Archive for the ‘Sci-Tech’ Category

Paramount Pictures says that, in the months following the theatrical release of Star Trek, the media company tracked more than five million IP addresses that downloaded one of six camcorded copies of the movie. The first was in Russian, but it was followed by editions from the Philippines, the Ukraine, Spain, Germany, and finally the United States. ... Full story

Though jailbreaking an iPhone certainly opens up opportunities to add functionality that Apple doesn’t approve of, it can also make an iPhone less secure. Several Dutch iPhone users found that out the hard way after a hacker attacked a number of vulnerable phones on T-mobile Netherlands and tried to extort €5 from them. It appears one enterprising Dutch ... Full story

And now… fighting out of the red corner, weighing in with two Evergreen GPUs, and wearing black trunks and red trim, it’s the Radeon HD 5970. ATI’s latest challenger for the title of undisputed graphics champion has been snared in the wild, and its photo shoot reveals a suitably oversized beast. Measuring in at 13.5 inches and ... Full story

Project risks in production can take many forms, and be as simple as something which could lead to a bad product, or a canceled project, or even your company going out of business. Risks in your projects can affect every department and aspect of your company, and are often very different from project to project, team to team, and company to company. It is important ... Full story

With the release of the Federal Communications Commission’s new Internet nondiscrimination proposals (that is, network neutrality), one vexing question continues to vex. Does the FCC have the legal authority to regulate access to the ‘Net? The issue came up again this week, and not just because of the net neutrality proceeding; Comcast, which is suing the FCC ... Full story

Kick and punch may be all in the mind, but Parappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura doesn’t want so much of it in videogames. Speaking with Joystiq, the man responsible for Major Minor’s Majestic March views videogame violence as a problem that needs to be stamped out. “Reducing the volume of games that involve hurting people with knives and guns,” said Matsuura, when asked if there ... Full story

The U.S. has a dark box of options for keeping Internet traffic flowing during a pandemic, including restricting the bandwidth capability of home modems. The feds have already shown their willingness to impose their power on carriers because of national security, something that happened after 9/11 with the Patriot Act. If a pandemic keeps large numbers of ... Full story

How green is your TV? If you’re like most people, you have no idea how much energy your television uses. Yet as screens have grown bigger in recent years, the amount of electricity gobbled up by TVs has soared. The trend worries some regulators and utilities. They say big-screen energy hogs are taxing the power system and consumers are unwilling to buy energy-efficient sets since ... Full story

Ericsson have been demonstrating their new computer concept design for the year 2020 at the Taiwan Broadband show and it’s kind of, well, different. It’s being called The Ericsson Spider PC concept for obvious reasons. The thing looks more like a spider on legs than anything you could call a computer. Apparently the device, if it ever got off ... Full story

Sony’s future is looking a bit brighter. The company said today that it now expects an operating loss of $655 million (60 billion yen) rather than $1.2 billion (110 billion yen). This despite an operating loss of $356 million (32.6 billion yen) in the July-September quarter, from a profit of $120 million (11.05 billion yen) a year ago. Many analysts had expected Sony to post a ... Full story