18869164
submission
boustrophedon writes:
The Netflix blog compared streaming performance among 20 top ISPs for the past three months. A Netflix HD stream can provide up to 4800 kbps, but the fastest American ISP, Charter, could sustain only 2667 kbps on average. Most Canadian ISPs beat that, with champ Rogers providing an average of 3020 kbps. Clearwire, Frontier, and CenturyTel were in the doghouse with under 1600 kbps.
2925991
submission
boustrophedon writes:
The Buffalo News reports that QRS Music Technologies halted production of player piano rolls 108 years after the company was founded in Chicago. QRS continues to make digitized and computerized player-piano technology that runs on CDs. "We're still doing what we always did, which is to provide software for pianos that play themselves. It's just the technology that has changed. But I would be lying to say [the halting of production] doesn't sadden me," said Bob Berkman, the company's music director.
Piano rolls can last for decades, but not forever. Volunteers at the International Association of Mechanical Music Preservationists build piano roll scanners such as this one to optically scan rolls and convert them to MIDI files. The IAMMP archive and others contain thousands of scanned rolls.
725315
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boustrophedon writes:
Starting at midnight in their local timezones, downloaders have been asking when Firefox 3 will be ready for Firefox Download Day, June 17, 2008. Mary announced on the Spread Firefox Forum that downloads will commence at 10 AM PST.
