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Comment: You must have terrible vision (Score 1) 895

by Inoshiro (#24526919) Attached to: New Study Finds Low Interest In Blu-ray

"but as soon as I forget about the fact that I am or am not watching an HD source and just go ahead and watch the content, I very quickly forget I'm watching DVD."

The difference is detail. DVD or DVD-quality rips on my 47" 1080p television I sit 2 metres from are lower quality than HD content. In movies, things are "fuzzy" around edges (or, worse, jaggy if I get aliasing effects) -- while HD movies have complete detail (I could pause the playback and count the change on a table, or read the flavour text that's in a lot of movies on props, etc). With non-HD, you're only getting a vague sense of the set and setting around the actors. Corpse Bride is so clean in 1080p, that you can see details that remind you they're little dolls again (like dust sometimes showing up in a shot, which DVD would just blur away). Older HD content (eg: Taxi Driver) shows more film grain, and reminds me more of home cinema experience than DVD does.

In gaming wise, aliasing is a lot more obvious. A 1080p image from the Xbox 360 looks a lot nicer and more detailed than the Xbox Originals, or something like a PS2 game.

In both cases, the difference is pretty obvious.

Biotech

Get the Family Dog Cloned 240

Posted by samzenpus
from the love-them-twice-today dept.
Anonymous writes "Some of you may have seen 'The 6th Day,' the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger a few years back. If you recall there was a 're-pet' cloning service to get your dog back if you ever lost them. Enter 'Best Friends Again': 'A US biotech company on Wednesday announced it will auction off the right for five dog owners to have their furry best friend cloned, with bidding starting at 100,000 dollars. "BioArts International ... will sell five dog cloning service slots to the general public via a worldwide online auction," the California-based biotech start-up said in a statement.'"
Software

Open Source BIND Alternative Launches 162

Posted by kdawson
from the ties-that-bind dept.
bednarz writes "A group of experts on Tuesday released an open source alternative to the BIND DNS server. The new software — dubbed Unbound 1.0 — is a recursive DNS server. From its first prototype in 2004, Unbound was designed to be a faster, more secure replacement for BIND. Unbound supports DNS security extensions (DNSSEC), which authenticate DNS lookups but are not yet widely deployed because they rely on a public key infrastructure. Unbound was released to open source developers by NLnet Labs, VeriSign, Nominet and Kirei."
Music

Metallica May Follow In Footsteps of Radiohead, NIN 673

Posted by Soulskill
from the reconsidering-the-options dept.
fireheadca writes "Metallica, once strongly opposed to file-sharing, has hinted at going 'free' in the style of NIN and Radiohead. Having heard success stories about releasing music online, Metallica has decided it wants a piece of the action. Radiohead, as a pioneer of online 'pay what you want' music, has shown the world it is possible to profit by releasing music online, but would not post those profits. NIN, on the other hand, has reported at least $1.6 million in revenue. In hindsight, many people remember Metallica as the band that helped shutdown Napster. I purchased the NIN album, after many years of free downloads of the NIN collection, to help support the band. Would you buy a Metallica online album despite their former views?"
Security

Qmail At 10 Years — Reflections On Security 304

Posted by kdawson
from the eliminating-code dept.
os2man writes "Qmail is one of the most widely used MTAs on the Net and has a solid reputation for its level of security. In 'Some thoughts on security after ten years of qmail 1.0' (PDF), Daniel J. Bernstein, reviews the history and security-relevant architecture of qmail; articulates partitioning standards that qmail fails to meet; analyzes the engineering that has allowed qmail to survive this failure; and draws various conclusions regarding the future of secure programming. A good read for anyone involved in secure development."
Businesses

FDIC Closes Netbank, One of the First Online Banks 174

Posted by Zonk
from the thanks-loan-guys dept.
An anonymous reader writes "NetBank, one of the first internet banks in the country was closed by the FDIC on Friday. Being a loyal customer for 8 years, I am saddened that an institution that provided me with so much great service and a cool, hi tech way to conduct my financial transactions is shutting down. Seems that mortgage defaults are to blame: 'NetBank's closure marks the first bank to close since the recent U.S. housing boom deflated. Critics have said that weak underwriting standards have led to record number of homeowners entering the foreclosure process. But NetBank's rare Internet-based business strategy made it a unique financial institution and its problems aren't expected to mirror issues facing other mortgage lenders, analysts say.'"
Music

Virgin Digital To Close Up Shop 207

Posted by kdawson
from the left-from-itunes-and-a-right-from-drm dept.
mrspin writes in to note the demise of the Virgin Digital music store. Here is Virgin's announcement. It will shut down in stages: the service closed its doors to new subscribers on Friday; current subscribers will lose all access to it when their next monthly payment is due or on Oct. 19, whichever comes first. The store advises customers who have purchased downloads to back them up to CD and re-import them as MP3. It used to discourage such DRM-evading tactics.
Google

Google Planning New Undersea Cable Across Pacific? 144

Posted by CowboyNeal
from the stranger-things-have-been-sponsored dept.
tregetour writes "Google is planning a multi-terabit undersea communications cable across the Pacific Ocean for launch in 2009, Communications Day reports: 'Google would not strictly confirm or deny the existence of the Unity plan today, with spokesman Barry Schnitt telling our North American correspondent Patrick Neighly that "Additional infrastructure for the Internet is good for users and there are a number of proposals to add a Pacific submarine cable. We're not commenting on any of these plans." However, Communications Day understands that Unity would see Google join with other carriers to build a new multi-terabit cable. Google would get access to a fibre pair at build cost handing it a tremendous cost advantage over rivals such as MSN and Yahoo, and also potentially enabling it to peer with Asia ISPs behind their international gateways — considerably improving the affordability of Internet services across Asia Pacific.'"
Communications

iPhone Likely Set to Launch in the UK Next Week 127

Posted by Zonk
from the leaving-the-brits-in-the-cold dept.
An anonymous reader writes "According to CNet, the iPhone is likely to be launched in the UK next Tuesday. 'Yesterday we were invited to an Apple press conference to take place next Tuesday — and we think it's most likely going to be the UK iPhone launch. Apple, as always, is keeping tight-lipped but there are several clues that point in the iPhone's direction'. No word yet on a UK operator, pricing or whether or not it will have 3G."
Censorship

Teen Hacks $84 Million Porn Filter in 30 Minutes 479

Posted by CowboyNeal
from the worth-every-penny dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Tom Wood, a Year 10 Australian student has cracked the federal government's $84-million Internet porn filter in just 30 minutes. He can deactivate the filter in several clicks in such a way that the software's icon is not deleted which will make his parents believe the filter is still working. Tom says it is a matter of time before some computer-savvy kid puts the bypass on the Internet for others to use."
XBox (Games)

Halo 3 Almost Done 73

Posted by Zonk
from the is-it-sampo-yet dept.
The word from Bungie is that they consider the final chapter in the Halo story 99.9% complete. They're now in the home stretch, with time to polish. Says Luke Smith, "That last .1% percent is pretty important, however. Right now, some testing is being done in a controlled retail environment via our Halo 3 Epsilon. You've probably seen reports online or even folks on your friends' list playing it, so here's the scoop: The Epsilon is a closed, final phase testing for Halo 3. We won't be making the Epsilon available for public consumption, so while that's immensely disappointing for folks hoping that Friends and Family invites would be extended for the Epsilon, just know that each day you wait in agony is another day closer to September 25." Wired has a huge blowout feature on the title, with lots of screenshots, discussion of how the game was made, and more.
Music

Watermarking to Replace DRM? 365

Posted by CowboyNeal
from the if-at-first-you-don't-succeed dept.
An anonymous reader writes "News.com has an article on the announcement of Microsoft and Universal to introduce watermarking technology into audio files. The technology could serve several purposes including tracking file sharing statistics and inserting advertisements into audio tracks. The article goes on to suggest that watermarking could possibly replace DRM in the near future."
Microsoft

Olympic Committee Chooses XP Over Vista 283

Posted by samzenpus
from the if-it's-not-as-broken dept.
Vinit writes "The popularity of Windows XP is still making things difficult for Vista. Now Vista has again suffered a major setback, with Lenovo (Olympic 2008' official sponsor) installing XP on it's machines to run the Olympic Games' vital PC-related tasks. Vista will only be used in internet lounges set up for athletes to use during the games."
Education

School Boards Rule, Internet No Longer Dangerous 238

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the wiping-sweat-off-brow dept.
destinyland writes "Good news. The National School Boards Association, which represents 95,000 school board members, just released a report declaring fears of the internet are overblown. In fact, after surveying 1,277 students, "the researchers found exactly one student who reported they'd actually met a stranger from the internet without their parents' permission. (They described this as "0.08 percent of all students.") The report reminds educators that schools initially banned internet use before they'd realized how educational it was. Now instead they're urging schools to include social networks in their curriculum!"

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