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Cellphones

Submission + - The Irksome Cellphone Industry (nytimes.com)

Submitted by gollum123
gollum123 writes: David Pogue of the NYTimes wonders why congress is worrying about the exclusive handset contracts when there are more whopping things that are broken, unfair and anticompetitive in the American cellphone industry. ( http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/technology/personaltech/23pogue.html?pagewanted=1&hpw ) He lists Text messaging fees — Currently 20 cents each to send and recieve a message, Double billing — getting billed for sending and receiving a call, Why companies do not reduce the price of the contract after you have paid off your cell phone among the major problems not being addressed by congress. "Right now, the cell carriers spend about $6 billion a year on advertising. Why doesn't it occur to them that they'd attract a heck of a lot more customers by making them happy instead of miserable? By being less greedy and obnoxious? By doing what every other industry does: try to please customers instead of entrap and bilk them? But no. Apparently, persuading cell carriers to treat their customers decently would take an act of Congress."
Television

Submission + - Bad news, everybody!

Submitted by
mykepredko
mykepredko writes: "Future episodes of Futurama will not use the vocal talents of Billy West (Fry, Professor, and Ziodberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), John DiMaggio (Bender), Maurice LaMarche (Kif Kroker, among others), or Tress MacNeil (Mom, and several others). Fox released a statement saying "We love the Futurama voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on. We are confident that we will find terrific new performers to give voice to Matt and David's brilliantly subversive characters." Sigh. Read about it here."

Submission + - Audacity: sound editor 1.3.8 released (sourceforge.net)

Submitted by SF:vjohnson
SF:vjohnson writes: The Audacity Team is pleased to announce the release of Audacity 1.3.8 (Beta) for Windows, Mac and Linux/Unix (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download). It contains a number of significant improvements, plus some bug fixes. Highlights include: * VST Effects now display in GUI mode by default * Updated Nyquist implementation * Improvements to Equalization, Noise Removal, Truncate Silence, Click Track and effects chains * Improved Plot Spectrum analysis and new preferences for Spectrograms * Record more than 16 channels (hardware/drivers permitting) * New \"Mixer Board\" view with per-track VU meters * AMR NB export support via the optional FFmpeg library (http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg) * 32-bit float data over 0 dB handled without clipping * Draft Manual/Quick Help included in Windows and Mac installers * Faster waveform drawing and better response in multi-track projects * Various bug fixes, stability and accessibility improvements See New in Audacity 1.3.8 (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/features-1.3-a#details) for more on the latest features and fixes. Note: This release does not support Windows 98 or ME, for which 1.3.7 is still available (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/beta_windows#recdown).
Handhelds

Submission + - iTunes Intentionally Breaks Syncing with Palm Pre (engadgetmobile.com)

Submitted by SpectreBlofeld
SpectreBlofeld writes: Engadget has the scoop:

"Palm itself had warned that the Pre's iTunes sync functionality could be broken at a moment's notice (and at Apple's whim), but we're pretty sure no one expected it'd happen this quickly. We've been able to confirm that version 8.2.1 of the software prevents the sync from working, meaning that you've got to add music the old-fashioned way — the Pre functions as a USB drive, too — until Palm gets around to patching the hack (if they decide to patch it, that is). This could end up being a protracted game of cat-and-mouse, which is entertaining to watch but nightmarish for the consumers down in the trenches actually trying to use this stuff. Funny thing is, Apple's straight up saying in its release notes that the update "addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices" — in other words, they weren't being verified before, and now they are, thank goodness. Peaceful sleep is once again within our reach."

  You stay classy, Apple.
United States

Submission + - Highway 35W Collapses into Mississippi (wcco.com)

Submitted by
dcapel
dcapel writes: "In what has been called the worst engineering disaster in decades, a bridge of highway 35W, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has collapsed into the Mississippi. The collapse took place during late rush-hour traffic, so an estimated 50 cars were on the bridge at the time. There is no evidence for terrorist involvement, but an engineering or safety flaw of immense proportions must have been involved. As someone who was working only blocks away at the time, this happened entirely too close to home."
Programming

Submission + - The Math of Graphics

Submitted by dalektcalum
dalektcalum writes: Understanding the mathematical foundation of graphics can help anyone be a better graphics programmer. In a recent talk given by Christopher Evensen he covers the important fundamentals that everyone should know. The math is also accompanied by a real world programming example. This talk is an excellent place to get started, or quick review for those already working in the field.

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