Obama's anti-trust guy thinks Google has some monopoly in them, and now so does Europe. If you remember back just a few years, you'll recall that Europe was the big battleground that Microsoft had to fight in trying to prove that it wasn't a monopoly, so this could be the start of some legal bad-news for Google. Or, it could turn out to be nothing, as it's just a probe. [Business Insider]
Oh, FFSMS. After countless tests showing them useless, articles about them being useless, challenges from Randi and others to prove they are not useless, and the company head arrested for suspicion of fraud because they’re useless, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki has ordered that the (useless) magic wand dowsing rod bomb-sniffers should still be utilized.
FFSMS.
At least al-Maliki wanted them tested. Still. This angers me:
The survey, ordered by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, found the British device, known as ADE651, generally worked. However some of the gadgets, found to be ineffective, would be replaced.
A government spokesman later said only 50% of the devices worked.
"Replaced?" With what, fairy dust? Unicorn horns? And I’d love to know how those tests were done. I bet it would’ve been cheaper to send a dozen of the wands to Randi and let him take a look. And if they did work, not only would Iraq get the wands back, but Randi would include a check for a million bucks which they could use to buy more of the kits.
I have to say, it’s been a good year for skeptics, but we clearly have a long way to go. Thailand and Iraq are both relying on provably worthless junk to find bombs, and what will happen instead is that those bombs will find people. Hundreds of them, thousands. That’s what happens when we turn their backs on reality and instead rely on superstition and antiscience. It’s way too late in this world to do such a thing, and when people in power do it, a lot of lives will be lost.
Doing the right thing by exposing a company's shoddy product, customer service, or iffy privacy policy can have consequences. Our friends at Boing Boing just finished dealing with MagicJack and a groundless defamation suit because they were brutally honest.
You can read a full account of the events along with the post that started it all over at Boing Boing, but the ordeal boils down to this:
Boing Boing posted about MagicJack's "terms of service-which include the right to analyze customers' calls-and various iffy characteristics of its website" in April of 2008. According to Robert Beschizza:
The post was titled "MagicJack's EULA says it will spy on you and force you into arbitration." This EULA, or End-User Licensing Agreement, concerns what subscribers must agree to in order to use the service. I wrote that MagicJack's allows it to target ads at users based on their calls, was not linked to from its homepage or at sign-up, and has its users waive the right to sue in court. I also wrote that that MagicJack's website contained a visitor counter that incremented automatically; and that the website claimed to be able to detect MagicJacks, reporting that "Your MagicJack is functioning properly" even when none are present.
He also notes that "the post didn't criticize the service or the gadget itself, which works very well."
In March 2009, Boing Boing was notified that MagicJack was filing suit because "these statements were false, misleading, and had irreparably harmed MagicJack's reputation by exposing it to 'hate, ridicule and obloquy.'"
A great deal of back-and-forth followed until the suit was finally dismissed and MagicJack was ordered to pay Boing Boing "more than $50,000 in legal costs."
We may think that all's well that ends well and that the truth prevailed, but it took a great deal of time and legal costs. Perhaps a site smaller than Boing Boing could not have handled the effects of a defamation suit like this—justified or not—and would've given in to a company's demands. And that's more terrifying than some wonky EULA. [Boing Boing]
Everyone, including Apple, knows that the next logical step in making the Apple TV set-top product is embedding that technology into a TV. It'd be like all the Korean TV manufacturers putting Netflix in theirs. But Apple says no.
COO Tim Cook says:
Today, the go-to-market model for Apple TV is very difficult. Because it would seem that that go-to-market model would lead to the TV. And we have no interest in being in the TV market.
Which leaves them in a weird limbo, because they don't want to move forward, yet they don't want to discontinue the product.
...There's people — and I'm one of those — that they're avid Apple TV users, and so, because their gut says something there, we're continuing to invest in this. But today it's just a hobby.
Unfortunately in business, you've got the mindset that if you're not moving forward you're falling behind, so if they can't figure out what to do with the Apple TV brand, they might just kill it altogether rather than continue to support it without much new development. [Business Insider]
If you have a pair of hard-soled shoes, two pressure-sensitive LED tiles, and some baby mama drama from which you need to extricate yourself, let this Instructable be your guide and recreate the special-FX steps from Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."
Admittedly, I'm not sure how easy it would be to do any sort of dancing with a gigantic LED tile attached to each foot. But when you're standing still, and being viewed from the knee down, you will be the spitting image of the King of Pop.
The Instructable covers all the bases, from assembling the light-up squares to spray-painting the shoes just so. Be forewarned, though, these imitation shoes will make you just as irresistible to women as Jackson was (circa 1983):
You will get a lot of attention from people, people will dance around you on the dance floor, and you will feel a bit shallow, but you love it!
The best chat up line possible is to ask someone to join you on your dance floor so they stand/dance on your tiles, which puts them basically on top of you. Enjoy! Do not use these shoes for evil!
So there it is, plain and simple: don't go around breaking young girls' hearts. [Instructables]
Hi guys can anyone help me construct a DAC curve?! Any Ebooks or site to show mestep by step detail procedure.
My email add is spirochete61@yahoo.com
Thanks
Gran Varietà Futurista
una produzione del Piccolo Teatro di Catania, affidata alla regia sapiente di Gianni Salvo
February 23-28, 2010
Teatro Erba di Torino
di Marinetti, Petrolini ed altri
con
TIZIANA BELLASSAI
GIUSEPPE CARBONE
NICOLA ALBERTO OROFINO
ANNA PASSANISI
GIANNI SALVO
musiche originali
Giuseppe Arezzo
scene e costumi
Oriana Sessa
“We would like to report our observations upon a new gastrointestinal syndrome, which we shall refer to by the acronym HAFE (high altitude flatus expulsion). This phenomenon was most recently witnessed by us during an expedition in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, with similar experiences during excursions past. The syndrome is strictly associated with ascent, and is characterized by an increase in both the volume and the frequency of the passage of flatus, which spontaneously occurs while climbing to altitudes of 11,000 feet or greater. The eructations (known to veteran back-packers as “Rocky Mountain barking spiders”) do not appear to vary with exercise, but may well be closely linked to diet. The fact that the syndrome invariably abated on descent leads us to postulate a mechanism whereby the victim is afflicted by the expansion of colonic gas at the decreased atmospheric pressure of high altitude. This is somewhat analogous to the rapid intravascular expansion of nitrogen which afflicts deep-sea divers and triggers decompression illness. While not as catastrophic as barotrauma nor as debilitating as HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema), HAFE nonetheless represents a significant inconvenience to those who prefer to hike in company.”
Thanks to John for today’s ROFL!
Photo: flickr/.hln.
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Every time I see any Cylon-themed object, I get nostalgia of those perfect nights watching the series in bed, and I want to see it again. This Cylon Teddy Bear is the last straw. Starbuck, here I go. [Instructables]
I have three reactions to this news:
1. On balance, antitrust policy does more harm than good and should therefore be repealed. Then the insurance exemption would be moot.
2. If we have an antitrust policy, I see no good argument for exempting the insurance industry.
3. I cannot figure out what health insurers are currently doing that violates the antitrust laws. So repeal of the exemption would make no difference.
Am I misssing something here?
Thank you for reading this post, I hope that you will pass it on to anyone in your community who would be a good match.
We are looking for a Senior Mechanical engineer who has led teams and loves complex Mechanical Design.
This is a full time/permanent position located in the San Francisco a
During a Goldman Sachs tech conference today, Apple COO Tim Cook revealed Apple's secret to success: High standards, and a low tolerance for half-assed proposals. Except, that wasn't the question.
Tim was responding to a question about complacency and hubris—specifically, how a company that's been right on so many big issues can avoid it, and stay clearheaded. Said Tim:
Yeah, that is a great question. The executive team of the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world, because at the end of the day—I know it's a cliche—but people are our most important asset by far, and it's people that deliver innovation, which is key to us. And so what else do we do other than that? Well, we are the most focused company that I know of, or have read of, or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day; we say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number, so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose, so that we can deliver the best products in the world. In fact, the table that each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, and yet Apple's revenue last year was over $40bn. I think the only other company that could say that is an oil company.
And that is not from just saying "yes" to the right product which gets a lot of focus—it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think that this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris that you talk about, that happens to companies that are successful but then decide that their sole role in life is to get bigger, and they start adding this and that and this and that, I can tell you the management team of Apple would never let that happen. That's not what we're about. So, focus on people, and ensuring that it's a small list of things to work on and putting all of our wood behind those things, that's the magic behind us.
Question: How do you avoid hubris, Apple?
Answer: WE'RE JUST THAT GOOD. [SAI]
I signed up to be emailed each day a new scientist, engineer, or inventor was added to the list for Black History Month. I have only recieved one or two. Is there a link to a list of all the posts that have been made?
Thanks
Ray Jenkins
Skeptic and journalist Simon Singh appeared before the High Court today in a hearing about accusations of libel. This case is critical for journalism, medicine, science, and skepticism, and you can get the background info on it in an earlier post I wrote. But basically, Simon was sued by the British Chiropractic Association over an article he wrote in The Guardian, and Simon has appealed, which is what today’s case was about.
His lawyer and that of the BCA presented their cases in front of three judges. According to reports by Jack of Kent and Crispian Jago (NSFW language in the latter), things went pretty well, though of course we can’t know until the judges actually rule. According to both reports, though, the judges seemed far more sympathetic to Simon’s arguments than to the BCA’s.
However, as Jack of Kent wrote:
Nonetheless, Simon may still lose: the Court of Appeal may decide that even if the High Court ruling is incorrect, it is not so incorrect that they should disturb the judgment.
In other words, it seems that they may disagree with the original ruling, but may feel it wasn’t so wrong that it’s worth the effort to overturn.
I of course hope they do. And once this case is won, we can then move on to the far, far bigger picture: reforming the UK’s horrible and draconian libel laws, which are unfair, and I think reasonable to characterize as backward and medieval. The way it’s set up, the burden of proof is on the accused to show what they said was not libel, rather than on the accuser to show that it is libel. That’s ridiculous, and what it winds up doing is making it hard for journalists to fairly write about many issues, because they may be scared of being sued and having to spend literally millions of dollars in defense.
That’s why I strongly support the reform effort.
I’ll be keeping my eyes on this, and you can stay on it as well by checking in on the blogs of Jack of Kent and Crispian Jago as well.
This inflatable sleeping coat would be perfect for the millions of homeless people in the world—though as it's but a concept, the wearable sleeping bag won't be warming anyone up anytime soon, sadly. [Reddot via LikeCool]
1998 dodge ram 2500 cummins batteries will drain shortly after starting truck, juss replaced alternator and both batteries.
Forgetting an umbrella or the location of a parking spot may be annoying, but scientists have suggested that for healthy brains to function well, they need to forget. By forgetting, scientists say, the brain makes space for new memories. In an intriguing breakthrough, researchers from the United States and China have identified the protein responsible for forgetting in fruit flies. By tweaking a protein called Rac, researchers were able to speed up and slow down the erasure of painful memories [New Scientist]. The findings were published in the journal Cell.
Scientists have been unable to pinpoint why people forget. Some have suggested that new memories are ephemeral and vanish over time, while others thought that interference caused earlier short-term memories to be overridden as new information comes in [Science Daily]. While both of these notions seem to suggest that forgetting is a passive mechanism, the new study suggests that forgetting is far more active, and that Rac works to inhibit the formation of more long-term memories.
The scientists studied fruit flies that were exposed to two fly-repellent odors, the second of which came with an electric shock. The flies quickly learned to head to the odor that didn’t cause them pain. Then the scientists switched the set-up, linking the first odor to the shock instead. Regular flies quickly noted the change, discarding the old memory of which odor came with a shock and learning to head towards the now-safe second odor. But when the experiment was repeated after the memory-eroding protein [Rac] was blocked, there was utter confusion. The flies had not erased their first memory, and had made a second memory. Unable to pick which odor to fly toward, they zigzagged back and forth [The New York Times].
The researchers determined that when Rac was switched on, newly formed memories faded fast, allowing new memories to come in and solidify. When Rac was switched off in the fruit flies, new memories lingered longer, extending from the normal limit of just a few hours to more than a day.
The scientists next hope to test the effects of meddling with the proteins in mice. If this mechanism holds true in mammals, it could shed light on the molecular basis of forgetting in humans [New Scientist], as humans also have the Rac protein. The researchers suggest that the identification of this protein could potentially help create techniques to enhance cherished memories or to forget painful episodes, which could be a boon to those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Until now approaches to erasing unwanted memories have largely focused on interfering with the laying-down of memories, rather than our natural ability to forget [New Scientist].
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Image: flickr / Image Editor
The iPhone 3.2 Beta 3 SDK documentation confirmed that developing OpenGL ES on the iPad is the same as developing OpenGL ES on other iPhone devices, using the "same basic capabilities as other SGX devices." We've been saying that the iPad was going to use the same basic chip, a PowerVR SGX, for a while now, both for compatibility reasons and because it really is just a big iPod Touch. But, to be fair, the chip is going to be newer than the ones found in those other devices, so it'll be faster. Most likely. [Macrumors]
