News

Quote

Advocates have dreaded the CRB ruling, which they say could raise rates between 300 to 1200 per cent for webcasters. Earlier this month, the CRB threw out an appeal by commercial webcasters, National Public Radio and others to review the new rates and postpone a May 15 deadline for the introduction of the royalty schedule.

If passed, today's bill would set new rates at 7.5 per cent of the webcaster's revenue - the same rate paid by satellite radio. Alternatively, webcasters could decide to pay 33 cents per hour of sound recordings transmitted to a single user.

Quote

"The existing legislation is an inappropriate interference on the personal freedom of Americans and this interference should be undone," Frank said. His bill is called the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act. Last year's legislation tried to eliminate many forms of online gambling by targeting Internet service providers and financial intermediaries, namely banks and credit card companies that process payments to offshore Web sites.

Quote

The MPAA does recognize that progress on DRM needs to be made soon, or impatient consumers will increasingly turn to unauthorized sources for content. "We're working on this right now, trying to find ways to make it interoperable," he said, but added that pricing and business models for such a system are "way beyond my pay grade." Dean Garfield, VP of Legal Affairs for the MPAA, told me that he has confidence in the market to sort all of these issues out. "You have to give some thought to how young the digital distribution market is," he said. "I suspect that the issues confounding people today won't be the issues challenging the industry six months from now."

Quote

The company garnered about $50 million in revenue in 2006, Mickos said in an interview at the MySQL Conference and Expo here. That compares with $6.5 million in 2002 and about $34 million in 2005, according to earlier figures Mickos cited in a speech two years earlier. Of the company's bottom line, Mickos said, "Profitability isn't a specific goal yet, but we aren't burning cash. We go a bit above breakeven, a bit below breakeven."

Quote

Vonage sought the stay following an April 6 decision by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. enjoining the company from using certain VoIP technology to add new customers. The court ruled that the VoIP technology Vonage was using infringed on three patents awarded to Verizon. The permanent stay enables Vonage to add new customers as the company pursues an appeal to that ruling. Existing customers remain unaffected by the company's ongoing patent litigation, Vonage said.

Quote

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid," explains Stéphane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory (Switzerland) and lead-author of the paper reporting the result. "Moreover, its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or fully covered with oceans," he adds.

Quote

The software, due in the fall, is designed to extend BlackBerry's dominance by offering an option to individuals who may not want to switch devices to get the service, and to companies that would like to give employees a wider selection of handhelds without being forced to support multiple mobile e-mail platforms. The application replaces the Windows layout and icons on the display with the look of the BlackBerry interface, customized to the specific buttons and screen size of that device. A non-BlackBerry device would then be able to connect with BlackBerry servers for e-mail, calendar, address book and other applications written for the platform by RIM and third-party developers.

Quote

We’ve taken a spy at ZEROtherm's GPU cooling range, and we're impressed; now its time for their CPU offerings. Today I have their range of butterfly coolers which may frighten the masculine but if their silent and cool well no-one will notice your lack of manlihood…

Quote

Thunderbird 2 features many new enhancements to help you better manage your unruly inbox, and stay informed. Thunderbird 2 scales to the most sophisticated organizational needs while making it easy to find what you need.

Quote

Ubuntu is the award-winning Linux distribution for the desktop, laptop, thin client and server which brings together the best of open source software every 6 months. Ubuntu 7.04 desktop edition includes a ground-breaking Windows migration assistant, excellent wireless networking support and improved multimedia support. Ubuntu 7.04 server edition adds support for hardware facilities that speed up the use of virtual machines as well as other improved hardware support, making it an excellent choice as a web, database, file and print server, the fastest growing area of Linux server use. Ubuntu's already outstanding support for thin clients is boosted with advanced print and sound support.

Quote

Software:

* Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
* VMWare Workstation 6 Beta
* OpenOffice.org 2.2
* Automatix2
* Firefox 2.0.0.3
* Evolution Groupware 2.10

Quote

" While adding software, setting default search engines and including toolbars can all put money in PC makers pockets, the practice has also alienated some consumers who say all such "crapware" is clogging their hard drives and bogging down their systems. For the moment, computer makers appear to be trying to walk a fine line, tweaking their approaches slightly but hoping not to have to slay a cash cow. Gateway, for example, offers only one program in each category, while Dell has added an option for some models that allow a user to configure a system with no trial software."

Quote

"It was like the movie 'Men in Black,'" says Rep. Homan. "Three Microsoft lobbyists, all wearing black suits."

Another lobbyist (unaffiliated with Microsoft) who would speak only "on background" laughed at the "Men in Black" description. "I know those guys," he said. "They even wear sunglasses like in that movie. They are the 'Men in Black' of Florida lobbying, for sure."

Quote

National Public Radio spearheaded the appeal, arguing that the CRB's decision was an "abuse of discretion" and saying that the judges did not consider the ramifications of a new royalty structure. Under the new royalty schedule, NPR will see its costs skyrocket. The judges were unmoved by the webcasters' arguments. "None of the moving parties have made a sufficient showing of new evidence or clear error or manifest injustice that would warrant rehearing," wrote the CRB in its decision. "To the contrary... most of the parties' arguments in support of a rehearing or reconsideration merely restate arguments that were made or evidence that was presented during the proceeding."

Quote

YES ! It appears that Sony have done it again. In their zeal to make their DVD movies copyproof (yeah right) they have in fact made their latest releases unplayable on some DVD players, including my Sony DVP-CX995V DVD player. I recently rented “Stranger than Fiction” (2 copies) and “The Holiday” ( please no comments on my choice of movies) both by Sony Pictures. Both load up to the splash title screen and then load no further, then after about 60 secs the player turns itself off!

Quote

The color bar code is being targeted especially for use on commercial media such as movies, video games and other recordings. Microsoft said the High Capacity Color Bar Code could start showing up on DVDs by the end of this year, thanks to a deal it has signed with an organization that helps coordinate product labeling for audiovisual works. The idea is that after adding the new bar code, then DVDs and their packages would offer added security or, potentially, links to a movie trailer or other bonus features.

Quote

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-5 for the i386 and x86_64 Architectures.

CentOS-5 is based on the upstream release 5, and includes packages from all variants including Server and Client. All upstream repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with. And the option to further enable external repositories at install time is now available in the installer.

Quote

This company has a one man HQ in Switzerland and an operation office in Hong Kong, around 14 employees and a turnover of around 20 million US dollars a year. Hong Kong office experienced a police visit yesterday,

Quote

ynne Lyman, a spokesperson for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (left), told GP that the Massachusetts legislation was patterned after a video game bill then under consideration in Utah. Massachusetts officials, at that time at least, felt the Utah measure had the best chance to succeed.

Quote

Suresh Garimella, an expert on electronics cooling at Purdue University in the US is not convinced. Although oil cooling is an established method for cooling electrical components, like transformers, he says a specialised dielectric cooling liquid, such as Fluorinert, has a tried–and-tested record and would be the fluid of choice.

Quote

Xfce 4.4.1 has been released. It's first maintenance release of Xfce 4.4 (the current stable branch of Xfce) aimed at fixing important bugs and update translations.

Quote

The number of Web sites engineered to exploit the problem has jumped considerably since the vulnerability was publicly disclosed by Microsoft on March 29. It will likely continue to rise until patches are applied across corporate and consumer PCs, said Ross Paul, senior product manager for Websense.

Quote

Athlon 64 FX-74 (64-bit, 3.0GHz, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 2000MHz HyperTransport bus, Socket F (1207FX)) $799/pair
Athlon 64 FX-72 (64-bit, 2.8GHz, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 2000MHz HyperTransport bus, Socket F (1207FX)) $599/pair

Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (64-bit, 3.0GHz, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 2000MHz HyperTransport bus, socket AM2 ) $241
Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (64-bit, 2.8GHz, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 2000MHz HyperTransport bus, socket AM2) $188
Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (64-bit, 2.6GHz, 2MB total dedicated L2 cache, 2000MHz HyperTransport bus, socket AM2) $178

Quote

The gangs perpetrating the hacking are "incredibly active, and it's a good exploit," said Roger Thompson, CTO of security software developer LinkScanner. "It's probably a conservative estimate to say that there's tens of thousands of victims." The exploit works when unsuspecting WoW players visit any number of Web sites infected by the hackers with keylogging software. When the players visit the sites--which are often unrelated to WoW, but that players frequent, Thompson said--the software is quietly installed on their computers, allowing the hackers to spy on keystrokes and steal players' WoW passwords.

Quote

Popular Mechanics reporter Benjamin Chertoff was leaving the New York Auto Show on Saturday when a bright red roadster lurking down a side street caught his attention. Turns out it was the Mullen Motor GT turned into the L1X-75 electric car by Hybrid Technologies that we told you about at last year's New York show

Quote

Xbox Live users with friends lists could soon see those lists grow dramatically. Starting May 7, Microsoft will launch a new service called Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360. This will allow users of Xbox Live friends lists to merge those rosters with Windows Messenger buddy lists. That means users of each service will be able to instant message each other, regardless of whether they're using an Xbox 360, a Windows PC or a Windows Mobile device. In addition, Microsoft will launch a new text input device this summer that will attach to the Xbox 360's controller and will let users type messages using a QWERTY keyboard. Currently, sending such messages from the Xbox requires using an on-screen keyboard or plugging in a USB keyboard.

Quote

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed "etch", after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB.
Using a now fully integrated installation process, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 comes with out-of-the-box support for encrypted partitions. This release introduces a newly developed graphical frontend to the installation system supporting scripts using composed characters and complex languages; the installation system for Debian GNU/Linux has now been translated to 58 languages.

Quote

Many years ago, when this project was first started, it was called "GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger." AOL naturally complained, and Mark Spencer changed the name to "Gaim." AOL was appeased, and no one really ever heard of it because there were very few users back then.
A few years passed, AOL trademarked "AIM," and started refering to their IM services under that name. They complained. The issue was brought up on Slashdot, and the developers at the time got some legal support. That legal support advised that the ongoing discussions with AOL be kept confidential until fully settled, and so it remained. Everyone thought the issue went away then. It sorta did, in that AOL stopped responding to the legal support for a while.
Our legal support has changed several times, and each group of lawyers have recommended silence & secrecy. Around the time of the first 2.0.0 beta, AOL came back into our lives in a very strong way, this time threatening to sue Sean.
This represents a clear pattern. AOL received more pushback than they expected, and would sort of let things stand for a while. They they woudl threaten a different Gaim developer. Each time a new Gaim developer was threatened, we had to look at new legal support.