First time accepted submitter TekTek writes "In response to the growing proliferation of the use of "secret sauce" as a vehicle for entrepreneurs', venture capitalists', and investment bankers' thinly veiled proprietary machinations, a global consortium of premium condiment manufacturers has launched the Open Sauce Foundation (OSF). Founding members include McIlhenny Company (producer of Tabasco brand pepper sauce), Huy Fong Foods (producer of "Rooster Brand" Sriracha sauce), and Kikkoman (producer of Kikkoman brand Soy Sauce). The new foundation's stated aim is not only to uphold the virtues of buying worthy sauce manufacturers' products, but to demonstrate to the tech, financial, and media communities that "Open" companies, and condiments, can, and do, assume leadership roles in their respective markets."

eldavojohn writes "As more and more businesses become dependent on barcodes, people are pointing out common problems involving the security of one- or two-dimensional barcode software. You might scoff at this as a highly unlikely hacking platform but from the article, 'FX tested the access system of an automatically operated DVD hire shop near his home. This actually demanded a biometric check as well, but he simply refused it. There remained a membership card with barcode, membership number and PIN. After studying the significance of the bar sequences and the linear digit combinations underneath, FX managed to obtain DVDs that other clients had already paid for, but had not yet taken away. Automated attacks on systems were also possible, he claimed. But you had to remember not to use your own membership number.' The article also points out that boarding passes work on this basis — with something like GNU Barcode software and a template of printed out tickets, one might be able to take some nice vacations."

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Rolling Stone has an interesting story on how record producers alter the way they mix albums to compensate for the limitations of MP3 sound. Much of the information left out during MP3 compression is at the very high and low ends, which is why some MP3s sound flat. Without enough low end, 'you don't get the punch anymore. It decreases the punch of the kick drum and how the speaker gets pushed when the guitarist plays a power chord.' The inner ear automatically compresses blasts of high volume to protect itself, so we associate compression with loudness. After a few minutes, constant loudness grows fatiguing to the brain. Though few listeners realize this consciously, many feel an urge to skip to another song."

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property brings us an article describing the possibility of a new type of non-volatile storage based on quantum dot technology. So far, researchers in Germany have achieved 10ns access times and 0.7Hz refresh rates. Their calculations predict that the access time could be maintained for up to a million years. We have discussed other technologies based on quantum dots, such as solar panels and information teleportation. From the Ars Technica article: "Quantum dots can do this because there is more design freedom in setting them up. Normal flash memory relies on the huge potential barrier created by a silicon oxide layer. However, to get electrons across that barrier when writing data to a flash cell requires a lot of energy, energy that destroys the silicon oxide layer. Quantum dots, in contrast, have tunable properties, so the barrier can be kept low."