Comment Re:Light on details (Score 3, Informative) 52
Engadget article says it is mediaFLO. It is a broadcast technique developed by Qualcomm.
The Linux Identity Crisis 364
Jayze Calrtini writes "From an article from ZDNet:"If you've been following the current rift in the Linux community between Linus Torvalds and his minions squaring off against Con Kolivas and the mainstream Linux fanatics, you probably know that it's getting quite heated.
You also probably know that these two entirely different ideas could create three possible paths Linux can take for the future: stay geeky and appeal to the advanced tech guru in all of us; go mainstream and leave the advanced functionality and reliable kernel behind to compete with Microsoft and Apple; or face a "civil war" that could lead to total Linux annihilation."
The Fall Geek TV Lineup 318
An anonymous reader writes "Wired has an article looking at this Fall's bumper crop of geek TV. McG, who directed the pilot for the show Chuck, opines that the appearance of nerd culture on network television is a long-overdue reflection of real life. From the article: 'Hollywood, he said, is playing catch-up with IT culture. "The classic shape of the computer geek is over when Bill Gates became the (richest), most aspirational, coolest guy in the world," he said. "He is the original thick-glasses, pocket-protector guy. Now who doesn't want to be like Bill Gates?"' They have reviews of the lengthy list of shows, for clues as to what to watch and what to miss."
Submission + - "Viacom hit me for infringing my own copyright (blogspot.com) 2
Chris Knight writes: "Long story short: I ran for school board where I live this past fall and created some TV commercials including this one with a "Star Wars" theme. A few months ago VH1 grabbed the commercial from YouTube and featured it in a segment of its show "Web Junk 2.0". Neither VH1 or its parent company Viacom told me they were doing this or asked my permission to use it, but I didn't mind it if they did. It was great to see the commercial was being enjoyed by a far wider audience than I'd expected. I was honored that they chose to use it and thought that Aries Spears's commentary about it was pretty hilarious, so I posted a clip of VH1's segment on YouTube so that I could put it on my blog. This morning I got an e-mail from YouTube saying that the video has been pulled because Viacom is claiming that I'm violating its copyright. Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright! Talk about chutzpah! Needless to say, I would like to fight this: not for any kind of monetary compensation, but just for the right to employ my own self-created material per Fair Use."
Submission + - Mitsubishi Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab (xconomy.com)
Andrew Koyfman writes: "Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories is falling apart. Top researchers and scientists are being poached by the competitors, including BAE, Adobe and others. The lab was responsible for much breakthrough research in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics, AI and machine learning. They were the first group to develop the Dimond Touch table, an early precursor to Microsoft's Surface Computing. Now it looks like the famous lab will be no more, at least not in their original glory.
Full story: http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/31/upheaval-at-merl -mitsubishi-electric-breaks-up-famous-computer-sci ence-lab/"
Full story: http://www.xconomy.com/2007/07/31/upheaval-at-mer
Submission + - Office Printers Pose Health Risks (bbc.co.uk)
drewmoney writes: BBC News Quote:
"The humble office printer can damage lungs in much the same way as smoke particles from cigarettes, according to a team of Australian scientists.
An investigation of a range of models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air."
"The humble office printer can damage lungs in much the same way as smoke particles from cigarettes, according to a team of Australian scientists.
An investigation of a range of models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air."
Submission + - U Delaware breaks solar power efficiency record (renewableenergyaccess.com) 1
mdsolar writes: "Renewable Energy Access is reporting that a consortium led by researchers at the University of Delaware has achieved 42.8% efficiency with a silicon solar cell. The method uses lower concentration (factor of 20 magnification) than the previous record holder Boeing-Spectrolab made cell (40.7% efficiency) so that it may have a broader range of applications since tolerances for pointing the device will be larger. They are now partnering with DuPont to build engineering and manufacturing prototypes under DARPA's Very High Efficiency Solar Cell program which supports work towards achieving 50% efficiency. It is expected that these cells can help improve the military battery logistics pipeline, providing "soldiers with more power at reduced weight." They expect to be in production in 2010. On a roof, such cells would require less than half the surface area to produce the same amount of power as today's standard solar panels. This might leave room for panels to power plugin hybrids for cases where roof area is too limited to do this with standard panels."
Submission + - British Columbia to add levy to computers (canada.com)
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that the province of British Columbia will be levying new computers and home electronics to pay for their free electronics recycling program. The list of what is acceptable for recycling is short, namely computers and TVs — you cannot recycle personal audio players or cellphones. What is unclear is if the definition of "Desktop Computer" includes self-built computers, and if so, their plans for levying individual components.
Submission + - Linus Torvalds Explains Scheduler Decision (kerneltrap.org)
Firedog writes: There's been a lot of recent debate over why Linus Torvalds chose the new CFS process scheduler written by Ingo Molnar over the SD process scheduler written by Con Kolivas, ranging from discussing the quality of the code to favoritism and outright conspiracy theories. KernelTrap is now reporting Linus Torvalds' official stance as to why he chose the code that he did. "People who think SD was 'perfect' were simply ignoring reality," Linus is quoted as saying, going on to explain that he selected the Completely Fair Scheduler because it had a maintainer who has proven himself willing and able to address problems as they are discovered. In the end, the relevance to normal Linux users is two part: one is the question as to whether or not the Linux development model is working, and the other is that with the recently released 2.6.23 kernel we should all notice an improved desktop experience.
Are 80 Columns Enough? 763
ThinkGeek writes "Dating back to the venerable DEC VT100, the 80 column terminal has served us well for over 25 years. Even now, many open source projects and common conventions require lines of code and documentation to fit on that terminal. I am not alone, judging by code I've seen in and out of the open source world, in finding that number insufficient for coding, much less more verbose writing. Given that modern graphical displays (and all popular editors) are capable of far more, is it time we came up with a new standard-sized terminal? If so, what should the new standard be?"
Feed Prehistoric Mystery Organism Verified As Giant Fungus (sciencedaily.com)
Scientists have produced new evidence to finally resolve the mysterious identity of what they regard as one of the weirdest organisms that ever lived.
Submission + - New Theory Links Biodiversity to the Stars
eldavojohn writes: "Space.com's Mystery Monday has an article proposing a hypothesis that our solar system's undulations directly affects biodiversity on earth through cosmic-ray exposure. There's data that, through the fossil record, shows us earth's biodiversity peaking again and again until a great cataclysmic period where it is greatly reduced. The theory essentially suggests that this 62 million year cycle can be attributed to how our galaxy moves within the milky way solar system which turns out to be a 64 million year cycle. It's a plausible explanation though very tough to prove, hopefully we don't have to wait around 64 million years to draw a conclusion on this hypothesis."
25th Anniversary of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 310
Alioth writes "Twenty five years ago today, Sinclair Research launched Britain's most popular home computer of the 1980s — the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Costing about one third of the price of its rivals such as the Commodore 64 while having a faster CPU and a better BASIC interpreter, the machine sold well in many guises throughout the 1980s and had more than a staggering 9,000 software titles. The machine may well have done well in the US too, had Timex — the company building the machine under license in the US — not already been in financial trouble and about to fold. The machine was also extremely successful in Russia, although not for Sinclair Research — because the Russians made dozens of different clones of the machine, and did so right into the mid 1990s. The machine still has a healthy retro scene, including the development of new commercial software by Cronosoft, and new hardware such as the DivIDE, which allows a standard PC hard disc or compact flash card to be connected to the machine."
Feed Image: AttenTV is watching you (com.com)
A service called AttenTV turns "clickstreams" into entertainment--and one day, a likely marketing dream.
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Q: How many IBM CPU's does it take to execute a job? A: Four; three to hold it down, and one to rip its head off.
