Comment There are Already Live TV Apps (Score 1) 141
I've been watching extensive coverage of the Japan Earthquake/Tsunami on NHK's app. CNN lets you watch live TV as well....
Comment Re:Microsoft treats non-profits very well (Score 3, Informative) 255
Second this.
I work for the Canadian branch of an international NGO, and MS almost throws software at us - we recently were donated $50 000 MSRP of software from MS. We paid $2300 in "administration fees" - which pay for two years of Software Assurance, downloads, customer service, tech support, etc.
Most software companies are generous to registered NGOs.
We do use *nix for many things, most of our network infrastructure is *nix. It just makes sense. But for the users, who know Office and Windows, we can't justify the lost time and training in switching to a something else when there is next to no price benefit - our software cost per workstation is ~$50 every 4 years.
I do feel bad for being a MS propagation machine, but they do make it pretty darn easy.
Building 3D Models On the Fly With a Webcam 93
blee37 writes "Here is an excellent video demonstration of a new program developed by Qi Pan, a graduate student, and other researchers at the University of Cambridge. The 'ProFORMA' software constructs a 3D model of an object in real time from (commodity) webcam video. The user can watch the program deduce more pieces of the 3D model as the object is moved and rotated. The resulting graphics are of high quality."
Google Kills Yahoo Ad Deal 79
mytrip writes "Google has pulled the plug on on a search-ad partnership with Yahoo that would have given Yahoo major new revenue but that raised antitrust concerns. 'After four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement,' said David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer in a blog post Wednesday."
Comment Re:Best AV/App-Watch/Firewall for 64 Bit Windows? (Score 1) 586
Kaspersky is what I use, and it works well on XP x64.
MBHkewl: 32-bit virus/firewall applications will not install on a 64-bit system. Maybe because they need more OS access, I don't know, but Norton, Mcacfee and a slew of others would not install because they do not support 64 bit systems..
3-D Virtual Maps For the Blind 50
Roland Piquepaille writes to let us know about research into producing palpable maps for the blind. Scientific American has the story of Greek researchers who produce 3D "haptic" maps that "use force fields to represent walls and roads so the visually impaired can better understand the layout of buildings and cities." Two separate systems produce haptic output from standard video and from 2D maps. The systems have been tested on a small number of users. Currently the devices that interpret the "force fields" for sight-impaired users are not portable, and so the systems are most appropriate for doing research before, e.g., visiting a new city.
The First HD DVD Movie Hits BitTorrent 537
Ars Technica reports that the first HD DVD movie has made its way onto BitTorrent, showing that current DRM efforts to prevent illegal sharing of copyrighted content are still futile and fighting an uphill battle. From the article: "The pirates of the world have fired another salvo in their ongoing war with copy protection schemes with the first release of the first full-resolution rip of an HD DVD movie on BitTorrent. The movie, Serenity, was made available as a .EVO file and is playable on most DVD playback software packages such as PowerDVD. The file was encoded in MPEG-4 VC-1 and the resulting file size was a hefty 19.6 GB."
