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Comment Oblig. Holy Grail reference (Score 5, Funny) 537

      GOD: Arthur! Arthur, King of the Britons! Oh, don't grovel! If
            there's one thing I can't stand, it's people groveling.
    ARTHUR: Sorry--
    GOD: And don't apologize. Every time I try to talk to someone it's
            "sorry this" and "forgive me that" and "I'm not worthy". What are you
            doing now!?
    ARTHUR: I'm averting my eyes, oh Lord.
    GOD: Well, don't. It's like those miserable Psalms-- they're so
            depressing. Now knock it off!
Businesses

Submission + - Credit Card Swipe Fees Begin Sunday in USA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A speedbump on the road to a cash-free economy will go into effect Sunday in the USA, as retailers in 40 states will have the option of passing along a surcharge to customers who pay with credit cards. The so-called swipe fees arose from the settlement of a seven-year lawsuit filed by retailers against Visa, Mastercard, and big banks, who collect an electronic processing fee averaging 1.5 to 3 percent on transactions involving credit cards. The banks naturally have opposed the consumer surcharges, preferring that the extra costs to be passed along in the form of higher prices. Consumers in ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Texas) won't be affected, since laws in those states forbid the practice (it seems that gasoline station owners here in Massachusetts got a different memo, though). Also, the surcharges won't be collected for debit or prepaid cards.
Privacy

Submission + - ACLU: Most US police don't seek warrants before tracking cell phones (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: Many law enforcement agencies across the U.S. track mobile phones as part of investigations, but only a minority ask for court-ordered warrants, according to a report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union. More than 90 law enforcement agencies said they track mobile phones during investigations, but only six reported receiving court-approved warrants after demonstrating that there's probable cause of a crime, according to an ACLU report http://www.aclu.org/protecting-civil-liberties-digital-age/cell-phone-location-tracking-public-records-request based on public information requests filed by the group last year.
Medicine

Submission + - When Are You Dead? 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Dick Teresi writes in the WSJ that becoming an organ donor seems like a noble act but what doctors won't tell you is that checking yourself off as an organ donor when you renew your driver's license means you are giving up your right to informed consent and that you may suffer for it especially if you happen to become a victim of head trauma. Even though they compromise only 1% of deaths, victims of head trauma are the most likely organ donors because patients who can be ruled brain dead usually have good organs while people's organs who die from heart failure, circulation, or breathing deteriorate quickly. "I like my dead people cold, stiff, gray and not breathing," says Dr. Michael A. DeVita of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "The brain dead are warm, pink and breathing." But here's the weird part. In at least two studies before the 1981 Uniform Determination of Death Act, some "brain-dead" patients were found to be emitting brain waves and at least one doctor has reported a case in which a patient with severe head trauma began breathing spontaneously after being declared brain dead. Organ transplantation—from procurement of organs to transplant to the first year of postoperative care—is a $20 billion per year business with average recipients charged $750,000 for a transplant, so with an average 3.3 organs, that is more than $2 million per body. "In order to be dead enough to bury but alive enough to be a donor, you must be irreversibly brain dead. If it’s reversible, you’re no longer dead; you’re a patient," writes David Crippen, M.D. "And once you start messing around with this definition, you’re on a slippery slope, and the question then becomes: How dead do you want patients to be before you start taking their organs?""
The Military

Submission + - USS Enterprise Takes Its Final Voyage (npr.org)

Submitted by
westlake
westlake writes: "The AP is reporting that world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise is being retired after fifty years of active service — the longest of any warship in US naval history. The big ship had become notoriously difficult to keep in repair. The only ship in its age and class, breakdowns became frequent and replacement parts often had to be custom made. Despite its place in naval history and popular culture, Enterprise will meet its end at the scrap yard and not be preserved as a museum. Famed USS Enterprise Takes Its Final Voyage"
Games

Submission + - Ten Computer Games Which Defined RPGs In The 1980s

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: 1980s' were huge for RPGs. This genre was one of the most defining game forms in the computer gaming world. A recently pubished article strolls down the memory lane to look back at ten classic computer games that both defined and extended the definition of the RPG in the 1980s. The roundup includes some obvious ones like Ultima and The Bard's Tale, and others which you may never have heard of.

Comment Re:So hackers like it (Score 1) 339

by Reformed Lurker (#37276728) Attached to: Is Tablet Success Bound To Their Crackability?

Barnes and Noble seems to not mind.

You might have hit the key here. Traditional phone vendors and carriers are into control - since that has always been their business models. Companies like B&N are booksellers first and hardware guys second - as long as their primary business (book selling) works, whatever else can be done with the hardware is just added value. Like the carriers they still control their products - but that's books.

This also may be why the Kindle tablet will succeed - they are building on the B&N model but have a lot more content to push then just books. As long as they can successfully push their content, they likely won't care what else goes on the device.

Of course, there's that support issue that happens when you deal in hardware, but if you make it cheap enough just send new ones vice spin up megacosts for support.
Robotics

Submission + - Afghanistan Called First "Robotic War" (cnn.com)

Submitted by
retroworks
retroworks writes: "Fareed Zakaria (Editor of Time, CNN GPS) writes that one in 50 USA combatants in Afghanistan is now a robot. There are more fighting robots than elevators in the country. Article has links to film of robots in action, allusions to Terminator films."

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