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Comment Re:I Usually Have A Few "Orphans" Over (Score 1) 340

I do the turkey as well, and I'm still constantly amazed how easy it is to get right.

This year we have so many people coming over that we're going to need two birds (My work graciously provides a Thanksgiving turkey to its employees. I also lucked out that a coworker of mine didn't want his, and gave it to me. So two free turkeys.) One's getting roasted Alton Brown style. The other is getting butterflied and grilled.

Comment Re:"Experiment" (Score 3) 326

I'm one of the people out at I/O that was given one, but I've only taken it out of the box to look at it so far (too many sessions, not enough time).

To go along with the expensive design part. The device has a lot of mass. It was designed to sit on a table, and be interacted with locally. The top half of the Q spins (I believe as a volume control, but I have not had a chance to set it up yet) If you look at the breakdown diagrams they briefly show in the introduction video - there's also a complex set of components inside of the device. So that increases the assembly cost as well.

It's not meant to be a simple video player, nor just a slave to the TV. Hooking it up to a TV is technically optional.

I'm glad it is being produced in the US - we need more companies demanding device manufacture and assembly in the US - it will only help drive down the US assembly costs due to volume. We used to (10 years ago) do a LOT of assembly in the US for all sorts of devices, but the economic downturns drove a lot of assembly over seas (increasing some costs, decreasing others).

Comment Re:anniversary (Score 1) 337

I got married on the 29th, just had my "first" anniversary. We celebrate every year around the day, and treat the ones on the 29th like most people treat their divisible by 5-year anniversary. So every 4 years (therefore more often than most people) we plan something extra-special instead of the usual way we celebrate.

I still have yet to see any long-term annoyance.

Security

DHS Admits Knowledge of Infected Import Tech 59

smitty777 writes "Deputy Undersecretary Schaffer of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate confessed to being aware of foreign technology that had been imported with spyware, malware, and other security risks. According to the article, 'More worryingly, the hearing specifically mentioned hardware components as possibly being compromised — which raises the questions of whether, perhaps, something as innocuous as Flash memory or embedded RFID chips could be used by interested foreign parties.' These hearings were held on July 7th to 'examine the nature and extent of the current threat to America's infrastructure.'"
Internet Explorer

Why IE9 Will Not Support Codecs Other Than H.264 436

jlp2097 writes "There is a new article up on Microsoft's IEBlog explaining why IE9 will support only the H.264 codec: 'First and most important, we think it is the best available video codec today for HTML5 for our customers. Relative to alternatives, H.264 maintains strong hardware support in PCs and mobile devices as well as a breadth of implementation in consumer electronics devices around the world, excellent video quality, scale of existing usage, availability of tools and content authoring systems, and overall industry momentum – each an important factor that contributes to our point of view. H.264 also provides the best certainty and clarity with respect to legal rights from the many companies that have patents in this area.'"
Bug

MS Issues Emergency IE Security Update 114

WrongSizeGlass writes "CNET is reporting that Microsoft has issued an emergency patch for 10 IE security holes. 'The cumulative update, which Microsoft announced on Monday, resolves nine privately reported flaws and one that was publicly disclosed. ... Software affected by the cumulative update addressing all the IE vulnerabilities includes Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Server 2008, Vista, and Windows 7.'"
Caldera

Novell Wins vs. SCO 380

Aim Here writes "According to Novell's website, and the Salt Lake Tribune, the jury in the SCO v. Novell trial has returned a verdict: Novell owns the Unix copyrights. This also means that SCO's case against IBM must surely collapse too, and likely the now bankrupt SCO group itself. It's taken 7 years, but the US court system has eventually done the right thing ..." No doubt this is the last we will ever hear of any of this.
Google

Google Hacked, May Pull Out of China 687

D H NG writes "Following a sophisticated attack on Google infrastructure originating from China late last year, Google has decided to take 'a new approach' to China. In their investigation, Google found that more than 20 large companies had been infiltrated and dozens of Chinese human rights activists' Gmail accounts had been compromised. Google has decided to 'review the feasibility of [its] business operations in China,' no longer censoring results in Google.cn, and if necessary, to 'shut down Google.cn, and potentially [Google's] offices in China.'"
Games

Submission + - Nintendo Releases Free Wii Browser, Updates Flash

An anonymous reader writes: Nintendo has released an update for the Wii Internet Channel (the Opera browser). It is now a free download (if you already paid for it you get a free NES game), and finally supports Flash 9 content, after being limited to Flash 7 ever since it was launched in late 2006.

Comment Re:Double-edged sword... (Score 1) 520

The issue is not that people can/can't stop at two beers. It's that they could have stopped at one beer, waited 75 minutes for it to metabolize fully, then drive home. At that point the device could still say they are over the limit, due to a programming bug. We don't know how well it was implemented, what the failure conditions are, how it handles those failure conditions, etc.

So the issue is: Would you like to be convicted of a crime you didn't commit, all because some people can't stop at two beers?

Cellphones

Submission + - Research finds effects of GSM radiation on sleep (mit.edu) 2

An anonymous reader writes: The effects of mobile phone radiation on sleep were studied in Sweden in a laboratory experiment where subjects were exposed either to 884 MHz GSM radiation or placebo. The study finds that compared to placebo, in the radiation-exposed subjects there was a prolonged latency to reach the first cycle of deep sleep (stage 3). The amount of stage 4 sleep was also decreased. Moreover, participants that otherwise have no self-reported symptoms related to mobile phone use, appear to have more headaches during actual radiofrequency exposure as compared to sham exposure.
Printer

Which All-in-One Inkjet Printer is Cheapest to Use? 119

Ray asks: "A year or so ago, I got my dad a new computer system that included a Canon PX-160 printer/scanner/copier to replace his aging Lexmark with similar capabilities. On my next visit, I asked him how the new printer was working and he said the ink was killing him. The cartridges are expensive, they don't have much ink in them and there are no third party or refilled carts for it or (apparently) any other Canon. It looks like HP and Lexmark are the most likely to have (relatively) inexpensive supplies but what has your experience been with inkjet All-in-Ones as far as TCO goes?"

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