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Submission + - Digital River makes hash of Windows 7 upgrade (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by kel5ash
kel5ash writes: Microsoft has been flooded with complaints from hundreds of disgruntled university bods who have struggled to download or successfully install Windows 7 files supplied by Digital River.

Users weren't only hit with problems trying to download the software. Some managed to grab the necessary files via Digital River's site, only then to be faced either with incompatibility issues or, worse still, having errors spat out when they attempted to unpack files from the download.

"Rather then providing an ISO file for students to download, they [Digital River] provided an unpacker and a couple of .BOX files which must be unpacked into a disk image," a Windows 7 customer told us. "It seems that users with x86 systems cannot unpack the files for an x64 download, the unpacker halts with an error."

And The Register has heard from unhappy academics in Australia too.

"Basically, when running the setup file to 'unpack' the two .BOX files (note that they have chosen to use a non-standard format, rather than providing an ISO that everyone can work with), the installer fails and throws an 'unspecified error' message," one Oz reader similarly reported. "This is unacceptable, and personally I'm hoping for a solution, or my money back."

Microsoft said that it and Digital River were "investigating" that particular problem. In the meantime it's telling users that the likely cause relates to incomplete files becoming corrupted on their computers.

"Users encountering this issue should try and re-download the files by logging into your [Digital River] order," said Microsoft.

It's fair to say that Digital River has made a complete hash of adequately explaining what users can and can't do with the upgrades on offer. Add to that the fact that the supplier failed to provide a simple .ISO file to customers downloading the software and it's of little wonder that so many customers who paid up for the Windows 7 academic offer in good faith are struggling to get their hands on the OS.
Medicine

Submission + - Bionic Hands to Restore Sense of Touch to Amputees (smartertechnology.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Bionic hands that interface directly to the nervous system could restore a sense of touch. A cooperative effort of engineers and medical doctors, the aim is to mitigate the downside of the increased use of body armor, because fewer solders are dying but more soliders are loosing hands. Now the Department of Defense is creating smarter prosthetic hands that directly interfacing to the nervous system, maybe even restoring a sense of touch. So far ther researchers have succeeded with rats, but human trials for bionic hands will be within three years.
Sony

Submission + - SPAM: Netflix Coming to Sony PS3

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: 'Microsoft has always seemed rather enthusiastic when it comes to throwing around the word 'exclusive' and here is another case in point,' says blogger Peter Smith. Netflix and Sony have announced that Netflix streaming is coming to the Sony Playstation 3 as early as next month. Back in August when Microsoft was rolling out its new dashboard update, one of the features it was talking up was Netflix streaming, says Smith, and it said 'This exclusive partnership offers you the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via Xbox 360. Xbox 360 will be the only game console to offer this movie-watching experience...' Apparently, in Microsoft parlance, 'exclusive partnership' means 'we launched it first' and not 'we inked a deal with Netflix preventing this feature from appearing on the competition's hardware.' All this is good news for PS3 owners who can now sign up to be notified of Netflix availability for their system.
Link to Original Source
Security

Submission + - Arbitrary Code Execution with `ldd` (catonmat.net)

Submitted by pkrumins
pkrumins writes: The `ldd` utility is more vulnerable than you think. It’s frequently used by programmers and system administrators to determine the dynamic library dependencies of executables. Sounds pretty innocent, right? Wrong! It turns out that running `ldd` on an executable can result in executing arbitrary code. This article details how such executable can be constructed and comes up with a social engineering scenario that may lead to system compromise. I researched this subject thoroughly and found that it’s almost completely undocumented.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - No hand held devices in Ontario cars. (handsfreeinfo.com)

Submitted by NIK282000
NIK282000 writes: In Ontario it is now a ticket-able offense to text, email or try to navigate with your GPS to cut down on accidents caused by drivers who aren't paying attention. But it seems to me that they have thrown the baby out with the bath water because it is now also a $500 fine to change your radio station, change songs on your MP3 player or even drink your morning coffee. It can also be enforced to the point where changing the climate controls on your dash can get you fined because it requires you to take your hands off the wheel. Though this was a good idea it seems to have been taken a little to far.
Intel

Submission + - The SSD That You Can Finally Afford, Kingston 40GB (legitreviews.com)

Submitted by ocfreak
ocfreak writes: Kingston Technology Company today announced the release of the SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive, the latest addition to its V (Value) family of solid-state drives (SSD). The drive is available for as low as $84.99 after rebates (U.S. only) at e-tailer Newegg.com when it comes out on November 9th, 2009. The Kingston SSDNow V Series 40GB Boot Drive is built using 2nd Generation Intel SSD technology, so the drive has sequential speeds of up to 170MB/sec. read and 40MB/sec. write. The hardware analysts over at Legit Reviews found the drive able to hit 230MB/s read and 40MB/s in their tests and has more than enough room to install Windows 7 64-bit. This might just be one of the best and most cost-effective ways to accelerate any desktop'(TM)s boot, shutdown and application load times. At $85 this drive might be the catalyst to bring SSDs into the mainstream!
Technology

Submission + - SPAM: Superfast computing with light and sound

Submitted by PBH
PBH writes: Physicists and engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a nanoscale crystal that traps both light and sound.The interaction of light quanta (photons) and sound quanta (phomons) are so strong that they produce mechanical vibrations of tens of gigahertz frequencies. This level of energy will allow a multitude of light wave communication systems at speeds unheard of at present. Multiple applications are possible with present technology.
Link to Original Source
Privacy

Submission + - British building database of domestic extremists (news.com.au)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: BRITISH police are building up a database of "domestic extremists" who turn up to protests, The Guardian newspaper reports.

The database, which includes details of activists — including photographs and vehicle details — features people seen at public demonstrations such as anti-war rallies and environmental protests, the newspaper said.

The policing of demonstrations became a major issue in Britain following the G20 protests in April.

One man died when he collapsed after being hit by an officer, and police also faced criticism for employing the controversial technique of "kettling" — the compulsory containment of large crowds.

The Guardian said senior officers said the term "domestic extremism" could include activists suspected of committing minor public order offences, such as civil disobedience.
Microsoft

Submission + - Classic PCs vs. New PCs: A True Price Comparion (technologizer.com)

Submitted by harrymcc
harrymcc writes: We all know that today's PCs deliver massively more power for the price than vintage machines of the 1970s and 1980s. But the price/performance curve over time is even more stunning if you factor in inflation--for instance, the original 1981 IBM PC sold for the equivalent of $7127.69 in 2009 dollars, a price higher than that of even most of today's most powerful PCs. Benj Edwards has prepared in-depth comparison charts that pit the MITS Altair, IBM PC, Apple Lisa, original Mac, Commodore 64, and Timex Sinclair against comparably priced new computers, with adjusted prices.
Windows

Windows 7 On Multicore — How Much Faster? 349

Posted by Soulskill from the where-do-i-buy-a-256-core-netbook dept.
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Andrew Binstock tests whether Windows 7's threading advances fulfill the promise of improved performance and energy reduction. He runs Windows XP Professional, Vista Ultimate, and Windows 7 Ultimate against Viewperf and Cinebench benchmarks using a Dell Precision T3500 workstation, the price-performance winner of an earlier roundup of Nehalem-based workstations. 'What might be surprising is that Windows 7's multithreading changes did not deliver more of a performance punch,' Binstock writes of the benchmarks, adding that the principal changes to Windows 7 multithreading consist of increased processor affinity, 'a wholly new mechanism that gets rid of the global locking concept and pushes the management of lock access down to the locked resources,' permitting Windows 7 to scale up to 256 processors without performance penalty, but delivering little performance gains for systems with only a few processors. 'Windows 7 performs several tricks to keep threads running on the same execution pipelines so that the underlying Nehalem processor can turn off transistors on lesser-used or inactive pipelines,' Binstock writes. 'The primary benefit of this feature is reduced energy consumption,' with Windows 7 requiring 17 percent less power to run than Windows XP or Vista."
Space

Submission + - Giant Ribbon Discovered at the Edge ofthe Solar Sy (nasa.gov) 2

Submitted by beadwindow
beadwindow writes: NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has made the first all-sky maps of the heliosphere and the results have taken researchers by surprise. The maps are bisected by a bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin:
"This is a shocking new result," says IBEX principal investigator Dave McComas of the Southwest Research Institute. "We had no idea this ribbon existed--or what has created it. Our previous ideas about the outer heliosphere are going to have to be revised."
Cellphones

Submission + - Sidekick disaster: lawsuits against Microsoft spre

Submitted by omz
omz writes: As Microsoft/Danger is trying to restore data and get things back up and stable, people are already filing Class Action lawsuits against T-Mobile and Microsoft for losing contacts, appointments, photos and other data stored by many of the users of the popular T-Mobile Sidekick line of mobile phones. The suits are claiming negligence, breach of contract and false advertising.
Math

Submission + - Greek maths comic is surprise bestseller (cosmosmagazine.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Mathematics theory hardly sounds like comic book material, but a pioneering Greek graphic novel on maths in early 20th century Europe has become an unlikely hit.
Google

Submission + - Google takes on Amazon with own e-book store (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Watch out, Amazon.com. Google announced on Thursday that it's launching an online e-book store called Google Editions where users will be able to buy digital books that can be read on a range of gadgets, including e-book readers, laptops and cell phones, according to an AP report. The store is slated to open next year. Press reports out of Germany, where it was announced, note that Google plans to offer up half a million e-books from the get-go. Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said, "The market leader, Amazon, built its position with a closed device, Kindle, which is limited to reading and buying eBooks. It will be interesting to see how well it stacks up against Google's strategy of delivering e-book capabilities via the Web to any device that can connect to the Internet. This gives Google a vastly larger addressable market than what Amazon has built up with Kindle so far." The book business has been a tough subject for Google lately. While Google has been trying to amass a digital library of books, some authors and publishers are that the company's efforts need more privacy safeguards. Last month, more than two dozen authors and publishers filed an objection to a proposed settlement that would allow Google to digitize and sell millions of books, saying that the agreement ignores important privacy rights of readers and writers.

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