Comment When? (Score 1) 189
The Youtube video was posted January 12, 2008 :\
Analyzing (All of) Star Trek With Face Recognition 140
An anonymous reader writes "Accurate face recognition is coming. Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, a face recognition start-up spun out from Carnegie Mellon University, has posted a tech demo showing an analysis of the entire original Star Trek series using face recognition. The online visualization includes various annotated clips of the series with clickable thumbnails of each character's appearance. They also have a separate page showing the full data of all the prominent characters in every episode including extracting thumbnails of each appearance." Their software can recognize frontal or near-frontal face instances.
Comment Re:Buh? (Score 1) 386
I think Sharepoint can do exactly what you are looking for. I haven't seen the "usable interface", though, as the installations I've tried has been quite messy web interfaces, but I'm sure it can be customized to no end.
Comment CNN Live (Score 1) 197
CNN Live (a href="http://edition.cnn.com/live/">http://cnn.com/live/ works fine for me in Ubuntu, but thanks.
Comment Re:Still not safe to use Suse of any sort (Score 2, Insightful) 173
Yeah, we will keep coming back to that. From the article I recognized, of course, Banshee, Beagle and F-Spot, but Tasque and Monsoon were new to me. A quick search confirmed both are written in Mono.
A bit further down:
OpenSUSE ships a modified version of OpenOffice.org that bundles Novell's patchset, which includes some nice improvements that Sun has declined to accept upstream for various technical and licensing reasons.
And another Ars article says:
Many of these patches maintained by Novell provide important features that are valuable to Linux users, including support for embedded multimedia via GStreamer, (...) and support for Mono-based automation and scripting.
Mono does not seem to be just means to an end, but an end in itself.
openSUSE Launches 11.1 173
Novell has unveiled their latest release to the openSUSE line with 11.1. Offering both updates and new features, Novell continues to push for more openness and transparency. The new release includes Linux kernel 2.6.27, Python 2.6, Mono 2.0, OpenOffice 3.0, and many others. "[...] Our choice was also influenced by impressive changes that are transpiring in the openSUSE community, which is growing rapidly and is also becoming more open, inclusive, and transparent. Last month, the project announced its first community-elected board, a major milestone in its advancement towards community empowerment. This is a very good openSUSE release and it delivers some very impressive enhancements. The distro has evolved tremendously in the past two releases and is becoming a very solid and usable option for regular users."
Comment Re:Makes for an awkward situation (Score 1) 272
Doesn't your argument assume that all the stores can afford dumping the prices for an equal length of time? This method sounds like a way to get rid of the smallest shops.
Microsoft and OLPC Agree To Put XP On the XO Laptop 530
Apro+im points out a NYTimes report which states that Microsoft and the OLPC project have officially agreed to put Windows XP on the XO laptop. While Microsoft has been working toward this for some time, analysts began to think a deal was more likely after Walter Bender resigned from the project and was replaced by Charles Kane. Former OLPC security developer Ivan Krstic had a lot to say about Windows on the XO as well. From the Times:
"Windows will add a bit to the price of the machines, about $3, the licensing fee Microsoft charges to some developing nations under a program called Unlimited Potential. For those nations that want dual-boot models, running both Windows and Linux, the extra hardware required will add another $7 or so to the cost of the machines, Mr. Negroponte said. The project's agreement with Microsoft involves no payment by the software giant, and Microsoft will not join One Laptop Per Child's board. 'We've stayed very pure,' Mr. Negroponte said.
Feds Block EFF Look at Google/DoJ Contacts 79
netbuzz writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to know all there is to know about contacts between Google and a Justice Department official involved in a highly charged 2006 government-snooping dispute that ensnared the search giant. That DoJ official, Jane Horvath, was subsequently hired by Google last year as senior privacy counsel. The DoJ has refused for six months to release public information about the matter being requested by EFF."
OLPC, Microsoft Working Toward Dual-Boot XO Laptops 231
Ian Lamont writes "The OLPC Project and Microsoft are developing a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on the laptops, according to an interview with Nicholas Negroponte. The article is thin on details, as the OLPC/Microsoft talks are apparently at an early stage. Could this be the end of the OS wars in Nigeria and other developing countries?"
While Microsoft has been working on an OLPC-capable version of Windows for some time now, the interesting thing here is the dual-booting provision, rather than forcing users into an either-or choice.
Old Software or Open Source? 454
Pakled writes "I teach a high school multimedia course. We were scheduled to get new software this year but due to several pointy haired bosses, no software was ordered. The software I have to teach is Flash 5, Dreamweaver 2000, Photoshop 7 and (god help me) Movie Maker. The question is: is it better to teach old commercial software or their open source counterparts (Komposer, Gimp, etc.)?
Is the steep learning curve and slightly less uniform design worth a little student frustration to teach them software written in the past 5 years?"
Submission + - First Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Li 2
walterbyrd writes: "According to the blog post on groklaw: IP Innovation LLC has just filed a patent infringement claim against Red Hat and Novell. It was filed October 9, case no. 2:2007cv00447, IP Innovation, LLC et al v. Red Hat Inc. et al, in Texas. Where else? The patent troll magnet state — Texas."
UK Copyright Extension in Exchange for Censorship? 238
Awel writes "The UK opposition leader, David Cameron, says in a speech to the British Phonographic Industry that his party would work to extend the copyright term to 70 years and crack down on piracy. But in return, labels would have to agree to bear more 'social responsibility', which appears to translate into avoiding lyrics that glorify 'an anti-learning culture, truancy, knifes, violence, guns, misogyny'. He doesn't spell out how this would be achieved in practice.
This follows the publication in December of a UK government report recommending that the standard copyright term in Europe remain at 50 years (and not be raised to 70 or 95 years)."
Submission + - Brutal Violence Against Russian Homosexuals
reporter writes: "Another brutal suppression of a public demonstration in Russia has occurred. This time, however, the Russian public actually helped the Russian police to beat up the protestors. According to a BBC report, "A gay rights demonstration in Moscow degenerated into violence for the second year running as right-wing and orthodox extremists attacked gay rights activists and supporters of the unauthorised demonstration. GayRussia leader Nikolai Alexeyev was bundled into a police van and driven away moments after arriving outside the offices of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who has called homosexuals 'satanic'." Some Western European politicians joined the demonstration in support of the activists. However, Russian bigots attacked them violently, and the Russian police smiled approvingly. "'Where are the police? Why aren't you protecting us?' Mr Cappato [an Italian legislator] shouted as nationalists gathered nearby, prompting officers to take the MEP away and drive him to a police station." A French reporter even snapped a photo of a Russian bigot just before before he punched a British gay rights activist in the face. What, the hell, is happening to Russian society?"
Submission + - Greg Palast's investigation into "Caging Voter
vxd writes: "Greg Palast's bold claim behind the cover-up of firing of the US Attorney Generals and the mass censorship that ensued in the US media.
http://gregpalast.com/the-goods-on-goodling-and-th e-keys-to-the-kingdom/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts211.html "
