"'It is a common misconception that the less initial numbers..."
When you have discrete, countable units, such as the symbols, in this case numbers, already present on the Sudoku grid, you have more or you have fewer .
When it's something you can't count, you have more or you have less.
I have more 16x16 grid sheets printed up for hexadecimal Sudoku, because those are the ones I copy from 'the net'.
I have fewer (currently none, actually) of the 9x9 (4 to a page) printed because I quit doing the 1-9 version so
Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/7jVwTSqoAUE/worlds-hardest-sudoku
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The good ship T-Mobile isn't staying anchored in any one port for mobile payments: just hours after the ink started drying on a deal with MasterCard for NFC, the carrier's parent company Deutsche Telekom has confirmed to Bloomberg that it's been talking with Google as well. While Deutsche Telekom's innovation lead Thomas Kiessling hasn't said more about a pact beyond its being "theoretically possible," it's not hard to do the math and picture Google Wallet coming into the equation if discussions go smoothly. Google won't go so far as to comment on its own -- not that the silence is stopping the would-be German partner, which is also chatting up banks and individual credit card firms to make sure everything falls into place. If it pans out, a Google alliance would certainly help T-Mobile fend off competition from Orange in Europe and give Google Wallet some much-needed support.
T-Mobile talking to Google about mobile payments in Europe as well, keeps playing the field originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Bloomberg | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/04/t-mobile-talking-to-google-about-mobile-payments-in-europe/
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/galaxy-iii-finally-hits-t-stores-july-6th-182518774.html
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We reviewed the Samsung Jitterbug J (4 stars) more than three years ago. A number of new, ultra-simple cell phones?have come out since then, a few of which we've liked quite a bit, like the Just5 J509?($89.99, 4 stars) and the Snapfon ez ONE-c?($59.99, 4 stars). They're still great options for the technophobic, though they lack the free 24-hour operator assistance and additional services you get with a Jitterbug from GreatCall.
Fast forward three years, and a lot has changed in the cell phone landscape. GreatCall's latest handset, the Samsung Jitterbug Plus ($99 direct), remains one of the easiest-to-use phones out there, but adds some useful new features, like a camera and the ability to upload photos online, that even the tech-averse may appreciate. It also has longer battery life and better call quality than the Jitterbug J. It's the best simple phone there is, which earns it our Editors' Choice award.
Features and Pricing
Design-wise, the Jitterbug Plus looks a heck of a lot like the Jitterbug J, though it's actually a touch smaller and lighter. It measures 3.86 by 2.01 by .77 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.76 ounces. It's a standard flip phone design covered in shiny plastic. The test model we received is a deep red, though it also comes in silver. The build has a quality feel, and the phone's hinge is solid. Additionally, the trimmer dimensions give the Plus a much sleeker look than the somewhat pear-shaped Jitterbug J.
There's a 1.3-inch screen on the outside of the phone that displays the time, date, and whether your phone is 5Star Enabled, all in large, easy-to-read lettering. Open it up and you'll see that the 2.2-inch display has been given a facelift this time around, with a higher 320-by-240-pixel resolution, which makes text look sharper. Like the Jitterbug J, the Plus features a super simple, text-based interface. Your personal phone number is displayed at the top of the screen, and below that are your menu options. You can choose from Phone Book, Voicemail, Call History, Text Messages, Phone Info, Settings, 5Star, Camera, and My Photos.
Navigating these options is simple, thanks to the phone's large, easy-to-read keypad. You get your standard number pad, along with six additional function keys: Speakerphone, a Power button, Up and Down navigation keys, and Yes and No buttons. Pressing the navigation keys lets you cycle through your options. Pressing the Yes button will open whichever option you choose. Open the Phone Book, for instance, and you can cycle through the numbers available. You're also given the option to edit your phone book. If you choose Yes, you'll be presented with some very simple directions for adding a new contact. But if you don't want to enter numbers on your own, a Jitterbug operator can program them over the air for you, or you can add them online.
In addition to being a well-built, simple-to-use phone, the Jitterbug Plus also serves a gateway to a number of useful "apps" and services offered by GreatCall. 5Star Urgent Response, for instance, can connect you immediately to a certified urgent response agent, allows for GPS tracking, and offers free 24/7 access to unlimited health advice from live, registered nurses for $14.99 per month. You can also set up automated check-in calls to ensure you have help if needed for $5 per month. Automated medication reminder calls help you stay on schedule with your medications and refills for $10 per month, and you can even get daily health tips for free.
All of these services are easy to add to your phone by logging into the GreatCall website and selecting your options. They can get a bit pricey if you use a lot of them, but for some people, these options may prove essential.
As for pricing, GreatCall's pay-as-you-go service plans start at $14.99 per month for 50 minutes, up to $79.99 per month for unlimited minutes and text messages. Otherwise, text messages are 10 cents each. Voicemail costs an extra $3 per month.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/WtLXy9B4t54/0,2817,2406487,00.asp
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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi arrives for an EU Summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 28, 2012. European leaders gathering Thursday in Brussels are set to sign off on a series of measures to boost economic growth but expectations of a breakthrough on the pooling of debt have fallen by the wayside. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi arrives for an EU Summit in Brussels on Thursday, June 28, 2012. European leaders gathering Thursday in Brussels are set to sign off on a series of measures to boost economic growth but expectations of a breakthrough on the pooling of debt have fallen by the wayside. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Europe's sinking economy and wobbly banks could get more help Thursday from an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank.
Economists think the ECB will cut its benchmark refinancing rate by at least a quarter point to 0.75 percent, a record low, when its governing council meets in Frankfurt. That would further cheer markets, which have been rallying since European leaders last week announced new measures to fight the continent's debt crisis.
But the ECB is likely to hold off from more aggressive measures, such as new cheap loans to banks. Its president, Mario Draghi, has said there is only so much the central bank can do and that it was up to Europe's politicians to restore confidence in the 17-country eurozone.
The leaders agreed at their summit last week to create a banking union under the ECB's aegis with the power to rescue banks directly. The goal is to spare single governments from being overwhelmed by the costs of rescuing banks. They also made it easier for countries to access bailout funds.
The measures exceeded financial markets' hopes and triggered a rally in stock markets and a drop in borrowing rates for financially troubled Spain and Italy.
But much work remains to fill in the details on those measures.
The ECB's refinancing rate is what banks pay when they borrow from the ECB and therefore influences the cost of loans to the wider economy.
Other central banks are also expected to step in to support economic growth, which has been slowing across the globe. Analysts predict the Bank of England will reopen its program of buying government bonds from banks. The goal is to increase the amount of money flowing through the economy, improving banks' ability to lend. The Bank of England's policy committee will make a decision on Thursday.
In the U.S., the most recent economic data showed the manufacturing sector contracted for the first time since the country was in recession three years ago, fueling speculation that the Federal Reserve may consider more stimulus, as well. At its June policy meeting it said it would extend its Operation Twist, in which it sells short-term bonds and buys longer-term securities to push down long-term rates, until the end of the year using $267 billion.
Economic indicators have pointed down since the ECB's last rate-setting meeting June 7, when President Mario Draghi conceded that there were risks to the bank's forecast for a modest recovery this year. He also said a rate cut had been discussed at that meeting.
Marie Diron, an economist at Oxford Economics and an advisor for Ernst & Young LLP, said a rate cut was clearly warranted and would help confidence but might not increase growth that much.
"It will probably not help a great deal, but it will show that the ECB is on top of things, is aware of the potential severity of the situation, that the eurozone is shrinking and that the risks are on the downside," she said.
A lower refinancing rate would reduce what banks are paying on the ?1 trillion ($1.26 trillion) in 3-year, emergency loans that the ECB doled out on Dec. 21 and Feb. 29. Banks have been using that money to buy government bonds or other investments bearing higher interest, so a cheaper rate would increase their profits.
But that is about as far as the ECB is likely to go. Analysts think it will not issue more emergency loans to banks in part to keep a fire lit under governments to keep moving with reforms of their economies and of the institutional foundations of the euro.
Draghi has said the bank can't make up for inaction by governments in combating the crisis. He expressed approval of the summit results, which has raised expectations that the bank will offer help, even though Draghi has said the bank does not engage in "horse trading" with politicians.
"New non-standard measures appear less likely," wrote Commerzbank analyst Michael Schubert in a note to investors. "Firstly, the ECB wants to maintain pressure on governments and banks. The central bank cannot fill the vacuum that was created by a lack of measures by other parties."
Surveys of purchasing managers in manufacturing and services indicate the eurozone economy is contracting faster than expected. The Ifo index of sentiment in Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, has turned south, while analysts at Capital Economics say last week's fall in the EU's economic sentiment indicator would be consistent with contraction of the eurozone economy by a full 1 percent this year.
That would be significantly worse than the relatively mild 0.3 percent contraction foreseen for this year by the EU's executive commission.
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Soon after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, virtual reality helped scientists analyze the temblor, revealing key details about the roots of the disaster.
The catastrophic earthquake killed more than 200,000 people, nearly demolished the capital city of Port-au-Prince and left more than 1.5 million people homeless. Damages from the quake were estimated at about $8 billion.
To learn more about how the quake disrupted Haiti, scientists rapidly scanned the surface of the area after the calamity using lasers from the air. This method, called lidar, involved beaming thousands of pulses of light per second downward and measuring how long it took each pulse to reflect back, allowing researchers to compute the distance between the scanner and the ground and create a precise 3-D map of a region about 330 square miles (850 square kilometers) in size. This was the first time such a large-footprint lidar survey took place within a few weeks after a major earthquake.
The 67 gigabytes of terrain data that the lidar survey collected enabled a team of geologists and computer scientists to remotely visualize the site in great detail. This helped them conduct "virtual fieldwork" there right after the disaster, using both a four-sided immersive virtual-reality environment and desktop computers.
More science news from msnbc.com
Researchers are using touchscreens to add a new dimension to the already-formidable communication skills of bonobos, a chimplike primate species.
Virtual fieldwork
The lead software developer was Tony Bernardin, who was in Haiti visiting his family when the earthquake happened. "Tony did massive amounts of work to develop his virtual globe software so that it could support the remote mapping functionality that I and other geologists on the team needed to execute the study," said researcher Eric Cowgill, a structural geologist at the Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES) at the University of California, Davis. "Other team participants played essential roles in finding and processing data, developing and testing software, making observations and developing ideas."
Scientists focused on an about 45-mile (75 km) section of the eastern Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault spanning the epicenter of the quake. Based on their virtual fieldwork, the researchers suggest the 2010 event occurred within a "stepover," a place where the ends of two faults approach each other but do not connect ? in this case, two separate sections of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault. [ Images from the Haiti Earthquake ]
If the quake happened within this stepover, this could explain the lack of surface rupture seen after the event. "Deformation within the stepover is expected to be complex, occurring on multiple secondary faults that are generally shorter than the main segments outside the stepover," Cowgill said. "Because of their shorter length, the faults in the stepover can produce smaller earthquakes with ruptures that do not break to the surface, in contrast to the adjacent faults."
This research suggests more work is needed within the stepover region to better understand any faults there that could serve as potential sources of earthquakes. In addition, if the disaster was a relatively small rupture within a stepover, the adjacent segments of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault may still be capable of deadly activity.
"In particular, we found that the fault segment to the east of the stepover and south of Port-au-Prince shows a history of past surface rupture," Cowgill said. "The segment appears capable of producing earthquakes similar in size to, or larger than, the 2010 event."
Rapid response
Overall, these findings, detailed online June 26 in the journal Geosphere, suggest "virtual reality-based visualization is likely to play an increasingly important role in the rapid scientific response to future natural disasters because it enables many basic aspects of fieldwork to be done remotely and more quickly than in the field," Cowgill said.
For instance, areas hit by natural disasters are often difficult to get to, due to rugged terrain, rough weather or lack of roads or aircraft availability. Virtual fieldwork can permit large numbers of researchers to examine a site remotely and quickly without diverting resources away from humanitarian efforts. This helps enable a rapid scientific response that can catch short-lived features such as unstable escarpments that can appear after quakes, which can help scientists better understand where and how faults ruptured and how earthquakes were generated.
"Such observations can also help researchers evaluate the potential for elevated risk of rupture on other nearby faults," Cowgill said. For example, examining tire tracks on roads can shed light on how the surface shifted, details potentially important for models that evaluate how stress fields around faults have changed following earthquakes to potentially move nearby faults closer to failure.
Virtual fieldwork can free on-site researchers "to focus on making observations that only they can make," Cowgill said. "Boots-on-the-ground observations are essential for a complete picture of fault rupture," such as analysis of soil and rock types and dating of materials.
Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest in Earth science and exploration news on Twitter @OAPlanet. ?We're also on Facebook? and Google+.
? 2012 OurAmazingPlanet. All rights reserved. More from OurAmazingPlanet.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48060375/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mood-alexandre-vauthier-love-design-dress-julianne-moore-152741457.html
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Attempting to forge a new image for himself and his country, North Korea's youthful supreme leader Kim Jong Un is allowing women to wear pants, platform shoes and earrings, making more mobile phones available, endorsing previously banned foods like pizza, French fries and hamburgers ? and he's giving kids free trips to zoos and amusement parks.
The 20-something leader's focus has been on the younger generation. Following in the footsteps of his late grandfather, the country's founder Kim Il Sung, he has announcing plans to create a "children's heaven nation."
"It's all part of his image making to imitate a warm, fatherly impression like his grandfather," said Dong Yong-Sueng, North Korea specialist at Samsung Economic Research Institute.
Kim Jong Un, who officially assumed the title of supreme leader on Dec. 28 last year following the state funeral of his father Kim Jong Il, wants to establish an image that harkens back to what some North Koreans nostalgically remember as better times in the 1970s under his grandfather, a time when the country was economically backed by the Soviet Union with sufficient food to feed the nation.
Kim Jong Un's father, who had ruled since1994, was seen as a strong but cold leader.
The image of the supreme leader has significance in a tightly controlled society where people often refer to their leaders as the father of the nation with "everlasting love," as well as other fanciful names like the sun, universe, eternal general, or dear leader.
Kim Jong Un has publicly sought to embrace the youthful energy of the country.
"The powerful and prosperous Korea of the future in which you will be the masters, will be a most powerful country where every home will be full of laughter and everybody lives in harmony," he announced to a crowd of 20,000 children invited to Pyongyang at a ceremony marking the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union earlier this month. The union is a state-run organization for nine to 14-year-olds.
The invited children, handpicked by party officials, were given opportunities to visit zoos, amusement parks, and attend concerts. Crowds of enthusiastic kids were seen pledging allegiance, shouting, and crying at the sight of their new leader, who wore the children's symbolic red scarf.
Kim, educated in Switzerland during his early teens, has initiated numerous policy changes to allow people more freedom and entertainment in their daily lives. North Korean state TV last month showed an image of Kim in a straw hat with a huge smile paying a visit to Mangyongdae Amusement Park and pointing at its roller coaster.
The park had recently imported new rides from France. Kim, the report said, ordered the managers to keep the rides up and running at all times and to upgrade its electronic video game arcades for citizens, especially children. Kim was also seen browsing through the park's fast food restaurant that sells hamburgers and French fries.
In the past, such delights were considered too western and were banned. But now they're endorsed by the party. "These facilities are eternal gifts to the people by our great leader," state TV reported.
Another popular policy change that Kim pushed to win hearts was the lifting of the ban on women wearing pants in public.
"The rule was proposed by Kim to his father in 2010. That marked the beginning of a fashion revolution in North Korea," said Dong.
The only times women had been allowed to wear pants were when they were working in factories or in the fields. Any women walking the streets in pants were subject to a police warning or a penalty.
"If caught, sometimes they would cut your pants right there in public to make it into a skirt," said Park Ye-Kyong who defected to the South in 2004. But even when the tough restrictions applied, women did not stop pursuing fashion, including getting their hair permed or dyed.
"Yes, we were hungry but desire to look beautiful lies in any woman," Park explained shyly in her new home in Seoul.
North Korean women spotted wearing skinny jeans and earrings often make news in South Korean media because such items were known to be confiscated in the name of being too capitalist. But the trend has been visible in the past few years, and now platform shoes are in demand.
"The heels make legs look longer," explained Dong.
Platforms ranked second out of 10 most popular items in North Korean society last year, according to analysis by the Samsung Economic Research Institute. The study is based on what average North Koreans acquired using information from defectors, press and other sources.
"The international media tends to show the privileged in Pyongyang, or the hunger-stricken poor in the northern regions. But our standard in choosing what's hot there was strictly focusing on daily realistic lives of average families," explained Dong.
There is no way to determine how large a percentage of North Koreans can afford new products or how widespread their availability. The government has always maintained that all citizens are equal.
According to the Institute's analysis the number one hit item was coal briquettes commonly used as fuel in households. After Kim Jong Un announced a "prosperous great nation" as his inaugural pledge, the regime pumped up production of coal in massive amounts to export in exchange for Chinese goods that improve living standards.
But the study also found that these coals, easily made into briquettes, were smuggled out to North Korea's black markets pushing down prices.
The no. 3 hit item behind briquettes and platform shoes were mobile phones. Subscribers to Egypt's Orascom, North Korea's sole network provider, will soon reach one million this year. In reality, many more in bordering towns possess mobile phones illegally purchased in China.
Park's elder sister residing in the North owns a mobile and regularly communicates with Park in the South when making bi-monthly business trips to the Chinese border. The siblings have been meeting each other each year or two in China. Park said that each time they meet she takes items her sister requests, such as dresses and platform shoes.
"My sister tells me that now there's even an Italian pizza parlor and cafes in her home town... and my toddler nephew just had his first real western birthday cake from a new bakery, not the one made of rice," said Park showing pictures of her sister's family.
Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered an increase in the number of licenses for privately-run restaurants to make cities appear robust and lively.
"Lots of choices now exist if you are rich enough in North Korea," she said. Witnesses say people are now learning to enjoy coffee, a rare drink in a country where self-reliance and therefore "strictly Korean home-grown products" remain at the center of its socialist values.
The most popularly available brand is Maxim's instant coffee mix, made in South Korea. The coffee is smuggled into the North via China.
Another widely consumed South Korean product is the Choco-pie, a chocolate covered mini-cake filled with marshmallows. Most of them slip out from Gaesong Industrial Park just above the North-South border, where South Korean factories employ 50,000 North Korean laborers. Each worker is given two to three Choco-pies as daily snacks, but most workers save the sweets to sell on the black market.
"That means 100,000 to 150,000 Choco-pies slither into the black market every day. Choco-pies are like money to these people," Park said.
These changes in food and fashion that Kim Jong Un seems to be embracing are the result of the impact of foreign culture and information. The sweet taste of capitalism has been spreading at a cost to a traditionally paranoid regime that has attempted to barricade its population from foreign influence.
But a substantial portion of the North Korean people now have access to information from the outside world through foreign TV, radio and DVD players, easily smuggled in. The spread of USBs and MP4s containing popular South Korean shows or dramas have been viral, and awareness of the outside world has grown exponentially, according to a recent study released by InterMedia Survey.
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