Google Fiber testing home phone service to complete triple-play bundle

Google Fiber has Internet and TV, but not voice because of regulatory headaches.

Google Fiber current cities and expansion plans. (credit: Google Fiber)

Google Fiber launched more than three years ago with gigabit Internet and TV, but not phone service.

Now, Google might finally be adding a VoIP phone component in order to duplicate the "triple-play" bundle offered by many ISPs. The Washington Post reported today that Google is sending invitations to try a new home phone service to members of its "Fiber Trusted Tester" program.

"Our latest offering is Google Fiber Phone, which gives you the chance to add home phone service to your current Fiber service plan," the invitation said. (See the full invitation here.)

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Bombshell review: An arm, a leg, and entirely too much of your time

An isometric shooter that tries too much and accomplishes very little.

Don't get too excited by the look of this boss. You just shoot it a lot.

In Bombshell, the new isometric shooter from Interceptor Entertainment and 3D Realms, there is a shield. I know this with 100 percent certainty, because for the last third of my playthrough, every step, action, and breath I took was punctuated by a robotic voice intoning "shield activated."

That’s not because I was spamming my character's comically overpowered bubble shield (though I did plenty of that), but it resulted from what I assume was a bug. I say "assume" because I'm not entirely sure that Bombshell hadn't grown sentient and developed just a bit of malice toward me. The game seems sapient enough to at least realize what a repetitive drag it had been up to that point, so maybe it turned its newborn ability to think and feel entirely toward mocking my efforts to find the fastest path to the credits.

Bombshell isn't an aggressively terrible game. It's just aggressively mediocre for long enough that it starts to seem that way.

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Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

The Ubik Uno is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, slim bezels, an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 3,100 mAh battery, and a 20 megapixel camera. The developers of the phone ran a Kickstarter campaign last summer, and now they say the Uno is ready to ship… which is probably why I spotted […]

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship is a post from: Liliputing

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship

The Ubik Uno is a smartphone with a 5.5 inch display, slim bezels, an octa-core CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 3,100 mAh battery, and a 20 megapixel camera. The developers of the phone ran a Kickstarter campaign last summer, and now they say the Uno is ready to ship… which is probably why I spotted […]

Crowdfunded Ubik Uno smartphone is ready to ship is a post from: Liliputing

Iranian drone flies straight over US carrier in Persian Gulf and takes pics

Iranian TV broadcasts the “beautiful and accurate” footage taken during “drill.”

Smile for your close-up, F/A-18s. (credit: IRNA)

Today, Iran's IRNA news agency broadcast video apparently taken from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unmanned aircraft as it flew directly over an American aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy has confirmed that an Iranian drone flew "directly over" the USS Harry S. Truman and near the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, which are both in the Persian Gulf launching airstrikes against Islamic State (Daesh) forces in Syria and Iraq.

RT rebroadcast of the Iranian television footage, showing the drone flyover of the USS Harry S. Truman.

Navy Commander Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet, said that the Navy was "not in a position to verify the authenticity of the video as there are countless examples of similar footage to be found on the Internet." But he did confirm that an Iranian surveillance drone passed over the Truman on January 12. The drone did not pose a threat, he said. "It was, however, abnormal and unprofessional." Stephens added that the Navy would "respond appropriately as the situation dictates" to future incidents.

Iranian Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told IRNA that the drone's flight over the Truman was "a sign of bravery," and it "allowed our men to go so close to the warship and shoot such a beautiful and accurate footage of the combat units of the foreign forces." IRNA also reported that a small Iranian diesel submarine was involved in surveillance of the ships. The drone and submarine operations are part of an Iranian Navy exercise being mounted this week.

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U.S. Govt: Excessive Piracy Punishments Should Be Avoided

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force has released a set of copyright reform proposals. The Government recommends Congress to implement various changes to avoid excessive damages awards and stresses that copyright trolling should not be tolerated.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

us-united-america-flagThree years ago the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force started to explore various ways that current copyright law could be improved.

Following extensive discussions and a public consultation process it finalized its recommendations this week, releasing a whitepaper (pdf) with several concrete proposals.

One of the main topics covers the ‘penalties’ for online piracy, which can currently reach $150,000 per copied work. These statutory damages can lead to excessive awards, as shown in two RIAA cases.

The Task Force notes that the award amount doesn’t have to be lowered, as it may be appropriate as a deterrent for online piracy in extreme cases. However, steps should be taken against disproportionate punishments and copyright trolling.

“It is important to avoid excessive and inconsistent awards that risk encouraging disrespect for copyright law or chilling investment in innovation. And the abusive enforcement campaigns reported by commenters should not be tolerated,” the paper reads.

Instead of changing the maximum statutory damages the Task Force recommends an update to current legislation with a list of factors for courts and juries to consider when determining the amount of a damages award.

Possible factors include the financial situation of the defendant. Someone who’s unemployed should not pay the same amount in damages as a billion dollar company for the same offense.

“The Task Force recognizes the concern that some awards of statutory damages can be far beyond the capacity of the defendant to pay – whether an individual or a start-up business. Requiring juries and judges to consider the defendant’s financial situation when assessing the level of the award will help address that concern,” the recommendation reads.

The value of the infringed work and the harm it causes the copyright holder should also be taken into account. This means that leaking a pre-release copy of a blockbuster movie should receive a higher punishment than sharing a B-film usually offered at a discount.

“An award that takes into account the likely heightened magnitude of harm to the market for a pre-release work may enable the copyright owner to receive a more appropriate level of compensation than an award of actual damages.”

Taking the value of the work into account may also help to deter copyright trolls, who generally sue people over adult content and other niche material.

“On the other hand, when the infringed work is of minimal commercial value, a lower award may be appropriate. This can help address concerns about holders of low-value copyrights … using the threat of statutory damages to turn litigation threats into a profit center,” the Task Force adds.

The paper further recognizes that the “abusive enforcement actions” of copyright trolls are harmful to the copyright system as well as the judicial system.

Some stakeholders suggested to tackle this problem by lowering the maximum of $150,000 in statutory damages, so copyright trolls can’t use it as a threat. However, the Task Force believes that the courts have other means to address these excesses, as they’ve done with Righthaven and Prenda Law.

“The unfair tactics used by certain litigants should be curbed without cutting back a remedy that serves legitimate purposes of compensation and deterrence. The courts are well positioned to evaluate such tactics and have sanctioned counsel and parties who pursue baseless, reckless, or vexatious claims,” the paper reads.

The Government’s proposed changes don’t leave statutory damages completely untouched though. In cases of non-willful secondary liability of online services, the paper proposes to move away from the strict “per work” rule.

This means that a court may issue a lower damages award against a site or service if the number of infringed works is very high, which now automatically results in hundreds of millions in potential damages.

Overall the proposals are well-balanced. The whitepaper strikes a careful balance between proponents and opponents of decreased statutory damages, reflected in positive comments from both sides.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Google tells the FCC its secret airborne network is nothing to worry about

Google is still seeks approval for a nationwide test of what we assume is Project Loon.

(credit: Google)

In an FCC filing, Google has told the US government that it believes its secret airborne network won't interfere with any existing networks and won't harm any people or animals. Google has been hoping to perform a "two-year nationwide test" of the network and recently addressed some concerns people had raised about it.

In the filing, Google only calls the project a "nationwide testing of airborne and terrestrial transmitters in the 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands (collectively, the E-band)." It wants to keep the project a secret, but all signs point to it being for Project Loon, Google's airborne network of balloons which it has primarily tested in New Zealand. The application is signed by Astro Teller, the head of Google's "X" division, which houses Project Loon.

The "E-Band" that Google says it will use is often deployed as a wireless backhaul option for network providers. Fiber is, of course, preferable, but Fiber is expensive and sometimes—like in the case of Project Loon—you just can't use a wire. Most E-Band applications use highly-directional antennas and are capable of multi-gigabit speeds over a mile or two. Google notes that it will have both terrestrial antennas that "will be pointed upward" along with airborne transmitters. In Project Loon, this would suggest the E-Band would be used for balloon-to-ground and balloon-to-balloon communication.

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This old study aid for math turns out to have a scientific basis

Study shows simply tracing over what you’re learning about makes it easier to remember.

Since the early 20th century, teachers at Montessori schools have taught reading and math by having kids trace letters and numbers with their fingers. This trace-to-learn idea, which has become semi-legendary among students, now appears to have some scientific basis. A group of Australian researchers found that kids who learn mathematical formulas while tracing the outlines of shapes are able to understand and recall their lessons more easily.

University of Sydney educational psychologist Paul Ginns worked with 279 students between the ages of nine and 13, teaching them algebra and geometry by asking them to trace over practice examples with their fingers while reading about the underlying math. Students might trace a triangle while learning the Pythagorean Theorem, for example. After tracing, students recalled the math more easily and gave correct answers about it more often than students who did not trace.

Ginns, who studies memory in learning, believes that the physical act of tracing may give the task "processing priority" in the brain.

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Former Silk Road staffer and “victim” in murder-for-hire to serve no prison time

Curtis Green was key in an investigation of corrupt federal agents looking into Silk Road.

(credit: BTC Keychain)

Curtis Green, a former Silk Road lieutenant, was sentenced Friday to time served and four years of supervised release by a federal judge in Baltimore. As one of the top employees of the underground drug marketplace, Green faced felony drug charges in 2013 after being arrested. Soon after, he took a plea deal.

Green was also known as “chronicpain” in the Silk Road community. Famously, Ross Ulbricht (as Dread Pirate Roberts) believed he killed Green. Ulbricht was under the impression that Green had stolen money from Silk Road, when in fact that money was stolen by two corrupt Baltimore-based federal agents. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Carl Mark Force played the part of the fictitious hitman who “killed” Green and sent a photo to Ulbricht.

When it turned out that Force was one of two law enforcement officials who were involved in a conspiracy to steal from Silk Road for their own benefit, Green became a cooperating witness in the investigations of those agents. He testified in the sentencing hearing of Shaun Bridges, the corrupt Secret Service agent.

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Babylonians tracked Jupiter with sophisticated geometrical math

Used geometry that hints at calculus 1,500 years before Europeans.

(credit: Trustees of the British Museum/Mathieu Ossendrijver)

Even when a culture leaves behind extensive written records, it can be hard to understand their knowledge of technology and the natural world. Written records are often partial, and writers may have been unaware of some technology or simply considered it unremarkable. That's why the ancient world can still offer up surprises like the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient mechanical computer that highlighted the Greeks' knowledge of math, astronomy, and the mechanical tech needed to tie them together.

It took several years after the discovery for the true nature of the Antikythera Mechanism to be understood. And now something similar has happened for the Babylonians. Clay tablets, sitting in the British Museum for decades, show that this culture was able to use sophisticated geometry to track the orbit of Jupiter, relying on methods that in some ways pre-figure the development of calculus centuries later.

We already knew that the Babylonians tracked the orbits of a variety of bodies. There are roughly 450 written tablets that describe the methods and calculations that we're aware of, and they date from 400 to 50 BCE. Most of the ones that describe how to calculate orbital motion, in the words of Humboldt University's Mathieu Ossendrijver, "can be represented as flow charts." Depending on the situation, they describe a series of additions, subtractions, and multiplications that could tell you where a given body would be.

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Deals of the Day (1-29-2016)

Deals of the Day (1-29-2016)

The Dell XPS 12 is a Windows tablet with a 12.5 inch full HD (or 4K) display, an Intel Core M5 Skylake processor, 8GB of RAM, and a detachable keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a notebook. Dell sells the 2-in-1 tablet for $1000 and up. But right now you can save $100 or […]

Deals of the Day (1-29-2016) is a post from: Liliputing

Deals of the Day (1-29-2016)

The Dell XPS 12 is a Windows tablet with a 12.5 inch full HD (or 4K) display, an Intel Core M5 Skylake processor, 8GB of RAM, and a detachable keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a notebook. Dell sells the 2-in-1 tablet for $1000 and up. But right now you can save $100 or […]

Deals of the Day (1-29-2016) is a post from: Liliputing