Police Sworn to Secrecy by Car-Tracking Database Company; Microsoft Cheaper to Use than Open Source, Says UK CIO

Feature Phone Dies as 'Basic Smartphone' Thrives | Brain Injury Turns Man into Math Genius To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Police Sworn to Secrecy by Car-Tracking Database Company Microsoft Cheaper to Use than Open Source, Says UK CIO  Feature Phone Dies as 'Basic Smartphone' Thrives Brain Injury Turns Man into Math Genius Will GM 'Switchgate' Recall Kill the Ignition Key? Hot Comment: "Programming isn't an end to itself. Well it..." From the Vault: Apple Causes Religious Reaction in Brains of Fans Watch It: Jon 'Maddog' Hall on the Future of Free Software Poll Booth: Favorite Star Wars Movie? Sponsored Resource: Top 8 Considerations to Enable and Simplify Mobility Police Sworn to Secrecy by Car-Tracking Database Company Before law enforcement agencies can use one of the nation's largest database of license-plate tracking data, they have to agree to keep it secret "to prohibit users from cooperating with any media outlet to bring attention" to the database. But the agreement mysteriously changed after WIRED published a story about it. Sound Off>> Microsoft Cheaper to Use than Open Source, Says UK CIO  UK government CIO Jos Creese says that when comparing open source and Microsoft products, Microsoft has always proved to be the cheaper option. He added that "true cost is in the total cost of ownership and exploitation, not just the license cost." Sound Off>> Feature Phone Dies as 'Basic Smartphone' Thrives We've known for a while now that feature phones have been slowly displaced by more feature-rich, high-end smartphones. So, it's no surprise that the other end of the market is also receiving active encroachment by low-end smartphones. ARM predicts that basic smartphones can go as low as $20 in the next few months. Sound Off>> Brain Injury Turns Man into Math Genius After being brutally attacked outside a bar, a Tacoma, Wash. man developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have a mathematical structure. Sound Off>> Will GM 'Switchgate' Recall Kill the Ignition Key? In the wake of General Motors' ignition switch problems that have been linked to at least 13 deaths and numerous injuries, GM's CEO told  a Congressional committee that the recall may force the company to ditch ignition keys in favor of push-button systems. The move would end decades of complaints from customers. Sound Off>>  Something else? "Programming isn't an end to itself. Well it can be but, generally we program to do something else - payroll, missile guidance, selling stuff over the Internet, etc. ..." --by TechyImmigrant Read More>>   Apple Causes Religious Reaction in Brains of Fans In a BBC documentary screened three years ago, UK neuroscientists found that the brains of Apple fans are stimulated by images of Apple products in the same areas as those triggered by religious imagery in a person of faith. According to the scientists, this suggests that the big tech brands have harnessed, or exploited, the brain areas that have evolved to process religion. Read More>> Jon 'Maddog' Hall on the Future of Free Software Executive Director of Linux International Jon "maddog" Hall is one of our favorite speakers on the Linux/FOSS circuit. Timothy Lord recently caught up with maddog to talk about several topics, including the connection between the drop in price of hardware and free software and why even closed source projects would be able to hire open source people. Watch the Video>>   Favorite Star Wars Movie? Episode I - The Phantom Menace Episode II - Attack of the Clones Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Episode IV - A New Hope Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back Episode VI - Return of the Jedi I don't like any of them Episode VII - Rise of the Lens Flare Cast Your Vote>>   Top 8 Considerations to Enable and Simplify Mobility IT departments have a huge opportunity to make their enterprises more agile, cost efficient and competitive by embracing the opportunities available through mobile devices and constant connectivity. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.