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Comment Re:meh (Score 1) 168

Anyone remember when CD-ROMs were just going mainstream? Remember all the multimedia encyclopedias that were available? Remember how cool it was to look up an article on something and be able to watch a video or hear a speech or something? Yeah... Notice how those have pretty much stopped being popular?

Yeah, funny thing, the Internet came along and wiped out the market for these.

I really don't think it was simply the Internet that killed those multimedia encyclopedias.

That would imply that what had died was specifically the multimedia encyclopedia on CD-ROM... But I'm not aware of a whole lot of multimedia encyclopedia websites out there. The obvious one is Wikipedia... But most of those articles are just text with a few images - nothing printed page couldn't deliver.

Or you could suggest that the Internet as a whole has become the multimedia encyclopedia... Type your search into Google and you get tons of answers from all over the place - often with videos available if you want them. But most of the useful information is again text with some simple images.

If you recall those old multimedia encyclopedias, they were chock-full of completely gratuitous multimedia. Stuff that did absolutely nothing to facilitate learning. The whole point was simply show off the fact that you could have video and everything embedded in your encyclopedia.

Comment Re:What about examples from other smugglers?? (Score 2, Interesting) 480

Trained dogs and handlers are the best bet.

Dogs can be trained to not only detect certain substances but also detect fear responses. So something concealed in a body might make it through but the dog may still alert to the fear response so the person can be pulled aside for a more thorough search. Of course dogs aren't high tech so they can't be a solution in the US.

Comment Here comes another one, just like the other one (Score 1) 361

Any bets on how long it will take to crack this ill-considered DRM scheme? My guess is certainly less than 6 months from release. Why so long? Because they are likely using more robust encryption and it will take awhile to find the holes in it. In any case, the studios will still have to release content on DVDs for a long time, and that means it is less than 1 hour from release to wide availability on the internet... So, what does this buy the studios, content creators, actors, et al? More $$? NOT! Wider distribution of their work? Right... Can't get wider than universal access, which is what we pretty much have now. Such narrow-minded, short-sighted mavens of moronity should just shoot themselves and put us all out of their misery!

Comment Re:Differance? (Score 1) 445

Make sure and try them out in store before you buy them (or commit). I thought I would prefer a real keyboard too, until I tried out one with a real keyboard vs. one with a touch keyboard. I found the touch keyboard on the Eris MUCH easier to use than the slide-out tactile keyboard on the Motorola Droid.

Comment Re:why i stuck with google (Score 1) 514

People like flashy stylish objects as proved by Apple product line.

The problem with Bing is it's a flash useless object.

If they make it flashy and give excellent search results then people will start using it.

I didn't start using google because it was "cool". I started using it because it actually let you find what you were looking for. If another search engine comes along which give better results than google i'd start using that instead. But Bing so far atleast is not it.

Google created a great search engine. Matching those features is not enough you need to surpass it.

Moon

Private Firm Plots Robotic Lunar Exploration 75

DeviceGuru writes "Astrobotic Technology has unveiled plans for a series of robotic expeditions to the Moon. The lunar rovers will explore high-interest areas of the Moon's surface and beam the data back to the Earth. The plan is to accumulate an extensive library of lunar data and sell it to governments and private corporations (PDF), much as Navteq's data forms the backbone of most terrestrial GPS services. Astrobotic's first goal is to win Google's $30 million Lunar X Prize, with a May, 2010 trip to the Apollo 11 landing site at Mare Tranquillitatis."
Encryption

New State Laws Could Make Encryption Widespread 155

New laws that took effect in Nevada on Oct. 1 and will kick in on Jan. 1 in Massachusetts may effectively mandate encryption for companies' hard drives, portable devices, and data transmissions. The laws will be binding on any organization that maintains personal information about residents of the two states. (Washington and Michigan are considering similar legislation.) Nevada's law deals mostly with transmitted information and Massachusetts's emphasizes stored information. Between them the two laws should put more of a dent into lax security practices than widespread laws requiring customer notification of data breaches have done. (Such laws are on the books in 40 states and by one estimate have reduced identity theft by 2%.) Here are a couple of legal takes on the impact of the new laws.
Space

Spacecraft Buzzes By Mercury 62

Riding with Robots writes "The robotic spacecraft MESSENGER is making its second fly-by of the first planet today, skimming just 200 kilometers above the surface. The fly-by will reveal portions of the planet that have never been seen before, but the main purpose of the maneuver is to prepare for an orbital insertion in 2011. The mission site offers extensive information, along with the first pictures that are already arriving on Earth, with many more expected in the coming hours and days."

Comment Re:Rust prevention / Paper printouts (Score 4, Insightful) 1044

-use something like paper disk [http://www.paperdisk.com/] to print the data on paper made with a plastic. or maybe laminate it ordinary paper.
-Write the decoding algorithm using a very basic language like c and leave a printout of the code along with the encoded data. Even a hundred years into the future, people will be able to find C manuals. Even if no one uses it they will be able to either write a new C compiler or translate it to their language of choice.
-Your biggest problem would probably be about the data itself. once the extract the bitstream how do they decode it to information. Hopefully people will still be able to decode jpegs, mp3s, and text documents. if not you will need to give them algorithms to those as well. (but for 25 years i think this should not be a problem)

Censorship

Submission + - Tibetan Used Geekery to Blog From Beijing (beijingwideopen.org)

Nathan Freitas writes: "My friend was just kicked out of China for blogging about Tibetan independence from Beijing on her blog, Beijing Wide Open. She was followed by a group of security agents the whole time, and eventually picked up once her blog started to get global news coverage.

Why would you care? Well, she is an ubergeek, and was using a whole array of cool tech to get around the Great Firewall:

- Nikon Wifi-enabled Coolpix Connect camera: uploading photos and movies directly from anywhere without a laptop
- Blackberry Pearl: world-enabled with data plan — used as Bluetooth modem for her laptop; Blackberry email is encrypted with AES back to the states
- Macbook: basic white edition — simple and it works, and is confusing to most PC-based Chinese authorities
- Cisco/Linksys Skype Wifi phone — the only secure way to communicate from China to the rest of the world
- Pando: BitTorrent based file sharing tool for sending large videos back to the states, again secure, non-HTTP based

She is also experienced in Tor/Vidallia which came in handy for accessing sites usually not allowed in China.

So, yeah, thats what you got to do to create a big story, to get the word out, and to be mobile in hostile territory.

Check it all out at http://beijingwideopen.org/"

PC Games (Games)

Hacked DX10 for Windows Appears 336

Oddscurity writes "According to The Inquirer someone managed to write a wrapper allowing DirectX 10 applications to run on platforms other than Vista. The Alky Project claims to have reverse-engineered Geometry Shader code, allowing Windows games to run on Windows XP, MacOSX and Linux. The Inquirer is understandably cautious about these claims, urging readers to investigate the releases themselves to ascertain whether or not it's a hoax."

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