Amusing: Windows XP Outshines Vista in Benchmarking Test

This made me chuckle, (I may have even chortled)

Windows XP outshines Vista in benchmarking test
New tests have revealed that Windows XP with the beta Service Pack 3 has twice the performance of Vista, even with its long-awaited Service Pack 1.
Vista’s first service pack, to be released early next year, is intended to boost the operating [...]

Mac OS 10.5 Leopard Hacked to Run on PCs

PC World tell us …
Leopard Hacked to Run on PCs
The OSx86 Scene forum is offering full instructions on how to install the newest Mac OS on Windows PCs.
The cat and mouse game between hackers and Apple takes another move, with news that Apple’s new Leopard operating system has already been successfully installed on Windows PCs.
The [...]

LG DVD Drive: 8X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 4X DVD+R DL 8X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-ROM 16X CD-R 16X CD-RW 32X CD-ROM CD, DVD: 2MB BD, HD: 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi Blue BD Burner and HD DVD Reader

Really! Thats the name of the LG Model GGW-H10NI DVD Burner.

What an absolute joke. Not the LG Product, (it’s a nice drive although a little pricey) but this whole Optical Media standards war that has been ongoing for the last ten years or so.
Which technology can use this alphabet soup idiocy to actually win [...]

Reviving Old PC800 RDRAM PCs

I recently came across an old Gateway Performance 1400 that needed fixing. Generally a PC this old is to be considered “Scrap” and usually I advise the client that it’s time for the dreaded replacement. Then comes the painful process of moving of data, apps, and all of the other nightmarish stuff that comes to [...]

The iZune!

Thanks Charles

A Nanomechanical Computer

In an article from The Institute of Psysics:

A nanomechanical computer—exploring new avenues of computing

Here is the abstract:
We propose a fully mechanical computer based on nano-electromechanical elements. Our aim is to combine this classical approach with modern nanotechnology to build a nanomechanical computer (NMC) based on nanomechanical transistors. The main motivation behind constructing such a computer [...]

iPhone Magic

Via: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

iPhone Dissected: They did it, so you don’t have to

From anandtech:
We have only had the phone for a few hours but we needed to get inside its casing, what follows is our dissection of the Apple iPhone. Please note that we’re doing this so you are not tempted to on your recent $500/$600 expenditure, while it is quite possible to take apart using easy [...]

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs “ineffective”

Via Oikeuden edessä and slashdot:

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs “ineffective”
In an unanimous decision released today, Helsinki District Court ruled that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is “ineffective”. The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law amendments that ban the circumvention of “effective technological measures”. [...]

09 f9: A Legal Primer … or … What is the AACS-LA’s Legal argument?

The AACS-LA made some news yesterday. Read about some of it here, here, and here, as well as the following from the EFF Deep Links section:
What is the AACS-LA’s argument? In its takedown letters, the AACS-LA claims that hosting the key violates the DMCA’s ban on trafficking in circumvention devices. The DMCA provides that:
No person [...]

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

On June 16, 2006, Professor Lawrence Lessig gave a talk at the Center for American Progress entitled “The Withering of the Net: How DC Pathologies are Undermining the Growth and Wealth of the Net.” This talk was the second in a series of three. The first talk [...]

D-Wave delivers on quantum computer demo promise

D-Wave qubits in the era of Quantum Computing

D-Wave showed three examples of Orion in action, marking the first such demonstration of a quantum computer. The most impressive display came during a drug molecule matching exercise, while two less impressive efforts had Orion crunch through a party table seating arrangement that paired like-minded guests and then [...]

Exposed: HD DVD and Blu-ray Processiong Keys for All HD Titles

I was following this discussion on Doom9 yesterday, where arnezami claims to have found the “processing key” used to decrypt the DRM on all HD DVD and Blu-Ray Disc films.
It looks like this is the real McCoy and the news is starting to get around…
arnezami claims to have found it by simply watching his [...]

D-Wave Announces Quantum Computer Demo Success; Before the Demo Happens

D-Wave posted this press release:

February 13, 2007
World’s First Commercial Quantum Computer Demonstrated

New System Aims at Breakthroughs in Medicine, Business Applications and Expanded Use of Digital Computers

Venture-funded Canadian company shows new product applied to pattern-matching database search

VANCOUVER, B.C. or MT. VIEW, CA – February 13, 2007 – The world’s first commercially viable quantum computer was unveiled [...]

Vista Not Playing Nice With FPS Games

Via SlashDot

Vista not playing nice with gamers

Some XP favorites crashing or crawling; fix wait could be lengthy

Windows Vista’s powerful new graphics engine may be one of its hallmark features, but it’s engendering complaints from a key segment of potential early adopters: hardcore gamers.

A small but significant number of games written for Windows XP either crash [...]

Quantum Computing Demo Announced

Quantum Computing Demo Announcement

We have fixed the dates for the demo of our Orion quantum computing system. We are going to hold two events, one at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California on February 13th, and the second at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver, Canada on February 15th.
These events are open [...]

Cancel or Allow?

This is the first MAC vs. PC advert that is actually pretty funny.

The PC Guy is just more likeable than the MAC Guy.
Hattip: YaBlog!

Vista DRM Already Cracked?

Alex Ionescu claims to have successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called ‘Protected Media Path’ (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft. The bypass of the DRM protection was in turn performed [...]

Microsoft Cripples Vista Upgrade

The Inquirer calls this policy “Preinstall to Reinstall”. Microsoft calls it “Closing a Loophole”. Ars Technica says that it’s indicative of Microsoft’s ‘per device’ obsession.
PoliTech calls it one more reason to consider moving to Open Source alltogether.

Vista “upgrade” drops compliance checking, requires old OS to install

Microsoft’s quest to closely control the way Windows Vista [...]

AACS Confirms HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Cracked

AACS hack blamed on bad player implementation

A month after the first signs appeared online that AACS—the content protection scheme shared by HD DVD and Blu-ray—had been circumvented, the AACS Licensing Authority has verified the hack. According to a statement from the AACS LA, AACS has not been seriously compromised. Instead, the statement said, the attack [...]

Microsoft Confirms DRM Driver Crippling in VISTA

I got some feedback from some DRM doubters at the beginning of the year when I talked about The Perils of Windows Vista and Built-in DRM. I wish that I was wrong, but no such luck. From the horses mouth comes confirmation of every horrible charge leveled at Vista by Gutmann

Windows Vista Content Protection - [...]

Video: Digital Waterfalls

This is really a cool display.

Hattip: BoingBoing

Build your own self-tuning portable RF jammer

Not that you would … because the FCC frowns on that sort of thing … but it’s nice to know that you could.

Wave Bubble: A design for a self-tuning portable RF jammer

This website details the design and construction Wave Bubble: a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable RF jammer. The device is lightweight and small for easy camoflauging: [...]

High Def DVD Alphabet Soup (Dual Formats) Announced

This took a little longer than expected, but in less than a year, here we are … High Definition DVD alphabet soup for optical hardware, with an added bonus of dual format High Def optical media!

Warner, LG embrace dual-format DVD technology

An electronics company and a movie studio independently rolled out plans on [...]

Hitachi breaks 1TB hard drive barrier

Just as I fill up another 500gb hard disk with music and video … I get some good news!

Hitachi breaks 1TB hard drive barrier with 7K1000

Well, we knew it was likely to happen in 2006 or 2007: Hitachi has fulfilled their promise and broken the 1TB drive barrier with the introduction of Hitachi’s new Deskstar [...]

The Perils of Windows Vista and Built-in DRM

Why Use Windows Vista?

From January 30th, all new PCs will come pre-installed with Windows Vista. There are several good reasons not to use it.

If that article’s a bit long and technical for you, read on…

Vista is all about ‘premium content’. This is music or video that’s copyrighted by one of the major music or movie [...]

Microsoft’s Zune Advertising Is Really Strange

This is a good example of what I like to refer to as “WTF??? Marketing”

HD-DVD copy protection defeated … for now

BoingBoing reader Gunther says,
On the doom9 forums there is news of a new tool to decrypt HDDVD’s. How you get the key is not yet clear but there is a promise to have a tool to get the needed key later. (check the #9 post in the thread): Link, and related coverage at the [...]

Nanomaterials Produce Flexible Three - Dimensional Electronics

Nanomaterials Produce Heterogeneous Three- Dimensional Electronics

Researchers at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory of the University of Illinois have developed a new, experimentally simple approach for combining broad classes of dissimilar electronic materials into heterogeneously integrated systems with two or three dimensional layouts on rigid or flexible substrates. The materials and techniques, published in the [...]

How the Democrats Stole the 2006 Elections

Just some random thoughts about hacked voting machines, “Fixing the Vote” and rampant Vote Fraud …
Vote Fixing as taught by Huffington Post with video describing exactly how to actually do it. Nice of Marty Kaplan and HuffPo to give the Dems step-by-step video instructions. It looks like those instructions were followed [...]