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Comment Re:Absence of real competitors (Score 1) 487

by kryptkpr (#24696169) Attached to: Compact Disc Turns 26, Has a Bright Future

If you'd actually listened to some of the (admittedly small amount of) material available on SACD then you'd realise that the high cost and format lock-in are small prices to pay for an extraordinary step forwards in high-fidelity music. SACDs sound phenomenal compared to vanilla CDs.

What difference does higher quality make if nobody buys your products? The high cost and format lock-in were clearly not "small" prices to pay, because today the format is pretty much dead.
Space

Computer Model Points To the Missing Matter 97

Posted by kdawson from the on-a-whim dept.
eldavojohn writes "There exists a little-known problem of missing regular matter that has perhaps been overshadowed by the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Computer models show that there should be about 40% more regular matter than we see... so where is it? From the article: 'The study indicated a significant portion of the gas is in the filaments — which connect galaxy clusters — hidden from direct observation in enormous gas clouds in intergalactic space known as the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium, or WHIM, said CU-Boulder Professor Jack Burns... The team performed one of the largest cosmological supercomputer simulations ever, cramming 2.5 percent of the visible universe inside a computer to model a region more than 1.5 billion light-years across.' This hypothesis will be investigated and hopefully proved/disproved when telescopes are completed in Chile and the Antarctic. The paper will be up for review in this week's edition of the the Astrophysical Journal."
Music

EMI May Cut Funding To RIAA, IFPI 158

Posted by kdawson from the return-on-investment dept.
Teen Bainwolf notes a report that Big Four record label EMI, which is under new ownership, is considering a big cut in its funding for the IFPI and RIAA. Each of the labels reportedly contributed over $132 million per year to fund industry trade groups, and EMI apparently believes that money could be better spent elsewhere. "One of the chief activities of the RIAA is coordinating the Big Four labels' legal campaign, and those thousands of lawsuits have done nothing but generate ill will from record fans, while costing the labels millions of dollars and doing little (if anything) to actually reduce the amount of file-sharing going on."
Media

MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed 299

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the digital-restrictions-management dept.
Billosaur writes "Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."

Bot-avatar Pesters Second Life Users (For Science!) 124

Posted by CmdrTaco from the yeah-sure-it-is dept.
holy_calamity writes "A bot-controlled avatar that tracks down lone avatars in Second Life and purposely invades their personal space has been created by UK researchers. The idea was to see if users value their virtual personal space. Bots avatars are not encouraged by Linden Labs — although this one is being deployed by academics, presumably spam-avatars (spavatars?) won't be far behind."
Power

A New Way To Make Water, And Fuel Cells 107

Posted by Zonk from the it's-in-the-drinking-water dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "You probably know that it is easy to combine hydrogen and oxygen to make water. After all, this chemical reaction is known for more than two centuries. But now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have discovered a new way to make water. As states the UIUC report, 'not only can they make water from unlikely starting materials, such as alcohols, their work could also lead to better catalysts and less expensive fuel cells.' But be warned: don't read the technical paper itself. It could win an obfuscated contest — if such a contest existed for scientific papers." Yet another advance in fuel cell technology; we discussed a different one just the other day.
The Media

FCC To End Exclusive Cable For Apartments 269

Posted by kdawson from the falling-prices-gardyloo dept.
spiffyman writes "The New York Times is reporting that on Wednesday the FCC will end exclusive contracts to provide cable service to apartment buildings. Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin is quoted as saying that cable prices have risen 'about 93 percent in the last 10 years' and that the FCC hopes to see more competition out of this move. This is a step in the right direction. In my apartment, for example, I have (dead) outlets for one cable company but am forced to go with the higher-priced firm. Moves like this will help those who live in areas where competition — even minimal competition — exists. The article also discusses the impact this may have on low- to middle-income families, who disproportionately live in apartment complexes."
HP

Italian Judge Tells HP To Refund Pre-Installed XP 225

Posted by kdawson from the fair's-fair dept.
Paolo DF writes "An Italian user asked for a refund after buying a Compaq computer that came with Windows XP and Works 8 pre-installed. HP tried to avoid the EULA agreement which states, approximately: '[I]f the end user is not willing to abide by this EULA... he shall immediately contact the producer to get info for giving back the product and obtaining refunds.' The court ruled in favor of the user (Google translation from the Italian), who received back €90 for XP and €50 for Works. Here is the ruling (PDF, Italian)."

Feed Engadget: NVIDIA to announce Intel-compliant integrated graphics chips (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops

The latest development in the soap opera that is the PC components industry sees NVIDIA expanding beyond its usual focus on AMD systems to offer new integrated graphics solutions designed for Intel-based desktops. Reuters reports that the upcoming GeForce 7050, 7100, and 7150 will be compatible with current and upcoming Intel chips, ship in machines priced from $400 to $600, and are said to "give the performance of an entry-level separate graphics processor unit" -- a claim we'll be interested to see tested. Now that NVIDIA is taking direct aim at the world's largest chipmaker, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see Intel strike back in the discreet graphics space -- and then it doesn't take much to imagine NVIDIA retaliating once again by whipping up its own line of CPUs, does it?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
The Internet

Researchers Suggest P2P As Solution To Video Domination of The Internet 121

Posted by Zonk from the making-it-all-work dept.
JPawlak writes "NewScientistTech reports that big businesses may be realizing the benefits of P2P technologies. Blizzard uses it to distribute patches for World of Warcraft, and now researchers at Microsoft are indicating internet users may have to use it to help distribute online video clips. The growing cost associated with delivering such content may be becoming prohibitive for some companies. 'The team also suggest a way to prevent Internet Service Providers' costs jumping when their users start uploading much more data. The trick is to allow sharing only between people with the same provider, when data transactions are free. That restriction would cut the pool of sharers into smaller groups, meaning MSN's servers would have to do more to fill any gaps in the service. But costs could still fall by more than half, simulations showed.'"
Music

Music Industry Set To Introduce the "Ringle" 348

Posted by kdawson from the latest-brain-damage dept.
mrneutron2003 writes "The RIAA has officially backed a move by the recording industry to reintroduce the CD single. Populated with three songs and a ringtone, this brilliantly clueless idea is to be marketed as a 'ringle,' complete with an even more clueless retail price of $6-7 per CD. Apart from the fact the industry hasn't agreed on how the ringtone is to be redeemed (Sony BMG, the initial proponent of the idea, is the exception here), the pricing puts it way out of line with legitimate digital music downloads." At $7, retailers would enjoy a profit margin they haven't seen since the days of cassette tapes and vinyl.
Security

Tor Used To Collect Embassy Email Passwords 99

Posted by kdawson from the getting-their-attention dept.
Several readers wrote in to inform us that Swedish security researcher Dan Egerstad has revealed how he collected 100 passwords from embassies and governments worldwide, without hacking into anything: he sniffed Tor exit routers. Both Ars and heise have writeups on Egerstad's blog post, but neither adds much to the original. It's not news that unencrypted traffic exits the Tor network unencrypted, but Egerstad correctly perceived, and called attention to, the lack of appreciation for this fact in organizations worldwide.
Windows

Vista Pirates To Get "Black Screen of Darkness" 873

Posted by kdawson from the there-goes-china dept.
jcatcw writes "Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Whirling Twirling Propeller Trike 136

Posted by CmdrTaco from the mit-students-with-to-much-time dept.
hankmt writes "A student at MIT has built a tricycle that applies force to a giant rear fan, instead of directly to the wheels. The effect...well, it's best to look for yourself, but it would be pretty useful on the post-apocalyptic roads of the Australian Outback. The blades of the trike even have built in LED lights which display colored patterns...and also warn pedestrians of their impending deaths."

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