jfruhlinger writes “Much of Intel’s story of the past few years has involved its so far fruitless attempts to break into the smartphone and tablet market. But as it keeps trying, it may find competition on its home turf: Qualcomm, which makes many of the ARM-based chips in those smartphones and tablets, wants to make ...
smitty777 writes “Rick Falkvinge, better known as the leader for Sweden’s Pirate Party, recommends doing away with copyright laws since no one is following them anyway. FTA: ‘…he uses examples from the buttonmakers guild in 1600s France to justify eliminating the five major parts of copyright law today. The first two are cover duplication and ...
CNET reports (citing this BBC video account) that some aircraft engineers in Australia are concerned about small cracks that have appeared on the wing ribs of some Airbus A380 airplanes, a report says. They’re calling for the whole fleet to be grounded, but Airbus says the cracks are harmless. Read more of this story at ...
theodp writes “New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced his intention to take a coding class in 2012 via Twitter (‘My New Year’s resolution is to learn to code with Codecademy in 2012! Join me.’). So, is this just a PR coup for Codeacademy, or could EE grad (Johns Hopkins, ’64) Bloomberg — who ...
An anonymous reader writes “Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray recently crashed his Ford Crown Victoria while reportedly traveling 108 mph. The car was pretty much shredded, but Murray walked away without major injuries. According to data from the car’s black box, Murray and the Crown Vic experienced the equivalent of 40 gravities during the crash. ...
hypnosec writes “Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series, which was in dormant state until now, will see a re-launch this spring and that too for free. The name of this series will be simply Flight, and players will have free access to the digital sky with this simulator. In other words, it will be available as a ...
New submitter davidshenba sends this quote from the BBC: “U.S. researchers have created silkworms that are genetically modified to spin much stronger silk (abstract). In weight-for-weight terms, spider silk is stronger than steel. … Researchers have been trying to reproduce such silk for decades. But it is unfeasible to ‘farm’ spiders for the commercial production ...
Sir Mal Fet writes “In a very polemic move by the Spanish parliament, the infamous ‘Sinde’ law, already discussed here, was implemented on December 31st. Albeit modified from their original version, the law will allow the Spanish government to request ISPs to summary close a website due to copyright infringment (English translation). If the ISP ...
itwbennett writes “It’s no surprise that China’s internet-using population is growing fast. And so it’s also no surprise that the country is planning to build new data centers by the dozen. What is surprising, at least to those of us who expect to read stories about widespread pollution in China, is that China is working ...
NASA’s twin-craft GRAIL mission, launched way back in September (more information here), has successfully reached its destination. Grail-A has now entered lunar orbit; GRAIL-B is expected to enter lunar orbit tomorrow. Read more of this story at Slashdot. Slashdot ...
judgecorp writes “Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron will get a personalised iPad app to help him run the country. The ‘government dashboard’ will include health waiting list figures, crime statistics, economic statistics and a real-time news feed. Cameron is a committed Apple user — but British members of Parliament have only been allowed iPads in ...
kaptink writes “One of the great grandmasters of space, time and the history of our existence is seeking an assistant to help develop and maintain the electronic speech system that allows him to communicate his vision of the universe. An informal job ad posted on Stephen’s website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready ...
First time accepted submitter porsche911 writes “It looks like the NYTimes have been hacked and a large number of subscribers spammed with messages about cancellation of their service. The phone system is overwhelmed as well. The Times is currently saying the email is a fake, but that raises other worries. They were one of the ...
It’s a rumor that goes back years (here’s one example from this summer) that Apple is planning to produce dedicated TV sets branded with its own name; the main question seems to be when. DigiTimes (hat tip to CNet) is reporting that component-maker sources say that Apple has begun the process by ordering parts that ...
First time accepted submitter Ethanol-fueled writes “Most of the surveillance cameras installed downtown and operated by the LAPD have not been working for two years, according to interviews and records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. Many of those broke and were never repaired, and six cameras allocated to the Little Tokyo section weren’t even ...
New submitter ptmartin01 writes “The unused spectrum now assigned to television broadcast has been made available for public use by the FCC. This is going to be used for wireless applications (PDF) with implications that it will generate as much investment as the previous Wi-Fi spectrum. It also happens to be the last available spectrum ...
An anonymous reader writes “The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published the new specifications for the C programming language. The standard is known unofficially as C1X and was published officially as ISO/IEC 9899:2011. It provides greater compatibility with the C++ language and adds new features to C (as indicated in the draft).” Read more ...
redletterdave writes “Website hosting company GoDaddy has officially voiced its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Bill in 2012, which is designed to thwart movie and music piracy on the Internet by empowering copyright holders to effectively shut down websites or online services found with infringing material. If passed, the U.S. government could ...
1sockchuck writes “A new data center project in Norway plans to use a fjord-powered cooling system, drawing cold water from an adjacent fjord to cool data halls. The fjord provides a ready supply of water at 8 degrees C (46 degrees F), eliminating the need for an energy-hungry chiller. The Green Mountain Data Center joins ...
SharkLaser writes “The security of Android devices has come under scrutiny in recent months. Android Market has been plagued with a number of trojaned apps, and researchers have identified various root exploits and permission leaks that can be exploited, for example, to send premium rate SMSs. Now researcher Thomas Cannon of ViaForensics is demonstrating a ...