He also thinks “nobody has a better platform than Netflix” to take advantage of a trend that is seeing consumers view more and more video via Internet-connected TVs, tablets and smartphones. Icahn believes Netflix should place less emphasis on older library content and spend a lot more developing original programming to help it compete with premium subscription services such as HBO.
Apple’s Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal
At a hearing in the court in London on Thursday morning, the judge told Apple that it had to change the wording of the statement within 48 hours, carry it on its home page, and use at least 11-point font.
via Apple’s Samsung statement reprimanded by court of appeal | Technology | guardian.co.uk.
Bloomberg quoted Jacob as saying Apple’s statement was “a plain breach of the order”.
Kim Dotcom Avoids “Unsafe” .Com, Picks Me.Ga for New Megaupload
The new Mega will operate from the Gabonese domain Me.Ga. With just 98,800 Internet users in a population of 1.6 million, the African country is a small player on the Internet, but this is about to change.
via Kim Dotcom Avoids “Unsafe” .Com, Picks Me.Ga for New Megaupload | TorrentFreak.
In a notice, ironically hosted on Kim.com, Dotcom also advises other cloud hosting providers to stay away from the U.S. and refrain from operating domains that are controlled by American companies.
NYC Data Centers Struggle to Recover After Sandy
The fight now is to keep those generators fueled while pumps clear the basement areas, allowing the standard backup generators to begin operating. It’s also unclear whether the critical elements of infrastructure (power and communications) will both be up and running in time to restore services.
Below is a list of some of the data centers and services in the area, and how they’re faring:
SME Server
Exceptionally reliable and easy to use, SME Server can be installed and configured in less than 20 minutes – yet it’s powered by a secure and open Linux platform that’s fully upgradeable and customizable. Simply install it on any standard PC and in minutes you’ll have a robust Linux-based LAMP server capable of fully replacing those expensive Windows server licenses and providing a full range of services – including e-mail, firewall, file and print-sharing, web hosting, remote access and more.
Dante’s SDH Inferno
Valve: Linux More Viable Than Windows 8 for Gaming
In a presentation at Ubuntu Developer Summit currently going on in Denmark, Drew Bliss from Valve said that Linux is more viable than Windows 8 for gaming. Windows 8 ships with its own app store and it is moving away from an open platform model.
via Valve: Linux More Viable Than Windows 8 for Gaming ~ Ubuntu Vibes | Daily Ubuntu Linux Updates.
Ubuntu is preferred platform as it has a large user base and good community support with a strong company like Canonical behind it.
Optical conveyors: A class of active tractor beams
A tractor beam is a traveling wave that can transport illuminated material along its length back to its source.
via Optical conveyors: A class of active tractor beams.
Abstract.
We experimentally demonstrate a class of tractor beams created by coherently superposing coaxial Bessel beams. These optical conveyors have periodic intensity variations along their axes that act as highly effective optical traps for micrometer-scale objects. Varying the Bessel beams’ relative phase shifts the traps axially thereby selectively transports trapped objects either downstream or upstream along the length of the beam. The same methods used to project a single optical conveyor can project arrays of independent optical conveyors, allowing bi-directional transport in three dimensions.
Cisco network really was $100 million more
Total bid costs were the sum of Layer 2 hardware (and software), Layer 3 hardware (and software), Layer 2 maintenance, Layer 3 maintenance, training, and taxes and shipping. Cisco’s cost in each respective category was $51 million; $18.7 million; $34.3 million; $10.6 million; $1 million; and $7 million.
Alcatel-Lucent’s was $14.5 million; $2.5 million; $1.8 million; $798,000; $777,000; and $1.7 million.
via Cisco network really was $100 million more.
The comments in response to this article are superb and well worth the read. If you don’t drill down far enough this comment stood out for me (highlights mine).
it comes down to a architected solution vs best of breed. If you just want routing and switching (speeds and feeds) – -take it to bid and bid on the lowest vendor. Although there are still some advantages inherent within each product – you’re going to get what you get. But you can’t get business value out of switching and routing – its the applications! In SJSUs case – I laud the concept that you buy an architecture. If you need to deliver business applications like conferencing, video, call processing, presence/IM service, and contact center… as it appears sjsu was looking to do … why not buy the architecture that has been integrated and purpose built for the applicaitons. That is why SJSU is saying Cisco was the only vendor that had a solution. ALU doesn’t, brocade doesnt, HP doesnt…. the alternative is you could go to bid for each of these, take over a year to do it, once purchased, hire an IBM, Accenture, or build your own team to integrated them all, and then what do you have… a HUGE expense and stovepiped systems that don’t truly deliver the needs of the business today or tomorrow
Any college with a reputable Computer Science program should have many decent graduate students able to solve integrating applications from various vendors reducing the problem set to just speeds and feeds. It’s also not a good idea to buy into an architecture that ties one to a single vendor for applications.
Jailbreaking now legal under DMCA for smartphones, but not tablets
Here’s a better approach: circumventing copy protection schemes shouldn’t be against the law in the first place. DRM schemes harm legitimate users more than they deter piracy. Indeed, as the phone unlocking example illustrates, many uses of DRM have nothing to do with copyright infringement in the first place. Rather, they’re a convenient legal pretext for limiting competition and locking consumers into proprietary products. We shouldn’t be using copyright law as a backdoor means to give such anti-competitive practices the force of law.
via Jailbreaking now legal under DMCA for smartphones, but not tablets | Ars Technica.