Link: Study: Inkjet printers are filthy, lying thieves
“According to a recent study, inkjet printers are woefully wrong when they report they’re out of ink, sometimes by as much as 60 percent in some designs. Even highly-efficient designs aren’t close to perfect.”
Study paid for by Epson, but interesting anyway.Â
Link: Rumor: Apple and Mercedes to pair up on in-car system
Will Apple soon make a foray into the automobile industry? An iCar? Not quite, but there are rumors of a new partnership with Mercedes.
Link: White House E-mail Scandal Widens
Spamicles alerts us to a report just issued (PDF) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. At least 88 White House officials used Republican National Committee email accounts for government business. The RNC has destroyed at least some of the emails from 51 of those officials. Law requires emails sent by officials to be stored or recorded. There is evidence that White House lawyers and the (current) Attorney General knew of this but did not act to stop it. From the article: “These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies… Given the heavy reliance by White House officials on RNC e-mail accounts, the high rank of the White House officials involved, and the large quantity of missing e-mails, the potential violation of the Presidential Records Act may be extensive.”
Link: Eclipse Speed Wizards Can Help
This article demonstrates the art of using powerful Eclipse wizardtry that that automates the creation of classes, interfaces, projects, other resources. Eclipse wizards are a great way to define repeatable templates for file types when the built-in template functionality won’t suffice. After working through the information, you will be able to implement your own speed wizards in Eclipse to create enhanced functionality very quickly.
Link: Expectation of Privacy Extended to Email
An anonymous reader writes “In a 6th circuit court decision [PDF] today 4th amendment expectation of privacy rights were extended to email. ‘The ruling by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio upholds a lower court ruling that placed a temporary injunction on e-mail searches in a fraud investigation against Steven Warshak, who runs a supplements company best known for a male enhancement product called Enzyte. Warshak hawks Enzyte using “Smiling Bob” ads that have gained some notoriety.’”
Link: DreamWorks Picks up Neil Gaiman’s Interworld
Lisandro writes to tell us Geeks of Doom is reporting that author Neil Gaiman recently announced DreamWorks has optioned the film rights for his upcoming novel, ‘Interworld’. “Gaiman said that in 1996 he began working with Michael Reaves on the idea for a story ‘about a boy who finds himself in the middle of a war between two equally powerful forces, who joins a super-team consisting of versions of himself from different alternate realities to try and maintain the cosmic balance.’ Soon after, the idea was pitched to DreamWorks and other studios, but was turned down.”
Link: Samsung SyncMaster 940UX: First USB-Monitor Reviewed
“Although USB connectors in monitors appeared many years ago, they have performed only secondary functions all this time. However, now Samsung offers an LCD monitor that is connected to the PC via the USB bus and can work without a graphics card.”
Link: Venezuelan government to sell Linux-based computers
A new low-cost computing initiative implemented by the Venezuelan government aims to make inexpensive Linux-based computers available throughout Latin America.
Link: Michael Moore’s New Film Leaked To BitTorrent
Jared writes “Michael Moore was afraid the Feds might sieze his new documentary Sicko, a scathing indictment of the US health-care system, because part of it was filmed in Cuba despite the US embargo. So he stashed a copy of the film in Canada just to be safe. He might as well not have bothered — the film has shown up on BitTorrent and P2P networks everywhere. So it’s safe now.”
Link: The Fallacy of Hard Tests
Al Feldzamen writes in with a blog post on the fallacious math behind many specialist examinations. “‘The test was very hard,’ the medical specialist said. ‘Only 35 percent passed.’ ‘How did they grade it?’ I asked. ‘Multiple choice,’ he said. ‘They count the number right.’ As a former mathematician, I immediately knew the test results were meaningless. It was typical of the very hard test, like bar exams or medical license exams, where very often the well-qualified and knowledgeable fail the exam. But that’s because the exam itself is a fraud.”