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Handhelds

Submission + - Real IT Chiefs Rate the Latest Smart Phones

Submitted by
celcxo
celcxo writes: "CIO.com gave four of the latest smart phones (the Nokia E62, BlackBerry Pearl, T-Mobile Dash, Palm Treo 750) to a selection of corporate IT leaders and told them to take the devices for a serious test drive. The result is an in-depth look at the phones that includes more than just cool factor, it measures "get work done" potential as well, from the perspective of the folks who actually have to support these things in their corporations."
Power

Submission + - Heating Your Home With A Geothermal Pump

Submitted by Makarand
Makarand writes: This article in the Chronicle describes how geothermal pumps could be used to heat our homes instead of natural gas or electricity. These pumps rely on the fact that regardless of what the surface temperature of the earth is, it is always 60 degrees a few hundred feet below. You have to drill a few holes 200 feet deep and insert U-shaped tubes in them and connect these to a heat exchanger. The tubes are filled with a solution of water and alcohol to prevent corrosion. Circulation pumps drive the water solution through the tubes in the ground and when the solution comes up from underground it is warm because it has passed through an environment of about 60 degrees.The heated liquid then is passed through the heat exchanger which takes care of the business of heating your home.
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?
Encryption

Submission + - Church reveals 600 year old musical code

Submitted by
Person99
Person99 writes: "A father and son have deciphered a musical code in a Scottish church's arches. It is supposedly a 600-year old musical code. Quote from the article: A Scottish church which featured in the bestselling novel "The Da Vinci Code" has revealed another mystery hidden in secret code for almost 600 years. A father and son who became fascinated by symbols carved into the chapel's arches say they have deciphered a musical score encrypted in them. Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his composer and pianist son Stuart, described the piece as "frozen music." "The music has been frozen in time by symbolism," Mitchell told European media, which details the 27-year project to crack the chapel's code. "It was only a matter of time before the symbolism began to thaw out and begin to make sense to scientific and musical perception." The 15th Century Rosslyn Chapel, about seven miles south of the Scottish capital Edinburgh, featured in the last part of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" — one of the most successful novels of all time which has been turned into a Hollywood film. Stuart Mitchell said he and his father were intrigued by 13 intricately carved angel musicians on the arches of the chapel and by 213 carved cubes depicting geometric-type patterns. "They are of such exquisite detail and so beautiful that we thought there must be a message here." Years of research led the Mitchells to an ancient musical system called cymatics, or Chladni patterns, which are formed by sound waves at specific pitches. The two men matched each of the patterns on the carved cubes to a Chladni pitch, and were able finally to unlock the melody."
Software

Submission + - Controversial Compression Perf Guide Finished

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes: "When I read this guide on data compression performance , I was so excited about it that I shared it on Slashdot . Unsurprisingly, there were plenty of arguments over the article. But it may now be time to revisit the topic, as the author(s) have finally finished the guide. I'll let their quote do the talking.

"This update completes the Compression Comparison Guide . Finally, 5 years after we posted the first version, we have a new revision of the guide.

This new Compression Comparison Guide takes a look at 11 common data compressors and their performance in 8 different filesets at 3 different compression settings. The result is a detailed but easily accessible look at these data compressors and how they perform with a wide variety of filetypes.

The results of this guide will surprise you. Data compressors that we may have given up as old-fashioned or outdated are actually still highly competitive. Even filesets that you thought was difficult to compress can be relatively easy to tackle.

Read on and find out. We hope this guide will help you choose the best data compressor and settings for your compression tasks."
This guide has really opened my eyes on what the different data compressors can do, especially the aggregated results. But I'm sure it will inevitably result in more arguments here. Let the battle begin!"
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Mr. Larry Laffer comes to Second Life

Submitted by EGA is back, baby!!!
EGA is back, baby!!! writes: So many of us grew up with Sierra Online adventure games, I thought many of you would enjoy this: I've noticed that in the game "Second Life" ( http://secondlife.com/ ) nearly *Everyone* spends hours obsessing on how to make a *fake* version of themselves look *sexy*. Except, maybe this guy, who is apparently standing up for the underdog! That's right, the 4bit — 16 color, leisure suit! (wait, that IS sexy!) It gave me quite a chuckle, and brought back memories of a lot of late nights with some great games. There is an article here: http://www.sl-newspaper.com/ (just click on "Style") There are more shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/old_school_avatars/
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."
Music

Submission + - Ardour 2.0 Released

Submitted by Provataki
Provataki writes: Ardour 2.0, the powerful digital audio workstation, is out. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. You can produce your own CDs, mix video soundtracks, or just experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-destructive editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a powerful mixer, unlimited tracks/busses/plugins, timecode synchronization, and hardware control from surfaces like the Mackie Control Universal. If you've been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Pyramix, or Sequoia, you might have found it. And it's all free under the GPL. The new version also includes a Mac OS X universal package in addition to Linux/Unix support.
Intel

Submission + - Quad-core computers getting more affordable

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: If you have been playing with the idea to buy a quad-core computer, but refused to shell out $5000 or more, you may be surprised to hear that there is suddenly a system that is in your reach. Ok, now we all expected that prices would come down sooner or later, especially, after Intel's latest price round, but I was somewhat baffled about the dramatic price drop: Gateway is offering a decent $2100 retail system with an overclockable Q6600 CPU from Intel, which is, according to TG Daily, at least $700 below the nearest competitor's offering. We are still a bit away from calling these computers mainstream, but at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel, right?
Programming

Submission + - Repurposing Consumer Hardware

Submitted by ChelleChelle
ChelleChelle writes: "I believe that what we are seeing is the beginning of a new trend: application-centric computing using inexpensive, small form-factor, low-power platforms, linked or not to the network, to address a new set of interesting needs. It's a good time be a hobbyist." So states Mache Creeger in the Queue column Geek@Home. Creeger, a technology hobbyist, discusses new uses for small form-factor, low-power machines, such as Microsoft Xboxes.
Robotics

Submission + - Ionatron ray-gun disables IEDs, autos, humanoids

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ionatron has a $10M contract with the U.S. Government to develop its next generation Directed Energy Weapons system. Their device uses high powered ultra short laser pulses to create a plasma air channel, which acts like a virtual wire, and directs a high voltage controlled discharge at a target. They claim to be able to precisely control both direction and range to "disable people or vehicles that threaten our security." I hope the police don't start zapping your car if you're speeding!

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