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IBM

Submission + - Award of $200M supercomputer to IBM controversial

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to documents accidentally placed on a federal government Web site for a short time last week the national science foundation (NSF) will award the contract to buy a $200M supercomputer in 2011 to IBM. The machine is designed to perform scientific calculations at sustained speed of 1 petaflop. The award is already proving controversial however, with questions being raised about the correctness of the bidding procedure. Similar concerns have also been raised about the award of a smaller machine to Oak Ridge national lab, which is a Department of energy laboratory, not a site one would expect to house an NSF machine.
X

Submission + - Enable compiz-fusion in Ubuntu Feisty (vanzonneveld.net)

Submitted by
kevmaster
kevmaster writes: "Linux desktop effects have come a long way. Over time we've seen different implementations like compiz & beryl. These 2 projects have lead a life of their own but have now been merged back together again in a new project called: compiz-fusion. Compiz-fusion has got some awesome eye candy effects, but it's still a little bit tricky to get it to work though. There are some other howtos online but those didn't cut it for me, so eventually after getting it to work, I wrote one myself."
Music

Submission + - Record Industry Woes Aggravated by Years of Bad PR

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Richard Menta makes a strong case on MP3 Newswire that bad public relations stirred by the open conflict between the record industry and the consumer is a heavy contributor to the crumbling fortunes of the major labels. In his analysis he contrasts how the NFL and Major League baseball tread gingerly with the Michael Vick and steroids scandals respectively to avoid further raising the ire of sports fans, while the major labels and the RIAA openly antagonize music fans who dare embrace new technologies they don't have full control of. From the article" Today the major record labels don't have a positive brand image and the very public actions they have taken to control the rise of digital media and the Internet over the last several years is at the very heart of their fall from grace. To some the big labels are an anachronism. To others they are anti-consumer. The erosion of their image is dramatic..." Menta then lays out 17 public events that have chipped away at the image of the recording industry including those that show them as bullies (RIAA sues little girls), as incompetent (RIAA sues the dead), as oppressors of the artist (Courtney Love, Janis Ian, and Grey Tuesday), as greedy (that's what Steve Jobs called them), and as practitioners of unauthorized access (Sony rootkit scandal). Consumer perception can be a bitch and the end result here is that many consumers probably don't feel as good about buying a CD anymore.
Networking

Submission + - Case of the great hot-site swap

Submitted by BobB
BobB writes: Two universities — Bowdoin in Maine and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles — have entered a unique arrangement under which they are backing up each other's web site, email and servers on different ends of the U.S. They say this could be a disaster recovery model all sorts of organizations could follow. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080307-bowdo in-lmu.html
The Internet

Submission + - New bill would reverse bans on municipal broadband (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Yuppie
Yuppie writes: A bill introduced to the House this week would overturn bans that currently exist in several states on cities and towns building and deploying their own broadband networks. The big telecoms may not be be too happy about the bill, however. 'The telecoms have historically argued that municipalities that own and operate — or even build and lease — broadband networks could give themselves preferential treatment. The Act anticipates that argument with a section on "competition neutrality." Public providers would be banned from giving themselves any "regulatory preference," which should create a level playing field for all broadband providers. Municipalities interested in getting into the broadband business would also have to solicit feedback from the private sector on planned deployments.' The full text of the bill is available from Rep. Boucher's website (PDF).
Wii

Submission + - Radio Station Fires 10 After Woman's Death

Submitted by
necro81
necro81 writes: "Here's a followup to an earlier story. After a mother of three in Sacramento died of water intoxication from a competition to win a Wii console, the radio station sponsoring the contest has fired 10 of its employees, including its three morning DJs. The station, KDND 107.9, has also suspended the 'Morning Rave' show that the contest was featured on."
The Internet

Journal Journal: ISP pulls the plug on isohunt, podtropolis, and torrentbox.

Journal by spiralwebs
As seen on isohunt.com: " Update, Jan. 16, 2007 Lawyers from our primary ISP decided to pull our plug without any advance notice, as of 14:45 PST. No doubt related to our lawsuit brought by the MPAA, but we don't have more information at this time until people responsible comes to work tomorrow. We will be back in operation once we sort out this mess with our ISP, or we get new hardware ready from our new ISP. Sit back and enjoy the rest of the internet in the mean time, while it last. For your

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