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Television

"Loud Commercial" Legislation Proposed In US Congress 636

Posted by Soulskill from the you-have-my-grandmother's-vote dept.
Hackajar writes "Have you ever caught yourself running for the volume control when a TV commercial comes on? Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) has, and is submitting legislation that would require TV commercials in the US to stay at volume levels similar to the programming they are associated with. From the article: 'Right now, the government doesn't have much say in the volume of TV ads. It's been getting complaints ever since televisions began proliferating in the 1950s. But the FCC concluded in 1984 there was no fair way to write regulations controlling the "apparent loudness" of commercials.'"
Privacy

Secret Copyright Treaty Timeline Shows Global DMCA 184

Posted by CmdrTaco from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist, a leading critic of the ACTA secret copyright treaty, has produced a new interactive timeline that traces its development. The timeline includes links to leaked documents, videos, and public interest group letters that should generate increasing concern with a deal that could lead to a global three-strikes and you're out policy."
Businesses

$860 Million In Fines Handed Out For LCD Price-Fixing 151

Posted by Soulskill from the hope-it-was-worth-it dept.
eldavojohn writes "Six companies have pleaded guilty to worldwide price fixing of Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Displays from Sept. 14, 2001, to Dec. 1, 2006. For violating the Sherman Act, the companies have agreed to pay criminal fines of over $860 Million. In addition, nine executives have been charged in the scandal. The pricing scam affected some of the largest companies at the time, including Apple, HP and Dell. (If you bought a TFT-LCD from them in that time frame, you may be one of the victimized consumers.) From the DOJ release, 'According to the charge, Chi Mei carried out the conspiracy by agreeing during meetings, conversations and communications to charge prices of TFT-LCD panels at certain pre-determined levels and issuing price quotations in accordance with the agreements reached. As a part of the conspiracy, Chi Mei exchanged information on sales of TFT-LCD panels for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon prices.'"
Google

Google Upgrades Chrome To Beta For OS X, Linux 197

Posted by timothy from the browsing-is-what-cows-do dept.
wkurzius writes with this nugget from Mac Rumors: "As anticipated, Google has finally released an official beta version of its Chrome browser for Mac. The initial beta version, termed Build 4.0.249.30, requires Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard, and is only compatible with Intel-based Macs." And hierofalcon writes with word that Chrome has also been made available as an official Linux Beta.

Comment MERGE (Score 1) 222

by angelbunny (#30362658) Attached to: FCC May Pry Open the Cable Set-Top Box

This is exactly what was happening. Hulu is owned by NBC. First, comcast adds a monthly cap the second hulu becomes popular. This doesn't work as well as intended and comcast now has a giant competitor. What does Comcast do? They merge with NBC. wa-la! Comcast is still a monopoly in many areas.

I live out in the forest. I get 1 OTA (2 if I put the antenna on the roof) channels, and I'd have to cut holes in the trees to get sat. Also, since I'm right off the ocean I have a feeling the fog bank wouldn't help. Comcast out here has a monopoly.

Comment Re:who uses WPA anyways? (Score 1) 175

by angelbunny (#30362386) Attached to: WPA-PSK Cracking As a Service

Do not underestimate wifi distance.

Years ago I was bored so I made a cantenna (sp?) and was able to crack wep from wifi sources a couple of miles out. (it was a pain in the ass but a fun experience)

To be fair, I'm on a slight hill, the can was in the attic of a two story house pointing out on a mount that I could angle quite precisely to get a signal. If even a slight gust of wind would come by (not enough to visibly notice shaking) it would kill the signal. But yes, a couple of miles out.
Encryption

WPA-PSK Cracking As a Service 175

Posted by kdawson from the get-out-of-the-cafe-quicker dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Moxie Marlinspike, a security researcher well known for his SSL/TLS attacks, today launched a cloud-based WPA cracking service, where for $34 you can test the security of your WPA password. The WPA Cracker Web site states: 'WPA-PSK networks are vulnerable to dictionary attacks, but running a respectable-sized dictionary over a WPA network handshake can take days or weeks. WPA Cracker gives you access to a 400CPU cluster that will run your network capture against a 135 million word dictionary created specifically for WPA passwords. While this job would take over 5 days on a contemporary dual-core PC, on our cluster it takes an average of 20 minutes.'"
Cellphones

VMware's Dual OS Smartphone Virtualization Plan Firms Up 179

Posted by timothy from the what-about-triple dept.
Sharky2009 writes "VMware is developing virtualisation for smartphones which can run any two OSes — Windows Mobile, Android or Linux — at once. The idea is to have your work applications and home applications all running insider their own VMs and running at the same time so you can access any app any time. VMware says: 'We don't think dual booting will be good enough — we'll allow you to run both profiles at the same time and be able to switch between them by clicking a button,' he said. 'You'll be able to get and make calls in either profile – work or home – as they will both be live at any given point in time.'" Also mentioned in February of this year, but now the company's announced a target of 2012 for mass production.

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