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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 102 declined, 11 accepted (113 total, 9.73% accepted)

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Announcements

Submission + - GTAIV trailer irks NYC mayor

UnanimousCoward writes: Several sources including this GameSpot article note that the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer (which depicts "Liberty City" with familiar NYC landmarks) has drawn comments from NYC Mayor Bloomberg ("The mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers") as well as the NYC police commissioner. Couldn't ask for better pub. The trailer can be seen here, and the game doesn't even come out until October!
Biotech

Submission + - Possibly convert all transfusion blood Type O

UnanimousCoward writes: The BBC has an article that talks about a submission to Nature Biotechnology (not the current issue) in which scientists claim to have discovered a technique to convert all blood into Type O with the discovery of an enzyme that can strip the A and B antigens. This has implications to transform the stored blood supply into transfusable blood for all. It does not address the RH negative issue, though.
Communications

Submission + - Justin.tv, the real EdTV

UnanimousCoward writes: The San Francisco Chronicle has a story about Justin.tv that describes the launch and background details very well. He apparently already has product placement sponsors lined up, thus a business model!!! As I type this, the dude is still sleeping...
Communications

Submission + - Adobe Tackles Photo Forgeries

UnanimousCoward writes: Wired has an article about Adobe working on a way to detect photograph forgeries. FTFA:

In a speech in Tel Aviv in December and a blog entry, Reuters CEO Tom Glocer said his company is working with Adobe and Canon to create an "audit trail" that would reveal changes made to an image. Neither Reuters nor Canon would provide details on the plan.
Isn't it fairly simple? It seems to me that a combination camera/photographer digital signature would solve this problem easily. News agencies would pay for this custom-camera technology (since the public won't), and any photograph submitted without the digital signature would be captioned as such. I'm not sure where Adobe comes into the picture since it could just be general digital signature software that verifies the photo...
Math

Submission + - Islamic Tile Mosaics Display Highly Advanced Math

UnanimousCoward writes: The NYT, NPR, and others have articles about Islamic tile mosaics that seem to display knowledge of a fairly recent branch of mathematics known as quasi-crystalline Penrose patterns. Here is the abstract of the published findings in Science. The end of the NYT article notes a complaint by another scientist that his work from 1992 was not fully-credited/referenced in the Science article. I think this is the original article, but I can't find the body of it anywhere...
Microsoft

Submission + - CAD applications run more slowly on Vista

UnanimousCoward writes: "Last August, /. had a post saying OpenGL MAY run slower on Vista. Well, now that Vista is upon us, there are several articles confirming that CAD applications do indeed run more slowly on Vista. For example, Tom's Hardware lists the following benchmarks.

However, OpenGL might not be the only issue. In the following upFront.eZine article, one of the CAD vendors states:

It turns out that OpenGL is just one reason; another is that Vista's file system checking takes up resources. CAD software is dependent on the hard drive and makes many file accesses. Another reason is the 30-times-per-second that Vista checks all of the computer's hardware to ensure that its DRM [digital rights management] hasn't been compromised. As vendors delve into the new OS's messy innards, we'll learn more details. The troubles remind of the transition from DOS to Windows all over again.
"
Microsoft

Submission + - Report of CAD running slower on Vista

UnanimousCoward writes: "upFront.eZine, a popular CAD newsletter, has an article talking about how CAD applications are running significantly slower on Vista. The main issue seemed to be Vista's lack of OpenGL support. The article has a link to Tom's Hardware Guide benchmarks.

More interestingly, the latest upFront.eZine article (which will be available here this week — it is only available to subscribers at the moment) has vendor responses in which vendors bring up additional issues including:

...another is that Vista's file system checking takes up resources. CAD software is dependent on the hard drive and makes many file accesses. Another reason is the 30-times-per-second that Vista checks all of the computer's hardware to ensure that its DRM [digital rights management] hasn't been compromised...
And finally, sadly but not unexpectedly, from the subscribers-only-available article:

Last week's issue of upFront.eZine exposed the problem, but was blocked by Microsoft's mail servers from delivering the newsletter to subscribers at Microsoft. The e-newsletter was deemed to have "inappropriate content."
"
Media (Apple)

Submission + - DRM wrt iPhone Hoopla

UnanimousCoward writes: The NYT has an article concerning Apple's DRM position in light of the impending iPhone wave. It notes that Apple continues to maintain DRM is necessary at the insistence of the major record labels, but the article cites eMusic which sells independent label (including some big names), DRM-free music (while Apple still sells the same tracks with DRM on iTunes). It also discusses the non-DRM model in Korea that has emerged in light of collapsing CD sales.

Submission + - IE7 Blocker Toolkit requires WinGenAdv plug-in

UnanimousCoward writes: Though there were months of pre-release versions of IE7, some plug-ins are still broken in the new browser. One solution is to install the IE Blocker Toolkit, but that requires installation of the Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in if you try to download the toolkit from a browser other than IE. So, here's the dilemma. Do I go ahead and fire up IE6 to download a blocker for IE7, or do I install the GenWinAdv plug-in to install the blocker plug-in?
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - Support Pattie Dunn

UnanimousCoward writes: "Okay, this is blatant self-promotion (but there might be a free t-shirt in it for Taco). We're trying to raise awareness of the plight of former HP Chair Patricia Dunn by selling "FREE PATTIE" t-shirts (believe me, we ain't gonna get rich on this scheme). To order one or a hundred, go to www.freepatty.com. And yeah, we know about the spelling discrepancy...it's a feature, not a bug."

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