Submission + - Engineering Challenges of the next century
An anonymous reader writes: The National Academy of Engineering has gathered a committee of the super-geeks to discuss the Engineering Challenges facing the world. Some of the committee members are known names in IT or are otherwise known for their engineering/technology leadership.
MSNBC picked it up earlier.
Journal Journal: dealing with spam bounces
http://www.postfix.org/BACKSCATTER_README.html
Submission + - Changes to the NetFlix Queue/Ship Algorithm
zyzzx0 writes: "It's been well-known and documented that part of the NetFlix 'mode d'operation' is a complex algorithm that, in some cases, will delay shipment to heavy renters. Very recently, in two separate cases, we have a queue of two or three DVDs that are from a single season of a television series. In both cases, disk two and three came a day or two before disk one, forcing us to put a pause to our Battlestar Galactica watching. This doesn't seem to be documented anywhere, and hasn't discouraged my un-dying NetFlix love. (I dislike Blockbuster enough to never go back.) Has anyone else seen this trend, or change in 'shipping algorithm'?
And what about the latest reports that NetFlix is going to finally unveil their digital renting strategy?"
And what about the latest reports that NetFlix is going to finally unveil their digital renting strategy?"
Submission + - pr0n going HD-DVD
YLee writes: heise news reports (German only): According to Joone (founder of Digital Playground and "star director" of HD porn) SONY is trying to prevent the use of BD for distibution of adult entertainment material. Joone: "SONY wants me to use HD-DVD for distibution". First his plan was to go the BD route but every BlueRay press plant in the USA refused to cooperate with his company. Betamax/Video2000 deja-vu, anyone? (Max Grundig: "This crap won't make it on my tapes!")
Submission + - Business 2.0's dumbest moments in business
prostoalex writes: "Every year Business 2.0 magazine comes up with 101 dumbest moments in business, and now they published their 2006 list. While there're quite a few entrants from the technology world, such as Sony's rootkit distributed on music CDs, and Google's decision to blacklist CNet after a reporter googles private information on the company CEO, most of the entries, including the leading one, are from the wild real estate market."
Submission + - Three HD Layers Today, Ten Layers Tomorrow
Marcus Yam writes: "While Toshiba has publicly announced its achievement of developing a triple-layer HD DVD-ROM (read only) disc with a capacity of 51 gigabytes, Ritek is disclosing behind closed doors at CES its own achievements in multi-layer HD optical media. Ritek claims to not only have been able to produce a three-layer and four-layer HD optical discs, but to have successfully designed HD media with a full 10 layers. The company says that its multi-layer process can be applied to both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5656
(Sorry if you receive this multiple times, my browser was timing out when I hit submit)"
Get on the 'Gates for President' Bandwagon 654
netbuzz writes "Dilbert's Scott Adams kicked off the idea in his November 19th blog post, saying there isn't anything wrong with this country that President Bill Gates couldn't cure in less time than it takes to get a new operating system out the door. Today, the idea is moving forward with a brand-new 'Bill Gates for President' Web site. Adams is also back on the campaign trail, flogging the site and Gates' candidacy." A blog post at Network World includes a lot of eye-rolling about this idea, but neither Adams nor the folks at the 'Gates for President' website seem to be taking this lightly.
