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Data Storage

Long Block Data Standard Finalized 199

Posted by kdawson from the 30-years-later dept.
An anonymous reader writes "IDEMA has finally released the LBD (Long Block Data) standard. This standard, in work since 2000, increases the length of the data blocks of each sector from 512 bytes to 4,096 bytes. This is an update that has been requested for some time by the hard-drive industry and the development of new drives will start immediately. The new standard offers many advantages — improved reliability and higher transfer rates are the two most obvious. While some manufacturers say the reliability may increase as much as tenfold, the degree of performance improvement to be expected is a bit more elusive. Overall improvements include shorter time to format and more efficient data transfers due to smaller overhead per block during read and write operations."
Censorship

Censoring a Number 1046

Posted by kdawson from the you-can't-copyright-that dept.
Rudd-O writes "Months after successful discovery of the HD-DVD processing key, an unprecedented campaign of censorship, in the form of DMCA takedown notices by the MPAA, has hit the Net. For example Spooky Action at a Distance was killed. More disturbingly, my story got Dugg twice, with the second wave hitting 15,500 votes, and today I found out it had simply disappeared from Digg. How long until the long arm of the MPAA gets to my own site (run in Ecuador) and the rest of them holding the processing key? How long will we let rampant censorship go on, in the name of economic interest?" How long before the magic 16-hex-pairs number shows up in a comment here?
Security

VeriSign To Offer Passwords On Bank Card 158

Posted by kdawson from the third-factor dept.
Billosaur writes "Imagine the PayPal security tool embedded on a credit card. VeriSign is announcing that a deal is in the works to provide credit cards with one-time-use passwords. By placing the technology directly on the card, it becomes more convenient and provides an extra layer of security for online credit-card transactions. A cardholder would type in their information as normal and then would be prompted to enter the passcode displayed on the card. This means a user would need to have the physical card in hand in order to use it, thus thwarting identity thieves who steal credit card information but do not possess the card itself. VeriSign said it expects to announce a major bank using its cards in May."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - AACS exploit and industry revenge

Submitted by
Guzabi
Guzabi writes: "Not a scoop, really, but ruud-o has published the (in)famous 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 some hours ago. This is actually a key that is part of the de-cyphering process for HD contents found on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. There seems to be a storm over this on the web (despite the code being accessible for months now) as AACS-LA is desperately trying to shut down sites exhibiting the code. Read the full story below and if you feel like contributing to world freedom, you know what to do ;-)

http://rudd-o.com/archives/2007/04/30/spread-this- number/"
Music

Ad-Supported Free Music Downloads Doomed to Failure? 226

Posted by Zonk from the no-love-for-ads dept.
madonna writes "CNET extensively explains why the new We7.com download service — which offers ad-embedded free music downloads without DRM — is doomed to failure. 'This service absolutely, categorically will not succeed. You can quote us on that. It's true the best way to combat piracy is to provide a realistic and affordable alternative, and free is certainly affordable. But music downloaders are not going to switch to using a service that costs the same as using BitTorrent or Limewire, but comes with abominable disclaimers or advertisements.'"
Linux Business

Dell to Sell Machines with Ubuntu Pre-Loaded 562

Posted by Zonk from the a-decision-is-made dept.
kotj.mf writes "Cnet is reporting that Dell will shortly announce a partnership with Canonical to offer Ubuntu pre-loaded on certain consumer-oriented desktops and notebooks. The announcement comes after a groundswell of support for pre-installed Linux on Dell's IdeaStorm site. 'The company is starting its business by trying to appeal to users of desktop computers. From there, Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth has said, the company plans to head to the server market, where the real Linux bread and butter can be found. [Dell spokesman Kent] Cook wouldn't comment on whether Dell plans to offer Ubuntu on its servers as well.'."
Security

Submission + - Police Shut Down LAN Tournament

Submitted by
Sibko
Sibko writes: "17 year old Zach Wigal, a Saline High School student, spent 9 months organizing a Halo 2 LAN tournament that was to be held on March 20th, spending $650 of his own money to help launch the event. He had talked to school officials, printed fliers to help advertise, and had parents and teachers agree to be chaperones. Everything was fine, until his father called the local police to inquire about the availability of a uniformed officer. This raised concerns with departmental community coordinator Ritchie Coleman who serves on the Southeast Michigan Chapter of the Parents TV Council.

"I'm not saying boycott the game, I just think that kids 17 and under playing an M-rated game for money is not something appropriate for the high school,'' Phillips said.
Due to the police involvement just four days prior to the event, it had to be shut down."
It's funny. Laugh.

Top 10 April Fools Stories 234

Posted by Zonk from the true-history-in-the-making dept.
SlashRating©
10
slashdottit! tm
ddelmonte writes with a link to a brietbart story on the top ten April Fools Day hoaxes, as determined by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes. Two great British examples: "In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home. In 1977, British newspaper The Guardian published a seven-page supplement for the 10th anniversary of San Serriffe, a small republic located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several semicolon-shaped islands. A series of articles described the geography and culture of the two main islands, named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse."
Power

Submission + - Death of the cell phone charger

Submitted by
jerthebear
jerthebear writes: "How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

Link to story"
Censorship

Submission + - Australian Mandatory ISP filtering will block P2P

Submitted by
rippie78
rippie78 writes: "Whirlpool the Australian broadband news site has broken the story that

The federal government has shocked industry by rushing a bill through parliament that will compel ISPs to block all P2P traffic.
"
Toys

Submission + - Pricey HD Radios Have Lousy Tuners

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Did you plunk down a few hundred dollars for a new set to tap into all those HD Radio channels only to find you can barely tap into any HD content at all? That's what happened to MP3 Newswire when it tested three popular models — in signal-rich central New Jersey. Not only did these radios do a poor job at picking up digital content, their analog reception was so bad they were all outclassed by a cheap shower radio that was lying around. Then the reviewer threw an old 1940's tube radio into the mix for laughs and sure enough that 65 year-old piece of technology performed better (video clip included in article). Hey, if you're going to charge top dollar for these things at least throw some better parts in.
Microsoft

Journal Journal: Mozilla Foundation sues Microsoft over tabbed browsing 149

Journal by Alphager
According to the german tech-site heise.de, the Mozilla Foundation is suing Microsoft over the use of tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer 7.
The Mozilla Foundation owns the patent 5,160,296 through one of their developers (Solomon Katz, a former Opera dev) and has begun suing Microsoft in Mountainview, California.
The Foundation wants that MS imediately
The Internet

Submission + - Mandatory Australian ISP filtering will block P2P

Submitted by tdelaney
tdelaney writes: The Australian federal government has rushed a bill through parliament to make ISP-based filtering mandatory. This will include filtering all Bittorrent and other P2P traffic.

This is after they promised just a few weeks ago to introduce filtering using PC-based filtering software.

Links: Whirlpool and the press release.
Mars

NASA's Instrument For Detecting Life On Mars 88

Posted by kdawson from the knock-knock dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "With the financial help of NASA, American and European researchers have developed a new sensor to check for life on Mars. It should also be able to determine if traces of life's molecular building blocks have been produced by anything that was once alive. The device has been tested in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It should be part of the science payload for the ExoMars rover planned for launch in 2013."
Google

Submission + - Google forgets DST change.

Submitted by
Ghost-in-the-shell
Ghost-in-the-shell writes: "Looks like Google forgot to change the time on their calendar servers last night. I guess I'll be showing up to classes an hour later than normal for the next few weeks. The problems documented here is only in effect for the next three weeks until the traditional date of the DST change of early April. Partial (for privacy reasons) screen shots included."

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