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RIAA Announces New Campus Lawsuit Strategy
The new RIAA plan implements a device called a “pre-lawsuit letter”. The plan is currently underway, as the RIAA has already sent 400 of these letters to various college campuses. Basically, the letter is sent to the college or university, and is then forwarded to the student. Instead of threatening a lawsuit outrightly, within 20 days the student has the option to settle at a “discount”. The RIAA would not elaborate on how much this discount was. We can only speculate that it is less than the current financial lawsuit threshold of $3,000.
Sometimes the RIAAs overwhelming kindness brings on a slight tear. You would think at this point, they would realize that this is -not helping- thwart piracy at all. It just makes them look like dirtbags.
Source: Slyck
Adobe Photoshop Free to Go Online
Adobe Photoshop will be making its way online within the next six months. The online Photoshop will be an entry-level form of the product and will be available to all Internet users free of charge. Adobe already has the foundation for an online product in place with Adobe Remix, a web-based photo editing tool. Remix, which is a simplified version of Adobe Premiere Elements, is offered free of charge through Photobucket.
I’ve never used an online photo editor, so I am not getting that excited yet. However, if this works well and works for Linux, I will be one happy camper.
Source: Daily Tech
Huge ‘Ocean’ Discovered Inside Earth
Scientists scanning the deep interior of Earth have found evidence of a vast water reservoir beneath eastern Asia that is at least the volume of the Arctic Ocean. The discovery marks the first time such a large body of water has found in the planet’s deep mantle. The finding, made by Michael Wysession, a seismologist at Washington State University in St. Louis, and his former graduate student Jesse Lawrence, now at the University of California, San Diego, will be detailed in a forthcoming monograph to be published by the American Geophysical Union.
This is an incredible find, and maybe even more incredible that it’s only being discovered now. It’s not looking as though the water could be "captured" for future use, as most activity that deep causes evaporation.
Source: Live Science
Recycling PCB More Cleanly
Electronic circuits in discarded computers, cellphones and other devices could be recycled less harmfully using a technique developed by researchers in China. Unlike current methods, it can be used to reclaim valuable metals such as copper without releasing toxic fumes into the air.
Considering the fact that there is a lot of PCB all over the place, a good recycling method makes sense. It’s noted that this practice in general is very rare, which means the majority of PCB is sent to the landfill to potentially release it’s toxic pollutants there. Hopefully this (or an even better) method will catch on over on these shores.
Source: New Scientist
CompUSA to Close Nearly 130 Stores
Earlier this year, Circuit City announced a handful of store closings in the United States along with 60 more in Canada. Today electronics retailer CompUSA is following suite, but more drastically. The company announced that it is closing 126 stores nationwide (DOC) leaving just 109 stores in 39 states and Puerto Rico.
As sad as it may be (is it sad?), this is not that surprising. I can’t recall the last time I went to a brick and mortar store for anything, except blank media. Most of the time you can get a better selection online, for cheaper, and without the hassle of pushy salespeople.
Source: DailyTech
Corsair Steps Up Performance On USB Drives
Fremont, CA (February 28, 2007) — Corsair(R), a worldwide leader in high-performance computer products, today launched the new Flash Voyager(TM) GT line of USB drives designed for the user who demands the highest performance in a USB memory product. Complementing the revolutionary Flash Voyager USB drives, the new Flash Voyager GT brand represents the highest performing USB products Corsair offers in any capacities.
I have to admit that the 34MB/s write speed is cool, but the fact that you can encrypt your data in 256-Bit AES takes the cake.
Source: Corsair Press Release
AMD Demonstrates Accelerated Computing Solution that Breaks Teraflop Barrier
San Francisco – Feb. 28, 2007 – today showcased a single-system, Accelerated Computing platform that breaks the teraflop computing barrier. Organizations are ultimately expected to be able to apply this technology to a wide range of scientific, medical, business and consumer computing applications. At a press event in San Francisco, AMD demonstrated a “Teraflop in a Box” system running a standard version of Microsoft Windows XP Professional that harnessed the power of AMD Opteron dual-core processor technology and two next-generation AMD R600 Stream Processors capable of performing more than 1 trillion floating-point calculations per second using a general “multiply-add” (MADD) calculation.
Looks like AMD might be getting it’s groove back!
Source: AMD Press Release
AMD to Present at Morgan Stanley Technology Conference
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Feb. 28, 2007 – AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced that AMD Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Hector de J. Ruiz will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET) on Monday, March 5, 2007 in San Francisco. Forward-looking and other material information may be discussed during the presentation.
Source: AMD Press Release
Third Life On The Way?
“Second Life is just a village,” sneers chief Yoick Randal Leeb-du Toit in the Melbourne Age, adding, modestly: “I’ve nearly finished building Rome.” Leeb-du Toit maintains that Second Life is rather low-res and that he likes to ‘stand there in the rain and watch the sun go down in World of Warcraft because it is so beautiful.’ He adds that Outback Online will feature graphics of the same calibre as World of Warcraft.
The low-res graphics of Second Life is something that always stood out to me. Is it a matter of good gameplay that makes the game successful, or addictive gameplay? Either way, it will be fun to see if this will prove to be actual competition, especially with so many already entranced by SL.
Source: The Inquirer
AMD Unveils 690 Chipset Family
Sunnyvale, Calif. – Feb. 28, 2007 – AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced the AMD 690 series chipset, the company’s first chipset to bring together the combined strengths of AMD CPU and platform technology with the industry-leading features of the ATI Radeon(tm) X1250 GPU.
As you expect, there will be many reviews throughout the day, although I could find only two right off the bat. These include HotHardware and techPowerUp!. I will include the remaining reviews in tomorrows tech roundup.
Source: AMD Press Release
Geek Squad Charges $415 Dollars To Replace A Hard Drive
On the 10th day the exhaustive tests were still being done, but things weren’t looking good for O.’s data files. On the 11th day, O. was given the sad news that his hard drive was fried and would need to be replaced for an extra charge of $118.00. On the 12th day, O. was given his laptop, and his non-working hard drive. But were the data files really beyond saving? After all, Geek Squad had charged O. $99.00 for the unsuccessful back-up…
Sweet, a new reason to add to the “Why I Despise Best Buy” list, which happens to be growing quite long I have to admit.
Source: Consumerist
Blu-ray Total Sales Surpass HD DVD
The latest sales numbers appear to indicate that Blu-ray has taken the lead over HD DVD in terms of title sales since inception. According to Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data, cited by Home Media Magazine, Blu-ray has racked up a slight lead in unit sales — 100 units to every 98.71 units of HD DVD.
Slight lead indeed, one that Sony will likely take full advantage of. It’s actually impressive how close those numbers are.
Source: Daily Tech
Web 2.0 Entrepreneurs Waiting Too Long To Sell?
As Facebook.com’s mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg is sitting on a potential gold mine that could make him the next Silicon Valley whiz kid to strike it rich. But the 22-year-old founder of the Internet’s second largest social-networking site also could turn into the next poster boy for missed opportunities if he waits too long to cash in on Facebook Inc., which is expected to generate revenue of more than $100 million this year. The bright outlook is one reason Zuckerberg felt justified spurning several takeover bids last year, including a $1 billion offer from Yahoo Inc.
I’ll admit one thing… if I was offered $1B, it would take half a second to decide on whether I "wanted it". Heck, take the money and create a new startup, it’s not rocket science!
Source: Yahoo!
Teacher Punish You?
If you have a teacher punish you and force your hands full of chalk, here is a clever trick to pull off. ‘Nuff said.
MP3’s Loss, Open Source’s Gain?
Alcatel-Lucent isn’t the only winner in a federal jury’s $1.52 billion patent infringement award against Microsoft this week. Other beneficiaries are the many rivals to the MP3 audio-compression format… Now, with a cloud over the de facto industry standard, companies that rely on MP3 may finally have sufficient motivation to move on. And that raises some tantalizing possibilities, including a real long shot: Open-source, royalty-free formats win.
This raises some good points, but MP3 is not a format that holds anyone back as far as I can tell. Of course there’s DRM, but that’s through music stores, not personal collections. Support is everywhere and it can be encoded all the way up to 320KBps. Other formats may have other advantages, but would they sway you to recode your entire collection to that format?
Source: Slashdot
Christian Group Preps To Attack Wii
A tipster sends word that The Porn Talk, a site backed by a secretive faith-based ministry in California, is prepping to attack Nintendo’s Wii and other gaming devices, calling them “portals to porno” in a press release. In the press release, leaked to Kotaku today, The Porn Talk founder Mike Foster does his best to stoke up some fear about the Wii saying that even though the device has parental controls, “parents don’t see a need for them because they are unaware of the porn capabilities.”
This was just bound to happen. Playing with your Wii for hours on end in the privacy of your own room will get religious groups chattering. Seriously though, porn on your Wii? I assume this is why the games purposely exercise your arms. Shame on you Nintendo.
Source: Kotaku
Dell To Linux Users: Not So Fast
If you’re looking for a new Linux-equipped Dell laptop or desktop from the PC vendor, you may be waiting a while. Despite obvious support for the idea last week from thousands of visitors on its new customer suggestion Web site IdeaStorm, the company said it’s not yet building machines with Linux pre-loaded for the consumer and business markets.
There is no denying that this undertaking is -huge-, but Dell would be wise to act fast. It’s no surprise that there is major interest in purchasing Dell laptops preloaded with Linux… it would earn the company great respect from a different crowd. Of course the biggest hurdle would likely be making sure all the included hardware works seamlessly.
Source: Computer World
Vista Hinders Users Efficiency
Guess what? Despite Microsoft’s efforts to provide for a more fluid and agreeable interface with Vista’s Aero, Pfeiffer Consulting found Vista to be even worse than Windows XP (SP2) –and of course Mac OS X. Their conclusion is backed with cold, hard research. Pfeiffer Consulting conducted the research based on an independently financed series of benchmarks that establish how Vista impacts User Interface Friction (UIF) and user efficiency.
My Vista angst aside, I can’t disagree with this at all. Once you have the OS set up to your liking though, there is no reason it should hinder anything more than XP.
Source: IT-Enquirer
Super Talent DDR2-800 Gaming Memory Awarded ATI CrossFire Certification
San Jose, California – February 27, 2007 — Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash products, today announced that their 800MHz DDR2 modules have passed ATI CrossFire Certification. Super Talent’s most popular gaming memory kit, T800UX2GC4, has passed ATI’s intensive qualification testing, which ensures that this Super Talent memory kit is compatible with the ATI CrossFire gaming platform.
Source: Super Talent Press Release
WGAs Latest Classification: Not Sure
As Microsoft steps up its war against piracy, the company has decided to slightly nuance Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). Rather than identify users as either in the clear or not, the company has added a third classification for users who set off some, but not all of WGA’s undisclosed piracy-detection functionality. Users will now find that Windows XP installs are labeled as genuine, non-genuine or “not sure.”
It seems unknown right now what exactly will happen if you receive the “not sure”, but it doesn’t appear as though you will see the foolish “Non-Genuine” messages.
Source: Ars Technica
Sony Chops Price On Blu-Ray Player
Sony has announced its plans to slash the price of high definition, according the Associated Press. At a New York press conference, Sony talked up its forthcoming BDP-S300 Blu-ray player. The big selling point? Its $599 price. The move is clearly a reaction to the lower cost of HD DVD players, which are already available for less than the new Blu-ray machine.
I’m not a cheap person by nature, but $599 for a media player of any kind seems ridiculous, unless it’s a feature-rich PVR player of some sort. That aside, it’s a far easier price to swallow over the $1000 tag for their current flagship player. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the prices closer to $399 within the next year. At least by that time, the actual “next-gen winner” would be better known… if one at all.
Source: Ars Technica
Autodesk CEO Trots Out BSA Line On Software Piracy
Autodesk’s CEO Carl Bass took the stage and was able to trot out the BSA’s BS line about how every pirated copy is a lost sale, claiming that if he could get everyone who used his software to pay for it, he’d double the size of his company. He made this argument as if it’s a policy issue that his company should be doubled in size — ignoring that many pirated copies would never be paid for no matter what or the economic impact of the companies that use unauthorized versions of his software.
Piracy is never going to go anywhere, that much is evident. Any protections that are put on software usually only annoys the very people it shouldn’t… those who legally paid. The common argument is that software should be more affordable, which is true to a degree. It’s hard to justify this in all cases though. For Autodesk specifically, their products cost a lot in the first place, because they are directly used to be huge money makers. It’s really a tough situation to conjure up a simple answer for…
Source: Tech Dirt
Three Reasons Why Windows Vista Is Sinking Like A Rock
Talk of limitations on virtualization and media playback combined with hardware and software compatibility problems are making Vista look very bad in comparison to even Windows XP. Of course some of these issues might be addressed over the next few months but I think I have three good reasons why Vista is making for the bottom faster than you might think.
The current situation with Vista is sad, in my opinion. We had all hoped for an amazing version of Windows, but so far it’s been completely lackluster. The top reasons Vista is annoying as mentioned on this blog include poor driver support, virtualization issues and of course… DRM.
Source: I Love Digg Blog
New Sub Dives Crushing Depths
Scientists at the University of Washington have developed an autonomous underwater vehicle that can stay out to sea for up to a year and dive to depths of nearly 9,000 feet — nearly three times deeper than the deepest-diving military submarines. Known as Deepglider, the 71-inch long, 138-pound device is made of carbon fiber that can withstand the deep ocean’s immense pressure.
I’d love to get my hands on one of these! Seriously, 9,000ft is an incredible depth and should result in some insane imagery/information. The article doesn’t mention cost, but I’m sure it’s not cheap to build.
Source: Wired
Announcing the Drupal Association
In response, we’re proud to launch the Drupal Association. The Drupal Association is a non-profit organization with one goal: to support the Drupal project. I wanted the Drupal Association to be a servant to the Drupal community, and to give it what it needs to flourish. Like this, the Drupal community can focus on what it does best: satisfying our users, defining Drupal’s technical direction and having a blast.
Congrats to Drupal for this decision. This is a fantastic open source CMS and should be considered by anyone looking to start up a website. If you have been using Drupal for a while and wish to donate, they are now able to accept them.
Source: Drupal