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Comment Should we aggressively pursue geothermal though? (Score 1) 584

by seanalltogether (#26097753) Attached to: Wind and Sun Beat Other Energy Alternatives
There is approximately 13,000 ZJ worth of geothermal energy, and when that runs out what happens? On the other hand the earth get smacked with about 3,850 ZJ of energy per year from the sun. Do we really want to extract all that geothermal energy from our core or do we want it to just let it slowly leak out the way it currently is? What are the ramifications of opening up bigger seams to get at that heat? I understand it would take a long time to extract that heat, but it appears to be an irreversible process?

Comment Re:English names only? (Score 2, Interesting) 277

by seanalltogether (#25634427) Attached to: IBM's Teri-is-a-Girl-and-Terry-is-a-Boy Patent
And if its just a table of public records with gender assignments, is the following logic really patentable? "SELECT gender FROM names WHERE name=$name" if(count == 0 || gender == "neutral"){ return neutral.jpg; }else if(gender == "female"){ return female.jpg; }else{ return male.jpg; } I hope my psuedocode isn't breaking the law!

Blizzcon Begins, Diablo 3 Wizard Class Unveiled 142

Posted by Soulskill from the zap dept.
Blizzcon is officially underway today, starting with a presentation showcasing the Worldwide Invitational tournament held earlier this year. A company spokesman went on to talk about the tournaments being held for World of Warcraft 3v3 Arena, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft 2, followed by word that Starcraft 2 was not yet ready for beta, but that Blizzcon attendees would be included in the first round of testers when the beta program starts. The big news of the presentation, though, was the unveiling of the Wizard class — the third such class to be announced, along with the previously mentioned Barbarian and Witch Doctor. Read on for some more details.
Operating Systems

Netbook Return Rates Much Higher For Linux Than Windows 663

Posted by Soulskill from the old-dogs-new-tricks-etc. dept.
ivoras writes "An interview with MSI's director of US Sales, Andy Tung, contains this interesting snippet: "We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven't really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don't know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it's not what they are used to. They don't want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.'"
Media

"Iron Man" Release Brings Down Paramount's Servers 283

Posted by kdawson from the super-hero-effect dept.
secmartin writes "Shortly after the release of Iron Man on Blu-ray on October 1, people started complaining of defective discs; the problem turned out to be that all the Blu-ray players downloading additional content brought down Paramount's BD-Live servers, causing delays while loading the disc. Which really makes you wonder what will happen when they decide to shut down this service in a couple of years."
Programming

Submission + - eBay makes a play for the desktop

Submitted by seanalltogether
seanalltogether writes: Not content with having users access their site just through the browser, eBay has released a desktop application for searching and bidding on auctions. The application is visually different from the website and shows a live view of auction data which keeps the countdown timer and bidding information up to date automatically. It works on both Mac and PC and provides system notifications for when you get outbid or when an auction is ending soon. Overall it works better then the website even though it lacks some big features like selling.

Feed Engadget: Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We've all been wondering what to make of those whispers that Warner was indeed going Blu-ray exclusive, and apparently, those rumblings are true. Based on a breaking release, Warner Bros. Entertainment will be releasing its high-definition titles "exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year." According to Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, the move is a "strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," and he also noted that "the window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger." Notably, Warner will continue to release on both HD DVD and Blu-ray until May 2008, but after that, it's BD for life for this studio. Oh, and while there's nothing official mentioning any sort of payoff, we're hearing that quite a sum was dished out to make this happen. Full release posted after the jump.

[Via Deadline Hollywood Daily, thanks, Todd]

Continue reading Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive

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Security

The DRM Scorecard 543

Posted by samzenpus from the guess-who's-ahead dept.
An anonymous reader writes "InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe put together a scorecard which makes the obvious but interesting point that, when you list every major DRM technology implemented to "protect" music and video, they've all been cracked. This includes Apple's FairPlay, Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, the old-style Content Scrambling System (CSS) used on early DVDs and the new AACS for high-definition DVDs. And of course there was the Sony Rootkit disaster of 2005. Can anyone think of a DRM technology which hasn't been cracked, and of course this begs the obvious question: Why doesn't the industry just give up and go DRM-free?"

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