lavalyn - Slashdot User

Inside the AP's Plan To Security-Wrap Its News Content 138

Posted by timothy on Wednesday July 29, 2009 @05:07PM from the one-of-the-greatest-diagrams-ever dept.

suraj.sun writes with an excerpt from this story at Ars Technica that the "Associated Press, reeling from the newspaper apocalypse, has a new plan to 'wrap' and 'protect' its content though a 'digital permissions framework.' The Associated Press last week rolled out its brave new plan to 'apply protective format to news.' The AP's news registry will 'tag and track all AP content online to assure compliance with terms of use,' and it will provide a 'platform for protect, point, and pay.' That's a lot of 'p'-prefaced jargon, but it boils down to a sort of DRM for news — 'enforcement,' in AP-speak."

Comment Re:German results (Score 1) 674

by lavalyn on Sunday June 07, 2009 @08:39PM (#28245731) Attached to: Pirate Party Wins At Least One European Parliament Seat

A better name than the Official Monster Raving Loony Party of the UK.

Submission + - Duke Nukem Developer Shuts Down (tomshardware.com)

Submitted by

PLSQL Guy

on Wednesday May 06, 2009 @09:01PM

PLSQL Guy writes: "Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is shutting down, according to Shacknews, who cites 'a reliable source close to the company' who said the developer, along with the recently resurrected Apogee name, is finished and employees from both have already been let go. It looks like all of the Duke Nukem Forever jokes are turning into reality- it looks like DNF might turn out to be the ultimate vaporware after all."

Comment Re:Only poor people? (Score 1) 841

by lavalyn on Thursday February 05, 2009 @10:57AM (#26737163) Attached to: Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes

The richer people don't become infected, but that's not a right deigned upon the rich. Rather, it's a consequence of that the rich have the resources to avoid and treat it.

There is nothing that says only the poor should be infected, nor that the rich have the right to not be infected. That only the poor do become infected is what Mr. Gates was commenting on. And on that, he's dead accurate.

Comment Re:Why do companies do this? (Score 1) 345

by lavalyn on Tuesday September 23, 2008 @04:03PM (#25126257) Attached to: Microsoft To Buy Back $40bn of Its Shares

This is effectively a dividend increase. They think the rate of return on other companies is not good enough at the moment, and the cash is just sitting there. So they'll return it back to shareholders.

Consequences: lower float -> higher earnings per share.

MIT Researchers Fight Gridlock with Linux 75

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 03, 2008 @11:26AM from the open-roads-with-open-source dept.

nerdyH brings us a report about a Linux-based device being developed at MIT which aims to reduce traffic congestion as well as assist automotive research projects. "The current focus of the project is in developing algorithms that run on top of the portal application to help drivers plot the best route at a given time. For example, the team's MyRoute project includes applications that model delays observed on road segments as statistical distributions. Various algorithms then use these to compute optimal routes for different times of the day. 'Instead of asking the shortest time or shortest distance from point A to point B, you ask what route should be taken, say, for the highest probability of getting to the airport by a certain time depending on the time selected,' says Madden."

Microsoft Re-Brands PlaysForSure 194

Posted by Zonk on Thursday December 13, 2007 @03:34PM from the always-a-pleasure-doing-business dept.

mikesd81 writes "Information Week writes about a licensing change intended to 'beat Apple at their own game'. They're going to use a combination of branding and DRM, and replace the "PlaysForSure" logo with a "Certified for Windows Vista" tag.'The certification is used to guarantee compatibility with Microsoft's copyright-protection software and is the same logo used for the company's Zune player. The problem, however, is that music and video bought from the online Zune Marketplace won't play in their native format on other devices, including those that will carry the new logo.'"

Dinosaur Fossil Found With Preserved Soft Tissue 248

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 03, 2007 @12:23PM from the begun-the-clone-wars-have dept.

damn_registrars writes "A fossilized hadrosaur has been uncovered in South Dakota that has preserved soft tissue. This is described as a "mummified" dinosaur, and allows for a look at the skin and musculature of some parts of this animal. The find was reported by a 24 year old Yale graduate student of paleontology."

Blizzard and Activision Announce $18.8bn Merger 298

Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 02, 2007 @02:36PM from the jigaa-whaaaaa dept.

Ebon Praetor writes "The BBC reports that Blizzard and Activision have announced an $18.8bn merger. Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, will become the head of the joint company, while Vivendi, Blizzard's current parent company, will become the largest single investor in the new group. Even with the size of the merger, the combined company will still be smaller than the industry giant EA. 'As part of the merger plan, Blizzard will invest $2bn in the new company, while Activision is putting up $1bn. The merged business will be called Activision Blizzard ... Vivendi will be the biggest shareholder in the group.'"

Comment Hidden Content (Score 2, Interesting) 188

by KingEomer on Friday November 23, 2007 @02:54PM (#21455599) Attached to: MPAA College Toolkit Raises Privacy, Security Concerns

http://universitytoolkit.com/ (mentioned in the pdf) seems to have some hidden content. The page displays a link to: http://universitytoolkit.com/MPAA_University_Toolkit_Admin_Guide.pdf. If you look at the source, you can notice a link at the bottom which isn't displayed: MPAA_University_Toolkit_Administrators_Guide.pdf (it's a relative link in the source).

This version is slightly longer, with what looks like a section detailing development goals. Can anyone see anything incriminating there?

Study Warns of Internet Brownouts By 2010 318

Posted by kdawson on Monday November 19, 2007 @08:43PM from the told-you-them-pipes-was-too-small dept.

Bergkamp10 writes "Consumer and corporate use of the Internet could overload the current capacity and lead to brown-outs in two years unless backbone providers invest billions of dollars in new infrastructure, according to a new study. A flood of new video and other Web content could overwhelm the Net by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to US $137 billion in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to the study by Nemertes Research Group. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42 billion to $55 billion will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said. Quoting from the study: 'Our findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, Internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years.' Internet users will create 161 exabytes of new data this year."

Nigerian Government Nixes Microsoft's Mandriva Block 327

Posted by Zonk on Friday November 09, 2007 @12:23PM from the money-well-spent dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After trying to bribe a local supplier with a $400,000 marketing contract, Microsoft has still apparently lost out in trying to woo Nigeria's government to use Windows over Linux. Microsoft threw the money at the supplier after it chose Mandriva Linux for 17,000 laptops for school children across Nigeria. The supplier took the bait and agreed to wipe Mandriva off the machines, but now Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal."

The Dying PC Market 307

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday November 04, 2007 @10:06AM from the netcraft-confirms-nothing dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The PC's role in Japanese homes is diminishing, as its once-awesome monopoly on processing power is encroached by gadgets such as smart phones that act like pocket-size computers, advanced Internet-connected game consoles, digital video recorders with terabytes of memory NEC's annual PC shipments in Japan shrank 6.2 percent to 2.72 million units in 2006, and the trend is continuing into the first quarter of fiscal 2007 with a 14 percent decline from a year earlier. Sony's PC shipments for Japan shrank 10 percent in 2006 from a year earlier. "The household PC market is losing momentum to other electronics like flat-panel TVs and mobile phones," said Masahiro Katayama, research group head at market survey firm IDC. "Consumers aren't impressed anymore with bigger hard drives or faster processors. That's not as exciting as a bigger TV," Katayama said. "And in Japan, kids now grow up using mobile phones, not PCs. The future of PCs isn't bright.""

Submission + - Transmeta wins patent lawsuit agains Intel (2112.net)

Submitted by

funkboy

on Wednesday October 24, 2007 @02:35PM

funkboy writes: "Transmeta has finally won their longstanding patent Litigation with Intel, resulting in Intel licensing their LongRun technology and significant financial benefits for Transmeta, as well as sending their stock price through the roof."

Pentagon Urges Space-Based Solar Power 552

Posted by kdawson on Sunday October 14, 2007 @07:54PM from the let-the-beam-me-down-jokes-begin dept.

eldavojohn writes "The Pentagon issued a report indicating that space-based solar power 'has the potential to help the United States stave off climate change and avoid future conflicts over oil by harnessing the Sun's power to provide an essentially inexhaustible supply of clean energy.' The report, from the Pentagon's National Security Space Office, calls for funding the development of space-based solar power culminating in 'a platform in geosynchronous orbit bigger than the international space station and capable of beaming 5-10 megawatts of power to a receiving station on the ground.' The Pentagon's interest in such an effort stems from the need to acquire energy on the battlefield, which today often comes at a painful premium."

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