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Comment The Bill is in Danger of Being Seriously Weakened (Score 5, Informative) 83

by Puk (#56448681) Attached to: California Bill Would Restore, Strengthen Net Neutrality Protections
A Senate committee recommended serious cuts to the bill:
https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2018/04/california-senate-committee-recommends-cutting-key-net-neutrality-protections

And, of course, the ISPs have been fighting the bill _hard_:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/att-and-cable-lobby-are-terrified-of-a-california-net-neutrality-bill/

If you're in CA and you support effective net neutrality legislation, let your local legislators know you want the original bill.

Comment Competition (Score 3, Insightful) 190

by Puk (#32471956) Attached to: The Apple Broadcast Network
In 1959, the television broadcast networks were competing with... radio? Today, Apple is competing with an enormous number of Windows- (and Linux-, Android-, WebOS-...) based Internet-connected laptops (and desktops, phones, PDAs, tablets...) capable of showing the same quality video. Oh, and with television (broadcast, cables, satellite...), which has grown a bit since 1959.

-puk

Comment Re:apple - the most anti-open company (Score 1) 600

by Puk (#29517549) Attached to: USB-IF Slaps Palm In iTunes Spat
It's far more than a technical fight -- it's an underlying policy fight. Apple is not wrong for calling Palm out for masquerading as their device. It's wrong for putting a bunch of engineering effort into blocking people from using the devices they own with software it has been designed to be compatible with. Palm devices only started masquerading as Apple devices after they were intentionally blocked.

Regardless if that change is a violation of the USB license, I'm not interested in paying money to a company who's spending that money making my other devices not work. If Palm made their phones not offer USB disk access when connected the the Mac, I'd drop them, as well.

-puk

Comment I can't wait. (Score 1) 539

by Puk (#28978059) Attached to: Apple Working On Tech To Detect Purchasers' "Abuse"
Apple refused to repair my MacBook, which had 2 years of AppleCare left, citing a censor which showed evidence of liquid damage (despite my computer never having come into contact with liquids). They pointed out to me that the sensor can be triggered by high humidity, but nonetheless wanted to charge me 75% the cost of a new, better laptop to repair it. Then they sent me the laptop back with screws missing and not even booting as far as when I sent it to them. When I pointed this out in a letter, they told me "it was returned in the condition it was received."

Of course, as a result, my new desktop, laptop, and MP3 players are non-Apple products. And this type of technology can no doubt be useful and help reduce fraud. But when used blindly or by organizations with questionable support quality, it can become a way to get out of contractual obligations and avoid the cost of actually standing behind extended warranties.

Thanks again, Apple.

-puk

Comment Re:Sanity Check? (Score 1) 332

by Puk (#25556851) Attached to: Judge Tells RIAA To Stop 'Bankrupting' Litigants

I guess you did find it. Yes, they are pages after (3 wide-margin double-spaced fixed-type pages!), but they are part of the same conversation with the same lawyer and the same family. I was demonstrating the judge's attitude towards the RIAA attorney because the tone of the statement (the "dripping with sarcasm") doesn't show up in the transcript.

No, sarcasm isn't ideal from the bench, but our clippings combined demonstrates exactly why it happens. The judge is only human, and is faced with 133 cases in which an industry cartel is railroading people who don't fully understand what is happening into paying a lot of money and not defending themselves, and the judge has to ask all of these questions and eventually order the defendants to pay ridiculous amounts of money because the law demands it, and he/she has no choice.

In summary: yes, pages away, yes same conversation, yes it was sarcastic, yes that's not ideal, and yes I don't blame the judge. Nothing in there indicates that the statement about the RIAA needing money was at all made in earnest.

-Puk

Feed Techdirt: FTC Asked To Stop Bogus Copyright Warnings In Sports Broadcasts (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
You may recall earlier this year that law professor Wendy Seltzer received a DMCA takedown notice from the NFL for posting a short clip to YouTube of the part during the Super Bowl where the announcers state the famous warning that often reads something like "Any rebroadcast, reproduction or other use of the pictures, accounts or descriptions of this game without the express written consent of Big Sports League, is prohibited." What got lost in the Seltzer story over whether or not posting that particular clip to YouTube was legal, was that her point in using it was to show how sports leagues were making claims to rights that copyright didn't actually give them. It appears that enough others have noticed this as well that a trade group, backed by various big name tech companies, is now asking the Federal Trade Commission to prevent broadcasters from making such "deceptive" copyright statements. The group is claiming that this incorrect statement that clearly reaches beyond the rights copyright provides, is harmful to consumers and technology companies. Of course, in the sports leagues' (and other content companies') defense, it appears that plenty of people ignore the bogus copyright warning anyway.

Feed Engadget: Apple iPhone update 1.0.1 released! (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Cellphones


Boot up iTunes everybody, the Joz wasn't kidding when he said the first iPhone update is nigh. Apple just pushed out iPhone update 1.0.1. We don't have specifics about what this thing fixes (the x.0.1 and "bug fixes" doesn't instill much confidence it's all about new features), but we'll be updating as we learn more.

[Thanks, BGR]

Update: Ok, updating took about five or six minutes. Noticing anything specifically? Let us know in comments, we'll list the fixes here (since Apple wasn't courteous enough to tell us what, exactly, it repaired in the device).

Ah, Apple's added the fix / changelog. Noice!

Good news everybody! iFuntastic (v2) still works with the 1.0.1 update! We tested it, and it worked beautifully.

Continue reading Apple iPhone update 1.0.1 released!

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Communications

Siemens Reaches 107 Gbps Data Transfer Record 161

Posted by samzenpus from the greased-lightning dept.
prostoalex writes "Reuters is reporting on Siemens engineers reaching 107 Gbps data transmission record over a fiberoptic cable, and expects the technology to be on the market within a few years: "The test, 2.5 times faster than a previous maximum transmission performance per channel, was done in cooperation with Germany's Micram Microelectronic, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications and Eindhoven Technical University of the Netherlands.""
Sci-Fi

New Stargate Series In the Works 294

Posted by CowboyNeal from the on-the-horizon dept.
Skythe writes "Gateworld reports that an exclusive, third Stargate series is in the works: 'The new series is in the concept phase, and is being actively worked on by the Vancouver creatives behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. No concept for the show has yet been revealed.' Gateworld also reports despite the cancellation of SG-1, the series is likely for a 2007 debut. I wonder if the direct-to-dvd movies will any influence on the new series, and what the concept behind the show will be?"

Games That Advanced the Art of Storytelling 121

Posted by Zonk from the moving-on-up dept.
monikersi writes "In October 2006, the editors of Gamasutra asked its readership of game industry professionals to chime in and vote for which game brought storytelling forward in the biggest way, from any genre (text adventure through action title to RPG or sim and beyond) — there are plenty of picks, and some surprising winners." From the article: "Forcing the user to build the story piecemeal through personal logs and snippets of information throughout the game created a varied experience for each user. This drove the player to fill the holes in the story with the next log and their own assumptions and imagination. I remember playing System Shock 2 years after playing it for the first time and had a markedly different reaction due to changes in my own perspective. Phenomenal."

Keeping Cool May Be the Key To Longevity 224

Posted by Zonk from the everybody-be-cool-you-be-cool dept.
merryprankster writes "New Scientist reports that Scripps Research Institute scientists have found that lowering the body temperature of mice by just 0.5C extends their lifespan by around 15%. Until now the only proven way of increasing longevity has been calorie restriction — but as this also causes a lowering of body temperature the researchers speculate that this cooling may be the underlying mechanism retarding aging. In this study mice with a defect in their lateral hypothalamus, which has the side effect of cooling body temperature, not only lived longer but also ate normal amounts."

Automatic Image Tagging 123

Posted by CowboyNeal from the on-the-horizon dept.
bignickel writes "Researchers at Penn State have applied for a patent on software that automatically recognizes objects in photos and tags them accordingly. The 'Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures Real-Time' software (catchy name) trained a database using tens of thousands of images, and new images have 15 tags suggested based on comparisons with objects or concepts in the database. Not sure how you identify a 'concept,' and they're only talking about having one correct tag in the top 15, but still cool."

Forgent Settles JPEG Patent Cases 167

Posted by Zonk from the why-can't-i-think-of-scams-like-this dept.
eldavojohn writes "As many of you know, the JPEG image compression is actually proprietary. This has resulted in many lawsuits between its owner, Forgent Networks, and other companies that have used it. Yesterday Microsoft and about 60 other defendants settled with Forgent to the tune of $8 million. For a company with annual revenues of $15 million, that's nothing to sneeze at. You haven't heard the last of Forgent yet, as the article states, 'It is currently pursuing claims against cable companies over a patent that it says covers technology inside digital video recorders.' Sounds like that one could be worth a little bit of cash, wouldn't you think?"

Diebold Demands That HBO Cancel Documentary 514

Posted by Zonk from the because-we-say-so dept.
Frosty Piss writes "According to the Bloomberg News, Diebold Inc. is insisting that HBO cancel a documentary that questions the integrity of its voting machines, calling the program inaccurate and unfair. The program, 'Hacking Democracy,' is scheduled to debut Thursday, five days before the 2006 U.S. midterm elections. The film claims that Diebold voting machines aren't tamper-proof and can be manipulated to change voting results. 'Hacking Democracy' is 'replete with material examples of inaccurate reporting,' says Diebold. 'We stand by the film," said a spokesman for HBO. 'We have no intention of withdrawing it from our schedule. It appears that the film Diebold is responding to is not the film HBO is airing.'"

Taking Bully Seriously? 69

Posted by Zonk from the better-than-ezra dept.
simoniker writes "There's been plenty of controversy about Rockstar's PS2 title Bully, but does it actually have anything to teach players? Ian Bogost looks into whether the game actually has a social message, explaining: 'Taking Bully seriously means acknowledging that the game has something to say about the world, not just that the world has something to say about it. It means assessing how effectively the game tackles the topic of bullying and how meaningful its claims about it are.' His conclusion? 'Sweeping away all the dust that Bully left in the wake of its release, it's hard to defend the game, not because it might be a pubic nuisance or a danger to kids, but because it could have been so much more of a scathing critique of high school social politics than it turned out to be.'"

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