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Comment Can this possibly be secure? (Score 4, Interesting) 391

by Zone-MR (#36449084) Attached to: Music Pirates Won't Rush To iCloud For Forgiveness

So let's get this straight... iTunes will allow you to replace a pirated copy of your music with an official download, presumably identifying the original track based on audio fingerprinting and/or file hashes.

I can't think of any way in which this could be designed not to be broken. I'm expecting people will quickly figure out a way to trade hashes/fingerprints, bypassing the requirement to even bother downloading a pirated copy. Or maybe if the threshold is low enough we'll get a Shazam-like app - that records snippets of music then presents them to iTunes as a ripped track for replacing with a HQ version.

Comment Re:Build it (Score 2) 117

by Zone-MR (#36080736) Attached to: IEEE Seeks Data On Ethernet Bandwidth Needs

54Mb/s and freedom from wires is more useful to me than 100Mb/s.

Except you'll not be seeing anywhere close to 54Mb/s actual throughput. You'll see around 20Mb/s, barely double the 10Mb/s Ethernet network that you deemed too slow in the mid-90's. Proves your point though that you're unlikely to need more in a home setup. Server data centres are a different story...
Image

Review: Eufloria 121

Posted by Soulskill from the growing-on-you dept.
eldavojohn writes "Eufloria is a strategy game made by independent game company Dyson. I bought it on the Steam service this weekend for $20 and was impressed that it is a visually and aurally pleasing game. It's a real-time strategy game, but isn't a rehashed Civilization or Age of Empires — it employs a different kind of mechanic to conquer. Like a lot of games that rely on novel game mechanics (Braid & Spore come to mind), part of the game's experience relies on you learning as you progress through the 25 or so levels. They will definitely push you to utilize different strategies and tactics, so don't read this review if you're already planning to play this game, as it'll most likely be filled with spoilers about developing a strategy. I give the game an average 6 out of 10 and would like to say that with titles like Braid and Eufloria out there, 'independent' no longer equates to 'sucks.'" Read on for the rest of his thoughts.

Comment Re:$14,000 too high? (Score 2, Informative) 575

by SlashChick (#19533713) Attached to: Smart Car Coming To the US In Jan. 2008
The Smart "pure" model starts out at "under $12,000" according to their site. Also, to test your theory, I went to toyota.com and configured a Corolla. Once I added in an automatic transmission and power windows/door locks (which is a $500 option on the Corolla!), my MSRP was $16,325. I would imagine that the Corolla will still be a more popular car -- but it's certainly not cheaper.
Portables

Submission + - big ram laptops? (beyond 4gb)

Submitted by Fubari
Fubari writes: Anybody know when laptops over 4gb might be coming out? Some of the devtools I want to run are just obscene ram-pigs. On the desktop I'm using now (win2003), it sucks up 1.6gb just to boot. By the time I log in and start doing work, it is stretching 2gb.

Move that to vista, add a vm-ware session or two, and I'm worried I'll be pushing 4gb.

I'm torn between buying a 4gb-max laptop now, or some mini-desktop that can fit in a set of luggage wheels. A friend of mine suggested something like this, but my first choice would be something designed to be portable.
Data Storage

Toshiba Touts 51GB HD DVD 236

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-thought-you-said-it-was-a-good-size dept.
srizah writes to mention that Toshiba plans to launch a 51 GB HD DVD, with a 1 GB advantage over Sony's Blu-ray disc. From the article: Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively."
Networking

Submission + - Should a new LAN be entirely wireless?

Submitted by
massysett
massysett writes: "I'm in the brand new public library in Rockville, Maryland. Of course there is Wi-Fi for patrons who bring their own laptops. There are also about two dozen Windows PCs throughout to provide catalog and Internet access. I was surprised to notice that all of these public access machines are connected wirelessly, using D-Link expansion cards. The Ethernet jacks on the backs of the machines aren't connected to anything. I'd understand networking the machines wirelessly in an old building, to save the cost of pulling Cat 5. However, this is a brand new building built just for this library, and there is obviously room for cables — the power cords for the computers are coming out of the floors. I would think the low bandwidth of wireless, coupled with the headache of troubleshooting interference and performance issues, would rule out a deploying wireless like this — it's relatively easy to wire a brand new building. I'd also think Cat 5 is more future-proof. Obviously library staff disagreed. How do you think the advantages of wireless would outweigh the disadvantages in a setting such as this?"
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Gran Paradiso Alpha 1

Submitted by Josh Michael
Josh Michael writes: Mozilla has released Firefox 3 Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 for its developers and testing community. Firefox 3 will include significantly improved rendering engine Gecko v1.9 that provides vector-based rendering on all platforms. Firefox 3 will include some significant changes. It uses version 1.9 of the Gecko rendering engine — which itself hasn't been released yet and which includes the Cairo graphics layer and it provides vector-based rendering on all platforms. As the Gecko 1.9 road map explains, Cairo will "bring modern, hardware-accelerated 2D-graphics capabilities to the whole of the Web without requiring proprietary plug-ins or rendering obsolete the broad and rich set of Web-authoring techniques developed over the past decade." Let's hope it will greatly reduce CPU usage intensity while running Flash animation in Firefox.

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