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Operating Systems

Ubuntu Ports To ARM 279

Posted by timothy from the arm-y-of-warmth dept.
nerdyH writes "Canonical will port Ubuntu Desktop Linux to the ARMv7 architecture. The announcement sets the stage for Intel to lose the traditional 'software advantage' that has enabled x86 to shrug off attacks from other architectures for the last 30 years. How long can it be before Microsoft responds with a Windows 7 port? I mean, x86 just can't do 'idle power' like ARM ... Nokia's N810 tablets can standby for several weeks, just like a cell phone, keeping you 'present' on IM, behind IPv4 NAT the whole time. The first Atom MIDs are standing by for 6-7 hours."
Toys

Lego Loses Its Unique Right To Make Lego Blocks 576

Posted by CmdrTaco from the this-could-be-huge dept.
tsa writes "The European Department of Justice has decided that the Danish company Lego does not have exclusive rights to the lego building block anymore (sorry, it's in Dutch). Lego went to court after a Canadian firm had made blocks that were so like lego blocks that they even fit the real blocks made by Lego. The European judge decided that the design of the lego blocks is not protected by European trademarks and so anyone can make the blocks." If true, hopefully this will open doors for people interested in inexpensive bulk purchase of bricks of specific sizes and colors. Perhaps at long last I can build a life-sized Hemos statue for my office.

Comment Re:Basic feature? (Score 1) 668

by MonoSynth (#25673945) Attached to: iTunes On OS X Finally Has Competition

iTunes is more geared towards consumers. I can see ways to cram your collection in iTunes, but it won't (and never will) be pretty.

Don't professional tools offer management of recordings where you can use metadata like date, venue, session artists, booking agency, studio, gear lists, time breaks (for things like notes or references to other recordings) and such?

I'm not a musician, but I do see a whole lot of potential for such a tool. Something like Aperture for musicians.

Comment Re:Please don't add unnecessary bloat to applicati (Score 1) 668

by MonoSynth (#25673843) Attached to: iTunes On OS X Finally Has Competition

Is there one solution for managing your music, photos, videos, documents and other data you download/generate? I don't think so. Files and folders are good for basic media management and easy to implement, but it just doesn't cut it when you need to manage >5000 songs or photos. That's when you need an application that's able to handle the specific properties of the kind of media you want to manage. Music has artist/album/genre/play count/rating, photos have rating/event/keywords/version, and so on.

The problem is two-fold. On the one side there's the problem of storing the data (which, like you said, should be the task of the OS), on the other hand there's the user interface for managing the data, and that's 100% the task of the application.
Encryption

Nevada Businesses Must Start Encrypting E-Mail By Oct. 1st 178

Posted by Soulskill from the wouldn't-bet-on-it dept.
dtothes writes "Baseline is reporting the state of Nevada has a statute about to go in effect on October 1, 2008 that will force businesses to encrypt all personally identifiable information transmitted over the Internet. They speak with a Nevada legal expert who says the problem is that the statute is written so broadly that the law could potentially open up a ton of unintentional liability and allow for the interpretation of things like password-protected documents to be considered sufficiently encrypted. Quoting: 'Beyond the infrastructure impact, the statute itself looks like Swiss cheese. Bryce K. Earl, a Las Vegas-based attorney, ... has been following the issue closely and believes there are some problems with the statute as it is on the books right now, namely the broad definition of encryption, the lack of coordination with industry standards and the unclear nature of penalties both criminal and civil.'"

Google Turns 10 209

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we'll-always-be-older-and-poorer dept.
Ian Lamont writes "It was on September 7, 1998 that Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc., aiming to provide a better search engine. You can see what it looked like here. Google had a relatively good search engine technology that succeeded in burying many late 1990s competitors, and it eventually developed a successful advertising model and pledged to operate on a 'don't be evil' philosophy. The company now has nearly 20,000 employees and a $150 billion market value, and has been acquiring or developing a host of groundbreaking technologies. When did you start using its search engine? Is the world a better place because of Google?"
Power

First US Offshore Wind Power Park In Delaware 363

Posted by kdawson from the doesn't-get-much-greener dept.
Dekortage writes "Offshore wind power company Bluewater Wind has announced an agreement to build America's first offshore wind turbine park off the coast of Delaware. 'Each turbine [will sit on] a pole about 250 feet above the waterline... the units are to be constructed to withstand hurricane-force winds. From the shore, the park will be visible only on clear winter days, and the turbines will be nearly invisible during summer months when Rehoboth Beach fills with vacationers. Each blade on the three-blade rotor is to be 150 feet long.' The wind farm will power 50,000 homes in Delaware, using about half of its capacity."
Music

Oldest Computer Music Unveiled 157

Posted by timothy from the except-for-accidental-john-cage-bits dept.
drewmoney writes with a cool story from the BBC, which says that "A scratchy recording of Baa Baa Black Sheep and a truncated version of In the Mood are thought to be the oldest known recordings of computer generated music. The article also collects some other very interesting bits of computer history.
Programming

Is UML Really Dead, Or Only Cataleptic? 156

Posted by kdawson from the pining-for-the-fjords dept.
danielstoner writes "Recently UML was pronounced dead as a tool for all programming needs by an article posted on Little Tutorials: 13 reasons for UML's descent into darkness. The author suggests UML was killed by, among other causes, greed, heavy process, and design-by-committee. Is UML really a fading technology? Is it useful beyond a whiteboard notation for designers? Is there any value in code generation?"
Input Devices

'Mind Gaming' Could Enter Market This Year 154

Posted by CmdrTaco from the yeah-right-it-will dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In an adapted version of the Harry Potter video game, players lift boulders and throw lightning bolts using only their minds. Just as physical movement changed the interface of gaming with Nintendo's Wii, the power of the mind may be the next big thing in video games. And it may come soon. Emotiv, a company based in San Francisco, says its mind-control headsets will be on shelves later this year, along with a host of novel "biofeedback" games developed by its partners. Several other companies — including EmSense in Monterey, California; NeuroSky in San Jose, California; and Hitachi in Tokyo — are also developing technology to detect players brainwaves and use them in next-gen video games."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft had doubts "Vista Capable" label (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by dionysus
dionysus writes: Last April, Microsoft was sued over its 'Vista Capable' labeling, and in hearing last week, attorneys for the plaintiffs presented evidence that Microsoft employees were skeptical about the 'Vista Capable' marketing. Some of the most damning evidence comes from Microsoft executives: 'Mike Nash, currently a corporate vice president for Windows product management, wrote in an e-mail, "I PERSONALLY got burnt. ... Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? ... I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine." Jim Allchin, then the co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, wrote in another e-mail, "We really botched this. ... You guys have to do a better job with our customers."' The judge in the case is currently considering the plaintiffs' request to make it a class-action lawsuit.

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