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Submission + - IBM open sources Mac@IBM code (9to5mac.com)

Submitted by PolygamousRanchKid
PolygamousRanchKid writes: At the Jamf Nation User Conference, IBM has announced that it is open sourcing its Mac@IBM provisioning code. The code being open-sourced offers IT departments the ability to gather additional information about their employees during macOS setup and allows employees to customize their enrollment by selecting apps or bundles of apps to install.

"Oh, joy . . . more employee data collection."

Back in 2015, IBM discussed how it went from zero to 30,000 Macs in six months. In 2016, IBM said Apple products were cheaper to manage when you looked at the entire life cycle:

IBM is saving a minimum of $265 (up to $535 depending on model) per Mac compared to a PC, over a 4-year lifespan. While the upfront workstation investment is lower for PCs, the residual value for Mac is higher The program’s success has improved IBM’s ability to attract and retain top talent – a key advantage in today’s competitive market.

"An interesting claim . . . "
Iphone

Submission + - Judge Rules iPod/iPhone Speaker Docks Don't Infringe on Bose Patent; Apple Sighs (cepro.com)

Submitted by
CIStud
CIStud writes: "U.S. District Court in Massachusetts has ruled that iPod, iPad and iPhone speakers docks do not infringe on a patent owned by Bose Corp. for digital audio conversion. The ruling in the case of Bose vs. small dock speaker makers SDI, DPI, Imation and others reportedly was a test case that would have set precedent for potential patent infringement by other manufacturers... and even Apple... according to the defendant's legal team. At issue: Is an iPhone, iPad or iPod a "computer." The judge says they aren't."
Star Wars Prequels

Submission + - Star Wars Fans Fix Up Luke Skywalker's Home (inhabitat.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How far would a Star Wars fan go to preserve a relic from the iconic film series? One devoted fan traveled to Tunisia to rescue Luke Skywalker's boyhood home, also known as The Lars Homestead, as seen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. On a trip to Tunisia in 2010, Belgian traveler Mark Dermul came upon the modest dome-shaped hut that George Lucas built in the mid-1970s to serve as Luke Skywalker's home. The structure was falling apart when Dermul found it, so he hatched a scheme to restore it. After two years and a lot of cement and plaster, Luke's house is looking better than ever.
Music

Submission + - Loudness Wars Coming to an End? (cepro.com)

Submitted by
Stowie101
Stowie101 writes: "The first major step towards the elimination of heavily-compressed music could be the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) ITU-R BS.1770-2 standard recommendation for the measurement of loudness that was introduced in 2006 and revised in 2011.

Following the ITU’s recommendations, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released its Loudness Recommendation EBU R128 in August of 2010. Acting to rectify the problem on the broadcast side of the issue, many European and Asian broadcasters are adopting loudness standards that are based on the criteria first introduced by the ITU.

Here in the U.S., the federal government has also been proactive to improve the quality of broadcast television. By the end of 2012, the broadcast community will have to follow the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act that requires commercials to be played at the same volume as broadcast television.

In terms of music and recording, these broadcast standards do not apply. But Shepherd theorizes the measurement standards will be applied to the production of music.

“Measuring loudness, in general, isn’t easy. Now the ITU has agreed on a new ‘loudness unit:’ the LU. You can measure short- and longer-term loudness over a whole song. They’ve also agreed on guidelines for broadcast; what the average loudness should be and how much you can vary it. The recommendation has been made law in the U.S. for advertisements and is also being adopted in the U.K. and all over the world. All the major broadcasters here — Sky, the BBC, ITV — have agreed to follow the standard."
IT

Submission + - Study Shows Teenage Gamers Don't Want IT Careers (cepro.com) 1

Submitted by
CIStud
CIStud writes: "If you think playing endless hours of "Dungeons & Dragons" will create a desire to get into the information technology (IT), think again. A new study by CompTIA of teens and young adults shows that only 17% want to pursue a technology career despite the fact that 97% say they "love" technology."

Submission + - Dolby's TrueHD 96K Upsampling to Improve Sound on Blu-rays (cepro.com)

Submitted by
Stowie101
Stowie101 writes: "The audio on most Blu-ray discs is sampled at 48kHz. Even the original movie tracks are usually only recorded at 48kHz, so once a movie migrates to disc, there isn’t much that can be done.

Dolby’s new system upsamples that audio signal to 96kHz at the master stage prior to the Dolby TrueHD encoding, so you get lossless audio with fewer digital artifacts.

The “fewer digital artifacts” part comes from a feature of Dolby’s upsampling process called de-apodizing, which corrects a prevalent digital artifact known as pre-ringing. Pre-ringing is often introduced in the capture and creation process and adds a digital harshness to the audio. The apodizing filter masks the effect of pre-ringing by placing it behind the source tone — the listener can’t hear the pre-ringing because it’s behind the more prevalent original signal."
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Minneapolis Airport Installing 1800 high-definition surveillance cameras (startribune.com)

Submitted by bzzfzz
bzzfzz writes: The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is beginning a $20 million dollar upgrade of its surveillance system. The upgrade will include 1800 high-definition cameras, facial recognition systems, and digital archiving to replace the analog tape system in use since the 1980s. The system will serve both security and operational goals. The MAC asserts that improved camera technology yields improved security as though the connection between the two is so strong that no proof is required.
United States

Submission + - Online music storage firm MP3tunes files for bankruptcy (reuters.com)

Submitted by fishmike
fishmike writes: Online music storage firm MP3tunes Inc filed for bankruptcy in a U.S. court, following its prolonged run-in with music publishing giant EMI Group over copyright issues, court filings showed.

MP3tunes is a so-called cloud music service that lets users store music in online "lockers." Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Google Inc have similar cloud services.
Cloud

Submission + - Amazon's Cloud Now 1% of Interet (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A Wired story claims Amazon's cloud now hosts enough companies and traffic to generate 1% of all Internet traffic (and visits from 1/3 of daily Internet users). An amazing number if its true. And a little scary for one company to host this much cloud infrastructure.
IBM

Submission + - IBM Patent: Smart Floors Detect Heart Attacks, Intruders

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: An IBM patent issued in March describes multitouch floors that detect who is in the home and what they’re doing – perfect for detecting intruders and falls, notes MSNBC. CEPro.com suggests the technology also could be used to replace cameras and sensor arrays typically required for gesture control, and could detect staggering teens and "unregistered" boyfriends. The floors would have “tremendous implications for home health technology.”
America Online

Submission + - Microsoft buys 800 AOL patents for $1 billion (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "Marking the latest escalation in the technology industry’s intellectual-property arms race, Microsoft is paying AOL a shade over $1 billion for 800 patents, the cream of which AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has described as “beachfront property in East Hampton.” Armstrong insists they haven't left the cupboard bare: “We continue to hold a valuable patent portfolio as highlighted by the license we entered into with Microsoft. The combined sale and licensing arrangement unlocks current dollar value for our shareholders and enables AOL to continue to aggressively execute on our strategy to create long-term shareholder value.”"
The Military

Submission + - Army Reviews Controversial Drug after Afghan Massacre

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Time Magazine reports that after the massacre in which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly massacred 17 civilians in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has ordered an urgent review of the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, also known as Lariam, known to have severe psychiatric side effects including psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. "One obvious question to consider is whether he was on mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malarial medication," writes Elspeth Cameron Ritchie in Time. "This medication has been increasingly associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, including depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation." The drug has been implicated in numerous suicides and homicides, including deaths in the US military. For years the military used the weekly pill to help prevent malaria among deployed troops, however in 2009 the US Army nearly dropped use of mefloquine entirely because of the dangers, using it only in limited circumstances, including sometimes in Afghanistan. Army and Pentagon officials would not say whether Bales took the drug, citing privacy rules however, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson has ordered a new, urgent review to make sure that troops were not getting the drug inappropriately. “Some deployed service members may be prescribed mefloquine (PDF) for malaria prophylaxis without appropriate documentation in their medical records and without proper screening for contraindications,” the order says. It notes that this review must include troops at “deployed locations.” "I know there's a lot of discussion about the malaria drug, and I don't know yet (whether Bales was taking it)," says Bales' attorney, John Henry Browne. "We have to get his medical records. And I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised. But I don't know that.""
Businesses

Submission + - Apple to buy back $45bn worth of its shares (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
floydman
floydman writes: "Apple has said it will use its cash to start paying a dividend to shareholders and to buy back some of its shares.
The technology giant said it would pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share from July.
It will buy back up to $10bn (£6.3bn) of its own shares starting in the company's next financial year, which begins on 30 September 2012."
Security

Submission + - New iPad Jailbroken On Day One (zdnet.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Just hours after the new Apple iPad was released, it was jailbroken in three (how appropriate!) separate ways. This means that hackers have already found and exploited security holes to run custom code on the new iPad with iOS 5.1. The tools for jailbreaking your new iPad aren’t yet available, but this first step means the software will be developed sooner rather than later.

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