13844734
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
Citing "national security concerns," the French Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, France's equivalent of the U.S. FCC) has ruled that D-Star, a amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.The ARCEP also cites alleged concerns regarding Cryptography & National Security as well as the use of a proprietary CODEC. While it's true that the D-Star CODEC is proprietary, it's owner has openly licensed (for a fee, of course) it to any manufacturer who wants to build it into their equipment. Any licensed amateur radio operator who lives within the E.U. can sign an online petition protesting this decision. The petition will be presented to the European Parliament.
13420586
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
In yet another of what's become an almost predictable cycle of events, Apple today reversed it's rejection of the 'Ulysses Seen' Web comic, admitting 'We made a mistake.' The comic is now available in the App Store--just in time for Bloomsday, June 16th. The comic's author, Robert Berry is pleased and adds that Apple 'never acted as a censor, never told us what we could or could not say. ... We didn't believe these were good guidelines for art, but respected their rights to sell content that met their guidelines at their own store. Apple is not a museum or a library for new content then, so much as they are a grocer.'
12820134
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
Most of us know about the sun's eleven-year activity cycle. However, relatively few other than scientists (and amateur radio operators) are aware that the current solar minimum has lasted much longer than expected. The last solar cycle, Cycle 24, bottomed out in 2008 and Cycle 25 should be well on it's way towards maximum by now but the sun has remained unusually quiescent with very few sunspots. While solar physicists agree that this is odd, the explanation remains elusive.
12420588
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
The same judge who issued the warrant to search Gizmodo editor Jason Chen's apartment has ordered it unsealed, ruling against the San Mateo County (California) district attorney's office which had argued that unsealing the documents may compromise the investigation. Several media organizations have sought to have the documents unsealed in order to determine whether the county had a legal basis for the warrant, stating "Otherwise, there is no way for the public to serve as a check on the conduct of law enforcement officers, the prosecutors and the courts in this case."
11672652
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
An article in the London Evening Standard claims that Apple has made an $8 billion offer to acquire ARM Holdings. For those few Slashdotters who don't already know, ARM makes the processor chips that power Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. However, ARM processors are also used by other manufacturers, including Palm and, perhaps most significantly, companies building Android phones. This explains why Apple might be willing to spend so much on the deal--almost 20% of it's cash reserves. Being able to control who gets to use the processors (and, more importantly, who doesn't) would give Apple a huge advantage over it's competitors.
10189836
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
A French amateur radio operator who built his own ground station using equipment from an abandoned telecom uplink site has listened in on the ESA's Mars Express space probe. While his antenna is too small to allow him to download actual data, he was able to record and convert the signal of the probe's X-Band transmitter into an audio file, which can be heard here.
9067136
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
In an event eerily reminiscent of Cisco's suit over Apple's use of the "iPhone" name, Japanese firm Fujitsu is consulting it's attorneys in preparation for going to court over Apple's use of "iPad" for it's latest computing device. Quoted in a New York Times news story, Masahiro Yamane, director of Fujitsu’s public relations division, said “It’s our understanding that the name is ours.”
Fujitsu’s application to trademark the iPad name stalled because of an earlier filing by another company and The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office listed Fujitsu’s application as abandoned in early 2009, but the company revived its application in June. Apple, which has applied for an international trademark on "iPad" through a proxy company, has filed a number of requests with the U.S. Patent Office for more time to oppose Fujitsu’s application.
8532968
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
A test published by MOTO labs comparing the accuracy and sensitivity of smartphone touchscreens among various makers gave the iPhone top marks ahead of HTC’s Droid Eris, the Google-branded Nexus One and the Motorola Droid. The test was conducted within a drawing program using a finger to trace straight diagonal lines across the screens and then comparing the results. While it's not likely that a smart phone user is going to draw a lot of lines, the test does give some indication of which phones are most likely to properly respond to clicking on a link in a Web browser.
7607658
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
Sixty-eight years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, intelligence agencies trying to prevent another unpleasant surprise are still stymied by the same thing: how to sort all the data they've collected in a timely manner. Although there was evidence to suggest that the Japanese navy was up to something in December 1941, that information was scanty and came too late. Today's intelligence agencies have another problem altogether--more information than they can deal with, and computers aren't helping as much as one might expect for reasons that will be familiar to Slashdot readers: computers can crunch numbers faster and more accurately than humans but they're still easily baffled by language as it is commonly used in the real world. Metaphor, slang and simple figures of speech can confuse the best algorithm and, as quoted in an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune , 'A system that takes a week to discover a bombing will occur in a day isn't very useful.'
7566650
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
During it's last mission, astronauts from the Space Shuttle Atlantis installed an Automatic Identification System (AIS) antenna on the outside of the International Space Station that will allow astronauts aboard the ISS to monitor signals from the AIS transmitters mandated to be installed most large ocean-going craft. Although these VHF signals can be monitored from the Earth's surface, their horizontal range is generally limited to about 75 km (46 mi), leaving large areas of the ocean unwatched. However, the signals easily reach the 400 km (250 mi) orbit of the ISS.
The ESS sees this experiment as a test platform for a future AIS-monitoring fleet of satellites that will eventually provide worldwide coverage of sea traffic.
5327205
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports in a New York Times wire service story that a black bear known as "Yellow-Yellow" (named for the two yellow ear tags she sports) has solved the problem of opening a food container that was previously thought to be bear-proof. The container, known as The Bear Vault, was constructed in a manner similar to a child-proof pill bottle and had passed tests at zoos where bears were given a certain time to break in. The only bears able to open it were grizzlies large and strong enough to rip the lid off using brute force--up several years ago, when campers in the High Peaks region of New York's Adirondack Mountains started reporting successful break-ins. A redesigned canister was introduced last year; Yellow-Yellow, a relatively petite 120-pound black bear, figured that one out too. The manufacturer is working on a new design expected to be released next year. New York state officials have agreed to test it by filling it with food and placing it in Yellow-Yellow's territory.
1190657
submission
gyrogeerloose writes:
Steven Hawking unveiled an unsettling clock in Cambridge on Friday. Designed by John Tayor--a British horologist and inventor whose thermostatic switch is incorporated in millions of electric appliance worldwide--the clock was conceived as a tribute to another British inventor, John Harrison. Harrison invented the grasshopper escapementin the early 18th Century, which resulted in extremely accurate mechanical time keeping and was instrumental in solving the "Longitude Problem." Tayor's clock, which in entirely mechanical in operation but has no hands, uses a fearsome-looking "demon grasshopper" as its escapement. "I [...] wanted to depict that time is a destroyer — once a minute is gone you can't get it back" Taylor said. "That's why my grasshopper is not a Disney character. He is a ferocious beast that over the seconds has his tongue lolling out, his jaws opening, then on the 59th second he gulps down time."
It also (purposely) only tells correct time once every five minutes. An excellent video of the clock in action, with an explanation of it's workings by it's inventor, is available on YouTube.
