Author Archives: Hamish MacEwan

Are Text Messages Declining Worldwide?

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“It may seem like everyone, everywhere is sending text messages these days. But according to a Forbes report, texting may be on the decline across various countries.

Tero Kuittinen, a senior analyst at M.G.I. Research, wrote via a blog post for Forbes that certain times during the holidays that usually bring in a lot of texts, such as Christmas Eve and Christmas, were significantly lower in 2011 compared to the year before. The decline may hint at signs that consumers are finding new ways to send messages to friends and family.

via smartmobs.com

 

Microsoft to enable Linux on its Windows Azure cloud in 2012

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Summary: Microsoft is preparing to launch a new persistent virtual machine feature on its Azure cloud platform, enabling customers to host Linux, SharePoint and SQL Server there.

This headline is not an error. I didn’t have one too many craft brews over the New Year’s weekend.

Microsoft is poised to enable customers to make virtual machines (VMs) persistent on Windows Azure, I’ve heard from a handful of my contacts who’ve asked not to be identified.

What does this mean? Customers who want to run Windows or Linux “durably” (i.e., without losing state) in VMs on Microsoft’s Azure platform-as-a-service platform will be able to do so.

via ZDNet

 

Wow.

The Rain and the Reckoning | Truthout

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Occupy is not over. We come now to another winter of our discontent, and though the tents and signs and shouts of the movement have been momentarily subdued, they will return. Spring is coming, the rocks are already rolling down the mountainside, and while there is still time for the pebbles to catch up, gravity is an absolute. Sooner or later, those rocks will reach the reckoning that has been so long in coming, and when that happens, nothing in this country will be the same again.

With Spring comes the rain, and the rain is coming to this dry and thirsty land.

The rain is coming.

By God and sonny Jesus, the rain is coming.

Creative Commons License
via truth-out.org

Computer gamers solve problem in AIDS research that puzzled scientists for years

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The result: he and his legion of gaming co-authors have cracked a longstanding problem in AIDS research that scientists have puzzled over for years. It took them three weeks.

Khatib???s recruits played Foldit, a programme that reframes fiendish scientific challenges as a competitive multiplayer computer game. It taps into the collective problem-solving skills of tens of thousands of people, most of whom have little or no background in science.

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

2011: Piracy Wars and Internet Censorship

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Looking back at the past 12 months it???s fair to conclude that 2011 was the year that the entertainment industries focused on piracy-fueled Internet censorship. Domain seizures, DNS blockades, raids and arrests dominated the news, and the threat of the SOPA and PIPA bills in the US left millions of Internet users worried. Let???s see how events unfolded.

At the end of the year when new developments draw to a close, it???s time to take a look back and take stock. Below is our overview of some of the most interesting events we reported during the first half of 2011.

Take a deep breath???

via torrentfreak.com

And hold your nose.

The best thing I have read all year | Andrew Dubber

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Heaven is not a place guarded by immigration officials interested only in passports and certificates, nor is it the higher class to which we are promoted by passing an examination showing what we have learned in this world. Heaven is this world as it appears to the awakened imagination, and those who try to approach it by way of restraint, caution, good behaviour, fear, self-satisfaction, assent to uncomprehended doctrines, or voluntary drabness, will find themselves travelling toward hell, as Ignorance did in Bunyan, hell being similarly this world as it appears to the repressed imagination.

– NORTHROP FRYE (1947) Fearful Symmetry: A study of William Blake, Princeton University Press

via andrewdubber.com

Aye.

Against Monopoly

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In short, why should public moneys be spent to guarantee ever higher, not to say exorbitant, returns to copyright owners? This is not the sort of argument lawyers will find attractive, but why trust their judgement since they are big gainers from enforcing prosecution. Better not to have the public pay for enforcement and make the lawyers earn their generous take.

via againstmonopoly.org

A repackaging of Tim O’Reilly’s fiendishly unattractive “Piracy is progressive taxation” meme is included. 

Strangest health stories of 2011

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Few of the studies that these stories are based on are ???bad science???, but overeager reporting of findings can turn interesting, but minor, findings into overblown news. Thankfully, dangerous claims are rare. More often, the claims made in the media are just plain weird. Here???s a selection of the strangest:

  • Saucepans can cause early menopause. This bizarre claim suggested that household objects may be a health risk. In fact, they based this inference on a limited study of chemicals called perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in drinking water. The research did not prove that PFCs can bring on the menopause.
  • Bear bile may help the heart. Ursodeoxycholic acid can affect heart rhythm in heart cells extracted from rats ??? beyond that it???s unclear what this chemical that is produced synthetically (but can be extracted from bears??? bile) does for humans.
  • Quilting keeps you happy and healthy. One paper hyped this survey of 29 women that did not objectively measure any aspect of their physical or mental health, or compare quilt-making to any other type of hobby.
via nhs.uk

Copyrights Are No Longer About Copies (Part 1): William Patry – Bloomberg

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Hollywood???s best box office yearsever were 2009 and 2010. Net revenue from book sales was up 5.6percent in 2010 from 2008. And sales of e-books, in particular,grew 1,274 percent in those two years.

In the music industry, while the decline in sales ofphysical recorded music continued, the global performance-rightsmarket share increased an impressive 13 percent in 2010 over2009. Even musical instrument sales increased 8 percent over2009.

via bloomberg.com

I note in the debacle surrounding SOPA, rights holders are saying, “Well, maybe SOPA isn’t the way to solve the problem, help us find a better way.” Which sounds pretty reasonable. But as the figures quoted above show, the problem doesn’t exist to be solved. Sure, people are infringing, but rights holders aren’t suffering.

They certainly are not suffering enough to be given State power of coercion to attempt to achieve what only the most despotic and tyrannical regimes on the Planet can.