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Media

Nvidia Announces 3D Blu-ray Format For 2010 178

Posted by timothy from the reformat-your-viewing-cave dept.
Barence writes "Nvidia has announced that 3D Blu-ray movies will begin appearing in 2010. A spokesman confirmed that the Blu-ray Association — to which Nvidia is a contributor — had settled on the 'proper parameters [for] what constitutes a 3D Blu-ray' and claimed the first 3D Blu-ray films would hit the shelves 'towards the end of Summer 2010.' Nvidia will support the standard through its 3D Vision technology, using bit rates of around 60Mbits/second — twice that of a standard movie — although HDMI 1.3 'should have sufficient bandwidth' to ensure smooth playback. New files will be encoded using the MVC-AVC format, which is based on the AVC format currently used by Blu-ray movies.' Update: HotHardware has some additional details, including images of demo hardware.
Books

Submission + - License for textbooks - GNU or CC? 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I'm a college professor who is putting together an open-source textbook. I'm trying to decide between using the GNU Free Documentation License or the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. I don't really understand the difference
between these, though it seems with the Free Documentation License I need to include a copy of the license in my text.

Which do you advise using?

Submission + - AT&T Moves Closer To Usage-Based Fees For Data (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: AT&T has moved closer to charging special usage fees to heavy data users, including those with iPhones and other smartphones. Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, came close on Wednesday to warning about some kind of use-based pricing while speaking at a UBS conference. "The first thing we need to do is educate customers about what represents a megabyte of data and...we're improving systems to give them real-time information about their data usage," he said. "Longer term, there's got to be some sort of pricing scheme that addresses the [heavy] users." AT&T has found that only 3% of its smartphone users — primarily iPhone owners — are responsible for 40% of total data usage, largely for video and audio, de la Vega said. Educating that group about how much they are using could change that, as AT&T has found by informing wired Internet customers of such patterns. De la Vega's comments on data use were previewed in a keynote he gave in October at the CTIA, but he went beyond those comments on Wednesday: "We are going to make sure incentives are in place to reduce or modify [data]uses so they don't crowd out others in the same cell sites." Focus groups have been formed at AT&T to figure out how to proceed.

Submission + - Mediterranean sea was filled in less than 2 years

Submitted by diegocg
diegocg writes: A new study published in the Nature journal has provided a new theory about how the Mediterranean sea was flooded 5.3 million years ago (a process know as "the Zanclean flood") after breaching the Gibraltar strait, 300 thousand years after it became isolated and it almost evaporated. Previous theories thought that the flood may have taken as much as 10 thousand years, but the research from the Research Council of Spain, after analyzing data coming from the preliminary studies for the undersea Europe-Africa rail tunnel, thinks that 90% of the water was transferred in a period ranging from a few months to two years — a level rise of more than 10 meters per day, with a rate of discharge of more than 1000 times the Amazon River today.
Google

Submission + - Is Google Public DNS Faster than Your ISP? (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by WesternActor
WesternActor writes: When Google first announced its Public DNS two things come to mind, one that Google wanted to thwart some ISPs' common practice of intercepting mistyped URLs with a page of ads; and two that Google intended to gather still more data on the Internet habits of the world's users. However, it turns out that what Google Public DNS really provides is speed and security. According to one set of test results Google Public DNS is actually faster than ISP DNS. And, of course, like almost any DNS system, it's easy to configure.
IT

Submission + - Looking to retire from IT? Look again, boomers (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: For as long as he could remember, Ben Richardson had big plans for an early retirement. Passionate about computers, but anxious to leave the confines of a desk job, Richardson, a technical adviser in database services for CVS/Caremark, had prepped for a host of post-tech alternatives even as he met the demands of his IT career. He took classes and labored on business plans, dreaming of the time when he would be able to retire from IT and pursue his love of what he calls blue-collar hobbies, such as being a welder."I wanted to spend more time outside and get healthy," Richardson explains. "Sitting in a chair for 30 years takes its toll." Scratch that. Thanks to the tanking economy, Richardson, now 52, has put all those plans on hold. "When the recession hit, I knew I wasn't going to be able to retire," he says. "I decided to hunker down and keep my current job because the market was so poor. I have a good-paying job here, and changing jobs now isn't such a good idea." Budget cuts and layoffs have forced many IT departments to make do with less, leaving older IT workers vulnerable to younger employees whose skills may be more up to date and who are often willing to take less pay, work more hours and take on less desirable assignments.
Biotech

Submission + - Self-Destructing Bacteria Create Better Biofuels (inhabitat.com)

Submitted by MikeChino
MikeChino writes: Researchers at Arizona State University have genetically engineered cyanobacteria to dissolve from the inside out, making it easy to access the high-energy fats and biofuel byproducts located within. To do this they combined the bacteria's genes with genes from the bacteriaphage — a so-called “mortal enemy” of bacteria that cause it to explode. Cyanobacteria have a higher yield potential than most biofuels currently being used, and this new strain eliminates the need for costly and energy intensive processing steps.

Submission + - Adobe takes on Microsoft role in eBook market (computerworld.com)

Submitted by ericatcw
ericatcw writes: Barnes & Noble, Sony and other e-book vendors may have the manufacturing muscle, but the brains directing the challenge against Amazon.com's Kindle eBook Reader is Adobe Systems. Like Microsoft, Adobe has built a formidable ecosystem of partners to whom it supplies software such as its encryption/DRM-creating Adobe Content Server. Adobe paints Amazon as being like Apple: secretive and playing badly with others. Amazon argues it just ain't so, and takes a jab, along with other critics, at Adobe's alleged open-ness.
Idle

Submission + - Mysterical light over Norway (www.nrk.no) 4

Submitted by larpon
larpon writes: A very strange light was observed on the norweigan sky this morning...
Nobody are sure what the light was but so far speculations point in the direction of a Russian nuclear submarine missile launch more on the story here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html
here:
http://spaceweather.com/
and here a guy who thinks it's likely to be a missile launch:
http://www.yr.no/nyheter/1.6847340 (in noweigan)

Submission + - Slashdot Poll

Submitted by martyros
martyros writes: How old is your main personal computer?
() Less than 3 Months
() 3-12 Months
() 1-2 years
() 2-3 years
() 4+ years
Movies

Submission + - Nvidia announces 3D Blu-ray for 2010 (pcpro.co.uk)

Submitted by Barence
Barence writes: Nvidia has announced that 3D Blu-ray movies will begin appearing in 2010. A spokesman confirmed that the Blu-ray Association — to which Nvidia is a contributor — had settled on the “proper parameters [for] what constitutes a 3D Blu-ray” and claimed the first 3D Blu-ray films would hit the shelves “towards the end of Summer 2010”. Nvidia will support the standard through its 3D Vision technology, using bit rates of around 60Mbits/second – twice that of a standard movie — although HDMI 1.3 "should have sufficient bandwidth” to ensure smooth playback. New files will be encoded using the MVC-AVC format, which is based on the AVC format currently used by Blu-ray movies.

Submission + - Facebook Rolling Out New Privacy Settings (pcmag.com)

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: Today Facebook has started rolling out new privacy settings intended to give users more control over who can see their profiles. The social networking site has been testing these changes with a limited group of U.S-based users since July, but is now rolling them out to all of its 350 million users. When the update hits a user's account, they will be presented with a "transition tool" that requires members to review and update their privacy settings. There will be two options: preserve old settings or accept privacy recommendations from Facebook.
Businesses

Submission + - Treading the Fuzzy Line of Game Cloning and Theft (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Ars analyzes some knockoffs and near knockoffs in the gaming world that lead to problems with the developers. Jenova Chen, creator of Flower and flOw, talks about how he feels about the clones made of his games. Chen reveals his true feelings about the take down of Aquatica (a flOw knockoff), 'What bothers me the most is that because of my own overreaction, I might have created a lot of inconvenience to the creator of Aquatica and interrupted his game making. He is clearly talented, and certainly a fan of flOw. I hope he can continue creating video games, but with his own design.' The article also notes the apparent similarities between Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City (the two most popular Facebook games). Is that cloning or theft? Should clones be welcomed or abhorred? Are the necessary or just the result of a lack of imagination?
Google

Submission + - What Google Goggles Means For Augmented Reality (augmentedplanet.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After the recent announcement of Google Goggles arriving on the Android its clear that Google are making a serious attempt to break into augmented reality. It interesting to hear what people in augmented reality think about the prospect of Google looming at their door, what features of Goggles are new and what it may mean to the industry, particularly as Google do real imaging recognition and not a LBS hack to figure out what a user maybe looking at.

Interesting video link to a Google Goggles walkthrough too.

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