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United States

Submission + - Iranian Opterons violate irrelevant U.S. sanctions (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Computerworld reports that the Iranian High Performance Computing Research Center claims to have built an Opteron-based supercomputer for meteorological research, apparently using chips that originally came from an AMD distributor in the UAE. If the claim is true, the Opterons were imported or smuggled into Iran in violation of American trade sanctions, which are not only difficult to enforce, but also look increasingly irrelevant now that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program four years ago."
The Internet

Submission + - Pssst...Wanna buy a data center? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "So what do you do with 250 servers and thousands of terabytes of data storage when nobody else wants it? Auction it online what else? High-tech online asset liquidator Rasmus Auctioneers is prepping $15 million worth brand new — still in the box data center gear that was dumped in its lap from a Department of the Interior lease cancellation. The entire lot, which includes Egenera blade servers, EMC Centera Servers and ADIC Digital Tape Libraries is online today to be sold to the highest bidder regardless of price. The inventory will be sold by internet-only auction at 2 pm eastern time on Wednesday, September 12, 2007. "The liquidation will be like an e-bay sale on steroids," Rasmus said on a statement. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18901"
The Internet

Submission + - Middlebury Prof explains his Wikipedia policy

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Neil L. Waters, the Middlebury College professor that 'banned' the use of Wikipedia in his classroom, explains his reasoning in an editorial in the September 2007 issue of the Communications of the ACM. In short, Wikipedia is a tertiary source, like all encyclopaedias, and tertiary sources are discouraged in general in academia. Also, "all too often, democratization of access to information is equated with the democratization of the information itself, in the sense that it is subject to a vote." He believes in "a real, external world in which facts exist independently of popular opinion." But he doesn't discourage the use of Wikipedia completely. "I tell my students that Wikipedia is a fine place to search for a paper topic or begin the research process..."
Sony

Submission + - Sony music store abandons ATRAC for Windows Media

Submitted by organized
organized writes: Sony's Connect music service is switching from ATRAC to Windows Media. This is from their email

August 30, 2007

Subject: Future of CONNECT Music Service

To Our Valued Sony CONNECT Music Customers:

Today Sony announced its intent to move to a Windows Media Technology platform for Walkman® products in the United States, Canada and Europe. We strongly believe that the decision to embrace a more open platform for these devices will enable us to provide you with a better overall experience. As a result of this change, we will be phasing out the CONNECT(TM) Music Service based on Sony's ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe. Specific timing will vary by region depending on market demand, but will not be before March 2008.

We are fully committed to helping you through this important transition away from the CONNECT Music Service and providing you with the best possible guidance on how to successfully transfer your music library to an MP3 or Windows Media-compatible format, should you wish to do so. We recommend that you use any outstanding promotional codes, account credits or gift certificates available in your music account prior to March 2008, but even after the store closes you will continue to be able to play, manage, and transfer the music in your SonicStage library and on your existing ATRAC devices. If you obtain a new device, all of Sony's new Walkman music and video players will support MP3 or Windows Media Audio format.

In the coming months we will keep you informed of the status of the CONNECT Music Service phase out in your region. Periodic updates will be posted on the CONNECT music store and on the Sony Electronics customer service site, http://esupport.sony.com/EN/news/article215.

Please note that the CONNECT e-book service for the Reader in the U.S. will not be affected.

Thank you for your business and for your continued support as we work to complete this transition with as little disruption to you as possible.

Sincerely,

Sony CONNECT Music Team
Portables

Submission + - Hynix Developes the Fastest and Smallest DRAM Chip

Submitted by morpheus83
morpheus83 writes: Hynix Semiconductor, a leading semiconductor manufacturer from South Korea, whose main activity is the production of DRAM and NAND Flash, has developed the world's fastest and smallest one-gigabyte chip for mobile phones with mass production scheduled for early next year. The new chip is capable of processing 1.6 gigabytes of data per second, the world's second-largest computer memory chip maker said.
Power

Submission + - Power source made out of paper and nanotubes (newscientisttech.com)

Submitted by
willatnewscientist
willatnewscientist writes: "Victor Pushparaj and colleagues at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have create a novel power source from a form of paper containing carbon nanotubes. The power source consists of a battery and a supercapacitor combined and could perhaps represent an important step towards developing fully-flexible electronic devices. The research appears in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Businesses

Submission + - USAF Switch to Synthetic Fuel: Maybe Chick Fat. (flightglobal.com) 1

Submitted by
DynaSoar
DynaSoar writes: "According to Flight Global: "The US Air Force intends to certificate its entire aircraft fleet to run on synthetic jet-fuel blend by 2011, and began on 8 August when the Boeing B-52H became the first to be approved. The eight-engined bomber finished testing earlier this year with fuel produced from natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) process. "Each time the price of fuel goes up $10 a barrel, it costs the USAF $600 million", says air force secretary Michael Wynne. "It causes angst to know that we're faced with a commodity that some might use against us," he says, pointing to the potential of F-T to convert domestic coal and natural gas to jet fuel." The snag in a complete switch-over could be building a plant with the capacity needed for the USAF's needs. It would cost US$1 billion. However, Syntroleum and Tyson Foods have teamed up and claim they could build the plant for only US$100 million, using a simpler, cheaper and cleaner process than the F-T, starting with a major product of Tyson's: chicken fat. If this comes about, there may even be a chicken-burning car in your future."
Businesses

Submission + - VMWare IPO Today (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by
langelgjm
langelgjm writes: "Public trading of VMWare begins today under the symbol VMW. "VMware says it plans to use the proceeds to offer stock options to employees, retire debt and make other investments in the company." Analysts also believe that there are few other players in this arena: "There's no competitor of any scale you can point to," said Brenon Daly at 451 Group, a market researcher in San Francisco. "It's basically had the market to itself, and it's reflected in the revenues.""
Movies

The Postal Movie is Really Bad 87

Posted by Zonk from the those-poor-men dept.
Chris Kohler and Chris Baker of Wired had the deeply unfortunate task of watching Uwe Boll's latest affront to cinema and gaming: Postal. Kohler has a rundown on the exceedingly strange movie and its premiere. "Boll seems out to shock his audience into stunned disbelief rather than actually entertain them. Early in the movie, we get a long, leisurely shot of a fully nude Foley scratching his reproductive organs. I don't want to sound like I personally was offended or shocked by anything. In fact, the only time I laughed was during the movie's opening sequence, a comedy skit in the cockpit of one of the September 11 airplanes (they're fighting over the number of virgins they get in Paradise). It was legitimately well-paced and funny. But it was followed by 90 minutes of flat jokes." Baker has a much more in-depth look at Boll and the film's background ... if that's something you really want to hear about.
Music

Does Going Digital Mean Missing Music? 751

Posted by kdawson from the listen-real-close dept.
arlanTLDR writes "The Seattle PI is running a story about how the MP3 format is the sign of a musical apocalypse. Apparently, many top music producers are 'howling' over the fact that files in a compressed format contain 'less than 10 percent of the original music on the CDs.' Is this just sensationalist FUD, or is there something to the assertion that listening to an MP3 is like hearing music 'through a screen door?'" The article mentions that the iPod and its cheap earbuds bear some of the responsibility for rendering this degradation in sound quality less objectionable.
Patents

Submission + - Microsoft patents TV-aware instant messaging (newscientist.com)

Submitted by
willatnewscientist
willatnewscientist writes: "Microsoft has filed a patent application for a version of instant messager that automatically keeps an eye on the video content a user is watching. A person's "buddies" can then tell what's on their screen and chat to them about it. It looks like an interesting effort to tap into the social nature of TV recommendations. The original patent is here."
Upgrades

Submission + - A Beginners guide to Watercooling. (burnoutpc.com)

Submitted by
Marien Klootwijk
Marien Klootwijk writes: "In order to do a major project whether it is renovating a house, doing some custom bodywork on your car or modifying your computer, you need to have an idea what it is your want the finished product to look or work like. This is not a trivial step. You need to look at your project from multiple angles and take into account a lot of factors. Designing a custom cooling system for your computer is just one of these tasks that require careful consideration before you pick up a screwdriver or acquire parts."
Privacy

Submission + - National ID cards - UK Beta Test?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: National ID cards have been discussed here on Slashdot before. Now people have to register with personal information and a photograph(reg now closed) just to attend the Glastonbury Festival in the UK. It's like applying for a passport. 100,000 people registered online on the first day. Is this an ID card beta test? From an opinion piece by Tom Reed at MSN:

"The reason is trust, or a lack of trust, in this case. The Glastonbury situation shows that people don't mind handing over information and photographs if they know the reason for it and they know what that information is going to be used for. Where the Government and national ID cards are concerned, people are worried what information will be held and how such information might be used". Also FTA "The Glastonbury Festival epitomises liberalism. People go there and exist for the festival's duration with a freedom that knows almost no limits. So the fact that thousands of them are willing to comply with a photo ID scheme which goes against what the festival stands for, suggests that the tide is turning".

Is this the thin edge of the wedge? What makes this all the more sinister is that there is no privacy policy to be found anywhere on the registration pages. A search of the web and on the official forums shows little to no objection. The festival organisers make no promise at all that they will keep your personal details and photo private (AFAICT). Ironically, national ID cards and the associated privacy issues are discussed on their forums.

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