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Iphone

iOS App Acoustically Measures Distances Up To 25 Meters 154

Posted by samzenpus from the new-tool-for-the-box dept.
n01 writes "A recently published app for the iOS platform uses the propagation of sound waves to measure distances of up to 25 meters in a dual device mode. The technique works through repeatedly sending a chirp signal from the master device to which the other (reflector) device synchronizes itself and then replies in a similar fashion. A novel combination of techniques has been engineered to enhance the robustness in noisy environments, such as using an optimum-autocorrelation-signal and semi-automatic frequency calibration together with an averaging over multiple cycles."
Businesses

HTC Becomes Highest Shipping Smartphone Vendor In the US 151

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the king-of-the-hill dept.
An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article in BGR: "Samsung blew past Apple and Nokia in the third quarter to become the No. 1 smartphone vendor in the world, but another emerging smartphone vendor stole the top spot in the U.S. according to a new report. Market research firm Canalys on Monday released country-level smartphone shipment estimates and according to its figures, HTC shipped 5.7 million own-brand smartphones and another 700,000 T-Mobile-branded handsets last quarter to take the top spot with 6.4 million total devices shipped."
PC Games (Games)

Cloud Gaming Service OnLive Set For Launch 115

Posted by Soulskill from the money-mouth-etc dept.
Steve Perlman's long-anticipated cloud gaming service, OnLive, officially launches today, finally ready to be put to the test by skeptical and hopeful gamers around the US. After granting some early sign-ups a free year to try out the service, OnLive also announced the list of 23 games that will available from the start, including Mass Effect 2, UT 3, Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and F.E.A.R. 2. Perlman spoke at length with Gamasutra about the beta, latency, and potential partnerships with other broadband providers. Future OnLive competitor Gaikai recently announced it's targeting 2011 for its own launch.
Australia

AU R18+ Rating Plans Put On Hold Due To "Interest Groups" 139

Posted by Soulskill from the grasping-at-straws dept.
Dexter Herbivore writes "Australian gamers are yet again left disappointed by their government's response to a lack of an R18+ rating for games. Gamespot reports that Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has blamed 'interest groups' for swamping the public consultation with pro-R18+ submissions. From the article: 'A strong response from gamer groups in the Australian Federal Government's R18+ public consultation has led Censorship Ministers to claim that more views from the community are needed before a decision into the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games can be reached.'" Reader UgLyPuNk adds that support for the new rating is coming from unexpected places.
Television

MythTV 0.23 Released 214

Posted by kdawson from the record-with-daring-and-whimsey dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After six months of our new accelerated development schedule, MythTV 0.23 is now available. MythTV 0.23 brings a new event system, brand new Python bindings, the beta MythNetvision Internet video plugin, new audio code and surround sound upmixer, several new themes (Arclight and Childish), a greatly improved H.264 decoder, and fixes for analog scanning, among many others. Work towards MythTV 0.24 is in full swing, and has be progressing very well for the last several months. If all goes according to plan, MythTV 0.24 will bring a new MythUI OSD, a nearly rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24- and 32-bit audio and up to 8 channels of output, Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, and various other performance, usability, and flexibility improvements."
PC Games (Games)

EA Shutting Down Video Game Servers Prematurely 341

Posted by Soulskill from the sixty-dollar-yearly-fee dept.
Spacezilla writes "EA is dropping the bomb on a number of their video game servers, shutting down the online fun for many of their Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 games. Not only is the inclusion of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles odd, the date the games were released is even more surprising. Yes, Madden 07 and 08 are included in the shutdown... but Madden 09 on all consoles as well?"
Space

The Night Sky In 800 Million Pixels 120

Posted by kdawson from the it's-stars-all-the-way-down dept.
An anonymous reader recommends a project carried out recently by Serge Brunier and Frédéric Tapissier. Brunier traveled to the top of a volcano in the Canary Islands and to the Chilean desert to capture 1,200 images — each one a 6-minute exposure — of the night sky. The photos were taken between August 2008 and February 2009 and required more than 30 full nights under the stars. Tapissier then processed the images together into a single zoomable, 800-megapixel, 360-degree image of the sky in which the Earth is embedded. "It is the sky that everyone can relate to that I wanted to show — it's constellations... whose names have nourished all childhoods, it's myths and stories of gods, titans, and heroes shared by all civilisations since Homo became sapiens. The image was therefore made as man sees it, with a regular digital camera." The image is the first of three portraits produced by the European Southern Observatory's GigaGalaxy Zoom project.

Comment Casper is great (Score 1) 460

by dregs (#29501359) Attached to: Large-Scale Mac Deployment?

I've overseen the management of ~600 macs running an SOE for the last 9 years.

We use
AD for authentication
OSX servers for the applicaton of the mac equiverlent of Group policy settings
and Radia to deploy software (now called HP openview something arrather)

We have not been happy with Radia since HP bought it a few years ago, so after a review of products last year we are now moving to Casper (the friendly ghost) from JAMF

see http://www.jamfsoftware.com/ for more info, it works fine

Comment Re:Start with SQL (Score 1) 149

by dregs (#28219987) Attached to: Directory Service Implementation From Scratch?

omg, its takien us 7 years to undo this sort simple to setup, difficult to protect system.
Once the auditors found it, it was year after year of explaining that 10% of systems have been moved off the plain text passwords, then 25% then 50%, etc

My advice, only ever do this, if you are not securing anything scure, and you will never have to face an security audit board. ..

Comment Re:Uh.. (Score 1) 7

by dregs (#28037021) Attached to: Doctor Saves Boy With Household Drill

the local articles state, that the "medical drill" that was on-site, was to small to drill a hole this big, so something with more "torque" was located.

I can just see the ad's now, You don't need to be a brain surgeon to work our drills, etc, etc

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