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The Internet

U.S. Senators Pressure Canada on Canadian DMCA 466

Posted by Hemos from the the-creeping-fingers-problem dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The U.S. copyright lobby brought out some heavy artillery last week as it continued to pressure Canada to introduce a Canadian DMCA. U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins gave a public talk in which he described Canadian copyright law as the weakest in the G7, while Senators Dianne Feinstein and John Cornyn wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to urge him to bring in movie piracy legislation."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - RIAA Bashed in the Sunday Comics

Submitted by ryanduff
ryanduff writes: While reading the comics this morning, I had a good laugh as the comic Foxtrot (Bill Amend) bashes the Recording Industry Association of America for suing "single moms, widows, grandmothers, dead people, and children." Jason Fox attempts to get away with downloading by teaching his pet iguana Quincy how to use Bittorrent and someone at the RIAA puts their psychiatrist on hold because "someone named 'lizardlips' is downloading Metallica."
Robotics

Submission + - cnet.co.uk talks to the brains behind Asimo

Submitted by
sebFlyte
sebFlyte writes: "CNET are at CES, and they've got an interesting look at Asimo up. It's an interview with one of the developers from Honda talking about not only the potential Asimo has, but also fundamental issues about the design: quite how human they want it to be, why it's child-sized, and why it talks the way it does. It's also cut with some video of Asimo in action... and I must say, it's not just the interviewer who's creeped out by the little chap."
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - PS2 still the highest selling game console

Submitted by
Van Cutter Romney
Van Cutter Romney writes: "The PlayStation 2 remained the highest selling game console over the holiday season with 1.4 million units sold. This was more than the XBOX 360 which sold 1.1 million units; the Nintendo Wii which sold 604,000 units and lastly the PS3 selling 491,000 units. The PS2's high sales volume is attributed to its recent price reduction from $149 to $129.

Among games, Gears of War for XBOX 360 was the top grosser followed by Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2."
Space

Submission + - Brightest Comet in 30 Years Visible in SOHO Images

Submitted by anthemaniac
anthemaniac writes: The brightest comet in 30 years is now entering the field of view of the SOHO spacecraft, and it's simply stunning. Many skywatchers were frustrated because Comet McNaught was about as bright as Jupiter but it was so low on the horizon that it was very hard to spot. Now it's easy to see without even going outside. Next up: Folks in the Southern Hemisphere will get a good look at the comet starting Sunday.
Education

Journal Journal: Genealogy Website Publishes Immigrants' Documents

Journal by taketheleap
CBC is reporting about a new online database website, ancestorsonboard.com, allows users to search through more than 30 million passengers of ships destined for Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand and the United States from as far back as 1890. The site's search can be narrowed by name, port of departure, destination country and destination port.
Software

Norman & Spolsky - Simplicity is Out 381

Posted by Zonk from the knobs-and-buttons-for-the-weee dept.
guanxi writes ""As simple as possible, and no simpler", you might have heard a few time, or KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). No more! The new hot trend is complexity: '[I]f you think simplicity means ... "does one thing and does it well," then I applaud your integrity but you can't go that far' says Joel Spolsky. 'Why are Yahoo! and MSN such complex-looking places? Because their systems are easier to use [than Google]' explains Donald Norman, who also also tells us that Simplicity Is Highly Overrated. Are they trying to make a subtler point, are they just consultants making a splash, or complexity the Next Big Thing in design?" From the 'highly overrated' article: "After touring the store my two friendly guides and I stopped outside to where two new automobiles were on display: two brand new Korean SUVs. Complexity again. I'm old enough to remember when a steering wheel was just a steering wheel, the rear view mirror just a mirror. These steering wheels were also complex control structures with multiple buttons and controls including two sets of loudness controls, one for music and one for the telephone (and I'm not even mentioning the multiple stalks on the steering column). The rear view mirror had two controls, one to illuminate the compass the other simply labeled "mirror," which lit a small red light when depressed. A rear view mirror with an on-off switch? The salesperson didn't know what it did either."
Businesses

Outsourcing Growing Beyond India 374

Posted by kdawson from the ho-ho-ho-chi-minh dept.
PreacherTom writes "One of the most controversial aspects of the global economy has been the newfound enthusiasm of companies, freed from the constraints of physical location, to outsource jobs. No country had embraced tech outsourcing with more passion than India. Of late, problems are beginning to arise in Indian outsourcing: engineers will start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures. The level of attrition can cause the turnover of a project's entire staff within the course of a year. Combine this with salaries in Bangalore that are rising at 12% to 14% per year and it is no surprise that companies are looking beyond India to a slew of emerging hotspots for IT, such as Brazil, China, and Vietnam. Will Ho Chi Minh City be the new Bangalore?" From the article: "India remains an IT outsourcing powerhouse, with $17.7 billion in software and IT services exports in 2005, compared with $3.6 billion for China and $1 billion for Russia... India's outsourcing industry is still growing at a faster pace than that of... other wannabe Bangalores... By the third year of an outsourcing deal, after all the costs have been squeezed out, companies get antsy to find a new locale with an even lower overhead."

Chip Power Breakthrough Reported by Startup 174

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the processor-still-suit dept.
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that a tiny Silicon Valley firm, Multigig, is proposing a novel way to synchronize the operations of computer chips, addressing power-consumption problems facing the semiconductor industry. From the article: 'John Wood, a British engineer who founded Multigig in 2000, devised an approach that involves sending electrical signals around square loop structures, said Haris Basit, Multigig's chief operating officer. The regular rotation works like the tick of a conventional clock, while most of the electrical power is recycled, he said. The technology can achieve 75% power savings over conventional clocking approaches, the company says.'"

Run Windows Applications Natively in OS X? 521

Posted by Zonk from the predictiontastic dept.
mcho writes "Unlike other speculators, who get no spam, Robert X. Cringely offers an intriguing reason behind Apple's recent strategy of Boot Camp. From the article: 'I believe that Apple will offer Windows Vista as an option for those big customers who demand it, but I also believe that Apple will offer in OS X 10.5 the ability to run native Windows XP applications with no copy of XP installed on the machine at all. This will be accomplished not by using compatibility middleware like Wine, but rather by Apple implementing the Windows API directly in OS X 10.5.'

Dvorak Avocates Open Sourcing OS X 571

Posted by Zonk from the jigga-whaa dept.
xzvf writes "Dvorak claims OS X and Apple in trouble. He suggests open sourcing OS X for an epic battle with Linux. In many ways, this is just insane rambling, but it's certainly entertaining on some levels." From the article: "That would make the battle between OS X and Linux the most interesting one on the computer scene. With all attention turned in that direction, there would be nothing Microsoft could do to stem a reversal of its fortunes. Let's start at the beginning. There's been a lot of fuss over Apple's rollout of the unsupported Boot Camp product, which lets Mac users run Microsoft Windows easily on an Intel-based Macintosh. I got into various levels of trouble when I suggested that Apple was going to gravitate towards Windows since it would be easy to do and there was some evidence that the company might want to do it."

TiVo May Be a Buyout Target 149

Posted by Zonk from the run-free-little-company-run-free dept.
Moose writes "Ars Technica has a piece up about the takeover rumors surrounding TiVo, now that it has a lawsuit win to boost its chances in the marketplace. From the article: 'It appears that TiVo is at a major crossroads, with brilliant technology under what now appears to be enforceable patents and a rapidly growing subscriber base, but with larger players in the TV market lurking just out of sight, possibly with pen to checkbook already. The DVR innovator seems to have little control over its own destiny now, and future success may rest in the hands of the legal system. Godspeed, TiVo.'"

The Most Dangerous Bacteria 368

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the fewer-restrictions-for-corrupt-corporations dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Forbes has a story listing the six most dangerous bacteria (one's actually a fungus, but it kills people who get it half the time) that have afflicted athletes, soldiers, and hospital patients. Some scientists worry that even with a bunch of new antibiotics hitting the market, there still aren't enough and they want legislation to make it easier for companies to develop them."
User Journal

Journal Journal: O-Solo-Me-O!

Journal by Mindwarp

I got up at 7:30am on Saturday morning itching to get to the flying field. The weather over the last three weekends had been atrocious for learning - sunny, but constant 20mph plus winds. Definitely not weather for me to be flying my LT-40! I'd been watching the weather all week; Sunday was going to be a write-off due to a thunderstorm front moving in (equalling the all-time record of 13 thunderstorms in July for Chicagoland) but Saturday was going to be warm and sunny with clear sky's lastin

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