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Movies

DRM Flub Prevented 3D Showings of Avatar In Germany 386

Posted by timothy from the token-of-our-appreciation dept.
Fraggy_the_undead writes "According to German IT news site heise.de, yesterday several 3D showings of Avatar couldn't take place (German; Google translation to English), because the movies were DRM protected such that there had to be a key per copy of the film, per film projector, and per movie server in the theater. The key supplier, by the name Deluxe, was apparently unable to provide a sufficient number of valid keys in time. Moviegoers were offered to get a refund or view an analogue 2D showing instead."

Comment Re:Really? (Score 1) 583

by silvaran (#30302316) Attached to: Black Screen of Death Not Microsoft's Fault

I wonder if you had known about the accident before the process finished if you could have recovered it by checking open file handles in /proc:

~$ while true; do echo -n 1; sleep 1; done > tmp.txt &
~$ rm tmp.txt
~$ ls -l /proc/11336/fd/ | grep tmp\.txt
l-wx------ 1 me me 64 2009-12-02 16:51 1 -> /home/me/tmp.txt (deleted)

Is there any way to recover this?

Comment Re:OOh (Score 1) 803

by silvaran (#28712577) Attached to: Windows 7 Clean Install Only In Europe

You may or may not be able to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 using the upgrade discs (which just ended the half-off preorder promotion). This article (Jun 25) says you can, while these two (July 10 and July 13, respectively) say you cannot. What do the 3 articles have in common? No sources besides, "I've been asking a spokesman for the company about this for about a month, and he's finally been able to offer an answer." (the July 13 one). While I haven't really given anything substantial, I'm hoping somebody else out there will see this and can clear it up.

Comment Re:Who in their right mind would want to use FAT? (Score 1) 272

by silvaran (#28560013) Attached to: Linux Patch Clears the Air For Use of Microsoft's FAT Filesystem

when you're setting up your own filesystems, however... just use ntfs-3g and fs-driver. problems solved. just don't forget to use mke2fs -I 128

What's the reason for 128-byte ext2 inodes and what does it have to do with ntfs-3g? I googled but couldn't find anything (in english). Thanks.

Comment Re:Yeah.. (Score 1) 429

by silvaran (#27299897) Attached to: Universal Remote's Days Are Numbered

Anyone can use it yes, but it's not trivial to program. I commend Logitech at making an effective interface for grouping and combining devices into activities. It's a far cry, however, from 1. Press TV/VCR/DVD; 2. Hold Setup; and 3. Enter 4-digit code.
Science

Stars Could Shine In Many Universes 309

Posted by kdawson from the light-of-other-days dept.
A commonplace of cosmologists who argue the anthropic principle is the assumption that if any or a few of the constants of nature took on an even slightly different value, life could not have evolved — perhaps even stars and galaxies would not form. Science News reports on a new calculation showing that, to the contrary, star formation could happen in up to one-quarter of universes with different values of three important constants. "In fact, all universes can support the existence of stars, provided that the definition of star is interpreted broadly," said the researcher, Fred Adams. "...calculations suggest that, contrary to some previous claims, stars are not only common in our cosmos but are also ablaze in myriad other universes, where the laws of physics may be drastically different... Had Adams found that the range of parameters that allowed for stars was very small, that would have suggested that the laws of physics in our universe have been 'fine-tuned' to allow for star formation... Instead, Adams' study shows that our universe doesn't seem particularly special in that regard."
Space

Solar Hurricane Rips Off Comet's Tail 105

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cited-for-comet-abuse dept.
coondoggie writes to mention that NASA recently captured images of a solar hurricane ripping the tail off Encke's comet. "In a release, NASA said preliminary analysis suggests that the tail was ripped away when magnetic fields bumped together in an explosive process called "magnetic reconnection." Oppositely directed magnetic fields around the comet "bumped into each" by the magnetic fields in the hurricane. Suddenly, these fields linked together--they "reconnected"--releasing a burst of energy that tore off the comet's tail. A similar process takes place in Earth's magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms fueling, among other things, the Northern Lights, NASA said."
The Courts

Court Ruling Clouds Open Source Licensing 143

Posted by kdawson from the artistic-license-only dept.
JosefAssad writes "In a decision centering around a question of a violation of the Artistic License, a San Francisco court has denied an injunction against Matthew Katzer in the favor of Robert Jacobsen of the JMRI project. Importantly, the decision makes the point that the Artistic License is a contract, an interpretation that the Free Software Foundation has been keen to avoid as a legal stance. The JMRI project has a page up with the legal background and developments."
Music

RIAA Seeks Royalties From Radio 555

Posted by kdawson from the deja-vu-all-over-again dept.
SierraPete writes "First it was Napster; then it was Internet radio; then it was little girls, grandmothers, and dead people. But now our friends at the RIAA are going decidedly low-tech. The LA Times reports that the RIAA wants royalties from radio stations. 70 years ago Congress exempted radio stations from paying royalties to performers and labels because radio helps sell music. But since the labels that make up the RIAA are not getting the cash they desire through sales of CDs, and since Internet and satellite broadcasters are forced to cough up cash to their racket, now the RIAA wants terrestrial radio to pay up as well."
Television

CNN To Release Debates Under Creative Commons 151

Posted by kdawson from the coming-to-their-senses dept.
remove office writes "After calls from several prominent bloggers and a couple of presidential candidates, CNN has agreed to release the footage from its upcoming June presidential debates uncopyrighted. Senator Barack Obama was the first candidate to call for all presidential debates to be released under Creative Commons, with fellow Democratic hopeful John Edwards following shortly afterwards. CNN will be the first to do so with their June 3rd and 5th Democratic and Republican debates. MSNBC hosted the first presidential debates recently but refused to release them under Creative Commons, opting instead to post online only commercial-ridden clips in Windows Media format."
Novell

Submission + - Novell: "Windows is cheaper then linux"?

Submitted by
dyous87
dyous87 writes: "A recent article on ZDNet seems to claim that Novell had connections to a comment made about the total cost of ownership of Linux being more expensive then that of Windows. This connection will undoubtedly continue to anger the Open Source Community and bring about an even worse reputation to Novell who seems to have been blacklisted by some Linux users since it's deal with Microsoft a few months back."

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