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Sony

Submission + - pr0n going HD-DVD

Submitted by YLee
YLee writes: heise news reports (German only): According to Joone (founder of Digital Playground and "star director" of HD porn) SONY is trying to prevent the use of BD for distibution of adult entertainment material. Joone: "SONY wants me to use HD-DVD for distibution". First his plan was to go the BD route but every BlueRay press plant in the USA refused to cooperate with his company. Betamax/Video2000 deja-vu, anyone? (Max Grundig: "This crap won't make it on my tapes!")
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Business 2.0's dumbest moments in business

Submitted by
prostoalex
prostoalex writes: "Every year Business 2.0 magazine comes up with 101 dumbest moments in business, and now they published their 2006 list. While there're quite a few entrants from the technology world, such as Sony's rootkit distributed on music CDs, and Google's decision to blacklist CNet after a reporter googles private information on the company CEO, most of the entries, including the leading one, are from the wild real estate market."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - "Smart Mobs" author says SL numbers don't

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Howard Rheingold (author of Smart Mobs) was just interviewed by CNET in their Second Life bureau where he talked about the recent debate surrounding Linden Labs' false user-numbers. He says "SL is a playground for early adopters. As far as I am concerned, tens of thousands of people who are actively creating new stuff is more interesting than millions of more passive participants." Rheingold went on to discuss the history of online communities: "Some things about online social behavior seems to be eternal and universal... Trolls and griefers, eternal meta-debate about what to do about them, for example. There's a widespread amnesia, as if these kinds of cybersocializing were new... not many people online have much sense of history. That's probably true of just about everything."
Privacy

Submission + - MINI introduces RFID-activated billboards in US

Submitted by frinkster
frinkster writes: MINI USA has placed interactive billboards in 4 US cities (Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco) and invited a few hundred MINI owners in those cities to join their targeted "advertisement" pilot program. The owners sign up on MINI's website and receive an RFID keyfob in the mail. When that MINI owner drives by the billboard, a targeted message appears. What sort of messages will be shown? Well, that's where the fun comes in. Each owner tells MINI what to show when they drive by, such as "Jim, you are one sexy beast" or "nice to see you finally out of your mother's basement, Joe." If the pilot program is successful, MINI plans to put up more billboards in more cities and allow every MINI owner to participate. MINI swears that no personal information in contained in the keyfobs and that all communication between the owner and user is subject to their privacy policy and thus the program is completely safe, but how well will they keep their billboard logs away from the prying eyes of local law enforcement or private detectives? And what are they doing to prevent "hackers" from changing the personal messages to insults, such as "Nice to see you finally emerge from your mother's basement"?
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - World of Warcraft now the size of New York City

Submitted by
DeadBugs
DeadBugs writes: "World Of Warcraft has passed 8 Million subscribers. This would put it on par with the population of New York (the largest city in the United States). With the first expansion coming out since the game was released, the game could easily pass 10 million people.

From the press release: "Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. Today, World of Warcraft is available in seven different languages and is played in North America, Europe, mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.""
Communications

iPhone Faces Uncertain Market 869

Posted by kdawson from the second-and-third-thoughts dept.
48 hours have passed since Steve Jobs's MacWorld keynote and the reality distortion field is beginning to wear off. Lists of the drawbacks of the announced iPhone are sprouting all over the Net (and there is the occasional defense by true believers). Now narramissic writes, "The iPhone may be poised to take over the high-end cell phone market, but is it a market worth taking? Not if an InStat survey from July is any indication: Of 1,800 consumers surveyed, just 21 had spent more than $400 for a cell phone. Prices for the iPhone, admittedly more of a handheld computer than a cell phone, start at $499 for the 4G-byte version with a required two-year contract with Cingular. So, is Apple pricing it right? Analysts quoted in this article seem to think Apple's going to have a hard time getting the 1% of market share that Jobs called for."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - South Park World of Warcraft Becomes Reality

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "At least on the Dunemaul World of Warcraft server, the new character, Highlord Kruul, introduced by the patch on Tuesday (January 9, 2007) attacked Ironforge early in the morning on Wednesday (January 10, 2007). No one was prepared for him. No character could defeat him. Several raid groups were formed, but none could bring him down. You can't get in or out. He was there nearly all day long. This is a hilarious video, showing the ground piled with skeletons and it also shows dozens of characters getting killed. Check it out here. If only we had the Sword of a Thousand Truths (guess we'll just have to wait for the expansion)."
Networking

Submission + - Networking in Extreme Conditions?

Submitted by
222
222 writes: "Mission: Create an intermediate distribution frame. Difficulty: A few feet away, industrial equipment will be generating roughly 2000 degree heat. Bonus: Keep the network switches inside the IDF from melting.
Does anyone have experience in making IT work in such extreme conditions? Is there an enclosure in existence that can handle this type of abuse? This is essentially what I've been asked to accomplish, and now I'm asking my Slashdot brethren the questions; "Can it be done? Do we have the technology?""

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