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Media

Submission + - Would you pay for YouTube videos? (securityandthe.net)

Submitted by
secmartin
secmartin writes: "A couple of weeks ago, Google's CEO mentioned to investors that they might start charging YouTube's users for viewing content:

With respect to how it will get monetized, our first priority, as you pointed out, is on the advertising side. We do expect over time to see micro payments and other forms of subscription models coming as well. But our initial focus is on advertising. We will be announcing additional things in that area literally very, very soon.

With the recent Disney — Hulu deal, Google is under increasing pressure to generate more revenue and at the same time attract more premium content. That means we might see payment options coming even sooner than expected, with control over the pricing models being handed over to the studio's providing that content, like the way Apple caved in over variable pricing on iTunes. Which raises an important question: would you actually pay for premium content on YouTube and other sites, or will this draw viewers away to other video sites?"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft earning only $15 per XP netbook (wsj.com)

Submitted by
christian.einfeldt
christian.einfeldt writes: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is earning only about $15.00 USD for each netbook sold with Microsoft Windows XP. The WSJ cites the proliferation of netbooks as a factor contributing to the 8% decline in Windows revenue for the quarter that ended in December, 2008. The netbook market segment poses an on-going problem for Microsoft, according to the WSJ, in light of the fact that Gartner, a market research firm, recently predicted unit sales of netbooks will grow nearly 80% this year to 21 million units, while overall PC sales decline a record 11.9%. Microsoft will respond by offering Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition, which features limited functionality such as limited customization and a cap of three applications running concurrently. Dell, meanwhile, has said recently that its sales of Linux-based netbooks constitute about one-third of its Inspiron Mini 9s, with return rates comparable to that of Inspiron Mini 9s netbooks running XP."
Medicine

Submission + - H1N1 appears to be transmittable from human to pig

Submitted by
mpetch
mpetch writes: "In an interesting twist It appears that H1N1 influenza can be transmitted from humans to swine. Apparently a Canadian pig farmer vacationed in Mexico, returned to Canada and infected about 10% of the swine on an Alberta farm. The swine subsequently developed flu symptoms."
Idle

Submission + - Art student's car vanishing act (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: A design student made a battered old Skoda "disappear" by painting it to merge with the surrounding car park. Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car's appearance.She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan's Hanover Building in Preston. The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.
Censorship

Submission + - Italian Pirate Bay Trial in the Making

Submitted by hyanakin
hyanakin writes: Following the Swedish verdict, Italy is now considering starting its own trial against the people involved with The Pirate Bay. This would be the first criminal prosecution against the Pirate Bay 'founders' outside their home country. Read the full article on TorrentFreak
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 Released, Supports ODF (microsoft.com)

Submitted by
shutdown -p now
shutdown -p now writes: "On April, 2008, Microsoft has released service pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007. Among other changes, it includes the earlier-promised support for ODF text documents and spreadsheets, featured prominently on the "Save As" menu alongside Office Open XML and the legacy Office 97-2007 formats. It is also possible to configure Office applications to use ODF as the default format for new documents.

In addition, the service pack also includes "Save as PDF" out of the box, and better Firefox support by SharePoint."
The Courts

Submission + - SPAM: show me the shource

Submitted by viralMeme
viralMeme writes: Across the country, drunk driving defendants have demanded to see the source code in the breath testing machines used against them. Minnesota's highest court agrees that they deserve to see it... but only if they have some reason for thinking there's a problem.
Link to Original Source
Quake

Submission + - Quake Live: Mac and Linux are "Top Priority (quakelive.com)

Submitted by AlexMax2742
AlexMax2742 writes: Marty Stratton notes in his Quake Live developer blog on the subject of the Mac and Linux port of Quake Live:

These have proved more difficult than expected, but we're getting close. We expect to also be testing Mac and Linux versions of QUAKE LIVE internally this month and then making those publicly available just as soon as we feel they are ready. This work is being done by a separate programmer in parallel with the other work that we're doing, and is his only priority — point being, that this is a top priority for us and not being delayed because of other work.

In the submitters humble opinion, it's awesome to see that kind of (continued) dedication from a company.
Government

Submission + - Pentagon Lost Billions, Pennies at a Time 1

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "MSNBC reports that in 1969 Walter T. Davey, an aeronautical engineer at North American Rockwell discovered he was being overpaid by roughly 2 cents an hour, or one-third of 1 percent of his pay. Davey submitted the discovery to his superiors and suggested a simple fix. "It was so simple to correct," said Davey, a 79-year-old retired Air Force colonel. "just change a few digits in the coding software." The Project on Government Oversight, which reviewed Davey's findings last year, estimated the change could save taxpayers $270 million a year. Multiply by 40 years — the length of time since Davey made his discovery — and the figure grows to an astounding $10.8 billion. Legislators ignored Davey's letters, federal auditors deferred to Congress, and lobbyists "descended on it and tore it into a piece of Swiss cheese" but legislators aren't eager to challenge the powerful defense lobby about a figure that's a relative pittance in the overall defense budget — even if it exceeds $100 million annually. "A lot of people have taken advantage of the system to reap as much in taxpayer dollars as possible," says Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight. "But when you're going up against the contractor lobby — whether you're an individual across the country or a public interest group or a government employee — it's a tough road.""
Media

Submission + - Blizzard attacking iPhone devs.

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Apparently Blizzard is going after developers making free iPhone apps for World of Warcraft and giving them cease-and-desist orders. As Mike Schramm says "Blizzard may be planning to do more with the iPhone." How low can you go?

Comment Rogers are idiots (Score 0) 213

by TeraByte911 (#27025829) Attached to: Canadian ISPs Speak Out Against Net Neutrality

'P2P file sharing is designed to cause network congestion,' says the company. 'It contributes significantly to latency, thereby making the network unreliable for certain users at periods of such congestion.'

It's nice to see that a large Canadian ISP doesn't know anything about how P2P is designed. Also nice to see that they don't know the differences between latency, reliability and congestion.

Oh well, corporate research is highly overrated anyway.

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