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Comment Re:Americans sites only? (Score 1) 529

Looks like the registrar is Godaddy. Here's a WHOIS on the domain name:

    Domain Name: TORRENT-FINDER.COM
      Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
      Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
      Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com/
      Name Server: NS1.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM
      Name Server: NS2.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM
      Status: clientDeleteProhibited
      Status: clientRenewProhibited
      Status: clientTransferProhibited
      Status: serverDeleteProhibited
      Status: serverTransferProhibited
      Status: serverUpdateProhibited
      Updated Date: 24-nov-2010
      Creation Date: 30-dec-2005
      Expiration Date: 30-dec-2011

Makes sense. Kinda explains why the ever-so-popular thepiratebay.org wasn't blocked:

Domain ID:D104576138-LROR
Domain Name:THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
Created On:28-Jun-2004 16:08:27 UTC
Last Updated On:07-May-2010 07:22:02 UTC
Expiration Date:28-Jun-2015 16:08:27 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Key-Systems GmbH (R51-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Name Server:NS0.THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
Name Server:NS1.THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
Name Server:NS2.THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
Name Server:NS3.THEPIRATEBAY.ORG
DNSSEC:Unsigned

Looks like Godaddy was coerced by someone powerful to do this. I doubt that such influence could be had over a foreign registrar. Otherwise I'm sure TPB would be the first to go since it's a proven MPAA favorite. Okay wait.. nevermind that. Just checked another domain and the registrar is chinese.

    Domain Name: MASSNIKE.COM
      Registrar: BEIJING INNOVATIVE LINKAGE TECHNOLOGY LTD. DBA DNS.COM.CN
      Whois Server: whois.dns.com.cn
      Referral URL: http://www.dns.com.cn/
      Name Server: NS1.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM
      Name Server: NS2.SEIZEDSERVERS.COM
      Status: clientDeleteProhibited
      Status: clientTransferProhibited
      Status: serverDeleteProhibited
      Status: serverTransferProhibited
      Status: serverUpdateProhibited
      Updated Date: 24-nov-2010
      Creation Date: 23-sep-2006
      Expiration Date: 23-sep-2014

Well then I guess they can change stuff for everyone. But even then, it's just .coms. Maybe that's of significance.

Comment Where's the P4 vs. Modern CPUs conclusion ? (Score 5, Insightful) 354

Isn't this what the article summary gets at ? I couldn't find anywhere in the conclusion how the P4 actually compares to present day processors.
I'm not about to read through 17 pages of all of that just to open my eyes.

Oh, and for CPU comparisons, I usually use:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

It's quite reliable for my choices. I just need everything to boil down to a number these days. Too much choice out there. Was simpler when you could just look at Ghz and know which is better. Now a P7700 and T8600 (examples I just made up..) could be at the same clock speed, be called Core 2 Duo and have totally different performance numbers. Confusing!

Comment Things are far more political than they seem.. (Score 1) 245

The problem in India is not of religion but the deadly cocktail that religion and politics create. I do support free speech and honestly think it's wrong [and a tad bit retarded] for the government to ask Google to shut down an Orkut group because of hate speech. The problem with riots in India is often due to politically motivated goals. A politician can polarise the public one way or another and thus sway the polls in his favour. This is the thing that pisses me off the most over here. People here are really intelligent, educated, compassionate, considerate, but if you drop the R-Bomb on them, they'll start acting like crazy lunatics the next second.

Censorship has always existed in India in a big way. You know, Fahrenheit 9/11 released here much later than in the rest of the world. But that's just the tip of the ice berg. The law and order situation prevents folks from using "free-speech" as a defence. If you DO say something against someone powerful and influential and said person finds out [and is affected], he'll surely send his goons to even the score. Sure, you won't get imprisoned for 'free-speech' but you might get worse.

This is certainly not the "END" of free-speech. And no, India is nothing like China at this point of time. Hell, I went to China and the folks there on the streets didn't know that something big had happened in Tienanmen Square. Now THAT IS CENSORSHIP!

Indians in general don't value free speech. We're a culture of followers [follow religion, follow elders, follow leaders, follow everyone] and any deviant (free-speech dude, atheist, etc. etc...) will probably get shut down. In all practicality, you can criticise religion, politics, people, the prime minister, policies and even the pope. Just be careful of who you do it in front of. You can be atheist but don't try and explain it to someone who is religious because you'll explain your beliefs much better than them and just end up confused as to why the other person still follows whatever they do. But that's probably just the same anywhere in the world. "A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything" - Nietzsche

And so what if they shut down an orkut group ? You think people can't express themselves any other place on the internet ? Basically, the Indian government just likes to exercise it's power where it can. Those are very few places.

Oh but as far as western hypocrisy is concerned. Come on guys, don't tell me about free-speech in your countries. Sure, I know that the new 'politically correct' USA has many issues with using certain words, phrases, etc. But look at how Switzerland banned the construction of Minarets as they are a symbol of Islam inspite of having a decent Muslim population. Things aren't as rosy in the west as they're made out to be. France banned the wearing of headgear for muslim women. That's religious expression. What about those dudes in the US who were "investigated" by the FBI for posting some random stuff online post 9/11 ?

Basically, everywhere sucks. Just relatively more or less. India is pretty free by most standards.

Sure, we have a problem in India. It's not as bad as China [not even comparable], and it'll never be, as long as we are allowed the free speech to admit to it. I hope though that the censorship folks realise that this is an exercise in futility. They never achieve any real censorship in India anyway. All our networks (Radio, tv, news, internet, word of mouth..) are way too out of control anyhow.

Besides, just chalk this one up to the Indian government being retarded as usual. Just add it to the list that already has the shutting down of public Wi-Fi after the Mumbai attacks [no coffee shop Wi-Fi anymore :(], requiring 10 verification documents to get a mobile sim, requiring to fill up a piece of paper everytime when entering the country and giving it with your passport and don't even get me started on the swine-flu line at the airports, plus all the other bizarre things that they think actually achieve something. These aren't leaders, these are politicians pretending to lead.

Intel

Submission + - Intel's Six-Core 'Gulftown' Numbers Leaked (appleinsider.com)

MasJ writes: "PCLab's Polish Website prematurely published test and performance results of Intel's new 6-core 'Gulftown' CPU. Soon after, the article was taken down at Intel's request. Numbers reveal that the new CPU performs almost 50% faster than the previous Quad-Core chips in parallel processes and consumes nearly 50% less power. The 'Gulftown' chip will ship under the Core i9 name and will be Intel's first 6-core dual-socket CPU to hit the market. AppleInsider got a good look at the article before it was removed and says that the CPU will use a 32nm process and might ship as early as Q1 2010."

Submission + - Nuclear workers in India 'deliberately poisoned' (yahoo.com)

MasJ writes: "It does not bode well for India that in the early stages of ramping up it's civil nuclear program, there are already some leaks in the works.

Fifty-five employees from the nuclear plant in Kaiga, Karnataka, India were treated for radiation poisoning as someone had apparently spiked their drinking water with Tritium. This comes at a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in Washington D.C. holding talks with President Obama to strengthen the Indo-US Nuclear Program that shall enable the US to sell civil nuclear technology to India. Plant authorities say that the sabotage was deliberate and security is fool-proof."

AMD

Submission + - ATI Radeon 5870: Fastest Video Card Ever (maximumpc.com)

MasJ writes: "The ATI Radeon 5870 has just been launched with 2.15 billion transistors based on a 40nm manufacturing process. Maximum PC says that AMD packs 2.15 billion transistors into a tiny chip, offering outstanding performance, DirectX 11 support, and triple-monitor (or better) capability. Nvidiaâ(TM)s response is nowhere to be seen. This new chip is no shrinking violet in the numbers department. Every number associated with the new Radeon 5800 series is staggering: 2.15 billion transistors, 2.7 trillion floating-point operations a second, more than 20 gigapixels per second throughput, 1,600 shader units. Other numbers impress because of their smallness. One example: The idle power is a scant 27Wâ" lower than many entry level GPUs.

Priced at $380 and touted as the lowest power consumption card in it's class, this monster will definitely change the rules of the playground a little bit. Graphics cards are becoming interesting and more importantly, affordable again."

Cellphones

Submission + - iPhone 3G 3.0 Carrier Unlock (Ultrasn0w) Released

MasJ writes: "The iphone dev team has finally released the much awaited ultrans0w 3G unlock for the iPhone 3G. This hack can unlock any 3G iPhone (to be used on any carrier) on the new 3.0 firmware. This time, it also follow a simplified install process wherein a simple jailbreak is required and then you can just install ultrasn0w from Cydia [The jailbroken app-store]. More information is available at the Dev Team Blog."
Upgrades

Submission + - Should console makers take update responsibility? (sarcasm.com)

Minimalist360 writes: "When a console maker (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) "forces" an update onto your system should they take responsibility when things go wrong? My PS3 was recently updated to 2.76, and without the update one would no longer be able to play games online. In the process my optical disc ceased to recognize discs. It was working fine before this, and other people have had the same problem. Sony disavows responsibility, citing the low number of failures and claiming this must be coincidence. Since I'm outside of the initial warranty period, it will cost $149 + tax to fix. Their firmware cannot be downgraded to a previous version, by design. The problem may have never happened if Sony didn't update the PS3 firmware dozens of times after selling the console. My question is, does anyone think that console makers should take responsibility for problems resulting from completely replacing the firmware, since it is in some respects a "new" product?"
Cellphones

Submission + - iPhone 3.0 Carrier Unlocked! (iphwn.org)

MasJ writes: "The dev-team-blog has been updated with information [including a picture!] on the upcoming yellowsn0w exploit for firmware 3.0. yellowsn0w makes it possible to software unlock iPhones so that they can be used with any telcom provider. Previously, with baseband 2.30 [Firmware 2.2.1], users were unable to use the exploit and thus were carrier locked. Apple's 3.0 firmware comes out tomorrow and will feature a large number of new features including MMS capabilities!

From the dev-team-blog:
On Tuesday evening (just before the big Apple release) we'll do a live demo of the yellowsn0w carrier unlock working on official 3.0 firmware. The actual link for the feed will be twittered by @MuscleNerd and also placed here when the feed starts. The demo should answer everything you need to know about the new yellowsn0w. But it's good news for iPhone 3G unlockers everywhere.

Finally looking forward to updating to firmware 3.0 and unlocking my iPhone again!"

Communications

Submission + - AT&T Terminating iPhone Pay-As-You-Go

ackthpt writes: Users of the popular iPhone are now receiving text messages informing them they will need to upgrade to 2 year commitment plans. According to PC World "AT&T currently offers two types of prepaid plans: GoPhone, its "pay as you go" plan, and Pick Your Plan, its "prepay once a month" plan. AT&T's statement says that GoPhone will not be available for either original iPhones or iPhone 3Gs; Pick Your Plan will only continue to work for existing subscribers using the original iPhone, as long as they have an unlimited data plan. Current Pick Your Plan users who don't have an unlimited data plan will be asked to add one. iPhone 3G users are not eligible for Pick Your Plan.

According to Erica Sadun at TUAW, who's been investigating this issue, all pay-as-you-go users are being strongly encouraged to sign up for a postpaid plan, which includes making a new two-year commitment."

Looks like I'll be waiting a year for the Apple/AT&T agreement to time-out. I'll not do a two year agreement again, ever.
Medicine

Submission + - Autistics Up To 40 Percent Faster At Problem Solvi (scientificblogging.com)

ghostlibrary writes: "A news staffer at ScientificBlogging reports on the journal article "Enhanced Visual Processing Contributes to Matrix Reasoning in Autism", in Human Brain Mapping. Their summary includes this gem, "Some critics argued that autistics would be unable to complete the RSPM because of its complexity, yet our study shows autistics complete it as efficiently and have a more highly developed perception than non-autistics.""
The Internet

Submission + - Could HTML 5 Kill Flash And Silverlight? (infoworld.com) 4

snydeq writes: "While Adobe, Microsoft, and Sun duke it out with proprietary technologies for implementing multimedia on the Web, HTML 5 has the potential to 'eat these vendors' lunches,' offering Web experiences based on an industry standard. In fact, one expressed goal of the standard is to move the Web away from proprietary technologies such as Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX. 'It would be a terrible step backward if humanity's major development platform [the Web] was controlled by a single vendor the way that previous platforms such as Windows have been,' says HTML 5 co-editor Ian Hickson, a Google employee. But whether HTML 5 and its Canvas technology will displace proprietary plug-ins 'really depends on what developers do,' says Firefox technical lead Vlad Vukicevic. It also depends on Microsoft, the only company involved in the HTML 5 effort that is both a browser developer and an RIA tool developer. 'That's a big elephant in the room for them because you can imagine the Silverlight team [whose] whole existence is to add [this] functionality in. [But] if Internet Explorer puts it already in there, why do we have Silverlight?' asks Mozilla's Dion Almaer."

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