misterjymm - Slashdot User

Smartphone Kill-Switch Could Save Consumers $2.6 Billion 218

Posted by samzenpus on Monday March 31, 2014 @10:57AM from the kill-it dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "Creighton University professor William Duckworth has released a report finding that kill-switch technology that remotely makes a stolen smartphone useless could save American consumers up to $2.6 billion per year — mostly from reduced insurance premiums. Duckworth estimated that Americans currently spend around $580 million replacing stolen phones each year and $4.8 billion paying for handset insurance. If a kill-switch led to a sharp reduction in theft of phones, most of the $580 million spent on replacing stolen phones would be saved. And a further $2 billion in savings could be realized by switching to cheaper insurance plans that don't cover theft."

62% of 16 To 24-Year-Olds Prefer Printed Books Over eBooks 331

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @03:03PM from the if-i-can't-throw-my-book-at-somebody-what's-the-point-of-owning-it dept.

assertation writes "According to The Guardian, 62% of readers between the age of 16 and 24 prefer physical copies of books over ebooks. Reasons given were the feel of 'real books,' a perceived unfairly high cost for eBooks, and the ease of sharing printed books. 'On questions of ebook pricing, 28% think that ebooks should be half their current price, while just 8% say that ebook pricing is right.' The preference for physical copies was in contrast to other forms of media, such as games, movies, and music, where a majority preferred the digital version."

New Headphones Generate Sound With Carbon Nanotubes 102

Posted by Unknown Lamer on Monday September 30, 2013 @06:44PM from the is-my-poster-talking-to-me dept.

MTorrice writes "A new type of headphone heats up carbon nanotubes to crank out tunes. The tiny speaker doesn't rely on moving parts and instead produces sound through the thermoacoustic effect. When an alternating current passes through the nanotubes, the material heats and cools the air around it; as the air warms, it expands, and as it cools, it contracts. This expansion and contraction creates sound waves. The new nanotube speaker could be manufactured at low cost in the same facilities used to make computer chips, the researchers say." And it exists in the real world: "The Tsinghua researchers integrated these thermoacoustic chips into a pair of earbud headphones and connected them to a computer to play music from videos and sound files. They’ve used the headphones to play music for about a year without significant signs of wear, Yang says. According to him, this is the first thermoacoustic device to be integrated with commercial electronics and used to play music."

A 'Radical Manifesto' For Computer Teaching In English Schools 108

Posted by timothy on Sunday April 01, 2012 @05:23AM from the it-clicks-the-mouse-or-else-it-gets-the-hose-again dept.

00_NOP writes "Everybody (or almost everybody) in England agrees that computing teaching to kids in high school is broken. In response the government promised a radical overhaul and a new curriculum. But then last week it was discovered the government had scrapped the bit of the education department that would develop any such curriculum. Not to be deterred, John Naughton, the Cambridge University academic who wrote the Short History of the Future, has now published his own 'radical' manifesto on how computing should be taught."

Ask Slashdot: Building an Assistive Reading Device? 134

Posted by timothy on Monday November 14, 2011 @07:46PM from the start-with-the-C3P0-and-subtract-parts dept.

RulerOf writes "A few years ago, my girlfriend's grandfather was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration. Ever since, he has had progressively more trouble with daily activities. While his wife and family are able to help him with most things, at the age of 88 and without many living friends left, he dearly misses the ability to read printed text. He was able to get by for some time with magnifying glasses and other basic aids but now even those do not help. Recently, a local clinic which specializes in treatment for low-sight and blind individuals made him aware of and showed him several assistive reading devices that successfully allowed him to read. He mentioned this to his family members, and when I was told about it, I thought that these devices sounded like they were not much more than a camera attached to an LCD monitor or television with a little bit of special software thrown into the mix." (Read on below for more.)

Comment Re:How is this exclusive to gaming? (Score 1) 342

by misterjymm on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @10:41PM (#36174232) Attached to: <em>Fable III</em> Dev: Used Game Sales More Costly Than Piracy

The key difference is depreciation. If you buy a used couch, you also get all the baggage created with time. Stains, worn fabric, whatever. You buy a used copy of a digital product, regardless of age or use, and you get exactly the same product as if you purchased it new. So where there is a large incentive to buy a new couch and the corresponding new qualities, there is no similar incentive to avoid used video game titles. This is exactly why EA games have been including single use codes for certain launch content, and offering the same content at an inflated price to used buyers. It creates the incentive to purchase new that is already built in to most other industries.

Man Uses Drake Equation To Explain Girlfriend Woes 538

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 13, 2010 @07:57PM from the less-math-more-social-science dept.

artemis67 writes "A man studying in London has taken a mathematical equation that predicts the possibility of alien life in the universe to explain why he can't find a girlfriend. Peter Backus, a native of Seattle and PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, near London, in his paper, 'Why I don't have a girlfriend: An application of the Drake Equation to love in the UK,' used math to estimate the number of potential girlfriends in the UK. In describing the paper on the university Web site he wrote 'the results are not encouraging. The probability of finding love in the UK is only about 100 times better than the probability of finding intelligent life in our galaxy.'"

Map Editor, Photoshop Tool Coming To Braid 44

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @10:41PM from the all-things-in-time dept.

Erik J writes "Braid creator Jonathon Blow has revealed that a map editor and image tool will be added to the popular puzzle game. First, though, Braid will receive a patch to fix some issues players have reported. Blow explains: 'After I get a new version out in a few days that fixes the problems some people are having, and when more people have played/finished the game, I am going to post some documentation for the editor. The way it works is you can make levels with the editor (up to a full game, potentially) and run that with -universe later... also a tool will be released that lets you take Photoshop files and import them into the game, if you want to put new graphics in your levels.' It is unclear if these capabilities are coming only to PC or to the Xbox 360 version as well."

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