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God save -err- call the Queen

Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

One of the 250.000 confidential diplomatic cables published earlier this week includes the private phone numbers of Queen Beatrix and former prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

This specific leak is once again part of the larger leak of WikiLeaks’ unredacted cables that took place a few days ago:

For the second time in a year, WikiLeaks has lost control of its full, unredacted cache of a quarter-million U.S. State Department cables — and this time the leaked files are apparently online.

The uncensored cables are contained in a 1.73-GB password-protected file named “cables.csv,” which is reportedly circulating somewhere on the internet, according to Steffen Kraft, editor of the German paper Der Freitag. Kraft announced last week that his paper had found the file, and easily obtained the password to unlock it.

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What to do with all that money?!

Amar Toor for Engadget:

According to an SEC filing that Motorola Mobility released yesterday, Google made an initial offer of $30 per share on August 1st, but soon raised that bid to $37 per share on August 9th, after Moto and its advisers asked for $43.50. On that same day, Google again raised its offer to $40 per share, even though Motorola wasn’t accepting bids from other firms, for fear that a public auction would jeopardize its sale. This 33 percent increase ultimately added some $3 billion to the pot, bringing the final price tag to $12.5 billion.

No Pi-bids this time around.

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How to kill HP

Al Lewis for the Wall Street Journal:

Raise your financial estimates, twice. Then miss them, twice.

It has been a year since H-P fired Mr. Hurd. Jack Kevorkian couldn’t have devised a better plan for euthanizing a company. But like the good doctor used to say: “Dying is not a crime.”

Are these – and many more – examples the new HP Way?

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Female Friends Flashbacks – or: A Relationship with Steve

Steve is the snappily dressed, Porsche driving tech quarterback. He takes you to exclusive restaurants in walled gardens, orders the drinks and dinner in French, and has a manner that makes the night just seem magical.

But after a month, it gets harder to deal with his quirks. He *ALWAYS* orders the meals and even insists in doing it in French even at an Italian restaurant. He throws out your favorite, ripped jeans because they are natty. The final straw is when he takes you to a spa and pays the hairdresser to cut your hair the way *he* likes it.

You storm out and swear him off. Until after a few lackluster months, maybe a blind date with a Joojoo or even the exotic Book Color, you find Steve again through the iPad.

Things are great, magical even. But then it starts all over. He signs you up for Ping. When you complain about your reception he tells you that it’s your fault because you’re holding it wrong and that everyone’s signal bars do that. The coffee maker vanishes when he swears off external dependencies.

Then comes the day he takes away the orientation-lock switch in favor of a mute switch so you won’t be so loud.

(via James/BOL)

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Making of: Google Chrome Speed Tests


Equipment used:
– Computer: MacBook Pro laptop with Windows installed
– Monitor – 24″ Asus: We had to replace the standard fluorescent backlight with very large tungsten fixtures to funnel in more light to capture the screen. In addition, we flipped the monitor 180 degrees to eliminate a shadow from the driver board and set the system preferences on the computer to rotate 180 degrees. No special software was used in this process.
– 15MB/s Internet connection.
– Camera: Phantom v640 High Speed Camera at 1920 x 1080, films up to 2700 fps