Comment Re:Price (Score 2, Interesting) 210
With a much smaller screen (7" vs 9.7") it had better be much cheaper, like half the price of the ipad.
Submission + - Canadian company helps build plasma rocket (www.cbc.ca)
TechOgre writes: A Nova Scotia company that builds transmitters for radio stations is helping develop a new plasma rocket engine that could cut a trip to Mars down to just 40 days.
Comment Re:Should they get off tax-free? (Score 1) 511
An alternative would be to have a flat income tax rate after a certain base income. So, for example, if the base rate is $10,000, and the tax rate is 10%, then for every dollar above that base rate, you pay 10%. If you make $10,000, you pay no tax. If you make $10,001, you pay $0.10 in tax. In addition, no taxes on unprepared foods, utilities (water, hydro, gas, phone(?)).
I think a simpler system with fewer/no loopholes would fix a lot of things. It would be harder to cheat, easier to calculate, just, better over all.
Submission + - 40 years of Multics, 1969-2009 (cio.com.au) 1
gribll writes: This piece of history may interest the Slashdot crowd. October 2009 marked an important milestone in the history of computing. It was exactly 40 years since the first Multics computer system was used at MIT. The interview is with Multics co-developer, MIT Professor and Turing Award winner Fernando J. Corbato. Multics (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service) is regarded as the foundation of modern time-sharing systems. Multics was the catalyst for the development of Unix and has been used as a model of operating system design since its release four decades ago. There is also a picture gallery of Multics' history. How can us modern-day Linux and BSD lovers not pay homage to the grand daddy of time-sharing operating systems.
Submission + - MPAA wants to turn off analog ports on TV asks FCC (consumerist.com) 1
suraj.sun writes: The Motion Picture Association of American wants to rent movies to TV viewers earlier in the release window, but they don't want anyone potentially streaming that video out to other appliances. That's why last week they went back to the FCC to once again ask for the power to disable analog ports on consumer television sets.
This capability is called selectable output control or SOC, and the FCC banned it back in 2003. SOC would allow "service operators, such as cable companies, to turn off analog outputs on consumer electronics devices, only allowing digital plugs" such as HDMI. The MPAA is arguing that if they could directly turn those plugs on and off, they could offer more goods to consumers.
But that's not what over a dozen public interest groups think, notes Home Media Magazine:
Groups including Public Knowledge, the Digital Freedom Campaign, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Consumer Federation of America and the Media Access Project, are fighting the MPAA over the request, saying it puts control of privately owned consumer electronics into the hands of the movie industry, hurts TiVo and Slingbox owners, and leaves out consumers who own TVs without digital connections.
Consumerist : http://consumerist.com/5400626/mpaa-asks-fcc-for-control-of-your-tvs-analog-outputs
This capability is called selectable output control or SOC, and the FCC banned it back in 2003. SOC would allow "service operators, such as cable companies, to turn off analog outputs on consumer electronics devices, only allowing digital plugs" such as HDMI. The MPAA is arguing that if they could directly turn those plugs on and off, they could offer more goods to consumers.
But that's not what over a dozen public interest groups think, notes Home Media Magazine:
Groups including Public Knowledge, the Digital Freedom Campaign, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Consumer Federation of America and the Media Access Project, are fighting the MPAA over the request, saying it puts control of privately owned consumer electronics into the hands of the movie industry, hurts TiVo and Slingbox owners, and leaves out consumers who own TVs without digital connections.
Consumerist : http://consumerist.com/5400626/mpaa-asks-fcc-for-control-of-your-tvs-analog-outputs
