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Starbucks should also start charging 1/3 of what they do for their coffee. I don't think either is hurting them much, though.

what's the fun in that? And everyone knows that Microsoft's ability to warm things up and catch things of fire or blow them up is legendary.

http://www.waxingamerica.com/2008/01/atts-u-verse-in.html
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/16/atandt-u-verse-batteries-going-supernova/
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/triple-play/att-uverse-batteries-exploding.asp
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/23/xbox_blaze/

and others including this latest. And what fun is it to post in a computer tech rag about a toaster burning down a home? When Microsoft does it, there's something about it which makes you wonder why they are in the tech industry at all. They are not very good at security, lose money on everything but monopoly leveraged products and their hardware and software does a nice job at adding to global warming( whatever that is ). IMO.

LoB

They're also suing the Red Dog Mine, which digs out piles of zinc and pays piles of money to the regional Indian group, for dust in the ocean which testing can't find a problem with. They're also complaining about a creek which is cleaner than when the mine began. "Kivalina takes Red Dog to court over air quality complaints"

I don't know about that. In a recent action, the FCC gave away the store to "the industries that the FCC regulates". In spite of overwhelming outcry from consumers, the FCC handed industry what they wanted.

It's already being done by Telia Sonera, here's a link.

It's unfortunate that the author didn't mention the municipal wifi network that is being built in Minneapolis. So far service seems to be pretty good, and it helped rescue efforts when the 35w bridge collapsed here:

http://blog.tmcnet.com/wireless-mobility/wifi-network-helped-minneapolis-deal-with-bridge-collapse.asp

The Microsoft deal on interoperability and customer patent protection is still ongoing but more in the background these days. The real "new push" is coming from Novell's relationship with IBM (and AMD, like this story; and I'm sure you know about Dell). For example IBM and Novell just launched a Big Green Linux Initiative, or how IBM, Novell Team to Tap Open Source App Servers, and the list goes on (see LWE announcements, or Google News). Novell is really trying to push Linux on the server -- and just as importantly -- the desktop into the Enterprise, and they're making major deals with large OEMs (that is, AMD, IBM/Lenovo, Dell) to make it happen.

"DEC and IBM had so much invested in mainframes they just couldn't imagine a world without them, so they clung to the past".

http://blog.tmcnet.com/beyond-voip/miscellaneous-t echnology/believe-it-or-not-annual-ibm-mainframe-s ales-up-10.asp

Africa has 200 million cellphone users (about the same as the number of US cell phone users, and 10x the number of fixed phone lines in Africa). To me that seems like the obvious answer for last mile connectivity. Some might hook those phones up to computers with bluetooth, but maybe they should just skip that step and use smartphones without computers. Already Africa is using cellphones to increase productivity, such as cell phone banking.

Forgot to post this in my last one but here is a site with a bit more technical details on the mic.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/05/31/2679217.h tm

Lock her up for being a hacker, doesn't the new patriot act cover that?

But she used open source to do it.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/mobile-pho nes/paris-hilton-hacks-voicemail-using-asterisk.as p

What is old is new again.

They bought dialogic for USD $750 million in 1999. http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/06/01/intel_buys _dialogic/

Then they sold in 2006 for an undisclosed sum. The simple fact they sold it suggests they couldn't make it work for them. Otherwise, they would spin it off differently so the operation shows up on Intel's balance sheet: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/greg-galitzine/voip/in tel-sells-dialogic-to-eicon.html

The DSP is still where the action is if you are doing infrastructure. I know the modern CPU can handle telco DSP, but as the asterisk docs show, it's very cpu intensive at medium-sized numbers of users.

I give this one a low probability of success and is probably just something to keep the investors convinced they are growning.

Actually, this isn't some flakey hack by any means. I'm a coder at this company and currently working in our mobile division. The technology has been perfected and runs efficiently (and even more so once I'm done optimizing key functions in ARM assembler). We have done quite a bit of testing and even in situations where there is lots of motion in the scene, the software is able to compensate quite nicely! We actually use the lowest resolution of the camera so power consumption is minimized. Sure accelerometers are more accurate BUT because they are so expensive, manufacturers are reluctant to use it and we offer a good alternative so long as you have a camera handy on your phone.

As for the technology, we can do quite a lot of cool things with it. As the article stated, we have 3 distinct types of motion we can detect - rock, roll and shake.

Roll can be used for ball rolling games, UI navigation or even as FPS controls. Shake has been used for shuffling an MP3 play list but can be used for rolling dice in an RPG or shooting virtual craps! The rock is perfect for "reloading" a gun or maybe throwing something in game. We had one app which allowed you to launch virtual pies at people. That was a popular one!

One thing is certain... we have done something right for Japan's LARGEST cell phone carrier to have picked us up for use in 2 major game releases using their phones - Crash Bandicoot and Katamari Damashii not to mention our tech has been in used in alot of other games already. We have our camera tracking on many platforms including the PS2, XBOX 360 and PC.

Here is the docomo press release:
http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2007/001335.html

What others are saying:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/04/25/2553676.h tm
http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?Articl eID=23946

Annoying or not, they were just ahead of their time. Barcode reading with cell phones is already big in Japan, and doubtless will come here soon. Be prepared for the onslaught

"1-3 its called a corporate firewall (or proxy or gateway) ... If a company made a whole new program based just on what they can reverse engineer to fight one program, I personally would sit back and laugh at the fools."

You didn't answer the question, though the answer seems apparent, but that statement is dead wrong. To its users, the best thing about Skype is that it "just works" no matter where you install it. It doesn't matter how draconian the firewall policy is, Skype gets through in less than a second. Skype can even connect from PC's cut off from the Internet entirely, though it takes a minute or so to scan your LAN for other Skype clients to relay traffic through. See http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/bloc k-skype.asp for more details.

That blog article lists 3 companies for you to laugh at (there are other companies doing it as well), along with a number of reasons you'd be the fool for laughing. This one lists even more: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=984. EADS, a European defense agency, has reverse engineered Skype and explained a lot about it. They explained a number of ways in which Skype is a security risk. They even told hackers how to reverse engineer it, which means it could already be some hacker's faithful servant. If so, I doubt he will act like Richard Pryor in Superman 3. ;-)

If the US Federal government wants to get serious about cyber-security, they should refrain from firing competent staff such as Shawn Carpenter for doing their job. Current US law hinders counter-intelligence operators from gathering information and countering these attacks, since it is illegal to gain unauthorized access to the perpetrators' machines!

This means that security personnel who are doing their job to combat these attacks risk losing their job and even criminal prosecution.

Although Shawn Carpenter lost his job at the Sandia National Laboratory, he was eventually awarded $4 million for his termination which was found to be"malicious, willful, reckless, wanton, fraudulent or in bad faith."

The US intelligence community and Federal beaurocracy needs to wise up. National secrets are leaking like a sieve while the shortage of qualified operators continues to increase, and the beaurocrats are too busy covering their asses and fighting turf wars to do anything about it.

When I researched my home system, most of the signalling protocols predated Bell 212A. They were crude, proprietary, and ran at speeds measured in tens of characters per second. Anything that slow ought to be robust.

Alarm monitoring sold as VOIP compatible, I haven't tried it.

Really? http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/comsol/0100/0100lab s2.htm is proof that one of Cisco's subsidiaries used the iPhone name as recently as 2000. So really, no, only Apple is in the wrong here.

I'd like to direct your attention to this: http://www.tmcnet.com/articles/comsol/0100/0100lab s2.htm Oh look! A review of an InfoGear iPhone from 2000! Incidentally, Cisco acquired InfoGear that year.

See page 28 for a 1996 review.

There were a lot of VoIP providers before 2000, the first of which I remember in '99 or so. http://www.intertangent.com/023346/Articles_and_Ne ws/1413.html states that there were some in 1998, with no mention of Microsoft. Now, I don't know if they used a virtual phone pad, but I'd gather to make PC-to-Phone calls, it couldn't have been much different. http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/voip- history.asp also has a lot of good info on VoIP history. If the Patent Officer had done 10 minutes of homework, I don't see how he could have granted this patent.

We've been hearing about this type of thing in science fiction books, then movies, and then in magazines like Popular Science for at least the past 20 years. While I think we probably have the technology to create the hornets, I seriously doubt we have the technology to have them fly very far then deliver some type of lethal force (e.g. poison) to a specific target.

Plus, it's reasonable to assume that $100's of millions would need to be invested in such a "nanohornet" for it to be feasible. Heck, the current world's smallest flying robot is massive compared to a bee, and can only fly a few minutes (yes, this link is from 2003, and the the robot is still considered the smallest working prototype of a flying robot).

In my opinion, the israelis need to invest in far better armor and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. During their conflict with Hezbollah, the UAVs were a huge success. Also, wouldn't highly armored robotic vehicles be better than a hornet? For example, maybe an armored ball (kind of like those hamster balls) that would essentially be indestructable and roll around doing reconaiscence and shooting things. Just a thought.

UK 10mb unlimited for £34.99 (1/2 price first 3 months).
Thats with NTL, not sure if you are still required to get the other services or not (we do anyway).

Its not bad and theres been talk this year of 100mb :D

Even during its darkest years in the nineties, Apple had a loyal fan base (probably in the 7 digits) who would buy an Apple branded commodity product over others. And since the return of Jobs to the mothership, that number has grown.

In addition, these days the iPod/IntelMacs/OSX halo is strong for Apple.

So I'd be really surprised if iPhone doesn't out-sell that just about every other cellphone model in the US market (RAZR is #1 in the US. Globally, three Sony Ericsson models supposedly rank #1, 2, and 4, while RAZR falls to 5th place.)

The author of TFA either knows diddly about the Apple fan base (wrt their buying Apple branded stuff), or knows the Apple fan base quite well (wrt their click-throughs to anti-Apple articles). Or he could just be a shareholder concerned about the future returns from his Moto shares.

If you enjoyed this story, you can also have it in Microsoft, AOL, or Google flavor.

Bah. Pundits. Get a real job.

It was announced months ago that Apple was partnering with Softbank, a Japanese phone company. I can't believe no one remembers this.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/05/12/1648586.h tm

Show me a passage in any lawbook that equates copyright infringement with theft.

Chapter IIIa of Prosecuting Intellectual Property Crimes (my copy is in dead-tree form, but it's also available online: http://www.cybercrime.gov/ipmanual.htm), by David Goldstone: "the criminalization of large-scale copying even in the absence of economic motivation by the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, Pub. L. No. 105-147, 111 Stat. 2678 (1997). . .

Also, in many jurisdictions copyright infringement is a tort, not a crime.

In the U.S., all copyright cases are Federal, and controlled by the United States Code and stare decisis in the Federal District and Circuit courts, and the Supreme Court. http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap3.html#301 17 USC 301. Under the United States Code, copyright infringement can be (depending on the factual circumstances present) either civil or http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#506 criminal (17 USC 506).

Many extra-territorial jurisdictions treat, or can treat, (c) infringement as criminal.

U.S.: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/06/28/1699696.h tm

Viet Nam: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php ?num=06SOC080706

New Zealand:http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/2006/07/ar t100012268.php

China:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-07/1 6/content_641731.htm

Special Chinese District of Hong Kong:http://www.thestandard.com.hk/weekend_news_de tail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=22887&sid=8816949&con_ty pe=3&d_str=20060715

I saw something in my news clipping service about a recent -- last week -- India conviction and six month jail sentence for (c) infringement, but can't find it on news.google.com.

update ... triped over the article with the screenshots

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skyp e-cracked.asp

Too bad about this (website might try to "force" you through a survey -- clicking "submit" skipped it for me): "Linux is found to be much faster than Apple's OS X for statistical computing. And although Linux is 5 to 10 percent faster than Windows XP, both are markedly faster than OS X. For example, in one benchmark both Linux and Windows XP are more than twice as fast as OS X."

Anecdotally, the Amiga is the most popular computer ever, and it has way more titles than the Mac and the PC combined.

Here's a huge list of some of the applications available, from some website: http://aminet.net/tree.php

Now mod me +5, Informative.

If fast full dictionary speech recognition in any given language, with grid processing and data mining capabilities are being offered commercially, just think what the [insert favorite three-letter-agency here] can do with it.

Instead of can, try are using it.

According to this and this (http://www.callminer.com/investors.html) the connection is as follows: CallMiner -> In-Q-Tel -> CIA.

The difference is that copying software isn't comparable to stealing. It's more comparable to counterfeiting.
The U.S government doesn't want people countefeiting money for the same reason Microsoft doesn't want a business conterfeiting their software.

The significant difference is that money is used to exchange for something of value but software is used to produce something of value. Therefore, copying software to sell is comparable to counterfeiting, copying software to use is not really the same at all.

No country for example will allow counterfeiting of currency. Many software producers will allow copying of software, and not only F/OSS either, but shareware, freeware, and even proprietry software companies hoping to dominate new markets. Counterfeiting has never been advocated as a means to help economies, but the UN recommends and promotes open source (copying software) for the development of it's member nations. Until I see the UN advocating counterfeiting as a means of developing a nations economy, I'll consider consider copying software to be nothing at all similar to counterfeiting.

Actually, Java developers ARE concerned about opening Java up. Here are some recent news articles from Googling "open java":

http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article2/0,1895,1 955870,00.asp
http://opensource.sys-con.com/read/216731.htm
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-analysis-new-ceo-su n-needs-turnaround-plan-that-/2006/04/26/1611586.h tm
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/50449.html

To all of which, Gosling has responded, "Nope", much to the chagrin of Java developers. If you haven't heard them, it's because you've been too busy complaining on Slashdot about Slashdotters using Slashdot to Slashdot.

The article seems to have gone down before it could be mirrored, but there is an article on the same story here.

It doesn't really seem to explain WTF they think they mean, or what they've been taking. Is there somewhere where I can just download the Java source code, modify it, and distribute it, or do I need special permission and a weird license? That's not open source. If that's what they meant by their promise to open source everything, they lied.

I sell HP Media systems. Most computer users that come in have no idea that something like a Linksys Media Extender even exists, and the price shocks some of them (and others the idea of moving the plasma *anywhere* in their living room is a delightful one).

I love to do PK (product knowledge) and in my search for info about Viiv... I didn't find anything that would make it stand out above and beyond any other HP Media system.

To summarize -- cool things can now happen in your living room. Users that come in talking about Viiv -- I always remind them that it's a catagory, not an actual product, feature or specific technology -- to me it's more of a brand standard.

FYI, Google made it to the S&P 500 which, in addition to being a good milestone itself, means many mutual funds must purchase their stock which is at the moment is back in business.

You only need an instrument capable of switching to GSM when Wifi is not available.

Something like this perhaps:

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/motorola-cn620-sea mless-wifi-to-gsm-voice-calls-017270.php
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-VOIP+Phones
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/mobile-pho nes/zyxel-dualmode-gsmwifi-phone.asp

Enjoy :P

Come on. You know it was just the Olympic Committee making sure no one violated their trademark on the term "Olympics". Because you know they have to protect the term "Olympics" so that know one else can make money off the word "Olympics". If these officials where caught using the term Olympics they could be in big trouble with the Olympic Committee. Hold on, someone's knocking on my door.....

I believe you are mistaken in your analys.

It doesn't mean it "sounds simular to psychology 101" it is what you think to read. It's just flattering you praise my ability to recognise psychological patterns and making an analogy as accurate it makes you suspect I speak out of experience or am writing from my subcontious.

There was no personal information in my post, but mostly it seems most slashdotters seem to relate best to "highschool dynamics" and analogies relating to that. I do not speak in terms of "smarter", "the whole school", cause I haven't been there in quite a while. I don't mirror myself to my "popularity" to define myself or to place myself into society (nor my intelligence, nor my education, nor my possesions).

As a matter of fact when you get into the "real world" (I'm assuming you're a highschool kid) popularity matters not. The results you deliver matter, your actions and how you take care of your family and people who have value in your life and not how "cool" people think you are.

You don't have to agree persé, people disagree, not everyone thinks the same. Doesn't mean the other has "unresolved social issues" when one doesn't share your views or misses the motivation of certain comments which imply IE-usage is down and decling. Exact percentages are impossible to show. Cause ofcourse windowsupdate will have a near 100% usage IE browsers.

Now, you say "You cannot neglect 80%" (as that seems to be your point). You cannot neglect that 20% goes out to actively download a browser when one is installed in the OS already, which caused IE to win the browserwars. In my view Microsoft is trying to stop people migrating away and implementing features which weren't planned to keep up.
So to you, Microsoft has remained its identity of "staying steady on front in a dominating position" when they sortof lost interest before?

Please feel free to give this cocky a-hole a call.

This article, http://voip-blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/voip /rates-technology-inc.html , gives a good impression of what a jerk this guy is.

The patent 5,425,085 appears to be for the device that implements least cost routing using a database, not the concept and patent 5,519,769 appears to be the method to update the database. A conversation with the CEO of RTI indicates that Sharp Electronics, Cisco, Nortel, and Lucent have already paid for the permission to use this patent or a Covenant Not Sue (CNS).

I'm willing to bet that you are using Cisco, Nortel, or Lucent gear at your shop to perform least cost routing which why you would not have to pay RTI a CNS since you are covered by your gear's manufacturer. In addition, the patents only refer to devices that use databses to determine routing, if your configuration is manually updated the patent would not apply to you. The problem with Google talk is that the "device" is the clients' computers (and I doubt seriously that Dell, HP, Apple, etc have paid for the permission to use this patent) and the database is Google's server.

Now I am not sure how his patent can apply towards Google Talk since telephone lines are not used by Google Talk and the patent '085 explicitly specifies telephone lines. I also read references that the patent has been revised over the last few years, but I lost the links to support this statement.

How does the 'fully encrypted' part of skype work? Is it personalized encryption via public key, private key? Or does skype act as the man in the middle somehow?

I suspect that issue will cause a call for government regulation to ensure wiretapping. In fact, I'll bet that this is a large factor in causing China to try blocking voip.

blakespot

...After reading hundreds upon hundreds of horror stories about Vonage's customer service at places like VOIP-Forums, I decided that I wasn't quite ready to take the plunge. I'm sure I'm not alone. Everyone's blaming the FCC for trying to shut down Vonage and whatnot, has nobody considered that maybe it's just not all that great a company?

No Levy on iPods in Canada

I read that as Levis, ie pants.

I know Paris Hilton has some funky cases for her cell phone and such, but I didn't think an iPod had to have pants on too.

How about a thong for it?

Gratuitous Violence, Talking Heads, Slothful Media, the War Upon Iraq.

Question: does hacking the DVD constitute a violation of the EULA? If so, then here's someone else's kid, whose parents are allowing to play a game rated Mature +17. The rating is clearly marked on the box, on the cartridge and the start-up screen. Then the kid illegally hacks the DVD, and the parents are mad at the gamemaker?

Give me a break.

Besides, what's a bit of gratuitous sex; in between Texas Chainsaw Styled Contract Hit Massacres, multiple acts of deadly assault with the intent to carjack and, players looking really Soldier of Fortune GQ in high fashion body-armor, difficult to obtain in the Iraq Theater, while they engage in heavy artillery firefights with police? Sex puts the game over the top? What the hell is wrong with America anyway? The country is still hung up over the decade past Clinton's lies under oath about consensual sex with a willing and adult partner, but presently, a president led this country dishonestly into a war upon Iraq, and it is okey dokey Dubya, you tried...wink and a nod?

Priorities please. They are not my children, nor my responsibilities. I am sorry if this places a burden on parents. I freely chose NOT to have children, and have carefully entered into and participated in relationships with this in mind. Isn't it enough that I am required by law to cover some of the tax burden that Congress has chosen to foist upon me, in an effort to shield parents from the fair market costs of procreation? Now, there are cries to censor too, because a pernicious preponderance of piss poor parenting prevails in our society?

Listen, off in the distance; is that the Urologist I hear gleefully snipping away in his outpatient clinic's operating theater?

To top it off, Corporate Media Outlets expose their lazily negligent practises again with their willingness to accept copy from any policy breeder org without researching the source. Why has nobody questioned the overtly commercial nature of the National Institute on the Media and the Family's website, dripping saturated advertisements for their services and products throughout. Is it because the org's title itself exudes the aroma of predictable reports fattened up after feeding on Adobe's bloat enabling Acrobat software? Their statements and public releases spew commercialisations. Their National Parental Warning Press Release regarding GTA last week began with an introductory sentence that was a blatant pitch expressing speaking engagement availability for the Chairman:

"Hidden Pornography Easily Accessible; David Walsh Ph.D. Available for Comment".

Within the meat of the release, a hook was incorporated into the warning, reeling the fish back to one of the National Institute on the Media and the Family's register trademarked product lines. It's an unseen below the belt subliminal sucker punch. From the release:

"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" never belonged in the hands of kids," said psychologist Dr. Walsh. "We are taking the unusual step of alerting parents to the pornography available through this game to any child or teen who is Internet savvy. This gives greater urgency to our message to parents: Become MediaWise: Watch What Your Kids Watch."

It is self-evident that any game with a Mature rating doesn't belong "in the hands of kids". Why is Dr. Walsh restating the obvious? Could it have anything to do with the fact that upon visiting their website, one discovers that MediaWise has morphed into MediaWise® a product-line for sale on the Institute's website with a price tag of $250 for the MediaWise® parent education kit, $995 for the

"Hate to break it to you but people have not died *because* of this. They died because of a lack of understanding on *their* part.

Yes, I'm sure Vonage (and others) could have put a "hair dryer" style sticker on the top of the ATA that read something like "Warning -- Do not use for 911 calls if you are in danger", but the information (last I looked, anyway) was available as to what happens when you dial 911."

A reasonable point, though it merits mention that Vonage is currently being sued by the state of Texas for intentionally misleading their customers about their 911 coverage.

Personally, I don't see what the problem is with giving them four months to handle the technical aspects of this. They've got everyone's zip code and (I would assume) a directory of each zip code's appropriate 911 response center. How hard is it to make these ends meet? I would think the chick that worked the switchboard at the Mayberry RFD phone company could handle this.

There already are a few, although not as high in capacity as the iPod. Here's some links:

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/motor ola-mpxcell-phone-pda-mp3-player-camera-allinone.a sp
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7312

The second aticle seems to be inspired by Bill Gates' view (or vice-versa?) that iPods may be killed by cellphones (Nokia in this case).

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Apr/1133111.htm

This was announced a few days ago:

"Yahoo! has appointed Chief Data Officer Dr. Usama Fayyad to take on oversight of Yahoo! Research Labs. [...] He also spent time at Microsoft where he founded and led the data mining and exploration group at Microsoft Research and built and shipped data mining products for Microsoft's server division."