Poppler - Slashdot User

Submission + - Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep (wired.com) 3

Submitted by james968 on Friday December 28, 2007 @11:15AM

james968 writes: Scientists have isolated a Nose Spray which seems to negate the effects of lack of sleep. (And it isn't illegal, yet) http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/sleep_deprivation

Submission + - Apple Even More Committed to DRM

Submitted by on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @09:43PM

An anonymous reader writes: Apple seeks to patent anti-piracy technology that is far more onerous than Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage.

The scheme Apple outlined in the patent application would rely on a cryptographic key generated prior to the hardware reaching the user. As an application launches, the technology would inject code into the app's executing code stream, generate data that's sent to a digital rights management module, then compare that signed data with the key. If they match, the application continues to open. If not, it's stopped in its tracks.

Such checks could be done on a very frequent basis, said Apple's patent application.

Submission + - The Economist says Linux is easier than Windows (economist.com) 1

Submitted by

alexsingleton

on Tuesday December 25, 2007 @09:08PM

alexsingleton writes: "The Economist says Linux will become "the operating system of choice" for low-price PCs in 2008 and raves about the latest version of Ubuntu Linux: "No question, Gutsy Gibbon is the sleekest, best integrated and most user-friendly Linux distribution yet. It's now simpler to set up and configure than Windows. A great deal of work has gone into making the graphics, and especially the fonts, as intuitive and attractive as the Mac's.""

Submission + - RIAA Puts Out 'Fake News' (fakenewser.com)

Submitted by

Fake Newser

on Thursday December 20, 2007 @10:52PM

Fake Newser writes: "The Recording Industry Association of America wants to communicate with TV News audiences. The company I work for just distributed this video package nationwide to TV News Stations. It already aired in Dallas and one network and one major news gathering service have requested tapes. This thing could be all over the news this week. The video you see was preceded by graphics which told stations who paid for the content and offered the name and title of the spokesperson. This is how the RIAA and other organizations get their news out and influence consumers like you. Here's the actual VNR, missing only the informational slates that preceded it on the satellite feeds.... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f09_1198188234"

Submission + - Radiohead allows fans to decide on price 2

Submitted by

radicalskeptic

on Sunday September 30, 2007 @09:19PM

radicalskeptic writes: "Radiohead, a band known to be unhappy with other music download services, has decided to release their next album, "In Rainbows", in two formats: a £40 boxed set and a digital download. What's the catch? Customers who purchase the digital download are able to name their own price for the album. This is the first Radiohead release since their contract with EMI expired. As "The Majors" continue to lose relevance, can we expect more of this type of experimentation and flexibility from independent artists?"

Submission + - 'Opt Out' soon or Verizon will sell your CPNI 1

Submitted by

Rothfuss

on Saturday September 22, 2007 @05:23PM

Rothfuss writes: "I actually opened and read one of the 'Updates to my Customer Agreement Terms and Conditions' that I received from Verizon today. I have no idea why. This one explains that they will be upgrading my service by assuming (unless I tell them otherwise) that I am willing to let them sell my Customer Proprietary Network Information or give it to anyone they choose. Apparently that will help me. However, the FCC won't let them do this without your permission — like, for example *not* calling them and opting out. If you are a Verizon customer and would like to opt out, you can do so by calling 1-800-333-9956. Ask to speak to Mr. Prosser."

Journal SPAM: When Net Neutrality Goes Away: The Internet as Cable TV

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Saturday September 22, 2007 @02:17PM

"Picture-worth-a-thousand-words Dept."
This informative InfoGraphic suggests the very real possibility of how tiered Internet pricing would work for residential customers, in the near future. Cory Doctrow, commenting on BoingBoing says: "I think that this is what it's really all about... where access to anything except

Submission + - Novell releases OpenSource ATI Driver (opensuse.org)

Submitted by metalzelot on Saturday September 22, 2007 @07:16AM

metalzelot writes: Last week AMD released the specifications for ATI Radeon R5xx and R6xx graphic devices. Now Novell follows up with an alpha Open Source driver.

Drivers for different distributions can be downloaded here.

Next steps are adding support for more hardware, RandR 1.2 support, video overlay support and 2D acceleration.

Submission + - Achtung! German Govt warns of wi-fi dangers

Submitted by thefickler on Monday September 10, 2007 @04:54PM

thefickler writes: Germany's Environmental Ministry has recommended that citizens not only limit wifi exposure, but that they also refrain from using mobile phones, and try to reduce their general exposure to "electrosmog" from other electrical devices. They urge citizens to choose conventional wired connections over their wireless counterparts.

Submission + - Standards post-OOXML, and what about PDF? (adobe.com)

Submitted by davemc on Monday September 10, 2007 @04:24PM

davemc writes: Jim King, Adobes PDF Architect, has a blog entry up that compares the standardization efforts of PDF (through ISO) and OOXML. It's a very informative look at what makes a worthwhile standard, and well worth reading, especially in the aftermath of OOXML. Given the number of PDFs in the world, it's also a topic we should be aware of.

http://blogs.adobe.com/insidepdf/2007/09/fast_tracking.html

Submission + - Broadcasters launch ads opposing wireless internet

Submitted by kaufmanmoore on Monday September 10, 2007 @03:03PM

kaufmanmoore writes: According to an AP report, The National Association of Broadcasters is launching ads to target lawmakers over a push by a consortium of technology giants including Google, Intel, HP and MSFT who want to use unused and unlicensed TV spectrum for wireless broadband. Broadcasters are airing concerns about the devices creating interference with broadcast television and in a statement NAB chairman Alan Frank takes a swipe at technology companies saying, "While our friends at Intel, Google and Microsoft may find system errors, computer glitches and dropped calls tolerable, broadcasters do not."

Submission + - Brain Differences In Democrats and Republicans

Submitted by i_like_spam on Monday September 10, 2007 @12:24PM

i_like_spam writes: Scientists from NYU and UCLA report in Nature Neuroscience that the brains of Democrats and Republicans process information differently. This new study finds that the differences are apparent even when the brain processes common information, not just political topics. From the study, liberals were more likely to be accurate and showed more brain activity in the region associated with analyzing conflicts. A researcher not affiliated with the study stated, liberals 'could be expected to more readily accept new social, scientific or religious ideas.' Moreover, 'the results could explain why President Bush demonstrated a single-minded commitment to the Iraq war and why some people perceived Sen. John F. Kerry ... as a flip-flopper.

Submission + - SHA-1 cracking on a budget (hackaday.com)

Submitted by cloude-pottier on Friday August 31, 2007 @08:57PM

cloude-pottier writes: One thing that is always amazing is what people manage to pull off on absolutely minimal resources. One enterprising individual went on eBay and found boards with more than half a dozen Virtex II Pro FPGAs, nurse them back to life and build a SHA-1 cracker with two of the boards. This is an excellent example of recycling, as these were originally a part of a Thompson Grass Valley HDTV broadcast system. As a part of the project, the creator wrote tools designed to graph the relationships between components using JTAG as to make reverse engineering the organization of the FPGAs on the board more apparent. More details can be seen on the actual project page. If an individual is able to pull this off for under 500 dollars, it almost makes one wonder what resources the government has available to them to do the same thing...

Submission + - The Future of Music (ieee.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 22, 2007 @10:32AM

An anonymous reader writes: The loudness war, what many audiophiles refer to as an assault on music (and ears), has been an open secret of the recording industry for nearly the past two decades and has garnered more attention in recent years as CDs have pushed the limits of loudness thanks to advances in digital technology. The "war" refers to the competition among record companies to make louder and louder albums by compressing the dynamic range. But the loudness war could be doing more than simply pumping up the volume and angering aficionados — it could be responsible for halting technological advances in sound quality for years to come.

Submission + - Software for reverse engineering the human brain (colorado.edu)

Submitted by on Tuesday August 21, 2007 @01:35PM

An anonymous reader writes: In his book, "The Singularity is Near", Ray Kurzweil says the future of artificial intelligence may be in reverse engineering the human brain. Now, scientists at the University of Colorado have released software, dubbed "Emergent," that is aimed at allowing you to do just that. Using the ODE library for realistic physics, you can construct a robot with a simulated brain in a simulated world with a simulated body. I've seen neural network software before, but seeing a robot with his brain hovering over his head in 3D was a bit..shocking to say the least. Especially in light of this recent Oxford paper which asks, "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?." I was even able to "lesion" his brain and see his performance go down. Could this approach possibly bootstrap us into real artificial intelligence? Will these new simulated robotic overlords someday assimilate us?

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