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Anonymous Coward writes "You've downloaded and installed Linux, but now you realize that you can't play movies on it! In some countries playing DVD files through DEcss is illegal, so in many cases Linux distributions choose not to let you watch DVD's right out of the box. As well, you'll notice that your favorite codec might not be installed on a fresh distro. This article will show you how to not only get your DVD player working in Ubuntu, but also how to get your favorite codecs. Did you know that it's possible to watch windows media files in Linux? iPod videos that are encoded in h264 can also be viewed, and encoded. Let's get started on making your Linux distribution a Movie machine."
http://pimpyourlinux.com/linux-feature-review/linux-movie-codecs-and-dvd-experience/

An anonymous reader writes "Mood disorders poll
* Depression
* Bipolar
* ADD
* Other
* None"

An anonymous reader writes "Vietnam's national network managers face an unusual connectivity problem: Thieves are stealing all the country's international telecoms cables. After gangs carted off 100km of undersea fiber optic lines earlier this month, the country's 85 million people now rely on a single unreliable link to Hong Kong for 90 percent of their international internet and telephone traffic. The thieves are brazen: in an earlier incident, the crew of a Singaporean cable repair ship sent to investigate an inexplicable connection fault arrived to find a Vietnamese boat making off with a large section of the cable."

Ollabelle writes "The Washington Post is reporting that an Indiana University doctoral candidate, Chris Soghoian, has discovered that Firefox Add-ons frequently check for update availability via unsecured calls back to their mother site, which can be hijacked at Wi-Fi Hot Spots. A hijacker can then insert malicious code under the guise of a false Add-on update. What's interesting is that (1) this works regardless of whether the user is operating under administrator or limited user status, and (2) Google's Toolbar update checks via unsecured connections and thus is vulnerable, and worse, has specifically disabled Firefox's habit of notifying the user of an available update and confirming a desire to install. Thus the malicious package can be loaded without any user knowledge of it happening. The article is at: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/?hpid=n ews-col-blogs"

MsManhattan writes "Laszlo Kish, a Texas A&M engineer, says he has discovered a new encryption technique that is both cheap and foolproof. When messages are sent intermittently they can be camouflaged by the natural "thermal noise" created by electrons flowing along a wire. Both the sender and receiver must have the same pair of resistors attached to the physical cable; one produces high resistance and the other produces low resistance, and the amount of thermal noise generated will vary randomly. Single-digit messages can be sent when a medium noise level is detected. "To snoopers eavesdropping on the line it just appears that the thermal noise level varies randomly. If they do realize that medium noise levels signal a message they don't know the binary digit value because they don't know the resistor setting at either end of the line. Thirdly, the very act of tapping the line alters the thermal noise level so the fact of the eavesdropping is detectable." A prototype generated messages with 99.98 percent accuracy."

Riding with Robots writes "The European Space Agency has released fascinating information and videos related to a discovery from the SOHO sun-observing spacecraft. It seems that radio "screams" from the sun foretell dangerous Coronal Mass Ejections, or CMEs, which produce radiation storms harming infrastructure on ground and in space, as well as humans in space."

For decades, astronomers have known that the Milky Way galaxy is on a collision course with the neighboring Andromeda spiral galaxy. What was unknown until now: the fate of the Sun and our solar system in that melee. New calculations show that the Sun and its planets will be exiled to the outer reaches of the merged galaxy. Moreover, the collision will take place within the Sun's lifetime, before it becomes a burned-out white dwarf star.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070529091407.htm

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Tsk, tsk. Looks like Best Buy will indeed be paying up for the misdeeds involving that dodgy intranet we saw a few months back. Connecticut's attorney general announced a lawsuit against the big box retailer and accused it of "deceiving customers with in-store computer kiosks and overcharging them." Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was quoted as saying that the store "gave consumers the worst deal with a bait-and-switch-plus scheme luring consumers into stores with promised online discounts, only to charge higher in-store prices." The suit seeks "refunds for consumers, civil penalties, court costs, a ban on the practice, and other remedies," and while Best Buy spokespersons are vigorously denying the allegations, Connecticut's consumer protection commissioner even said that there was "certainly an element of deception here." Reportedly, the in-store kiosks were somehow an "alternate way to get information about products," but when that information ends up costing your customers more than they should be paying, we doubt the judge will look kindly upon it.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/119656443/

s3x3s writes "I switched over to the Firefox camp a long time ago, and as long as I can remember there has always been a processor/memory leak. Does anyone know why Mozilla has yet to address this after several releases? Or is this just the price one has to pay for using open source?"

NetDanzr writes "According to this article in PC World, at least four US states have passed or are considering legislation that would curb the resale of used CDs. In Florida, for example, a store that wishes to sell used CDs must post a $10,000 bond, fingerprint CD sellers, hold onto the CDs for 30 days and only offer store credit (no cash) for CDs. While these rules are in line with existing pawnshop laws, they haven't been applied to used records and book stores previously. Used video and video game resellers have gotten a break, though: they'll have to hold onto the merchandise for only 15 days."

An anonymous reader writes "Hundreds of thousands of .EU domain names registered in the post-launch euphoria of April 2006 expired yesterday. As of today, just over 2.3 million .eu domain names are active. That's a massive drop of more than 8%.

http://www.dailydomainer.com/2007150-exodus-8-of-e u-domains-drop.html"

Ixlr8 writes "BBC news is running a story that suggests up to half of Mars may have ice. From the article:

Up until now, scientists had been able to search for water deposits using a spectrometer fixed to the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft. However, only readings that are accurate to within several hundred kilometres can be obtained.
By comparing seasonal changes in thermal infrared patterns, detected by the same Odyssey spacecraft, (scientists)[ed] can make readings accurate to within just hundreds of metres."

jonadab writes "What is the hottest pepper you enjoy eating raw?

• bell pepper (or none at all)
• banana pepper
• poblano
• jalapeno
• serrano
• cayenne
• thai pepper
• habanero
• dorset naga
• distilled capsaicin

"

chip_whisperer writes "Hi. I'm a college student who'll be doing a research internship this summer for a major university out west. My adviser says that she'd like me to do some numerical computing (always exciting!) for her, but that they use Fortran. Now, I don't have any experience with the language, but it seems quite lacking in respect to other languages like Matlab or Maple. Why are so many people still using Fortran? What language/program would you recommend for numerical computing projects in the scientific community? And if you do use Fortran, why have you stayed with it?"

PetManimal writes "The Radio Data System standard, used in Europe and North America to send warnings to users of consumer satellite navigation systems, isn't authenticated or encrypted, and could potentially be hacked or used to sow confusion, according to an engineer and "hardware hacker":

Through trial and error, they discovered that transmitting certain code numbers translates into certain warnings that are displayed on the satellite navigation system. Some were amusing. One code number alerts users that there's a bull fight in progress. Another one indicates delays due to a parade. But some weren't so funny. One tells users that there has been a terrorist incident. Another indicates a bomb alert and another an air crash.

It's uncertain what the fix is for this for people who already use satellite navigation systems in their cars. The article notes that most devices aren't easy to upgrade."