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Viacom Demands Video Removal From YouTube
Media conglomerate Viacom International today upbraided YouTube for continuing to host throngs of Viacom videos without permission and demanded that over 100,000 of its clips be removed from the popular video-sharing site owned by Google. Viacom, whose properties include Comedy Central, MTV, Nick at Nite, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, and VH1, ran out of patience after months of discussions with Google and YouTube, the company said in a statement.
Even while looking at this situation through Viacoms eyes, it’s hard to understand why they would refuse free advertising. Granted, they don’t directly make money off their videos on YouTube, but there’s no doubt that its a resource that’s driven many new viewers to their shows.
Source: PC World
Bill Gates Speaks on Vista and the Future
The Microsoft chairman says that operating systems keep getting better and richer and that there are no shortages of radical things that will be happening in the next release. When asked if Microsoft will be back with a new OS in 2010-2011, Gates was confident enough to say, “Absolutely.†Gates said that the next version of Windows “will be more user-centric,†meaning that users should be able to move from PC to PC, whether or not it is their own, and still be able to access much of their own information by using Live Services, regardless of where they are.
While I believe Vista could be less buggy, it’s not hard to believe that it will sell well. Microsoft has owned the market for a while now, and it’s primarily the more advanced computer users that are moving away to other OS options. Either way, I am hoping to see Vista improve in the year to come and look forward to seeing what features the next version will include. In this interview, Gates was prompted a question regarding Apple TV ads and replied, “Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.”
Source: Daily Tech
Windows Vista Performance Guide
Even with a lengthy preview article, there is still a lot of ground to cover when taking a close look at the final release version of Windows Vista. We have attempted to create a comprehensive look at the new operating system, but even then there are still plenty of items that will have to wait for another day before we can truly evaluate them. The big question that almost everyone is going to want answered is pretty simple: should you upgrade to Windows Vista now or wait awhile longer?
Exhaustive is a good word to describe an article like this. AnandTech takes a look at all aspects of Vista, including I/O features, SuperFetch and ReadyBoost, Network Performance, 64-Bit and of course gaming in both OpenGL and Direct3D applications.
Source: AnandTech
HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray Sales
According to VideoScan, during the first two weeks of January, Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD by more than a 2:1 margin. It should be noted that the two weeks in question saw only two new high-def disc releases. More interestingly, VideoScan’s numbers indicate that during the seven days between Jan 7 and Jan 14, Blu-ray managed to close the gap of total discs sold since inception with HD DVD by over seven percentage points, suggesting that if the current trend continues, the two formats could be at disc sales parity within weeks.
All of you Blu-Ray adopters can relax in knowing that the format is not going to die off thanks to the competition, at least right now. Blu-Ray had an evident advantage over HD-DVD during January, although the latter has sold better since inception. At this rate though, Blu-Ray may not need much more time to catch up.
Source: HighDefDigest
DVD Empire Stops Selling Games
Online retailer DVDEmpire.com is no longer selling games, the company revealed. The site, which specializes in selling DVDs over the Internet, is now clearing out its inventory of games by selling titles for 20 percent off. Believing that the game industry “only cares about mass merchandisers” and “completely ignore[s] the needs and wants of the medium to small game retailers,” DVD Empire says offering games to customers actually ends up costing them money.
This is a sad situation because it forces gamers to to go the huge chain stores to get what they need. Personally, I cannot stand going into the likes of a Wal-Mart for various reasons, so I love purchasing games or music online. After reading the writeup on their website, it’s hard to understand why even more e-tailers are not doing the same thing.
Source: Gamespot
Microsoft Zune Phone In the Works
It will be a smartphone that works homogeneously with the Zune marketplace. It will most likely not, however, run Windows Mobile. Rather it’ll make use of an interface similar to the current Zune, an interface that I consider among the best available on audio players—I’m sure it can transition to a phone easily. Connectivity is the major concern of the device. It is said that it will be able to sync with the Xbox 360 and stream video from the system to the phone via a wireless data connection.
If this rumor proves true, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft plans to sway attention away from Apples iPhone. One aspect that would prove useful is the ability to choose multiple providers, nothing like the slim selection that Apple currently offers. Info on the “Zune Phone” is scarce, so no price point is yet available, but it would not be foolish to assume it would fall in line with the direct competition in the $500 – $600 area.
Source: Crunch Gear
Would You Trust Your Life to Vista?
While on a visit in Romania, where Bill Gates participated in the celebration of 10 years since the Microsoft branch has been running there, and the launch of Vista, Microsoft’s president declared that, with the right amount of administration, the new Vista could run life support systems in hospitals.
Inside of the interview, Gates stresses that his flagship OS is so secure and stable, it could be trusted by hospitals. I disagree. Just a few days ago while using Vista, I had “Paint” crash on me. Yes, Paint. So no, I wouldn’t think twice about pushing it away if I was on life support.
Source: Our-Picks.com
Fedora LiveCD 7 Test 1 Preview
The Fedora 7 Desktop spin weighs in at 1.9GB for the DVD edition, or three CDs. A LiveCD version of Fedora Core 7 Test 1 was also released to mirrors this morning. The LiveCD for Fedora 6.90 (7 Test 1) is currently 678MB. The newly employed Pungi was used for building the tree for this release. No server or KDE Desktop spin was done for Test 1.
Vista may be getting all of the attention lately, but Fedora users have something to get excited about as well. Included in this “beta” build of FC7 are the latest versions of all popular applications, in addition to an improved network manager and the ability to install straight from the LiveCD. I’ve never been much of a Fedora fan, but I am somewhat intrigued.
Source: Phoronix
Pimp my Ride with Linux
Europe’s second-largest car manufacturer on Tuesday announced a contract with Novell to install the Linux operating system on thousands of its desktop systems and servers. Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop integrates seamlessly in Peugeot’s Windows-based infrastructure, according to a statement by Novell. The announcement coincided with the release of Microsoft’s Windows Vista.
PSA Peugeot Citroen and open source software giant Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) have signed a multiyear contract that will deploy the Linux operating system on thousands of company computers that already run Windows. The French car manufacturing company will install Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop on up to 20,000 of its desktop computers and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on 2,500 of its servers, Novell announced Tuesday at the Solutions Linux 2007 show in Paris. The announcement coincided with the release of Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) new Windows Vista operating system.
Peugeot’s decision to roll out Linux may likely be a sign that the company wants to lower corporate IT expenses via open source software. Peugeot selected Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop because of Novell’s open source expertise and collaboration with hardware and application vendors to help support the company’s IT requirements. In addition, Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop integrates seamlessly in Peugeot’s Windows-based infrastructure , according to a statement by Novell.
Source: Linux Insider
France Gives Tax Breaks To Culturally Relevant Video Games
The French government isn’t shy about trying to promote local culture, and apparently they’ve decided that video games should be a decent part of that culture. The government has decided that it will now offer tax credits to local companies that produce video games “with a cultural dimension.” They claim they need to do this to help keep video game production in France, but if there isn’t demand for local video game production, then why should the French government subsidize it? If there is demand, then won’t the market take care of it without French taxpayer money?
Source: Techdirt
Creating Wireless Hotspot On-the-Go
FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., Feb. 5, 2007 — D-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumers and business, today unveiled a family of 3G mobile broadband wireless routers designed to make it even easier for on-the-go consumers, field technicians and mobile professionals to access and share an Internet connection virtually anywhere by blending Wi-Fi(tm) networking technology and a wireless broadband network.
You can read the full press release here.
Canada Cures Cancer
Ok granted, this isn’t technically tech news, but anything this important needs to be told.
It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortalityâ€. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.
It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs. Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.
Source: New Scientist
Vista Family Discount Bites Back
Many (if not all) users who took advantage of Microsoft’s Vista Family Discount have been issued invalid installation keys and cannot install Windows Vista Home Premium. Microsoft confirms that the keys are indeed valid, but not for Windows Vista. The CSR I spoke with was unable to tell what the key was for, but it did appear to be a valid key, for something.
This should be a good warning to all those people who are planning on taking advantage of this offer. It appears that none of these keys passed out are valid, and the customer service rep has even stated that there is no ETA on a fix. I am sure Microsoft will take care of this… they have to. It’s just a matter of when. Why is it again that the legal customers keep getting screwed?
Source: Neowin
Michael Dell back as CEO
Rollins’ departure comes after a terrible year for the company, during which it lost its lead in PC market share to Hewlett-Packard and an investigation by the SEC for possible accounting improprieties began. Several executives have left the company in recent months, including CFO Jim Schneider, who was slated to leave the company at the end of January.
It is unknown as to whether or not Rollins was asked to step down by the board of directors, or whether it had anything to do with Dells less than successful year. By re-placing Michael Dell back in the CEO position though, the board hopes to see immediate improvements all-around. In other news, Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms & Services Division, has retired after being with the company for 17 years.
Source: News.com
Dutch Botnet Hackers Sentenced to Time Served
The lead perpetrator was sentenced to two years in prison and the accomplice to 18 months, the Dutch public prosecution service said in a statement. Part of each sentence is probationary. In both cases the sentences equal the time the two young men have already served, meaning they don’t have to spend any more time in prison. In addition to the prison sentences, the court ordered the main hacker to pay a 9,000 euro ($11,700) fine, while the second hacker was ordered to pay 4,000 euros ($5,200). In keeping with Dutch court custom, the hackers were not identified.
Will they learn their lesson? Hard to judge… the jail sentence is far worse than the fine though. What’s amazing is that it doesn’t even sound like they purchased many things with their illegit funds… just some tech toys off eBay. Hardly sounds worth the two years in prison!
Source: News.com
Teen Accuses Record Companies of Collusion
A 16-year-old boy being sued by five record companies accusing him of online music piracy accused the recording industry on Tuesday of violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats. In papers responding to the record companies’ lawsuit, Robert Santangelo, who was as young as 11 when the alleged piracy occurred, denied ever disseminating music and said it’s impossible to prove that he did.
Can someone possibly read this and not grin ear to ear? Well, besides the RIAA of course. I don’t personally know of a single person who is on the RIAAs side, so I really hope to see this kid succeed and show those greedy corporate hounds where they can go.
Source: Associated Press
Geophysicists Attempt to Slow Volcano Flow
Last week, the government team tackling the disaster approved a plan that will use 1,000 steel chains to try to slow the flow of mud. Each chain is 1.5 metres long and links together four concrete balls — two that are 40 centimetres across and two that are 20 centimetres across. Each ball and chain set will weigh about 300 kilograms. The balls themselves will be modified to maximize their friction with the mud.
The general idea is that if there are numerous ball and chains inside the volcano’s mouth, it will force the mud to lose its ambition and stay back. Fascinating technique really, but it will be a matter of weeks before we know whether or not it has helped.
Source: Nature.com
Kernel Devs Offer Free Linux Driver Development
In a message posted to the Linux kernel mailing list yesterday, kernel contributor Greg Koah-Hartman announced that kernel developers will be providing free Linux driver development services for companies. This service will help the Linux community create stronger relationships with hardware vendors while reducing the barriers that presently impede ubiquitous Linux hardware support.
This is a great announcement and may pave the way to more robust Linux systems. I can see a lot of companies taking advantage of this, especially those who don’t have the manpower or means to develop for the open source OS. In the end, this is something that will benefit both the product manufacturer and the end-user.
Source: Ars Technica
DRM in the BitTorrent and Broadband Age
The industry needs to recognize that it’ll be impossible to stop piracy. The more complex, innovative, or intricate the content protection system, the more interest and zeal crackers will have in subverting such protection. If the US was unable to keep nuclear weapons technology secret after WW2, there is no way the MPAA can ask consumer electronics companies to keep movies and music 100% secure, especially when the whole intent of music/movies is to be seen and heard.
I have said it many times before, DRM only angers legit customers who smack down hard earned money for a product. People who are planning on stealing content don’t care how difficult it is… it’s worth to them in the end. While I do agree with companies who think up new ways to thwart piracy, I don’t agree that it inconveniences the people don’t deserve it. Firing Squad goes into depth about current problems and give suggestions about how methods could be improved.
Source: Firing Squad
Virtually Sweden in Second Life
Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life.
“We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden,” Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg stated.
The embassy would not provide passports or visas but would instruct visitors how to obtain such documents in the real world and act as a link to web-based information about the Scandinavian country. “Second Life allows us to inform people about Sweden and broaden the opportunity for contact with Sweden easily and cheaply,” Wästberg said.
Source: The Local
Stardock’s Windows Vista Road-Map
Windows Vista has finally arrived! Many people have been asking us what are Stardock’s plans? What can we do to take an excellent new OS like Windows Vista and make it better? There have been a lot of articles on how users of Windows XP can get a lot of the visual benefits of Windows Vista using Stardock Object Desktop. And while that may be true, Windows Vista provides us a whole new canvas of cool things we can do.
If you are a huge fan of Stardocks products, be sure to see what they have up their sleeve. They not only go into detail about whats available today, but also what they are stirring up in their labs.
Source: WinCustomize
Linux 2.6.20-rc6 Kernel Performance
Among the major changes in the Linux 2.6.20 kernel are official Sony Playstation 3 support, KVM virtualization support, libata improvements, relocatable kernel, asynchronous SCSI scanning, and multi-threaded USB probing. The Sony Playstation 3 support in the 2.6.20 kernel is coming because of Sony engineers contributing the patches, which add machine-specific support for various items.
Phoronix takes a look at the upcoming 2.6.20 kernel which should be out shortly, and compares it’s performance with that of the current 2.6.19 version. There are no monumental differences, but the 2.6.20 kernel comes out on top in the end.
Source: Phoronix
Windows Vista to Generate Billions in Revenue, Drive New Jobs
As part of the Vista hype machine, Microsoft has sent out several press releases detailing estimates of new revenue generation from major IT markets. Microsoft commissioned the IDC to complete research study to find out Vista’s effects on the IT industry within the first year of the new operating system’s shipment.
We should be seeing over 16,000 new jobs in both California and New York, with many more in other various US cities. I can’t say this is much of a surprise though. After using Vista extensively for the past few months, I immediately thought of how many tech support jobs it would open up.
Source: Daily Tech
Ten New Titles Coming to Xbox Live Arcade
Vampire hunters, artillery-toting worms, rambunctious aliens and trailblazing settlers are among the “likeable†characters that will soon make their debut in living rooms everywhere via Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 as part of the award-winning service’s upcoming round of new game releases.
Included games are 3D Ultra Minigolf, Alien Hominid HD, Band of Bugs, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Catan, Eets: Chowdown, LUXOR 2, Paperboy, Root Beer Tapper and Worms. Some classics, some new ones.
Source: Team XBox
Welcome Back Hyper-Threading!
The first Intel 45nm treatments will come from the quad-core Yorkfield and dual-core Wolfdale desktop processors. Wofldale has two physical cores on a single die and up to 6MB of L2 cache. Yorkfield is then two Wolfdale dice on a single package. Also worth noting: Wolfdale ships with a 1333MHz front-side bus and Yorkfield ships with a 1066MHz front-side bus. Chipset support will largely come from Bearlake-family that was previously disclosed on DailyTech.
It’s hard to say at this point how Hyper-Threading will be used in the future, but we definitely need some software to take full advantage of the technology. There are other features to look forward to though, such as 6MB of cache and of course, the fact that it’s based on a 45nm process.
Source: Daily Tech