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Reuters – With more than $1 billion in sales and 50 million tracks downloaded between them — on a base of only about 350 songs — the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” video-game franchises emerged this year as serious moneymakers for the music industry. But are they bringing in enough per track?
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 Digitaltrends.com |
Cisco discovers the Free Software Foundation wasn't joking
CNET News - When I read that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is suing Cisco over alleged violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL), my first reaction was, "Put that subpoena back in your pocket, FSF. Cisco Hit With Open Source Lawsuit Free Software Group Sues Cisco For Open Source Violations |
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PC World – The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has approved a standard for high-speed networking over multiple types of in-home wiring.
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 Reuters |
CNNMoney Calls PS3 "A Sinking Ship"
1UP.com - By Garnett Lee, 12/12/2008 Fallout from the November sales data continues to mount for Sony and its PlayStation family. CNNMoney's Silicon Alley Insider column pulled no punches in its assessment of the numbers calling the PS3 "A sinking ship" in light … 2008 Year in Review Wii Leads Gains in Videogame Sales |
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AP – Americans may be cutting back on holiday shopping, but they are still buying video games to the tune of nearly $3 billion in November, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ—A Devin Harris three-point attempt that caromed wildly off the back of the rim during the third quarter of Wednesday night’s New York Knicks—New Jersey Nets game has created a disruption involving the entire NBA,…
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An anonymous reader writes “I have a technology background and worked as a programmer for a few years before slipping over to the dark side. I am now on the business side and have been given responsibility for a small team of Java programmers. While the technology aspect of what my team works on doesn’t scare me, I need ideas to make sure the team stays motivated while reporting to me, a business-oriented guy. Perhaps I should mention I am in my early 30s while the majority of the team constitute an older, wiser generation. What advice should I follow to avoid turning into yet another Bill Lumbergh?”
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The US video game industry recorded growth of 10 percent in November despite the recession that is ravaging other sectors of the economy, NPD said Thursday.
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Telecommunications is, by most analyst’s accounts, one of a relative handful of industries that continue to do well during the recession, but Nortel apparently hasn’t gotten the memo.
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DALLAS—Dallas head coach Wade Phillips speculated Wednesday that if recent history is any indicator, Jerry Jones is “almost certainly”…
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beetle496 writes “It has been going on nine years now, but finally there are formal standards for Web accessibility for technologies other than HTML. They ask that you start with the press release (lots of links), but regulars might be more entertained by the last time WCAG made the front page here. Many folks here will point out that web accessibility is old hat, and by implication this is hardly news, but if you do Web development for any government organization, you should expect that accessibility is a base requirement. The Section 508 standards are to be updated (relatively) soon too.”
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AP – Parliament has approved a law making Estonia the first country to allow voting by mobile phone.
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holy_calamity writes “CERN have released images of the damage done to the world’s most powerful machine, the Large Hadron Collider, when an electrical fault caused a helium leak. New Scientist has posted them, along with explanations of what you can see. The sudden burst of gas shifted some of the huge superconducting magnets by half a meter, causing at least $21 million in damage.”
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 Macworld |
The Shimmering Mirage of iPhone Copy/Paste
CRN - Pastebud, the latest third-party effort to bring copy/paste functionality to the iPhone, achieves its goal in a roundabout fashion. Wisemen bring Jesus Phone (free) cut-and-paste Pastebud brings Web-based copy and paste to iPhone |
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Reuters – Radio companies took a giant step forward in 2008 by embracing online and mobile applications like never before.
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An unpatched vulnerability found in Internet Explorer 7 also affects older versions of the browser as well as the latest beta version, Microsoft warned.
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Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on corruption charges stemming from an alleged conspiracy to sell or trade the Senate seat left…
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 BBC News |
Rule Eases a Mandate Under a Law on Wildlife
New York Times - By FELICITY BARRINGER The Interior Department on Thursday announced a rule that has largely freed federal agencies from their obligation to consult independent wildlife biologists before they build dams or highways or permit construction of … Administration Loosens Species Protections Major changes to Endangered Species Act |
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HOPATCONG, NJ—A lie told to 28-year-old Kyle Bida to cover up a surprise birthday party to be held in his honor later this evening sounds a…
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Reuters – The Rebels: The rise of digital distribution has challenged many long-held beliefs about the art and commerce of the music industry. In the past year, the following acts challenged right back by refusing to play along in the Internet age.
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EU officials are debating what distinguishes a printer from a copier, or a phone from a TV. The distinction could add up to 14 percent in duty to product prices
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Yesterday Sony launched the open beta for Playstation Home, the virtual world designed for Playstation Network community members. Eurogamer has an in-depth look at the features of Home. They point out some glaring weaknesses, such as a poor communication system, a flawed business model, and the inability to form groups without entering games, something the recently revamped Xbox interface does better. “It’s not alienating, it’s easy to identify with, and the socialising and advertising are entirely in context. But you’re left pondering the inevitable question: why would you want to spend any time here?” Home’s debut to the public saw a few typical launch-day problems, but Sony was quick to address them and get things back on track. Gizmodo has some screenshots and basic information available.
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Onion Radio News – with Doyle Redland
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 Times Online |
Year's Biggest Full Moon in Skies Friday Night
FOXNews - By Robert Roy Britt AP The full moon Friday night will be the biggest one of the year as Earth's natural satellite reaches its closest point to our planet. Friday perfect for dancing in the moonlight Bewerewolves: Fullest Moon in 15 Years Tonight |
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DRAM makers are facing one of the worst downturns in their history and governments around the world are lining up to help companies through the mess.
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AP – When University of Central Florida junior Nicole Nissim got stumped in trigonometry, she checked out what was showing on YouTube.
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US Representative Jim Langevin (D-RI) is one of the chairs of the CSIS Cybersecurity Commission that released a comprehensive 96-page report on Dec. 8 under the title, Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency. The aim of the Commission is to help the incoming administration balance “cyberspace” security needs with civil liberties. We’d like to thank Rep. Langevin and his staff (some of whom are ardent Slashdot readers) for taking time to answer your (hopefully) cogent questions. Usual Slashdot interview rules apply, and — also as usual — we’ll post Rep. Langevin’s answers as soon as he gets them back to us.
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 NewsOXY |
FCC Cancels Meeting After Warning
PC World - The US Federal Communications Commission has cancelled an open meeting set for Dec. 18 after two high-ranking lawmakers asked Chairman Kevin Martin to hold off on some controversial items in the agenda and concentrate on the transition to digital … Lawmakers urge FCC to delay contentious actions Lawmakers ask FCC to slow down on policymaking |
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AP – Computer and video games and their ever-greater realism get most of the attention these days.
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 PC World |
Create Your Own Fallout 3 World Today
Wired News - By Nate Ralph December 12, 2008 | 6:13:00 PMCategories: Downloadable Content Bethesda has finally released Garden Of Eden Creation Kit, the free content editor for the PC version of Fallout 3 . Fallout 3's GECK released GECK Content Creator For Fallout 3 Released |
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Blu-ray Sales Off The Charts
IGN - by Chris Iaquinta December 12, 2008 – The holiday shopping season is at full intensity and consumers have made it clear that above all else they want a Blu-ray player in their stocking. 'Dark Knight' Likely To Become Best-Selling Blu-Ray The Dark Knight defeats the economic crisis |
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An Anonymous Coward writes “China’s online gaming themed service industry appears to be booming, riding China’s fascination with online gaming all the way to the top is a Chinese restaurateur with his World of Warcraft inspired eatery.” I would recommend the Critter Bites and the Haunted Herring, but would warn against the Carrion Surprise.
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 Washington Post |
Washington state braces for fierce winter storm
USA Today - SEATTLE (AP) – Dismal winter weather blew into Washington state Friday, including high winds on the coast, worries of minor flooding along Puget Sound, snow in Spokane and a possible blizzard in parts of the Cascades. Storm "on steroids" to hit Southland this weekend Severe Weather Expected To Hit SCV This Weekend |
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 PC Magazine |
How to Safeguard Against the IE Vulnerability
PC Magazine - Internet Explorer has sprung a leak, and Microsoft advises that you batten down the hatches. Here's how to do it, in plain English. Microsoft: Unplugged hole being exploited affects all IE versions Microsoft confirms that all versions of IE have critical new bug |
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PC World – Enterprise software maker Infor Global Solutions quietly laid off about 5 percent of its roughly 9,000 workers this week, making it the latest of its peers to trim staff during the economic downturn.
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Velocity Micro is a prominent PC supplier with products available both online and in brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S. Has their popularity hurt their performance, or do they have what it takes to compete with the boutique vendors? We look at the bottom line in our review of the Core i7 equipped Edge Z55….
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CHARLOTTE, NC—Coworkers knew James Atkins had become a virtuoso of business jargon when he asked the group to participate in a “targeted brainstorm by EOD.”
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coondoggie writes with this excerpt from NetworkWorld: “Like a bunch of children in a sandbox unable and perhaps unwilling to share their toys, multiple key government agencies cannot or will not cooperate to build a collaborative wireless network. The Government Accountability Office report (PDF) issued today took aim at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Treasury which had intended what’s known as The Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) to be a joint radio communications system to improve communication among law enforcement agencies. However IWN, which has already cost millions of dollars, is no longer being pursued as a joint development project, the GAO said. By abandoning collaboration on a joint implementation, the departments risk duplication of effort and inefficient use of resources as they continue to invest significant resources in independent solutions. Further, these efforts will not ensure the interoperability needed to serve day-to-day law enforcement operations or a coordinated response to terrorist or other events, the GAO said.”
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There are now two vital resources for Virtualization Administrators, the VMware Bookshelf and Top Virtualization Security Links.
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Mobile service providers AT&T and T-Mobile have been banned from saying that their voicemail systems are safe from sabotage after agreeing to permanent injunctions filed in a Los Angeles court.
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