Comment Re:The real question... (Score 2, Funny) 234
no escape from reality
Comment Re:Value (Score 4, Informative) 98
The only value that Getty Images could add would be offering legal services to those who photos are used in violation of whatever the licensing terms are.
Not true - they have something much more valuable: direct access to customers willing to pay for images (newspapers, press agency, online news sites, etc.). That is their main business model after all. That is also why they will pay such a small sum to flickr photographers - because they know that they are in the stronger position. Photographers / flickr users are easily replaceable, but Getty Images is not replaceable.
Adobe (Temporarily?) Kills 64-Bit Flash For Linux 272
An anonymous reader writes "It seems that with the release of the 10.1 security patches, Adobe has, at least temporarily, killed 64-bit Flash for Linux. The statement says: 'The Flash Player 10.1 64-bit Linux beta is closed. We remain committed to delivering 64-bit support in a future release of Flash Player. No further information is available at this time. Please feel free to continue your discussions on the Flash Player 10.1 desktop forums.' The 64-bit forum has been set to read-only."
Submission + - Facebook: The Money Mule Farm (threatpost.com)
Trailrunner7 writes: Scammers and phishers are continuing to adapt their recruitment tactics, now going so far as to create special Facebook groups for their work-at-home scams. Phishers have been using social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for years now as fertile hunting grounds not only for new victims but as a way to find new participants in their scams, as well. Now, the scammers have taken to creating Facebook groups specifically dedicated to the work-at-home scams that often serve as recruitment schemes for money mules. One such group that's being tracked by researchers has nearly 225,000 members on Facebook.
Submission + - OMG on government websites (hm.gov.hu)
gark80 writes: Startpages of all government sites in Hungary have been changed to a huge OMG sign linking to wikipedia, and a gif image with the following content:
"
The new government wants to put the governmental websites in order as well. We consider the present situation to be unworthy of Hungary: the websites of the ministry lack any kind of structure and design, most of them are technically out-of-date and incoherent.
We have been informed that at the moment of hand-over 443 domain names are registered to the government, but only 125 of those have some type of content. We are going to check every single website. We will decide if they need to be kept, and if they should be operated in the present form or need restructuring.
Obviously it will be an enormous task.
But we have started.
"
"
The new government wants to put the governmental websites in order as well. We consider the present situation to be unworthy of Hungary: the websites of the ministry lack any kind of structure and design, most of them are technically out-of-date and incoherent.
We have been informed that at the moment of hand-over 443 domain names are registered to the government, but only 125 of those have some type of content. We are going to check every single website. We will decide if they need to be kept, and if they should be operated in the present form or need restructuring.
Obviously it will be an enormous task.
But we have started.
"
Submission + - New Jersey Mayor Attempts to Censor Website (centraljersey.com) 1
FutureDomain writes: The mayor of Bordentown, NJ is attempting to silence the website bordentownmayorreallysucks.com which has been criticizing his performance. The City Commission passed a resolution that would send a letter to the site's host requesting the site be taken down and lets the city appoint a special council to investigate. Mayor James Lynch claims that the site is illegal because an early version of the site, which is no longer available "wrongfully implies" an association with the city and the current site has "very, very derogatory" content.
Submission + - Hitachi-LG Debuts HyDrive: Optical Drive with SSD (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: A fairly new Hitachi-LG joint venture announced the world's first hybrid optical drive recently, called the HyDrive. This unique device is a notebook optical drive with an SSD built in. So when you slide it into your machine and it connects via SATA 3Gbps, your computer recognizes not only a DVD burner or a Blu-ray drive, but also a 32GB or 64GB SSD. This configuration allows you to have an SSD without taking up the single 2.5" storage slot within your laptop, so you could then have an optical drive, an SSD as well as the standard hard drive. There are also a few nice tricks you can play in caching with the on-board SSD. Error correction techniques that can be employed that allowed a damaged disk to be be playable.
Submission + - GCC will change to use C++ instead of C (gnu.org)
An anonymous reader writes: GCC is moving from C to C++ for its implementation. Still undecided is what subset of C++ to use as many contributors are experts in C, but novices in C++.
Comment Re:And nothing of value is lost (Score 1) 454
There is nice quote by Robert A. Heinlein for what you described:
"There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such a profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statute or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
- Robert A. Heinlein, "Life-Line"
HP Explains Why Printer Ink Is So Expensive 651
CWmike writes "'There's a perception that [printer] ink is one of the most expensive substances in the world,' says Thom Brown, marketing manager at HP. Well, yeah. One might get that feeling walking out of a store having spent $35 for a single ink cartridge that appears to contain fewer fluid ounces of product than a Heinz ketchup packet. Brown was ready to explain. He presented a series of PowerPoint slides aptly titled 'Why is printer ink so expensive?' I was ready for answers. The key point in a nutshell: Ink technology is expensive, and you pay for reliability and image quality. 'These liquids are completely different from a technology standpoint,' Brown says, adding that users concerned about cost per page can buy 'XL' ink cartridges from HP that last two to three times longer. (Competitors do the same.) The message: You get value for the money. No getting around it though — ink is still expensive, particularly if you have to use that inkjet printer for black-and-white text pages."
StarCraft II To Be Released On July 27 220
Blizzard announced today that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the first game in a series of three, will be released on July 27. The game will contain the Terran campaign (29 missions), the full multiplayer experience, and "several challenge-mode mini-games," with "focused goals designed to ease players into the basics of multiplayer strategies." It will launch alongside the revamped Battle.net, which we've previously discussed. Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said, "We've been looking forward to revisiting the StarCraft universe for many years, and we're excited that the time for that is almost here. Thanks to our beta testers, we're making great progress on the final stages of development, and we'll be ready to welcome players all over the world to StarCraft II and the new Battle.net in just a few months."
Comment True, but obvious (Score 1) 436
This wasn't supposed to be an anti-MS article - with all the previous discussions on
Comment Fix the headline! (Score 1) 2
Grrr. If this gets to the front page of slashdot please fix the headline:
other codecs than -> codecs other than
H2.64 -> H.264
Submission + - Why IE9 will not support other codecs than H2.64 (msdn.com) 2
jlp2097 writes: There is a new article up on Microsofts IEBlog explaining why IE9 will only support H.264:
First and most important, we think it is the best available video codec today for HTML5 for our customers. Relative to alternatives, H.264 maintains strong hardware support in PCs and mobile devices as well as a breadth of implementation in consumer electronics devices around the world, excellent video quality, scale of existing usage, availability of tools and content authoring systems, and overall industry momentum – each an important factor that contributes to our point of view. H.264 also provides the best certainty and clarity with respect to legal rights from the many companies that have patents in this area.
The article goes into detail for each of these points and is an interesting read, confirming a lot of points already discussed here.
First and most important, we think it is the best available video codec today for HTML5 for our customers. Relative to alternatives, H.264 maintains strong hardware support in PCs and mobile devices as well as a breadth of implementation in consumer electronics devices around the world, excellent video quality, scale of existing usage, availability of tools and content authoring systems, and overall industry momentum – each an important factor that contributes to our point of view. H.264 also provides the best certainty and clarity with respect to legal rights from the many companies that have patents in this area.
The article goes into detail for each of these points and is an interesting read, confirming a lot of points already discussed here.
Submission + - Why ICQ is so important to Russia (wired.co.uk) 2
Lanxon writes: Sell your old ICQ number on the Russian market, and you could make hundreds of dollars, reports Wired. The news of DST acquiring the instant messaging service ICQ from AOL for a fraction of its original price might seem, to the English-speaking world, as an offloading of obsolete software assets. But the reality is quite different: In Russia, ICQ is enormous, and Russian-language internet auction sites trade desirable ICQ numbers for the equivalent of hundreds of pounds or dollars. The more repeating figures are there, the more expensive it gets. The posh 9060900, for example, will set you back 11,111 rubles (around £250/$400).
