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The Courts

Submission + - State troopers order RIAA snoops to cease & de (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's "investigator", MediaSentry, is now the subject of police attention in Massachusetts, where State Troopers have ordered MediaSentry to cease and desist from conducting investigations without a license, according to court papers filed in an RIAA case against Boston University students, Arista v. Does 1-21. This follows such recent attacks on the unlicensed investigator as the Oregon Attorney General's request for permission to investigate the unlicensed activity in Oregon, a White Plains, New York, motion to exclude MediaSentry's evidence for illegality, a Florida court's upholding the validity of a counterclaim based in part on the unlicensed investigations and the RIAA's "early settlement" of that case shortly thereafter, the RIAA's withdrawal of a Texas case after the grandmother defendant counterclaimed based upon unlicensed investigations, and the pursuit of a claim for unlicensed investigation in a class action, Andersen v. Atlantic."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - The Secret Death of Microsoft's Xbox 360 (roughlydrafted.com) 6

Submitted by OMG
OMG writes: Throughout 2007, the media consistently reported leading sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360, dismal figures for Sony's struggling PlayStation 3, and celebrated the long shot Nintendo Wii as a possible contender in game consoles. This portrayal of the video game market in 2007 was grossly misleading, and NPD has the figures to demonstrate why. Microsoft's efforts to stuff the channel and strip the Xbox 360 of features to hit low price targets worked in the short term, but have since backfired, killing its HD-DVD format, leaving Xbox Live downloads an unattractive niche service with insignificant market share, preventing the Xbox from exercising any leverage to push the Zune, and allowing Microsoft's new console sales to plummet by over 33% year over year in 2007. On top of that, 7.7 million units — more than a year's supply — have gone unaccounted for, either put out of commission in as warranty lemons or sitting in warehouses. Despite all this, hardly anyone is saying a word about it, except for: Video Game Consoles 2007: Wii, PS3 and the Death of Microsoft's Xbox 360
Toys

Submission + - The Truth About New Jet Pack Hype (popularmechanics.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This week a cool, sub-$100,000 rocket belt was unveiled and will be on sale this summer, but that's the sad thing: it's still not a real jet pack. Here's a fascinating inside look at the human-flight industry, full of law-suit scandals, technical difficulties, fuel-economy woes and endless delays. The good news? It all points to the next generation of rocketeer research, with real applications for medical rescue and military technology actually coming on the horizon. From the article: "With a little patience, and a little funding, we could actually have the pleasure of grumbling over regulatory issues we never dreamed possible. Like being limited to specific kinds of air strips, because the jet strapped to your back is classified by the FAA as an ultralight. Or being required to wear a ballistic parachute, because Amarena's Thunderjet design could reach altitudes as high as 10,000 feet (and, for the record, speeds of up to 160 mph, provided someone can solve wind-resistance issues). So while rocket belts continue to taunt our collective inner child, if you can wait another year, or two, or maybe 10, something truly impossible is barreling toward you"
KDE

Submission + - Can KDE Save a Dying Windows Platform? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
MrCopilot
MrCopilot writes: "As a longtime KDE user forced to use Windows, the recent announcement and availability of a port of KDE for Windows is a dream come true, or is it?

His only hope was that he knew Qt was cross compatible with Windows Linux and Mac, and there was talk that someday, KDE was to be ported to Windows. So he waited.

Well, KDE4 was announced and there was much joy. Betas were released and there was much bitching. KDE4.0.0 was released and there again was much joy (and still a little bitching). More importantly an actual honest to goodness Windows port is released.

Here follows that engineer's report.
"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - 2007 Mod of the Year Winners (moddb.com)

Submitted by
intenscia
intenscia writes: "The 2007 Mod of the Year Awards players choice winners have been announced, capping off a great year in gaming. This year titles which were influenced by the War in Iraq fared well, with Half-Life 2, Battlefield 2 and the GPL'd ID Tech 3 engine polling strongly in the indie games and released mods categories. Crysis mods though still in the early stages of development, did well in the best upcoming category, as indie developers attention shifts to some of the next-gen engines."

Feed Techdirt: How Kevin Martin Got Over A Million People To Look At A Woman's Naked Buttocks (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Since taking over the FCC, Kevin Martin has supposedly been against regulations -- except in two areas: the cable industry and "indecency." He's been a strong proponent of cracking down on whatever he considers indecent programming, and much of his support for a la carte cable is based on how it might block indecent content. The latest crackdown on indecency has a number of people shaking their heads. It involves fining ABC affiliates $1.43 million for a brief clip of the TV show "NYPD Blue," that aired in February of 2003, and included images of a naked woman from behind. Of course, if Martin really was trying to protect people from viewing such indecent content, perhaps he shouldn't have issued this fine. After all, it was shown on TV nearly five years ago. By now, most people would have forgotten about it... unless, of course, the FCC were to bring the clip back into the news, getting someone to put it on YouTube, and driving well over a million viewers to watch the video since the fine was announced.

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Programming

Submission + - Programming as Art: 13 of the best code demos ever (iheartchaos.com) 1

Submitted by
cranberryzero
cranberryzero writes: "The demo scene has been around for 20-some years now and it's grown and leaps and bounds since then. From programmers pushing the limits of Ataris and Amigas to creating beautiful and haunting landscapes with full lighting, mapping and motion capture, demo groups have done it all and done it under 100k. And here's 13 of the best of recent years... Flash video links included, but most of the fun is downloading them and giving your processor something fun to chew on."
Microsoft

Submission + - Is OOXML only for the Window Operating system!

Submitted by rossendryv
rossendryv writes: Major technical and economic issues continue to cloud Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML), with less than one month before voting starts on February 25 — 29 vote in Geneva, Switzerland, according to a new Linux.com article. On the technical side, Microsoft's non-disclosed the migration mapping tables and non-disclosed specs Office writes for features such as DRM, Sharepoint tags, passwords, Devmode, GUID, migration tags, VBA macros, and other hidden system dependencies which tie OOXML files to a Microsoft environment. On the economic side, OOXML raising obstacles to international trade and competition, a key no-no for ISO standards, because OOXML would be practically impossible for any vendor but Microsoft to implement, unlike the current standard, the OpenDocument Format, which can be and has been implemented by multiple vendors.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - MST3K To Be Made Available Online

Submitted by DrEnter
DrEnter writes: All 198 episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be made available on both DVD and online, from Shout! Factory. Exciting news for those of us who have been unsatisfied with the Rhino collections. For those not in the know, the show is centered around a hapless man trapped on a space station by mad scientists who force him to watch bad movies with his robot companions. It won a Peabody award for writing in 1994, and two Emmy nominations over its 11 season run.
Mars

Submission + - Treasure Trove of Color Mars Pictures Released (arizona.edu)

Submitted by
Riding with Robots
Riding with Robots writes: "Today the high-res imaging team for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released hundreds of recent color images showing the surface of Mars in splendid detail. These particular pictures were available previously in black-and-white format only. The color versions are the products of camera filters sensitive to wavelengths beyond human vision, so while the hues are not what you would see with your own eyes, the wild diversity of color is real nonetheless."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Ships Deleted Files

Submitted by Anonymous
Anonymous writes: A new QC issue has struck Redmond. SD Times is reporting that Microsoft inadvertently shipped deleted files on Virtual Hard Drives (VHDs) it provides for customers to evaluate its software. Microsoft, a company made famous by shipping software, failed to follow the prescriptive guidance that it gives developers that distribute VHDs. A variety of files were recovered including pictures, Windows XP cabs, and a third parter defragmenter.

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