Free Republic

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens on Monday said he is considering a mechanism in which the Federal Communications Commission would be charged with ensuring that consumers can go wherever they choose on the Internet or run any Internet-based application. The Alaska Republican said at a conference sponsored by communications companies that the issue, dubbed network neutrality, is one of the most difficult for lawmakers to reach a consensus on as they craft legislation aimed at overhauling U.S. communications laws. ``Net neutrality is one of the most difficult issues our committee faces in this process,'' he told the conference sponsored...

The No. 1 computer maker in the world will double headcount in India in the next three years. Dell CEO Michael Dell said Monday the company would employ 20,000 people in India in the next three years, doubling the current headcount of 10,000. A small portion of the new employees, or about 300, will be on the R&D team, doubling the current 300-strong division. They will be based in Bangalore, designing and finding solutions for servers and storage equipment. “We found that the R&D team was designing patentable stuff, so we decided to extend their scope from just software to...

This is one of the more interesting things I have seen. I love the way it can right itself after being kicked. Very cool, although it is a bit creepy, and that noise has to be dealt with.

Samsung has taken the wraps off a mobile phone that boasts what it says is the biggest hard drive seen on such a device to date. The "candy bar"-style device, the SGH-i310, will pack 8GB of storage and run Windows Mobile 5.0. Samsung is hoping the device, which can hold more songs than an iPod Nano, will take off with music fans. In addition to its large hard drive, the device will let users sync playlists from their PC as well as store documents, photos and other information in the phone's internal memory. The i310 is the fourth of Samsung's...

CQ CQ CQ - Doctor Raoul has kindly asked if I would ping the Ham List in the hopes that a technically skilled Freeper may be able to assist with repairs to PA systems to be used in Freeps. Excerpts from his Freepmail appear below: ========================================================= I have a number of Amplivox portable PAs. It may be that I'm not aligning the prongs on the battery case or perhaps corrosion. Have a schematic on bottom of case. Need them checked out and then we can send them to people doing counter-protests. I think it's possible to wire them up to...

By 2010, nearly one in three workers in the United States will be older than 50, according to CompTIA. As the number of younger workers declines, attracting and retaining "experienced and reliable workers" will become a core business strategy for all employers. The aging workforce is becoming a significant concern for technology employers in the U.S., where a third of employees will be aged 50 or older in just four years. Ten years ago, the story was the "graying of Japan," where aging workers were expected to be less productive in their golden years as well. By Gene Koprowski

PARIS (Reuters) - Microsoft will introduce a search engine better than Google in six months in the United States and Britain followed by Europe, its European president said on Wednesday. "What we're saying is that in six months' time we'll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google," said Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant," he told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit. But being good is not enough to...

On Friday, Feb. 3, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the nonfarm payroll jobs report for January. New York Times reporter Vikas Bajaj wrote an upbeat news story, obviously based on a Labor Department press release rather than any study of the BLS report. If the rosy view of Ethan Harris, chief economist for Lehman Brothers, is typical, Wall Street has no more idea than Bajaj of what the jobs report really says. The export and import-competitive sectors of the U.S. economy have been tanking for a long time. To keep the story manageable, let's just go back to January...

We Support Our Troops!  For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.Part 2 Today we'll look at some gadgets that changed the way we lived  in the 1980's and 90's.  Last week, we looked at the 50's, 60's and 70's.  I'm sure you can think of MANY more gadgets in these eras.  Please share them with us!FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT:  Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allies military and the family members of the above. Honoring those who have served before. 1982, Commodore64 :  The...

IN BRITAIN they are the voice on the end of a phone interrupting meals and television show. But in India call-centre workers are trendsetters who are reshaping the country’s shopping habits and conservative mores. Dating, shopping and partying, deemed frivolous, unaffordable and risqué by their parents, are the pastimes of choice for the tens of thousands of highly educated, English-speaking Indians aged between 18 and 25 in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi and Pune, where the call centre industry is booming. With starting salaries almost triple that of an average Indian graduate, call-centre workers are the first generation able to...

Apple Computer’s new MacBook Pro -- the renamed Intel-based successor to the PowerBook unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs two weeks ago -- isn’t yet shipping (see "Update: Apple unveils Intel-based laptop, iMac"). But Apple officials are now showing off their newest 15-in. laptop, and I had a chance at a special Apple event last week to get a closer look at it. In fact, I had some real "pick it up and use it" hands-on time. The good news is that the MacBook Pro, which comes in two models and starts at $1,999, feels and looks just as solid...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University engineers have developed a wind tunnel that is the only one of its kind in the world capable of running quietly at "hypersonic" speeds, helping researchers to design advanced aircraft and missiles. No other wind tunnel runs quietly while conducting experiments in airstreams traveling at Mach 6 – six times the speed of sound, said Steven Schneider, an aerospace engineer and professor in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Researchers will use the $1 million wind tunnel to help design advanced aircraft that travel at hypersonic speeds, or faster than Mach 5, which is...

OK, new thread to celebrate reaching a major milestone! Within a few hours Team FreeRepublic will be in the Top1000!!!! We should pass Dean for America, around noon tommorrow. Other liberal teams want to challenge us (DUmmies and Kos) but we're humiliating them beyond description.

'IBM is recruiting. Hop on,' says a large hoarding mounted on a van as it tours various parts of Bangalore city, reflecting the mad rush to secure talent as the IT outsourcing wave reaches a new high. To explain this phenomenon, industry experts are debating what has been the definitive shift in the software industry over the past year and trying to gaze ahead for this sector. The lesson emerging from the experience of 2005 is that India has the opportunity to maintain its dominance of the outsourcing space if it can sustain the massive growth needed in the global-ready...

Another blog search engine will release a list of top 100 bloggers. Every blogger on the list will blog the news in the form of: “Wow, I’m honored to have made it onto the top 100 list” with a link back to the list maintainer’s blog. The list maintainer will in return blog: “I’m honored to see that the list has been covered by such a high-profile blogger” with a link back to the winner’s blog. The link incest will continue for weeks until it has propelled the list maintainer himself into the top 100, at which point the...

Driver-Monitoring System Instead of just watching for hazards on the road, Toyota's latest precrash safety system is turning its attention to the most likely cause of an accident: you. This spring, Lexus models in Japan will be available with a camera mounted on the steering column that uses facial-recognition software to determine whether you're watching the road. If not, and the front-mounted radar sees you're getting too close to something, it will flash a light, then beep and tap the brakes if you persist in rubbernecking. Body Area Network (BAN) Like everything else, implantable medical devices are going wireless. A...

OK, new thread for the next week. First, a big shout out to the SETI members who have added CPUs to the effort. Remember, its Team 36120, NOT Team 0. Next, congrats to all for bumping our team up to 104 processors and 76 users. We have a number of new users in the team, with Clara Lou, fzx12345, SamfromLivingston, brityank, manwiththehands and Tami all popping onto the hit list this week. Malsua, uriah and Ken in Texas are solidly in the top 10. Malsua is continuing to add systems and now accounts for 10% of the FR total. Great...

OK, new thread for the next week. First, a big shout out to the SETI members who have added CPUs to the effort. Remember, its Team 36120, NOT Team 0. Next, congrats to all for bumping our team up to 65 processors. ArgentCent is the latest to have joined our happy band of folders and jumps in at # 36 with his first completed WU. We now have 51 members in the team, and about 45 active participants. Malsua, uriah and Ken in Texas are solidly in the top 10. One of these will probably be the new Numero Uno...

FreeRepublic Team Ranked #1,550 (of 41,708 teams)

TOKYO, Japan, December 13, 2005– Honda Motor Co., Ltd. debuted a new ASIMO humanoid robot which features the ability to pursue key tasks in a real-life environment such as an office and an advanced level of physical capabilities. Compared to the previous model, the new ASIMO achieves the enhanced ability to act in sync with people – for example, walking with a person while holding hands. A new function to carry objects using a cart was also added. Further, the development of a “total control system” enables ASIMO to automatically perform the tasks of a receptionist or information guide...