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Movies

Submission + - Del Toro quits "The Hobbit" due to continuing dela (stuff.co.nz)

jamesrt writes: Guillermo Del Toro has quit as director of the two The Hobbit movies, but will still help write the screenplays for the Lord of the Rings prequels. 'In light of ongoing delays in the setting of a start date for filming The Hobbit I am faced with the hardest decision of my life. After nearly two years of living, breathing and designing a world as rich as Tolkien's Middle Earth, I must, with great regret, take leave from helming these wonderful pictures.'
Microsoft

Submission + - The bizarre behaviour of Steve Ballmer (smh.com.au)

An anonymous reader writes: The Sydney Morning Herald asks the question: Is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer completely nuts? Or is his bouncing buffoonery just calculated to boost the hype around Microsoft's products?
Handhelds

Submission + - Palm Pre iTunes syncing back with WebOS 1.1 update (cnet.com)

suraj.sun writes: Things just got a little more heated between Palm and Apple. On Thursday, Palm released WebOS 1.1 for the Palm Pre, which, among other things, brings back iTunes syncing even with version 8.2.1, which disabled the feature. The news was posted on Palm's blog where it listed the new features and enhancements of the software update and nonchalantly added at the end:

        "Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. That's right--you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1)."

Bold move, Palm. Bold move. It'll be interesting to see how Apple responds, and do you suppose the use of the phrase "one more thing," a phrase that Apple CEO Steve Jobs often uses to introduce a new product at the end of his keynotes, was intentional or am I just reading too much into this?

Aside from the media syncing features, WebOS 1.1 also delivers more enterprise-friendly features, including more additions to Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support. The Pre now offers remote, PIN/password requirements, inactivity timeout, improved certificate handling, and more.

CNET News : http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10294633-1.html

Windows

Submission + - Mark Russinovich about Vista network slowdown 1

koro666 writes: In his latest blog post, Mark Russinovich analyzes the network slowdown experienced by some users when playing multimedia content. "Tests of MMCSS during Vista development showed that [...] heavy network traffic can cause enough long-running DPCs to prevent playback threads from keeping up with their media streaming requirements, resulting in glitching. MMCSS' glitch-resistant mechanisms were therefore extended to include throttling of network activity. It does so by issuing a command to the NDIS device driver [...] [to] pass along, at most 10 packets per millisecond (10,000 packets per second)."

Feed Early Time Change Costs Kid 12 Days In Jail (techdirt.com)

The early start on daylight savings time passed last month with little impact, both in terms of the predicted aclockalypse as well as the energy savings it was supposed to generate. However, the shift did have some severe consequences for one Pennsylvania 15-year-old: 12 days in the slammer. The kid made a call in to his school's recorded information line in the early hours of March 11, just a few minutes before the hot line supposedly received a bomb threat. School officials, in their haste to find the caller, matched his cell phone number to a list of callers to the hotline that morning, and immediately pointed the finger at him. His phone correctly recorded the call time as 3:12 am, which was apparently close enough for them to the 3:17 am entry in the system's call logs for the bomb threat. However, the officials hadn't set the clock in their call system properly, meaning the bomb threat came in more than an hour after the kid's innocent call, and it took nearly two weeks of the kid sitting in juvenile detention for somebody to figure it out. The real culprit here is somebody's stupidity -- because even if the time change hadn't occurred, the call times still didn't match up by five minutes.
Microsoft

Submission + - Education Dept tangles with MS over Vista license

An anonymous reader writes: A large government department in Australia is putting a gun to Microsoft's head. The New South Wales education department is delaying rollout of Vista Ultimate until Microsoft lets them install the OS on all clients at one go and not individually! With 160,000 PCs you can see why their IT boss is hopping mad! Redmond doesn't seem to want to play ball though which is probably why the IT boss has spilled his guts! If only they went with Linux...

Feed Space Invaders doormat threatens visitors with its retroness (engadget.com)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The familiar Space Invaders aliens have already laid their mark on more than a few public places, but the folks at La Tête Au Cube look to be extending their reach even further, with the design firm busting out this doormat to bring a bit of pixelated intimidation straight to your front step. While it unfortunately won't let your visitors try their hand at a game while they wait for you to answer the door (or collect quarters from them), the animated antics on display on the mat's built-in LED screen should at least be enough to remind some of 'em to wipe their shoes before they enter, and leave other less geeky visitors of yours completely perplexed. It seems that you may have a bit of trouble getting your hands on one at the moment, however, as it's currently sold out despite the hefty $110 price tag.

[Via Uber-Review]

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Music

Submission + - iTunes to Offer EMI Tracks Without DRM

Y-Crate writes: Apple and EMI have apparently inked a deal to offer "significant amounts" of EMI's catalog on iTunes without any copy protection whatsoever — a first for iTunes and something Steve Jobs claimed he would do if a label allowed him to. EMI is also considering making their content available to other online retailers under similar terms.

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