Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
AMD

AMD Considering Getting Out of Fabrication Business 229

Posted by Zonk from the say-hey-hey-goodbye dept.
mytrip writes "2007 has not been kind to AMD, but it's surprising to hear rumours that they might be considering outsourcing chip fabrication. Analysts are predicting that AMD will try to cut costs by moving some fabrication elements out of the company by early next year. 'One Citigroup analyst is predicting a "transformational move" that would result in AMD's lower-end CPUs being manufactured by a third party and possibly selling off part or all of its Dresden, Germany facility. Another report from Goldman Sachs outlines the investment firm's belief that the company will leave manufacturing completely in the hands of third parties.'"
Privacy

Sweden Admits Tapping Citizens' Phones for Decades 273

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the oh-well-if-you-have-already-been-doing-it dept.
paulraps writes "Sweden is close to implementing new surveillance legislation that will include the monitoring of emails, telephone calls and keyword searches using advanced pattern analysis. The objective is to detect 'threats such as terrorism, IT attacks or the spread of weapons of mass destruction' but the proposals have divided the country. In a misguided attempt to put people at ease, the government admitted that Sweden has been tapping its citizens' phones for decades anyway."
Media

Submission + - Blu-ray Secretly Courting Porn Studios

Submitted by
ahoehn
ahoehn writes: "In contrast to previous coverage on Slashdot, the LA Times is reporting that both HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been actively courting the adult video industry. Even though Sony is still publicly refusing to manufacture adult Blu-ray discs, the article states that, "Last summer, a group pitching Blu-ray visited the Canoga Park offices of Wicked Pictures, whose films include 'As Sleazy as 1-2-3' and 'Womb Raiders.' Wicked executive Jackie Ramos said the Blu-ray proponents spent hours explaining how the movie studio could benefit from releasing Blu-ray DVDs, which deliver dramatically higher picture quality than conventional discs. But what amused Ramos was the warning that came after the presentation — 'They said, 'We can help you, but remember: We were never here.''"

The article implies, but doesn't implicitly state that the representatives came directly from Sony."
Security

Submission + - Wanted: 160 Missing FBI Laptops

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The FBI had at least 160 laptops lost or stolen over the past four years, including 10 that contained highly sensitive classified information and at least one that held "personal identifying information" on FBI personnel, according to a report released today by a Justice Department oversight arm. The report found that 51 of the laptops reported lost or stolen may have contained classified data, but that FBI didn't have enough information to say conclusively. The Washington Post notes that only one of the cases documented in the report indicated that the data contained on the lost laptop was protected with encryption technology.
Sony

Submission + - Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Seizing on widely reported January sales numbers, a Sony executive says that the studio plans to begin marketing Blu-ray as the winner of the high-def format war. "The message that we're going to put out to the consumer now is, now it is safe to make a choice," said Sony Pictures Home Entertainment worldwide president David Bishop. "No more fence-sitting is needed."
Movies

Submission + - How do your store your movie collection?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I finally went HD. I bought a new TV, new stereo, even upgraded my DVR to HD. Problem is, my DVD recorder isn't HD, and I'd rather keep things at my finger tips instead of burning everything to DVD. I'd like to capture HD content from my sat/cable system and import my DVDs so I can access everything from my couch. Ideally you could browse, search, and organize the collection, use imported DVDs (still browse the DVD menus to see things like extra features), and record HD content. And it needs to have the capacity for a reasonably sized collection (at least 200 DVDs). It doesn't need lots of bells and whistles. Importing and organizing can be complicated, but browsing and playing needs to be simple. Are there commercial solutions? How would you go about building such a system? Or would you just buy a HD DVD burner and another bookcase?
Communications

Submission + - Motorola unveils phone that bends

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: According to CNET, who are out at 3GSM in Barcelona, Motorola has unveiled a phone that bends in order to make putting it up to your face more comfortable. The Motorola Z8, as the bendy phone is called, runs on a Symbian based platform and also displays video at up to 30 frames per second.
Portables

Submission + - Samsug announces look-alike iphone killer

Submitted by goombah99
goombah99 writes: Samsung unveiled a prototype of their touchscreen phone. It's look, single button front, full-face touchscreen are the essentially identical to the iphone. The screen resolution is sufficiently worse that video viewing will be less of a pleasure, it's thicker, and it lacks Wi-Fi. But it has a slide-out full thumb-board, a 5 mega pixel camera, supports 3G (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access). Web connectivity however lacks the elegant full screen approach with a gestural interface of the iphone. Price, battery life and availability are not known. Read Here and here for first impressions. My impression is that hardware wise it's at the same level as the iphone so, as always, it's the apple polish of the interface that will be the deciding factor. Simultaneously, Microsoft revealed a workmanlike update of it's mobile version.
Censorship

Two Ways Not To Handle Free Speech 686

Posted by kdawson from the hang-up-or-takedown dept.
Two stories in the news offer contrasting approaches by Web companies to questions of free speech. First YouTube: reader skraps notes that the Google property has recently banned the popular atheist commentator Nick Gisburne. Gisburne had been posting videos with logical arguments against Christian beliefs; but when he turned his attention to Islam (mirror of Gisburne's video by another user), YouTube pulled the plug, saying: 'After being flagged by members of the YouTube community, and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature. Due to your repeated attempts to upload inappropriate videos, your account now been permanently disabled, and your videos have been taken down.' Amazon.com provides a second example of how to react to questions of free speech. Reader theodp sends along a story in TheStreet.com about how Amazon hung up on customers wanting to comment on its continuing practice of selling animal-fighting magazines. The article notes that issues of free speech are rarely cut-and-dried, and that Amazon is doing itself no favors by going up against the Humane Society.
Update: 02/11 04:25 GMT by KD : updated Nick Gisburne link to new account.
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: The Onion on Vista

Journal by P(0)(!P(k)+P(k+1))

Highlights from the article:

  • Microsoft Word's helpful paper-clip icon now blinks at rate of normal humans
  • Five new card-back designs for Solitaire
  • Something that Apple would never, ever dream up in a billion years
Mandriva

Submission + - Is Mandriva Near Financial Demise?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Distrowatch editorial poses the question, "Is Mandriva near financial demise?" From the editorial: "However, due to extraordinary items, the net loss for the 4th quarter 2006 at Mandriva has more than doubled from 400 thousand to 840 thousand, and the full year net result has gone from essentially break-even to a 2.84 million loss." It is fairly clear that Mandriva is in trouble. Can they manage to save themselves again from the financial hemorrhaging?

Irish Company Claims Free Energy 1125

Posted by samzenpus from the and-a-robot-in-every-house dept.
raghus writes "An Irish company has thrown down the gauntlet to the worldwide scientific community to test a technology it has developed that it claims produces free energy. The company, Steorn, says its discovery is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy — a concept that challenges one of the basic rules of physics." I can't wait until I can use this free energy to power my flying car and heat my aquarium of mermaids.

Slashdot Top Deals

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." - Voltaire

Close