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Hardware

Submission + - System guide recommends five desktop PC configs

Submitted by EconolineCrush
EconolineCrush writes: The Tech Report has updated its system guide, providing a comprehensive set of recommendations for desktop PCs at around $500, $850, $1400, and well over $3,000. This latest guide takes into account recent releases like Intel's six-core Core i7-980X and Nvidia's Fermi-derived GeForce GTX 400-series graphics cards. It also features a new one-off build designed to be a quiet yet powerful microATX system. Recommended reading for anyone putting together a new desktop PC.

Comment Re:Science (Score 0, Troll) 369

by arminw (#29613999) Attached to: Fossil Primate Ardipithecus Ramidus Described (Finally)

....we ARE descended from monkeys...

Yeah sure like the little boy in second grade came home from school, all excited, telling his father: "we learned in school today that we are come from from monkeys". To which the father replied: "that may be true of you because you act like a monkey so often but certainly not true of me".
Earth

A Geek Funeral 479

Posted by kdawson from the beam-me-up dept.
We've recently talked about a geek wedding, and now reader Sam_In_The_Hills writes in with news of his brother's geek funeral. "I've not seen this topic covered here before even though it's one that will concern us all at some time: what to do with our corporeal remains after we've left for that great data bank in the sky. For my recently departed brother (long illness, don't smoke!), I thought this nice SPARCstation would be a cool place to spend eternity. Yes, he's really in there (after cremation). I kept the floppy drive cover but for space reasons removed the floppy drive, hard drive, and most of the power supply. I left behind the motherboard and power switch and plugs to keep all openings covered. The case worked quite well at his memorial party. His friends and family were able to leave their final good-byes on post-notes. Anyone who wanted to keep their words private could just slip their note into the case through the floppy slot. All notes will be sealed in plastic and placed within the case. There has been one complication. His daughters like the look of it so much they aren't now sure if they want to bury him. One more thing: the words on the plaque really do capture one of the last things he ever said. Of course as kids we watched the show in its first run."
Education

Obama Makes a Push To Add Time To the School Year 1073

Posted by kdawson from the ok-ok-fix-healthcare-but-leave-me-my-summer dept.
N!NJA sends in a proposal that is sure to cause some discussion, especially among students and teachers. Obama and his education secretary say that American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage in comparison to other students around the globe. "'Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas,' the president said earlier this year. 'Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom.' 'Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today,' Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. ... 'Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,' Duncan told the AP. 'I want to just level the playing field.' ... Kids in the US spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the US on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days)."

Comment Re:Server? (Score 1) 135

by LaraineMae (#29402325) Attached to: New iPod Touch Has an 802.11n Chip

My Bravia has a USB port, but, whoop-de-do, it views only jpegs and mp3s and only when they are on Sony-branded media (only Sony camera or Sony MICRO VAULT drive). And I found out from costco tech support that it's only USB 1.1.
The Internet

Submission + - Swedish Court Orders ISP to Take Down Pirate Bay (pcmag.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: A Swedish court on Monday ordered an Internet service provider to take down the torrent-tracking Pirate Bay Web site or face fines of about $70,000, a move that resulted in an initial three hours of down time.

The site then came back online, but quickly went down again.

"The good people at the MAFIAA decided to sue. Not TPB [The Pirate Bay], not the owners of TPB. Not even TPBs ISP. They decided to sue TPBs ISPs ISP," according to a cached version of a blog post written by the owners of the Pirate Bay.

Site owners refer to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) collectively as the MAFIAA.

"And you know what? They won. They made a court believe their #lies and they made them force the ISPs ISP to shut down access to TPB," the blog post continued.

In April, Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundstrom were all sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay about $3.58 million in damages for copyright infringement.

In June, Swedish software company Global Gaming Factory X AB said it would buy The Pirate Bay for about $8 million. Stockholders are supposed to vote on that deal on Thursday, but there are reports ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6081715/The-Pirate-Bay-sale-uncertain.html ) that the company's chairman has resigned.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351936,00.asp
Patents

i4i Says OpenOffice Does Not Infringe Like MS Word 146

Posted by kdawson from the tooth-for-tooth dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "After the permanent injunction barring Microsoft from selling Microsoft Word, many armchair lawyers and pundits wondered how the ruling would affect OpenOffice. The company with the patent, i4i, believes that OpenOffice does not infringe upon it. But lest anyone think that therefore ODF will win out over OOXML, keep in mind that Microsoft has its own broad XML document patent, which issued just two weeks ago, having been filed in December 2004, and they're telling the Supreme Court to apply the Bilski ruling narrowly, so that it doesn't invalidate patents like theirs (and i4i's). After all, unlike most companies and individuals, Microsoft can afford $290 million infringement fines. Then again, given that Microsoft's new patent has only two independent claims (claim #1 and claim #12), and both of those claims 'comprise' something using an 'XML file format for documents associated with an application having a rich set of features,' maybe they wouldn't be that hard to work around if you just make sure any otherwise infringing format is only associated with an application lacking in the feature richness department."
Social Networks

Submission + - Social Media Banned from College Stadiums (mashable.com)

Submitted by RawJoe
RawJoe writes: Today, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is expected to release a final version of its new media policy that, at the moment, can best be described as a ban on all social media usage at SEC games. Earlier this month, the conference informed its schools of the new policy, which reads:

"Ticketed fans can't "produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event."

Translated, that means no Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TwitPic, or any other service that could in any way compete with authorized media coverage of the event. In the case of the SEC, authorized media coverage rights belong to CBS, who has a $3 billion deal with the conference over the next 15 years according to The St Petersburg Times.

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