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Toys

Gadgets Have Taken Over For Our Brains 311

Posted by Zonk from the let's-get-started-with-the-implants dept.
skotte writes "According to a Trinity College survey released Friday, the boom in mobiles and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things. In effect, the study argues, these devices have replaced our long-term memory capabilities. 'As many as a third of those surveyed under the age of 30 were unable to recall their home telephone number without resorting to their mobile phones or to notes. When it came to remembering important dates such as the birthdays of close family relatives, 87 per cent of those over the age of 50 could remember the details, compared with 40 per cent of those under the age of 30.'"
Science

Giant Squid Washed Ashore in Australia 149

Posted by Zonk from the don't-try-to-make-calamari dept.
twofish writes "Yahoo News is reporting that the carcass of a giant squid, nearly 8 meters in length, washed ashore in Australia on Wednesday. The creature's mantle is over two meters in length and almost a full meter across. The creature, stretched out, is in total more than eight meters long. 'Scientists would take samples from the creature, identified by state parks officials as an Architeuthis, which can grow to more than 10 meters (33 feet) in length and weigh more than 275 kilograms (606 pounds). The Tasmanian animal was 250 kg ... Giant squid, once believed to be mythical despite occasional sightings by mariners, feed on fish and other squid. Last year, fishermen off the Falkland Islands caught a complete animal measuring 8.62 meters.'"
Linux Business

Linux Creator Calls GPLv3 Authors 'Hypocrites' 920

Posted by Zonk from the family-fued dept.
AlexGr writes "We've heard conflicting tales regarding Linus Torvalds' acceptance of GPLv3. InformationWeek reports on comments by Mr. Torvalds that would seem to decide the issue: 'Torvalds said the authors of a new software license expected to be used by thousands of open source programmers are a bunch of hypocrites ... For Torvalds' part, it appears unlikely he'll ever adopt GPLv3 for the Linux kernel. He accused the Free Software Foundation leadership, which includes eccentric, MIT-trained computing whiz Richard Stallman, of injecting their personal morality into the laws governing open source software with the release of GPLv3. "Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with legality," Torvalds wrote.'"
PHP

Submission + - PHP 4 end of life announcement (php.net)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Today it is exactly three years ago since PHP 5 has been released. In those three years it has seen many improvements over PHP 4. PHP 5 is fast, stable & production-ready and as PHP 6 is on the way, PHP 4 will be discontinued.

The PHP development team hereby announces that support for PHP 4 will continue until the end of this year only. After 2007-12-31 there will be no more releases of PHP 4.4. We will continue to make critical security fixes available on a case-by-case basis until 2008-08-08. Please use the rest of this year to make your application suitable to run on PHP 5.

For documentation on migration for PHP 4 to PHP 5, we would like to point you to our migration guide. There is additional information available in the PHP 5.0 to PHP 5.1 and PHP 5.1 to PHP 5.2 migration guides as well.
Patents

Microsoft Patents Process To "Unpirate" Music 241

Posted by Zonk from the very-merry-unbirthday-to-you dept.
Unequivocal writes "A new Wired magazine blog entry shows that Microsoft has patented a technique for preventing and reversing music piracy at the hardware level. 'Microsoft and Apple are thinking along the same lines when it comes to enabling users to copy music between their wireless devices. Certain cellphones already allow you to [transfer music] via Bluetooth file transfer, but Microsoft's patented idea would take the concept further, by allowing users to trade MP3s that may have come from file sharing networks to one another, expiring the song on the recipient's device after three plays, unless the user pays Microsoft a fee in order to continue to listen to the track, with a percentage going to the person who provided the song. As the abstract puts it, "even [the] resale of pirated media content [can] benefit... the copyright holder."'"
The Internet

Submission + - Pay to Play: Uncovering Online Payola (dailytech.com)

Submitted by
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam writes: "Payola is a term normally associated with the radio industry, where record companies paid stations to play and promote new records. Federal legislation has made such activity in most media industries strictly illegal, but no law currently exists for online outlets. DailyTech goes undercover to investigate whether or not hardware review websites can be swayed by the almighty buck."
Databases

Submission + - WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT INDIA (rediffblogs.com)

Submitted by
RashmiSeo
RashmiSeo writes: "Dimension I is a fully integrated IT consulting and solutions outsourcing company, providing custom application development, outsourced product development, eCommerce website solutions to help your business exceed its technological expectations. Our strengths lie in web application development, customized web application development, website development, and website database solutions development."
Movies

Submission + - Segway Movie Sells Out, New Indie Success Story

Submitted by
Kelly Wilkinson
Kelly Wilkinson writes: "Last week, 10 MPH , a comical documentary about a Segway-crossing of America, released worldwide on DVD. Thousands of copies were sold and Amazon now reports shipping delays, while Netflix was listing a long wait over the weekend. Indie filmmakers Josh Caldwell and Hunter Weeks credit the success to a changing distribution model, increased interest in indie films, and the inspirational message of their film. They also are quick to mention that there are no reports of delays on the iTunes compatible download of their film which is being purchased from dozens of countries."
The Internet

Submission + - Livejournal under Russian DDOS

Submitted by
Tom Womack
Tom Womack writes: "Over the last 24 hours, people have been noticing that no packet containing the character sequence DPNI is getting through to livejournal.com. Livejournal have announced that this is a side-effect of blocking a DDOS against them, presumably (DPNI being a Russian anti-immigrant party) by Russian interests."
Graphics

Submission + - Printing: Importance to understand dpi and lpi (typpz.com)

Submitted by
Psy2k
Psy2k writes: "Here is an article analyzing the differences of lpi and dpi and the importance to understand them both.

Dpi (dots per inch) show the number of distinct pixels that can be created on each linear inch of output on screen or in printing. Dpi is a measure of resolution. Lpi (lines per inch) measure frequency of screen. The normal range of half tone screens is from 75 to 200 lpi or even higher. Postscript (by Adobe) can produce 256 shades of each font color (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key Color-Black). The number of shades depends on a combination of output device's dpi and halftone screen lpi. For calculating the number of shades, we use the creating color blend on gradation (known as degrade): Total shades=(Dpi/Lpi). Using this we calculate the upper limit of shades (256 for Adobe Postscript). Using a higher dpi/lpi combination, will enable you to distribute those 256 possible shades across a small percentage change, giving you much more subtle shifts.
"
Nintendo

Submission + - If Nintendo made mobile games... (pocketgamer.co.uk)

Submitted by
marcellizot
marcellizot writes: "Nintendo doesn't make mobile games, everybody knows that. You can't play Mario Kart on your RAZR phone, and about the only thing the Nokia N95 can't do is catch Pokemon. Why not? In the past, the reasons have been obvious. As Java gaming evolved, the phone started to look like a potential competitor to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance handheld. Pocket Gamer takes the time to explore why Nintendo hasn't yet and why it should in the future."
Software

Submission + - Application Installers: Let's Be Open (osweekly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: OSWeekly.com requests software developers to make their installers open to make them cross compatible with other platforms. Brandon Watts writes, "Modern installers have changed their ways quite a bit, but a lot of the bloat is still out there, and they're still doing some sneaky things, however, most of it isn't all up in your face. Because of that, I can answer my own question that I posed at the outset by suggesting that people remain oblivious about what sometimes happens when they install software. Some interaction with the operating system may be required to setup certain aspects of the application, but anything beyond this cordial getting to know you stage of the application and operating system relationship can begin to get tricky.

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