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RT @SFGate: This stealth company nestled against (inside?) Google is building flying cars:

RT @SFGate: Carriers reject kill switch for stolen smartphones

RT @newsycombinator: Study Suggests Link Between Silk Road operator and Bitcoin inventor

Evidence on the use and value of such genetic information is limited, and researchers are just beginning to address the question. Results may indicate, for instance, that a person's risk of a certain disease is 2% compared with a general prevalence in the population of 1%. While that's a doubling of risk, the absolute difference "isn't very meaningful," said Robert Green, a genetics medicine researcher at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston.

Google Glass Banned From Restaurant After Glasshole Tries To Get Employee Fired

Comparing album sales of four major labels before and after the removal of DRM reveals that digital music revenue increases by 10% when restrictions are removed. The effect goes up to 30% for long tail content, while top-selling albums show no significant jump. The findings suggest that dropping technical restrictions can benefit both artists and the major labels

On rereading the question I saw that the asker wanted the numbers for an iPhone 4 instead of a 5. Given the amount of handwaving I’m doing anyway, I’d say we’re still talking about close to the same period but a bit later. Without actual numbers as to the computers in use at the time, which I don’t think I can dig up without much more work than I’m willing to do for free, it’s difficult to be any closer than a couple years plus or minus. Definitely before Laugh-In (1968), definitely after the miniskirt (1964).

Dawda says that tens of thousands computers have been affected and that the perpetrators, who appear to be in Russia based on domain name tracing, are likely bringing in millions of dollars in ransom payments. Their costs won’t be high assuming they have rented a botnet, a network of hundreds or thousands infected zombie computers, to spam e-mail addresses with dubious links. Mass spamming means they’ve already hit some unwise targets: last week a police department in Massachusetts admitted to paying a ransom to Cryptolocker in Bitcoin.

The reasoning given by Google is that the CyanogenMod Installer violates the Google Play Store's developer terms by actively encouraging Android users to "void [the] warranty" on their devices. As we saw when we took the app for a test drive, the Installer does indeed de-hair the hairy process of unlocking an Android device's bootloader and getting an alternate ROM installed; apparently, though, the Installer made things just a little too easy. As our Android expert Ron Amadeo noted, the CyanogenMod Installer is mostly a "one-way street," without a quick way to return the device to its stock state—it's certainly possible, but not with the same level of ease.

Topsy specializes in analyzing the global conversation on Twitter. TWTR +0.47% Its tools can decipher how often a term is tweeted, find an influential person on a specific subject, or measure the exposure of an event or campaign.

The app, announced in a Google+ post by Glass engineer Stephen Lau, follows two November Glass announcements: that there will be branded and pricey Google Glass earbuds, and the public availability of the Google Glass Development Kit preview. The GDK let developers build apps that use more of Glass's hardware features than before.

The banned directory includes “butt” and “geek,” all seven of George Carlin’s dirty words, a frat party’s worth of homophobia and misogyny, and is peppered with pornographic sub genres and fetishistically obscure medical terms, like “gonadatrophia” and “irrumination.” Genitalia is banned (with special attention paid to women’s bodies) as well as a mystifying selection of words that aren’t generally considered offensive, like “thud” and “LSAT.”

Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable TV provider, says it is testing out a system with its NBCUniversal subsidiary to use full commercial loads on older episodes - while disabling fast-forwarding of ads - if consumers watch them within three days after a new episode airs.

During the Hotfile jury trial, scheduled to begin Monday Dec. 9, MPAA lawyers won't be allowed to use the terms "piracy," "theft," "stealing," or any derivatives of those words. The ruling disallowing the "pejorative" terms was issued on Friday by US District Judge Kathleen Williams, who is overseeing the case. The ruling is part of a larger order laying the framework for the upcoming trial and was first reported by TorrentFreak.

Under the New York law, retailers without a physical presence in the state must collect tax if they use a local resident to solicit business online. Amazon is subject to the law because it gets business through New York-based affiliates, paying them commissions for hosting online links to the retailer. The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, said affiliation agreements had the effect of creating an “in-state sales force.”

The next hurdle for the deal will be the European Union. Antitrust regulators there are on tap to decide whether or not Microsoft's bid breaches the EU's competition rules. Reuters reported in October that the European Commission would decide by December 4 whether or not to clear the acquisition. (It can extend the review by an additional 10 business days if needed to weigh possible concessions by Microsoft if there are any concerns.)

“This weekend, we had more people learn about [Fast & Furious actor] Paul Walker's death from our mobile products than from our desktop products, which was the first time that something like that had happened,” Zucker said.

Leo's tool for 12/4

Among the companies are Schaft, a small team of Japanese roboticists who recently left Tokyo University to develop a humanoid robot, and Industrial Perception, a start-up here that has developed computer vision systems and robot arms for loading and unloading trucks. Also acquired were Meka and Redwood Robotics, makers of humanoid robots and robot arms in San Francisco, and Bot & Dolly, a maker of robotic camera systems that were recently used to create special effects in the movie “Gravity.” A related firm, Autofuss, which focuses on advertising and design, and Holomni, a small design firm that makes high-tech wheels, were acquired as well.

People familiar with the company’s plan say it is now looking at a Q1 launch, though it doesn’t have a specific date nailed down. YouTube already has the licenses it needs from music owners to launch the service, but I’m told that the company isn’t satisfied with the product itself.

Ten million dollars is chicken feed to AT&T, of course; its profits are currently running a little over a billion dollars a month, with revenue triple that. It's more the principle of the thing. If the company handling all the traffic in and out of your phone is literally on the government payroll, it's hard to expect them to be on your side. And in fact, they haven't been: while Google, Facebook and the rest of the PRISM crew have sworn up and down that they respect user privacy, phone carriers have remained mostly silent.

The company's policies for shutting off sales to retailers and shipping licenses to OEMS (original equipment manufacturers) are posted on its site, which was recently updated to show that Windows 7's "retail end of sales" date was Oct. 30. The next deadline, marked as "End of sales for PCs with Windows preinstalled," will be Oct. 30, 2014, less than a year away.

RT @Techmeme: The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry: An Oral History (Businessweek)

RT @Techmeme: The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry: An Oral History (Businessweek)

RT @Techmeme: The Open Secret Of iBeacon: Apple Could Have 250M Potential Units In The Wild By 2014

RT @Techmeme: The Open Secret Of iBeacon: Apple Could Have 250M Potential Units In The Wild By 2014

RT @Techmeme: Check if you're the victim of a database breach with 'Have I Been Pwned?' (@gcluley)

RT @Techmeme: Check if you're the victim of a database breach with 'Have I Been Pwned?' (@gcluley)