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Comment This is a relevant comic (Score 2) 268

by ParadoxDruid (#38919573) Attached to: RIAA Wants To Scrap Anti-Piracy OPEN Act
I think I need to just continually post this, and send it (or more "respectable" transcripts, to all my congressional representatives. We don't need new laws for the internet! Our current ones work just fine, thank you. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2508#comic (Sorry for the double-post, I forgot to log in)
Cellphones

Submission + - AT&T Caps Netflix Streaming Costs at $68K/Yr 1

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: What would you say if you went to join a gym and were told that it could cost you anywhere from $360 a year to $68,000 a year for the exact same usage? Don't be ridiculous, right? Well, that's really not so different from what the potential costs of streaming video on an AT&T smartphone are. According to AT&T's Data Usage Calculator, 1,440 minutes worth of streaming video consumes 2.81GB, which — if you manage to keep Netflix fired up all day and night — would result in a $360 annual bill under the grandfathered $30-monthly-unlimited-data plan, or $68,376 under the new $20-monthly-300MB plan. Still, that didn't stop a spokesman from characterizing the new AT&T data plans as 'a great value' for customers. So, what exactly does the Bureau of Consumer Protection consider unfair?

Submission + - White House Petition to Investigate Dodd for Bribe (whitehouse.gov)

Submitted by
Walkingshark
Walkingshark writes: "Chris Dodd's recent statements complaining that the congressmen the RIAA and MPAA bribed aren't staying bribed has spawned a firestorm of anger on the internet. Among the bits of fallout: a petition on the White Houses "We the People" site to investigate him, the RIAA, and the MPAA for bribery! This petition gained more than 5000 signatures in 24 hours and is still growing.

When the petition reaches 25,000 signatures the White House is obligated to respond to it in an official capacity. At that point, one way or another they will have to go on record either supporting the RIAA and MPAA or pushing them under the bus. Either way, it should be quite enlightening to see what their response is."
Games

How Gaming Can Save the World 85

Posted by Soulskill from the low-emissions-and-low-carb dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Game designer and all-around interesting person Jane McGonigal just published a book arguing that playing games will help solve the urgent problems of the real world. To mark the publication, Discover Magazine has a Q&A with McGonigal on several topics, such as: exactly how much gaming is too much? 'There was a really significant study that tracked 1,100 soldiers for a year, and looked at how they were spending their free time with things they considered coping mechanisms—using Facebook, listening to music, reading, working out, or playing video games. They correlated this with incidences of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicide attempts, and domestic violence. The found that by a very wide margin, the most psychologically protected individuals—who had the lowest rates of any of these negative experiences—were people who were playing video games 3 to 4 hours a day. ... That was fascinating—it was more beneficial than anything but working out 7 hours a day.' She also talks about how relationships forged in games can change the world, and which world problems exactly is she trying to solve via games. (Hint: think big.)"

Comment Google Reader (Score 1) 2254

by ParadoxDruid (#35003588) Attached to: Slashdot Launches Re-Design
That's great, and it looks nice and (thankfully) loads faster... but this is the first time I've actually *visited* Slashdot in almost a year. It's a key part of my Google Reader feeds, though! It also looks nice when read via FlipBoard on my iPad.

Comment Re:Still a long way to go... (Score 4, Informative) 126

by ParadoxDruid (#27637399) Attached to: Stem Cell Treatment To Cure the Most Common Cause of Blindness
I recently met Pete Coffey, the lead scientist on this effort (he collaborates with scientists in a research group across the hall from mine), and attended his technical talk on this procedure. You are correct, they're transplanting retinal pigment epithelium. However, they've done experiments with both wet AMD and some preliminary work with reviving dry AMD. Very promising work; but yes, very involved surgery with a success rate of 75% even for ideal patients.
Networking

Submission + - Flexible optic fiber for "last mile" conne

Submitted by bn0p
bn0p writes: According to an article on Ars Technica, a Korean company has developed a low-cost, flexible, plastic optical fiber that could help solve the "last mile" problem and bring 2.5 Gbps (bits per second) connections to homes and apartments. While not as fast as glass fiber, it is significantly faster than the copper connections in use today.

In related news, Corning recently announced a flexible glass fiber that can be bent repeatedly without losing signal strength. The Corning fiber incorporates nanostructures in the cladding of the fiber that act as "light guardrails" that keep the light in the fiber. The glass fiber could be as much as four times faster than plastic fiber.

Neither fiber is available commercially yet, but both should help improve data rates to the home when they are deployed.
Linux Business

Submission + - Four months of Ubuntu on Dell (lxer.com)

Submitted by
mrcgran
mrcgran writes: "LXer has an interview with John Hull, a manager of the Linux Engineering team at Dell, where he reports on how the Ubuntu machines have been working out for them so far. "Embracing Ubuntu Linux on our desktops and laptops seems to have really raised Dell's visibility within the Linux community. We have been supporting, testing, developing for, and selling Linux for 8+ years here at Dell, but before the Ubuntu announcement, a lot of people didn't know that we did any of that. (...) Previous to our Ubuntu product announcement, it was much more difficult to extend this model to consumer desktop and laptop technologies. We would have a conversations with vendors about pushing Linux support for their hardware, but without a Linux product offering from Dell for that hardware, it was very difficult to convince them to release Linux drivers. That has certainly changed now that we offer Ubuntu Linux, and we are making much more progress in our vendor discussions. (...) The original sales estimates for Ubuntu computers was around 1% of the total sales, or about 20,000 systems annually. The program so far is meeting expectations. Customers are certainly showing their interest and buying systems preloaded with Ubuntu, but it certainly won't overtake Microsoft Windows anytime soon.""
Music

Submission + - Thomas files appeal, cites "excessive" dam (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Peerless
Peerless writes: Capitol v. Thomas defendant Jammie Thomas has officially appealed the RIAA's $222,000 copyright infringement award. She is seeking a retrial to determine the RIAA's actual damages, arguing that the jury's award was 'unconstitutionally excessive': 'Thomas would like to see the record companies forced to prove their actual damages due to downloading, a figure that Sony-BMG litigation head Jennifer Pariser testified that her company "had not stopped to calculate." In her motion, Thomas argues that the labels are contending that their actual damages are in the neighborhood of $20. Barring a new trial over the issue of damages, Thomas would like to see the reward knocked down three significant digits — from $222,000 to $151.20.'
Patents

Submission + - 802.11n May Never Happen Due to Patent Concerns

Submitted by afabbro
afabbro writes: The Register is reporting that the 802.11n standard is imperiled because the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization has refused to submit a Letter of Assurance, promising not to sue those who implement the standard. "...the realisation that CSIRO holds essential patents, and has failed to provide a Letter of Assurance as required by the IEEE, could prevent the standard ever being finalised."
Space

Submission + - Six minutes of terror: landing humans on Mars

Submitted by OriginalArlen
OriginalArlen writes: Universe Today has a fascinating article discussing the difficulty of executing EDL (entry, descent, landing) on Mars for vehicles bigger than MER, Viking and Pathfinder, and for manned craft in particular. Airbags can't be used for obvious reasons, but the atmosphere is too thin to be used for parachutes or aerobraking by large heavy vehicles, and the stronger gravity (compared to the moon) makes an Apollo-style powered descent impossible. The best current idea is a huge inflatable torus called a hypercone.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Second Life meets Real Life Trouble

Submitted by
Zephida
Zephida writes: "The BBC is reporting thatSecond Life is being investigated by German police following allegations that some members are trading child abuse images in the online world http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6638331.stm FTA: The investigation follows a report by a German TV news programme which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children. The police are now trying to identify the Second Life members involved. Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, said it would help identify users and pass on details to prosecutors"
User Journal

Journal Journal: Bamboo Bikes for Africa 1

Journal by MightyMait
Here's a fascinating melding of traditional and new technologies--bamboo bicycles.

From: Columbia Spectator

Who would have thought that inside the Zen essence of bamboo lay the potential to help a poverty-stricken continent create bicycles?

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