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present_arms writes:

The Channel (at El Reg) reports Apple employees have now been granted a class action lawsuit against their employers.

from TFA "The lawsuit (PDF), originally filed in 2011 by former Apple retail and corporate staff, claims that managers routinely forced them to work more than five hours without a break and, when they did so, withheld wages that were promised to make up for working the extra hours."

The rest breaks are mandated by California Labor Code 226.7 and the four plaintiffs say that because they had to punch in and out of work there is a clear paper trail to support their case.

In addition, the four claim that after they quit Apple the firm withheld their pay checks for periods ranging from a few days to weeks. This too is against California law.

janrinok writes:

The Register has a report claiming that it is small and medium sized businesses that create jobs. While that is too sweeping a generalisation, it points out the problems regarding layoffs from both Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard because, the article claims, they have lost their way. From the article:

The recent news of layoffs from computing giants provides proof, once again, of an old economic saw. It's not actually big businesses that create jobs, it's the small and new ones that do.

Our problem is that we've a political class (yes, all of it) that doesn't really quite get this. They would like there to be lots of jobs, of course, but they think that the way to get them is to suck up to to give privileges to large extant employers instead of the people who actually do create jobs.

Microsoft is laying off 18,000 because they're not sure what they should be doing (other than indulging in corporate doubletalk that is). HP is going to lay off even more people because, err, they don't know what they should be doing either. And all of this really shouldn't be a surprise to observers of the scene economic. We expect big business to continually be shrinking its workforce. Perhaps not with quite this sort of vehemence but over time it's the standard assumption.

[....]

Each year the UK economy destroys some 3 million jobs. Yes, really, 10% of all jobs disappear each year. Some of this is bankruptcy of firms, some of it is technological advance (to the extent that the first isn't caused by the second). Each year the UK economy also creates some 3 million jobs. The change in unemployment is the balance between those destroyed and created numbers and what happens in recessions isn't that, particularly, more people get fired or more companies go bankrupt. It's that many fewer new firms start up, many fewer small ones expand. And it's that which produces the imbalance that leads to higher unemployment rolls. Not a greater destruction of extant jobs, but an absence of job creation.

While this might not seem to ring true to the many that are currently out of work and struggling to get by, the article does give more explanation and provides much food for thought. What do you Soylentils think?

gewg_ writes:

Google and IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) are not satisfied with the power density of current inverters and are willing to pay for a major breakthrough.

The winning inverter will be the one that achieves the highest power density and meets a list of other specifications, as determined by a panel of judges, while undergoing testing for 100 hours.

In brief, the other specifications are:

• Must be able to handle up to 2 kVA loads
• Must achieve a power density of equal to or greater than 50 W/cu in
• Must be able to handle loads with power factors from 0.7 — 1, leading and lagging in an islanded mode
• Must be in a rectangular metal enclosure of no more than 40 cu in
• Will be taking in 450 V DC power in series with a 10 ohm resistor
• Must output 240 V, 60 Hz AC single phase power
• Must have a total harmonic distortion + noise on both voltage and current of < 5%
• Must have an input ripple current of < 20%
• Must have an input ripple voltage of < 3%
• Must have a DC-AC efficiency of greater than 95%
• Must maintain a temperature of no more than 60°C during operation everywhere on the outside of the device that can be touched.
• Must conform to Electromagnetic Compliance standards as set out in FCC Part 15 B
• Cannot use any external source of cooling (e.g. water) other than air
• Does not require galvanic isolation

cafebabe writes:

Further to the Kremlin purchasing 20 Cyrillic/Latin typewriters and sparking a media frenzy, RT reports that:

An increasing number of businesses are opting out of staying virtually connected and are reverting back to old technologies to avoid being spied on. The move has led to a surge in typewriter sales in Germany.

German typewriter makers such as Bandermann and Olympia have cited climbing sales amid NSA spying revelations. "We sell about 10,000 [typewriters] every year," Bandermann manager Rolf Bonnen told The Local. "We've seen an increase because Brother left the market [in 2012]," he added. The company's sales jumped by one-third over last year since 2012.

Triumph Adler, which is part of Bandermann, began advertising its typewriters as "Bug proof. NSA proof" in 2013 in order to attract more consumers.

Typewriters aren't quite bug proof because analysis can be done on the sound of each strike, or even by simply removing the ribbon which can hold an imprint of the most recently typed document. A larger concern is to be careful about photocopying. Modern, proprietary photocopiers have hard disks which are huge for the task of photocopying. And in a separate issue, some photocopiers have issues when copying fonts and monospaced fonts in particular.

gewg_ writes:

Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim Calls for Three-Day Workweek to Improve Quality of Life

Mexican billionaire tycoon, Carlos Slim, has called for the introduction of a three-day working week, offset by longer hours and a later retirement, as a way to improve people's quality of life and create a more productive labour force.

Slim made the comments when speaking to a business conference in Paraguay, suggesting that the workforce could be spread over a full week, with employees working up to 10 or 11 hours a day.

"With three work days a week, we would have more time to relax; for quality of life," the Financial Times reports Slim saying. (paywalled)

The business conference, Growing Together - States and Enterprises, was held in Asuncion and was attended by business and political leaders from across Latin America.

"Having four days [off] would be very important to generate new entertainment activities and other ways of being occupied," Slim said. He said current retirement ages come from a time of lower life expectancies, and should rise to 70 or 75.

Anybody want a 75 year old hauling away his trash?

lhsi writes:

Research into the environmental impact of animal-based foods has concluded that beef has the greatest impact by a large margin (Full text [pdf]).

When the numbers were in, including those for the environmental costs of different kinds of feed (pasture, roughage such as hay, and concentrates such as corn), the team developed equations that yielded values for the environmental cost per calorie and then per unit of protein, for each food.

The calculations showed that the biggest culprit, by far, is beef. That was no surprise, say Milo and Shepon. The surprise was in the size of the gap: In total, eating beef is more costly to the environment by an order of magnitude about ten times on average than other animal-derived foods, including pork and poultry. Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water, are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases, and consume 6 times as much nitrogen, as eggs or poultry. Poultry, pork, eggs and dairy all came out fairly similar. That was also surprising, because dairy production is often thought to be relatively environmentally benign. But the research shows that the price of irrigating and fertilizing the crops fed to milk cows as well as the relative inefficiency of cows in comparison to other livestock jacks up the cost significantly.

ah.clem writes:

From the NY Times: Your cat may never give up your secrets. But your cat photos might.

Using cat pictures - that essential building block of the Internet - and a supercomputer, a Florida State University professor has built a site that shows the locations of the cats (at least at some point in time, given their nature) and, presumably, of their owners.

Owen Mundy, an assistant professor of art who studies the relationship between data and the public, created "I Know Where Your Cat Lives" as a way of demonstrating "the status quo of personal data usage by startups and international megacorps who are riding the wave of decreased privacy for all," Mr. Mundy wrote in a post about the site.

Using images of cats uploaded to photosharing services, including Flickr, Twitpic and Instagram, Mr. Mundy extracted latitude and longitude coordinates that many modern cameras, especially those in smartphones, attach to each image. His site displays random images from a sample of one million of what Mr. Mundy estimates are at least 15 million pictures tagged with the word "cat" online.

Nerdfest writes:

The title says it all. Not only has Verizon's performance become dramatically worse, the company has continued to try and foist the blame for the problem on Netflix, claiming that the online streaming giant is deliberately degrading performance by attempting to stuff data down specific congested Verizon pipes. Unfortunately, a growing body of evidence suggests this isn't true.

In related news, here's an interesting graph of NetFlix speeds from around the time this 'fast lane' discussion was started until now. These ISPs sure make a case for treating them like common carriers.

lhsi writes:

Recently, UK ISPs were encouraged by the government to offer network level filters that blocked naughty content to new users signing up. It appears that people aren't as keen on these filters as the government hoped.

Only 5% of new BT customers signed up, 8% opted in for Sky and 4% for Virgin Media. TalkTalk rolled out a parental-control system two years before the government required it and has had much better take-up of its offering, with 36% of customers signing up for it.

cafebabe writes:

The Daily Mail, Yahoo News and HackADay report that:

A couple of car enthusiasts from Los Angeles have come up with an ingenious way to car pool by converting a classic car into a hot tub.

Phil Weicker and Duncan Forster have spent nearly six years converting a 1969 Cadillac Coupe DeVille into a hot tub on wheels.

The car's original V8 engine is used to keep the water the perfect temperature, and watertight steering systems have been installed.

The guys intend to set a land speed record. Commentators note that hills should be avoided. However, given the that hottub car doesn't have seats or seatbelts, it isn't road-legal.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Amazon's started a "Pay to Quit" program where full-time employees are offered up to $5,000 to leave the company (to ensure the remaining workforce is truly motivated). Jeff Bezos revealed the perk in a letter to shareholders, while also announcing that Amazon is welcoming tourists into its fulfillment centers in 6 different U.S. states. But one Seattle blog describes the move as "obviously an attempt to counter all the bad press that Amazon's warehouses have gotten over the past year," linking to an undercover BBC investigation and stories about Amazon's arrival in a former coal-mining town. And Gawker has begun soliciting new horror stories from Amazon employees. ("You literally must re-interview for your position...constantly. It comes up at least every three months...")

NOTE: This story is a follow-up to one we posted on April 13: Amazon Will Pay Employees Up To $5,000 For Quitting

lhsi writes:

The UK government has selected document file formats that are expected to be used across all government bodies.

The selected standards, which are compatible with commonly used document applications, are:

• PDF/A or HTML for viewing government documents
• Open Document Format (ODF) for sharing or collaborating on government documents

The move supports the government's policy to create a level playing field for suppliers of all sizes, with its digital by default agenda on track to make cumulative savings of £1.2 billion in this Parliament for citizens, businesses and taxpayers.

cafebabe writes:

Wired reports that:

While ostensibly a plan to make the entire state of 38 million people more governable, the six-state initiative is being led and funded by a member of the Silicon Valley elite, many of whom would no doubt welcome the increased political clout that would likely come from carving out their own statehood. In the hands of most, the six-state initiative would look like a pure stunt. But with Silicon Valley behind it, this effort's chances at the ballot box can't be dismissed out of hand. Unlike most other would-be revolutionaries, Silicon Valley has a long record of taking ideas that sound outlandish at the time--affordable computers in every home, private rocket ships--and managing to make them real. It also has a seemingly endless stream of money that, combined with heavy doses of ingenuity and shamelessness, give its goofball ideas the fuel they need to take off.

...

"Our gift to California is this--it's one of opportunity and choice," Draper said at a press conference yesterday where he announced the campaign had collected far more than 800,000 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot. "We're saying, make one failing government into six great states."

gizmobeast writes:

Imagine a smartwatch that fits perfectly on your wrist. Or a smartphone as slim as a credit card. That could soon be a reality. At least, that is what this new startup hopes.

Imprint Energy has developed a bendable, long lasting and rechargeable battery that will lead to new developments of wearable electronics. This California-based company has designed zinc-based batteries that can be printed on sheets and be customized based on product designs. This is a huge innovation that opens us endless possibilities.

Unfortunately, the article is short on technical details.

View the related press release here

gewg_ writes:

Alternet reports

According to the latest Energy Infrastructure Update [PDF] from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, solar and wind energy constituted more than half of the new generating capacity in the country for the first half of 2014. Solar and wind energy combined for 1.83 gigawatts (GW) of the total 3.53 GW installed from January to June.

This despite the fact that Congress let tax credits for renewable energy expire in 2012.

Anonymous Coward writes:

Cloud computing is transforming the way we communicate, argues Forbes magazine, predicting "Storage will find itself more and more removed from the device as thin clients and ubiquitous Internet access give us endless accessibility to our information from anywhere..."

But they also predict that applications will become more robust, since the cloud offers much easier ways to update and distribute software. The first widely popular cloud apps were primitive public/private services like Prodigy, AOL, and Hotmail. (One telecom billing solution company even celebrated their 15th year of providing cloud-based services.) But Forbes attributes the breakout popularity of the cloud to Amazon's AWS service and Apple's iCloud.