orgelspieler - Slashdot User

Submission + - IRENE Makes Old Sound Recordings Audible Again

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Wednesday July 18, 2007 @01:55PM

orgelspieler writes: "NPR is running a story on a safe way to reproduce sound from ancient phonographs that would otherwise be unplayable. The system, called IRENE, was installed in the Library of Congress last year. It can be used to replay records that are scratched, worn, broken, or just too fragile to play with a needle. It scans the groves optically and processes them into a sound file at speeds approaching real time. IRENE is great at removing pops and skips, but can add some hiss. Researchers are also working on a 3D model that is better at removing hiss."

Submission + - Pornographic Film Uses a 14-year-old's Picture

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Sunday May 27, 2007 @06:59PM

orgelspieler writes: "According to The Consumerist, a budding UK photographer, Lara Jade Coton, took a self-portrait (SFW) at the tender age of fourteen. To her dismay, the photograph ended up on the cover of a porno flick. It seems that several of the sites selling the video have removed her photo, but there are still a few out there selling the infringing cover."

Submission + - Vinyl sales up 10%

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Monday April 16, 2007 @10:47AM

orgelspieler writes: "NPR's Morning Edition ran a story this morning about how USB turntables are giving vinyl records a new lease on life. According to the summary, "audiophiles are drawn to records because there aren't any anti-piracy restrictions." The story goes on to talk about USB turntables being used to transfer older music collections into the digital era, leading to an increase in used vinyl sales. Most interestingly, sales of new vinyl albums are up about 10%. While the volume is still low (about 1 million units), it seems to punch a hole in the recording industry's theory that digitization leads to reduced sales due to piracy."

Submission + - Texas Dems Sue to Fix eSlate

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @12:39PM

orgelspieler writes: "As mentioned in several articles, the Texas Democratic Party filed a suit alleging flaws in the eSlate electronic voting machine. The Democrats claim that the chief election official was aware of the problems, but chose to ignore them. From the press release:

On the eSlate machines, when a voter chooses a straight-ticket vote and then continues to select candidates of the same political party to "emphasize" their vote, the machine actually records the vote for that race as a no vote. ... Additionally, the Secretary of State's office is required to test all voting machines used in Texas elections and knew of the irregularities related to the eSlate machines, which are manufactured by Hart Intercivic. Yet Secretary Williams allowed the machines to be used anyway.

Another straight-ticket problem was mentioned by the Travis County Clerk back in 2004. There have been other glitches as well."

Submission + - Danish Study Disproves Cell Phone Cancer Risk

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Wednesday December 06, 2006 @02:20PM

orgelspieler writes: "The Register is reporting on a recent study of 420,095 Danish cell phone users and 14,249 cancer cases. It concludes that cell phones do not increase the risk of brain tumors, or any other cancer. This is opposed to a Swedish study of smaller scope, discussed earlier.

From the study:

Conclusions: We found no evidence for an association between tumor risk and cellular telephone use among either short-term or long-term users. Moreover, the narrow confidence intervals provide evidence that any large association of risk of cancer and cellular telephone use can be excluded.
"

Submission + - Justice Department to Review Domestic Spying

Submitted by

orgelspieler

on Tuesday November 28, 2006 @07:31PM

orgelspieler writes: "According to the NYT, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine has opened a review of his department's role in the domestic spying program. Democrats (and some Republicans) have been requesting an all out investigation into the legality of the so-called "Terrorist Surveillance Program" since it was made public. But this new inquiry stops short of evaluating the constitutional legitimacy of the program. From the article:
The review, Mr. Fine said in his letter, will examine the controls in place at the Justice Department for the eavesdropping, the way information developed from it was used, and the department's "compliance with legal requirements governing the program."
Needless to say, Democrats have their doubts about the timing of this announcement."

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