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Comment Moon landing 1969 (Score 3, Funny) 203

by ueltradiscount (#22113862) Attached to: Design of Next-Gen NASA Rocket Showing Flaws

How is it that astronauts managed to land on the moon in 1969 but the next mission to get people to the moon will take until 2020? With today's engineering tech - CFD software, advanced materials science, VR simulation, rapid prototyping technology - and lots of commercial sattelites shot into space every year, it should be much easier to get people to the moon and back safely than it must have been in the 60s. Unless of course that landing was faked as some people allege.
Government

Submission + - National ID Cards Mandated - If you're under 50

Submitted by charleste
charleste writes: Get your tin-foil hat ready... according to CNN, the US Homeland Security Department has mandated "REAL ID" for drivers licenses. According to the article, this will not include a "chip", but a list of options by state. Despite legislation passed in various states and objections by groups such as ACLU, this appears to be a done deal. You won't be able to board a plane after 2014 if you're under 50 without one.
Privacy

Submission + - Sonic advertising - like it or not (p2pnet.net) 1

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: "Advertisers are determined to get into your head by one means or another, and Holosonic Research Labs has found yet another way of invading your privacy in the name of forcing you pay attention. You're walking down a street in New York when all of a sudden, 'Who's that?' — whispers a woman's voice. 'Who's There?' No. You weren't having a schizoid episode. You were being subjected to 'sound in a narrow beam, just like light' without your permission. It was coming at you from a rooftop speaker 7 stories up. Don't want to be bombarded by sonic ads? Tough. Wear ear-plugs."
User Journal

Journal Journal: DRM-Free Upconverting DVD player

Journal by corsec67

When I got my 720p LCD TV, I went looking for a new DVD player to go with it. I wanted: 720p over component video, and if possible as little DRM as possible. I found that no players sold in the US were allowed to do anything over 480p over component video if the disc had macrovision. However, Helios Labs, with their North American office in Canada, was selling the h2000

Feed Techdirt: Why Would A DRM Company Buy TV Guide? (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Macrovision, a company that's well known for its DRM products, made quite a splash today with its announced plans to buy Gemstar-TV Guide for $2.8 billion. The rationale for the deal seems to be that the folks at Macrovision may actually believe the commonly stated myth that DRM "opens new business models." Macrovision talks about how combining its DRM with Gemstar listings and content could enable a bunch of new offerings -- but it's difficult to believe those new offerings will be particularly compelling. DRM has never been about enabling new business models, but about making any content less valuable by limiting its usefulness in the hopes of being able to charge separately for each use. Perhaps that's what they mean by "new business models" but it's hardly a business model if it's simply pissing off consumers. As Saul Hansell at the NY Times notes, the direction Macrovision seems to be moving in is (along with the recent story of hard drives that block MP3 sharing) one where technology companies feel that they need to be policing how people use content. That's a very anti-consumer position to be in -- and it's generally not a good business proposition to be focused on limiting consumers. Apparently, investors agree -- as they've sent the stock price of both companies way down in reaction to the deal.

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Feed Engadget: Apple files patent for multitasking gaming touchscreen (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Apple's always had less-than-enthusiastic stance towards gaming, so the company's latest patent filing seems a bit out of character, seeing as it details a multitasking touchscreen that would allow games to be played while still controlling other applications like media players. The system works be categorizing touch inputs and routing the data to the appropriate application -- a simple tap might go to the game, while a longer press might be sent to the media player. According to Apple, "the invention allows various applications to be integrated and used on devices that are not readily suitable for supporting multiple applications at the same time." Of course, there's no word on when we might see this make its way into an actual product, but if this means we might see games on the iPod touch and iPhone, bring it on.

[Thanks, Mark]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Censorship

Submission + - Egyptian Blogger Silenced by YouTube

Submitted by
Frosty Piss
Frosty Piss writes: "A Egyptian human rights activist has been muzzled after YouTube and Yahoo! shut down accounts belonging to the award-winning blogger. Cairo-based Wael Abbas regularly writes and posts video about police brutality, torture and sexual harassment in Egypt. One of the videos — of an Egyptian bus driver being sodomized with a stick by a police officer — was used as evidence to convict two officers of brutality, a rare occurrence in a country where human-rights groups say torture is rampant. YouTube said the decision to remove Abbas' videos had nothing to do with the Egyptian government, but was rather an internal decision."
United States

Submission + - U.S. House says the Internet is terrorist threat

Submitted by
GayBliss
GayBliss writes: "The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 1955) last month, by a vote of 404 to 6, that defines the Internet as a terrorist tool that Congress needs to develop and implement methods to combat. The first 3 "findings" pretty much sums it up:

`The Congress finds the following:

`(1) The development and implementation of methods and processes that can be utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States is critical to combating domestic terrorism.

`(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence exists in the United States and poses a threat to homeland security.

`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.
The bill now moves to the Senate for a vote. So where do you suppose they are going with this? Should we wait around to find out, or is it time to call your congressman?"

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MAC user's dynamic debugging list evaluator? Never heard of that.

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