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Media

Submission + - Why Distributing Music As 24-bit/192kHz Downloads Is Pointless (xiph.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A recent post at Xiph.org provides a long and incredibly detailed explanation of why 24-bit/192kHz music downloads — touted as being of 'uncompromised studio quality' — don't make any sense. The post walks us through some of the basics of ear anatomy, sampling rates, and listening tests, finally concluding that lossless formats and a decent pair of headphones will do a lot more for your audio enjoyment than a 24/192 recordings. 'Why push back against 24/192? Because it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, a business model based on willful ignorance and scamming people. The more that pseudoscience goes unchecked in the world at large, the harder it is for truth to overcome truthiness... even if this is a small and relatively insignificant example.'

Submission + - Device Could Make Ships 'Invisible' to Waves (sciencemag.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The weird science of invisibility has entered uncharted waters. By altering the sea floor in just the right way, it should be possible to hide an object floating on the sea from passing waves, a fluid mechanician predicts. The technique might help to protect ships and floating structures from rough seas. And because the scheme works entirely differently from the "cloaks" developed to hide objects from light and other electromagnetic waves, it breaks new ground for research.
Advertising

Submission + - Proceeds from Vita ad donated to Anonymous (playerattack.com)

Submitted by dotarray
dotarray writes: German band Atari Teenage Riot was recently featured in the "Never Stop Playing" ad campaign for PlayStation Vita — today founding member Alec Empire has announced that all royalties and other money arising from the ad will be donated to a website supporting hacktivist group Anonymous.

Comment Thanks for all the Fish Wrapper (Score 5, Interesting) 1521

by chrisd (#37204264) Attached to: Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda Resigns From Slashdot
In 1997, right after Chips n' Dips had faded away, to be replaced by the enigmatically named http:///..org, all of us free software nerds hung on its every story, comment and poll like it was carved on tablet and flung from a burning bush. A year later I had started at hardware maker VA Research and /. was falling down for lack of machinery, so we rummaged through our returns piles and sent Rob and Jeff some 2u servers to help out. That was for me the beginning of some of the most important friendships in my adult life.

Its hard to explain how important Slashdot was to all of us 10 years ago. Indeed, without it it would be hard to imagine HN, Reddit, Digg, Fark or any of a thousand lesser sites. The editorial perspective of Rob and the other editors of /. is what kept people coming back and for a long time that perspective was Rob's, then Rob and Jeff and a bunch of us (some, like Timothy and samzenpus, still around!), but then Jeff left, now Rob. In some way I see this as a passing of an era in free software.

Throughout, while some have left for those greener shores, slashdot abided even while buffeted by the markets and the de/evolving internet news world, and it has remained a default tab in my and many others' browsers.

I didn't mean this post to be about Slashdot though, but about my friend Rob. I'll only say that while the site will be the lessor for you leaving, I firmly believe that computer science will gain my. While this note reads like an epitaph or the last pages of a book, it is really no more than a thank you note from me and many I know to your for your decade+ of work on the site. So...

Thanks.

Comment Why users care... (Score 1) 166

by xiphmont (#35825178) Attached to: Next-Gen Low-Latency Open Codec Beats HE-AAC

...is at the top of the first Opus/CELT demo page:

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/celt/demo.html

The low latency makes more interactive applications possible. By way of illustration, the total algorithmic delay of an Opus or CELT stream is approximately equivalent to the time it takes sound to travel from you to someone standing five feet away.

Submission + - Blockbuster files for bankruptcy (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Entropy98
Entropy98 writes: It finally happened, Blockbuster video has filed for bankruptcy with nearly $1 Billion of debt.

Worn down by Netflix, Redbox, online downloads/streaming, and others Blockbuster has been forced to declare bankruptcy.

What once dominant business will be next to fail to adapt to the ever changing video delivery industry?

Submission + - Netflix hires actors to pose as its Canada fans (forbes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Netflix Inc. tried to bring a touch of Hollywood to its Canada debut Wednesday only to wind up apologizing for a botched publicity stunt.

Submission + - Dimensions go "poof" in quantum gravity (newscientist.com)

Submitted by techbeat
techbeat writes: Forget Flatland, writes New Scientist. Several different quantum gravity theories all predict the same strange behaviour at small scales: fields and particles start to behave as if space is one-dimensional. It's an observation that could bring together several disparate attempts to unite quantum mechanics and general relativity. To explain how dimensions could vanish, Steven Carlip at the University of California, Davis turns to the idea of "quantum foam", in which quantum fluctuations alter the geometry of space-time, rendering it choppy and inhomogeneous at small scales.
Censorship

Submission + - France Could Be Months From Going Dark on the Web (torrentfreak.com) 2

Submitted by mykos
mykos writes: According to a report from PCINpact one of the major ISPs confirmed that the first batch of IP-addresses was submitted just a few days ago. This is the final step before alleged file-sharers receive warning letters. The scope of the operation is mind boggling. The copyright holders will start relatively ‘slowly’ with 10,000 IP-addresses a day, but within weeks this number is expected to go up to 150,000 IP-addresses per day according to official reports. The Internet providers will be tasked with identifying the alleged infringers’ names, addresses, emails and phone numbers. If they fail to do so within 8 days they risk a fine of 1,500 euros per day for every unidentified IP-address. To put this into perspective, a United States judge ruled recently that the ISP Time Warner only has to give up 28 IP-addresses a month ( 1 per day) to copyright holders because of the immense workload the identifications would cause.
Government

Submission + - VC Calls Out Ballmer, Bezos on WA State Income Tax

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: Venture capitalist Nick Hanauer, one of Amazon.com's earliest backers, is a staunch supporter of the proposed WA state income tax that's opposed by Steve Ballmer and Jeff Bezos (to the tune of $200,000). In addition to a little name-calling ('Bezos has been a libertarian since I met him and Ballmer is a typical Republican'), Hanauerhad had some other choice words on the matter: 'None of the people who are investing money to oppose I-1098 would have the courage to actually move themselves to a place with limited government, no taxation and no regulation,' he said. 'Should Mr. Ballmer or Mr. Bezos need to move their families to another country, they would absolutely choose a country like Canada or New Zealand or Germany or France with higher rates of taxation, more regulation and more activist government than we have in the U.S. Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Bezos would not move their children to the Congo or Afghanistan, countries with low rates of taxation, no regulation and limited government.' Perhaps Hanauerhad will cut the pair some slack after reading that Ballmer is down to his last $13.1 billion, and Bezos is trying to make ends meet on $12.6 billion. BTW, Bill Gates — still the wealthiest American according to Forbes — reportedly supports the income tax like his old man, although a Microsoft spokeswoman indicated that the Gates' view isn't shared by a number of senior Microsoft execs who 'are concerned about the impact I-1098 will have on the state's ability to attract top tech talent in the future.'
Politics

Submission + - China Embargos Rare Earth Exports to Japan (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missiles. China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound. The embargo comes after a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain whose ship collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. The Chinese embargo is likely to have immediate repercussions in Washington. The House Committee on Science and Technology is scheduled to review a detailed bill to subsidize the revival of the American rare earths industry and the House Armed Services Committee is scheduled to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements."
Open Source

Submission + - Stallman crashes talk, fights 'war on sharing' (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by schliz
schliz writes: Free software activist Richard Stallman has called for the end of the 'war on sharing' at the World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia. He criticized surveillance, censorship, restrictive data formats and software-as-a-service in a keynote presentation, and asserted that digital society had to be "free" in order to be a benefit, and not an attack.

Earlier in the conference, Stallman briefly interrupted a European Patent Office presentation with a placard that said: "Don't get caught in software patent thickets". He told journalists that the Patent Office was "here to campaign in favor of software patents in Australia", arguging that "there's no problem that requires a solution with anything like software patents".
Linux

New Linux Petabyte-Scale Distributed File System 132

Posted by samzenpus from the check-it-out dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A recent addition to Linux's impressive selection of file systems is Ceph, a distributed file system that incorporates replication and fault tolerance while maintaining POSIX compatibility. Explore the architecture of Ceph and learn how it provides fault tolerance and simplifies the management of massive amounts of data."

Comment Yes, only he can see than dancing fairies (Score 4, Interesting) 686

by xiphmont (#32055066) Attached to: Steve Jobs Hints At Theora Lawsuit

As a Theora developer, this is news to me. Would you mind mentioning who this buddy is so I can go back through my mail queue and verify that you're just making shit up?

I know you're lying, as regardless of what our response would have been it most certainly would _not_ have been, "ssshhh don't tell anyone".

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And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm' without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

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