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The Media

Submission + - Save Jericho Campaign Shows Weakness of Old Media

Submitted by
GoCanes
GoCanes writes: "To the dismay of many fans, CBS canceled the TV show Jericho after just one season. The fans are reacting with an internet drive that seems to dwarf the famous original Star Trek letter writing campaign. They've acquired over 60,000 signatures on their petition in less than a week. Their plan is to flood CBS with packages of nuts, a reference to a sub-plot in the last episode. But perhaps this just shows how old media can't deal with new realities. Nielson ratings can't handle DVRs, web viewing, DVD sales, etc. The article suggests that perhaps the broadcast networks should start using their platform as a method to entice people into paying for content delivery."
Data Storage

Submission + - EMC's CEO blames social networking for data deluge

Submitted by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: "In a keynote speech used to unveil a new $1 million disk array, EMC President and CEO Joe Tucci said data centers are being flooded by not only traditional business data but a slew content from digital cameras, phones and personal devices. Tucci also pointed to online social networking communities such as Facebook, Youtube, MySpace, Flickr, and LinkedIn as part of the problem. 'Tucci said, disk-based recovery will continue to trump tape-based recovery operations in terms of cost, functionality and speed. "I'll bet you anything you want that going forward more and more, virtually all [data] recovery will come off of disk and not on tape," Tucci said.'"
Graphics

Submission + - Blender 2.44 released

Submitted by
joeedh
joeedh writes: "The 2.44 release of Blender is out. This is primary a 64-bits bugfix release, however several new features such as subsurface scattering were added. Many bugfixes were also included, and also various parts of the user interface were improved (most notably the action editor).

Blender is a free and open-source modeler/animator/renderer/compositor suite, comparable to commercial software in quality (if not necessarily quantity)."
Intel

Submission + - Samsung puts finishing touches on DDR3 memory

Submitted by
HostAdmin
HostAdmin writes: "Buckle your seatbelts, boys and girls! DDR3 is almost here (well, 2009 is "almost here", isn't it?)

DDR3 is the long-awaited successor to DDR2 memory, now the most common memory type used in PCs. The newer chips will offer data transfer speeds up to 1.6Gbps, twice the memory bandwidth of DDR2. That means better performance for both 3-D graphics and multithreaded applications that tap the power of multi-core processors. The chips will also consume less power — around 1.5 volts compared to 1.8 volts for DDR2 — which means longer notebook battery life, Samsung said.
"
AMD

Submission + - AMD cuts processor prices

Submitted by BDPrime
BDPrime writes: AMD is cutting prices for its X2 processors, according to an update on its microprocessor pricing list. The cuts refer to AMD's Athlon 64 FX and Athlon 64 X2 chips.

Some of the price cuts are almost in half.
Programming

Submission + - Linux "greener" than windows

Submitted by
GrapeSteinbeck
GrapeSteinbeck writes: "SearchOpenSource.com reports a new study commisioned by the UK government of e-commerce:

A new report from the U.K. Office of Government Commerce about Open Source Software Trials in Government, has found that servers running Linux could combat the rising problem of e-waste because they last up to twice as long as machines running Windows.


The report said:

"One of the benefits frequently put forward for the use of open source software is the level of resources needed to support it. This means that for equivalent open source and Microsoft Windows systems, the open source will require less memory and a slower processor speed for the same functionality"
"
Privacy

Audit Finds FBI Abused Patriot Act 341

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the watching-the-watchers dept.
happyslayer writes to mention that according to Yahoo! News a recent audit shows that the FBI has improperly and in some cases illegally utilized the Patriot Act to obtain information. "The audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that FBI agents sometimes demanded personal data on individuals without proper authorization. The 126-page audit also found the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances. The audit blames agent error and shoddy record-keeping for the bulk of the problems and did not find any indication of criminal misconduct. Still, 'we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities,' the audit concludes."
Music

Submission + - NetTunes set to redefine music 'sharing'

Submitted by
kaizendojo
kaizendojo writes: "Robert X. Cringely writes in this week's Pulpit about a music sharing site that is based in part on an idea he had years ago, and then revisted in a later article. "The new service is called NetTunes (it's in this week's links) and was built, according to lead developer Robert Stromberg, by combining my ideas with his. The major difference between NetTunes and Snapster is that while Snapster was based on joint ownership of the music, NetTunes is based on a music-lending model. There is nothing in U.S. copyright law that says you can't lend your DVD or CD to a friend or neighbor to watch or listen to. They aren't supposed to copy it, of course, but the concept doesn't preclude multiple physical copies (backups are allowed, remember, as is redeployment on other media like tapes or iPods) so much as multiple simultaneous USES of the content. So if you lend your copy of Led Zeppelin IV to some buddy with a hot date, you'd better not play it that evening at your home, that is unless you bought a second physical copy of the record or CD. NetTunes virtualizes the whole music-lending function. You join the service, then either upload your music just like to any other music locker service, or you just register the albums and songs you own and link to them through NetTunes in much the same way that you did in the pirate heyday of Napster, the original P2P music-sharing sensation." Sounds interesting, but how long will this be stay under the RIAA's radar? My guess would be they are already preparing legal briefs as we speak..."
Perl

Randal Schwartz's Charges Expunged 219

Posted by CowboyNeal from the about-time dept.
After 13 years, Randal Schwartz has had his conviction expunged. In effect, legally it never happened. If you haven't heard about this one before, my take is that as a contractor at Intel, Randal did some over-zealous white-hat cracking free-of-charge; this embarrassed some people in management (he pointed out that their passwords were terrible) and management then chose to embarrass themselves further by having him convicted of a felony under an 'anti-hacking' law. More info can be had from the Friends of Randal Schwartz.

Windows

Submission + - How bad does Windows need to be for people to stop

Submitted by jellomizer
jellomizer writes: With still no seeming end to Windows Security problems, Current very bad reviews of poor performance on Vista, and all the other problems. Yet people still use it and most feel the effort to switch still isn't worth it. So how how much worse Windows will need to be to say get 40% of the current Windows users to switch to different OSs, Help fund development of their apps to more cross platform development models, Focus more on Web Application using open standards and less on platform particular add ins. It seems to me people will not switch off Windows unless it keeps on getting so much more worse then it is. So how bad does it need to be?
User Journal

Journal Journal: BBC iPlayer Not Just For Windows! 2

Journal by Thwomp
It seems that on various sites (and petitions!) people are making a big issue about the BBC's iPlayer being restricted to Windows DRM only. While it's true that it only works on Windows at the moment the BBC Trust has asked the BBC to investigate a platform antagonistic solution so it can also work on Macs and Linux. You can even see this conclusion in their
Sci-Fi

Submission + - World's first tricorder created by Purdue

Submitted by aeoneal
aeoneal writes: According to Science Daily, mass spectrometry is no longer limited to what can be taken to the lab. Purdue researchers have created a handy 20 lb. device that combines mass spectrometry with DESI (desorption electrospray ionization), allowing chemical composition to be determined outside of a vacuum chamber. Purdue suggests this could be useful for everything from detecting explosive substances or cancer to predicting disease. Researcher R. Graham Cooks says, "We like to compare it to the tricorder because it is truly a hand-held instrument that yields information about the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes without harming the samples."
Security

Submission + - Webmail at Work

Submitted by
rtobyr
rtobyr writes: "I don't allow users at my organization to use any third party e-mail. When users complain, I point out that we can't control the security policies of outside systems. End users tend to think that big business will of course have good security; so I ran a test of the "Big Four:" Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, and GMail. Yahoo Mail was the only webmail provider to allow delivery of a VBS script. GMail was the only provider to block a zipped VBS script. End users also tend to think that a big business would never pull security features out from under their customers. We Slashdotters know that AOL and Microsoft have both compromised the security of their customers. I don't know of any security related bad press for Yahoo or Google. Three of my Big Four either allow VBS attachments or have a poor security track records. So my Ask Slashdot question is this: If you are a network administrator, do you limit your users' ability to use third party e-mail, and if so, do you allow for GMail or other providers that you've deemed to have secure systems and repuations?"

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