Submission + - Today is LEGO day. So let's celebrate with a lot o (pcnews.ro)
Anonymous Coward writes: "Today is LEGO day. So let's celebrate with a lot of interesting photo with LEGO for geeks..."
Submission + - High-quality HD content can't be played by Vista (hdtvinfo.eu) 2
DaMan1970 writes: "Content protection features in Windows Vista from Microsoft are preventing customers from playing high-quality HD audio/video & harming system performance.
Vista requires premium content like HD movies to be degraded in quality when it is sent to high-quality outputs, like DVI. Users will see status codes that say "graphics OPM resolution too high"
http://www.hdtvinfo.eu/news/hd-video-formats/high- quality-hd-content-cant-be-played-by-windows-vista .html
There are ways to bypass the Windows Vista protection by encoding the movies using alternative codecs like X264, or DiVX, which are in fact more effective sometimes then Windows own WMV codec. These codecs are quite common on HD video Bittorrent sites, or Newsgroups."
Vista requires premium content like HD movies to be degraded in quality when it is sent to high-quality outputs, like DVI. Users will see status codes that say "graphics OPM resolution too high"
http://www.hdtvinfo.eu/news/hd-video-formats/high
There are ways to bypass the Windows Vista protection by encoding the movies using alternative codecs like X264, or DiVX, which are in fact more effective sometimes then Windows own WMV codec. These codecs are quite common on HD video Bittorrent sites, or Newsgroups."
Submission + - Google Mashup and Web 2.0 storage solutions (ibm.com)
BlueVoodoo writes: "Google Maps API along with DB2 or Informix, PHP, JavaScript, and XML let you create an easy-to-use map with your data on it. Use custom icons, change the map type, create a sidebar, and use event handlers. Once created, manage your mashup data cache. Also, be sure to check out how you can use new Web 2.0 tools, principles, and practices in your company."
Submission + - Man Hacks House AC Unit Onto Car (myfoxhouston.com) 2
The Angel of Vengeance writes: A recent civil engineering graduate from the University of Houston was faced with a dilemma: It was going to cost him $1200 to get the Air Conditioning fixed on his car.
Like a true Engineer, however, he came up with another solution: He hacked a home AC unit and attached it to his car via the sun roof.
There are some pictures of his hack as well.
When asked about how long he'd keep the home AC attached to his car, he responded "I'll probably stick with this until I get rid of it".
Like a true Engineer, however, he came up with another solution: He hacked a home AC unit and attached it to his car via the sun roof.
There are some pictures of his hack as well.
When asked about how long he'd keep the home AC attached to his car, he responded "I'll probably stick with this until I get rid of it".
Submission + - Microsoft Drops the Bomb: DirectX 10 Hardware Won' (softpedia.com) 1
ela_gervaise writes: SIGGRAPH 2007 is the stage where Microsoft dropped the bomb informing that the currently available DirectX 10 hardware will not support the upcoming DirectX 10.1 in Vista SP1.
Submission + - Buffer Overflow in RFID Passport Readers (wired.com)
epee1221 writes: "Wired ran a story describing Lukas Grunwald's Defcon talk on an attack on airport passport readers. After extracting data from the (read-only) chip in a legitimate passport, he placed a version of the data with an altered passport photo (JPEG2000 is used in these chips) into a writable chip. The altered photo created a buffer overflow in two RFID readers he tested, causing both to crash. Grunwald suggests that vendors are typically using off-the-shelf JPEG2000 libraries, which would make the vulnerability common."
Submission + - Concealing documents and patents waives rights? (eweek.com)
gimme00 writes: "If concealing documents and patents makes Qualcomm waive rights — how does this play into companies trying to pull the indemnity trick against linux or other companies and technologies? The following article triggers this type of question. Court Says . Slashdotters dound off..."
Submission + - Green Server: 16 Cores, 50 Watts (movidis.com)
Carolyn McClure writes: "On Monday, August 6th, Movidis, Inc. announced the availability of several software packages for the company's Revolution x16 Servers. The Revolution x16 delivers market-leading performance, security and power-efficiency with an architecture that supports both high performance networked storage and secure Web servers. With the new Linux applications, the x16 can perform the most critical web server functions, while consuming up to 98% less energy. The new software packages can be quickly deployed on the Revolution and include a full LAMP suite, a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), lighttpd, Apache SSL, and a browser-based user interface for managing the server and all of the applications.
Revolution x16 Servers leverage a new chip that is designed to run as quickly and efficiently as users' servers demand. To achieve this, the Revolution uses the powerful OCTEONTM CN3860, a 16-core, 64-bit MIPS processor, which can execute almost 20 billion instructions per second."
Submission + - Microsoft Submits Licenses for OSI Approval (crynwr.com)
chrisd writes: "Guess who's coming to dinner? Microsoft has submitted both the Microsoft Public License and Microsoft Community license. Jon Rosenberg, a PBM (whatever that is) with the worlds largest software company, submitted them just a few minutes ago, so they've yet to make it into the linked archive. He sent two emails proposing the Microsoft Permissive License and Microsoft Community License. Let's see if we can break some of those comment records!"
Submission + - New 'Stellarator' Design for Fusion Reactors (physorg.com)
eldavojohn writes: "The holy grail in fusion reactors has always seemed just a few years off for many decades. But a recent design enhancement termed a 'Stellarator' may change all that. The point at which a fusion reactor crashes is when particles begin escaping due to disruptions in the plasma. A NYU team has discovered that coiling specific wires to form a magnetic field to contain the plasma is a viable way to create a plasma body with axial symmetry and far better chance of remaining stable. This, of course, like other forms of containment does require energy but brings us closer to a stable fusion reactor. It may not be cold fusion or 'table top' fusion but it certainly is a step forward. The paper is up for peer review in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Submission + - Cleversafe ready to release GFS alternative (playingwithwire.com)
Siker writes: "Playing With Wire has a recap of Cleversafe's presentation at LinuxWorld. 'Cleversafe separates data into slices that can be distributed to different servers, even across the world. But it's much more than just slicing and dicing: the algorithm adds redundancy and security as it goes about its task. When the algorithm is done, each individual slice is useless in isolation, and yet not all slices are needed to reconstruct the original data.' This kind of software can lead to higher data availability without the overhead of the Google File System."
Submission + - price tag on the the Linux kernel
rs232 writes: ""One estimate put the price tag on creating the Linux kernel at over $600 million", Jeremy Allison
http://www.tuxdeluxe.org/node/252"
http://www.tuxdeluxe.org/node/252"
Submission + - iPhone user gets his thumbs surgically altered (techdigest.tv)
faster_manic writes: "It's official, iPhone fanboys epitomise fanboyism. A Denver man has surgically altered his two thumbs so he can use the buttons correctly, as he found his previous pair a bit too meaty.
Hope Jobs sent a card whilst he was in hospital, at least..."
Submission + - Batteries the Focus of AT&T Investigation
An anonymous reader writes: AT&T is focusing on the batteries supplied by Avestor as the cause of its 2006 equipment explosion in a suburban Houston neighborhood. The carrier says it has 17,000 of those same batteries still in its network. Here are some photos of the equipment that was shredded in the blast.
Submission + - Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 released (pclaunches.com)
Vinit writes: "Microsoft has silently released Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 versions to a small group of testers. Tagged as 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058) the 350MB XP Service Pack 3 includes fixes for over 900 reported problems, some of which have already been resolved with post-Service Pack 2 hotfixes.
http://www.pclaunches.com/software/microsoft_windo ws_xp_sp3_and_vista_sp1_released_to_small_group_of _testers.php"
