Tech Today w/ Ken May

An anonymous reader writes “The DoJ and ICE have once again taken up the banner of anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting by seizing over 130 domains allegedly involved in those activities. TorrentFreak points out that this newest digital raid happened just before ‘Cyber Monday,’ a time when consumers are encouraged to do a bunch of online shopping. From the article: ‘Compared to previous seizure rounds, there are also some notable differences to report. This time the action appears to be limited to sites that directly charge visitors for their services. Most of the domains are linked to the selling of counterfeit clothing (e.g. 17nflshop.com), and at least one (autocd.com) sold pirated auto software. Last year several sites were taken down because they allowed their users to access free music and movie downloads, and these were followed by several streaming services a few months later. No similar sites have been reported in the current round.'”

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US Gov't Seizes 130+ More Domains In Crackdown

MrSeb writes with this ExtremeTech excerpt aimed at the graphene enthusiasts out there: “You can add another crazy characteristic to graphene’s ever-expanding list of ‘wonder material’ properties: It can now be used to create flexible, transparent thin-film transistors. … using an inkjet printer. The discovery comes from researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, who were trying to ameliorate the lackluster performance of existing inkjet-printed electronics. It’s already possible to print standard CMOS transistors using different ferroelectric polymer inks, but the resultant circuit is so slow that it can’t actually function as a computer. If graphene could replace or augment the interconnects or transistors, these circuits would be a lot faster — and that’s what these Cambridge engineers have done. Furthermore, if you didn’t think that was cool enough, the graphene-based ink that they’ve developed is transparent, too.”

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UK University Creates First Inkjet-Printed Graphene Circuit

AutoMD is a handy webapp that has a repository of text, photo, and video DIY repair guides, helps you diagnose problems with your vehicle, find a reputable mechanic in your area, and let you know what a repair should cost in your area to help with negotiations or determine if you should attempt the repair yourself. More »

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Compare the Price of an Auto Shop Versus DIY Repairs with AutoMD [Saving Money]

Most folks spent their Thanksgiving weekend ensuring that every inch of their intestinal track was thoroughly covered in gravy. Others spent it trying to get just drunk enough that their relative’s worst habits were bearable.

A select few, however, spent the weekend doing something pretty much only they can do: hacking the heck out of the iPhone. As a result, everyone waitin’ and wishin’ for an iPhone 4S carrier unlock has something to be thankful for.

It’s not quite a done deal just yet, but iPhone Dev-Team star MuscleNerd tweeted out that a “promising 4S unlock” had been discovered after a bit of Turkey-fueled hacking.

Oddly, his tweet goes on to confirm that this unlock works only with the 4S (and not the iPhone 4), suggesting that it relies on a hardware-level exploit that went overlooked during the 4S’ creation. While such exploits are increasingly rare, they’re also considerably more challenging for Apple to patch post-manufacturing.

Originally posted here:
“Promising Unlock” For The iPhone 4S Discovered

theodp writes “The WSJ reports that China’s Ministry of Education plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which less than 60% of graduates fail for two consecutive years to find work. What if the U.S. government were to adopt China’s approach? According to the most recent U.S. census data, among the first majors to go: psychology, U.S. history and military technologies. Lest you computer programmers get too smug, consider this.”

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China To Cancel College Majors That Don't Pay

Continue reading Hack your monitor and 3D glasses, ensure ultimate privacy

Hack your monitor and 3D glasses, ensure ultimate privacy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hack A Day | Instructables | Email this | Comments

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Hack your monitor and 3D glasses, ensure ultimate privacy

New submitter ajitk writes “This year, call centers in the Philippines employed 50,000 more people than those in India. From the New York Times article: ‘More Filipinos — about 400,000 — than Indians now spend their nights talking to mostly American consumers, industry officials said, as companies like AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Expedia have hired call centers here, or built their own. … Nevertheless, the financial benefits of outsourcing remain strong enough that the call center business is growing at 25 to 30 percent a year here in the Philippines, compared to 10 to 15 percent in India. In spite of its recent growth, the Philippines is a much smaller destination for outsourcing more broadly — India earns about 10 times as much revenue from outsourcing.'”

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Philippines Call Centers Overtake India

There’s a reason the Kinect requires so much clearance—it’s better at picking up wildly swinging arms than subtle hand movements. The Displair interface, however, can pick up on even the smallest twitches. Welcome to your Minority Report future. More »

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The Displair Combines A Fog Machine, Touchscreen, and Awesomeness [Video]

It’s the most definitive assurance yet that Apple’s next iPad will include a screen with a near “retina display”-quality resolution: DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim has told CNET that “production has started” for 2048×1536, 10-inch-class tablet screens, and three manufacturers—Samsung, Sharp and LGD—are supplying parts to Apple.

“It takes a couple of weeks for the production to go to the [the manufacturers],” Shim told CNET. “Then the manufacturer puts them in the housing. Then, that goes off to shipment. We could start seeing finished devices produced in December. And then being ready to be shipped in January. With volumes gearing up in February and March.”

Shim’s words bear a confidence that’s been missing from most discussions concerning the iPad 3’s display aspirations.

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iPad 3: super-high-res displays a go, but yields will be low