rothlmar - Slashdot User

Feed The Register: TiVo and Amazon get with the picture (theregister.com)

From feed by registerfeed on Tuesday July 10, 2007 @03:14PM

Look ma! No PC!

Tivo and Amazon have finally gotten it right. Starting today, TiVo DVR users can download movies from Amazon's Unbox service straight from their television sets - without help from a PC.

How the Pentagon Got Its Shape 473

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 28, 2007 @10:59AM from the yay-holiday-weekends dept.

Pcol writes "The Washington Post is running a story on the design process for the Pentagon building and why it ended up with its unusual shape. In July 1941 with World War II looming, a small group of army officers met to consider a secret plan to provide a permanent home for War Department headquarters containing 4 million square feet of office space and housing 40,000 people. The building that Brig. Gen. Brehon Burke Somervell, head of the Army's Construction Division, wanted to build was too large to fit within the confines of Washington DC and would have to be located across the Potomac River in Arlington. "We want 500,000 square feet ready in six months, and the whole thing ready in a year," the general said adding that he wanted a design on his desk by Monday morning. The easiest solution, a tall building, was out because of pre-war restrictions on steel usage and the desire not to ruin Washington's skyline. The tract selected had a asymmetrical pentagon shape bound on five sides by roads or other divisions so the building was designed to conform to the tract of land. Then with objections that the new building would block views from Arlington National Cemetery, the location was moved almost one-half mile south. The building would no longer be constructed on the five-sided Arlington Farm site yet the team continued with plans for a pentagon at the new location. In the rush to complete the project, there was simply no time to change the design."

Submission + - iTunes detects musical hoax

Submitted by holy_calamity on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @02:10PM

holy_calamity writes: iTunes habit of accessing CDDB has bust open a musical fraud in the usually quiet world of classical piano. Albums by the much vaunted British pianist Joyce Hatto are identified by the player as belonging to other performers. A more scientific analysis by an audio remastering firm has found that none of Hatto's works appear to be hers.

Don't Believe What You See at the Movies 441

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday February 20, 2007 @01:58PM from the made-the-star-wars-movies-possible dept.

MattSparkes writes "Many images you see in a magazine are Photoshopped, and it's getting less and less likely that what you see at the cinema is any more genuine. In the film 'Blood Diamond', tears were added to Jennifer Connolly's face after a scene was shot. According to The Times, digital effects artists can even change actors' expressions. 'Opening or closing eyes; making a limp more convincing; removing breathing signs; eradicating blinking eyelids from a lingering gaze; or splicing together different takes of an unsuccessful love scene to produce one in which both parties look like they are enjoying themselves.' The article mentions the moral qualms digital effects people have over performing these manipulations, and the steps actors are taking to protect their digital assets."

Comment Re:conservation of energy (Score 1) 320

by rothlmar on Saturday February 17, 2007 @05:10PM (#18054250) Attached to: Nanotech Battery Claims to Solve Electric Car Woes

Finally, if you want to make your power plant cleaner at some point in the future it is a bit easier than retrofitting a large number of cars.

I think it's safe to say that the replacement cycle on cars is a bit shorter than the upgrade cycle of power plants, so this particular benefit probably won't materialize.

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