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Haiku Tech Talk at Google a Success 127

Posted by CowboyNeal from the come-together dept.
mikesum writes "February 13 was Haiku's big day at Google, and we can say with a good degree of confidence that the Haiku Tech Talk was quite successful. We had a very special guest for this event: former Be Inc. CEO Jean Louis Gassée, who not only joined us at Google for our presentation, but also gave a few words of support and encouragement for our project. It was great to have JLG's presence, as well as that of the several ex-Be engineers who showed up for the talk. We were also glad to see Java for BeOS developer Andrew Bachman join us for this special event. Have a look at the pictures taken during the presentation, as well as the video of the event."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Call of Duty 2 for Pocket PC

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Six years ago we got PocketQuake. Since then, the Pocket PC has seen Tomb Raider, Worms, DoomGL, and numerous emulators. The latest big budget title to hit the Windows Mobile scene is Call of Duty 2, a direct port from the original and featuring OpenGL-ES support for the Dell X50v line of PDAs. The game was ported by Aspyr (the Mac games developers), and there's an exhaustive review (also in PDF, no ads) at PocketGamer.org.
Space

Submission + - Asteroid impact threat

Submitted by
Maggie McKee
Maggie McKee writes: "Kamchatkans and Venezuelans beware. A 20-million-tonne asteroid could be heading your way. Californians have even more reason to worry — the asteroid is more likely to hit the Pacific Ocean, triggering a tsunami that could devastate the west coast of North America. These are among the scenarios projected for asteroid Apophis, which researchers now say has a 1 in 45,000 chance of hitting Earth on 13 April 2036. Calculations show it would strike somewhere along a narrow track that stretches eastward from Siberia to the west coast of Africa. The threat, while small, is real enough to merit a United Nations protocol for dealing with the problem, experts say."

New Microsoft Dirty Tricks Revealed 207

Posted by CowboyNeal from the sleights-of-hand dept.
Conrad Mazian writes "Robert X. Cringely has an article on the Technology Evangelist web site where he claims that Microsoft destroyed evidence in the Burst vs Microsoft case. Specifically Burst's lawyers had asked for certain emails, Microsoft claimed that they couldn't find the backup tapes the emails would be on, and while this was happening the tapes were in a vault at Microsoft — until they mysteriously disappeared. It's a fascinating story, and even names one person at Microsoft."
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"
Biotech

Scientists Expose Weak DNA in HIV 196

Posted by CowboyNeal from the go-for-the-throat dept.
Ace905 writes "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Thursday that they had discovered a very promising 'weak spot' in the HIV virus. The HIV virus, a progenitor to full blown AIDS has eluded all attempts at a vaccine since it was discovered sometime in the 1970's. The major problem with developing a vaccine initially was isolating the virus. Conventional viruses are often defeated with existing drugs, or after being tested against new compounds. HIV has been unique, and staggering in it's ability to resist all attempts at treatment by mutating its own genetic code. HIV is able to resist, with great effectiveness, any drug or combination drug-therapy that is used against it."
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.

Stallman Convinces Cuba to Switch to Open Source 582

Posted by CowboyNeal from the digital-emissaries dept.
prostoalex writes "It's a big victory for Richard Stallman in North America, as Cuba decided to adopt open source software on the national level. Both Cuba and Venezuela are currently working on switching the entire government infrastructure to GNU/Linux operating system and applications, the Associated Press reports from Havana: 'Both governments say they are trying to wean state agencies from Microsoft's proprietary Windows to the open-source Linux operating system, which is developed by a global community of programmers who freely share their code.' The AP article doesn't mention the distro used for government workers, but says that the students are working on a Gentoo-based distro."
Google

A Tour of Googleplex East 109

Posted by CowboyNeal from the and-on-your-left dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In Googleplex East: Search And The City, IWeek has posted a visual tour of the search giant's NYC HQ, complete with the requisite massage room, candy machine, and funky cafeteria. (There are even — surprise — work areas.) A companion story argues that New York City has reemerged as a tech center, citing the access to the Big Apple's media as a powerful pull for Web 2.0 companies. It also argues that NY's business community is more important these days to startups than Silicon Valley's deep pool of talent. Do you buy this thesis? Isn't it really unimportant these days where you work, geographically?"
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Dynamic Keyboard Layout Changers

Submitted by
Howard Dews
Howard Dews writes: "NST has just posted an interesting write-up regarding the difficulties of changing keyboard layouts for those amongst us that don't like QWERTY — and an innovative way of addressing it:

Imagine a keyboard with a scroller on the side with a little analog screen next to it. You can scroll to the layout you want and type — no BS involved. Even better, imagine a tiny cylinder that sits between your USB port and the Keyboard — with a scroller on it. It can (on the fly, of course) intercept outgoing scan codes from the keyboard and replace them with the right thing according to the layout you selected
I wonder how long it'll take before someone takes this idea and flies with it....."
Television

Journal Journal: The co-inventor of the TV remote, Robert Adler, passed away

Journal by mennucc1
CNN reports that Robert Adler, who co-invented the device that made the couch potato possible, died Thursday at 93. 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. Few people today would imagine that that remote was ultrasound
Security

Submission + - Chinese Cyber Attacks on DOD Networks

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "As seen in: SANS NewsBites Vol. 9 Num. 14 The Naval Network Warfare Command says Chinese hackers are relentlessly targeting Defense Department networks with cyber attacks. The "volume, proficiency and sophistication" of the attacks supports the theory that the attacks are government supported. The "motives [of the attacks emanating from China] ... include technology theft, intelligence gathering, exfiltration, research on DOD operations and the creation of dormant presences in DOD network for future action." http://www.fcw.com/article97658-02-13-07-Web&print Layout"
Censorship

FCC Report - TV Violence Should be Regulated 346

Posted by Zonk from the moving-picture-tubes-made-me-do-it dept.
tanman writes "CNN reports that a draft FCC report circulating on Capitol Hill 'suggests Congress could craft a law that would let the agency regulate violent programming much like it regulates sexual content and profanity — by barring it from being aired during hours when children may be watching' The article goes on to quote from studies showing a link between violent imagery and violence in life, and discusses the 'huge grey areas' that could result from ill-defined concepts of excessive violence." Government as Nanny, or cracking down on an excessive entertainment culture? Which side of this do you find yourself on?

Macrovision Responds to Steve Jobs on DRM 221

Posted by Zonk from the thinking-out-loud dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Macrovision Corporation, best known for its long history of DRM implementations, (everything from VCRs to software copy protection), has responded to Steve Jobs open letter regarding DRM. With ample experience and despite the obvious vested interests, it's great to hear their point of view. In the letter they acknowledge the 'difficult challenges' of implementing DRM that is truly 'interoperable and open'. At the same time they also feel that DRM 'will increase electronic distribution', if implemented properly, because 'DRM increases not decreases consumer value', such as by enabling people to rent content at a lower price than ownership, and lowering risks for content producers. While I'm impressed they responded, I can't say I'm impressed by lofty goals that might not be reached for years. The reality is, current DRM implementations often leave users with the bad end of the deal. What do you think? Should people give DRM manufacturers more time to overcome the challenges and get it right?"
XBox (Games)

Submission + - Halo 3 Gets Official Fall 2007 Release Date

Submitted by notd665
notd665 writes: Developer Bungie released the first in a series of teaser images for its game today, along with one very useful tidbit: Halo 3 is indeed slated for a late 2007 release on the XBOX 360. Next week's major XBOX 360 release, Crackdown, will contain an invitation to the Halo 3 beta, which is expected to launch in the spring.

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