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Comment DVB-S2/RCS or BGAN (Score 5, Informative) 541

by Bluefirebird (#28441333) Attached to: Could We Beam Broadband Internet Into Iran?
There are two possible technologies (among other similar ones)

With DVB-S2/RCS you have a bidirectional satellite system that requires a 1.2 meter dish antenna and a satellite terminal composed of an indoor unit (about the size of a bulky cable-modem) and an outdoor unit (transmitter and receiver horn mounted on the focus point of the satellite dish. This costs around US$1000 dollars and it takes about 30min to install (if you are an experienced installer).

With BGAN you have a very portable terminal (about the size of a netbook) that only requires you to point it in the general vicinity of the satellite location in the horizon.

Both systems use GEO (geostationary) satellites, which means that they have a fixed location in the horizon. They are actually located over the equator (0Â latitude) and they orbit the earth in 24h cycles, thus appearing to be stationary.
With DVB-S2/RCS you can have a 50Mbit/s in the downlink, although most services provide less than 10Mbit/s. The usually upload speed is 1Mbit/s. This speeds are shared between all terminals within a beam (similar to Internet over cable, where you share your Internet within a residential area of about 1000 persons).
With BGAN you only have 492Kbit/s in both the downlink and uplink. On the other hand, it is designed for mobility.
Television

Comedy Central Confirms 26 New Futurama Episodes 259

Posted by Soulskill from the good-news-everyone dept.
e9th was one of several readers to write with an update to the Futurama rumors we discussed earlier this week: "TVWeek reports that 20th Century Fox Television and Comedy Central have officially confirmed a deal for 26 new episodes of Futurama, due to the strong ratings of its reruns and feature-length specials. Matt Groening is quoted as saying, 'We're thrilled Futurama is coming back. We now have only 25,766 episodes to make before we catch up with Bender and Fry in the year 3000.' According to the press release, the episodes will begin to come out in mid-2010."
Government

The Woman Who Established Fair Use 226

Posted by kdawson from the one-of-a-kind dept.
The Narrative Fallacy writes "The Washington Post has an interesting profile on Barbara A. Ringer, who joined the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress in 1949 and spent 21 years drafting the legislation and lobbying Congress before the Copyright Act of 1976 was finally passed. Ringer wrote most of the bill herself. 'Barbara had personal and political skills that could meld together the contentious factions that threatened to tear apart every compromise in the 20 year road to passage of the 1976 Act,' wrote copyright lawyer William Patry. The act codified the fair use defense to copyright infringement. For the first time, scholars and reviewers could quote briefly from copyrighted works without having to pay fees. With the 1976 act that Ringer conceived, an author owned the copyright for his or her lifetime plus 50 years. Previously under the old 1909 law, an author owned the copyright for 28 years from the date of publication and unless the copyright was renewed, the work entered the public domain, and the author lost any right to royalties. Ringer received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, the highest honor for a federal worker. Ringer remained active in copyright law for years, attending international conferences and filing briefs with the Supreme Court before her death earlier this year at age 83. 'Her contributions were monumental,' said Marybeth Peters, the Library of Congress's current register of copyrights. 'She blazed trails. She was a heroine.'"

Comment IP isn't property, it's a monopoly. Piracy needed (Score 1) 504

by Bluefirebird (#26187201) Attached to: An In-Depth Look At Game Piracy
"It is common to argue that intellectual property in the form of copyright and patent is necessary for the innovation and creation of ideas and inventions such as machines, drugs, computer software, books, music, literature and movies. In fact intellectual property is not like ordinary property at all, but constitutes a government grant of a costly and dangerous private monopoly over ideas. We show through theory and example that intellectual monopoly is not necessary for innovation and as a practical matter is damaging to growth, prosperity and liberty."

http://levine.sscnet.ucla.edu/general/intellectual/againstnew.htm
Businesses

Submission + - The Future of AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HardOCP predicts Intel heavy into workstation video cards, AMD heavy into integrated mobile CPU/GPU combos, and the demise of NVIDIA as an industry leader. "One of the underlying business models that have propelled NVIDIA to its immense success has been "bigger, stronger, faster." With that have come bigger wafers and much more power. While the 8800 series GPU is an engineering marvel, I do not know if it is a testament to NVIDIA's future. At this time I do not think that NVIDIA has the needed elegance in engineering to compete with the AMD and Intel of the future unless they make sweeping changes."

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