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Comment My phone is my lifeline (Score 1) 445

As a contractor, I spend most of my busy days on my desk phone in conference calls with people from all over the country. We also use various live-meeting tools to share documents and presentations, but for all the audio, there's few things as reliable and clear as a wired telephone system. Most times the bad connections come from people "on-the-go" calling in from their cell phone.

For inter-office communication it depends on the immediacy. If a coworker is working from home, I'll drop them an IM or an email if it's not urgent. Otherwise, I may give them a call. If they're in the office, I'll usually just walk over to their desk and ask. It also helps I sit in a 10 foot radius of my project team.

Our phones are also of the VOIP type which means I can forward my desk phone to my cell when I work from home and still utilize all its features.
Data Storage

Submission + - Amazon's Glacier Offers Archival Storage in the Cloud (slashdot.org)

Nerval's Lobster writes: "Amazon is expanding its reach into the low-cost, high-durability archival storage market with the newly announced Glacier.

While Glacier allows companies to transfer their data-archiving duties to the cloud—a potentially money-saving boon for many a budget-squeezed organization—the service comes with some caveats. Its cost structure and slow speed of data retrieval make it best suited for data that needs to be accessed infrequently, such as years-old legal records and research data.

If that sounds quite a bit like Amazon Simple Storage Service, otherwise known as Amazon S3, you’d be correct. Both Amazon S3 and Glacier have been designed to store and retrieve data from anywhere with a Web connection. However, Amazon S3—“designed to make Web-scale computing easier for developers,” according to the company—is meant for rapid data retrieval; contrast that with a Glacier data-retrieval request (referred to as a “job”), where it can take between 3 and 5 hours before it’s ready for downloading."

Comment Try, try again... (Score 3, Interesting) 442

While I want to think that we could be on the verge of some new physics discoveries... I have my doubts. It very likely could be that OPERA is still using a flawed method and thus seeing flawed results.

That being said, if and when other (independent) groups can verify this claim, that will be an exciting day.

Comment Android Phone Manufacturers (Score 2) 770

A big issue is Android phone manufacturers pump out all different "levels" of phones to reach as many people as possible. Apple makes one phone (two or three if you wanna get picky) and reaches as many people as possible with that.

In other words with Android you have: HTC, Motorola, Samsung each producing 5+ models per year resulting in 15+ different Android phones for a current year. When my HTC EVO 4G was brand new, it was $200 but I could have purchased the HTC Hero for less. However, I knew that in a year or so, that Hero would be so old and out-dated that it wouldn't be worth my time and money. I forked over the extra cash knowing I was buying a phone that would live much longer.

With Apple you have one. They release roughly one phone per year. If you wan an "Apple phone" you buy the most recent or maybe a version behind, but really, who's buying the iPhone 4 right now when you can get the 4s?

The problem people get into is they buy Android phones that are already on their way out. The EVO is still available from Sprint, but there is no way I would buy that now. It's substantially cheaper than any other Android phone Sprint offers (maybe with the exception of a few free with contract options) but why would I buy a phone that's going on two years old?

Android manufacturers need to step up their game and stop pumping out as many different phones as they can. Focus that "creative" energy into developing a couple powerful and sharp phones per year. I've had no issues with my HTC phone, but with how fragmented the HTC line-up is currently, I don't think I even know what the "best" available phone they offer is... I'll likely be going to the Galaxy Nexus assuming it comes to Sprint.

Comment Mouse! (Score 1) 522

When I forked over the cash and bought a Logitech G5 laser mouse for my laptop it blew using the touchpad out of the water! Custom sensitivities, weighting, extreme durability (over 5 years of use and still going strong)... easily the best $50 I've ever spent on a computer upgrade in terms of longevity and functionality boost.

Comment Re:Cross-posting/cross-reading (Score 1) 519

I'd stick to Google+ instead of Facebook if I could read and respond to Facebook from Google+.

That was primarily my issue. I enjoy posting photos/tweeting about various events but when I have to share this information on 2-3 separate services, it becomes a chore. The beauty of Twitter is its simplicity.

The barrier to Google+ was that people want to be noticed. Nobody wants to post something and see no "Likes" or "+1's". On Facebook, when you have 1000+ friends, you're bound to get a few comments or "Likes" on a post. On Google+ when you have 65 connections, it's far less likely (and nobody checks it regularly to begin with).

Google+ just wasn't revolutionary enough to draw a crowd.

Facebook

Submission + - Google+ loses 60% of active users (theinquirer.net) 2

tech4 writes: Despite users curiosity around Google+, it seems like most Google+ users just wanted to see the platform and then returned to Facebook. 'Google has lost over 60 per cent of its active users on its social network Google+, according to a report by Chitika Insights, raising questions about how well it is doing against its rival, Facebook. Despite the clear interest in an alternative to Facebook, it does not appear that the people joining are staying around and actively using the web site. Google's problem is not getting users in the first place, it seems, but rather keeping them after they have arrived. For now it appears that a lot of users are merely curious about Google+, but return to the tried and tested format of Facebook when the lustre fades. The problem is that Facebook is not going to rest on its laurels while Google attempts to get the advantage. Already it has added features inspired by Google+, particularly in terms of improving the transparency of its privacy options.'
Security

Submission + - Computer Virus Hits US Drone Fleet (wired.com) 3

Golgafrinchan writes: Quoting from the story:

"A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones. The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system."

Intel

Submission + - Ubuntu Linux Power Usage Remains High (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The significant Linux kernel power regression reported back in April, which ended up being attributed to PCI-E Active State Power Management, is still not resolved even as Ubuntu 11.10 and Fedora 16 approach. Until Linux is able to handle ASPM in a manner more like Windows or the device drivers explicitly set the ASPM flag, users of many modern laptops need to use the "pcie_aspm=force" option to regain much of their battery life. At least a power bug affecting newer Intel hardware with the "energy performance bias" feature has been fixed. There's more information in this LaunchPad bug report and in the latest power consumption testing.

Comment So what you're saying is... (Score 1) 132

This is a very intriguing idea... The question I ask is, is it simply the temperature difference that causes the electricity flow, or does light actually have something to do with it? If it's just the temperature gradient, this could have great potential in places where there is no "sunlight" but there is heat.

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