Witnessing friends’ vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.
via Is Facebook envy making you miserable? – chicagotribune.com.
LOL. Reverse Schadenfreude.
By switching from Windows to its own Linux distribution, LiMux, Munich has saved over ¬11 million (US$14.3 million) so far, the city announced in November. But a Microsoft-commissioned Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) study conducted by HP suggests that the city’s numbers are wrong, and claims that Munich would have saved ¬43.7 million if it had stuck with Microsoft, German weekly Focus reported earlier this week.
via Microsoft won’t release study that challenged success of Munich’s Linux migration | ITworld.
I find it funny watching numbers being fudged.
The timeless plastic bricks of LEGO can be built into predetermined items such as a car or house but can also be formed into any shape, the options limited only by the creativeness of its builder. However, turn LEGO bricks into a controversial item and the company’s lawyers could soon be breathing down your neck.
via Pirate Party Battles LEGO Over Copyright and Trademark Injunction | TorrentFreak.
This is happening in Czechoslovakia. It amazes me at how creative companies get over claims of ownership.
Pyramid Research expects the telecom market in Spain to generate a total service revenue of $33.5bn in 2012 and to grow over the next five years to $36.61bn. Due to the economic recession and volatility of the euro exchange rate, the market will contract in dollar terms in 2012 and 2013 before rebounding in 2014.
However, there are a number of telecom sectors that we expect to experience continuous growth over the forecast period, including fixed VoIP and mobile data.
via Spain Intelligence Report–September 2012.
$990 for this report.
This secrecy allowed the organisers to cherry pick participants to tilt the discussion in favour of software patents in Europe which shouldn’t even exist, of course, according to the European Patent Convention, FRAND supporters and proprietary software companies, even though the latter are overwhelmingly American so much for loyalty to the European ideal. The plan was clearly to produce the desired result that open source was perfectly compatible with FRAND, because enough people at this conference said so.
via European Commission’s Low Attack on Open Source – Open Enterprise.
Also worth noting in the above statement from the report is the claim that “the distinction between software and hardware is increasingly artificial”. I think if we decode this, what it means is that in the old world of hardware – for example, in telecommunications or codecs – FRAND standards were common, and that’s perfectly true. But in the world of software, the key modern forums for standards such as W3C or OASIS require RF, not FRAND. So this is a crude attempt to force old-fashioned hardware approaches on modern software, because once again the convenient result is that open source is excluded.
Here are 4 things that we recommend in order to stay off the UCEPROTECT-Blacklists and the Backscatterer List:
1. Do not use abusive techniques on your systems, and also tell your customers with their own servers not to do so.
The following techniques are considered abusive, even though some seem to have become very popular.
Sender callouts (also known as Sender Verify or SAV) or any other kind of Backscatter.
via UCEPROTECT®-Network – Germanys first Spam protection database.
2. Ensure that large amounts of garbage cannot be sent through your mailservers / smarthosts.
3. Ensure that your dynamic / dialups / homeusers cannot be abused as spam zombies.
4. Get clue about new customers, secure your servers and prevent open relays and open proxies at your dedicated line customers and at customers with static IP addresses.
The app has been launched for iOS in 95 countries and will be ready for Android early next year. It is free for anyone to download, no matter which mobile network they are on. It enables users to make free high-definition voice calls and send instant messages to other Libon users over mobile or Wi-Fi connections, as well as set up three personalized visual voicemails that can be set to respond to certain individuals or contact groups. In addition, voicemails can be updated with the user’s most recent Twitter of Facebook status messages (converted into a voicemail using a text-to-speech tool — that could be interesting…).
via Orange Finds Its Web Services Voice – 4G/LTE – Telecom News Analysis – Light Reading Mobile.
Apple still needs to run ads saying Samsung had not infringed its rights.
The US firm had previously been ordered to place a notice to that effect – with a link to the original judgement – on its website and place other adverts in the Daily Mail, Financial Times, T3 Magazine and other publications to “correct the damaging impression” that Samsung was a copycat.
via BBC News – Apple loses UK tablet design appeal versus Samsung.
Apple declined to comment. It can still appeal to the UK Supreme Court, otherwise the ruling applies across the European Union.
Galileo is Europe’s own global satellite navigation system. It will consist of 30 satellites and their associated ground infrastructure.
via ESA Portal – Deployment of Europe’s Galileo constellation continues.
The four satellites launched during the IOV phase are the nucleus of the constellation that will then be extended to reach its FOC.