Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/GJj4a0F9Y7c/nato-confirms-drone-loss
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Monday, December 5, 2011
NATO Confirms Spy Drone Loss [Airplanes]
Voyager Probes Give Us ET's View
The only thing consequentially different is computer capability, but a faster/more complex computer would just as likely be a liability as a bonus. Software design techniques, if anything, have gone rapidly backwards for this sort of application since the late 70s/early 80s.
Thankfully, some of our/your assumptions about space technology are currently being proven wrong. For instance, take the Nexus One. NASA has been testing it to see if it could make cheaper smaller satellites with it, and its performance in that regard has been completely outstanding.
Granted, it hasn't survived 30 years in space yet, only time will tell on that one.
But it can survive in all kinds of extreme temperatures, all kinds of G forces, and it works perfectly well in a vacuum. And it's so small to begin with, the extra hardware it needs to power it, recharge it, move it, etc, doesn't have to be that big to begin with.
During one of its space test, the Nexus One was even strapped to the tip of a rocket and the rocket accidentally crashed back into the desert leaving a large crater, but the phone only got a cracked screen and was still fully functional otherwise.
And this is probably something that's not unique to that phone, or to Android, in particular. Consumer-grade devices, because they've been designed to survive actual consumers and sometimes even little kids, have come a long way in terms of reliability.
And granted, a Nexus One will still have bugs that would normally be intolerable in the older type of computers designed for space, but it has enough computing power to be reprogrammed remotely and compensate for most bugs that are found after the fact. And since they take much less space and weight, and are much cheaper to launch. You can launch half a dozen for a fraction of the cost it used to launch an older type of satellite, thus building a type of redundancy that we just couldn't afford to have with the older kind.
So if anything needs to improve, it's probably not our technology, but our mindset. We have good technology. That technology may not be perfect, but it should be more than good enough for unmanned space exploration at least. And it's grand time we start using it for that purpose.
Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/NricosgcZg4/voyager-probes-give-us-ets-view
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
RIM writes off value of tablet inventory
NEW YORK (AP) ? Research In Motion Ltd., the struggling maker of the BlackBerry phones, is writing off much of its inventory of PlayBook tablets, since it has to sell them at a deep discount.
The Canadian company on Friday said it's taking a pre-tax charge of $485 million in the just-ended quarter to account for the declining value of the tablets. The model originally priced at $500 now costs $200.
A year ago, co-CEO Jim Balsillie said pent-up interest in the PlayBook was "really overwhelming." Companies are looking for an equivalent of the iPad of corporate use, he said.
In March, Balsillie said "The launch of the PlayBook may well be the most significant development for RIM since the launch of the of the first BlackBerry device back in 1999."
But when the tablet went on sale in April, reviewers puzzled over the lack of email software, saying the device seemed half-baked. RIM now promises updated software in February.
RIM said it shipped 150,000 PlayBooks to stores and distributors in the fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 26. "Sell-through," or the number actually bought by users, was slightly higher, reflecting sales of tablets shipped earlier. It shipped 500,000 in the first quarter and 200,000 in the second.
Apple Inc., meanwhile, sold 11.1 million iPad tablets in its most recent quarter, which ended Sept. 24.
RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said RIM is still committed to the PlayBook, despite its issues.
RIM also said it sold 14.1 million BlackBerrys in the third quarter, slightly better than analysts expected. It then expects sales to fall slightly in the current quarter, roughly in line with analysts' expectations.
The company provided preliminary revenue and profit figures for the third quarter that were lower than it previously projected, but not a surprise to analysts.
RIM said it expects earnings at the "low to mid point" of the $1.20 to $1.40 per share it previously forecast. Analysts polled by FactSet have on average been expecting $1.18 per share.
The company expects revenue slightly the below the $5.3 billion to $5.6 billion in its previous forecast. Analysts had been expecting $5.27 billion, on average.
RIM shares fell $1.81, or 9.7 percent, to close Friday at $16.77. The stock hit a seven-year low of $15.98 last month.
The PlayBook charge comes as analysts have started to conclude that RIM's management has no chance of really righting the ship. They've started to value the company not on its future prospects, but on how much it would be worth if acquired, broken up, or simply run down while keeping BlackBerry service going.
The company is also taking a charge of $50 million for an embarrassing October outage of email and Web services that lasted days for millions of overseas BlackBerry users. It briefly spread to the U.S. and Canada before the company was able to contain the damage.
RIM reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on Dec. 15.
RIM's announcement is the latest in a string of bad news for the company. A widespread outage frustrated tens of millions of BlackBerry users in October. On Thursday, RIM suspended two employees after their drunken rowdiness forced an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Beijing to be diverted to Vancouver.
RIM has also delayed the launch of new phones with the company's new QNX operating system for several months. RIM disappointed many in October when the company didn't announce a clear timeline for when it would release phones with the new software which is now called BBX.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company continues to have success overseas but has increasingly lost market share in North America. Many U.S. users have moved on to phones with big touchscreens such as the iPhone and various competing models that run Google's Android software.
___
Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
Committee continuing investigation of Jackson Jr. (AP)
The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it will continue its investigation into allegations Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. or someone acting on his behalf offered to raise campaign cash for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for a Senate appointment in 2008.
The committee also released an initial report from the Office of Congressional Ethics that said there was "probable cause" to believe that Jackson either directed a third party or had knowledge of a third party's effort to convince the since-convicted Blagojevich to appoint Jackson Jr. in exchange for campaign cash.
The report, originally compiled in August 2009, also said there is "substantial reason to believe" Jackson Jr. violated federal law by using his congressional staff to mount a "public campaign" to secure a Senate appointment. The report had not been released previously and the ethics committee had delayed its investigation because the Justice Department was conducting a criminal investigation that led to Blagojevich's conviction on a series of corruption charges including efforts to sell a Senate appointment.
The committee had previously said it would determine by Friday what course its investigation would take involving Jackson, a Democrat and son of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
The younger Jackson responded to the committee's decision to extend the investigation with a statement pledging to cooperate and reiterating that his efforts to be appointed to the Senate were above-board.
"I have said from the beginning that I publicly and transparently sought to have the Governor of Illinois appoint me to fulfill the final two years of then-Senator Barack Obama's term in the U.S. Senate," he said. "I did nothing illegal, unethical or inappropriate in that pursuit and I believe that is what the Ethics Committee will conclude at the end of this process."
Jackson also released a letter from his attorneys, who wrote that there is no basis for the committee's investigation and urged the panel to "close its investigation of this matter."
"Although Congressman Jackson was interested in the appointment ... he was largely focused on his own re-election and Obama's campaign," Reid H. Weingarten and Brian M. Heberlig said in the letter.
Friday's announcement means the committee will continue looking into allegations involving Blagojevich and whether Jackson inappropriately used government resources to angle for an appointment. It voted unanimously to continue its inquiry and set no timetable for a conclusion.
The committee said in a statement that continuing the investigation "does not itself indicate that any violation occurred."
The detailed 2009 report from the Office of Congressional Ethics, released with the statement, indicates investigators have suspicions Jackson had knowledge of efforts to persuade Blagojevich to appoint him to the Senate. The report names a likely third party, Raghuveer Nayak.
"There is probable cause to believe that Representative Jackson either 1) directed a third party, most likely Mr. Raghuveer Nayak to offer to raise money ... or 2) had knowledge that Nayak would likely make such an offer once Rep. Jackson authorized him to advocate on his behalf with Gov. Blagojevich."
The report said investigating these claims was stymied by the fact that Blagojevich, Nayak and another fundraiser, Rajinder Bedi, have declined to cooperate with the investigation.
The report also concludes, after interviews with Jackson Jr. and his staff, that there is substantial reason to believe that his staff based in both Chicago and Washington was used inappropriately in attempts to secure a Senate appointment.
The Office of Congressional Ethics cannot discipline members of the House and does not determine whether they are guilty. That is left to the ethics committee. The Office of Congressional Ethics does preliminary investigative work for the ethics committee. Its board members are not members of Congress.
Publication of the report and the committee's decision to continue its investigation could have political consequences for Jackson beyond whatever action the committee might take.
He will stand for reelection in 2012 in a rejiggered congressional district that has attracted a viable primary opponent, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson. A Democrat, Halvorson represented the new terrain in Jackson's district both in Congress and in the Illinois Legislature. She pounced on Friday's announcement and has indicated she will make Jackson's ethical issues a focus of her race.
"There we go," Halverson said. "Another day where he's got to deal with ethics, distractions and his lawyers instead of constituents and this has been going on for over three years"
The 46-year-old Jackson was first elected to office in 1995. He has twice considered runs for mayor of Chicago and was widely seen as interested in an appointment to the Senate seat vacated by Obama when he was elected president in 2008.
_______
Associated Press Writer Deanna Bellandi in Chicago contributed to this report.
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Survey: 62% of Americans watch over 3 hours of TV daily
Sony
By Rosa Golijan
The next time you feel guilty about wasting half an hour on watching a sitcom, consider this: 62 percent of Americans spend more than three hours glued to their television sets each day.
Sony Electronics shared this statistic after commissioning research firm Harris Interactive to survey more than 2,500 U.S.-based adults in order to learn more about their television watching habits.
It's worth noting that a study conducted by the media researchers at Nielsen?in November 2010?? one year ago?? suggested that the average person is watching?over five hours of television each day.
Suddenly the new numbers don't seem so bad, huh??
Other details discovered during the Harris Interactive survey ??which was conducted online in November 2011 ??are that 32 percent of Americans are unhappy with their televisions' sizes and that 31 percent are embarrassed by the age of their TV sets.
No word on how many hours are spent idly flipping through channels and proclaiming that "there's nothing good on!"
Related stories:
Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
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Friday, December 2, 2011
Cable companies to resell Verizon Wireless service
NEW YORK (AP) ? Cable companies Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks are giving up on their dreams of creating their own wireless network, opting instead to resell Verizon Wireless service.
The companies said Friday that they will be selling their wireless licenses ? which they haven't been using ? to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion.
Cable companies have long had ambitions to get into wireless, and some of them have linked up with Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. to offer service. Lately, there has been speculation that the cable companies would invest in ailing No. 3 and 4 carriers Sprint or T-Mobile USA to gain access to the wireless market.
The link-up with No. 1 carrier Verizon Wireless and the sale of the spectrum appears to preclude that kind of deal.
"It's really hard for a cable company to expect to compete in a highly competitive wireless market," said Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley. He pointed to Cox Communications, another cable company, which this year shut down its plans to build out a wireless network.
"We got a good price for the spectrum," Dudley said. "An arrangement like this makes a lot of sense."
Time Warner Cable currently resells access to Clearwire's wireless data network as "4G" service. Dudley said it could continue to provide service to existing subscribers, but the arrangement with Verizon Wireless is exclusive, so it will stop selling to new subscribers.
Comcast, the country's largest cable company, owned the majority of the spectrum holding company, and will get $2.3 billion from the sale. Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable company, will get $1.1 billion. Bright House, the sixth-largest, will get $189 million.
The three companies and Verizon Wireless will resell each other's services, so it will be possible to sign up for cable service in a Verizon Wireless store. Billing will be separate.
Verizon Communications Inc., the New York-based phone company that owns 55 percent of Verizon Wireless, resells satellite TV service from DirecTV Group Inc.
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Monday, November 28, 2011
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