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Comment Re:Flicker comes back (Score 1) 419

I was at CES yesterday and sat through the presentation by Panasonic. There technology works using those expensive "active" 3D display glasses. For those that don't know, basically they alternate flashing each eye an image on the screen. They kept hyping up how awesome it would be to watch football in 3D, and showed use a 3D video of a football game. It was kinda neat, but anything that was moving fast (Such as arms/legs after the ball was snapped) turned into a flashing semitransparent mess. I'm assuming this is because they are alternative which eye is seeing the picture, and in the time it takes to switch eyes, fast moving objects have changed position. And for systems that are smart enough to show images to both eyes at the same time, I'm curious how they will handle motion blur. That has always seemed to be a problem with 3D displays, as the eye wants to get the moving object in focus, however since the source is blurred they can't, which leads to eye strain.

Comment Re:Great hardware specs (Score 1) 323

What a about tool costs and production time? Even if Plastic and Aluminum are the same cost (and I don't know that they are) they use different production techniques. Plastic is made with molds, whereas I believe with Aluminum you have to cut it out of a block, which might take longer, and also leaves you with a lot of "left over" scraps that will have to be recycled before they can be used again.

Comment Re:More power is nice, but has everyone forgotten. (Score 2, Informative) 323

I'm currently using that same machine you have as an (interim) HTPC machine. Swapped Win 7 64 bit to 32 bit (due to the low memory), upgraded to the latest drivers and Flash 10.1 Handles 1080p MKV's just fine, as well as 720P YouTube (1080 drops some frames on fast movement). The only problem is that Hulu apparently isn't taking advantage of the new Flash beta, and still seems to run 100% on the CPU rather than offloading to the GPU like YouTube now does. So for Hulu it can only handle the standard def video. 480P Hulu is fine windowed, but scaled to 720p or 1080p, it drops frames really bad.

Comment How about a web browser? (Score 1) 542

Any news on a web browser being built-in with free 3G like all the Kindles? I have a Kindle 1 and was going to buy the International until I heard about this new reader. It looks nice, but I've found I actually enjoy reading blogs and other sites on my Kindle. This will be what makes/breaks it for me about jumping ship from Kindle to B&N.

Comment Its causing my system to crash (Score 1) 535

I built myself a new computer about 1 month ago. Completely new install of XP, and I've only been installing programs as needed/wanted. In the last week I've had two bluescreens happen. What did I do a week ago? I installed Google Earth. And in both cases of blue screen, the app that was listed as causing the fault in the debug was the Google Updater. So hopefully removing Google Earth fixes this. The only other "google app" I run is Picasa, which I don't think uses the Google Updater.
The Courts

RIAA's $222k Verdict Is Likely To Be Set Aside 224

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Apparently the RIAA's 'big gun' didn't fare so well this morning in Duluth, when he tried to persuade the judge in Capitol v. Thomas that the part of the Copyright Act which says 'by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending', can be disregarded. According to an in-person account by Wired.com the Judge indicated that he is likely to grant a mistrial, setting aside the $222,000 jury verdict based upon his incorrect jury instruction, and that he will probably hand down his decision in September. Just yesterday some of the same lawyers got rebuffed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in their attempt to argue that Cablevision's online storage for its customers constitutes a copyright infringement, in Cartoon Network v. CSC Holdings. There, too, the content owners had argued that the wording of the Copyright Act did not mean what it said. There, too, the Court politely but firmly disagreed."
Microsoft

Why Microsoft Cozied up to Open Source at OSCON 325

This year at OSCON it seemed that you couldn't throw a stone without hitting someone from Microsoft (and in fact, I'm sure several people did). They were working very hard to make themselves known, and working desperately to change public opinion of Microsoft's involvement in the open source community. Linux.com's Nathan Willis took a look at what they were preaching, with a hefty dose of skepticism, and tries to postulate what the "angle" is. Of course, the powers that be at Microsoft may have finally seen the writing on the wall and felt the pressure from Google enough to alter their strategy a bit. For now I guess we'll have to wait with guarded optimism (or laughable contempt, depending on how old/jaded you are).
Music

Study Suggests Music Industry Embrace Piracy 293

unassimilatible writes to tell us that according to the Financial Times, the music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites. A recent study of the recent Radiohead album release found that huge numbers of illegal downloads actually helped the band's popularity and, by extension, concert ticket sales. "Radiohead's release of In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-want basis last October generated enormous traffic to the band's own website and intense speculation about how much fans had paid. He urged record companies to study the outcome and accept that file-sharing sites were here to stay. 'It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want,' he said." Update 19:46 GMT by SM: Several readers (including the original author) have written in to mention that it isn't stressed enough that this study was engaged by the music industry itself, making the findings that much more interesting. Take that as you will.

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