Since 2002, Congress has set aside $104 billion specifically to rebuild Afghanistan. Of that, $66 billion went to the Pentagon. Recently, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction asked the military to account for all that spending. It couldn’t. According to a new report from SIGAR, the Pentagon only knows how it spent a third Read more about How the Pentagon Lost Track of $45 Billion in Afghanistan[…]
Toyota is opening the door to the hydrogen future, making available thousands of hydrogen fuel cell patents royalty free. Announced today at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, this Toyota initiative will spur development and introduction of innovative fuel cell technologies around the world. Toyota will invite royalty-free use of approximately 5,680 fuel cell related patents Read more about Toyota understands that patents stifle innovation, allows the use of Hydrogen Fuel Cell patents royalty free to foster innovation[…]
Skiplagged.com found out that you can buy a cheaper ticket from A – B if you buy a ticket to C where B is a stop on the way (A – B – C) and then just get off at B. For example, a customer buying a ticket from New York to Los Angeles, where Read more about United Airlines and Orbitz resort to suing Skiplagged.com which is better and takes advantage of airlines’ stupid fee structure[…]
Company marketed specialized computers designed to produce the cryptocurrency but delivered useless machines, according to an FTC complaint. via Bitcoin-mining company Butterfly Labs shut down by FTC – CNET.
Airpooler – an Uber for plane rides – fucked up private pilots in the US flying people to destinations for the price of fuel (and so to get their hours) by asking the FAA for clarification of a 1964 rule. The FAA clarification not only extends to ride sharing services, but also to the old Read more about FAA Bans Planesharing Startups[…]
Interestingly, recruiters spend only 6 seconds reviewing an individual resume! They spend that time looking at: Name Current title / company Previous title / company Previous position start and end dates Current position start and end dates Education If you add a picture, they spend 19% of that time looking at the picture, not the Read more about Recruiters look at your CV like this: Eye tracking study[…]
This time, 36% of people tested still do not realise that Google Adwords are ads. Furthermore, about a quarter of people don’t know that Google had any advertising at all. And this despite the yellow text box proclaiming ‘ads’. via 36% of people still don't realise that Google Adwords are ads | Econsultancy.
In November 2013: There have been local reports of a mini helicopter drone dropping 250 grams worth of what is thought to be cocaine onto a Brazilian prison. According to Brazilian news source Globo, the prison, Centro de Detenção Provisória 1 is 60 miles north of São José dos Campos and currently holds 1,605 prisoners. Read more about Drones being used for package delivery by criminals[…]
Bitcoin Now on Bloomberg | Blog | Bloomberg L.P..
This is an incredible story: The Silk Road 2.0 decided not to fold and has been repaying customers that lost their BTC by randomly assigning service costs BTC to duped customers instead of paying it out to staff. How Silk Road Bounced Back from Its Multimillion-Dollar Hack | Motherboard.
This will probably cost the copyright owners millions, because the current system won’t work any more. Considering studies keep showing that freely shared content sells better than DRM content, copyright will shoot itself further in the foot. Well done on furthering shortsighted, US business interests, EU. The Netherlands Must Outlaw Downloading, EU Court Rules (Update) Read more about The Netherlands Must Outlaw Downloading, EU Court Rules[…]
China’s central bank has ruled that all banks and payment service providers in the country must cease dealing in Bitcoin. The ruling, effective from April 15th, basically shutters all Bitcoin trading sites in the Middle Kingdom and means cash purchases will soon be the only way to buy into the virtual currency. via Bitcoin bloodbath Read more about Bitcoin bloodbath as China shutters all trading sites[…]
OKCoin has grown rapidly over the past few weeks and is now the biggest Chinese exchange, according to its CEO Star Xu. He claims the exchange’s current daily trade volume is approximately 50,000 bitcoins per day. Interestingly, on top of that, the exchange allegedly trades 5 million litecoins per day. The company claims that at its Read more about OKCoin Raises $10 Million to Become China’s ‘Largest Exchange’[…]
The city-state says the regulations for transacting digital currencies will be similar to those currently imposed on money changers and remittance businesses that undertake cash transactions. BBC News – Singapore to regulate virtual currency exchanges.
After having lost court case after court case, NORMA has won in the highest courts, saying that it should get money for each form of media – hard disk, ipod, SD Card, basically anything that allows digital content copied to it – in order to ‘pay the artists’ that could, potentially have their music copied Read more about NL High court rules that musicians should get money for every media sold that could copy music onto it[…]
The link has a whitepaper and a generator http://m.slashdot.org/story/196547
It’s a huge library of video courses you can take for free. Learn to Invest: Learn how to buy stocks and how to invest.
UK government plans switch from Microsoft Office to open source | Technology | theguardian.com.
All stakeholders are welcome to contribute to this consultation. Contributions are particularly sought from consumers, users, authors, performers, publishers, producers, broadcasters, intermediaries, distributors and other service providers, Collective Management Organisations, public authorities and Member States. The objective of this consultation is to gather input from all stakeholders on the review of the EU copyright rules. Read more about Review of the EU copyright rules – Put your word in at the EU now![…]
Superscammer. And relevant when compared to the wolf of wallstreet! http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-dark-lord-of-the-internet/355726/?single_page=true
Summarizing 400 studies over the past 60 years, the report concludes that humans perform only “the same as or slightly better than chance.” Given that the TSA has spent almost a billion dollars on the program, that’s a pretty poor record. http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/13/5100702/tsa-screening-works-only-a-little-better-than-chance-according-to This includes extensive studies of the TSA SPOT programme over 2011 & 2012
In 2012 I bought an apartment specifically to rent out on airbnb. I’ve been managing it remotely for the past year. This post includes everything I learned as well as some revenue numbers http://gizmodo.com/i-bought-an-apartment-just-to-rent-it-out-on-airbnb-1458666661/@whitsongordon?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lifehacker%2Ffull+%28Lifehacker%29
The gist is pretty simple: drive traffic to sites via links, recieve money (about $1 per 1000 hits) via their affiliate advertising programmes. http://torrentfreak.com/making-money-from-movie-streaming-sites-an-insiders-story-131019/
These guys have a sticker SIM card which you stick over your existing SIM card. Once you’re roaming, it intercepts the call and re routes it to it’s own services. These are way cheaper than the roaming costs of the company you are using. Once you’re back, you are using your own provider. bibitel :: Read more about bibitel Sim Skin for cheap mobile roaming[…]
What is the world coming to when the largest patent trolls, namely Apple, MS, and Samsung as well as BlackBerry, Cisco, HP, Intel, Yahoo, Google are trying to reign in new EU laws that would make patent trolling easy? Could it be that even they recognise that the patent system is outmoded and harms innovation Read more about Biggest patent trolls worried about EU also becoming patent troll heaven[…]