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Wireless Networking

Submission + - Unlimited gall to cost Verizon $1 million (networkworld.com)

Submitted by netbuzz
netbuzz writes: Unlimited really means unlimited, even in advertising. So says the New York State Attorney General's Office in squeezing a $1 million settlement out of Verizon Wireless for disconnecting 13,000 of its customers who had the temerity to believe that the unlimited service they were promised came with unlimited service. Verizon's statement explaining the settlement is a gem, too.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/20981
Television

Submission + - Family Guy Sued For Copyright Infringement 4

Submitted by Joe the Lesser
Joe the Lesser writes: Music publishing house Bourne Co. is suing Fox over the use of the song 'When you wish upon a star' which was parodied in the Family Guy episode entitled 'When You Wish Upon A Weinstein'. The episode contains a musical number entitled 'I Need a Jew' which the lawsuit called a thinly veiled copy of the music from "When You Wish Upon a Star," accompanied by new anti-Semitic lyrics. In the 67 years since its debut, the song has been recorded by more than 100 artists and orchestras, however, Bourne claims that "With its theme of wholesome hopefulness, the song has gained worldwide status as a classic. By associating Bourne's song with such offensive lyrics and other content in the episode, defendants are harming the value of the song."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple May Track IPod Thieves & You (msn.com)

Submitted by
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway
Ryan N. Kamfolt - ClickAway writes: "Apple may begin implementing software in its I-Tunes suite to track serial numbers of I-Pods and compare them to a stolen I-Pod database. Due to the worlds most successful and popular product being on the #1 most stolen items list. This may alert the local police to come knocking on your door, if "Your" I-Pod is in question. Weather it be stolen or legit, people are not taking this to heart kindly at all. With the right to privacy walls closing in on us ever so fast, this seems to be another push to take our privacy rights away even more, or is it? Those who have had their I-Pods stolen love the idea. Others are not so happy about the idea. Some privacy right advocates have suggested implementing I-Pods or I-Phones with owner ID verification, such as a password or other forms of verification that must be entered into the devices before they will take a charge or allow you to place songs on the device. Or offer a service that is apart of Apple iCare, which allows users who feel they may become a victim of theft, to join this database, to further protect them in the even their I-Pod is stolen."
Movies

Submission + - RIAA: Cost of CDs should be higher

Submitted by
EatingSteak
EatingSteak writes: "The folks over at Techdirt just put up a great story today, with the RIAA claiming the cost of a CD has gone down significantly relative to CPI (Consumer Price Index). The link FTA to the RIAA page of "Key Facts" claims that based on the 1983 price of CDs, the 1996 price should have been $33.86.
So naturally, the cost of a CD has actually gone down, so you should feel like you're getting a bargain. Sounds an awful lot like the cable companies saying cable prices are really going down even though they're going up.

Furthermore, the RIAA "Facts" page goes on to say: "though some factions of the industry see price resistance — CD prices are relatively low and home videos rentals are still a bargain — consumers don't seem to balk at the rising price of fun in this strong, family-friendly economy."
Wait a minute. Consumers not balking at rising prices of other types of fun (assuming fun == media consumption)? I disagree. Movie theater attendence has has been slipping for a long time, and who says consumers are not balking at high prices of movie rentals? At Blockbuster, a movie rental is $3.95! After taxes, I don't even get a $1 bill back out of my $5. Needless to say, I haven't been spending much time or money there. Finally, I contend that movie rental prices have been decreasing. Now, instead of paying $4 every time I watch a movie, I can just watch all the movies I want for the price of two or three single rentals. And no crap about phantom late fees either. The RIAA should be happy they're still getting as much for CDs as they are, because they're certainly not going to be getting $33.86 anytime soon."
Windows

Submission + - Vista eats 684 megabytes of RAM for no reason?

Submitted by
JAB Creations
JAB Creations writes: "We all know Vista is memory hungry but can anyone here please explain to me why Vista with all of it's services, startup applications, and virtual memory disabled still uses 684 megabytes of memory when it's critical processes only add up to 20-30 megabytes tops? This was using Vista Ultimate 64-Bit edition. Bad programming? Intentional waste to force "upgrades"? Both? Get ready to reinstall XP if you bought the upgrade version and infected your computer. Adding death to injury DirectX 10 has yet to materialize in to a game (or an affordable video card for the masses) and 3D audio is missing for the vast majority of us right now (in Vista) anyway. Time to test more Linux distros!"
Music

Submission + - Ogg Vorbis gaining industry support

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: While Ogg Vorbis format has not seen much popularity in music sales and portable players, it is not an unsupported format in the industry. Toy manufacturers (e.g. speaking dolls), voice warning systems and reactive audio devices exploit Ogg Vorbis for its good quality at small bitrates. As a sign of this, VLSI Solution Oy has just announced VS1000, the first 16 bits DSP device for playing Ogg Vorbis on low power and high volume products. Earlier Ogg Vorbis chips use 32 bits for decoding which consumes more energy than a 16 bit device does. This enables high volume manufacturing of small Ogg Vorbis devices. A list of Ogg Vorbis chips can be found from the Xiph wiki page.
User Journal

Journal SPAM: The EFF Cracks Secret FBI Printer Tracking Codes 2

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

Almost all printers secretly print dots without your consent, which are invisible to the naked eye. Apparently Xerox (Docucolor series), and possibly others, have included this technology. This is being used by the FBI to keep an eye on groups such as Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. As an effort of their Machine Identification Code Technology project, the EFF has cracked the code, and provided a
The Internet

Journal Journal: Comcast gets tough on HighSpeed Internet Customers.

Journal by u-235-sentinel

I've been a Comcast customer nearly 4 years and have had a pleasant experience with them until recently. We received a phone call in December from someone claiming they were a Comcast rep to warn us of excessive bandwidth usage. After multiple calls to Comcast Customer Service that same day, we were told to ignore the call since their records said our account showed no issues.

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