New submitter dryriver writes with this snippet from the BBC: "Apple paid only $713m (£445m) Tax in the year to 29 September on foreign pre-tax profits of $36.8bn (£23.0bn), a remarkably low rate of 1.9%. Apple channels much of its business in Europe through a subsidiary in the Republic of Ireland, which has lower corporation tax than Britain. But even Ireland charges 12.5%, compared with Britain's 24%. Apple is the latest company to be identified as paying low rates of overseas tax, following Starbucks, Facebook and Google in recent weeks. It has not been suggested that any of their tax avoidance schemes are illegal. Many multinational companies manage to pay substantially below the official corporation tax rates by using tax havens such as the Caribbean islands."
dgharmon writes "It has been more than two years since Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments formed a non-profit software company called Linaro to help focus the disparate efforts to get Linux running well on ARM processors and system-on-chip designs. A slew of companies, some new to the ARM racket, have joined the Linaro effort – and as of Thursday afternoon, so has social media juggernaut Facebook."
hypnosec writes "Two MIT electrical engineering professors, Joel Dawson and David Perreault, have claimed that they have cracked the age old efficiency problem related to the power amplifier in smartphones by designing a new amplifier that consumes just half the power as compared to their current counterparts. Current transistor-based power amplifiers consume power in two modes – standby and output signal mode. The only way to reduce power consumption and increase battery life is to use the least possible power when in standby mode. The problem here is that if the power is kept very low when in standby mode, because of sudden jumps from low-power standby mode to high-power output mode, signals get distorted. This is why current technologies waste a lot of electricity as standby power levels are kept at a relatively higher level to avoid distortion. The new technology, dubbed asymmetric multilevel outphasing, is basically a blazingly fast electronic gearbox that would select the best possible voltage to send across to the transistors that would minimize power consumption."
First time accepted submitter BluPhenix316 writes "I'm currently in school for Network Administration. I was discussing Linux with my instructor and he said the problem he has with Linux is he doesn't know of a good alternative to Active Directory. I did some research and from what I've read Samba4 seems very promising. What are your thoughts?"
Mr. Jaggers writes "Chris Roberts, game designer of Wing Commander fame, has had great success with his new crowd-funded Star Citizen project — so much that the $2m base goal has been smashed with weeks to go on the Kickstarter portion of the campaign. Now Chris is floating a list of stretch goals for fans to vote on, with Linux and Mac support both listed as stretch goal candidates. Since Star Citizen is based on the popular CryENGINE 3 game engine, these stretch goals are equivalent to funding Linux and Mac ports of CryENGINE. Chris couldn't make any absolute promises yet, since he doesn't own the engine, but CryENGINE 3 already supports Android, so at least there is existing OpenGL ES support to be leveraged towards adding Linux and Mac OpenGL support. If there is enough outpouring of cross-platform support from fans in this poll, Star Citizen could turn out to be the high-profile game that brings a AAA game engine to the growing Mac and Linux gaming communities — analogous to the role played by Wasteland 2 in bringing official Linux support to the Unity 4 engine popular among so many Indie developers."
Several outlets are reporting, based on screenshots posted by Android Police that Google is (or "may be" — CNet calls the report "loosely sourced") about to introduce a lower-tech variant on its smartphone-based Google Wallet payment system. Instead of transferring payment information from an NFC-equipped phone, this would mean a physical payment card (like a conventional plastic credit or debit card), but one linked via Google's databanks to the user's existing bank or credit accounts. Upsides: less to carry, a simple way to suspend or cancel service on them (should the card be lost or stolen), and doesn't require you to carry your phone to make a credit or debit transaction — handy, since NFC readers are still thin on the ground. Downside: while perhaps no worse than putting the same information on your phone, it's one more step toward giving a third party all of your personal information in one place. A card that fits in a wallet probably makes a lot of sense: I live in a city with at least three pay-by-phone options in trials or fully available (CitiBank, Isis, and Google Wallet), but I can't buy ice cream or coffee with them yet. And there's no reason a card-shaped token couldn't use mag-stripes and NFC, too.
thomas.kane writes "After years of delays, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is set to take off from Bush Intercontinental Airport this morning bound for O'Hare. Designed to make the flying experience 'revolutionary,' it is constructed from composite materials, has larger windows than previous jetliners, and high efficiency engines. United Airlines became the first U.S. carrier to take delivery; they've ordered 50, but due to processing delays, they only have 2 right now. Start looking for more to take to the skies early next year."
Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors conceded that they overstated the fuel economy on more than 1 million recently sold vehicles, and agreed to compensate owners for the additional fuel costs after the EPA found the errors in 13 Kia and Hyundai models from the 2011 to 2013 model years. The findings were a blow to the two carmakers, which have centered their marketing campaigns on superior fuel economy. The mileage on most labels will be reduced by 1 to 2 miles per gallon, with the largest adjustment being a 6-mpg highway reduction for one version of the Kia Soul, the EPA said. Hyundai previously touted the fact that many of its models get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. Now three Hyundai models, the Elantra, Accent and Veloster, as well as the Kia Rio fall short of that mark, as will the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima hybrids."
First time accepted submitter danbuter writes "In probably the most poorly thought-out reaction to allowing people displaced by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey [to take part in the 2012 presidential election], residents will be allowed to vote by email. Of course, this will be completely secure and work perfectly!" Writes user Beryllium Sphere: "There's no mention of any protocol that might possibly make this acceptable. Perhaps the worst thing that could happen would be if it appears to work OK and gains acceptance." I know someone they should consult first.
theodp writes "Enough with the dadgum naysayers. Google's Vivek Haldar lists some good reasons for why you would want to program at fifty (or any other age). Haldar's list would probably get a thumbs-up from billionaire SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, who had this to say about coding when interviewed at age 56: 'I would be happy if I just stayed in my office and programmed all day, to tell you the truth. That is my one real love in life is programming. Programming is sort of like getting to work a puzzle all day long. I actually enjoy it. It's a lot of fun. It's not even work to me. It's just enjoyable. You get to shut out all your other thoughts and just concentrate on this little thing you're trying to do, to make work it. It's nice, very enjoyable.'"
First time accepted submitter spanner888 writes "The first Shanghai Maker Carnival was held this weekend in conjunction with a Creation Exhibition, an arts and crafts expo with about 200 exhibitors. Makers attended from Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen and visitors came from around China. More photos are in this post, and videos in this one. Other photos can be found in this thread." I like the video that appears to show a smartphone's camera being used as the basis of an input device for a laptop; can anyone out there better explain it?
An anonymous reader writes with a link to this "time lapse video of students and postdocs at the University of Zurich constructing the zBox4 supercomputer. The machine has a theoretical compute capacity of ~1% of the human brain and will be used for simulating the formation of stars, planets and galaxies." That rack has "3,072 2.2GHz Intel Xeon cores and over 12TB of RAM." Also notable: for once, several of the YouTube comments are worth reading for more details on the construction and specs.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Low-Tech Magazine: "Both the velomobile and the electric bicycle increase the limited range of the cyclist — the former optimises aerodynamics and ergonomics, while the latter assists muscle power with an electric motor fuelled by a battery. The electric velomobile combines both approaches, and so maximises the range of the cyclist — so much so that it is able to replace most, if not all, automobile trips. A quarter of the existent wind turbines in the U.S. would suffice to power as many electric velomobiles as there are Americans." One thing I wish was included in the article — worth reading for the photos alone! — is a chart with prices and worldwide availability for more of the vehicles mentioned. They do mention, though, that the eWAW ("the Ferrari of the velomobiles") costs 7790 Euro.
An anonymous reader writes "Apple today posted its second Samsung apology to its UK website, complying with requests by the UK Court of Appeal to say its original apology was inaccurate and link to a new statement. As users on Hacker News and Reddit point out, however, Apple modified its website recently to ensure the message is never displayed without visitors having to scroll down to the bottom first."
Die USA verabschieden sich von zwei Meisterwerken der Technik: Dem ersten atomaren Flugzeugträger und der letzten Raumfähre. Der Nachwelt bleibt nur eines der beiden erhalten.
Sturm Sandy liess die U-Bahn-Schächte New Yorks mit Wasser überfluten. Es entstand ein Verkehrschaos, das bis heute anhält. Eine Neuentwicklung im Auftrag der Regierung könnte ein solches Szenario künftig verhindern.
Historische Artefakte, bedrohte Tierarten oder wertvolle geologische Formationen: Die philippinische Regierung hat 185 Höhlen unter Schutz gestellt – was aber nur ein Bruchteil aller Höhlen auf den Inseln ist.
Die Tiere galten lange Zeit als böse und heimtückisch. Dabei sind sie scheu und meiden den Menschen. Forschern in Österreich ist es gelungen, von Wölfen akzeptiert zu werden.
Die Titanwurz stinkt so aussergewöhnlich, wie sie gross ist. Die gewaltige Pflanze wird in Basel bereits nach eineinhalb Jahren erneut blühen.
Das Hochwasser, welches Sturm Sandy New York brachte, flutete Tunnel der U-Bahn und ganze Quartiere. Um solche Katastrophen zu verhindern, hat Japans Hauptstadt Tokio ein riesiges Untergrundsystem gebaut.
Sieben Jahre lang lebte der Belugawal Noc mit US-Forschern zusammen. Dann begann er zu sprechen.
Die Internationale Raumstation musste auf eine neue Umlaufbahn manövriert werden. Ansonsten hätte sie eine fatale Kollision mit Satellitentrümmern riskiert.
Die Geschichte um Abschaffung und Wiedereinführung der Kapitalstrafe in der Schweiz des 19. Jahrhunderts.
Der Mars-Rover Curiosity hat Mineralien entdeckt, die es auch auf einem Vulkan auf Hawaii gibt.
Manche Neurologen behaupten, unser Gehirn fälle Entscheide selbständig und vermittle nur die Illusion von Willensfreiheit. Das ist ein philosophischer Taschenspielertrick.
Nach der massenweisen Verunreinigung von Schmerzspritzen sind in den USA bereits über 350 Fälle einer Meningitis gemeldet worden.
Schweizer Unternehmen haben auch 2011 viel in die Forschung investiert. Den Spitzenplatz unter den Top-1000-Firmen mit den grössten Budgets musste der Pharmariese Roche aber abgeben.
Screening gilt seit Jahren als umstritten. Eine Studie zeigt nun: Die Behandlungsmethode rettet Leben, führt oft aber auch zu einer Überdiagnose. In der Schweiz ist sie in neun Kantonen zugelassen.
Vor 1500 Jahren bildete sich auf dem Genfersee nach einem Erdrutsch eine 13 Meter hohe Welle, die ganze Dörfer auslöschte. Forscher warnen, dass die Gefahr eines Tsunami auf Schweizer Seen noch immer bestehen.
Die unbemannte Frachtkapsel Dragon hat erfolgreich Blutproben und ausrangierte Technik von der Raumstation ISS zurück auf die Erde gebracht. 2017 soll eine bemannte Version folgen.
Mehr als 200 Inhaltsstoffe der Milch sind heute bekannt. Manche sind nicht nur für die Nahrungsmittelindustrie, sondern auch für die Pharmabranche interessant.
Die Sensation steckte im grauen Schlamm gleich neben einer Müllhalde: Rund 215 Millionen Jahre alte Schildkrötenpanzer-Fossilien. Experten hoffen, die Funde könnten Hinweise auf die Herkunft der Reptilien geben.
Der Bündner Stausee Lago di Lei wird im Rahmen von Sanierungsarbeiten erstmals komplett entleert. Das Wasser würde rund eine Milliarde Badewannen füllen.
Nicht nur Menschen, sondern auch Säugetiere, Vögel, Tintenfische und vielleicht sogar Bienen haben die Voraussetzungen im Gehirn, um ein eigenes Bewusstsein zu entwickeln. Dies glauben Neurowissenschaftler aufgrund ihrer Experimente.