rubyfreak - Slashdot User

Sony Announces DRM-Free Music at Amazon 293

Posted by Soulskill on Friday January 11, 2008 @04:40AM from the not-as-dumb-as-we-thought dept.

sehlat brings us a New York Times report that Sony has agreed to start selling DRM-free music from Amazon's MP3 store. This comes days after Sony revealed plans for physical MusicPass cards that would allow DRM-free access to a small portion of Sony's library. Now that all four major record labels are on board with Amazon, some are expecting Apple to make moves away from DRM as well. From the NYTimes: "Sony's partnership with Amazon.com also underscores the music industry's gathering effort to nurture an online rival to Apple, which has sold more than three billion songs through its iTunes store. Most music purchased on iTunes can be played only on Apple devices, and Apple insists on selling all single tracks for 99 cents. Amazon, which sells tracks for anywhere from 89 cents to over a dollar, offers the pricing variability the labels want."

Feed A Step Nearer To Understanding Superconductivity (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed on Thursday June 07, 2007 @02:13PM

Transporting energy without any loss, travelling in magnetically levitated trains, carrying out medical imaging (MRI) with small-scale equipment: all these things could come true if we had superconducting materials that worked at room temperature. Researchers have now taken another step forward on the road leading to this ultimate goal. They have revealed the metallic nature of a class of so-called critical high-temperature superconducting materials.

Feed The iPod Blog: Un-watermarking iTunes Plus (macworld.com)

From feed by macworldfeed on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:53PM

Unhappy that Apple watermarks your iTunes Plus files? There's a way out for Mac users.

Submission + - Serious diseases genes revealed

Submitted by

gollum123

on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:52PM

gollum123 writes: "A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world's most common diseases has been reported ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6724369.stm ). The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences. They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn's disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes. The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) involved 50 leading research groups analysing the DNA from 2,000 patients for each of the seven conditions and 3,000 healthy volunteers. One of the most exciting finds was a previously unknown gene common to type 1 diabetes and Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disorder, suggesting that they share similar biological pathways. There is also disease by disease data at the BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6727043.stm )."

Submission + - Soviet Video Games from the 70s

Submitted by

vigmeister

on Thursday June 07, 2007 @01:27PM

vigmeister writes: "Russian kids have uncovered and rebuilt some arcade games from the Soviet era. These games apparently offered free play when someone played well, but no list of hi-scores. Roughly 32 of them have been found and although they are based on other arcade games, I hope these games were unique enough to offer playability for the present day arcade game lovers. Wonder when they'll be available for download on the Wii though...:))"

Comment Re:TTY? (Score 1) 151

by rubyfreak on Tuesday February 13, 2007 @08:49AM (#17995852) Attached to: Sign Language Via Cell Phone

Both yes and no. As others have mentioned, deaf people use SMS as much as the next guy. However, written language is extremely un-intuitive for deaf people. For someone who is deaf from birth, it's just sequences of meaningless symbols, and even the grammar is different. Which isn't that strange when you think about it - remember, their native language is sign language, not English.

Being able to communicate with your friends in your native language is something we take for granted, but to the deaf community this isn't always the case. That is why sign language via cell phones is turning into such a big thing. Here in Sweden, lots and lots of deaf people have switched to 3G phones with video ability because of that.

Wal-Mart Asked to Drop Christian Video Game 1535

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 14, 2006 @08:53AM from the the-crusades-were-fun dept.

doug141 writes "Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves.Players can choose to join the Antichrist's team, but of course they can never win on [his] side. The enemy team includes fictional rock stars and folks with Muslim-sounding names, while the righteous include gospel singers, missionaries, healers and medics."

Professor Comes Up With a Way to Divide by Zero 1090

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 07, 2006 @03:01AM from the it-seems-so-obvious-now dept.

54mc writes "The BBC reports that Dr. James Anderson, of the University of Reading, has finally conquered the problem of dividing by zero. His new number, which he calls "nullity" solves the 1200 year old problem that niether Newton nor Pythagoras could solve, the problem of zero to the zero power. Story features video (Real Player only) of Dr. Anderson explaining the "simple" concept."

Ballmer Babies Banned From iPods and Google 554

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday March 29, 2006 @11:55AM from the thats-one-way-to-slow-the-competition dept.

Valah writes "In a recent Fortune interview with Steve Ballmer, the newer kinder Microsoft CEO is not only ready to take on the videogaming, search, music download and mobile markets - but he's also laying down the law in his own house. Steve says that his kids are not allowed to use Google or have an iPod."

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