us with the mutation that causes lungs to ignore the H5 port would have a better chance of surviving an Avian flu infection, whereas as those of us that open port H5 on the lungs have no chance to survive make your time / all your base pairs are belong to H5N1.
Role Playing (Games)

Age of Conan Expansion Coming In 2009 76

Posted by Soulskill from the moving-right-along dept.
At the recent Leipzig Games Conference, Funcom developers announced that the first expansion to Age of Conan is planned for a 2009 release. Details about the expansion are sparse, but a significant amount of new areas appear to be in development for that and a free upcoming content patch. Massively points out a video which showcases some of the new content. 1Up has a piece of concept art for the expansion.
Communications

The Viterbi Algorithm and Quantum Communications 91

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sneaky-states dept.
eldavojohn writes "There have been a lot of tests in using quantum mechanics to communicate across large distances. But a student & a professor at USC have proven that the Viterbi algorithm can be applied to quantum communication. In the traditional Alice sends Bob a message scenario, 'Bob can reliably spot errors, and knows which message qubits are bogus before he opens the message — crucial, because opening it destroys it; and if it is garbled, he has nothing.'"
Communications

Judge Rules Sprint Early Termination Fees Illegal 343

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the bad-news-for-lock-in dept.
Antiglobalism writes to tell us that an Alameda County Judge has ruled against Sprint Nextel in a class-action lawsuit, awarding customers $18.2 million in restitution for early termination fees. "Though the decision could be appealed, it's the first in the country to declare the fees illegal in a state and could affect other similar lawsuits, with broad implications for the nation's fast-growing legions of cell phone users. The judge - who is overseeing several other suits against telecommunications companies that involve similar fees - also told the company to stop trying to collect $54.7 million from other customers who haven't yet paid the charges they were assessed. The suit said about 2 million Californians were assessed the fee."
The Courts

User Charged With Felony For Using Fake Name On MySpace 931

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the understand-before-you-prosecute dept.
Recently a user, Lori Drew, was charged with a felony for the heinous crime of pretending to be someone else on the Internet. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Lori was charged for signing up for MySpace using a fake name. "The access to MySpace was unauthorized because using a fake name violated the terms of service. The information from a "protected computer" was the profiles of other MySpace users. If this is found to be a valid interpretation of the law, it's really quite frightening. If you violate the Terms of Service of a website, you can be charged with hacking. That's an astounding concept. Does this mean that everyone who uses Bugmenot could be prosecuted? Also, this isn't a minor crime, it's a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment per count. In Drew's case she was charged with three counts for accessing MySpace on three different occasions."
Security

Submission + - New Opt-Out Clause Makes CAN-SPAM Worse (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
snydeq
snydeq writes: "Three years of mulling, and the FTC has made the CAN-SPAM Act effectively worse, writes Gripe Line's Ed Foster. Chief among the offenses in the FTC's updated rules is an even worse approach to opt-out procedures. Now, in scenarios where multiple marketers use a single e-mail message to spam you, 'only one of the senders — the one in the From: field — need be designated the official sender who is responsible for honoring opt-outs,' Foster writes. Translation? 'Other "marketers" who used that spam message, not to mention the spamming service that actually provided the e-mail address list, don't need to honor opt-outs. So try as you might to get yourself off a list, the real spammer can just keep changing the designated sender in the From: field and legally keep on spamming you.' The irony of the CAN-SPAM moniker gets thicker."
Robotics

R2D2-Shaped DVD and Videogame Projector 147

Posted by timothy from the pinch-me-carrie-fisher-pinch-me dept.
Rikardon writes "Nikko Home Electronics has created a DVD projector that looks and moves like R2D2 — with a remote control shaped like the Millenium Falcon. The specs aren't bad: a claimed projection area of up to 6.6m; built-in DVD and CD players; analog and digital video and audio ports; various memory card orifices, and an internal iPod dock. Favorite feature: tilt the legs to adjust the projection height, up to and including projection on the ceiling. No word on whether it projects holograms."

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