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Feed Engadget: Universal, Warner, and EMI to sell music on flash drives (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Portable Audio

The major record labels' ongoing fixation with physical media continues on, as Universal, EMI, and Warner have each announced plans to sell music preloaded on flash drives. Universal says the move is "aimed at the younger, 12 to 24 year olds, who no longer believe that the CD is as cool as it used to be," but that "people still want to own a physical product." Yeah, too bad that physical product is a DAP. Predictably, the $10 flash drives will cost twice as much as normal CD singles but contain additional content -- just like that ridiculous "ringle" concept we just heard about, only with more plastic and manufacturing involved. There's no word on what format the music will be in or what the DRM will be, but it's not like it really matters, since no one is going to buy these anyway. No word on when we'll see this Stateside, but UK teenagers can expect to be patronized by the record labels sometime in the next few months.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Feed Engadget: Acme ships a three-screened "portable" computer (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We're not sure who exactly needs a three-screened portable computer -- mobile video editors? Al Gore? -- but Acme Portable isn't about to let any segment of the market wither away, no matter how absurd: its LPG370TS "3 LCD Surround System" is a beast, with three foldout 17-inch screens and a built-in keyboard and mouse. The machine is itself is no slouch, either, with a 2.4GHz Q6600 Core 2 Quad, dual SLI NVIDIA 8800GTX graphics cards to drive those displays, 2GB of RAM, and a 650-watt power supply. Yeah, that's portable. No word on price or availability, but something tells us it's not going to be a small number.

[Via Crave]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Is browser discrimination ethical?

Submitted by
freeopenadvocate
freeopenadvocate writes: "Recently, I moved to the UK and opened a new bank account with NatWest[1]. Having recently installed Debian Etch with IceWeasel (The GNUzilla[2] version of Firefox), I tried to access my Internet Banking with which I was faced with a message 'The Internet browser you are using is not supported by OnLine Banking' and disallowed access.

Having then logged a support call and requesting them to please enable support for my specific IceWeasel browser, I was informed that they do not have a lot of users requiring that browser, and therefore they will not change their system; but the site will work with Firefox so I should switch over from IceWeasel. Being an advocate of Free and Open Software, and not wanting to change, brings me to the question:

Is it ethical to disallow certain browsers from online services?

If I walked up to a cashier in a bank wearing a T-Shirt with the slogan 'I believe in Free Software', and they informed me, "No, we don't like what you are wearing. We will not provide you with any service.", I would believe that to be discrimination. Is my bank discriminating against me for using IceWeasel instead of Firefox?

[1] http://www.natwest.com/
[2] http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/"
Power

Submission + - Linux vs Windows Power Consumption (phoronix.com)

Submitted by matelmaster
matelmaster writes: As a follow-up to their recent Linux Power Consumption review Phoronix published a short article comparing The power consumptions of Windows XP Sp2, Windows Vista, Fedora 8 Test 3 and Ubuntu 7.10. The test concludes that Ubuntu uses the most power while both idling and under normal usage, whereas Fedora and Windows XP seem to consume less.
Intel

Submission + - Asus Motherboard has Embedded Linux, 5 Second Boot (pcper.com)

Submitted by
Vigile
Vigile writes: "A new motherboard from Asus, the P5E3 Deluxe WiFi has more options and features than you could probably ever use. Based on Intel's recently released X38 chipset, the board has three PCI Express x16 slots, runs on DDR3 memory up to 1600 MHz in speed, supports future 1600 MHz FSB Intel Core 2 processors and has not one, but two wireless 802.11b/g/n connections. But the most interesting feature might be the use of flash memory on the motherboard for an embedded Linux OS called SplashTop that offers up 5 second boot times to a web browser and Skype client."
Operating Systems

Submission + - A First Look at PC-BSD 1.4 (itauth.com)

Submitted by achillean
achillean writes: Is BSD ready for prime-time? PC-BSD 1.4, a desktop-centered, FreeBSD based operating system has just been released and is looking to attract attention from the growing throngs of Linux users. But how well does it stack up to popular and easy to use Linux distributions like Ubuntu? Why should anyone care about BSD, isn't it dead? Read on for more about the latest release of this up-and-coming desktop BSD, including installation and desktop screenshots.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Online Petition: Aliens, Contact Us Now! (alien-petition.org)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This online petition wants to convince extraterrestrial life to contact now officially human mankind. It is widely accepted by many scientists that extraterrestrial life exists. Also an increasing number of people made observations of extraterrestrial activities. But an official message from this form of life is still pending. This petition asks for participation worldwide and creates a nice map with the comments of its visitors from all over the world. The project seems to end on December 15th, 2007. On that day everybody is invited to report every unexplainable activity in their forum.
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - Apple, AT&T sued over iPhone restrictions (msn.com)

Submitted by Serzen
Serzen writes: MSNBC may not be the most popular website for hordes of Slashdotters, but they are running a story about two new lawsuits filed against Apple and AT&T as a result of the use restrictions and recent updates to the iPhone's soft/firmware. From the article:

Two separate lawsuits were filed in San Jose on Oct. 5 — one in federal court and the other in state court and both seeking class-action status. Both cases accuse the companies of unfair business practices and violations of antitrust, telecommunications and warranty laws.
The suit also alleges that: "The companies are unlawfully restricting consumer choice by preventing users from 'unlocking' their iPhones, and Apple intentionally disabled unofficial third-party programs or rendered unlocked phones useless with its software update..."
Wine

Submission + - Laser radar remotely detects drunk drivers (auto.mail.ru)

Submitted by AndreiVK
AndreiVK writes: Here is an article in Russian (babel fish translates it tolerably well) that talks about new kind of radar detectors to hit highways early next year. Several hundred will be used to evaluate the technology. Mass production may begin in the same year. The laser radar can detect small amounts of alcohol vapors inside an automobile. This amount of alcohol vapor would appear if a person inside the car drank 1 liter of beer or one shot (100cc) of 40% vodka. The implication of this radar could be significant, specifically many people in Russia driving a car with open windows.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Corrupting Free Society, One Child At A Time (functionalisminaction.com)

Submitted by
IConrad01
IConrad01 writes: "Functionalism In Action: Corrupting Free Society, One Child At A Time is a reluctant admission: why, despite being wrong on just about EVERYTHING, Bush has gotten SCHIP right.

For every sequence of events, there is always more than one perspective which can be had. Another way of putting that is to say that the truth has three 'sides': your side, his side, and fact. Today, I hope to take you on a little journey through the mind of someone who hates President Bush, but loves his vetoing of the SCHIP renewal bill.
I know, I know — it's hard to understand. How could someone want to make the children suffer, like that? How could I be such a heartless bastard? Am I truly so selfish that I'd rather have a few extra dollars than see the nation's poverty-stricken children have quality healthcare?

In a single word: No. No, I'm not that heartless — no I'm not that greedy, and no, I don't want to see the poor suffer. And yet, I still stand against the new SCHIP bill. I understand that for the majority of you reading this, this must seem somewhat confusing, if true — so either I'm a liar or I'm mislead. Right?
"

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You know, the difference between this company and the Titanic is that the Titanic had paying customers.

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