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Every day, an army of computers and human operators toil in control rooms, providing electricity to a city, guiding planes across the sky, or searching for the Higgs-Boson. These rooms are all extremely important, whether they're making breakthrough discoveries or just keeping the lights on. More »

Yutaka Tsutano The Digital Millennium Copyright makes it illegal to "circumvent" digital rights management schemes. But when Congress passed the DMCA in 1998, it gave the Librarian of Congress the power to grant exemptions. The latest batch of exemptions, which will be in force for three years, were announced on Thursday. Between now and late 2015, there will be five categories of circumvention that will be allowed under the Librarian's rules, one fewer than the current batch of exemptions , which was announced in July 2010. The new exemptions take effect October 28. The new batch of exemptions illustrate the fundamentally arbitrary nature of the DMCA's exemption process. For the next three years, you'll be allowed to jailbreak smartphones but not tablet computers. You'll be able to unlock phones purchased before January 2013 but not phones purchased after that. It will be legal to rip DVDs to use an excerpt in a documentary, but not to play it on your iPad. None of these distinctions makes very much sense. But Congress probably deserves more blame for this than the Librarian of Congress. Read 17 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Amazon has just released its earnings for the third quarter of the year and it looks like it's slightly off analysts' expectations. The company reported $13.18 billion in revenue (a growth of 27 percent) and an operating loss of $28 million, with net income standing at a loss of $274 million. As Amazon notes, though, a chunk of that, some $169 million, comes from losses resulting from its investment in LivingSocial -- it says the figure is "primarily attributable to its impairment charge of certain assets, including goodwill." Expectedly, the company still isn't offering any specific numbers for device sales, noting only that the Kindle Fire HD is the number one selling product across Amazon worldwide, and that the next two bestselling products worldwide are the Kindle Paperwhite and the $69 Kindle. As for its outlook for the next quarter, the company is expecting net sales of between $20.25 billion and $22.75 billion, and operating income of anywhere from a loss of $490 million to a profit of $310 million. You can find the company's full breakdown of all the numbers at the link below. Continue reading Amazon Q3 2012 earnings: $13.18 billion revenue, net loss of $274 million Filed under: Tablets , Internet , Amazon Amazon Q3 2012 earnings: $13.18 billion revenue, net loss of $274 million originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink    |  Amazon  |  Email this  |  Comments

Stop what you're doing. Watch this. Repeat after us: What the ever-loving what?! More »

Three years ago, scientists discovered electric currents running through the seabed — but they had no idea what was causing it. But now, researchers from Denmark and the United States believe they have the answer: bacteria that function as living electric cables. In a remarkable case of biological engineering, scientists have confirmed that each tiny section of the bacteria contains a bundle of insulated wires that leads an electric current from one end to the other. More »

OMGUbuntu reviews the new System76 Sable Complete , a $799, expandable, open all-in-one computer that is price-competitive and performance-competitive with iMacs and other all-in-ones. I've owned some System76 laptops and have been generally impressed with both the build-quality and the support offered by the company -- they're always a good bet if you want to get a pre-installed GNU/Linux machine. The Sable is a gorgeous looking PC that (on paper at least) is faster, cheaper, more expandable, and better at running Ubuntu than the 2011 iMac I’m writing this article on. More impressively to my mind (and my wallet) is that although System76 are a niché retailer (meaning costs are often higher than those of mass-manufacturers) the all-in-one PC is competitively priced, even without WiFi, a disc drive, or input accessories. Compared against two similarly specc’d machines using other OSes – namely the Vizio and the 2011 iMac – the Sable stands up well. Meet The $799 All-in-One Ubuntu PC from System76 ( via Engadget )

angry tapir writes "Choice, a prominent Australian consumer advocacy group, has urged Australians to obfuscate their IP address to avoid geo-blocking and use US forwarding addresses to beat high IT prices. Australia is currently in the middle of parliamentary inquiry into the country's disproportionately high prices for technology. Choice also suggested setting up US iTunes accounts and using surrogate US addresses for forwarding packages from American stores. Choice has noted previously that Australians pay 52 per cent more for digital music downloads on iTunes compared to US users." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Alongside the iPad Mini launch the other day, Apple quietly rolled out a meatier, 12-watt power adapter. Turns out it will charge all the old iPads iterations quicker. More »

In pursuit of SumoTorrent, the Dutch group wins ruling that the torrent site's former hosting provider is responsible for damages suffered by copyright holders as a result of the site's activities. [Read more]

The PlayStation 3 has been around since 2006, and since roughly 2006 hackers have been trying to have their way with it. The system has proven a relatively tough nut to crack, though not an impossible one. The last major rooting incident was back in 2011 . More »