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Comment Where is the Android or IPhone version? (Score 1) 313

by mhortman (#33888384) Attached to: Casio Unveils New Color Screen Graphing Calculator
My son was required to purchase one of the N-Spire calculators, and I thought I would have been more than happy to pay $30-$50.00 bucks for an Android or iPhone version that had the same functionality. There are some fabulous calculators on the Android, but none that I have see that compare to this N-Spire devices. What a fabulous way to save money if they had the software version of this. Oh well, one day...

Tracking Thieves With 'Find my iPhone' 424

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
An anonymous reader wrote in to say "A friend of mine who just got an iPhone 3GS and has Mobile Me just used the "Find my iPhone" feature to track down his lost and subsequently stolen iPhone. This story involves three nerds wandering sketchy streets with a MacBook, and ends with a confrontation at a bus stop."
The Courts

$1.9 Million Award In Thomas Case Raises Constitutional Questions 439

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the copyright-is-out-of-control dept.
Techdirt points out that the EFF is examining the constitutionality of the recent $1.9 million verdict awarded in favor of the RIAA against Jammie Thomas. While on the surface it may seem that this excessive award should be easy to overturn since grossly excessive punitive damage awards are considered to violate the Due Process clause of the US Constitution, the Supreme Court seems to have been ignoring precedent and upholding copyright's importance at any cost. "Given the size of the statutory damages award, Ms. Thomas-Rasset's legal team will likely be seriously considering a constitutional challenge to the verdict. A large and disproportionate damage award like this raises at least two potential constitutional concerns. First, the Supreme Court has made it clear that 'grossly excessive' punitive damage awards (e.g., $2 million award against BMW for selling a repainted BMW as 'new') violate the Due Process clause of the US Constitution. In evaluating whether an award 'grossly excessive,' courts evaluate three criteria: 1) the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's actions, 2) the disparity between the harm to the plaintiff and the punitive award, and 3) the similarity or difference between the punitive award and civil penalties authorized or imposed in comparable situations. Does a $1.92 million award for sharing 24 songs cross the line into 'grossly excessive?' And do these Due Process limitations apply differently to statutory damages than to punitive damages? These are questions that the court will have to decide if the issue is raised by Ms. Thomas-Rasset's attorneys."
Power

G.M. Opens Its Own Battery Research Laboratory 173

Posted by timothy from the under-pressure dept.
Al writes "Bankrupt automaker G.M. has taken a significant step towards reinventing itself by opening a battery laboratory in Michigan on a site that once churned out internal combustion engines. The new facility lets G.M. engineers simulate all kinds of conditions to determine how long batteries will last once they're inside its vehicles. Battery packs are charged and discharged while being subjected to high and low temperatures as well as extremes of humidity. Engineers can also simulate different altitudes by placing the packs in barometric chambers. The facility has also been designed so that engineers located in New York and Germany and at the University of Michigan can perform experiments remotely. Despite its financial troubles, G.M. has committed to producing the Volt and is already working on second- and third-generation battery technology at the new lab."
The Courts

Security Firms Fined Over Never-Ending Subscriptions 194

Posted by timothy from the crooks-v.-thieves- dept.
Barence writes "'Security firms Symantec and McAfee have both agreed to pay $375,000 to US authorities after they automatically renewed consumers' subscriptions without their consent.' The two companies were reported to the New York Attorney General after people complained that their credit cards were being charged without their consent. The investigators found that information about the auto-renewals was hidden at the bottom of long web pages or buried in the EULA."
Science

First Acoustic Black Hole Created 165

Posted by Soulskill from the for-music-that-really-sucks dept.
KentuckyFC writes "One of the many curious properties of Bose Einstein Condensates (BECs) is that the flow of sound through them is governed by the same equations that describe how light is bent by a gravitational field. Now, a group of Israeli physicists have exploited this idea to create an acoustic black hole in a BEC. The team created a supersonic flow of atoms within the BEC, a flow that prevents any phonon caught in it from making headway. The region where the flow changes from subsonic to supersonic is an event horizon, because any phonon unlucky enough to stray into the supersonic region can never escape. The real prize is not the acoustic black hole itself but what it makes possible: the first observation of Hawking radiation. Quantum mechanics predicts that pairs of phonons with opposite momentum ought to be constantly springing in and out of existence in a BEC. Were one of the pair to stray across the event horizon into the supersonic region, it could never escape. However, the other would be free to go on its way. This stream of phononic radiation away from an acoustic black hole would be the first observation of Hawking radiation. The team hasn't gotten that far yet, but it can't be long now before either they or their numerous competitors make this leap."
Image

Anti-Piracy Dog Uncovers Huge Cache of Discs 283

Posted by samzenpus from the follow-your-nose dept.
sgt scrub writes "I've never thought about sniffing my CDs before buying them but that is all about to change. According to this Yahoo! news article, dogs can be trained to tell the difference between a legit copy of a DVD and one from those pesky pirates. From the article, 'A DVD-sniffing anti-piracy dog named Paddy has uncovered a huge cache of 35,000 discs in Malaysian warehouses, many destined for export to Singapore, industry officials said on Wednesday. Paddy was given to Malaysia by the MPA to help close down piracy syndicates, which churn out vast quantities of illegal DVDs. The dog is specially trained to detect chemicals in the discs.'" We ran a story about anti-piracy dogs being trained in Ireland a few years ago.
The Courts

FTC Shuts Down Calif. ISP For Botnets, Child Porn 224

Posted by timothy from the child-porn-world-needs-more-suicides dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Federal Trade Commission has convinced a federal judge to pull the plug on a 3FN.net, a.k.a. 'Pricewert LLC,' a Northern California based hosting provider. The FTC alleges that 3FN/Pricewert was directly involved in setting up spam-spewing botnets, among other illegal activities, the Washington Post's Security Fix Blog writes. From the story: 'Pricewert hosts very little legitimate content and vast quantities of illegal, malicious, and harmful content, including child pornography, botnet command and control servers, spyware, viruses, trojans, phishing related sites, illegal online pharmacies, investment and other Web-based scams, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.' The story quotes a former Justice Dept. expert saying the FTC action may be a smoke screen for a larger criminal investigation by the federal government in 3FN's activities."

Comment Re:Racecars? (Score 1) 196

by mhortman (#28108807) Attached to: Green GT's All-Electric Supercar Unveiled
That is my point, the substation which would normally handle Air Conditioners, and lights galore would be able to handle charging these things easily during the night because the normal daily usage does not happen at night although the supply is still present.

Comment Re:Racecars? (Score 1) 196

by mhortman (#28101669) Attached to: Green GT's All-Electric Supercar Unveiled

Why not develop a car normal people will actually buy and use? This is interesting but I don't think we have the luxury of trickle-down innovation at this point

I disagree. We don't have the luxury of dumping millions of ill-thought out poorly designed cars on the market without adequate testing to ensure they won't all be clogging out junk yards with huge disposal problems of toxic battery components due to premature failure.

We do NOT have an electrical grid that can support all the new electric cars you would love to see. Sorry, its just not there, and not likely to be there for several decades.

We must go slowly on grid-charged cars until we can double our electrical generation capacity, and beef up the distribrution system.

This is one of the great things about electric cars is that we do have the grid. See electricity is cheaper at night because a.) There is less demand. b.) The supply in most places way surpasses the demand at night because you cannot shut down a coal fired power plant for night time hours. So electric companies are now trying to figure out how to charge one daytime rate, and one much cheaper nighttime rate.
Privacy

"Anonymous" Hacks Palin's Private Email 1733

Posted by kdawson from the should-have-used-hushmail dept.
netbuzz writes "'Anonymous,' best known for its jousts with Scientology, has apparently hacked Sarah Palin's private Yahoo email account. Contents, including sample emails, an index, and family photos, have been posted by Wikileaks, which calls them evidence that the GOP vice presidential candidate has improperly used private email to shield government business from public scrutiny." Note that there is no easy way to tell if the material on Wikileaks is genuine or a hoax. Update by J : Genuine.

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