DefectiveByDesign.org Takes Another Bite at the Apple

Taking another bite at the Apple

With 100,000 DRM warning labels now distributed, it’s time to start the action. Join one. Start one.

Join us in New York and London.

On Saturday, September 30th, hazmat suited DefectiveByDesign members will gather at the flagship Apple stores in New York and London, These high profile events will kick-off awareness for [...]

Software Defined Radio (SDR) or ‘Tower of Babel’ technology

Another sign of technological Convergence…

‘Tower of Babel’ technology nears

Software Defined Radio (SDR) can read and understand different kinds of radio waves

The problem of compatibility between wireless devices is being addressed at an international conference this week.

Scientists will be discussing what has been dubbed “Tower of Babel” technology – software that can converge different wireless [...]

New technology could nip High Def DVD format war in the bud

If the Optical Drive manufacturers won’t (or can’t because of DRM) ship multi-format readers, the media manufacturers seem to have come up with a solution.

New technology could nip DVD format war in the bud

The format war around next generation DVDs may be over before it has begun, thanks to a breakthrough from a British media [...]

By Next Year You Could be Playing Games on a Microsoft PlayStation 360.

Sony … between exploding laptop batteries (that must now be replaced), the way late – way expensive – Blu-ray drive, the T.V and Monitor business in steady decline, Sony spyware and rootkits intentionally loaded on their music CDs, and a Sony Computer Entertainment president (Ken Kutaragi) who said about the PS3 that it’s a premium [...]

XBox360 HD-DVD: Stupid DRM tricks

One of the PoliTech Extropians just emailed me and is somewhat upset with the latest press releases regarding XBox 360 and the HD-DVD drive…

HD DVD will be 1080p only via VGA cable. Component cable limited to 1080i due to Effing DRM/copy protection!

Games will be 1080p, but why limit HD DVD especially since the Xbox does [...]

Why Vista will mean the end of the Microsoft monolith

This is not to say it will be the end for Microsoft, but the way I read the the technology tea leaves here is that Microsoft will find itself slowly marginalized, similarly to IBM which during the “Big Blue” era was the only name in computing.

Microsoft has been continually outperformed by the Social/technological GNU/GPL movement [...]

A 1st Blog From Space

Hi everyone,

It is about 11:30 GMT here on ISS. It looks like my first entry from space made it down there.. Amazing, isn’t it…?

So first let’s take care of a few housekeeping items… I do not have realtime access to email. The email process is a batch process so it happens three times a day. [...]

The Car that Runs on Air

After twelve years of reserch and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. A new type of engine being developed runs on compressed air.
YouTube video here

Canada Unveils Nikola Tesla Monument

Nikola Tesla Monument within Queen Victoria Park, Niagara Falls (Canadian side) was unveiled on July 9, 2006

Nikola Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls, New York which started producing electrical power in 1895.

This was the beginning of the electrification of the United States and the rest of the world. Today, Tesla’s [...]

Adult Stem Cells Help Weakened Hearts

The cells within the human body are quickly becoming a canvas for medical art. Look at what researchers are announcing these days:
Regenerating hearts…

Even patients who suffered an episode decades ago can benefit, researchers say.

Using stem cells harvested from patients’ own bone marrow, researchers improved cardiac function in heart attack patients months, years — and even [...]

Microsoft offering free repairs for all 2005 Xbox 360s – Engadget

Engadget has even more good XBox 360 news.

Microsoft offering free repairs for all 2005 Xbox 360s

Those Redmond folks are sure on a good news streak.

After announcing 1080p upscaling and a delightfully low-priced HD DVD drive for their 360, they’re offering a helping hand to early adopters who haven’t had quite as much fun with the [...]

How to Cure your Blogging Addiction in 7 Easy Steps

What does it say about me that I just blogged about this article?

How to Cure your Blogging Addiction in 7 Easy Steps

Blogging has made a huge impact in many peoples lives over the past few years – just look at the Technorati numbers to see blogs in the tens of millions, from all corners of [...]

Handy Tech: AA batteries that have built-in USB port

Sometimes it’s the little things in life … and technology.

Charge your AAs over USB

I love innovation – who doesn’t? That said, my tastes lie specifically in the kind which make my life simpler and easier. We’re talking email over post, wireless over wired, LCD over CRT and potentially now ‘USBCell’ batteries over your traditional AAs.

Released [...]

Xbox 360: Microsoft announces 1080p support

1080p is already available with projectors, plasma monitors, and LCD panels (though no CRT television monitors yet). The 1080p picture is far superior (to my eye anyway) to 1080i.
This is good news for the High Definition enthusiast.
As Kingdox commented on Joystiq
Very cool, I love it when stuff you buy gets more features added [...]

YouTube’s deal with Warner Music could be YouTube’s downfall.

A lot of bloggers, social site posters, and traditional webmasters are using youtube to display video and many feature youtube videos with great regularity, (including the PoliTech Blog!). The article below is definitely worth the read.

Feature: Why YouTube’s best deal will be its death

Today, YouTube announces that Warner Music will publish music videos (and some [...]

Cool Images of our Galaxy

A cool guy managed a project that mapped the entire sky at two microns. Two Linux boxes, two telescopes in the northern and southern hemisphere, and time was all that was needed to capture some incredible data. If you like giant wall paper, there are some 4k 3k images of the heavens. Orion’s belt is [...]

“Information Tech” Tops List of Most Stressful Jobs

Top 10 Most Stressful Professions
Work Stresses and Colleague Irritations, Defined

IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional, according to the survey.

Four out of five IT consultants feel stressed before they even enter the workplace, in anticipation of another day juggling complaints, pressure from managers and daily targets.

And a quarter of [...]

Free Appz: Here’s One For Us Command Line Addicts

SlickRun-A Free Floating Command Line Utility for Windows [170KB]
Enter a web URL into SlickRun and it will launch your browser and navigate to the specified address. Run multiple programs in a few keystrokes, jot a note, look up a definition… SlickRun is the most natural way to interact with your computer.
screenshot below

Now thats a [...]

Digg: Democratic? Or Herd Behavior?

My vote is for “Herd Behavior”. Wikipedia describes “Information cascade” and the description strongly resembles what we see daily on Digg.com.
Information cascade is a phenomenon in social psychology in which the decisions of a few individuals have a disproportionally strong effect on the behavior of the group as a whole. Information cascade is commonly seen [...]

RFID Privacy Issues and News

Spychips.com added to the PoliTech Reading list.

The Spychips website is a project of CASPIAN, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering.

This Guy is Seriously Talented

This is the best game console mod that I have ever seen … period.
From start…

To Finish…

Scroll passed the video ad (after you watch it of course…it’s an odd ad) to get to the story, there are five pages of mod progress pictures and commentary. Well worth the visit!
Oooohhh! There is video!

Hat [...]

Microsoft YouTube Clone Coming

Since Google Video never really took off. And since YouTube is burning cash at a rate that is at this point insurmountable, and will be going down the drain shortly without a buyout or other cash infusion. I’m hoping that another alternative will show up soon. I like adding video to my blog. I like [...]

Free Appz: Save YouTube Video

Have you ever wanted to save YouTube videos? Here is a nice little FREE way to capture them and then play them back.
YouTube to iPod
There have been several programs promise to grab Youtube videos,convert and import them into iTunes but then pull a fast one and ask you to pay for a license. iTube and [...]

Cool CG Commercial

Light blogging this week, I’ve been pretty busy with work in real-space. I did see this very cool CG commercial today and it’s worth a quick look…

October 3rd Declared “Day Against DRM”

Sign up here

Aliens Caught at Roswell!

ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor

The aliens will be processed which includes a thorough interview and background screening to identify fugitives from the law or anyone with a criminal background. All will be placed into removal proceedings, and quickly returned
I always knew they were using Aliens at Rosewell to help [...]