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Software

Exhaustive Data Compressor Comparison 305

Posted by kdawson from the pick-one-smaller-or-faster dept.
crazyeyes writes "This is easily the best article I've seen comparing data compression software. The author tests 11 compressors: 7-zip, ARJ32, bzip2, gzip, SBC Archiver, Squeez, StuffIt, WinAce, WinRAR, WinRK, and WinZip. All are tested using 8 filesets: audio (WAV and MP3), documents, e-books, movies (DivX and MPEG), and pictures (PSD and JPEG). He tests them at different settings and includes the aggregated results. Spoilers: WinRK gives the best compression but operates slowest; AJR32 is fastest but compresses least."
Google

Google Pushes Open Source OCR 212

Posted by Zonk from the google-has-taken-all-knowledge-to-be-its-provice dept.
SocialWorm writes "Google has just announced work on OCRopus, which it says it hopes will 'advance the state of the art in optical character recognition and related technologies.' OCRopus will be available under the Apache 2.0 License. Obviously, there may be search and image search implications from OCRopus. 'The goal of the project is to advance the state of the art in optical character recognition and related technologies, and to deliver a high quality OCR system suitable for document conversions, electronic libraries, vision impaired users, historical document analysis, and general desktop use. In addition, we are structuring the system in such a way that it will be easy to reuse by other researchers in the field.'"
The Internet

Utah Bans Keyword Advertising 271

Posted by CowboyNeal from the end-of-the-line dept.
Eric Goldman writes "Last month, Utah passed a law banning keyword advertising. Rep. Dan Eastman, the Utah legislator who sponsored the law, believes competitive keyword advertising is the equivalent of corporate identity theft, causing searchers to be (in his words) 'carjacked' and 'shanghaied' by advertisers. He also takes a swipe at the EFF, dismissing its critique of the law as 'criticism from the fringes.'"
AMD/OSTG

Journal Journal: AMD Offers Graphics Chips for Older Macs

Journal by OSTG Marketing
If you have an older Mac and have been looking for an AMD (ATI) chip, it's your lucky day. "AMD will begin offering the ATI Radeon X1900 graphics chips for the Mac G5 Quad and the Power Mac G5 Dual, which are still powered by PowerPC processors. The new graphics chips, according to AMD, will help Mac users who use the desktops for graphic design, video editing, photo editing, as well as offer better gaming performance."
The Internet

Submission + - MySpace founder takes on Rupert

Submitted by AcidAUS
AcidAUS writes: MySpace founder launches legal action against the site's owner, News Corp, alleging "anti-competitive behaviour". Greenspan is certainly no stranger to litigation. Among the cases he has filed is a federal lawsuit, also against News Corp, in which he alleges that the sale of Intermix to News Corp was fraudulent. He says this case is continuing.
Links

Submission + - A Must-See: The Best Video of a Sandstorm To Date

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Due to the videographer's position, great video camera skills, and cool head, it's currently the best video of a sandstorm — a huge monster of a sandstorm that was videotaped for 7 minutes and 47 seconds as it approached and overtook Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. Ah, but there's more sandstorm terror. Here's a great sandstorm photo gallery, high-resolution and very large image links are included, the photos of which are spectacular! Hat tip: Digg.com ("Run, Baby, Run! The Sandstorm Cometh!")
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Diebold replaces defective voting machine part

Submitted by saintlupus
saintlupus writes: According to this article, everyone's favorite defenders of liberty at Diebold replaced defective components in over four thousand voting machines after telling voting officials there were "no problems". From the article:
Even so, the two leading candidates for governor — Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) — have called on voters to use absentee ballots in the election, citing uncertainties about the reliability of Maryland's system.
PHP

Submission + - Andi Gutmans on working with Microsoft

Submitted by
aquai
aquai writes: "Today at Zendcon Bill Hilf and Andi Gutmans announced a new technical collaboration aimed at improving the performance of PHP on Windows. In this interview Sam and Andi discuss how Zend came to be as well as the details of the announcement. Andi provides his perspective on what this collaboration will mean to the PHP community and has a question of his own for Sam. http://port25.technet.com/archive/2006/10/31/Talki ng-with-Andi-Gutmans-about-Zend-and-working-with-M icrosoft-to-improve-PHP-Performance-on-Windows.asp x"
NASA

Submission + - New details on NASA's Antimatter Engine Concept

Submitted by Erica Campbell
Erica Campbell writes: After announcing the development of the first positron based engine concept developed for NASA earlier this year, new details are emerging on this revolutionary antimatter engine which will require only a few milligrams of positrons to send a spaceship to Mars and back. Although scientists see this work as an important step, much still needs to be done before we can safely rely on antimatter to take us for a spin around the solar system.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Pffffft

Journal by Airconditioning
Behold, the topic. Have you ever typed that one out to someone and have them ask you what in blazes you're on about? Two people I know who do it in Real Life, didn't recognise "Pfffft".

Short Film About CERN's Large Hadron Collider 179

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the crash-test-donut dept.
Lobster911 writes "Seedmagazine.com has posted a new film, Lords of the Ring, about CERN's Large Hadron Collider. NESTA fellow Alom Shaha takes us through the world's largest machine, as he lets the scientists who work at CERN explain the LHC and what they hope to accomplish with it. The highly-anticipated collider is set to start up in 2007, running at full speed by 2008."

Self-Serve Car Rental 143

Posted by Zonk from the web-2.0-in-realspace dept.
abb_road writes "Claiming 'Web2.0 values meet Brick and Mortar,' BusinessWeek is reporting on an entirely self service car rental company. Zipcar customers make all reservations online or using a cell phone, then use a card-key to pick up their car from the parking garage--no attendants needed. According to the article, one of the other important attractions of the system is transparency; the reservations system allows you to see exactly what cars in the area will be available at what times, and then reserve or adjust your plans accordingly. From the article: 'If the nearest Mini convertible is booked until 3 p.m., the customer might postpone plans by an hour to get it -- or decide the Mazda with a sunroof on another lot will do.'"

The IRS Hits Symantec with a $1 Billion Tax Bill 337

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-don't-feel-quite-so-bad-now dept.
GnoWay writes "Macworld is reporting that the IRS has charged Symantec Corporation with about a 900 million dollar tax bill due to the charge that Symantec and Veritas (purchased by Symantec last year) under-reported the value of intellectual property which they had transferred to their two Irish subsidiaries. Another $100 million is connected to Symantec's 2003 and 2004 reports."

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