perdue - Slashdot User

Submission + - The largest underground Mac community faces coup (macserialjunkie.com)

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:55AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "In a palace coup only imaginable in one of Shakespeare's tragedies, a moderator faction of one of the largest underground Mac communities was shut out this weekend after it was discovered many staff members were staging a coup, including an attempt to surreptitiously acquire the domain. (http://www.macserialjunkie.com/) In an Steve Jobs-like "Open Letter to the Community", the founders of MSJ explain how a number of people at the highest levels of the underground planned their takeover activities for almost two years, only to be foiled at the last minute. In an age of terrorism, are Western societies now taking cues from hostile countries instead of the other way around?"

Submission + - Third contender in the HD format war? (pcworld.com)

Submitted by Fishead on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:50AM

Fishead writes: As the fight heats up between HD DVD and Blu-ray, and as consumers seem to care less and less, a new contender has entered the fray.

Next month, New Medium Enterprises will be selling a 1080p player through Amazon, and stores such as Radio Shack and Costco for around $150.

The difference of this new HD VMD (Versatile Multilayer Disc) format and HD DVD or Blu-ray is that the discs are created with the same laser as DVD's. Unlike HD DVD and Blu-ray which use a blue laser.

From the article:
"HD VMD discs, which hold up to 30GB on a single side, are encoded with a maximum bit rate of 40 megabits per second; that's within halfway between HD DVD's 36 mpbs and Blu-ray's 48 mbps. The format uses MPEG-2 and VC1 video formats to encode at 1080p resolution for the time being, and will possibly move to the H.264 format in the future."

Submission + - Comcast cuts off bandwidth hogs (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by

wakingrufus

on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:40AM

wakingrufus writes: "Comcast has started to cut off users that use bandwidth "too much". Comcast does not say at what threshold they will cut off a bandwidth hungry user. They will not offer any suggestions to consumers as to how to monitor their bandwidth. The only way to know if you are using "too much" is to wake up one morning and have your internet cut off. Is this something they are allowed to do? It seems like they are rescinding on their promised services which were already paid for. If they have limits of bandwidth, shouldn't those limits be made clear up front in writing?"

Submission + - Interactive Ray Tracer on Playstation 3 (youtube.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:39AM

An anonymous reader writes: Interactive Ray Tracer for Cell Broadband Engine demonstrates the power of the Cell Broadband Engine for interactively ray tracing high-definition television (HDTV) images of complex scenes. It can trace high-definition frames in fractions of a second, instead of the hours it takes production studios today. Interactive Ray Tracer can run on both the Playstation 3 and QS20 Cell Broadband Engine-based platforms. This short video shows how Playstation 3's are used to produce fully interactive Ray Tracing.

Submission + - most powerful radiotelescope to close b/c needs 4M

Submitted by Khaki_Dockers on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:14AM

Khaki_Dockers writes: The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico is operated by Cornell University, and it's funding comes from the US National Science Foundation's 200M astronomy budget. The SETI project is only one of it's many uses. It's budget started at 10.5M, they've reduced it to 8 million, and now the NSF says that they'll only provide 4M for it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic le/2007/09/08/AR2007090801654_pf.html

Submission + - Judge Strikes Down Patriot Act ISP/Telco Tap (pcworld.com)

Submitted by slughead on Sunday September 09, 2007 @11:04AM

slughead writes: A PC World article posted September 6 states that Judge Victor Marrero, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has struck down the Dept. Of Justices ability to utilize National Security Letters to gain access to customer records from ISPs and phone companies. National Security Letters (NSL's) are essentially 'self-written warrants' as described by former Judge Andrew Napolitano in this Cato Institute meeting (20:40). As a side note, the ability to write these NSL's to get documents was expanded to include hotels, casinos, restaurants, bodegas, lawyers' offices, real estate agents offices, and the POST OFFICE by the Foreign Intelligence Authorization Act, signed December 14, 2003. This act allows the government to read your postal mail without a warrant and without your knowledge.

Submission + - Mandatory Keyloggers in Mumbai's Cyber Cafes

Submitted by YIAAL on Sunday September 09, 2007 @08:39AM

YIAAL writes: Indian journalist Amit Varma reports that Mumbai's police are requiring Internet cafes to install keystroke loggers, which will capture every keystroke by users and turn that information over to the government. Buy things online, and the underpaid Indian police will have your credit card number. "Will these end up getting sold in a black market somewhere? Not unlikely."

Submission + - Preventing Bike Theft - Innovative Suggestions? 1

Submitted by

victorhooi

on Sunday September 09, 2007 @03:34AM

victorhooi writes: "I recently (read: 2 days ago) lost a bike to theft, after locking it up with a $30 lock at a bike rack at my local train station.

For my next one, I thought I would canvas the collective wisdom of Slashdot =), for opinions on effective ways of securing a bike.

I've had people suggest U-locks are the best, and others that a heavy-duty chain from a hardware store with a padlock would do it better.

One person suggested somehow welding a car-alarm to the seat post, but I'm not exactly sure how this would work.

Alternatively, one idea I tossed us was using a GPS/GSM module (e.g. one from the Telit range) glued under the seat to send me the coordinates of the bike.

Finally, some people suggested sabotaging the bike somehow. Removing the seat seems to be a common option, but it is ultimately still rideable. Is there perhaps some way of making it so that it won't actually spin? (Most of the elements in the drivechain are tightened down fairly well, for obvious reasons, I can't think of anything that could easily be removed yet still be essential to the bike's operation).

Any thoughts on these ideas, or other suggestions?"

Submission + - Police busted after tracking device found on car (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by uh oh on Sunday September 09, 2007 @12:37AM

uh oh writes: A New Zealand police operation to covertly follow a Central Otago man came to an abrupt halt this week when the man found tracking devices planted in his car, ripped them out and listed them for auction on Trade Me. Ralph Williams, of Cromwell, said he found the devices last week in his daughter's car, which he uses, and in his flatmate's car after the cars were seized by police and taken away for investigation.

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