Feed news.com: New Nvidia 3D cards thin-slice the market, deliver strong performance (news.com)
New GeForce cards from Nvidia
New Type of Fatigue Discovered in Silicon 108
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a phenomenon long thought not to exist. They have demonstrated a mechanical fatigue process that eventually leads to cracks and breakdown in bulk silicon crystals. Silicon — the backbone of the semiconductor industry — has long been believed to be immune to fatigue from cyclic stresses because of the nature of its crystal structure and chemical bonds. However, NIST examination of the silicon used in microscopic systems that incorporate tiny gears, vibrating reeds and other mechanical features reveals stress-induced cracks that can lead to failure. This has important implications for the design of new silicon-based micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices that have been proposed for a wide variety of uses. The article abstract is available from Applied Physics Letters."
Neilsen Introduces New Way To Measure Gamer Metrics 27
GameDaily reports on a couple of new ways that Neilsen is trying to stay with the times. Game usage and tracking have always been hard for them, and they're rolling out two new strategies to consumers. The first requires participation on the part of developers: a 'tag' that can be built into software to register usage with the Neilsen folks. An initial attempt at this was tried in 2005, and never got off the ground. They're now trying again. The other is a bit more clever, and is usable on multiple forms of entertainment. The blog 'We Can Fix That with Data' did some research into the organization's 'Portable People Meters': "The Portable People Meter, developed by Arbitron Inc., is a pager-sized device that is carried by a representative panel of television viewers. It automatically detects inaudible codes that broadcasters embed in the audio portion of their programming using encoders provided by BBM and Arbitron. At the end of each day, the survey participants place the meters into base stations that recharge the devices and send the collected codes to BBM for tabulation. The Portable People Meter can measure exposure to any electronic media, which has audio that can be encoded - television, cable, and radio, even cinema advertising and in-store media."
Comment Re:the real reason for a drop in sales? (Score 5, Funny) 354
Oh come on, there's some movies much better than "Saw 3"
Thanks, thanks, be here all week
How Classsmate PC Stacks Up Against OLPC 284
lisah writes "While the One Laptop Per Child project pulled itself together and shipped its first Beta machines, Intel was busy developing its own version, the Classmate PC. Inevitable comparisons will be made between the two (especially since OLPC's chairman Nicholas Negroponte called Intel's move "predatory"), so Linux.com's Tina Gasperson and her kids took a Classmate PC for a test run to see how it does in the real world. The upshot? Good battery life, easy to use, and great with ketchup. 'The Classmate is so adorably cozy it make you want to snuggle up on a comfy couch or lean back on some pillows on the floor while you surf. Good thing wireless is built right in. Too bad the typical Linux foibles apply. The first snag was having to log in as root to check the system configuration because the Classmate wouldn't log on to the network. Something tells me most elementary and high school teachers with nothing but Windows experience aren't going to get that.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.
Submission + - Ceiling height affects problem-solving skills
An anonymous reader writes: A recent study at the University of Minnesota suggests that ceiling height affects problem-solving skills and behavior by priming concepts that encourage certain kinds of brain processing.
According to researcher Joan Meyers-Levy, "When people are in a room with a high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more constrained, confined concepts."
The concept of freedom promotes information processing that encourages greater variation in the kinds of thoughts one has, while the concept of confinement promotes more detail-oriented processing.
From the article:
"Managers should want noticeably higher ceilings for thinking of bold initiatives. The technicians and accountants might want low ceilings."
There could be consequences in the world of health care as well, she said. "If you're having surgery done, you would want the operating room to encourage item-specific processing."
Warner Brothers Pulls Canadian Previews 273
A number of readers let us know that Reuters and others are reporting that Warner Brothers is canceling movie previews in Canadian theaters, starting with Oceans Thirteen. A Warner VP said, "Within the first week of a film's release, you can almost be certain that somewhere out there a Canadian copy will show up." Recently, the International Intellectual Property Association placed Canada on its Priority Watch List, along with the likes of Argentina, China, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela. This community knows, thanks to Michael Geist, that the claim is mostly ficiton.
Feed Australia Extradites Head Of Software Copying Ring To US (techdirt.com)
Raymond was the first of a few to send in the information about how Australia has extradited someone to the US for making unauthorized copies of software. The guy in question, Hew Griffiths, has never been to the US and didn't profit at all from his activities -- but may now be facing 10 years in jail in the US. Some Australian legal experts are understandably confused about this -- especially since other folks involved in the same copying ring were tried in their home countries, and since the copying wasn't for profit, it seems like the sentence is a bit harsh. As an Australian chief judge wrote in a recent article: "International copyright violations are a great problem. However, there is also the consideration that a country must protect its nationals from being removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country are claimed to have been affected by the person's behaviour in Australia and the foreign country can exercise influence over Australia." There's no doubt that this guy was involved in cracking plenty of software and making it available to others in the group -- though you can argue about the real economic impact of his efforts (the numbers thrown out by the software industry are clearly bogus). The more important point is that this really is a question of commercial interests, and should be covered by civil courts, rather than criminal ones.
Bill To Outlaw Genetic Discrimination In US 353
fatduck sends us a brief note from New Scientist about the overwhelming passage in the US House of Representatives of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. As written, the bill would prohibit insurance companies from charging higher rates, and employers from discriminating in hiring, based on the results of genetic tests. A Boston Globe editorial notes that the bill has been held up in the Senate by the action of a single senator, who has an (outdated) objection based on his anti-abortion stance. President Bush has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Blizzard Confirms New Product, May Be Starcraft 2 229
darkhitman writes "According to a Kotaku post yesterday, Blizzard has confirmed that they'll announce a new product at their World Wide Invitation in Korea next month. The statement issued by Blizzard verified that they 'do intend to announce a new product [...] next month" and "plan to revisit [Starcraft] at some point in the future,' but did not confirm the rumor that the new game would be Starcraft 2 — but we can certainly hope."
Can Music Survive Inside the Big Box? 90
_randy_64 writes "In a story that ties in nicely with a recent discussion about the possible reprieve for Net Radio, the Wall Street Journal asks Can Music Survive Inside the Big Box? The article discusses how the 'big box' stores (e.g. Wal-Mart, Best Buy) are cutting back on space and acceptance of music CDs. With 85% of music sales still coming from CDs, maybe this is another thing to push the music industry towards better online sales models? 'Thanks largely to aggressive pricing and advertising, big-box chains are now responsible in the U.S. for at least 65% of music sales (including online and physical recordings), according to estimates by distribution executives, up from 20% a decade ago. Where a store that depends on CDs for the bulk of its sales needs a profit margin of around 30%, big chains get by making just 14% on music, say label executives who handle distribution. One of these executives describes the shift as a tidal wave.'"
Journal Journal: Gifts for geeky moms
Your mom codes in assembly? Awesome! So what do you get her for Mother's Day? Check out these ideas over at the geek boutique Fractalspin, such as an Estrogen Necklace, Circuit Board Luggage Tags, and a Diskette Purse.
Adobe Open Sources Flex SDK Under MPL 134
andy_from_nc writes "Adobe announced that they are open sourcing their Flex SDK under the Mozilla Public License incrementally by December. This move comes on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of their Silverlight and Adobe's CEO's criticism of it. Adobe's action will likely please other open source developers who use Flex, like me, and offers hope that we'll see a full open source version of Flash one day. You can read Adobe's FAQ on the move as well."
Feed Amazon readying DRM-free online music store? (engadget.com)
Filed under: Portable Audio
Oh boy, we're sensing an all-out war. Of course, the tables are slanted mighty heavily in favor of Apple, but it sounds like Amazon is up to the challenge of stealing some of the digital download market share that Cupertino currently owns. According to the UK's TimesOnline, Amazon is ready to "to launch an online music store next month," and while music execs never thought they'd see the day, this service too should have "reduced protection against copyright infringement." In short, the (hopefully) forthcoming service will serve up at least some DRM-free tracks as Apple's iTunes already does, and as expected, a vast majority of the free and clear music will come from EMI and various other "independent labels." Interestingly, it was stated that Amazon hoped to have the service live "by next month," but it was still unclear as to whether it would meet that goal. No word on whether this service will attempt to undercut iTMS' $1.29 per DRM-free track, but a little competition never hurt anybody, right?[Via ArsTechnica]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Feed Virtual Colonoscopy Is Most Cost-effective Colon Cancer Screening Test, Study Sa (sciencedaily.com)
A new study says targeting smaller lesions does little to significantly reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer and, in fact, results in extremely high financial costs and a large proportion of adverse events.
Slashdot Top Deals
Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.
