Free Republic

This is similar to what lies waiting for Ahmed and his fellow jihadis, upon martyrdom.....terrifying!!!

Protect the internet from Obama's giveaway!

The space rocket which exploded before takeoff yesterday (1 September) was carrying a satellite Facebook intended to use to connect sub-Saharan Africa to the Internet. Whilst many critics have had doubts about the plan of founder Mark Zuckerberg to provide web access to the developing world, the destruction of the SpaceX rocket and its cargo will set the plan back many months, if not years. The explosion of the Falcon 9 rocket on the launchpad at NASA’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida also saw the destruction of its AMOS-6 satellite, manufactured by an Israeli firm, but leased to...

HONG KONG — A ubiquitous source of power in most modern technology, lithium-ion batteries keep cellphones, laptops, electric cars and airplanes running. They are also the source of many problems, with some overheating, catching fire and even exploding. In a potentially damaging episode, Samsung, the world’s biggest maker of smartphones, announced on Friday that it would recall its Galaxy Note 7 model after discovering a flaw in the battery cell that could result in fires. The company will replace 2.5 million phones sent to stores and consumers, in one of the industry’s largest recalls. The recall puts Samsung, which has...

Apple yesterday issued an emergency security update for the Mac, patching the same trio of vulnerabilities the company fixed last week on the iPhone. According to one of the groups that first revealed the flaws, the vulnerabilities could have been "weaponized" for use against OS X, the Mac's operating system. The out-of-band update was aimed at OS X El Capitan (aka 10.11) and Yosemite (10.10), the 2015 and 2014 editions, respectively. Older versions, including 2014's OS X Mavericks, went unmatched: Apple is nearing the release of its annual Mac operating system upgrade and thus the end of support for...

IBM scientists have created artificial neurons and synapses using phase change memory (PCM) that mimics the brain's cognitive learning capability.It is the first time the researchers were able to create what they described as "randomly spiking neurons" using phase-change materials to store and process data. The discovery is a milestone in developing energy-sipping and highly dense neuro networks that could be used for cognitive computing applications.

Less than a year late but half as good as the Korean giantIt looks like Intel’s process technology has finally narrowed the gap to Samsung, it is now less than a year. SemiAccurate thinks this is a bit of a misleading number though, if you look at the tech, Samsung’s process is still better.With the innovation in Intel’s Kaby Lake 7th Generation Core CPU line, the process improvements Intel brought to bear have been lost in the buzz. This is unfair because according to the presentations provided by Intel, they have finally narrowed the timing gap to industry leader Samsung...

Bad acting, clunky camerawork and overheating headsets … VR’s first feature-length 360-degree movie is no miracle – but the medium might be a blessing The e acting? Dire. The direction? Awful. The adaptation? Conservative and pedestrian. In conventional terms, everything about this new retelling of the Jesus story – showing here in Venice in an abbreviated 40-minute cut – is ropey. It is all too clearly influenced by Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ:

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's cabinet agreed on Friday to join Apple in appealing against a multi-billion-euro back tax demand that the European Commission has slapped on the iPhone maker, despite misgivings among independents who back the fragile coalition. A government spokesman said that following the cabinet's decision, it would ask parliament to endorse the legal challenge on Wednesday next week. Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted Dublin would fight any adverse ruling ever since the European Union began investigating the U.S. tech giant's Irish tax affairs in 2014, arguing that it had to protect a tax regime that has...

*********************clip The tremendous success of Pokemon Go, which is based on augmented reality, shows that the augmented reality/virtual reality era has arrived and is poised to be huge. With research firm Gartner predicting that 1.4 million virtual reality headsets will be shipped this year and 6.3 million will be shipped next year, investors should look to benefit from this trend. In 2020, 45.6 million augmented reality devices will be sold, another research firm IDC predicted.********************************************CLIP*********************************

The recovery in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's (005930.KS) mobile business suffered a blow on Thursday as reports of exploding batteries forced the firm to delay shipments of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, and knocked $7 billion off its market value. Investors drove the stock to two-week lows after the global smartphone leader told Reuters late on Wednesday the shipments had been delayed for quality control testing, and that shipments to South Korea's top three mobile carriers had been halted. Faults with the new premium flagship device could deal a major blow to the South Korean giant, which was counting on the...

Say hello to "Windows Update Delivery Optimization" Microsoft today updated the Windows 10 beta, switching on a controversial technology that commandeers users' upload bandwidth to shift some responsibility for updating from the company's own servers. Build 14915 was released earlier Wednesday to participants in the Windows Insider "Fast" track. The notable change highlighted by Dona Sarkar, the software engineer who acts as the public face of Insider, was the enabling of Windows 10's "Delivery Optimization" technology. Delivery Optimization, formally dubbed "Windows Update Delivery Optimization" (WUDO) by Microsoft, was part of Windows 10 from the get-go. But it was only switched...

SUMMARY Since the late '80s, Apple and other US multinationals have used Irish tax law to shield overseas profits from taxation by the EU or the US. The European Union has declared the Irish tax arrangements illegal and asserts that Apple now owes $14.5 billion in “back taxes”. The US Treasury Department believes that the EU claim is an unjustified attempt to grab tax revenue it would receive from repatriation of Apple's overseas cash. The executive arm of the European Union (EU), the European Commission , has decided that Apple received illegal tax breaks from Ireland. The EC is now...

Bust out your bow ties - Bill Nye is making a come back. Netflix just announced a new talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, set to launch in Spring 2017. The show will "explore science and its impact on politics, society and pop culture," according to the streaming site.

HOUSTON -- Vandals are getting creative with LED crosswalk signs, leaving the red flashing hand looking like it's giving passersby the finger. One altered sign stands near Leeland and Lockwood. It's feet from a daycare center and just blocks from multiple schools. Eyewitness News crews saw many children walking right by the obscene gesture. Another sign, located at the intersection of San Jacinto and Holman in Midtown, is near several businesses.

<p>Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has weighed into the tax dispute between Apple and the European Union, saying the Irish government should write a letter to the EU telling them to "f**k off".</p> <p>Dubbing the EU's ruling "bizarre", the outspoken Irishman said: "One of the fundamental principles of the European Union is that each country has its autonomy to make its own tax decisions.</p>

Might pull its nadgers out of the fireAMD is talking about how it is life might be becoming easier thanks to the rise of virtual reality (VR). Chatting to the Orlando Sentinel, vice president for AMD's Radeon Technologies Group Joe Cox said that there was a big resurgence in virtual reality. "Virtual reality is exciting because it's new and there is an excitement around it right now. But it's just now in its infancy and has a long road ahead for it." Its hope is that the company will pick up on the back of the developing VR market. It...

IBM to unveil new details of its Power9 chip; AMD to talk about inner workings of Zen technology ENLARGE AMD Chief Executive Lisa Su at an event in San Francisco last week discussing a chip dubbed ‘Summit Ridge’ that uses the company’s new Zen technology. Photo: Advanced Micro Devices ************************************************************ Few companies enjoy the kind of dominance Intel Corp. INTC 0.42 % does in chips for the computers found in data centers. But competitors keep trying to pry open its server stronghold, with International Business Machines Corp. IBM -0.20 % the latest to brandish a new tool.IBM, at a Silicon...

Apple just officially announced it will be holding a press event on Sept. 7, where it will launch its next-generation iPhones. What are reportedly official specs for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have just leaked.iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus details continue to leak, just as the company has confirmed earlier reports that it will be holding a press event on Wednesday, Sept. 7, which will also be live-streamed on Apple's website. The smartphones are expected to be made available for preorder on Sept. 9, and if you're planning on purchasing the new iPhones, there are reports that...

Does anyone know how to get out of a two year contract with Hughes net. The satellite service is terrible and they steal time. Is there anyone out there that has gotten their contract cancelled?