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Comment Sound Quality (Score 3, Interesting) 361

by johkir (#41400141) Attached to: Neil Young Pushes Pono, Says Piracy Is the New Radio
Most of the people listening to mp3s (that I know, self included) don't listen to the music on a nice system. Earbuds rarely provide definition or range of the actual recorded material. Yes, they may provide frequencies from 50-15,000 Hz, but you're not really feeling the bass line as recorded. Even if listening to a CD/DVD with 5.1, with the earbuds on, it may as well be a mp3.

Comment Exposure Exposure Exposure (Score 1) 1264

by johkir (#39850243) Attached to: Why Desktop Linux Hasn't Taken Off
When I go a big box or electronic store, I see a dozen Windows machines. Maybe a Macbook or iMac here and there. I've never seen a Linux box on display, never mind the distro. I have Fedora at home, but stuck with XP at work. I see iPhone/iPads/Macbooks all over, so those must be popular too. I just don't see many linux distros out there, unless everyone has an environment which mimics Windows! Yes, I can tell people how cool it is, but if they don't see it at stores or at work, I'm just a lone computer geek!
Security

Submission + - Copiale Cipher Cracked after 250 years (lingfil.uu.se)

Submitted by
johkir
johkir writes: "Centuries after it was devised, the 105 page manuscript containing all in all around 75 000 characters, the Copiale Cipher finally has been broken.

The mysterious cryptogram, bound in gold and green brocade paper, reveals the rituals and political leanings of an 18th-century secret society in Germany. The manuscript seems straight out of fiction: a strange, handwritten message in abstract symbols and Roman letters meticulously covering 105 yellowing pages hidden in the depths of an academic archive."
Government

Submission + - Gov't Security Officials Call For Secure OS Develo (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Gunkerty Jeb
Gunkerty Jeb writes: -One of the keys to addressing the widespread security threats facing both private and government networks is to develop more secure operating systems from the ground up and not rely on trying to secure existing ones, top CIA and Pentagon information assurance officials said.

The federal government, especially military and intelligence agencies, is facing a broad spectrum of threats from many different angles, from lower level attackers poking at their Web sites to nation-state actors and politically motivated groups looking to compromise key networks and exfiltrate sensitive data. Defending against this range of threats is becoming more difficult and complex all the time, and the technologies and approaches that are in use right now are not getting the job done to a large degree.

Speaking on a panel on pressing technological needs at the SINET Innovation Showcase here Wednesday, security officials from the CIA and the Department of Defense said that a return to the efforts to build a secure, trusted operating system would be a huge step in the right direction.
Technology

Submission + - Boeing uses accelerometers in 787 Dreamliner (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Boeing has come up with a novel solution to limit the effects of turbulence in the new 787, otherwise known as the Dreamliner. In the nose of the plane are accelerometers that monitor for a sudden drop. When one is encountered, they tell the plane flaps to adjust quickly (nanoseconds) and this drastically reduces the amount the plane drops overall. The example given is a typical plane would drop 9 feet, where as the 787 would only drop 3 feet given the same situation.
Earth

Submission + - Flights in Europe cancelled due to Icelandic erupt (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
johkir
johkir writes: "All flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.

Up to 4,000 flights are being cancelled with airspace closed in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark among others. Thousands of travelers have been stranded at some of the world's busiest airports, including London's Heathrow. It's not clear how long flights will be grounded, but the Associated Press reports that Irish authorities, for example, estimated the ban on travel through their airways would last at least eight hours. Jalopnik.com examines "how volcanic ash can kill an airplane." It says that if a passenger jet flies through air saturated with volcanic ash, "glassy particles ... inhaled by the engines instantly melt. In the course of exhaust, the glassy materials are rapidly cooled down in the turbine chamber, stick on the turbine vanes, and disturb the flow of high-pressure combustion gases. This disorder of the flow may stop the entire engine in serious cases.""
Space

Submission + - Follow the Apollo Moon landing, 40 years later

Submitted by
johkir
johkir writes: "The folks over at Nature are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing by tweeting it. Nature News twitters the Apollo 11 moon mission as it happened — 40 years on. Followers can read about technical milestones, political challenges, and related events in the space race starting today, just over a month before the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. The Tweets, located at http://twitter.com/ApolloPlus40, will follow Apollo 11's crew to the moon and back, and taper off during the weeks following the mission to give followers the context surrounding the moon mission and its fallout for science and the wider world. Can we get excited about space missions again? And in this world of instant information, compared to blips of news every few days to hours, such as we had with newspapers and TV of the day, be able to hold our interest?"
Wireless (Apple)

Submission + - Apple smacked: offers $100 refund to iPhone users (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Apple plans $100 credit for existing iPhone buyers peeved over the company's announcement yesterday it would slash $200 from the price of the high-end iPhone only 10 weeks after its over-ballyhooed introduction. Apple's Chief Executive Steve Jobs in a letter posted on Apple's Web site this afternoon said that the company plans to give a $100 credit to existing iPhone customers. "We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers," Jobs said. "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple." http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/19133"
Software

Submission + - Open Source License Manager

Submitted by
FreeBSD evangelist
FreeBSD evangelist writes: "I work for a company that provides software to the health care industry. We have agreements with third party service agencies wherein we build and support an interface to our products for them to use, for a percentage of the revenue they receive.

We find that some of them report "no use" during our audits. We believe that to be untrue, but need some evidence of such usage, and preferably a way to enforce the license terms.

Do you know of a license management package (preferably open source) that could "phone home" each time the interface were invoked?"
Networking

Submission + - Build a Neighborhood (Or Apartment) Social Wifi?

Submitted by Ecifer
Ecifer writes: After recently moving into a new apartment complex, getting Comcast service, and setting up my wireless network, an oddly socialist idea came to mind... "Wouldn't it be nice of me to just share this WiFi with everyone on this floor?"... well, financially, that'd be a Snafu, but is there a way to set it up so that we're all saving money, AND I'm not breaking any usage agreements?

The way I look at it, I'd need the following:
1) An ISP that would let me share the bandwidth... Even Comcast Business doesn't do this w/o express written permission, and since I'm pretty much stealing their customers, I'm gonna bet they'd say 'No.' That means I'm probably paying more (Than comcast, now there's a comical sentiment)... but the cost would be distributed, you'd just need to find enough people to make the pricing work out.
2) A series of wireless repeaters to cover the entire area. This one isn't so hard... WRT54G + Specialized Firmware can do that... and that's just one option. Again, I'm not looking for a bullet-proof business network, these are just normal people, doing normal internet browsing. That brings us to point 2a) Firewall and Antivirus. Perhaps offer a secure subnet option.
3) For any users who'd want to have wired, they'd either need a modified router (such as that in point 2), or a specialized wired->wireless bridge.
4) A usage agreement for all involved.

So am I crazy, or could this work? How would YOU do it?

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