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Stories and comments across the archive that link to arstechnica.com.

Stories · 4,420

  1. Speculation on Real Reasons Behind Apple Switch

    Tech · Aptech2 · · posted by Hemos · from the the-true-switch-campaign dept. · 659 comments
    /ASCII writes "There is an article over at Ars Technica with some insider information about the reasons behind Apples x86 switch, given that the new IBM processors seem to be a perfect fit for Apple. The article claims that Apple hopes to power its entire line, from Servers to desktops to iPods and other gadgets with Intel CPUs, and that by doing so, they will gain the same kinds of discounts that Dell get."

  2. Speculation on Real Reasons Behind Apple Switch

    Tech · Aptech2 · · posted by Hemos · from the the-true-switch-campaign dept. · 659 comments
    /ASCII writes "There is an article over at Ars Technica with some insider information about the reasons behind Apples x86 switch, given that the new IBM processors seem to be a perfect fit for Apple. The article claims that Apple hopes to power its entire line, from Servers to desktops to iPods and other gadgets with Intel CPUs, and that by doing so, they will gain the same kinds of discounts that Dell get."

  3. New Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows

    Tech · Windows · · posted by Zonk · from the bag-of-tricks dept. · 23 comments
    cygnusx writes "Microsoft Monitor and Ars Technica are reporting that Microsoft has released an administrative toolkit (beta) to help secure Windows machines that are shared by a number of people. Features include protecting the Windows partition from non-administrative changes and Group Policy-like access restrictions. This should be good news because Microsoft seems to be recognizing that not everyone can go down the Active Directory path to manage their Windows machines better."

  4. Ars's Skeptical Take on Wired's NextFest

    Tech · Humor · · posted by timothy · from the everyone's-a-critic dept. · 138 comments
    jamestech writes "Over the weekend, Wired magazine held its 'NextFest' in Chicago, a demonstration of what the future supposedly holds. Arstechnica's Hannibal visited NextFest, and was not impressed. Regarding a dolphin-shaped water vehicle and exoskeletons for the old, he notes, 'if you're being pursued by a senior citizen then you can use the dolphin to escape.' Wired's been more about style rather than tech since the late 90s, but have they finally dropped science in favor of science fiction?"

  5. Netflix CFO Sees No Future for Amazon Rentals

    News · Movies · · posted by Zonk · from the sniping-from-the-sidelines dept. · 136 comments
    Dave H. writes "In comments made at the Morgan Stanley Small Cap conference last week, Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy says he doesn't think Amazon.com will expand its video rental market into the US because the retailer's infrastructure wouldn't work to its advantage with video rentals. He also sees the window between theatrical and DVD releases shortening, which is a Good Thing." From the article: "The price of entry is much higher now than it was in the past, both in terms of the cost of locating warehouses and just the mere fact that Netflix and Blockbuster are both considerably larger now. McCarthy then said that Amazon is in the classic make-versus-buy dilemma, noting that the company can either start from scratch or try to acquire service through either an acquisition or partnership." Update 6/20: Barry McCarthy's position at Netflix corrected.

  6. U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Lexmark Case

    Yro · Court · · posted by Zonk · from the tough-break dept. · 220 comments
    wallykeyster writes " The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Lexmark's petition for certiorari in its long and bitter battle against North Carolina-based Static Control Components (SCC). For those out of the loop on this one, Lexmark tried to lock in consumers and lock out competition by adding code to their printers and toner cartridges so that only Lexmark toners would work. SSC defeated their monopolist technology and began selling the off-brand chips to aftermarket toner cartridge makers. As discussed here earlier, in mid-February Lexmark was dealt a defeat by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, who denied Lexmark's request for a rehearing. Other related threads here, here, here, here, and here." The story is on the AP Newswire as well.

  7. Inside the Xbox 360

    Games · Xbox · · posted by Zonk · from the tech-that-drives-the-beast dept. · 347 comments
    QT writes "Ars Technica has an in-depth look at the Xenon processor that will power the Xbox 360. It's the first technical look at the CPU itself, its design goals, and some of the differences between it and IBM's Cell processor. The Xbox 360's procedural synthesis capabilities look quite impressive, and I'm not as convinced as I was before that the PS3 would spank the Xbox 360."

  8. A Non-Dogmatic History of the GUI

    Tech · Gui · · posted by timothy · from the catmatic-is-better-anyhow dept. · 305 comments
    Zoxed writes "Jeremy Reimer provides an 8-page history of GUIs from the early 1930s to the present day. For example, from the conclusion: 'the truth of the story is that the GUI was developed by many different people over a long period of time. Saying that "Apple invented the GUI" or "Apple ripped off the idea from PARC" is overly simplistic, but saying that "Xerox invented the GUI" is equally so.'"

  9. FCC Broadcast Flag Struck Down

    Yro · Court · · posted by Zonk · from the system-works-sometimes dept. · 416 comments
    An anonymous reader writes "CNet is reporting that the courts have struck down the FCC's broadcast flag requirement! 'In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1.'" The EFF has details on the flag, the official ruling is online for examination, and commentary is available from BoingBoing and Ars Technica.

  10. Does launchd Beat cron?

    Apple · Aputilities · · posted by timothy · from the borrowable dept. · 798 comments
    Blamemyparents writes "For those who aren't Appleheads, you may not have heard that with Tiger, Apple swapped out old Unix standby cron for their own creation, launchd (Apple mentions it on their OS X page and has the man page for it up as well). Seems like it's a bit nerdy, but this changes a LOT about how *nix systems have done things for many years. Launchd is Apple's replacement for quite a few utilities, including launching and quitting quite a few different things, and getting info from the system and other running processes. This page from Ars Technica talks a bit more in depth about it. Apple has open sourced the thing, and is apparently hoping all the unix kids will take a look."

  11. Mac OS X Tiger Released and Analyzed

    Tech · Macosx · · posted by Zonk · from the grrrrrrr dept. · 563 comments
    bonch writes "Ars Technica has gone under the hood of the Tiger release and offers up detailed impressions on the new OS X update. The review covers everything from interface changes, new kernel updates and programming interfaces, the unification of UNIX system startup services into one service called 'launchd', the return of metadata, to the fact Apple has announced that from 10.4 forward there will be no more API changes. A fascinating read about the technical details behind Tiger and the specific changes that have occurred since Panther's release 18 months ago." Today is the update's official launch day, though some lucky people have had it for a few days already.

  12. Mac OS X Tiger Released and Analyzed

    Tech · Macosx · · posted by Zonk · from the grrrrrrr dept. · 563 comments
    bonch writes "Ars Technica has gone under the hood of the Tiger release and offers up detailed impressions on the new OS X update. The review covers everything from interface changes, new kernel updates and programming interfaces, the unification of UNIX system startup services into one service called 'launchd', the return of metadata, to the fact Apple has announced that from 10.4 forward there will be no more API changes. A fascinating read about the technical details behind Tiger and the specific changes that have occurred since Panther's release 18 months ago." Today is the update's official launch day, though some lucky people have had it for a few days already.

  13. USB Flash Drive Round-up

    Hardware · Storage · · posted by Zonk · from the yeee-haw dept. · 348 comments
    Adam writes "Ars has published a massive USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup, with 10 USB 2.0 flash drives that they've tested on three OSes. They rate the drives by performance, durability, and features/accessories (including the crappy software that no one uses). Definitely a good read for anyone who has recently sat on their USB thumbdrive!"

  14. Massive USB2 Flash Drive Round-Up

    Hardware · Storage · · posted by timothy · from the stick-it-in-your-ear dept. · 4 comments
    QT writes "Ars Technica has published their Son of the USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup, reviewing 10 different USB flash drives from 10 different manufacturers. They rate the drives by performance, durability, and features/accessories, and they've tested them on both Windows and Mac OS X. They did a round up a year ago (Slashdot coverage here), but since then the speeds and data storage amounts have greatly improved, as you can see. The performance gaps have widened, as well."

  15. Battlestar Galactica in HD

    · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the high-def-cylons dept. · 203 comments
    Hauzer writes "Ars Technica is carrying news that I know will bring joy to some fans: Universal HD is going to be broadcasting Battlestar Galactica. They're going to run the miniseries and the first Season (2005) of the new Battlestar Galactica, starting Sunday night at 8PM, with HD repeats coming every week. Now if only Sci-Fi would provide an HD channel so we can watch when the new stuff airs!"

  16. Sony Patents Matrix-Like Game Technology

    Games · Matrix · · posted by Zonk · from the better-than-a-giant-needle-in-the-back-of-your-head dept. · 532 comments
    howman writes "Reuters is reporting that Sony has been granted 2 patents, both describing 'Method and system for generating sensory data onto the human neural cortex'. These are patents 6,729,337 and 6,536,440. The patents go on to 'describe a technique for aiming ultrasonic pulses at specific areas of the brain to induce sensory experiences such as smells, sounds and images'. The story was first broken by New Scientist magazine." Commentary also available via Ars Technica.

  17. Ars Technica Builds Make Magazine's Steadicam

    Hardware · Hardhack · · posted by timothy · from the proof-in-pudding dept. · 159 comments
    An anonymous reader writes "Make magazine has been out for a little over a month now and was given high marks in a Slashdot review. Ars Technica has taken their review one step further by building the $14 steadicam project and testing it out. (be sure to check out the QuickTime video at the end to see their results...)"

  18. Ars Technica Builds Make Magazine's Steadicam

    Hardware · Hardhack · · posted by timothy · from the proof-in-pudding dept. · 159 comments
    An anonymous reader writes "Make magazine has been out for a little over a month now and was given high marks in a Slashdot review. Ars Technica has taken their review one step further by building the $14 steadicam project and testing it out. (be sure to check out the QuickTime video at the end to see their results...)"

  19. PlayStation Sales Halted?

    Games · Playstation · · posted by Zonk · from the you'd-think-they'd-have-thought-that-through dept. · 581 comments
    Narf Narf writes "According to Japan Today, the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, has ordered Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and its U.S. unit to pay $90.7 million in damages to Immersion Corp. for patent infringement over controllers used with PlayStation game consoles. In the ruling handed down Thursday, the federal court also ordered Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Entertainment America Inc. to stop selling the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game consoles using Dualshock controllers as well as more than 40 game software products." Update: 03/28 04:51 GMT by Z : ...which was followed immediately by an injunction, to allow Sony time for an appeal, and a compulsory licensing agreement.

  20. Spammers Sue Spam Victim For $4 Million

    Yro · Court · · posted by Zonk · from the that's-a-lot-of-pork dept. · 435 comments
    fronck writes "Self-declared anti-spammer Mark Mumma, a web hosting and email service provider, has apparently been sued for just under $4 million by cruise.com and their parent company Omega World Travel after they were ordered to stop sending him emails and comply with Oklahoma's CAN-SPAM act. Mumma intends to see the trial through court and meanwhile the spam continues unabated. More insight available at Ars Technica."

  21. TiVo to Aim for PC Desktop

    News · Tv · · posted by CowboyNeal · from the pee-vee-arr dept. · 133 comments
    Dave writes "Ars Technica has reported on TiVo's fourth quarter earnings call, and I was interested to see that the company is looking at providing some kind of desktop service for computers." The details are pretty sparse, so it'll be intriguing to see what they've got planned.

  22. Wisconsin Governor Proposing Tax On Downloads

    Yro · Democrats · · posted by samzenpus · from the click-and-pay dept. · 840 comments
    Christopher Reimer writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the Wisconsin's governor is proposing a tax for downloads. From the article: 'Wisconsin's Democratic governor thinks it's not fair that tangible items get taxed while downloads, like music, ebooks, software, etc., go completely untaxed. So, he proposes to rectify the situation by having Wisconsin's 5% state sales tax apply to Internet downloads.'"

  23. Lexmark's DMCA-Abuse Case Coming To An End

    Yro · Court · · posted by timothy · from the pfui-on-them dept. · 431 comments
    Adama writes "Lexmark is dead in the water with their hopes to use the DMCA to force their customers to buy their over-priced toner. Their request for another hearing has been denied. Ars has an especially great write-up on this." (See this earlier story for more background on Lexmark's lock-in attempt.)

  24. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  25. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  26. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  27. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  28. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  29. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  30. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  31. Ars Technica's Hannibal on IBM's Cell

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the different-approach dept. · 449 comments
    endersdouble writes "Ars Technica's Jon "Hannibal" Stokes, known for his many articles on CPU technology, has posted a new article on IBM's new Cell processor. This one is the first part of a series, and covers the processor's approach to caching and control logic. Good read."

  32. More Cell Processor Details And First Pictures

    Hardware · Ibm · · posted by timothy · from the never-a-good-time-to-buy-a-computer dept. · 535 comments
    slashflood writes "After reading two articles on slashdot about the Cell architecture and another one that criticizes the extensive roundup of the STI patents, I found the first pictures of the Cell core. It seems that at least some predictions were true. Seeing is believing." mtgarden points to this ZDNet article which says that the "first version of the chip will run at speeds faster than 4GHz. Engineers were vague on how much faster, but reports from design partners say 4.6GHz is likely. By comparison, the fastest current Pentium PC processor tops out at 3.8GHz." (More below.)

    Hack Jandy writes "Anand Shimpi has some details about the upcoming Cell processor (PS3) in his personal blog. According to Anand, "Rambus announced that the new Cell processor uses both Rambus XDR memory and their FlexIO processor bus. Because Rambus designed the interface for both the memory controller(s) and the processor interface, the vast majority of signaling pins are using Rambus interfaces - a total of 90% according to Rambus." Hasn't Rambus been showing up a lot again recently? The fact that Cell uses XDR has been widely speculated, but the fact that it will also use the Rambus bus signalling is something completely new."

  33. Dual-Core Pentium 4 Slated For 2Q 2005

    Hardware · Intel · · posted by timothy · from the also-makes-toast dept. · 250 comments
    Quantrell writes "Today is the first full day of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, and Intel has announced that dual-core Pentium 4s are coming in the second quarter, one in the Extreme Edition line (no surprise there), and also the Smithfield Pentium 4 800 series, which is the next so-called consumer desktop line. No word on pricing, yet."

  34. RadioShark for Windows and Mac OS X

    Hardware · Music · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the i'm-coming-for-you-ira-glass dept. · 165 comments
    Quantrell writes "Ars Technica has done a very thorough review of the AM/FM radio time-shifting device radioSHARK. I was surprised when I read it, because I thought it was Mac-only. Actually the device has good Windows support, and their review shows that some of the problems experienced by early adopters have been solved with recent updates to the product. That said, there are actually some considerable flaws with the product, so buyer beware." There's a lot more meat on this review than this story which was a lot more glowing of a review.

  35. Ars Technica Reviews AmigaOS 4.0

    Tech · Amiga · · posted by timothy · from the it-isn't-free-though dept. · 405 comments
    Amiga Lover writes "While tales of the troubles behind the Amiga's ownership abound over the last 10 years, work has been going on in the background for newer releases of the operating system that powered some of the most desirable computers from the 1980s. You can now buy brand new Amiga motherboards, and the operating system is very close to a final release. Jeremy Reimer from arstechnica reviews the current developer preview of AmigaOS 4.0, going over this new small and fast OS in thorough arstechnica style."

  36. Where Do You Shop for Server Components?

    Ask · Money · · posted by Cliff · from the most-value-for-your-<insert-currency-here> dept. · 447 comments
    Devi0s asks: "Along with many other Slashdot readers, I have been building my own PCs for years. I use hardware review sites such as Ars Technica, Tech Report, and Tom's Hardware Guide to research the components and pick out the best, and I use PriceWatch and ResellerRatings to find the best deals and to make sure I am dealing with a reputable vendor. I work in a small consulting firm where money is tight, and I'd like to test the waters with a few ideas of my own. In each case, various servers and external storage enclosures are needed on the cheap that will be pushed to their limits. Are Slashdot readers building their own servers and storage enclosures? What web sites provide the latest news, research, and and comparisons for server hardware? Where do you go to buy server components and vet your vendor?"

  37. POWER Processors, SMT and the True Origins of AI

    Developers · Ibm · · posted by michael · from the intel-not-inside dept. · 34 comments
    Crow writes "IBM developerWorks has posted an interview with John McCalpin, one of the guys who works on the POWER line of processors. He discusses work on POWER5 (and how the design process works at IBM -- he's also involved in work on the POWER7) and defends the decision that IBM doesn't hand-tune their ICs (as has often been criticized on Ars Technica. Also covers some of the features in the POWER processors, like SMT, the Hypervisor and virtualization -- even addresses the question of whether AIX was designed by space aliens or not. The POWER5 just broke the 3 million transactions per minute barrier on the TPC-C benchmark."

  38. POWER Processors, SMT and the True Origins of AI

    Developers · Ibm · · posted by michael · from the intel-not-inside dept. · 34 comments
    Crow writes "IBM developerWorks has posted an interview with John McCalpin, one of the guys who works on the POWER line of processors. He discusses work on POWER5 (and how the design process works at IBM -- he's also involved in work on the POWER7) and defends the decision that IBM doesn't hand-tune their ICs (as has often been criticized on Ars Technica. Also covers some of the features in the POWER processors, like SMT, the Hypervisor and virtualization -- even addresses the question of whether AIX was designed by space aliens or not. The POWER5 just broke the 3 million transactions per minute barrier on the TPC-C benchmark."

  39. FCC Claims Regulatory Power Over Home Computers

    News · Privacy · · posted by timothy · from the when-power-hungry-bureaucrats-attack dept. · 406 comments
    Pointing to Assistant Professor of Law Susan Crawford's blog, iman1003 writes "The FCC has filed a brief where it claims regulatory power over all instrumentalities, facilities, and apparatus 'associated with the overall circuit of messages sent and received' via all interstate radio and wire communication according to a blog published by Susan Crawford. The blog can be found here and the brief here (in PDF format). Kind of scary if you ask me." Ars Technica has good commentary on this, also referencing Crawford's findings.

  40. FCC Rules States Can't Regulate VoIP

    Yro · Usa · · posted by michael · from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept. · 243 comments
    NardofDoom writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the FCC has 'placed a regulatory shield around VoIP,' declaring it immune to state regulation, even if calls terminate on publicly switched networks (POTS). A previous ruling declared that Internet-Internet calls (i.e. Skype) can't be regulated, but the ruling opens the door for Verizon, AT&T and other local carriers to offer VoIP to customers without paying state taxes. One step closer to free phone calls, or one step closer to state regulation or taxation of IP networks?"

  41. FCC Rules States Can't Regulate VoIP

    Yro · Usa · · posted by michael · from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept. · 243 comments
    NardofDoom writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the FCC has 'placed a regulatory shield around VoIP,' declaring it immune to state regulation, even if calls terminate on publicly switched networks (POTS). A previous ruling declared that Internet-Internet calls (i.e. Skype) can't be regulated, but the ruling opens the door for Verizon, AT&T and other local carriers to offer VoIP to customers without paying state taxes. One step closer to free phone calls, or one step closer to state regulation or taxation of IP networks?"

  42. Best Buy: 20% Of Customers Are Wrong

    Yro · Business · · posted by timothy · from the wrong-wrong-wrong dept. · 1,234 comments
    Mr Show writes "Ars Technica has an article up discussing Best Buy's strategies to drive off the deal hunters. It's a good follow up to the Slashdot story from back in July, and offers some details on what they're actually trying to do."

  43. Google to Launch Mac Version of Google Desktop UPDATED

    Tech · Google_Fb · · posted by michael · from the still-waiting-for-debian-package dept. · 173 comments
    phaedo00 writes "Arstechnica is reporting that Google today announced that they are pursuing a Google Desktop for Apple's Mac OS X. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt saying it had to be rebuilt from the ground up because of the fundamental differences between the Mac OS and Windows. 'We intend to do it,' Schmidt said." Update: 10/30 23:51 GMT by M : Seems like Reuters and others may have heard wrong about a potential Mac version.

  44. DMCA Limited by Sixth Circuit Appeals Court

    News · Court · · posted by timothy · from the they-were-just-trolling-anyhow dept. · 379 comments
    katharsis83 writes "Ars Technica and others are reporting that the Sixth Circuit Court has ruled against Lexmark in their lawsuit against a generic ink manufacturer. Here is a link to the ruling (EFF Website)."

  45. Hannu H. Kari Gives The Internet 2 More Years

    Internet · · posted by ryuzaki0 · from the but-he's-warning-you dept. · 465 comments
    erick99 writes "Dr. Hannu Kari says the Internet will will collapse in 2006 as reported in an article on ARS Technica. Yes, this is the same Dr. Kari who has predicted doom before, but it is still an entertaining read and there is more than a grain of truth in his reasoning." Reader Titney writes adds a couple of excerpts from an article on NewsRoom Finland: "The entire system will crumble to bits as the sheer bulk of rubbish circling around in the net exceeds the public pain threshold. ... When the internet is no longer operational for business purposes, one has to time warp back 10 to 20 years and make do without information networks"

  46. HBO/Cinemax Cut Off Recording of On-Demand Programs

    News · Tv · · posted by michael · from the value-added-service dept. · 38 comments
    Control Group writes "Arstechnica has an article up explaining that HBO and Cinemax are poised to prevent recording of on-demand programming, even via analog outputs, on 'compliant digital recording devices' (specifically, digital recorders meeting the Content Generation Management System for Analog, or CGMS-A, specification). HBO claims that since you can get the programming on demand, you don't need to time shift, so don't need to make even one personal copy. And, since the FCC has so far decided not to regulate subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), this is legal: while normal, linear cable comes with the right to time-shift, SVOD does not. Of course, there's nothing preventing a sufficiently determined person from using a non-CGMS-A-compliant device, so odds seem good that this will only inconvenience otherwise-legitimate customers."

  47. HBO/Cinemax Cut Off Recording of On-Demand Programs

    News · Tv · · posted by michael · from the value-added-service dept. · 38 comments
    Control Group writes "Arstechnica has an article up explaining that HBO and Cinemax are poised to prevent recording of on-demand programming, even via analog outputs, on 'compliant digital recording devices' (specifically, digital recorders meeting the Content Generation Management System for Analog, or CGMS-A, specification). HBO claims that since you can get the programming on demand, you don't need to time shift, so don't need to make even one personal copy. And, since the FCC has so far decided not to regulate subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), this is legal: while normal, linear cable comes with the right to time-shift, SVOD does not. Of course, there's nothing preventing a sufficiently determined person from using a non-CGMS-A-compliant device, so odds seem good that this will only inconvenience otherwise-legitimate customers."

  48. USB Thumb Drives as ... Fashion Statement?

    Hardware · Hardware · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the not-just-for-data-any-more dept. · 455 comments
    The Fun Guy writes "The New York Times has discovered USB thumb drives: "In some cases, flash drives have suddenly become so commonplace that, as with cellphones, their owners are adding fashion touches [DNA must be on file to read] to lend them a personal identity." Apparently, the most important thing about thumb drives is not that they are cheap, fast, durable, easy to use or hold a lot of data, but that wearing one around your neck identifies you as one of the techno-congniscenti, especially if you personalize it with stickers."

  49. Interview with Camino Developer Mike Pinkerton

    Apple · Mozilla · · posted by michael · from the anything-but-ie dept. · 116 comments
    An anonymous reader writes "As someone who has used Camino for much of the time since the OS X-centric Gecko browser was released, I've been hoping to see it hit version 1.0 (it's at 0.8 now). ArsTechnica has an interview with Mike Pinkerton, the lead developer for Camino in which he talks about the history and future of Camino along with his thoughts on Safari and Firefox."

  50. BMI Reports All-Time Profit High Despite Piracy

    News · Music · · posted by CowboyNeal · from the business-not-so-bad-after-all dept. · 335 comments
    applemasker writes "Arstechnica is running a story chock full of links to other interesting things about BMI's amazing record profit and how the RIAA skews its sales statistics while strangling fair use." Phew, so the artists aren't really starving, but we still can't all go back to "borrowing" music from our friends instead of each purchasing our own copy.