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Software

Submission + - CNet promotes major open source alternative apps (cnet.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: CNet is running a massive article promoting open source applications as alternatives to major commercial products, in an aim to educate the average Joe on the advantages of open source. While uber-l337 open source aficionados will already using many of these, it's an admirable pitch to put the word out that open source is ready for mainstream adoption.
Music

Submission + - Increase in Encrypted Torrents Spotted in the UK (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by angryphase
angryphase writes: The British Phonographic Institute (RIAA-UK) has noticed a significant increase in the amount of encrypted torrents. Whether it follows a trend for hiding suspicious activities or an increased awareness of personal privacy is up for (weak) debate, either way, this change of attitude is apparently catching the eye of ISPs, music industry officials and enforcement agencies. Matt Phillips, spokesman for the UK record industry trade association explains, "Our internet investigations team, internet service providers and the police are well aware of encryption technology: it's been around for a long time and is commonplace in other areas of internet crime. It should come as no surprise that if people think they can hide illegal activity they will attempt to."
Toys

Submission + - James Randi $1Million Award on Speaker Cables 2

Submitted by elrond amandil
elrond amandil writes: James Randi offered $1 million USD to anyone who can prove that a pair of $7,250 Pear Anjou speaker cables is any better than ordinary (and also overpriced) Monster Cables. Pointing out the absurd review by audiophile Dave Clark, who called the cables "danceable," Randi called it "hilarious and preposterous." He added that if the cables could do what their makers claimed, "they would be paranormal."
Media

Submission + - Careful What You Say - They Might Advertise To You (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Dekortage
Dekortage writes: "Today, Pudding Media is introducing an Internet phone service similar to Skype's online service, but without any toll charges. The catch: they are eavesdropping on phone calls with voice recognition software to monitor calls, then push conversation-relevant the ads to the subscriber's computer screen. Interestingly, during tests, "conversations [were] actually changing based on what was on the screen," said the president. "Our ability to influence the conversation was remarkable.""
AMD

Submission + - AMD/ATi to release graphics specs

Submitted by Ganesh999
Ganesh999 writes: A recent Phoronix article hinted that despite the large number of substantially improved AMD/ATi drivers just released, there was more exciting news in the pipeline.

This seems to have been confirmed at the Linux kernel summit yesterday. From LWN :

'AMD's representative at the summit has announced that the company has made a decision to enable the development of open source drivers for all of its (ATI) graphics processors from the R500 going forward. There will be specifications available and a skeleton driver as well; a free 2D driver is anticipated by the end of the year. The rest will have to be written; freeing of the existing binary-only driver is not in the cards, and "that is better for everybody." Things are looking good on this front. More in the kernel summit report to come.'

General reaction from the kernel developers seems to be positive :

'It's definitely not a 'you're on your own' kind of proposition: this is exactly what was asked for, giving the community all the information it needs to complete a proper driver.'
Enlightenment

Submission + - realtime ASCII Goggles (englishrussia.com)

Submitted by jabjoe
jabjoe writes: Russian artists from Moscow have created goggles with image filtering, interestingly ascii. This allows you to view the world in real time as ascii. Pointless but cool. Link
Linux Business

Submission + - AMD to open ATI specs (0xdeadbeef.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AMD has announced they are releasing the specs for all new radeon chipsets, and will be working with the open source community to develop a fully functional 2d and 3d graphics driver. AMD appears to be following in Intel's footsteps with upcoming releases. If AMD is successfull NVidia will have real competition in the GNU/Linux gaming arena. While past support by ATI was unsatisfactory the new AMD buyout appears to be having some effect.
Microsoft

Journal Journal: Microsoft's fast track bid for OOXML standarization rejected 1

Journal by vmxeo
Microsoft's push for fast-track approval of its OOXML document format as an ISO standard has failed, according to a news article from PC World. The proposal now must be reworked to address comments made during the voting process and will be up for another vote by ISO members early next year. Details on the voting outcome can also be found at Groklaw, and yo
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Fails to Gain Approval for OOXML (consortiuminfo.org)

Submitted by
Andy Updegrove
Andy Updegrove writes: "Microsoft's bid to gain approval for its OOXML specification in the first round of global voting has failed. I now have official confirmation of that fact, and expect to have final numbers soon. In the meantime, Microsoft has just issued a press release, putting the best spin it can on the results. That release is titled "Strong Global Support for Open XML as It Enters Final Phase of ISO Standards Process."The release focuses on the degree of participation (51 National Bodies), and level of "support" (74% of all qualified votes, without differentiating between P and O countries).It also refers to this level of support at "this preliminary stage of the process," and compares it "favorably" to the number of countries participating in the votes to consider ODF and PDF, but without mentioning percentage levels of support, which would include Observer as well as Participating member votes.The drama will now switch to the long run up to the February 25 — 29 Ballot Resolution Meeting, and to how much Microsoft will be willing to change in OOXML in order to convert a sufficient number of no votes to yeses, in order to finally gain approval, if it can, for its beleaguered specification."
Microsoft

Submission + - SIS allows Microsoft to affect OOXML votes! (neurologic.se)

Submitted by
aim2future
aim2future writes: "Microsoft has caused last minute changes to the SIS (Swedish Standards Institute) committee, voting about OOXML. Changing an expected NO to a YES.

"The word for today is "disenfranchisement" ... An attempt to fraudulently disenfranchise a voter is despicable wherever it occurs ... misrepresenting the rules and procedures in order to prevent another party from exercising their right to vote ... is universally deplored."... From Computerworld blogs
If you read swedish: here is an article about Microsoft's raid Microsoftkupp mot formatomröstning and here is a list of companies that Microsoft got into the committee last minute"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft coup against iso standards body (www.idg.se)

Submitted by
bytewize
bytewize writes: "Today the iso standards body here in Sweden has accepted ooxml as a standard. It seems that a number of Microsoft partners joined the body just before the vote and managed to swing the vote in Microsoft's faviour. IBM walked out and refused to vote. If this is what we can expect in the future then the iso standards body might just as well pack up and close shop. Nobody should be able to buy acceptance of a standard. It should become a standard based entirely on its own merits."
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft buys the Swedish vote on OOXML (os2world.com)

Submitted by CoolCat
CoolCat writes: From the site: "As bad as it sound it currently looks like that the vote that took place at the SIS, Swedish Standards Institute, was a total joke due to the facts that 23 new companies applied to take part of today's voting and most of them in favour of Microsoft agenda. One would think that SIS would not accept new companies to participate in the vote since they haven't been part of the earlier discussions and meetings. But according to SIS they didn't see any problem that new companies wanted to take part in this vote without prior notice. So what happened here is that Microsoft gather together a bunch of loyal partners that would vote yes to their standard without any questions."

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