Submission + - Vonage allowed to sign new customers
terrymr writes: "The Court of Appeals for the federal circuit has stayed the injunction against vonage pending their appeal."
Submission + - SCO is a penny stock
Subm writes: SCO closed below $1.00 every day this week for the first time, accompanied by news about their case that can't be helping them out.
The stock has been stable for some time, and they can always reverse split to remain listed. Nonetheless, you have to wonder, is it time to start shorting?
The stock has been stable for some time, and they can always reverse split to remain listed. Nonetheless, you have to wonder, is it time to start shorting?
Journal Journal: Top 50 Things To Do To Stop Global Warming
Global warming is a dramatically urgent and serious problem. We don't need to wait for governments to solve this problem: each one of us can bring an important help adopting a more responsible lifestyle: starting from little, everyday things. It's the only reasonable way to save our planet, before it is too late.
Submission + - CompUSA Closing More Than 50 Percent of Stores
Zurbrick writes: "CompUSA, the computer and gadget retailer owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said on Tuesday it would close more than half of its U.S. retail locations over the next two to three months to focus on top performing locations.
CompUSA said in a statement it would close 126 of its stores and would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion, but it was not specific as to the source of the cash. The company also said it would cut costs and restructure.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2099068 ,00.asp"
CompUSA said in a statement it would close 126 of its stores and would receive a $440 million cash capital infusion, but it was not specific as to the source of the cash. The company also said it would cut costs and restructure.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,209906
Submission + - Ars.Technica Examines BitTorrent Video Store
Rocketship Underpant writes: Ars Technica has given the new DRM-based BitTorrent video store a test drive. For those who may not know, the BitTorrent name is following in the footsteps of Napster, using its name to pursue non-free media distribution. But while Napster had nothing in common with its filesharing precursor, BitTorrent does use the bit-torrent protocol for distributing videos.
So does the new BitTorrent store work? "Store" may be an exaggeration; while it was (mostly) capable of taking the reviewer's money, none of the first few videos that were downloaded would play. Unsurprisingly, DRM is the source of the problem. Windows Media Player experienced numerous problems trying to read and authenticate the videos, even though it is the only supported player. In the reviewer's opinion, the service of the BitTorrent store is unacceptable. What's more, even files that work are rendered practically useless by the restrictive BitTorrent DRM, as the video cannot be burned to DVD or played on other devices.
So does the new BitTorrent store work? "Store" may be an exaggeration; while it was (mostly) capable of taking the reviewer's money, none of the first few videos that were downloaded would play. Unsurprisingly, DRM is the source of the problem. Windows Media Player experienced numerous problems trying to read and authenticate the videos, even though it is the only supported player. In the reviewer's opinion, the service of the BitTorrent store is unacceptable. What's more, even files that work are rendered practically useless by the restrictive BitTorrent DRM, as the video cannot be burned to DVD or played on other devices.
Submission + - Stable Open Source NTFS After 12 Years of Work
irgu writes: "Open source NTFS development started in 1995 by
Martin von Loewis
under Linux, which was
taken over
by Anton Altaparmakov in 2000.
Two years ago Apple hired Altaparmakov to work on Mac OS X and made a
deal with the team to
relicense the code
and return the new one, soonest
in the spring of 2008.
But the team also continued the work
and Szabolcs Szakacsits announced the
read/write NTFS-3G driver
for beta testing last year. Only half year passed and
NTFS-3G reached the stable status
and has been already ported to
FreeBSD,
Mac OS X,
BeOS, Haiku, 64-bit and big-endian architectures, and new CPU's!"
Submission + - USA
reviews site writes: "What are the real implications to huge debt beyond leaving it a younger generation of tax payers? Reason I ask is that I argued with a staunch Republican after the presidential election, and he asked me "what do you care about the national debt?", guess he was referring to my age (60 +). And being Mongo (not well informed), I did not have a good answer for him."
Submission + - Couple who catch cop speeding could face charges.
a_nonamiss writes: "A Georgia couple, apparently tired of people speeding past their house, installed a camera and radar gun on their property. After it was installed, they caught a police office going 17MPH over the posted limit. They brought this to the attention of the local police department, and are now being forced to appear in front of a judge to answer to charges of stalking.
from the article:
from the article:
I have the utmost respect for most law enforcement. They have a difficult, dangerous and mostly thankless job to do, but shouldn't they be held accountable for casually breaking the very same laws they are supposed to be enforcing? Additionally, shouldn't we, as citizens, have the right to be able to bring this to someone's attention without having to face laughably bogus charges for our efforts?"The Sipples allegedly caught Kennesaw police officer Richard Perrone speeding up to 17 mph over the speed limit. Perrone alerted Bartow authorities, who in turn visited the Sipples' home to tell them Perrone intended to press charges against them for stalking.
Submission + - Firefox 3 to support offline apps
thinkingpen writes: Read/Write web is carrying an interesting story about Firefox 3. From the article — "An interesting tidbit came out of the recent Foo Camp New Zealand (which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend). Robert O'Callahan from Mozilla, who is based in NZ but drives the rendering engine of Mozilla/FireFox, spoke about how Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This is significant because you'll be able to use your web apps — like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc — in the browser even when offline. I deliberately mentioned all Google web apps there, because of course this plays right into Google's hands."
Now thats web 3.0 ?
Submission + - Videoconferencing server for Linux ?
Hymer writes: Well it is really a simple question: Does anyone here know a vidoconferencing server for Linux ? It may be a non-standard solution but the clients have to exist for at least Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The communication channel should preferably encrypted. I need video and some kind of common workplace or desktop sharing, audio is optional. I've searched the Net and found nothing... geeks do not need to look at other geeks to understand eachother but CEO's obviously does... ;-)
Submission + - Co-Inventor of the TV Remote Dies
poorting writes: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_REMOTE _CONTROL?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Co-Inventor of the TV Remote Dies
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.
In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.
In a May 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Adler recalled being among two dozen engineers at Zenith given the mission to find a new way for television viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs or tripping over a cable.
But he downplayed his role when asked if he felt his invention helped raise a new generation of couch potatoes.
"People ask me all the time — 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he said. "It seems reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television."
Various sources have credited either Polley, another Zenith engineer, or Adler as the inventor of the device. Polley created the "Flashmatic," a wireless remote introduced in 1955 that operated on photo cells. Adler introduced ultrasonics, or high-frequency sound, to make the device more efficient in 1956.
Zenith credits them as co-inventors, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded both Adler and Polley an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.
"He was part of a project that changed the world," Polley said from his home in Lombard, Ill.
Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.
During World War II, Adler specialized in military communications equipment. He later helped develop sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by radio astronomers and by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection.
Adler also was considered a pioneer in SAW technology, or surface acoustic waves, in color television sets and touch screens. The technology has also been used in cellular telephones.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.
His wife, Ingrid, said Adler wouldn't have chosen the remote control as his favorite invention. In fact, he didn't even watch much television.
"He was more of a reader," she said. "He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem.' He was always thinking science."
Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, she said, "but then the remote control changed the life of every man."
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Co-Inventor of the TV Remote Dies
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.
In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.
In a May 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Adler recalled being among two dozen engineers at Zenith given the mission to find a new way for television viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs or tripping over a cable.
But he downplayed his role when asked if he felt his invention helped raise a new generation of couch potatoes.
"People ask me all the time — 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he said. "It seems reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television."
Various sources have credited either Polley, another Zenith engineer, or Adler as the inventor of the device. Polley created the "Flashmatic," a wireless remote introduced in 1955 that operated on photo cells. Adler introduced ultrasonics, or high-frequency sound, to make the device more efficient in 1956.
Zenith credits them as co-inventors, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded both Adler and Polley an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.
"He was part of a project that changed the world," Polley said from his home in Lombard, Ill.
Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.
During World War II, Adler specialized in military communications equipment. He later helped develop sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by radio astronomers and by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection.
Adler also was considered a pioneer in SAW technology, or surface acoustic waves, in color television sets and touch screens. The technology has also been used in cellular telephones.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.
His wife, Ingrid, said Adler wouldn't have chosen the remote control as his favorite invention. In fact, he didn't even watch much television.
"He was more of a reader," she said. "He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem.' He was always thinking science."
Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, she said, "but then the remote control changed the life of every man."
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Submission + - Where's Java 6 for Mac
Jari Mustonen writes: Time to hide your Mac-fanboy hat. Or maybe you are beliver enough to defend Apple even on this one. The question is simple: Where is the Java 6 for OS X? Let the gossips fly and let the slashdot do what it is best at: to summon an anonymous coward from Apple to tell us what is happening and where is my Java? But in the mean time, let's hear your theory.
Submission + - Prototype Rollable eInk Display for sale
An anonymous reader writes: Two years ago Philips unveiled a prototype functional electronic-document reader called the Readius. According to Cnet, Polymer Vision, which spun out from Philips in 2006, has come up with a commercial version of the Readius that will be available later this year. The commercial version is similar to the prototype but features some differences like a solid back so that it's more durable and it can display 16 shades of grey rather than just 4.
From the article: "You can roll the 127mm (diagonally) E Ink display into a compact form factor that measures 56mm wide, 100mm tall and 21mm deep, so it will fit into a jacket pocket. The Readius can display 16 shades of grey and it has 4GB of on-board memory, so you can store all your books, emails and PDFs on it. It also features USB, as well as GPRS/EDGE and DVB-H connectivity, meaning you can download data wirelessly, too."
Submission + - AMD releases specs of R600 - the last of its kind?
uop writes: AMD released details of their next-generation graphics card (http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Releases+Final+R600+ Specs/article6138.htm).
Cards are due in 6 weeks, and highlights include:
- 700 million transistors
- Full 512 bit memory interface
- 1GB of memory and vapor chill cooling in the reference configuration
In this round of the battle between the major graphics companies, GPUs have reached transistor counts in the server-CPU range.
Can they keep this battle economical without a major design shift?
Cards are due in 6 weeks, and highlights include:
- 700 million transistors
- Full 512 bit memory interface
- 1GB of memory and vapor chill cooling in the reference configuration
In this round of the battle between the major graphics companies, GPUs have reached transistor counts in the server-CPU range.
Can they keep this battle economical without a major design shift?
Submission + - Microsofts Office 2007 MLK setup annoys customers
lukas84 writes: "With Office 2007, Microsoft changed the rules for OEM versions again — they're now called MLK. You no longer get media with your MLK License, you will have to order them from Microsoft together with receipts of your new PC.
Not every reseller seems to obey these new rules, as i've written in my article about this particular problem."
Not every reseller seems to obey these new rules, as i've written in my article about this particular problem."
