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Comment Re:Look! We got 2 million (Score 2) 60

I'd be willing to bet that the scale of counterfeiting at Amazon might be a lot closer to 5 billion items a year than 500 million. As long as everything is automated, with little to no human review, then it will be dead simple to create a vendor account, ship a boat load of crap to Amazon and then sell it it on to customers with Prime Free 2 Day Shipping.

Comment This Is Only News Because Apple (Score 1) 85

Get Apple in the title of your article. Get clicks. Get paid.

As far as I am concerned Apple is running their own OS and app marketplace. They should be perfectly within their rights to pick and choose the 3rd party apps they sell, what they sell them for and what payment methods they accept for such sales. They should also be free to provide favored treatment to any vendors as they see fit.

Comment Re:Let me guess... (Score 4, Insightful) 118

by Marlin Schwanke (#61301070) Attached to: Foxconn Mostly Abandons $10 Billion Wisconsin Project

You're right: It wasn't Trump's fault.

This alleged "deal" was put together by *local* Republican idiots. Trump just parachuted in to take credit at the end.

He put his stamp of approval on the deal so he owns it. He had the levers of power at his disposal to make sure that Foxconn followed through. He just didn't care to do the work after he got the photo op.

Submission + - AMD files patent for chiplet based GPU design (wccftech.com)

Submitted by UnknowingFool
UnknowingFool writes: AMD filed a patent on using chiplets for a GPU with hints on why it has waited this long to extend their CPU strategy to GPUs. The latency between chiplets poses more of a performance problem for GPUs, and AMD is attempting to solve the problem with a new interconnect called high bandwidth passive crosslink. This new interconnect will allow each GPU to more effectively communicate with each other and the CPU.

Submission + - SPAM: Legendary Science Fiction Author Ben Bova Has Passed at the Age of 88 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: He published his first novel, The Star Conquerors, in 1959, and followed up with dozens of others in the following years, as well as numerous short stories that appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Analog Science Fact and Fiction, Galaxy Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and others.

In 1971, he took over the helm of Analog following the death of its long-running editor, John W. Campbell Jr. — a huge task, given Campbell’s influence on the genre to that point. According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Bova doubled down on the publication’s tendencies towards technological realism and Hard SF, “but considerably broadened its horizons.” While there, he published notable stories such as Joe Haldeman’s Hero (which became The Forever War), and earned the Hugo Award for Best Editor for numerous consecutive years before stepping down in 1977. From there, he became the first editor of Omni Magazine until 1982, and consulted on television shows such as The Starlost and Land of the Lost.
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User Journal

Journal Journal: A challenge to all Trump supporters: 3

Journal by Rick Schumann
You really want to 'Make America Great Again'? You actually care about this country? Then call the Whitehouse, tell them you voted for Trump, and DEMAND that he concede the election and begin the transition process!
Your 'hero' clearly and objectively doesn't actually give a rats' ass about this country or about you, only his own ego and 'winning'; he is a traitor to everything you claim to care about, and is willing to burn it all down to the ground just to 'beat' someone he

Submission + - Werner Herzog on Asteroids, Star Wars, and the 'Obscenity' of a City on Mars (inverse.com)

Submitted by DevNull127
DevNull127 writes: 78-year-old filmmaker Werner Herzog shared some interesting thoughts before the release of his documentary on asteroids, Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds :

Herzog tells Inverse he's less concerned than ever that a meteorite will destroy the Earth, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still be worried about our own extinction. "It may be 100 million years to go until then," Herzog says, before adding, "within the next thousand years, we may have done such stupid things that we are not around anymore to contemplate it...."

There's a theory that all life on Earth came from a meteorite. Do you think that's possible...?

[I]f you expand the question, it wouldn't surprise me if we found life somewhere outside of our solar system, or even within our solar system, because we share the same chemistry with the universe. We share the same physics with the universe. And we share the same history with the universe. So with trillions and trillions and trillions of stars out there, it's highly likely that somewhere there are some forms of life. Probably not as good and interesting as in movies. We can be pretty certain there are no creatures out there like in Star Wars...

Have you heard the theory that we're living inside a simulation?

Yes, but I don't buy it. Because when I kick a soccer ball from the penalty spot, I know this is for real. If the goalie saves it, oh shit, this is for real.

Submission + - Deep Frozen Arctic Microbes Are Waking Up (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Permafrost covers 24 percent of the Earth’s land surface, and the soil constituents vary with local geology. Arctic lands offer unexplored microbial biodiversity and microbial feedbacks, including the release of carbon to the atmosphere. In some locations, hundreds of millions of years’ worth of carbon is buried. The layers may still contain ancient frozen microbes, Pleistocene megafauna and even buried smallpox victims. As the permafrost thaws with increasing rapidity, scientists’ emerging challenge is to discover and identify the microbes, bacteria and viruses that may be stirring. Some of these microbes are known to scientists. Methanogenic Archaea, for example metabolize soil carbon to release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Other permafrost microbes (methanotrophs) consume methane. The balance between these microbes plays a critical role in determining future climate warming. Others are known but have unpredictable behavior after release...

It is clear that the warmer we make the Arctic, the weirder it will get, as temperatures at the surface become more extreme and thawing deepens. With the coalescence of microbes reawakening from the deep and surface conditions unprecedented in human history, it is challenging to assess risks accurately without improved Arctic microbial datasets. We should pay attention to both known unknowns, such as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and unknown unknowns, including the potential risks from the resurrection of ancient and poorly described viral genomes from Arctic ice by synthetic biologists. For all of these reasons, we must come up with guidelines for future Arctic research. As travel through the region increases, the likelihood of pathogen export and import rises as well. The planetary protection guidelines that space agencies follow to prevent interplanetary contamination can provide a framework for how microbial investigation can safely continue. Biosurveillance measures must be put into place to protect communities in the Arctic and beyond. As the Arctic continues to transform, one thing is clear: as climate change warms this microbial repository during the 21st century, the full range of consequences is yet to be told.

Submission + - The US Could Soon Ban the Selling of Carrier-Locked Phones (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the US, a complicated combination of corporate interests and pre-smartphone era legislation has resulted in more than two decades of back and forth about the legality of phone locking. It’s looking like that battle could ramp up again next year. The transition to a Biden administration could shake up the regulatory body that governs these rules. The timing also coincides with a congressional proceeding that takes place every three years to determine what tweaks should be made to digital rights laws. 2021 could be the year of the truly unlocked phone. For some activists, it’s a glimmer of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

[H]ow could carriers be forced to provide phones that are unlocked by default? There are a couple of promising avenues, though neither are a given. The “agenda” here meaning something to be decided by a regulating body. In the UK, the regulator Ofcom made that call. The US Ofcom equivalent is the Federal Communications Commission. Under its current leadership of Trump appointee Ajit Pai, the FCC has been staunchly pro-business, passing legislation like the repeal of net neutrality at the behest of companies like AT&T. “Getting this done in an Ajit Pai FCC would be extremely difficult and very unlikely, given how friendly that FCC has been toward private companies and broadband providers,” Sheehan says. “Whether or not that could happen in a Biden administration, we don’t know. I think it would be much more possible.”

Another route would be to take the problem back to its source: Section 1201 itself. Every three years, the US Library of Congress and Copyright Office hold a rulemaking proceeding that takes public comment. It's a chance for advocates to make their case for amending Section 1201, assuming they can afford the legal fees necessitated by such an involved, drawn out process. It’s a less overtly political process, as the key decisionmakers at the two institutions don’t come and go with each presidential administration like they usually do at the FCC. These sessions have already yielded positive outcomes for fans of repairability, like an exemption that took effect in 2016 that made it legal to hack car computers and other devices. The next proceeding is currently underway. If citizens want to urge the government to amend Section 1201, the first round of comments are required to be in by December 14. Responses and additional proposals will go back and forth through the spring of 2021, until the Copyright Office ultimately decides which changes to implement. Both Sheehan and Wiens are working with other advocates to make their case for a future of unlockability.

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