Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Rise and Fall of Kodak
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the what's-a-film-reel-grandpa dept.
H_Fisher writes"Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times writes with a frank look at the decisions and changes that have led to Kodak's decline from top U.S. photography company to a company whose product is almost irrelevant. He writes: '[Kodak] executives couldn't foresee a future in which film had no role in image capture at all, nor come to grips with the lower profit margins or faster competitive pace of high-tech industries.' He also notes that Kodak's story comes as a cautionary tale to giants like Google and Facebook."
Acupuncture May Ease Severe Nerve Pain Associated With Cancer Treatment, Study Suggests
ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — Acupuncture may help ease the severe nerve pain associated with certain cancer drugs, suggests a small preliminary study published in Acupuncture in Medicine.
'Double Tsunami' Doubled Japan Destruction
ScienceDaily (Dec. 5, 2011) — Researchers have discovered that the destructive tsunami generated by the March 2011 TÅhoku-Oki earthquake was a long-hypothesized "merging tsunami" that doubled in intensity over rugged ocean ridges, amplifying its destructive power before reaching shore.
Scammers Work Around Two-Factor Authentication With Social Engineering
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the duh-you-need-three-factors dept.
mask.of.sanity writes"Thieves have made off with $45k after they intercepted a victim's two factor online banking codes used to verify large transactions. The scammers got the Australian executive's mobile number from his daughter, and work place details from his willing secretary. Armed with this data, they bluffed Vodafone which ported his phone number, meaning the criminals could verify the bank's two factor verification codes generated during their spending spree and the victim never knew a thing."
Aluminum oxide 'egg-carton' could improve quantum dot efficiency
By Terrence O'Brien 
posted Dec 6th 2011 3:22AM
Monday, December 5, 2011
Impatient People Have Lower Credit Scores, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2011) — Is there a psychological reason why people default on their mortgages? A new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people with bad credit scores are more impatient -- more likely to choose immediate rewards rather than wait for a larger reward later.
US Senator Proposes Bill To Eliminate Overtime For IT Workers
Posted by Soulskill
from the us-senator-also-can't-seem-to-get-her-email-anymore dept.
New submitter Talisman writes"Kay Hagan (D) from North Carolina has introduced a bill to the Senate that would eliminate overtime pay for IT workers."The bill is targeted at salaried IT employees and those whose hourly rate is $27.63 or more. It seems comprehensive in its description of what types of IT work qualify — everything from analysis and consulting to design and development to training and testing. The bill even uses "work related to computers" as one of the guidelines.
Unsold PlayBook inventory costs RIM $485 million
Published: 09:01 AM EST (06:01 AM PST)
Research in Motion announced on Friday that its inability to sell PlayBook tablets to consumers has forced the company to take a $485 million charge.
The mostly non-cash inventory provision is yet another bad sign for the PlayBook, which has failed to gain any traction in the tablet market dominated by Apple. Retailers began a fire sale of the touchscreen device last month, slashing as much as $300 off the price of the PlayBook in an effort to move inventory.
The PlayBook sold just a half-million units in the first quarter of availability, but dropped to 250,000 the following quarter. In the third quarter, sales dipped to just 150,000.
However, RIM has reiterated that it is committed to the PlayBook, and the company remarked that deep discounts on the hardware, selling it for as little as $199, have spurred sales.
In addition to poor sales of the PlayBook, RIM warned investors on Friday that it is seeing "lower sell-through and demand" of its products, which will affect not only its third quarter, but also the company's fourth quarter. Accordingly, RIM has lowered its fiscal 2012 earnings per share outlook, as it no longer expects to meet its $5.25 to $6.00 EPS guidance.
The mostly non-cash inventory provision is yet another bad sign for the PlayBook, which has failed to gain any traction in the tablet market dominated by Apple. Retailers began a fire sale of the touchscreen device last month, slashing as much as $300 off the price of the PlayBook in an effort to move inventory.
The PlayBook sold just a half-million units in the first quarter of availability, but dropped to 250,000 the following quarter. In the third quarter, sales dipped to just 150,000.
However, RIM has reiterated that it is committed to the PlayBook, and the company remarked that deep discounts on the hardware, selling it for as little as $199, have spurred sales.
In addition to poor sales of the PlayBook, RIM warned investors on Friday that it is seeing "lower sell-through and demand" of its products, which will affect not only its third quarter, but also the company's fourth quarter. Accordingly, RIM has lowered its fiscal 2012 earnings per share outlook, as it no longer expects to meet its $5.25 to $6.00 EPS guidance.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything
The Android developer who raised the ire of a mobile-phone monitoring company last week is on the attack again, producing a video of how the Carrier IQ software secretly installed on millions of mobile phones reports most everything a user does on a phone.
Though the software is installed on most modern Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut analyzed its workings, revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience — ostensibly so carriers and phone manufacturers can do quality control.
3-D Printer Used to Make Bone-Like Material
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — It looks like bone. It feels like bone. For the most part, it acts like bone.
Abstinence-Only Education Does Not Lead to Abstinent Behavior, Researchers Find
ScienceDaily (Nov. 29, 2011) — States that prescribe abstinence-only sex education programs in public schools have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs, researchers from the University of Georgia have determined.
Is the Time Finally Right For Hybrid Hard Drives?
Posted by Soulskill
from the half-man-half-machine dept.
a_hanso writes"Hard drives that combine a traditional spinning platter for mass storage and solid state flash memory for frequently accessed data have always been an interesting concept. They may be slower than SSDs, but not by much, and they are a lot cheaper gigabyte-for-gigabyte. CNET's Harry McCracken speculates on how soon such drives may become mainstream: 'So why would the new Momentus be more of a mainstream hit than its predecessor? Seagate says that it's 70 percent faster than its earlier hybrid drive and three times quicker than a garden-variety, non-hybrid disk. Its benchmarks for cold boots and application launches show the new drive to be just a few seconds slower than a SSD. Or, in some cases, a few seconds faster. In the end, hybrid drives are compromises, neither as cheap as ordinary drives — you can get a conventional 750GB Momentus for about $150 — nor as fast and energy-efficient as SSDs.'"
Stradivarius violin recreated from CAT scan, 'sounds amazingly similar'
By James Trew posted Nov 30th 2011 6:37AM
NASA CTO Says Help Desks May Disappear
Posted by timothy
from the no-trash-can-therefore-no-trash dept.
Lucas123 writes"NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has placed its data, from photos of Mars to top secret government information, in 10 different public or private clouds. JPL's 5,000 workers have access to that data with any mobile devices they want to use, as long as it has first been secured. Because JPL's and other workforces are becoming more mobile, a help desk as it's known today may soon become unnecessary, according to JPL's IT CTO Tom Soderstrom. 'Have you ever called a help desk for your mobile device? What do you do? Probably, the first you do is Google or Bing it,' he said. 'If you can't get your answer there, you ask your friends who are like you. For us, that's the workgroup.'"
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Verizon details live FiOS TV service for Xbox 360, Kinect controls on tap
By Donald Melanson posted Nov 29th 2011 11:35AM
Microsoft announced back in October that it would be bringing live FiOS TV channels to the Xbox 360 (along with some offerings from Comcast), and Verizon has now finally filled in most of the specifics. As expected, you'll need both a FiOS TV subscription and an Xbox Live Gold membership to access the "select" live channels (up to 26 depending on your TV package), but Verizon is making a special offer available to coincide with the launch. You can get its FiOS Triply Play package including FiOS internet, TV and phone, plus a year of Xbox Live Gold for $89.99 a month if you sign up before January 21st, and Verizon will also throw in the new anniversary edition of Halo. What's more, Verizon has also confirmed that the new service will make use of Kinect voice and gesture controls, and it's accepting orders for the new bundle package right now -- the service itself will be available next month.
Europe's Largest IT Company To Ban Internal Email
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the 140-characters-or-die dept.
Hugh Pickens writes writes"Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos, Europe's Largest IT Company, wants a 'zero email' policy to be in place in 18 months, arguing that only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day on average turn out to be useful, and that staff spend between 5-20 hours handling emails every week. 'The email is no longer the appropriate (communication) tool,' says Breton. 'The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face (in the future). It is time to think differently.' Instead Breton wants staff at Atos to use chat-type collaborative services inspired by social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter as surveys show that the younger generation have already all but scrapped email, with only 11 per cent of 11 to 19 year-olds using it. For his part Breton hasn't sent a work email in three years. 'If people want to talk to me, they can come and visit me, call or send me a text message. Emails cannot replace the spoken word.'"
Tower To Be Built By Flying Robots
Posted by Unknown Lamer
from the quadrocopter-bots-to-unionize dept.
Zothecula writes with an excerpt from an article in Gizmag:"The FRAC Centre in Orléans, France will for the first time host an exhibition to be built entirely by flying robots. Titled 'Flight Assembled Architecture,' the six meter-high tower will be made up of 1,500 prefabricated polystyrene foam modules. The installation involves a fleet of quadrocopters that are programmed to interact, lift, transport and assemble the final tower, all the time receiving commands wirelessly from a local control room."
Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet: More power to your USB devices
by Steven Sande
Nov 28th 2011 at 2:30PM
I'll admit that I'm not the best person to be writing about a do-it-yourself project involving electricity. After all, I've zapped myself more than once while replacing wall switches and installing light dimmers, and I once had smoke pouring from my kitchen ceiling after installing a new light fixture. But I'm going to get out my insulated gloves and screwdriver to install a Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet (US$39.95) to replace a standard AC outlet in my home.
Nov 28th 2011 at 2:30PM
I'll admit that I'm not the best person to be writing about a do-it-yourself project involving electricity. After all, I've zapped myself more than once while replacing wall switches and installing light dimmers, and I once had smoke pouring from my kitchen ceiling after installing a new light fixture. But I'm going to get out my insulated gloves and screwdriver to install a Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet (US$39.95) to replace a standard AC outlet in my home.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Earthscraper Takes Sustainable Design Underground
Posted by samzenpus
from the moving-on-down dept.
Hugh Pickens writes"The 'Earthscraper,' a 65-story, 82,000-square-foot inverted pyramid beneath Mexico City takes a new approach to escalating megacity problems like population growth, urban sprawl, preserving open space, and conserving energy and water, promising to turn the modern high-rise, quite literally, on its head. The proposed building will be located at the Zocalo, Mexico City's major public plaza one of the few sizable open spaces left in the city of 9 million. 'It's a massive empty plot, which makes it the ideal site for our program,' says architect Esteban Suarez. The Earthscraper concept begins with a glass roof replacing the opaque stone surface of the Zocalo preserving the open space and civic uses of the Zocalo, whileallowing natural lighting to flow downward into all floors of the tapering structure through clear or translucent core walls. The first 10 stories would hold a museum dedicated to the city's history and its artifacts. 'We'd almost certainly find plenty of interesting relics during the dig — dating right back to the Aztecs who built their own pyramids here,' says Suarez adding that the design incorporates a system of gardens occurring roughly every 10 stories, to help generate fresh air. One thing working in Earthscraper's favor is there are strict laws that prevent building upwards in this part of Mexico City, but no laws for building down. 'They will have to develop new laws to stop this from happening," says Chief Design Officer Emilio Barja. "I hope they don't [find the] time to do that.'"
A Fifth of Global Energy Could Come from Biomass Without Damaging Food Production
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2011) — A new report suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass (plants) without damaging food production.
Smart Phones Power Consumption Cut by More Than 70 Percent
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2011) — Researchers at Aalto University in Finland have designed a network proxy that can cut the power consumption of 3G smart phones up to 74 percent. This device enhances performance and significantly reduces power usage by serving as a middleman for mobile devices to connect to the Internet and handling the majority of the data transfer for the smart phone. Historically, the high energy requirements of mobile phones have slowed the adoption of mobile Internet services in developing countries.
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