All Things News

Straight from Gizmodo: “The New York Times has had a week to spend some time with the PS3, and boy howdy they sure don’t like it. While they say it “certainly delivers gorgeous graphics,” it doesn’t look any better than the Xbox 360. And that’s the nicest thing they say about it.Their laundry list of complaints include the fact that you need to plug the controller in before using it wirelessly, no HD cables included in the box, not being able to download content in the background while you play, not being able to play your own music over games, and so on and so forth. They go on to say that Sony has “forgotten that all the transistors in the world can’t make someone smile.” Ouch.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Slate has up an article on why both new DVD formats are effectively dead on arrival. Article author Sean Cooper cites internet movie and cable on demand services, the price of new hardware, and the inexpensive cost of newer hard drives as the reasons behind his argument. The article goes on to say buying movies online isn’t there yet. Titles in standard-def are few, in hi-def fewer still. With five times the visual information of a standard-def flick, an HD download of The Matrix, were it even available, could take all day over the average broadband connection. But consumers are demanding change, and change will happen fast.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Nature reports that researchers at Dresden University believe that sabres from Damascus dating back to 900 AD were formed with help from carbon nanotubes. From the article: ‘Sabres from Damascus are made from a type of steel called wootz. But the secret of the swords’ manufacture was lost in the eighteenth century.’ At high temperatures, impurities in the metal ‘could have catalyzed the growth of nanotubes from carbon in the burning wood and leaves used to make the wootz, Paufler suggests. These tubes could then have filled with cementite to produce the wires in the patterned blades, he says.’”

Straight from Slashdot: “Pending your beliefs about evolution, National Geographic is running an interesting article on the influences of behavior on evolution. The study supports the controversial idea that an animal’s behavior in response to environmental change can spur evolutionary adaptations. By adding a predator to an island where a species of lizards lived with no predators, they witnessed a quick shift in the average length of legs on the lizards. Long legs meant to escape were useless against the new larger predators while short legs became the dominant feature since they increased climbing ability (to trees the predators could not reach). For the finer details on the research, visit the Losos Lab Research Page.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Due to legal wranglings with New Line Cinema over accounting issues for Lord Of The Rings, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will not be involved in the making of either The Hobbit or the planned Lord of the Rings prequel.”

Straight from Slashdot: “Like the Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii sold out on launch day this weekend. Unlike the PS3, the launch was a peaceful affair with no reports yet of console-related violence in the US. This may be partially due to the fact that Nintendo promises to have a total of four million units in stores by Christmas, with the bulk of those going to North America. Midnight launch parties on both the east and west coasts ushered the new console in with a bang.”

Straight from Slashdot: “The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Thiago Olson, a 17 year old Michigan teen, was able to create a small fusion device in his parents’ basement. The machine uses a 40,000 volt charge and deuterium gas to create the small reaction, which he says looks like a ’small intense ball of energy.’ The teen’s fusion device is obviously not a self-sustaining reactor, but it still shows how fusion technology is becoming more accessible. Hopefully this points to a future where large scale fusion reactors are both economical and widely used.”

Straight from Slashdot:  “The Globe and Mail reports that cancers have at their core a small number of stem cells, without which they cannot spread or reoccur. From the article: ‘A spate of new discoveries about the basic biology of cancer is pushing researchers toward an astonishing conclusion: For decades, efforts to cure the disease may have targeted the wrong cells.’ If true, the discoveries of Canadian and Italian research groups may give us a new path to selectively attack cancer.”

Straight from Joystiq: “Sony’s press is getting worse and worse after analysts took note of the PS3 launch. As predicted, Sony missed the 400,000 goal for US launch; many analysts predicted they only reached half that amount. To add insult to injury, some analysts expect Sony to only make roughly 10% of the original 4 million promised by year’s end. Ouch!
In a report compiled by Bloomberg, Sony failed to ship even enough units to cover promised pre-orders to half of 150 stores surveyed. SooAnn Roberts, analyst with Kaufman Bros. (the company that surveyed the stores), is convinced that Sony may fail to ship more than 200,000 by year’s end. Other analysts think Sony made 200,000 for launch and will struggle to match that number over the next month. Either way, Sony is in some serious trouble.

Even with all the problems they’ve had over the past year, the PS3 production problems will hit home with the consumer who rarely checks up on the news lines. While a myriad of issues plague the PS3’s production, the biggest killer is the decision to use Blu-ray. Will the 50GB disc capacity be enough to make up for the nearly one year delay and significantly diminished production capacity, not to mention the price?”

Straight from Loot Ninja: “So I’ve found pretty quickly that the PS3 has some MAJOR High Definition scaling issues. It’s affecting almost everyone in both games and movies. Many games made for 1080p won’t scale properly to 1080i, and sometimes 720p. I’m having a huge issue with Blu-Ray movies. It shows as 1080i (even though I have my HDTV setup as 720p in the Media Bar), but it’s very grainy and looks like standard DVD. I spent 2 hours on the phone tonight with Sony Customer Support trying to troubleshoot the issue. The first guy I spoke with for 45 minutes, and he was about as smart as a retarded monkey. He was basically telling me that my HDTV was broken because it can’t display 720p, even though I told him some games and all downloaded content displays fine at 720p. He wanted me to try a few things and call back. So 20 minutes later, I called back and spoke to a fairly helpful woman. After reading what happened in the last phone conversation, she put me on hold for 2 minutes, and came back and said it’s a known issue that is being looked into. I told her how angry I was about spending a shitload of money on a PS3 and Blu-Ray movies for it all not to work as it should (and highly advertised by Sony). She said a firmware update should be available “in the next couple days” and that their team is “aware it’s a major issue and will be fixing it quickly.” Yeah, I’m sure that means 2 months before we see anything.”

Straight from Ars Technica: “Microsoft’s battle with pirates, which started as early as 1975 with Bill Gates’ infamous “Open Letter to Hobbyists,” continues on in 2007, as the company has built a feature into Office 2007: Reduced Functionality Mode. While Microsoft has been fairly coy about whether or not this feature exists in the latest Office release, a new Knowledge Base article on their site confirms that it will apply to all Office 2007 products. Reduced Functionality mode is triggered whenever Office 2k7 fails activation. This can happen when the program is initially run after installation, or if it fails a subsequent check following an Office update. Once the switch is thrown, Office continues to run, but with the following restrictions:

• You cannot create new documents.
• You can view existing documents. However, you cannot edit them.
• You can print documents. However, you cannot save them.”

Straight from Bare Knuckle Politics: “GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Nov 19, 2006 (AP)— An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car traveling in Gaza City, wounding six people, including two Hamas militants in the vehicle, officials said.Hamas officials said the vehicle was badly mangled. There were no details on the conditions of the militants, or the identities of the other wounded.

The Israeli army confirmed the airstrike, but gave no details on the target.

Earlier Sunday, Israel called off airstrikes on the homes of two militants after hundreds of Palestinians crowded around the buildings forming human shields, a new tactic that forced the Israelis to re-evaluate their aerial campaign in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians began to gather around the homes shortly after the Israeli army ordered occupants out of them. Israel routinely issues such warnings before attacking buildings that it says are used to store weapons, saying it wants to avoid casualties.

Instead of leaving the buildings, the homeowners remained inside and were quickly joined by crowds of supporters who gathered on balconies, rooftops and in the streets outside.

“Death to Israel. Death to America,” the crowds chanted. Local mosques and Palestinian TV and radio stations also mobilized supporters. It was the first time Palestinians have formed human shields to prevent an airstrike.”

Straight from Bare Knuckle Politics: “A senior House Democrat said today he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, asserting that current troop levels are insufficient to sustain possible challenges against Iran, North Korea and Iraq.“There’s no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm’s way,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, said he will propose the measure early next year.

At a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, “I don’t see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft,” he said.”