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Music

Submission + - Activision blocks Rock Band guitar patch

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: While Xbox 360 owners can use any Xbox 360 guitar to play Rock Band, PlayStation 3 owners only other option (the Guitar Hero 3 guitar) was not compatible when Rock Band launched. Harmonix created a patch to fix this, only to have Activision block the patch. According to a Harmonix employee on the official Rock Band forums:

"Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision's Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band. The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4. Unfortunately, Activision objected to the compatibility patch's release. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision's continued objection."
Media

Submission + - w00t Becomes A Word (fastsilicon.com) 2

Submitted by
mrneutron2003
mrneutron2003 writes: "In a move that shows the fluidity of the english language as well as the questionable ways in which we use it, Merriam-Websters has named "w00t" as the Word Of The Year. We wonder whether or not this is the first time a word has been adopted into Merriam-Websters dictionary that contains numbers and letters. The Sacremento Bee reports...
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t." "W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007. Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.
http://www.fastsilicon.com/off-the-wall/w00t-becomes-a-word.html"
Music

Record Labels Change Minds About Sharing MP3s 243

Posted by kdawson from the seven-years-late dept.
Mass Defect writes "While the RIAA continues to sue people for p2p file sharing, the record labels have made an about-face and given their blessing to users sharing MP3s via the social networking site imeem.com. In May this year the site was being sued by Warner for allowing users to upload photos, videos, and music to share. However to everyone's amazement, instead of being flattened, imeem.com managed to convince the label that this free promotion was a good thing. In July imeem.com signed a deal with the label. Since then the site has added Sony, BMG, EMI, and now the biggest fish of them all, Universal. Imeem now has the royal flush of record labels supporting its media-sharing service, each getting a cut of the advertising revenues generated by their catalog. Finally someone has figured out a way to do 'YouTube for MP3s' without getting sued out of existence."
Security

Submission + - WiFi worms: the next generation of virus (arxivblog.com)

Submitted by
KentuckyFC
KentuckyFC writes: "The density of WiFi routers within our cities has reached a critical value that allows malware to spread from machine to machine without having to travel over the internet. Researchers have simulated how this spread would occur in several major US cities and say that 37 per cent of routers would be affected within two weeks (abstract published on the physics arxiv). They say that poor password hygiene, known problems with WEP encryption and the absence of antiviral software for routers all contribute to make the threat critical."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Moore's Law, Deep Thought and 42 3

Submitted by
Stephen Gwyn
Stephen Gwyn writes: "So in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" it took the supercomputer "Deep Thought" 7.5 million years to come up with the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything right? The answer was 42 as we now know. But supposing the computational philosophers had been just a bit more clever. Suppose they actually wanted a run-time of 1 year instead of 7.5e6 years. Since, according to Moore's law, computational speed doubles every 18 months they should have just waited until computers were 7.5e6 times faster. 7.5e6 is roughly 2**23 (or 2^23,depending on your notation) so we have 23 times 18 months which is about 35 years. Add one year for the actual run time, and you have 36 years in all, which is much less than 7.5 million. Wait a little bit longer, and you can run it on your laptop as "iLife, the iUniverse and iEverything" application. Probably as a screen saver.

There is a paper written by some astronomers ("The Effects of Moore's Law and Slacking on Large Computations") which tells you exactly how long to wait to buy your computer when faced with a long runtime."
Media

Submission + - A&E beaming adverts directly into your head. 2

Submitted by Fantastic Lad
Fantastic Lad writes: Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad. New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman's voice right in her ear asking, "Who's there? Who's there?" She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, "It's not your imagination." Indeed it isn't. It's an ad for "Paranormal State," a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week. The billboard uses technology manufactured by Holosonic that transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.
Biotech

Submission + - Desktop synchrotron to capture molecular action 1

Submitted by Syncrhronymous Coward
Syncrhronymous Coward writes: Researchers led by Dino Jaroszynski of Strathclyde University have developed a desktop synchrotron particle accelerator that could soon freeze-frame the motion of atoms and molecules, according to this article over at New Scientist. Using a laser, some gas, and a row of magnets, his team put together a source of "synchrotron light", which they say can be easily upgraded to produce intense, ultra-short pulses of X-rays — ideal for probing the intricate structure of many kinds of matter. Instead of a conventional ring of magnets and microwave cavities, they use an experimental technology called plasma wakefield acceleration. The research paper can be found in Nature Physics.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Has anyone gotten the GPL code for the Samsung TVs 2

Submitted by Daniel Lamblin
Daniel Lamblin writes: When I got my Samsung LN-T3242H 32" 720P LCD HD TV It came with a copy of the GPL, and a statement saying that some software used in the product is covered by the GPL and other software by LGPL. There was also a USB port on the back from which new firmware could be loaded. This excited me and I emailed the address specified with a request for the code, and anything they were willing to give as documentation with it. I believe the GPL specifies that there must be a usable way to build the source too. Well, two requests later, I had no reply. I emailed a Samsung engineer formerly involved in GPL related work, and he forwarded my request to the right people. It seemed. The last I heard, and they did try to keep me updated, was that they're getting it together for me, I should have it soon, and they need to talk to people in Monta Vista. This was in October. I got the TV in June and made requests starting then.

Apparently several, if not all, Samsung TV models have a reference to using some GPL code. This goes back about to 2005, maybe more. Has anyone's request for the source been honored? I understand maybe my TV has slightly different code, and they may be using a VCS to find the right branch, but it would make me feel better knowing that this isn't a black-hole and that someone's actually gotten some code out of Samsung regarding their TV using GPL & LGPL.

PS edit as needed.
Software

Submission + - Open source takes aim at high-cost math software (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "A new open source mathematics program is looking to push aside commercial software commonly used in mathematics education, in large government laboratories and in math-intensive research. The program's backers say the software, called Sage, can do anything from mapping a 12-dimensional object to calculating rainfall patterns under global warming. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22768"
Government

Submission + - Wikileaks coup: Guantanamo and rendition manuals (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by James Hardine
James Hardine writes: The Washington Post is reporting that Wikileaks has released another manual for Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay together with the US military's rendition operations manual. This release follows from the Wikileaks release of the 2003 SOP Manual as reported in Slashdot and the New York Times last month. Wikileaks compares the two manuals (2003, 2004) and reveals damning changes in official US detainee policy in exquisite detail. Who knew that diff could be such a powerful political weapon?
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Klausner sues iPhone for $360M over voicemail

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: Klausner Technologies said on Monday the company had filed a $360 million suit against Apple and AT&T over voicemail patents that Klausner claims the Apple iPhone infringes. New York-based Klausner said the lawsuit also names Comcast, Cablevision Systems and eBay's Skype as infringing its patent for "visual voicemail." The plaintiff seeks an additional US$300 million from the three. The suit alleges asserts that the defendants' Internet-based voicemail products and services violate a Klausner patent. It seeks damages and future royalties estimated at $300 million, according to the press release.
Music

Submission + - EMI music forces NZ National Party to recall DVDs (nzherald.co.nz)

Submitted by RincewindTVD
RincewindTVD writes: Music 'similar' to Coldplay's Clocks has forced promotional material from NZ's National political party to be recalled, including DVDs sent out and online media.

Musicologist Dr Graeme Downes notes that the song Clocks and hte music in the promotional material are very similar and that he would not be willing to help defend the copyright infringement claims.

It looks like the Auckland artist and the production company that made this for the National party might be in a bit of hot water over this.

Forced recall details here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10480032&ref=rss

Earlier details including notes from a musicologist here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10479448

Too lazy to edit urls..
OS X

Submission + - Java 6 available on OSX thanks to port of OpenJDK (bikemonkey.org)

Submitted by LarsWestergren
LarsWestergren writes: Many Mac users have been upset that Apple has not made Java 6 available on the platform. Landon Fuller posts that there is a developer preview release available of Java JDK6 on Mac OSX, Tiger and Leopard. It is based on the BSD port of Sun's Java 6 and is made available under the Java Research License. Charles Nutter posts about impressive JRuby performance gains using Java 6 on his Mac.
Announcements

Submission + - Jack Thompson Facing Disbarment Trial

Submitted by pwizard2
pwizard2 writes: Controversial Miami attorney Jack Thompson faces the start of an ethics trial this morning which could get him disbarred. Have we seen the end of his shenanigans, and is he finally going to see some long-overdue comeuppance?

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