Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 11:45 AM EDT |
how-the-air-force-
and-spacex-saved-dragon-from-doom [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 12:29 PM EDT |
Chris Diplock believes his research has the potential to make
Vancouver not only greener but less lonely. The Sharing Project, founded by
Diplock, is already generating nationwide buzz for its plans to explore exactly
how Vancouverites could share both goods and services -- one neighbourhood at a
time.
"The Sharing Project focuses on finding
out what Vancouverites want to share, and how they want to share it, in
different regions and neighbourhoods across the city," explains Gala Milne, the
project's community engagement manager. "Determining the demand for, say, if
Kitsilano wants to share watersports equipment, like kayaks and canoes, or if
people in Strathcona want to be sharing tools, or space, or skills."
Known by a variety of titles (the Peer-to-Peer Market, The
Collaborative Economy, Collaborative Consumption), the Sharing Economy is hardly
unique to Vancouver. In fact, it's already exploding on a worldwide scale,
having enjoyed a surge of popularity in the aftermath of the 2008 global
financial crisis.
By expert's estimates, the market is already worth
approximately $26 billion, and, in March 2013, a story on the Sharing
Economy even graced the front page of The Economist. However, despite these
gains, the concept is still a relatively new one.
Jesse Donaldson,
The Tyee[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 02:07 PM EDT |
CBC: BlackBerry disputes 'false and misleading' Z10 returns
report
There is a rather interesting story in the news today about
Blackberry. The company is claiming that an "analyst" has been made a "false and
misleading report" about the return rates of the new Blackberry Z10.
Blackberry says they are making a formal complaint to authorities
claiming that their shareholders are harmed by the allegedly false report.
Blackberry are claiming that the "false statements" were being made to influence
the stock markets.
Normally Groklaw readers wouldn't have any interest
in the problems of a proprietary phone maker, but we have previously seen a good
many cases of "independent analysts" who turn out to actually be PR consultants
who will write anything for pay. In this case, Blackberry is responding robustly
to what they feel is a similar case, and it will be interesting to see how this
turns out.
The Z10 has been released in my country for a while now,
and I've seen them in the stores (although I don't have one myself). Everyone
that I have heard of who has tried one says they are a very nice phone, although
rather expensive (almost as much as an iPhone). The release in the USA comes
after the release in a number of other countries. For problems to suddenly crop
up now seems rather unlikely. I'm not saying that the Z10 will be a commercial
success, as the dominance of MS Windows in the PC market shows that the best
product doesn't always win. However, it does make the report in question sound a
bit suspicious.
If this is a case of a "shill for hire", then I doubt
that Apple, Samsung, or Google are behind it. They are all so far in the lead
that their most likely strategy would be to ignore Blackberry. A more likely
suspect would be someone who desperately wants their phone to be the "third
ecosystem" and sees the new Blackberry phones as being a direct challenge to
that (Blackberry will be coming out with more phones at various price points). I
wonder who that could be?
BlackBerry will file a formal
complaint with Canadian and U.S. authorities about a "false and misleading"
analyst report that alleged consumers are returning the company's new Z10
touchscreen smartphones in large numbers.
On Thursday, analyst firm
Detwiler Fenton alleged in a research note to clients that customers were
returning their Z10 units in abnormally high numbers to U.S. carrier
Verizon.
The research firm refused to make either its report to
investors or its methodology available to BlackBerry, even after the company
said the firm’s findings were "absolutely false."
BlackBerry claims it
and its shareholders have been harmed, and will call for an immediate
investigation by authorities.
"These materially false and misleading
comments about device return rates in the United States harm BlackBerry and our
shareholders, and we call upon the appropriate authorities in Canada and the
United States to conduct an immediate investigation," said BlackBerry chief
legal officer Steve Zipperstein. (...)
"Everyone is entitled to their
opinion about the merits of the many competing products in the smartphone
industry, but when false statements of material fact are deliberately purveyed
for the purpose of influencing the markets, a red line has been
crossed."
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: designerfx on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 02:53 PM EDT |
After all his harassment of the Oatmeal, push comes to shove.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130412/11090722691/charles-
carreon-has-to-pay-46k-legal-fees.shtml[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 08:05 PM EDT |
In a letter sent to the leaders of the House Intelligence panel on
Wednesday, TechNet CEO Rey Ramsey said the cybersecurity bill addresses the need
for industry and government to be able to send and receive information about
cyber threats to one another in real time. He also commended the Intelligence
panel leaders for taking steps to address privacy concerns with their bill, the
Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), but also said the trade
group looked forward to continuing talks on "further privacy
protections."
"We commend the committee for providing liability protections
to companies participating in voluntary information-sharing and applaud the
committee's efforts to work with a wide range of stakeholders to address issues
such as strengthening privacy protections," Ramsey writes. "As the legislative
process unfolds, we look forward to continuing the dialogue with you and your
colleagues on further privacy protections, including discussions on the role of
a civilian interface for information sharing."
Jennifer Martinez, The Hill[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 08:09 PM EDT |
Just installed Linux Mint XFCE on my desktop. Install went well (better
than PCLinux OS which I'd tried first - it refused to partition the
disc).
Problem is that it seems that Linux Mint uses Mono. Oh well,
off to look for another
alternative...
Waynehttp://madhatter.ca [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 09:33 PM EDT |
I have a French *.zip file of *.pdf's.
Unzip has no objections, claims the zip file is not corrupt and unzips it
without problems.
However Ocular won't open the *.pdf files "cannot open file". Both
Dolphin and Konquer file managers claim that subdirectories in the unzipped file
don't exist. Strangely Midnight Commander which often objects to file names
with odd characters in them has no problem.
I have tried with -U -UU -L individually and in combination but to no effect.
The problem is a character(s) which shows as a diamond with ? in it in reverse.
I have eventually found it in the unicode tables: Specials - replacement
character "U+FFFD"
Any thoughts as to how to unzip or decode filenames?[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, April 12 2013 @ 09:47 PM EDT |
The HSE had argued a person was not free to have unlimited choice of
legal representation in all circumstances. To allow persons like this mother who
were "manifestly" eligible for legal aid but who chose private lawyers to then
seek their costs against the HSE was contrary to public policy and
"catastrophic" for the HSE's finances, it argued.
The judge rejected those
arguments and agreed with the mother's lawyers - John Rogers SC, with Margaret
Farrelly - the case was "not about legal aid" or an attempt to indirectly
establish a right to legal aid in civil cases.
The case was about the right
of an individual litigant who is not on legal aid, and has not applied for legal
aid, to be treated in the same way as any other litigant not on legal aid
"without arbitrary, capricious or invidiuous discrimination" that, on the
arguments of the HSE and Attorney General, "could be based only on her supposed
lack of means", the judge said.
The mother had chosen her lawyers, was
entitled to do so and now sought her costs as would any litigant who won their
case.
Mary
Carolan, The Irish Times
---
couldn't find decision
http://www.courts.ie/ [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
- Loser pays there - Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 05:51 AM EDT
|
Authored by: squib on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 10:59 AM EDT |
This article in Boing
Boing suggests M$ has gotten out of paying tax by getting Washington
State’s Legislature changed. Their solution, make up the short fall in unpaid
taxes by instead taxing night-clubs that don't permit their patrons to dance,
but where dancing is theoretically possible. What next? Motels that don't
provide window only phone recharging facilities but could if they wanted too?
Oh, the mind boggles at the opportunities. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 03:39 PM EDT |
At the meeting yesterday, Federal Reserve staff argued that the
documents relating to widespread legal violations are the “trade secrets” of
mortgage servicing companies.
In addition, staff from the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) argued that these documents should be withheld
from Members of Congress because producing them could be interpreted as a waiver
of their authority to prevent disclosure to the public of confidential
supervisory bank examination information.
Yves Smith,
Naked Capitalism[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, April 13 2013 @ 08:21 PM EDT |
http://i.imgur.com/l0G0Il9.jpg [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: SirHumphrey on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 10:18 AM EDT |
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 02:38 PM EDT |
There are a lot of contributions to the "News Pics" thread,
but I have yet to see _ANY_ pictures!
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 06:32 PM EDT |
The promoters of software patents (seeming to this non-lawyer as extreme
examples of salami slicing ... but who would ask me) claim physical world
parallels.
So how would the Wright brothers have flown against a 'patent' for a cambered
wing to generate lift? I am sure a cambered wing could be defended as a material
object (with model even). It only 'uses' a law of nature (Bernoulli's principle)
to generate a tangible and useful result ...
Perhaps I am too naive for this deep debate ... [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 06:49 PM EDT |
In a country where about 800 million people live on less than $2
a day, Karbonn handsets start from 3,599 rupees
($66) and Micromax’s from
3,999 rupees, less than the cheapest Apple and Samsung smartphones. The iPhone 4
is available for
26,500 rupees and Samsung’s Galaxy Y Duos Lite for 6,110
rupees.
“India is poised for a smartphone boom; just look at the
Internet penetration and potential,” Deepak Mehrotra, chief executive
officer
of Gurgaon-based Micromax, said in an interview. “But we don’t see any point to
offering a Ferrari.”
Bloomberg
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 07:24 PM EDT |
gsmarena.com
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Ed L. on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 07:32 PM EDT |
Monday, 15 April 2015: Will the Supreme Court end human gene
patents after three decades?.
--- Real Programmers mangle their
own memory. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: JamesK on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 09:20 PM EDT |
Under
construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah
Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of
immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the
past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths
of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through
the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic
networks. --- The following program contains immature subject
matter.
Viewer discretion is advised. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, April 14 2013 @ 11:00 PM EDT |
`The UK's "irrational"
use of biofuels will
cost motorists around £460 million over the next 12
months, a
think tank says.'
Chatham House’s
independent expert is lobbyist[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, April 15 2013 @ 03:06 AM EDT |
Some universities no longer feel the need to pay for the services of
Access Copyright which has provided a pool of protected intellectual work for
almost two decades while distributing royalties to the writers, artists and
publishers it represents
A group universities are now opting to navigate the
world of intellectual property rights without a middle agent.
Simmering
tensions are now threatening to boil over as Access Copyright takes one of
Canada's largest universities to court — a move some see as a warning to others
who've ended relations with the agency.
Access Copyright is claiming
Toronto's York University, which opted out, has improperly been reproducing and
authorizing the copying of protected works.
CBC
---
Michael Geist too [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|