Archive for March 29th, 2006
How The First Nuclear Bomb Photographs Were Taken
How The First Nuclear Bomb Photographs Were Taken
"These single-use cameras were able to snap a photo one ten-millionth of a second after detonation from about seven miles away, with an exposure time of as little as ten nanoseconds. At that instant, a typical fireball had already reached about 100 feet in diameter, with temperatures three times hotter than the surface of the sun."
VIDEO: Air Car. A car that runs on air
Video: "Motor Development International has developed a car that runs on air. It uses Compressed Air Technology to run the car. The tanks are made of carbon fiber. Great for city driving since it only has a range of 150km. Cold air is the only emission which can then run the A/C."
Researcher Says DRM “Has Deep Flaws”
PCWorld.com – Researcher: DRM Has Deep Flaws
""Fundamentally, it's an anti-user technology," Brown said. "It's a technology that allows content owners to provide data to their customers with restrictions on how they can use it that aren't justified by copyright law."
New MNF crew to call first game Aug. 14
New MNF crew to call first game Aug. 14
"The new ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast crew of Mike Tirico, Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser will make their debut on Monday, Aug. 14, when the Minnesota Vikings host the Oakland Raiders.
The NFL officially announced the preseason schedule Wednesday, which will open with the Raiders playing the Philadelphia Eagles in the Hall of Fame game Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio."
YouTube caps video lengths to reduce infringement
Straight from Ars Technica: "You may already know all about YouTube. Founded a year ago, YouTube has become a prime online destination for streaming video entertainment. It has also become a prime destination for copyright infringement, as many of the videos uploaded are video captures of copyrighted material originally shown on television. This makes the copyright holders upset from time to time, and they start sending threatening letters. NBC demanded that YouTube stop hosting "Lazy Sunday," a rap video spoof done by Saturday Night Live's Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg. The clip originally aired in December, but it a was captured and uploaded to YouTube without NBC's authorization. It was an online hit."
Fark Headline – Dumb: Getting a ticket for driving drunk. Dumber: Your friend drives and he gets pulled over for drunk driving. Fark: Third guy takes over and gets busted for DUI. All in the same night
One car yields three drunk drivers for Dutch police
"Police in The Hague caught three drunk drivers all behind the wheel of the same car within hours of each other early Wednesday, police said in a statement."
KDE 3.5.2 Released
"The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.2, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes."
Google admits music shindig, but denies music store rumor
Google admits music shindig, but denies music store rumor
"Google on Tuesday said it was holding a music industry networking event on Thursday but denied that it was part of any plans to develop a music store."
Steve Ballmer to his kids: “You don’t use Google, you don’t use iPods”
MacDailyNews – Apple and Mac News – Welcome Home
"In an interview with CNN Money, he was asked if he owns an iPod. He replied: "No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children–in many dimensions they're as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I've got my kids brainwashed: You don't use Google, and you don't use an iPod."
Sandals and Ponytails Behind Slow Linux Adoption
Straight from Slashdot: "CNet is reporting that according to former Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn 'the lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments.' In particular, Quinn blames the 'sandal and ponytail set' for sluggish adoption of Linux by businesses and governments." From the article: "Quinn, who faced plenty of scrutiny over his support of the OpenDocument standards-based office document format, said proponents of open source in government faced formidable opposition from vested interests if they went public."
Lenovo laptop deal draws scrutiny from government agency
Straight from Ars Technica: "Last year IBM sold its PC manufacturing division to the Chinese computer maker Lenovo in a nearly US$2 billion deal. Despite that, ThinkPads are still arguably the most-coveted x86 laptop with the geek crowd, and the ThinkPad love apparently extends all the way into the US government. A recent decision by the US State Department to buy 15,000 ThinkPads and desktop PCs from Lenovo is raising concerns within other parts of the US government.
The US-China Economic Security Review Commission (USCC) wants an official probe into the purchase, fearing that the PCs and laptops could come complete with bugging devices enabling the laptops to phone home to their Chinese overlords."
Holographic Storage Crams in 0.5TB Per Square Inch
Straight from Slashdot: "VNUNet is reporting that a company called InPhase Technologies claims they have successfully recorded 515GB of data per square inch to capture the record for highest data density. From the article: 'InPhase promised to begin shipping the first holographic drive and media later this year. The first generation drive has a capacity of 300GB on a single disk with a 20Mbps transfer rate. The first product will be followed by a family ranging from 800GB to 1.6TB capacity."
Google patents free Wi-Fi
"The search-engine giant has developed three technologies for offering wireless Internet access, and advertising, free of charge."
Google set to woo music industry
Straight from Ars Technica: "According to a report from the Digital Hollywood trade show, held this year at the Lowes Hotel in Santa Monica, California, Google has invited 20 of the top executives in the music industry to a special conference.
The agenda for the roundtable discussion is not publicly known, but many expect that it relates to Google's possible entrance into the digital music download industry. Already, Google has entered the paid digital content realm with their Google Video service, which launched in January. Google Video allows users to download clips by content providers such as CBS, the NBA, Classic Media, and Sony BMG. Some clips are provided for free, others offer only a low-resolution preview and require payment to download a high-res version."
No Global Launch for the Revolution?
Straight from Gizmodo: "Unconfirmed sources are saying that Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata has canned the worldwide launch of the Nintendo Revolution, Go, or whatever its new name is this week. Iwata did say that the Revolution is set to launch, in 2006, but there is no confirmed date. Sorry, Europe. This probably means you are getting the short end of the stick."
Fark Headline – Americans see, hear more profanity, which is obvious to anyone that isn’t a goddamn dumbass
Poll: Americans See, Hear More Profanity
"This is a story about words we can't print in this story. You probably hear these words often, and more than ever before. But even though we can't print them _ we do have our standards _ we can certainly ask: Are we living in an Age of Profanity?"
Online political activity and campaign finance regulation: a tale of two bills
Straight from Ars Technica: "Yesterday's approval of the FEC's draft rules governing online political activity marked the end of a long and remarkably bipartisan period of grassroots activism on behalf of online freedom of speech. Activists and bloggers from both the left and the right, like Daily Kos's Markos Zuniga and RedState.org's Mike Krempasky, joined forces on what seems to be the only issue under the sun on which they can agree: namely, that any extension of the FEC's campaign finance regulation activity to the Internet is double-plus bad, or so the argument seems to go, and would spell doom for the future of American political life."
