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Submission + - Black hole information loss paradox cracked (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
Anuborn Satirak
Anuborn Satirak writes: "Physicist may have finally cracked the black hole information loss paradox that has befuddled physicists for the past 40 years, according to an article accepted for publication by Physical Review D, which concludes that that an outside observer can never lose objects down a black hole.

The question is: "what happens once something collapses into a black hole?"

If all information about the collapsing matter is lost, it defies the laws of quantum physics. Yet, in current thinking, once the matter goes over the event horizon and forms a black hole, all information about it is lost."
Patents

Submission + - eBay may Lose "Buy it Now" Button in Paten (lawbean.com)

Submitted by
Spamicles
Spamicles writes: "A judge has delayed his ruling on the eBay patent infringement case. eBay has been involved in a legal dispute over the use of its popular "Buy it Now" button, which allows consumers to skip the bidding and purchase items on eBay directly. The patent suit was filed six years ago by MercExchange L.L.C. In May of 2003, a jury ruled in MercExchange's favor finding that eBay did in fact infringe on the patent, but in 2005 the US Supreme Court ruled that MercExchange was not automatically entitled to a court order blocking the offending service, essentially handing a victory down to patent reform advocates. However, the ruling by the Supreme Court does not affect the final judgment of the court."
The Courts

Submission + - Texas makes green computing mandatory (state.tx.us)

Submitted by
athloi
athloi writes: "The Texas House and Senate have both passed an identical version of a bill that requires computer manufacturers to provide a "reasonably convenient" recycling plan that requires no additional payments from consumers. Dell and HP provided some model legislation that was used as the basis for the bill, which if signed, would join similar initiatives already passed in more liberal states like Minnesota and California.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070611-texa s-legislature-passes-dell-backed-computer-recyclin g-bill.html

Go Texas!"
Graphics

Submission + - Blender Foundation to Create Open Movie, Open Game

Submitted by Eloquence
Eloquence writes: The Blender Foundation, which maintains the open source 3D tool Blender, has announced two new projects, codenamed Peach and Apricot. Project Peach will be a new open source movie, following in the footsteps of last year's Elephants Dream project (which was initially codenamed Orange). Apricot, on the other hand, will use Blender in conjunction with open source 3D framework Crystal Space to create an open game, thereby showcasing both technologies.
The Internet

Submission + - Evolution of the 'Captcha' (nytimes.com)

Submitted by FireballX301
FireballX301 writes: The New York Times is running an article about the small word puzzles various sites use in order to defeat automated script registration while still letting humans through. It seems many people can't actually solve them anymore, so new alternatives (image recognition) are being created. This, of course, seems breakable as well — is there a feasible alternative to the captcha, or are we stuck jumping through more and more hoops to register at places?
Music

Submission + - Paul McCartney on music in the digital world

Submitted by
Rachhpal
Rachhpal writes: "Paul McCartney, ex-Beatles member, will release his new album today, "Memory Almost Full". In an interview with L.A. Times, he indicated ending his long time relationship with EMI and making his album fully downloadable through his new relationship with Starbucks' new Hear Music Label. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-mc cartney3jun03,1,1265126.story?track=rss&ctrack=2&c set=true Some of his comments on the music industry currently from the interview: "I was bored with the old record company's jaded view," McCartney says, ..... "They're very confused, and they will admit it themselves: that this is a new world, and they're a little bit at a loss as to what to do. So they've got millions of dollars and X budget ... for them to come up with boring ways — because they've been at it for so long — to what they call 'market' it. And I find that all a bit disturbing."
AMD

Submission + - AMD Exposes Phenom Die - Barcelona Unveiled

Submitted by MojoKid
MojoKid writes: A few weeks ago, AMD released information on new branding for their desktop derivatives of the Barcelona core, now dubbed the Phenom FX, X4 and X2. If you're unfamiliar with Phenom, the processors will be based on AMD's K10 architecture and will feature a faster on-die memory controller, support 64-bit and 128-bit SSE operations, and they'll be outfitted with 2MB of on-chip L2 cache (512KB dedicated per core) in addition to 2MB of shared L3 cache. Today,instead of revealing some more of the juicy details regarding those enhancements, AMD just sent over a tasty photo of a Phenom die. Click the image to the left for a high-res version.
Google

Submission + - Zero Day Hole in Google Desktop (zdnet.com)

Submitted by 40by40
40by40 writes: A Web application security specialist has figured out a way to launch man-in-the-middle attacks against a computer with a fully patched Google Desktop installed. With knowledge of the Google Desktop security model (a combination of one-time tokens, iFrames and JavaScript), hacker Robert Hansen figured out a way to sit between a target launching a Google search query and manipulate the search results to take control of other programs on the desktop.
Portables

Submission + - big ram laptops? (beyond 4gb)

Submitted by Fubari
Fubari writes: Anybody know when laptops over 4gb might be coming out? Some of the devtools I want to run are just obscene ram-pigs. On the desktop I'm using now (win2003), it sucks up 1.6gb just to boot. By the time I log in and start doing work, it is stretching 2gb.

Move that to vista, add a vm-ware session or two, and I'm worried I'll be pushing 4gb.

I'm torn between buying a 4gb-max laptop now, or some mini-desktop that can fit in a set of luggage wheels. A friend of mine suggested something like this, but my first choice would be something designed to be portable.
Television

Submission + - TV delays drive viewers to piracy

Submitted by Astat1ne
Astat1ne writes: The Register has a story about the delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing with overseas-produced series and how it is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. From the story: "According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series', Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first run series' first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months." According to the article, the situation is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes website and are turning to unauthorised means to get copies of their favorite shows.
Patents

Submission + - Creative Commons v3.0 licences launched

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Creative Commons announced the release of its licences on Friday 23 Feb 2007. Changes include "Clarifications Negotiated With Debian and MIT", CC-BY-SA "compatibility structure", endorsement control, etc.

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