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Just wanted to inform you that not just Sony has been breeched.

Sony has not put pants on? Breeched...breached... :) On less of a grammar nazi point, though, I think you're confused about the breach in question: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/26/us-sony-stoldendata-idUSTRE73P6WB20110426

Sony specifically was definitely breached and customer data was stolen to the tune of 77 million users. Not only is that a breach, that is a holy-fuck-that's-almost-all-of-our-userbase style breach. You are correct in that some hacker says he has released all this information in an encrypted format and that if he gets punished, he will release it...no one knows that he actually has anything but millions of garbled text files with random character strings in them, though, and likely never will so that doesn't exactly compare with Sony's crazy breach. With regard to the following statement:

They were very upfront about backwards compatibility on PS3. From day zero they said this was a temporary feature to transition from Ps2 to PS3. It was also a huge reason for the cost overrun of the PS3 (EEs were still not cheap chips in 2007).

They actually were not up-front about removal of backwards compatibility at any time in the future after release and only when the chips became more expensive did they start removing it from most subsequent versions of the PS3. Given that fact, however, I will still say that some games are still backward compatible with the initial versions of the PS3. If, as you said, you still have the 60GB fat, you can still play those. However, I challenge you to find me the press release from Sony prior to the release of the PS3 that identified ANY future timeline in which backwards compatibility would be removed for any reason because I am pretty sure I would have seen that information in the research I did prior to release.

With regard to your points about Microsoft...I'm not defending them but I think you just don't like them. I'm not quite sure what you are referring to as a joypad but if you're talking about the controller, the PS3 controller is also proprietary...sooo....yeah. With regard to the non-standard HDD, I actually agree here with you so 1 point for us both. Also, HD-DVD players were an accessory...completely useless, you're right. The thing is, though, just because they tried to sell them doesn't make them dicks. Granted they should have incorporated Blu-ray from jump street but Sony was charging exorbitant licensing fees at that time purposely to keep them out of the 360 so who is the real dick here? Finally, these consoles were both released when HDMI was just becoming the standard for home theater connectivity. Sony had the foresight to include it, MS did not include it until subsequent versions. Even still, though, MS listed their features and specs on the box as did PS3 and the PS3 features were the only ones that were forcibly changed by the company after early adopters purchased the console.

Oh and btw...Netflix was the culprit behind having to have a streaming subscription and a DVD subscription and MS had nothing to do with it in the least. Not sure where you're getting your information but I think you might need to look some stuff up.

I'm not sure I trust Sony not to be an asshole regarding DRM. It doesn't have that good a track record. It is a good bet the moment the marketing hype dies down, and the stock holders start pressing, they will tighten their DRM.

Sony is currently seriously considering a stockholder-driven proposal to spin off its music and film divisions. If this was done, it would mean that Sony the consumer electronics company would no longer have the conflict of interest that currently causes it to push DRM on equipment and media.

Consider something different: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/blame-cfcs-for-warmin-idUSnPNTO244+78+PRN20130530

The honest answer is - we can't know accurately. But - we DO know fairly accurately back to the days of the Vikings. Beyond that, accuracy begins to drop off. Back beyond the birth of Christ, accuracy drops further, and faster.

Today, we have ever greater accuracy, and from today's accuracy they attempt to extrapolate nonsense back into history.

Whatever - I can give you a link to someone who can give an entirely different explanation to manmade global warming. Forget carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbon particulates - there is little to no correlation between increasing temps, and carbon content in the air. In FACT, recent NASA video demonstrates that carbon in the atmosphere actually REFLECTS more energy than it traps.

But - here - read this guy, who has found a direct correlation to pollution and global warming:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/blame-cfcs-for-warmin-idUSnPNTO244+78+PRN20130530

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/30/blame-cfcs-for-warmin-idUSnPNTO244+78+PRN20130530

Except this time. Scalia may be a troll, but I would argue that Alito and Thomas are worse. I honestly prefer hateful scumbags to hateful authoritarian scumbags.

and for our next performance:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/usa-obama-internet-idINL1N0EI1NL20130606

The link in the summary is /. masturbation, so here's the Reuters article that it links to, no extra ad impressions needed. (wtf is "Slashdot Cloud"?)

As a naive individual with little to no business knowledge or training, could somebody please explain how Steve Ballmer is still CEO of Microsoft?

I would surmise it is a combination of the following:

* Balmer is among the largest shareholders in the company and good buddies with his predecessor who is the largest shareholder and Chairman
*Microsoft has a relatively unimpressive and compliant board largely hand picked by Bill Gates and Balmer
*The fact that despite their problems the company remains hugely profitable which makes it harder for the board to complain even if they were inclined to do so.
*The company's large market cap and strong cash position make them a very unattractive target for a buyout and difficult for activist investors
*There are credible rumors that Balmer culls potential rivals within the company

I'm sure there are other reasons but those are probably among the bigger reasons.

make better crops, increase productivity

Possibly by some definitions of "better". Higher yield, longer storage life, possibly. Better tasting, more nutritious, that's arguable.

reduce pesticide use

That doesn't seem to be the case. Pesticide use ramping up as GMO crop technology backfires

No you don't, you put it in the Hanford site until it leaks into the Columbia river then you start suing people and evacuate.

Well yes, it would be an ad sales office, that's Facebook's business. And judging by Facebook's own careers page and the statement in this article where a US representative of Facebook says they pay taxes on their business activities in Italy, it would appear that it is indeed Facebook. Unless you can point to evidence to the contrary, your counterpoint is unfounded speculation at best.

I would also suggest that selling ads means it has at least some control over the site's content, regardless of whether the actual servers are located there.

As is common in this matter, you have things badly confused. Israel did nothing to Iran to deserve they way the new Iranian government turned on them. If you think otherwise, please provide a list. One hint to reduce the chances of you going down the wrong path again: the Palestinians are not Iranian, and the Iranians are not Arabs.

As to "untermenschen," that would be the view of post-revolution Iranian government, and many Arabs living in Palestine.

Reading Mein Kampf in Tehran

On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry held an international conference. Nothing unusual in that: Foreign ministries hold conferences, mostly dull ones, all the time. But this one was different. For one, "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision" dealt with history, not current politics. Instead of the usual suspects — deputy ministers and the like — the invitees seem to have included David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader; Georges Theil, a Frenchman who has called the Holocaust "an enormous lie"; and Fredrick Toeben, a German-born Australian whose specialty is the denial of Nazi gas chambers.

The guest list was selective: No one with any academic eminence, or indeed any scholarly credentials, was invited. One Palestinian scholar, Khaled Mahameed, was asked to come but then barred because he holds an Israeli passport — and also perhaps because he, unlike other guests, believes that the Holocaust really did happen.

In response, Europe, America, and Israel expressed official outrage. The German government, to its credit, organized a counter-conference. ...

Hamas video: Killing Jews is 'worship that draws us close to Allah'
The Jews Were Brought to Palestine for the Great Massacre

As to the rest, you should catch up on some reading and get back to me.

UN agency stops aid imports to Gaza, cites Hamas 'thefts'
Looters strip Gaza greenhouses
Gazans seethe over taxes and blackouts
Sewage flood causes Gaza deaths
Hamas Bulldozes UN-Designated Historical Site to Make Room for Terrorist Training Camp
In Gaza, Hamas rule has not turned out as many expected
Rights watchdog accuses Hamas of torture, abuse of Palestinians
Hamas accused of routine torture of detainees in Gaza Strip
Palestinian Authority: Still Stealing "Hundreds of Millions," Hamas Taking Over
NY Times ignores Gaza's millionaires, hypes poverty, blames Israel (natch)

According to reports in the Arab press, a thriving smuggling economy in Gaza has produced no fewer than 600 millionaires. Hundreds of tunnels to Egypt have become bustling export and import conduits -- with the ruling Hamas elite siphoning off milli

Companies need to get slapped across the face when they pull this crud

Who's going to do it? When people like Rand Paul step up to apologize to big companies on the rare times the senate even tries to get after some of the more flagrant abuses, what do you think is really going to change?

Who's in charge of the new consumer bureau? Oh, right, nobody! Because the GOP blocks every candidate the president tries to nominate unless Democrats agree to gut the agency.

So is it any big surprise AT&T thinks they can treat you like a bitch and get away with it?

US weather forecasters tend to agree with Congress. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-climate-weather-idUSTRE81120K20120202

Undeniable positive results? Like skyrocketing violent crime rates (many times higher than the US violent crime rate), a homicide rate that did drop for a few years but has resumed an upward climb, home invasions going through the roof and so on. There has even been one mass shooting since the one that inspired their ban. The one positive result was the near total disappearance of suicide by firearm, but... ...Suicides in total did not drop one bit but instead spiked the two immediately following years and then returned to exactly where they had been before the spike. Meaning those killing themselves with guns simply found another way to do it.

I know these are the US NRA talking points, but even the former opponents of the gun ban in Australia disagree with how they read and misuse the statistics. If NRA were right, all the former high profile opponents of the gun ban in Australia should be shouting "we told you so", they are not, they are saying "we were wrong and can''t deny the results are good"

One counter point on the data: Read the statistics in this article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/03/us-usa-guns-australia-idUSBRE9320C720130403

http://www.thedailyshow.com/collection/425876/john-oliver-in-australia/425738

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/16/us-pope-bank-transparency-idUSBRE94F0DZ20130516

OMFG, I've seen it all now.

space programs are great, but not at the expense of burying future generations in debt

Do you ever read newspapers? Or do you get all your news from Limbaugh and FOX? The deficit is shrinking far faster than thought. And the space program is one half of one percent of the budget. Eighteen billion compared to the 711 billion military budget, as big as the five next largest armies in the world combined.

Stupid brainwashed fool! There seems to be a lot like you here lately, where did the idiots all come from in the last few years? You, sir, are a fucking moron. What the hell is an antiscience, anti-nerd, ignorant refneck doing at slashdot? Go away and stop trolling us, idiot.

First set of key words being voluntary refusal. It isn't completely voluntary, is it?

The military has said that some prisoners are pressuring others to join the hunger strike, and that some of those being tube-fed occasionally eat regular meals or voluntarily drink nutritional supplements when they are removed from their cell blocks and are alone with medical personnel. . . -- American Medical Association questions Guantanamo force-feedings

I know I'm being idealistic and picky here. I am reading your links in full before I post. First, "some". So, not "all", not "most", not "half". Second, "pressuring". If this is in the form of "peer pressure", i.e. non-physical persuasion, is that particularly unexpected in a harsh "us" vs "them" environment? I refer you to the Stanford prison experiment and its UK counterpart as to how quickly that "us" vs "them" mentality can form even amongst random Western civilians, including hunger strikes. Third, "alone with medical personnel". So, however momentarily, they weren't in that "us" vs "them" environment?

Second set of key words being capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment.

Almost 100 Guantánamo prisoners were classified by the US army as having psychiatric illnesses including severe depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the prison camp files reveal. -- Guantánamo Bay files: Grim toll on mental health of prisoners

So we have almost 100 mentally ill people being kept in an extra-territorial maximum-security military prison instead of a (military, even) mental hospital?

100 out of 179 is a pretty big fraction. It is also oddly close to the number of inmates on hunger strike.

The ones that are left in Guantanamo are pretty much the hardcore. They were willing to give their life for the cause if need be. They have previously engaged in synchronized suicide attempts as a political attack. The suicide Jihad continues, just without bombs in this case.

Um. This might be a stupid question, and feels quite surreal, but: if they truly want to kill themselves, but this time without killing anyone else, and the only alternative (that we're willing to do) is - by our ethical standards - to perform torture upon them, why are we lowering our standards?

But to go on. From your link, "None of the five detainees believed to have killed themselves at Guantánamo Bay have any mental health issues noted within the files. However, all have a record of alleged disruptive behaviour and non-compliance. Most are among the 25 detainees who the files say went on hunger strikes." So we apparently have - had - at least five detainees potentially "capable of forming unimpaired and rational judgements" who killed themselves rather than submit to prison authorities.

Furthermore, "Yasser Talal Zahrani, one of three prisoners who killed themselves on 10 June 2006, was noted to be of low intelligence value", (note "value", so it's referring to military intelligence not personal psychology), "with "unremarkable" exposure to jihadist elements." So are we sure it's just the "hardcore" ones that are "willing to give their life"?

This is the country - the US, I mean - that has both a strong democratic tradition (CIA World Factbook) and the world's highest incarceration rate (International Centre for Prison Studies). What exactly does that say about us? (and yes, I know I keep using "us" and "we" and such, despite not being an American citizen, but the jokes about Australia/Canada/other being the "51st State" exist for a reason, and I was named and raised by a family that likes Westerns, so I associate even though I'm foremost Australian).

"Give me liber

capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment . . .

First set of key words being voluntary refusal. It isn't completely voluntary, is it?

The military has said that some prisoners are pressuring others to join the hunger strike, and that some of those being tube-fed occasionally eat regular meals or voluntarily drink nutritional supplements when they are removed from their cell blocks and are alone with medical personnel. . . -- American Medical Association questions Guantanamo force-feedings

Second set of key words being capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment.

Almost 100 Guantánamo prisoners were classified by the US army as having psychiatric illnesses including severe depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the prison camp files reveal. -- Guantánamo Bay files: Grim toll on mental health of prisoners

100 out of 179 is a pretty big fraction. It is also oddly close to the number of inmates on hunger strike.

The ones that are left in Guantanamo are pretty much the hardcore. They were willing to give their life for the cause if need be. They have previously engaged in synchronized suicide attempts as a political attack. The suicide Jihad continues, just without bombs in this case.

The POWs in Guantanamo do get Red Cross visits. As to the rest of their status - in order to receive the full protection of the Geneva Convention as a combatant you have to obey the Law of War. Al Qaida doesn't do that, quite the reverse. Their basic strategy of directly targeting civilian noncombatants constitutes a war crime. They are quite rightly recognized as unlawful combatants. And do note, it isn't that this categorization is unknown internationally, but rather that various advocates refuse to acknowledge that it exists.

The black sites? Last time I looked they were for detention and interrogation.

Now, there are a couple of factors that make these discussions more interesting. First, is the fact that Al Qaida teaches its members to lie about their treatment and not cooperate.

Al Qaeda Manual Drives Detainee Behavior at Guantanamo Bay

. . . Police in Manchester, England, discovered the manual, which has come to be known as the "Manchester document," in 2000 while searching computer files found in the home of a known al Qaeda member. The contents were introduced as evidence into the 2001 trial of terrorists who bombed the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. . .

The closing chapter teaches al Qaeda operatives how to operate in a prison or detention center. It directs detainees to "insist on proving that torture was inflicted" and to "complain of mistreatment while in prison."

Chapter 17 instructs them to "be careful not to give the enemy any vital information" during interrogations.

Another section of the manual directs commanders to teach their operatives what to say if they're captured, and to explain it "more than once to ensure that they have assimilated it." To reinforce the message, it tells commanders to have operatives "explain it back to the commander."

One consequence of this lying, and international pressure on their behalf, is that committed terrorists have been released who then return to Jihad again, killing who knows how many.

Recidivism rises among released Guantanamo detainees

(Reuters) - The proportion of militants released from detention at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay who subsequently were believed to have returned to the battlefield rose slightly over the last year, according to official figures released on Monday.

In a summary report, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said that 27.9 percent of the 599 former detainees released from Guantanamo were either confirmed or suspected of later engaging in militant activity

Second, as does sometimes happen in war, service members will occasionally exceed their instructions, lose control, or develop a mental illness, and then engage in behavior that constitutes a war crime. Some people want to pretend that those actions are deliberate policy rather than the illegal actions of an individual or particular group. One prime example is the incident at Abu Ghraib. It resulted in a number of American soldiers going to jail, including the infamous Lynndie England. An isolated incident by a small number of soldiers that took an extraordinary number of pictures in a very short time, and gave a black eye to the US military and the United States. The actual events were magnified by the work of the media - the New York Times put stories and/or pictures on the front page 47 times.

Pay? Nobody pays me to post. But I do like to see the discussion occasionally enter the realm of facts even if it aggravates some people.

After all, facts that contradict some political view are "flamebait."

Store of value? No.

- right, that's why there are no savings but only debt, that, combined with taxes and regulations is why savings that are used as investment capital moved to other parts of the world.

which leads people to run around pretending that low rates of inflation are a conspiracy

- rethink that statement, did you really mean low rates of interest?

Low rate of interest in a low savings environment is a conspiracy, but it's a conspiracy that is out in the open, it is the Federal reserve and other central banks that have a 'mandate' to create inflation.

"I'll sell you this TV for $100" and you to respond, "Sure, I'll owe you, is this IOU OK?" The Fed (and the banks it regulates) doesn't even have a monopoly on money creation.

- you did NOT create money in that example, you created debt and debt can be restructured without any new money coming into being.

Real money is created by production, debt is not real money, debt is a promise, a promise can be written on a piece of paper, but that's not money, that is most commonly known as a bond.

You get scared because it seems to you obvious - despite being wrong - that if something can be used to transfer wealth it would follow that holding on to it would mean you keep that wealth. But money isn't wealth, it isn't value. And you holding on to it doesn't benefit anyone, it just means you make it more difficult for others to engage in transactions (because you're holding onto the unit of exchange) until someone else creates more money - which, ironically, you then crap your pants about.

- I don't know WTF you are trying to say about me being scared, how about the people that are really scared: paper pushers, that are scared of real money of real interest rates?

Gold is valuable, so is steel, so is oil, so is grain, so are coffee beans. But gold is the only item of these that has been used as money consistently, though other items on that list have been used as money as well throughout history.

When you hold a PROMISSORY NOTE, that is when you know you only have something that may or may not be of any value at all.

When you hold gold or oil or grain or steel or coffee beans, they will always have value (as long as it doesn't get spoiled, that's why gold is always preferable). So if you hold real products and real money then you actually are ABLE to store value.

Now that may scare YOU. You may be scared that some people are actually capable of storing real value and not allowing inflation to destroy it, but it does benefit the society by providing somebody with savings that can be used to start and finance a business enterprise. Not promissory notes, not bonds, not dollars, but actual real things and the easiest ones to convert to anything else are things like gold and maybe silver, but even aluminium works, that's why people with lots of money even store aluminium.

Big Education that is publicly funded is Big Business just like other Big Business that gets government money. It's just that socialists love this version of Big Business while being against other versions of it.

The real difference between Big Business and other business is government money and government money = corruption.

Pardon me for pointing out that DSM-5 is the replacement. Currently they're using DSM-IV, which is a lot smaller.

The larger point, exposed by this "update", is that the categories are essentially arbitrary and apparently not based on anything falsifiable, ie not anything resembling science.

Yes, I know. That is why it need to be replaced, preferably with something systematic, as indicated above.

As it stands, brain imaging can identify psychopaths , and is showing useful things about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder . I expect there will be more to come in that regard. Then there is also the fascinating feedback that can occur between behavior and brain function and activity. Good and bad behavior can become self-reinforcing. Then there is the role of nutrition in various aspects of brain function and behavior. Biochemistry is continuing to provide new insights, and new approaches. We are continuing to learn important lessons about something so seemingly common as sleep and its disorders that effect people's memory, attention, and behavior. Even classic psychology and psychiatry have insights that will have to be considered. It all plays a part. On the other hand, in a lot of ways it seems like we are still groping in the dark there is so much to learn. One thing seems likely to me is we are likely to find more conditions that will end up requiring a multidisciplinary approach to treat.

Another interesting question will come when various aberrant behaviors are scientifically identified as such, but they end up being politically protected in either the scientific community, or the political establishment.

Choices, choices.

Great, but how many people died of gun crime while you were telling that story? 2? 5?

I'm not sure about guns, but it seems that at least 1 died from an ice pick rampage, and 40 died from car bombs...

People will kill each other, that is the nature of humanity. Violent crime was a huge problem before guns, it is a problem now and will be a problem in the future.

MS Just hit the 100Mileon licences sold on Windows 8 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-microsoft-windows8-sales-idUSBRE94603220130507 so TFA is just more MS bashing bigoted FUD

For Law Enforcement, that pesky First Amendment must be frustrating. Wait, maybe the time and a halfer's telling us they're the ones keeping KAOS at bay should ask themselves, "why did those old middle aged clowns create the First Amendment?" Maybe because it's OK to kill over 50 people, and harm over 400 other citizens?

Looks like we need to add more facts for the uninformed:

Hamas says still seeks Israel's destruction

(Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel's destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the Fatah faction.

"We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine," Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank. . . more

Who Are the Real Nazis?

Looks like we need to add more facts for the uninformed:

Hamas says still seeks Israel's destruction

(Reuters) - The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel's destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the Fatah faction.

"We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine," Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank. . . more

Who Are the Real Nazis?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/energy-japan-mof-idUSL4N0AT00Y20130124

"Japan's LNG imports soared 11.2 percent to a record high of 87.31 million tonnes in 2012, driven by an increased need for fuel to generate electricity after the
nuclear sector was hit by the Fukushima crisis, government data showed on Thursday."
"Japan paid a record price for crude at $114.90 per barrel last year, compared with $108.65 in 2011."

This goes to what you were saying. There may be alternative energy sources for some countries, but for some, the only way to go is nuclear. Japan is indeed trying to restart most (they've restarted 2) of their reactors, despite the intense protest against doing so. But their fuel costs have caused them to go from a net exporter country to a net importer country. And now they are screwed.

Even if they're increasing LNG, they're still burning coal and oil. All of these pollute, and the dirtier they are, the more people they kill, more than thousands per year. Nuclear kills no one, probably because we are so paranoid about it.

They are allowed on public roads in Nevada. I think Florida too. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/08/uk-usa-nevada-google-idUSLNE84701320120508

Try buddhism. Doesn't really use fear. Jsut says look deeply both internally and externally and try to do what is right.

Try to do what is right...like go and kill the Muslims, huh?

For $12.5B you get:

$3.2 in cash $2.35 billion from Motorola Home sale $1B billion in real estate some deferred tax assets. patents

Looks like a far better deal than Apple and Microsoft got for $4.5 billion in Nortel patent purchase.

You also get a $271 million per quarter operating loss...

So they didn't make back the investment from a single lawsuit. They're still getting all the profit from Motorola handset sales, right? ...right?

You mean they are getting the Motorola quarter-billion-per-quarter loss http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/19/us-google-results-idUSBRE93H15I20130419

I haven't visited the U.S. since 2001, which is about when their war-on-tourrists seems to have begun.

Don't miss ya, sweetie.

Foreign visitors to U.S. hit record in 2011

Police gave little detail about the alleged plotters, but said a tip from the Muslim community had helped their year-long investigation.

Islamic terrorists in the west are most normally suicide bombers.

That wasn't true of the earlier car bombing attempts of the WTC, or also the times square car bomb. In fact very few terrorist attacks are suicide attacks.

Furthermore, this very much has the signature of Islamic terrorism in that the bomb used (pressure cooker) was directly from an AL Quidea manual. While anyone might have read the Al Quidea manual on bomb making, what is the simplest answer that follows from that?

Combine the pressure cooker info with both suspects coming from a heavily Islamic region of Russia, and one of them stating on the web he was a Muslim. The picture is pretty clear for those that don't want to ignore the obvious answer for some reason.

They don't seem to have been with any particular group, but it's pretty obvious the motive was simply "Jihad".

The region of Russia they are from has a lot of Islamic terrorist activity.

Also the web page didn't just say he was a muslim, it also included the phrase "There is no God but Allah, let that ring out in our hearts". More than a hint...

What is sad is that it seems like the younger kid was led into this by the older brother, but in the end everyone is responsible for what they do.

10% is similar to the best non-crystalline cheap solar cells. You're thinking of the far more expensive type. I can't think of a single large-scale solar utility plant using crystalline silicon. Go read about First Solar. These are one of the few solar companies still making a profit. Their technology is so much cheaper than the more efficient arrays that literally half of the existing solar production plants will need to close down because they can't compete with First Solar.

Discovering new molecules for competing with First Solar would be huge for any company trying to make it in the utility scale solar space. However, it kills me every time I hear about solar panels or display technology which will be as cheap as paint. Sure, so long as you have zero defects that could cause a short over the area of an entire solar panel. That paint has to be applied in a clean room environment onto a substrate that's defect free. Then they have to be cut up, tested and binned, and merged into complete panels. Even the low-tech mechanical portion of the panel will dominate over the cost of paint. By the time you add up all the costs, the solar paint itself could cost $1,000/gallon and still not be a very significant cost. That's a good thing, because the paint has to be uniform at a nano-scale level. You don't just throw in cheap ingredients and put it in a paint mixer. It's certain to be far more expensive than ink-jet printer ink.

If someone comes up with a cheap way to get the paint molecules to self-assemble into defect free coatings, or self-repairing paint, then maybe I'll start to get excited. Still, this is a very awesome use of crowd sourced CPU power.

"North Korea?"

Today(April 15) is the anniversary of its founder's birth

They may not get the same treatment if found guilty - some could get the death penalty.

B) illegally bug their interrogation rooms, snoop confidential files, and hamper the defense at all opportunities, and hold the hearings before a non-impartial military tribunal?

Good grief - you really believe that BS? I'll sort it out for you. Bugging the rooms would have been done by the intelligence agencies with no feedback to the prosecution unless it was in reaction to things like this. The "snooping" probably happened as described - no doubt the systems were built and manned by the lowest bidder. It is the defense that has been hampering the movement of the cases with all manner of legal challenges, fighting tooth and nail on behalf of their clients. (Of course they did manage to secure a new Supreme Court precedent that will come back to bite the US in the ass - POWs can challenge their status in Federal Court. WW2 anyone? ) It isn't that the military tribunal isn't impartial, but when you are killing thousands of people with bombs and planes, you might be on weak ground.

This is the thing I hate -- and it's not just Apple. These US companies offshored Allllll their manufacturing and processes to take full advantage of cheap labor, third-world economies and loose environmental restrictions. People at home get laid off[0] jobs dried up, manufacturers closed their doors, and a good portion of blue collar labor went on unemployment. Now, these same assholes complain their is no "skilled labor" to fill their job openings, so they need to import H1B workers[1]. What's more, then become worried that they can't find a source for components for their gizmos that USED TO BE PRODUCED IN THEIR OWN BACKYARD? The irony is mind-numbing.

[0] - TI lays off 1700
[1] - H1B Visa lottery

No, seriously, they are still open for tourism.

Why wouldn't they be? As of this writing and to the best of my knowledge, the Kaesong Industrial Complex remains open as well. Both are sources of revenue.

These guys are throwing a fit like a 6 year old wanting McDonald's over broccoli for dinner.

The child in your analogy has a legitimate grievance — broccoli provides inadequate protein and caloric density necessary for maintaining a child's growth.

Why not continue this story with further 'count down' stories?

ANYTHING to push another MS related post to the FP. Every day/week. We can't live here at /. without MS stories!

Has there been a new Microsoft related post today?

Of course!

Let's all celebrate proprietary monopolies!

Let's replace the Microsoft logo, which used to be a Borg logo, with a friendly Care Bear with the Windows logo on his chest! Let's market these toys so we all have Microsoft Care Bears on us all of the time - with bluetooth! When we rub his belly a beam shoots across the room to the latest Slashdot story about another Microsoft news or not news happening!

Dell and HP should sell out to MS: Why not own the OEMs?

Finally:

Spanish Linux users launch legal challenge to Microsoftâ(TM)s secure boot

@ http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/31499/spanish-linux-users-launch-legal-challenge-to-microsofts-secure-boot/
@@ http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/24199/rsa-2012-malware-gets-the-boot-in-windows-8-notes-charney
@@ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-microsoft-eu-idUSBRE92P0E120130326
@@ http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Secure-Boot-complaint-filed-against-Microsoft-1830714.html
@@ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2013-000162&language=EN
@@ http://www.hispalinux.es/node/758
@@@ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51329950/ns/business-us_business/t/exclusive-open-software-group-files-complaint-eu-against-microsoft/
@@@ http://newyork.newsday.com/business/technology/microsoft-target-of-hispalinux-open-source-software-users-in-complaint-to-eu-1.4909950
@@@ http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/8058/20130327/linux-users-file-complaint-against-microsoft-over-secure-boot-windows.htm
@@@ http://rcpmag.com/articles/2013/04/01/spanish-complaint-windows-8-secure-boot.aspx
@@@ http://www.eitb.com/en/news/technology/detail/1297786/hispalinux-microsoft--hispalinux-files-complaint-microsoft/

Lock yourself in, boys! (At the BIOS level) We're in for a heck of a ride!

Mark me troll because you know it's true and you enjoy lying to yourself.

"LOOKS LIKE MEAT IS BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!"

The logo for MS should be a plate of Soylent Green and a rainbow behind it.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd infringed a key portion of an Apple Inc patent by including a text-selection feature in its smartphones and tablets, an International Trade Commission judge said in a preliminary decision.

South Korean-based Samsung did not infringe portions of a second Apple patent that allows a device to detect if a microphone or other device is plugged into its microphone jack, the judge said in a decision that was issued on March 26 but kept confidential until late Thursday to allow the companies to redact sensitive business information.

The full commission must now decide if they will uphold it or overturn the judge's decision. A final decision is expected in August.

If it is upheld, the ITC can order any infringing device to be barred from importation into the United States. Apple has alleged that Samsung's Galaxy, Transform and Nexus devices, among others, were among those made with the infringing technology. Apple had filed a complaint in mid-2011, accusing Samsung of infringing its patents in making a wide range of smartphones and tablet.

ITC Judge Thomas Pender said in a preliminary decision in October that Samsung infringed four Apple patents but did not violate two others listed in the complaint. There had been seven listed initially, but one was dropped during litigation. The full commission then said it wanted the agency's judge to take a second look at portions of two patents where he had found that Samsung infringed. That remanded decision, issued in late March, was unsealed on Thursday.

Samsung is the world's largest smartphone maker, while Apple is in second place, according to Gartner Inc, a technology research firm. Apple is waging war on several fronts against Google Inc, whose Android software powers many Samsung devices. The legal battles between Apple and Samsung have taken place in some 10 countries as they vie for market share in the booming mobile industry.

Google's Android software, which Apple's late founder Steve Jobs denounced as a "stolen product," has become the world's No. 1 smartphone operating system. Apple's battle against Google's Android software has dragged in hardware vendors that use it, including Samsung and HTC. Samsung is also a parts supplier to Apple, producing micro processors, flat screens and memory chips for the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Apple has reduced orders from Samsung for chips and screens. The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-796

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/05/us-apple-samsung-patent-idUSBRE9340NI20130405

http://thedroidguy.com/2013/04/the-never-ending-samsung-vs-apple-infringement-case/

Yes, and you know why Google was scared, right? Because Steve Jobs threatened them with patent lawsuits if employees were poached.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/23/us-apple-google-lawsuit-idUSBRE90M04Y20130123

Well, it has been a fairly interesting week. Let's see, got the jobs data right here, and it's a doozy: link

Given those unemployment figures, it's kind of hard to argue that there is a lack of people in those fields seeking gainful employment. Oh, wait, I'm wrong; apparently, a large number of them have recently given up looking for work, as they simply couldn't find any, and thus are dropped from the count in the future (hurrah!).

Personally, I can't wait until we see the past few months' employment figures readjusted, at some future date.

But yeah, if you had to listen to the techs or business people on this one, the techs are probably telling it straight: they're being screwed. But that's alright, it's not like it's going to affect the security / whatever of our nation, as surely people will continue to enter into these great fields despite the now frequent hardships, right? Only no, it appears that a lot of programs seem to be having problems here. It warms the cockles of my heart to know that the US's CyberCommand will, in time, possibly be 100% foreign-born.

Hey Congress, just keep doing what you've been doing. Fantastic job thus far, can't wait to see the results next quarter. Just know that a large, angry, and extremely vocal contingent of unemployed techs will certainly not spend their idle time trying to find ways to undermine you as you've undermined them. Nope, that'll never happen. Plus those are votes you can count on not getting on election day...not that it will matter with the kickbacks you will be earning for passing this crap...on the other hand, an untimely exposure of a scandal does tend to limit one's chances, and does cost a lot less. Price of a bought Senator? $5,000,000. Price of an Android phone? $300. Catching the good Senator making out with someone not his wife, and uploading it to YouTube? Priceless.

I'm pretty certain that was the Bank of America file, the one that was ultimately lost when someone leaving Wikileaks "took it for safety" and then it was destroyed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-bankofamerica-wikileaks-idUSTRE77L55P20110822

Others have brought up good points countering your "non-story" opinion, here's (I think) another:

If banks are willing to do THIS:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/11/us-hsbc-probe-idUSBRE8BA05M20121211

For semi-anonymous international criminal syndicates, or whomever they did that for, what makes you think they wouldn't do the same thing for their actual BUDDIES who run legitimate multibillion dollar businesses? And there is (as others have pointed out) always suitcases filled with $100 bills. It's really not that long of a boat (or private jet) ride from Florida or Texas to the Caymans or Bermuda.

Don't worry about changing the rules, they don't have to change the rules not to be able to keep their promises.

It doesn't matter if a gov't official tells you that your 'deposits' (credit you extend to the bank) are insured if there is no money.

Cyprus didn't have any money, they didn't have any money at all. What 'insurance'? How can the gov't give you any insurance if they have no assets, no money?

Trusting a gov't to give you insurance... this should sound familiar. FDIC, FHA, F&F, SS, Medicare, any other loan 'insurance', like student loan insurance, any money that gov't says it will give you later.... what money?

When a city goes bankrupt because it spends too much and promises too much to various special groups, where is it going to get the money?

A gov't can be bankrupt, it's not true that a gov't cannot go bankrupt, many governments have and many will and USA and many European governments are bankrupt now. Bankruptcy is a simple thing really, you are taking in much less than you are paying out and your debts are such that lenders will no longer finance you. USA cannot repay any of its debts but lenders are still financing it (well, it's the Fed mostly now via all the inflation). USA is in a unique position of issuing the 'reserve currency'. The rest of the world uses the reserve currency as a backing for their currencies. Of-course they are coming to a realisation nowadays that there is nothing backing the reserve currency itself.