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Microsoft

Submission + - DirectX10 drops Hardware Acceleration for Audio.

Submitted by
shrewd
shrewd writes: ""Imagine your surprise when you fire up one of your favourite games in Vista — say World of Warcraft or Prey — only to find your fancy EAX-endowed soundcard and 5.1 surround speakers are dribbling out flat, unenhanced stereo sound. Then, in a vain attempt to spruce up the audio by enabling EAX, you get a nice taut error message saying EAX is not detected on your hardware. What's going on? Welcome to the world of Vista audio. And a brave new world it is.""
Microsoft

Submission + - 7 reasons to use Windows Vista in a SMB environmen

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A blog asks the question if you should use Windows Vista or not — and answers it with a yes.

The Article shows 7 reasons why you should adopt Windows Vista, while mentioning that Vista isn't a revolution, but just a natural progression of Windows development. The focus is on the SMB market, ignoring home users and enterprise users altogether.
The Media

Submission + - Virgin America Red System Inflight Entertainment

Submitted by fzshei
fzshei writes: Well, the cat's out of the bag. Virgin America's "RED System" has begun to be written about, blogged, and podcasted by enthusiasts excited by the prospect of the startup carrier with a truly unique & innovative product taking flight later this year. Due to a holdup with the Department of Transportation (DOT) certification process related to political / foreign control issues, VA has been waiting for its wings for over a year since it petitioned the DOT for approval. Vurgin's linux-based custom developed RED System has been raved about on sites ranging from Engaget's Mega tour ( http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/10/mega-hands-on-v irgin-americas-airbus-a320-with-red-in-flight-e/ ) to Gizmodo's blog about DOOM running on VA's Linux environment http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/virgin-americas -airplanes-play-doom-233695.php Virgin America's own letvafly.com site has a bunch of details on the product offering, as does a video tour with Virgin's Charles Ogilvie ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609i-OhFhoQ ) that is floating around YouTube. Virgin America's plight to get its wings has sent many interested to its site in the past couple of weeks. Comments from VA's challengers (legacy carriers like Continental, Delta, and others) are due back later this week. This week's February 8th Episode #84 of Diggnation also features details about Virgin America's plight ( http://revision3.com/diggnation/2007-02-08 )
Democrats

Obama Announces for President, Boosts Broadband 846

Posted by kdawson from the ethanol-and-fat-pipes-for-all dept.
Arlen writes "As many as 17,000 people (according to police estimates) watched Senator Barack Obama officially announce his candidacy for President in Springfield, Illinois today. He mentioned several things that will interest readers of Slashdot. The Senator said he wanted to free America from 'the tyranny of oil' and went on to promote alternative energy sources such as ethanol — a popular stance in the Midwest where he announced, because of all the corn farmers. He also talked about using science and technology to help those with chronic diseases, which is likely to have been an allusion to his staunch support for stem cell research. Perhaps most of interest to readers here is the following statement halfway through Obama's speech: 'Let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America. We can do that.' Like nearly everything in his speech, this was met with robust applause from the crowd. You can watch a video of the entire speech at Obama's website."
User Journal

Journal SPAM: 'NYT' Reporter Who Got Iraqi WMDs Wrong Now Highlights Iran 3

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

Saturday's New York Times features an article, posted at the top of its Web site late Friday, that suggests very strongly that Iran is supplying the "deadliest weapon aimed at American troops" in Iraq. The author notes, "Any assertion of an Iranian contribution to attacks on Americans in Iraq is both politically and diplomatically volatile."

What is the source of this volatile information? Nothing less than "civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies."
Security

Submission + - Students charged in online snow-day hoax

Submitted by
We used to pull the fire alarm
We used to pull the fire alarm writes: "Two teenage girls caused a number of parents to keep their kids home from school by posting a fake announcement that school was cancelled due to snow. The best part: some parents fell for it even though it wasn't snowing!

From the article: "The two Edgewood High School students, whose names were not released, were charged in juvenile court on Friday and face expulsion. One of the girls, 16, was charged with delinquency by unauthorized use of a computer and by reason of records tampering. The other, 17, was charged with delinquency by reason of complicity, Sheriff's Sgt. Monte Mayer said."

The punishment seems harsh considering the hosting company "said the system was not hacked into because no security breach was detected" and again, it wasn't snowing. Is this another case like the Boston Cartoon Netork Fiasco where pranksters are being punished for making adults look like idiots? Or do these girls deserve to be in handcuffs for making what seems to be a funny forum post?"
Security

Submission + - Barack Obama's New Site Exploited

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MyBarackObama.com, Barack Obama's social networking site allowing supporters to write blogs and organize events, is vulnerable to a cross site scripting attack. The hole would allow an attacker to gain access to a user's account if they visit a site containing malicious code. A description of the exploit is given along with sample code.
Hardware

Dell Laptop Burns House Down 405

Posted by kdawson from the dude dept.
Nuclear Elephant writes "The Consumerist is running a story about a house burned down by a Dell laptop. 'My 130-year-old former farm house was engulfed in flames, with thick dark smoke pouring out of the windows and roof... Hours later, after investigation the fire marshal investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes — I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.' It was determined that the laptop, battery, or cord malfunctioned after its owner left for work, leaving the fire to spread through the entire house. All attempts to contact Dell have failed. 'I have tried to call Dell to at least notify them of my problems, but each time I have called I get transferred into an endless loop of "Joe" or "Alan" all speaking a delectable version of English I presume emanates from Bangalore. I have been outright hung up on each time I get someone who speaks a reasonable version of English, or sounds like they might be in charge of something. Promises of call backs have gone, of course, unreturned.'"
Television

Submission + - Cartoon Network "Bombs" Sell for $1000

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Shortly after the bomb scare in Boston, the "bombs" themselves are being put up on ebay. While many were confiscated, or put in locations unreachable without a ladder, a select few got into the hands of the public. After the media frenzy over the alleged "bombs," the items began to appear on Ebay for prices upward of $1,000.
A link to the auction can be found here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATHF-Mooninite-Boston-Bomb-Sca re-Aqua-Teen-Hunger-Force_W0QQitemZ300079642847QQi hZ020QQcategoryZ201QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It's funny. Laugh.

Journal Journal: The Onion on Vista

Journal by P(0)(!P(k)+P(k+1))

Highlights from the article:

  • Microsoft Word's helpful paper-clip icon now blinks at rate of normal humans
  • Five new card-back designs for Solitaire
  • Something that Apple would never, ever dream up in a billion years

Feed Hacking My Child's Brain, Part 1 (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
When pondering how to help a son with SPD -- his brain can't handle all the sensory input from his body -- a software engineer looks to neuro-tech experts and recalibration. In Bodyhack.


Education

Submission + - Sound goes faster than light!

Submitted by
Roland Piquepaille
Roland Piquepaille writes: "According to Physics Web in 'Sound breaks the light barrier' (Free reg. required), a professor of physics in Tennessee has designed an experiment which proves that sound can move faster than light. This looks like impossible — and it is. In fact, the physicist has tweaked some scientific definitions. No sound can go faster than light. But a sound pulse, or more precisely, all the wavelengths associated to a sound, have a "group velocity" that far exceeds the real physical limits. Have I lost you? Read more for a summary of various sources trying to explain this superluminal phenomenon in plain English."

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