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Networking

Submission + - How much storage do you "control"?

Submitted by linkedlinked
linkedlinked writes: While looking for some old backups with a friend, we started talking about storage space, and how so many of our random files wind up in obscure places. We realized that each of us has "access" to a pretty sizable heap of storage (for college kids). I would guess that, between ftp accounts on friends' servers, random school storage space, root access to a few work servers, and my own half-dozen computers and servers, I probably have near 5-6 TB of usable storage. Out of curiosity, we decided to ask Slashdot- legality aside, how much storage space could you feasibly dominate on a whim?
Windows

Submission + - Netflix also catering to Windows?

Submitted by
schrodingersmistress
schrodingersmistress writes: "Today I was recently going through my Netflix account and under "Your Account" I saw that the Netflix's new "Watch Now", http://www.netflix.com/WatchNow?lnkctr=mhWN, feature was available BUT it only works on Windows Machines. Netflix makes no note of a Mac compatible version to follow. Last week there was an article on Walmart doing the same sort of thing. Does anyone know the official scoop on this, does Netflix have some sort of deal with Microsoft to make their online features only available for Window's users?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - RIAA hires DJ's, then sends in the SWAT team

Submitted by
cancan
cancan writes: "The NY times is carrying an article about how the RIAA is hiring hip hop artists to make mix tapes, and then helping the police raid their studios. In the case of DJ Drama and DJ Don Cannon (myspace warning), they were raided by SWAT teams with their guns drawn. The local police chief said later that they were "prepared for the worst." Men in RIAA jackets helped cart away "evidence"."
It's funny. Laugh.

Translation of Macrovision Response to Jobs on DRM 284

Posted by CmdrTaco from the worth-a-read dept.
BoboB-69 writes "Daring Fireball has posted a humorous, and accurate PR-speak to Plain English translation of Macrovision's CEO's response to Steve Jobs' Open Letter on DRM. Highly recommended reading for slashdotters everywhere."
Graphics

Submission + - New Blender.org Website and Blender 2.43 Released

Submitted by
Jasonlan
Jasonlan writes: "The http://www.blender.org/ website has been fully remade and the New Blender 2.43 Released.
Matt Ebb(Elephants Dream) and Bart Veldhuizen(BlenderNation) have been busy creating the new Blender.org Website.

"The 2.43 release could be nicked the "Multi" version; with multi-resolution Meshes, multi-level UV, multi-layer images and multi-pass rendering, to name some highlights."

Blender 3D 2.43 Sports a new Sculpted Mesh, by Giuseppe Canino
Modifier stack upgrades, new modifiers: Edgesplit and Displace and UV Project
Sculpt Modeling, Multiresolution Mesh, Retopo, editing Mesh topology, Fluid Dynamics supporting animated Objects, Multiple UV's and vertex colors, Image Painting and Face Duplicators.

Animation has improved Walk Cycle Modifiers, Proxy Objects, for local control over referenced data from Libraries.

Render features: alpha masks, node shader speedup, tangents and normal maps, Irregular Shadow Buffers, Shadow buffer, Halfway average, Render Baking, Render Passes

Compositing has improved UV Map, Index Mask and Z-Combine, Defocus, Matte Nodes.

Multi-layer images, Sequence images, flipbooks added.

New physics examples including constraints and compound objects.

All in All another GREAT Release!"
Google

Submission + - Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Search

Submitted by
N-Dream
N-Dream writes: "One of the features I like most when I use Google on my mobile phone is that I can type the number of the search result instead of selecting it manually. The desktop version of Google.com doesn't show the order number for search results and doesn't offer any keyboard shortcut that could save you time.

If you install Greasemonkey for Firefox, you can add a script that sets some keyboard shortcuts for Google search. The script works even for the localized versions of Google.


You'll see that each search result has a digit in front of the title. This works only for the first 10 results from a results page, so it might be a good idea to stick to the default number of search results (which is 10).

You can also go to the next page of search results by tying n and go back to the previous page by typing p. To edit the query you have two options: either type e to select the query, so when you type something the query will be replaced, or type a to append something to the query.

A very cool feature is the tab mode: if you type t, the numbers will be highlighted in green and search results will open in new tabs."
Printer

Submission + - Zink Imaging to launch inkless printer

Submitted by
Vinit
Vinit writes: "Zink Imaging has developed a unique technology which can print pictures without ink! The innovation could be applied to make hand-held printers that can be integrated into mobile phones and digital cameras. While printing one only needs a paper, I mean Zink paper which is initially colorless, looks and feels like ordinary white photograph paper and is not light sensitive. You can get a copy of picture (5 cm x 7.5 cm) in 30 seconds and the photos are are very durable — they cannot be torn and are also water resistant. The firm plans to launch two products by the end of the year: a small battery-operated, pocket-sized printer for camera-phones and a digital camera with a 2 inch x 3 inch (5 cm by 7.5 cm) printer built in. The company recently demonstrated a working prototype of the camera phone printer at the DEMO 2007 technology conference in California, US. The printer is expected to cost $200 while 100 sheets of paper will cost $20. http://www.pclaunches.com/optical_media/zink_imagi ng_to_launch_inkless_printer.php"
Television

Submission + - Co-Inventor of the TV Remote Dies

Submitted by poorting
poorting writes: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_REMOTE _CONTROL?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Co-Inventor of the TV Remote Dies

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Hit the mute button for a moment of silence: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, has died. Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday of heart failure at a Boise nursing home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday.

In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.

In a May 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Adler recalled being among two dozen engineers at Zenith given the mission to find a new way for television viewers to change channels without getting out of their chairs or tripping over a cable.

But he downplayed his role when asked if he felt his invention helped raise a new generation of couch potatoes.

"People ask me all the time — 'Don't you feel guilty for it?' And I say that's ridiculous," he said. "It seems reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television."

Various sources have credited either Polley, another Zenith engineer, or Adler as the inventor of the device. Polley created the "Flashmatic," a wireless remote introduced in 1955 that operated on photo cells. Adler introduced ultrasonics, or high-frequency sound, to make the device more efficient in 1956.

Zenith credits them as co-inventors, and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded both Adler and Polley an Emmy in 1997 for the landmark invention.

"He was part of a project that changed the world," Polley said from his home in Lombard, Ill.

Adler joined Zenith's research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.

During World War II, Adler specialized in military communications equipment. He later helped develop sensitive amplifiers for ultra high frequency signals used by radio astronomers and by the U.S. Air Force for long-range missile detection.

Adler also was considered a pioneer in SAW technology, or surface acoustic waves, in color television sets and touch screens. The technology has also been used in cellular telephones.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published his most recent patent application, for advances in touch screen technology, on Feb. 1.

His wife, Ingrid, said Adler wouldn't have chosen the remote control as his favorite invention. In fact, he didn't even watch much television.

"He was more of a reader," she said. "He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem.' He was always thinking science."

Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, she said, "but then the remote control changed the life of every man."

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.
Windows

Journal Journal: Piracy worked for us

Journal by dorianm

Piracy worked for us, Romanian president tells Gates

Reuters
Thursday, February 1, 2007; 9:45 AM

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Pirated Microsoft Corp software helped Romania to build a vibrant technology industry, Romanian President Traian Basescu told the company's co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday.

Basescu was meeting the software giant's chairman in Bucharest to celebrate the opening of a Microsoft global technical center in the Romanian capital.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - GPLv3 is DRM

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This post says:

"Imagine: some software/music, say GCC, is released/distributed under GPLv2. People can do whatever they want with it: redistribute it, reuse it in their own source code/music, or whatever. Then GPLv3 comes out. Suddenly the software/music won't work on/play in your hardware/software."

Please comment, I hope I'm wrong.
Programming

Submission + - Advanced Perl XML tips using XSLT, SAX, and SQL

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This article shows you more powerful tools for parsing XML using Perl: DOM-style tree parsers and the SAX event-based parsers. You will learn about XML::SAX::Base and how you can use it to build sources, handlers, and sinks of SAX events. See how to feed transformed parse trees into SAX pipelines, further transform them, and write them as text or to SQL databases. Finally you will learn how to reverse this, using database content to drive SAX pipelines.

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