Slashdot Mirror

They are probably releasing the Kindle Fire 2 next week. Most likely they incorrectly managed their supply lines, didn't order enough Kindle Fires, and now don't want to order more.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-amazon-event-idUSBRE87M0XH20120823

Are you exaggerating when you say "massive handouts"? My understanding is that the oil industry is allowed tax breaks that are equivalent to what other industries get, and they do not get the direct subsidies that say wind and solar get. Depending on what tax break that is being considered this is 2-4 billion a year, maybe 2% of their profit.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/03/29/why-big-oil-should-give-up-its-tax-breaks
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-obama-energy-idUSBRE82S11P20120329
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_prez_oil_tax_break_lies_Y2Yj6KCU9QIO0BKHs1Be7M
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/oiltax_05-12.html

And which specific aspects of that constitute "willful misconduct"? Do you even understand what the term means?

Which specific instruction told them that they had to decide the questions in a specific order, and could not put off a final decision on the question of prior art until after they decided whether Samsung had copied? After all, if Samsung's products did not infringe on Apple's patents, whether or not there was prior art for the non-infringed patents would have been immaterial, wouldn't you say? If you check the decision, you'll see that they did in the end answer that question.

I don't know about you, but I can read 109 pages in considerably less than a day, and many of those 700 questions were the same questions applied to different products. So once they were in agreement on criteria for answering the questions, it is hardly surprising that they were able to go through them rapidly. They judge was able to read out the answers in an hour or so--are you really sure that 22 hours was not enough to answer them?

And is it willful malfeasance for a jury to give a judgement that is reasonable and not a slap on the wrist? The amount provided in compensation was actually substantially less than Apple had asked for (and provided evidence to support) in compensation, so its not as if they simply made up a big number that was out of lines with the evidence offered in the trial. Indeed, if the judge were to triple the judgment--as she probably ought to do, considering that jury found the infringement to be willful--it would still be only a bit more than the $2.75 B in damages that Apple hard argued for. The jury declined to give Apple that much, because "it was unclear whether Apple had enough component supply to sell more phones even if it had wanted to". This indicates that the jury did not simply come up with a big number to punish Samsung, but genuinely tried to come up with a realistic estimate of Apple's losses--they did not want to compensate Apple for not selling product that Apple could not have produced, anyway.

So all you have left are what seem to have been a couple of minor errors in a complex judgement, with little impact on the magnitude of the judgment.

Do you have any links to back this up? It's obvious that Equador is independent of the US's control, but this is the first time I've heard of long term exclusivity contracts on Equador's oil contracts.

Maybe not exclusivity... but consider:

Petroecuador was to hold a 60 percent stake in the joint venture, and Sinopec the remaining 40 percent

China hands over $1bn for Ecuador oil

China's CNPC in talks with Ecuador over $12.5 bln refinery

Ecuador’s Rating Raised By S&P On China Loans, Oil Proceeds

Refineries have leaks, fires, explosions, and other malfunctions fairly often. It's the nature of the petroleum beast. While the Iranian incident could be sabotage of one sort or another, it could also be an ordinary fuckup. A wise Iranian would blame sabotage.

Here's a "quiet" accident which caused massive damage:

"Insight: In hours, caustic vapors wreaked quiet ruin on biggest U.S. refinery"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/25/us-usa-refinery-motiva-idUSBRE85O02720120625

Perhaps you should read what the jury actually saw.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/25/us-apple-samsung-juror-idUSBRE87O09U20120825

You post is just a bunch of straw men attacks.

You do know that the authorities want to administer Gardasil to boys, right?

What's wrong with that?

Apparently in your mind, nothing is wrong with it. And so you will have no objection to the government deciding to put a GPS chip in the head of your dick either, correct?. And that is exactly what you will eventually get, if we keep up with your line of thinking.

You post is just a bunch of straw men attacks.

You do know that the authorities want to administer Gardasil to boys, right?

What's wrong with that?

The flu shot contains mercury (it's good for your baby, "they" say)?

It contains a tiny amount of mercury, smaller than you'd get from eating fish. So, what's the problem? If you dread mercury that much, don't drink water or eat fish.

They are also recommending lithium be added to drinking water, as well.

Who are "they"? It was just a simple study! You make it sound like there's a hidden conspiracy for drugging Humanity!

Don't be afraid to re-evaluate your beliefs from time to time. Culture, attitudes, environment...life...changes, and so should you.

I do, you clearly don't. Otherwise, you'd be showing me any valid data, not trying to fool me into your beliefs using out-of-context data and alarmist bullshit.

Clearly you've made up your mind based on something someone told you at a very young age. No amount of discussion is going to budge your pro-vax mentality, but stop for a moment. 30 years ago I would have believed that vaccination was a little bit more about public health than what it is today. You do know that the authorities want to administer Gardasil to boys, right? The flu shot contains mercury (it's good for your baby, "they" say)? They are also recommending lithium be added to drinking water, as well.

Don't be afraid to re-evaluate your beliefs from time to time. Culture, attitudes, environment...life...changes, and so should you.

There is no such thing as normal. Normal is only a concept that we as humans have because we live such pathetically short lives. Normal simply isn't a natural concept, and we need to quit thinking of nature as being "normal" and start accepting that "change" in part of the natural cycle and learn to adapt with it.

But there is such a thing as rate of change, right? And we can measure how long it took to get from temperature A to temperature B historically and we can then look at our own time period and compare how quickly or slowly the temperature is changing, right? The funny thing about life on Earth is that it's probably always going to be here in some form or fashion but it's those unicellular organisms that need lengths of time to adjust to extreme weather.

The climate always has gone from warmer to colder and back and forth. Mostly it has been warmer, but it has also spent a fair amount of time under ice ages as well. I live in a place where I am 2000 miles from the nearest ocean and yet can find sea shells in my back yard from time to time. Things change and we need to quit fighting change and learn to adapt to our environment as our environment changes around us.

Or perhaps we can adjust our actions to limit the amount of change? Why do you use a waste disposal system in your house? Why not just throw garbage and urine and feces where ever you want inside your house? You can always learn to adapt to your environment, right? You'll get used to the smell, you'll learn to make friends with the raccoons and cockroaches living in the debris -- possibly even feed off them. So why do you take these basic precautions to keep your home clean? Is your planning not comparable to policies that aim to keep the Earth clean?

The continents will shift (there's a museum in Paris with an exhibit I have heard about that depicts how far the North American plate moves away from the European plate each year). Antarctica will eventually move away from the pole and simply melt. Other natural phenomenon will occur and we have to accept that we are simply one part of nature and to learn to live as part of it.

Again we're talking about a process that takes tens of thousands of years versus what we've done in the past hundred years. The rate at which we are influencing our environment is increasing as our population increases. The Earth's plates are not speeding up. I don't understand your analogy nor do I see how it makes our problem seem unimportant -- plate movements have been known to be catastrophic for humans.

That being said, there is no reason not be be responsible with the environment and fight pollution for the sake of fighting pollution. Living sustainably is something that we have to do as our population becomes ever larger and we need to increase efforts for green energy like nuclear, thorium, solar and geothermal power sources.

So I guess we can agree on that. Our record so far on sustainability hasn't been reflected too well in the ocean. And burning fossil fuels is directly influencing it in addition to just plain overfishing. So is it still taboo to start to talk about curbing that stuff?

I really wish people would set aside politics on this and let science do the talking.....

Funny, your post about "times change deal with it" really seems to undermine nearly all the published peer review research on the topic. Your post is a shining example to me of how someone can interject their own politics and policies into a scientific endeavor and masquerade as being the voice of reason and science themselves. Tell me, what sort of first hand results have you collected and examined that I obviously do not have access to?

Counterfeiting is about trying to pass 1 product off as another. They certainly look alike but without trying to pass it off as an apple product it can't be counterfeiting.

There are some amazing counterfeits out there. A trip to any swap meet/flea market across the US will turn up some good (and terrible) counterfeit goods from Coach bags, Louboutin shoes, to Rolex watches.

The Chinese have mastered the art of counterfeiting goods (and, apparently, entire companies).

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/technology/27iht-nec.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-apple-china-fake-idUSTRE77A3U820110811

While the Samsung products may have elements of the look of some Apple products, they're not counterfeit.

Indeed; I've had people point out 'Japan's running just fine having shut down ALL their nuclear plants!'. Just recently I read an article* that pointed out that the cost of the oil and natural gas to replace their nuclear plants pushed Japan into a trade deficit for the first time in decades. Now, it didn't have a mention of cost, and the global downturn probably plays a factor, but I found an estimate of $100M/day, 4.5M barrels of oil. Since Oil is pretty price-inflexible, that 4.5M barrels of oil is coming out of the rest of the world - raising the price of our gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum products.

LNG imports: increased 18% in volume, 52% in value, to $67B. Cost to the Japanese: $23B USD equivalent.

Not the most impartial site, but it quotes $55B in additional fossil fuel imports. It actually says the shutdowns were a bigger cause than all the damage from the Earthquake & Tsunami.

For those worried about global warming - Green energy isn't ramping up to replace the nuclear power lost anytime soon, and it's led to a substantial increase in Japan's CO2 emissions. Right now Japanese consumers oppose turning the plants back on; but last I heard they're also not seeing an increase in their electric bill yet.

Finally, to DMJC - How well do you think SST Plants will do during an Alaskan Winter? Beware the 'one true power' fallacy. My goal is 40% nuclear, 20% solar, 20% wind, 20% other(hydro, geothermal, tidal, biomass, etc...)

*Dead tree publication, Stars & Stripes, Aug 13,2012, 'Fukushima disaster studies call for regulatory reform'.

Well, according to President Correa of Ecuador (the country that just gave him asylum), they didn't want to give Assange residency because WikiLeaks

has committed an error by breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this type of information

.

That was November 2010.I guess with an election rapidly approaching and his popularity waning he decided a change of heart might look better.

Catastrophic? I hardly think you can blame all the airline troubles on deregulation. Read up on what it meant to fly before deregulation- routes pricing was set by the government. It is a clear example of government price controls of a service commodity. Some people would call that communist. I would only call it unnecessary.

Talk to anyone in the airline industry and they will tell you the unions are the problem. Airline unions, especially pilot and flight attendant unions, are crazy. Just in the last couple weeks the pilot union of bankrupt American airlines rejected an arguably reasonable offer (given the circumstances), which was designed to keep all the pilots onboard. Since the union can't agree, now it gets litigated and many pilots will probably lose their jobs. And they will probably take the concessions they were asked to take anyway, since their company is bankrupt.

There is a reason why these things happen. For you in the West, things are very uniform as far as cultures, traditions, behaviour and expectations go. For a country like India, there is not even uniformity within one state. It is very difficult to judge the dynamics of such a varied culture with the yardstick of the West, and sometimes even unfair. I am not justifying the violence, I'm trying to point out reasons for the hair-thin patience when it comes to communal issues. Hindus and Muslims in India have always been at loggerheads.

The series of events that led to the rumors being a big deal was this: clash between Bodos (a native Assamese, largely Hindu community) and resident Muslims over a piece of land. This was either misreported, or mistaken as a clash between native Hindus of Northeast and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This spiked a communal issue, even though it wasn't one to begin with, between other Muslims across the nation against Hindus specifically from Northeast, resulting in the death of two. The mass rumors started going out on SMS services, social media and email about revenge against Northeasterners, which led to a massive Exodus of NE people back to their home-states. This not only hurts the economy, but overall socio-political makeup of India. It is necessary at such times to curb the trigger events, even though it may seem tyrannical to ban them. Hindu-Muslim relations in India are a silk-string my friend, not to be taken lightly. Whether you approve of it or not, communal violence doesn't need rationale justification to spark.

Oh and by the way, to make things more dramatic: Bulk of the online scare campaign comes from Pakistan, so claims the Government.

My apologises for CNNing the word 'invasion'. They've surrounded and entered the building: UPDATE 11:15AM (AEST): REPORTS suggest more British police have been seen entering the Ecuadorian embassy where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seeking asylum. Observers and protesters at the scene have been Tweeting the arrival of a third police van, and more officers entering the embassy via a side door. The Press Association had earlier reported officers arriving outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, close to the Harrods store in Knightsbridge, London. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/ecuador-to-announce-assange-asylum-britain-threat-to-raid-embassy/story-fnd134gw-1226451503293
I hope they don't offend Ecuador's new best friend: China in talks with Ecuador over $12.5B refinery: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/china-costarica-idINL4E8JE3R920120815

Word on the news is that the flight didn't go well, and the aircraft broke up less than a minute into its flight.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/usa-hypersonic-flight-idINL2E8JFBYF20120815

They cannot afford to go to war with UK or even spoil relations with the UK through a diplomatic spat.

I'm not so "sure Ecuador will cave", as you state. They have stated part of why they explored the notion of asylum was because of the diplomatic cables showing the ghetto of US foreign policy. I applaud that move - dirty policits are even dirtier when aired.

It's never nice to see anywhere, but seriously U.S is not by any means the only ones to have them.

So since you seem to be implying that the US and/or the West was behind a DDoS — because that's how the US rolls in the cyber realm: DDoSing targets [insert rolling eyes emoticon here] — I think you should turn your attention to this:

http://wikileaks.org/syria-files/

---

Social Media Becoming Online Battlefield in Syria - Mashable

Social media is often credited with helping spread the Arab Spring, as activists shared messages of discontent and organized protests using Facebook and Twitter. More than a year after the Arab Spring began in Tunisia, it has become a megaphone for propaganda from both sides of the struggle in conflict-ridden Syria.

http://mashable.com/2012/08/09/social-media-syria/

---

Disinformation flies in Syria's growing cyber war - Reuters

On Sunday, it was a hijacked Reuters Twitter feed trying to create the impression of a rebel collapse in Aleppo. On Monday, it was another account purporting to be a Russian diplomat announcing the death in Damascus of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/07/us-syria-crisis-hacking-idUSBRE8760GI20120807

---

Reuters Twitter account hijacked, fake tweets sent - CNET

The hack of news agency's tech feed comes two days after its Web site was breached and defaced with a phony pro-Syrian government story.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57486971-93/reuters-twitter-account-hijacked-fake-tweets-sent/

---

Reuters hacked, phony Syria stories posted - CNET

Bogus posts reported on setbacks suffered by rebel Free Syrian Army fighting Assad regime.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57486463-83/reuters-hacked-phony-syria-stories-posted/

---

Nah, it's easier to live in the topsy-turvy bizarro land where the US is what's wrong with the world.

"(they didn't get into subprime stuff)"

According to Reuters, in 2007 JPM was involved in subprime lending: "JPMorgan's first-quarter subprime mortgage originations, through Chase Home Finance, jumped 11 percent to $3.02 billion, according to Inside Mortgage Finance." So your knowledge may be more personal than reliable. And as of 2012, according to other sources, is still involved in Credit Default Swaps so there is reason to continue distrusting banks.

Do you hear of any US banks that want Glass-Steagall reinstated? No? Banks want regulations that protect them with a facade of trust, not restrict them from unlimited salaries and shareholder profits. But hey, at least they'll be hiring some database and network admins.

Ever heard of the term "bucket shop"? That's exactly how Bitconica functioned. Sure you could sell, or sell on margin, your Bitcoins for imaginary US dollars, but you couldn't never withdraw or deposit anything but Bitcoins. What went on was people would use the margin given to them by Bitconica to speculate on the price of Bitcoin, then they'd conveniently lose their whole positions whenever the market went against them, which is quite easy to do if you happen to have everyones Bitcoins to manipulate the market with. This happened so often that a new term was invented for it: zhou tonged, named in honor of the 17 year old kid running the site. (seriously, 17!) Hell, even in the Bitcoin community lots of people were calling them out on this right from the start, for instance here is a post by one of the main devs, obviously concerned about all the other scams that of course have cropped up using bitcoin. Speaking of, wait'll you see the press when the pyramid scheme known as "Bitcoin Savings and Trust" fails, as it of course will given it pays out %3400 a year.

Personally I'd suggest you use your Bitcoins for something reputable, like buying pot, getting cash out of Argentina or donating to wikileaks. All this investment non-sense, as opposed to just using the currency for moving value around digitally, is getting out of hand.

This commentary on this article will undoubtedly be similar to that of a troll festival. Ooops, *looks above post*, too late.

Is Sexual Harassment Part of Hacker Culture?

Is racism part of Southern US Culture?

Is sexual bullying part of the Siberian culture?

Actually, the ingredients of placebos can definitely induce side effects, and this is not a new problem. See http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/18/us-whats-placebo-idUSTRE69H51L20101018

Can it get much more bogus than that?

Oh, well, thank god they got this guy. I feel so much safer now, especially now that Goldman was just let off the hook once again. The SEC was obviously on a witch hunt designed to tear down one of our great pillars of society.

So am I.

You claimed there were scribbles. If that was just hyperbole, that's fine, but you might want to be a bit clearer next time.

The Galaxy Tab doesn't match those drawings exactly at all.

Which - it doesn't match "exactly" or it doesn't match "at all"? I'd agree with the former, but not the latter.

It's angles and corners have different measurements

The test is whether those differences would be perceived by a reasonable person. For example, if the corner radius in the patent is x, equal to length/y of a side, and the Tab has a corner radius of x.001, then that may not match "exactly", but it's enough that a reasonable viewer might say when asked to tell them apart, for example, "Not at this distance your honor."

So basically the whole suit is junk.

This is more of your hyperbole from above, right? I think I'm getting your style.

Also, trying to patent putting a screen in the middle of a bezel is hilarious. Every TV, computer monitor and tablet has always done that. But, no, that's just ingenuus 'invention' by Apple,.

Good thing Apple never tried to patent "putting a screen in the middle of a bezel" then.

Re-focusing on the main topic of my original post, how is (or was at the dot-com time) paying $60-$70K a year for a person to write HTML, just plain HTML not an "unsustainable bubble."?

If wages had kept pace with productivity, then the median household income would be about $92,000 a year. (It's currently around $50,000.)

So, no, these wages being paid in the 1990s were not out of line. It's the wages that everyone else is being paid that are far too low. Based on productivity improvements over the years, the minimum wage should be about $19-$20 an hour. If the guy flipping burgers was getting paid $38,000-$40,000 a year as he should be, then $60K-$70K a year for HTML doesn't sound too unreasonable any more.

Most Americans have no idea just how badly we're getting screwed by the system.

Nokia was sitting on about 4.9 billion euros at the end of 2011. Most analysts expect this to fall to 2.5-2.8 billion by the end of 2012, thanks to the total free fall of SymbianOS sales, restructuring costs, plus the lack of any real Windows 7 Phone market emerging to replace this. Yeah, that's still some real cash, but it's clear that, even with their various austerity measures, they aren't going to last at that rate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-nokia-cash-idUSBRE84H0BD20120518
http://www.zdnet.com/fitch-downgrades-nokia-debt-rating-as-cash-becomes-focus-7000001305/

(not the AC above)

The fraud is that HFT offers are placed out there for mere fractions of a second and then pulled back. They have NO INTENTION of executing the orders, which is fraud.

That's bad market design. No fraud involved.

This is exactly the problem. It isn't technically fraud, but its definitely abuse of the system. An individual HFT transaction may not have any significant impact, but the fluctuations caused by the majority of the transactions coming from HFT[1]. For example, this news from just a couple days back. The SEC has also shown concern, so its not like we ACs on slashdot are the only ones worrying about it. You're right that there is no fraud involved, but I don't think you can deny the moral grey area (and possibly legal; if you consider the impact, there may be an argument for market manipulation).

[1]: source: wikipedia, citing the Aite group (and so does this). From wikipedia:

In the United States, high-frequency trading firms represent 2% of the approximately 20,000 firms operating today, but account for 73% of all equity orders volume.

Winners get paid, then get taxed.

the same masses who wonder why freshly deregulated companies will happily serve their cats melamine

Only if they're ignorant of the consequences:

A huge recall of contaminated pet food is likely to cost Canada's Menu Foods Income Fund MEW_u.TO at least C$45 million ($42 million), even without taking a slump in sales into account, the company said on Wednesday.

This for one business and is in addition to customer law suits and loss of sales.

who move their jobs overseas

We ignore here that all those wonderfully expensive social programs and burdensome labor regulations make us very expensive to hire, especially when the competition is a small fraction of our cost. But somehow this little thing is the fault of tea partiers rather than the people who created the situation with Free Lunch thinking.

the industries who are trying to survive in the US end up getting destroyed by foreign competitors (the US solar industry for example.)

Last I heard, the latest attempts to "save" the US solar industry ended up a hard fail due to a remarkable level of corruption and gullibility.

or they absolutely like seeing the quality of life with every American be eroded

The quality of life people have been helping us since the 50s. Why are things so shitty now? Because that approach doesn't work. All that spending that allegedly improves your quality of life comes out of your quality of life as well. And if it does less benefit than harm, which I might add is a common occurrence, then quality of life suffers overall.

Food supply free of aniline dyes just like in "The Jungle?"

First, you have to show there is a problem. A bullshit documentary doesn't cut it.

Usable roads?

Here's a good reason to be a tea partier. Money spent on other things isn't money spent on roads. There are clear needs that government can deliver. But they can't deliver if the money is spent on other things.

Clean air?

We have that. But we won't be able to keep it, if we don't clean up the government bureaucracy.

Look, your ideas have had decades to work. If they really were going to curtail the power of businesses and improve our quality of life, then they'd have done so by now. They don't and that's why we're in the situation we're in. And state-by-state, the states that tried the hardest to improve quality of life through government funding are the ones with the worst government services.

Consumer goods made in China have not increased in price once global competition decreased.

There are plenty of solar panel manufactures still in business outside of China, so this is a moot point. If they raised prices now, they would have not advantage. And with the 30% tariffs enacted by the US government, the US solar panel makers will not be going out of business because they will now be able to sell at a profit.

There are many cases pending in the WTO over this dumping. All the evidence is a matter of public record. Chinese solar companies are positing yearly losses even when you remove new capital expenses from their balance sheet. They make up the deficit by taking out new loans from the Chinese central bank, or loans backed by the Chinese central bank, which are not available to their foreign competitors. Selling items below cost like this is dumping, manufacturers will have to raise prices in the future to pay back the loans, and to become profitable.

If they exist they would allow ANYBODY to snoop on users' traffic. What is this, SlashFox? How about "could potentially enable attackers, or PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA to snoop on users' traffic!." or "could potentially enable attackers, or homesexuals, to snoop on users' traffic".

As the story submitter I find your accusation of racism unfair. Chinese government access to Huawei equipment has been a concern for years, check for example this Wikipedia entry on Huawei.

This has nothing to do with racism. This has to do with the companies background and practices. Have you read this article, about a data stealing employee?

Actually, NYSE did tell them exactly that.

Knight is on the hook for the full 440mm USD loss. NYSE stuck them with every single trade that they transacted during the particular time span.

Well, Reuters claims otherwise in their article, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/01/us-usa-nyse-tradinghalts-idUSBRE8701BN20120801

The NYSE said in the afternoon that it would cancel trades in six different stocks, including Wizzard, China Cord Blood Corp (CO.N), E-House Holdings (EJ.N), American Reprographics (ARC.N) and Quicksilver Resources (KWK.N).

Trades executed at 30 percent higher or lower than the opening price will be canceled, NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) said in a statement. No trades in any of the other affected stocks will be canceled, the NYSE said later.

Now Reuters may have gotten the story wrong...

The one percent isn't the rich, its the politicians.

You seem to somehow be under the odd impression that those are two separate groups.

Yes, Maoist China in the 1950s was a government of the poor. USA in 2012? Not so much.

Do like Romney did when leaving the governor's office in Mass. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-usa-campaign-romney-computers-idUSTRE7B500X20111206

It's used by a few Manufacturers

"AuthenTec, spun off from Harris Semiconductor in 1998 and which went public in 2007, provides mobile security software licenses to companies like Samsung, and fingerprint sensor technology to computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) and Dell Inc (DELL.O)."

More here

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-authentec-acquisition-apple-idUSBRE86Q0KD20120727

Maybe not - "Crucially in markets which are not part of its trial, the company will suspend enforcement of its current 250 GB cap." The test is here.

Get it while the getting is good. Looks like the buffet is back.

Samsung tried to double dip on Standards Essential Patents. They're not entirely blameless, but don't your hate get in the way of the facts

Not the original poster, but I agree. What are your thoughts on the current kerfuffle between VirnetX and Apple? Everybody worrying about Apple suing people over "slide-to-unlock" or "on a touchscreen", when there's an actual suit going on involving 3G/4G SEPs and secure DNS/VPN technology?

Vivoleum is in the works, complete with commemorative candles.

I really doubt the $300 figure is a right average sallary.

As others have pointed out, the mean average is inflated by billionaires etc. More relevant is the minimum wage and mean wage for migrant workers who are in these Lenovo factory jobs. "Minimum wages in China range from 1,500 yuan ($240) per month in Shenzhen to 870 yuan ($140) in Chongqing. The average monthly wage of China's 158 million migrant workers in 2011 surged 21.2 percent from 2010 to 2,049 yuan ($327)" source ... So $300 for a "regular Joe" is pretty accurate.

One problem with that: it doesn't happen. Some people took Monsanto to court over it a while back. they couldn't produce any evidence that what you describe actually happens, and the suit was dismissed. They do sue farmers who knowingly save and replant transgenic seed that they developed, yes, but that's a far cry from suing over unintentional cross pollination as is so often claimed.

It shouldn't matter if growing new crops was intentional or unintentional. If a farmer's crops are contaminated with the Roundup-ready gene through pollination and they intentionally save the seeds, who cares? It's like your neighbor's champion pedigree dog climbing your fence and screwing your dog and then trying to sue you for realizing the puppies may be valuable.

One problem with that: it doesn't happen. Some people took Monsanto to court over it a while back. they couldn't produce any evidence that what you describe actually happens, and the suit was dismissed. They do sue farmers who knowingly save and replant transgenic seed that they developed, yes, but that's a far cry from suing over unintentional cross pollination as is so often claimed.

Wow does this sort of behavior by my government get me riled up.

The whole system we have set up here where the Govt passes legislature helping out lobbyists (in this case is so broken it's not even funny. I wouldn't go so far to say we are the sole enemy, but we definitely are not helping the situation.

I am 25, and the majority of my friends are way too busy trying to wiggle out from debt or job hunting in a stagnant environment to make their voices be heard (unless wikipedia shuts down). Seeing as it costs time and money to make sure you actually get a seat at the table, it seems to me that a huge number of our generation is grossly misrepresented.

Is there someone/something out there that is working to involve our young adults in foreign and domestic politics... as opposed to telling them what to do/not to do? I cannot put it as eloquently as Jon Stewart did, but our problems are only going to expand if we let people who refer to our type as "nerds" run the country.

We need to either a. Set up a strong lobby group to oppose heavy handed corporate driven legislature or b. change the system in it's entirety.

I realize you're being sarcastic, but that situation seems very different to me. As you noted, the people from Northern Africa are on an entirely different continent than the Europeans, and while the US may have some military operations in Iraq, that's pretty far from Tunisia, Morocco, etc. Why Muslims from that part of the world are all migrating in droves to Europe (and also the US, just not in such large numbers), I'm really not sure, other than the obvious answer, which is economics. What's puzzling is that, as a culture, north African and middle eastern Muslims are extremely intolerant and not very amenable to blending into the local population; they migrate to Western countries, and then get angry when, for instance, their kids become "too westernized" and murder them. As a group, they're entirely different from, for example, Hindu Indians, who have also migrated in large numbers to western nations, yet are excellent at learning the local language, getting along with the locals, adopting many of their ways while also maintaining parts of their previous culture, yet not trying to force their ways on anyone else.

and even they don't equate it with murder.

This from an anti-Muslim hate site. No supporting citations to their numbers, but they promise to "supply sources upon request". Instead of each item linking to some citation, they link to other pages on the anti-Muslim hate site that says the exact same thing as the item.

I decided to test your assessment. I took the first six news items they listed:

The List of Islamic Terror Attacks from 2012
2012.06.18 Pakistan Quetta 5 69 Five Shiite students are blown to bits by Taliban bombers.
2012.06.18 Afghanistan Tagab 6 13 At least six locals are exterminated when religious extremists detonate a bomb at a bazaar.
2012.06.17 Nigeria Trikania 5 40 A Shahid suicide car bomber crashes through a church gate and blows up at least five Christians.
2012.06.17 Iraq Fallujah 6 12 Two children are among six slain by Jihadi bombers.
2012.06.17 Nigeria Zaria 34 125 Holy Warriors walk into two church services and detonate, leaving over thirty worshipers dead in the carnage, including at least ten children.
2012.06.16 Pakistan Landi Kotal 26 65 Sharia advocates detonate a truck bomb amid a crowd at a market, sending over twenty-six souls to Allah.

And this is what I found after a minute or less of Google news search for each - reasonable evidence for each of the six items listed.

Pakistan Bus Bombing Kills Students In Quetta
Blast in French-controlled Afghan town kills six
Islamists Bomb Three Churches in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Iraq bombings kill four, wound 32
At least 50 dead in three Nigeria church bombings, reprisal attacks
Around the World

Now then, the links below are from a side bar labeled "News" on the front page. Apparently the sites you complain about as being hate sites include Reuters, the BBC, the CS Monitor, The Telegraph, the Emirates 24/7, and other lesser lights. In short, you are full of baloney - to be polite about it.

Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty in Toy Plane Bomb Plot...
Kenyan Muslims Help Guard Churches Following Attacks...
British Muslims Accused of Plotting EDL Massacre...
Islamists Pool Forces to Kill African Christians...
Iran Seeks to Legalize Marriage for Girls Under 10...
Clerics in Egypt Call for Pyramids to be Destroyed...
(Egypt) Unaccompanied Woman Spotted on Train, Quickly Raped...
Sword-Wielding Imam and Wife Brought Down by Police...

Romney's track record on this is NOT better, so be careful who and why you choose. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/06/us-usa-campaign-romney-computers-idUSTRE7B500X20111206

The CEO never said there was "nothing wrong".

That is what he said. ""There's nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now," according to Reuter's.
He went on to say "I'm not talking about the company as I, kind of, took it over six months ago. I'm talking about the company (in the) state it's in right now."
So apparently he has magically turned things around in unexplained ways. He seems deluded.