Comment Maybe the people that voted did so because... (Score 1) 346
they have lots of Apple stock?
Comment Why CBR? (Score 1) 849
It's a bummer that they didn't use 192kpbs VBR LAME files. VBR is where LAME really shines nowadays...
Comment Re:Steam (Score 1) 310
I wonder if online services like steam are included in that. Most articles don't include those, and I don't think that Valve releases sales numbers. I've bought as many games (or more) than ever, but haven't bought a game in a box in over a year -- because of steam.
Comment Re:Here in the UK. (Score 1) 130
Level 9 was great. The Snowball series was one of the most vivid/memorable games I've played -- ever. I'm still trying to run away from those Nightingales.
I used to order them direct from the UK for my Atari 8-bit, and they'd come in a DVD-type case, though they were on cassette.
Comment Anyone have a link to his study? (Score 1) 743
The results sound fishy to me, especially with all of the studies out there in places like www.hydrogenaudio.org where mp3s encoded with a modern encoder are transparent from the original in ABX test after ABX test. If that's the case, then how can all of these kids have a preference?
Comment Re:Did I miss the news? (Score 1) 399
It could be like Commodore/Atari all over again!
Comment I Commute the Richard Scarry Way! (Score 1) 887
-1.2 mile bike to train station
-Train from Baltimore to DC
-1.0 mile walk from Union Station to work
If the weather sucks:
-1.2 mile walk to train station
-Train from Baltimore to DC
-1.0 mile bus ride from Union Station to work
NVIDIA Offers 3D Glasses For the Masses 261
Vigile writes "A new stereoscopic 3D gaming technology has hit the street today from NVIDIA, though demoed earlier in the year, that promises to bring high quality 3D gaming to the PC. The GeForce 3D Vision technology utilizes active shutter glasses and a 120 Hz display (either 120 Hz LCD or 3D-Ready DLP TVs) to bring an immersive 3D effect to PC games. Using the depth buffer information stored in DirectX, the NVIDIA software is able to construct a stereo 3D image out of existing game content while the 120 Hz requirement gives each eye 60 frames of motion per second negating the physical detriments that were known to occur with previous 3D offerings. The review at PC Perspective details how the technology works, the performance hit your games take while using it and the advantages and disadvantages to the user's gaming experience with 3D Vision."
Old Malware Tricks Still Defeat Most AV Scanners 122
SkiifGeek writes "A year ago Didier Stevens discovered that padding IE malware with 0x00 bytes would happily slip past most of the scanners in use at VirusTotal.com. Revisiting his earlier discovery, Didier found that detection on his initial samples had improved, but not by much. For all the talk of AV companies moving away from signature based detection to heuristics, it is painfully obvious that not many of the tested engines can successfully handle such a simple and well known obfuscation method and the best of those that can detect the obfuscation can only detect it as a generic malware type. At least the scanning engines that can detect the presence of malware with the obfuscation aren't trying to claim each differential as a new variant."
Comment Re:Better than Stock. Why isn't it more widely use (Score 1) 248
There has been discussion with a few companies about this. There has also been some work by individuals on creating a couple of DAPs specifically for Rockbox.
When the site comes back up, you can find info about it on their wiki.
Comment Re:oh please (Score 2, Insightful) 228
The web without all this proprietary stuff would be so boring it would be unreal.
Really? Why. The vast majority of what Flash can do is standardized in SVG, SMIL and many other standards that Adobe and Microsoft studiously ignore. What do you do on the Web that is so exciting that it cannot be accomplished with SVG and SMIL? Of course there are things that Flash can do but SVG cannot and vice versa. But in general, all of the major Web app categories would be served just fine with SVG et. al.
Microsoft, Yahoo Finally Merge IM Networks 299
WinBreak writes "Marketwatch is reporting that, nine months after their announcement, Microsoft and Yahoo! are finally ready to roll out beta IM clients of MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger that will be able to talk to each other." The Windows Live Ideas and Yahoo! Messenger pages have more information; the companies say that the resulting user community will be the world's largest, at around 350 million accounts, and that they'll be using SSL to encrypt the traffic between the systems.
Low Emission Cars Continue to Gain Popularity 744
Rio writes "A company may soon offer American motorists a new option to save on high gas prices -- vehicles powered by lithium batteries. From the article: 'Just plug in these cars for about five hours or so and you'll get about 300 miles on a single charge.' The vehicles cost about $35,000 or about double what buyers would pay for a gas-powered model." Relatedly acidrain writes to tell us The BBC is reporting that a prototype of the new "Clever car" (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) is starting to make the rounds on European test tracks. The car is one meter wide and less polluting than normal vehicles. It has a top speed of 100 km/h (60mph) and uses a novel tilting chassis to make it safe and maneuverable.
Pay-per-email and the "Market Myth" 295
Bennett Haselton has written a thoughtful piece on the latest developments in the pay-for-email schemes making the rounds from some of the big players in the world of AOL. This one is really worth your time, so please click on and read what he has to say.
Senate Bill To Prohibit Extra Charges For Internet 393
xoip writes "A report in the The New York Times states that 'Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, will introduce new legislation today that would prohibit Internet network operators from charging companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers or favoring some content providers over others.'"
