Slashdot Mirror

tramm writes "I've released an extension for the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR's video mode to enable functions that are useful for independent film makers. While the camera produces a great movie out of the box, the audio is a severely limited. My code adds features that should have been in the software, like on-screen stereo audio meters, live audio monitoring, reduced audio noise and crop marks for different formats. An introductory video shows the new features in use and an audio evaluation compares it to the stock firmware with very good results. It's similar to the incredibly flexible CHDK software for Canon's point-and-shoot cameras, but targeted at the film makers using the 5D. The Magic Lantern firmware is GPLed and new features will be written to make the camera even more useful on set. There is a wiki for documentation and development."

Demona writes "Long-time music aficionado Dave Marsh has an article in the latest edition of Counterpunch entitled Sampler's Delight. Giving rave reviews to "Nothing to Fear", the latest in a long line of so-called illegal music, he also describes a "'major label waveform CD database,' which is capable of recognizing materials allegedly owned by the record label cartel." This database is allegedly why a UK pressing plant rejected the initial attempt at publishing "Nothing To Fear", which is comprised almost entirely of sampled material."

tramm writes "The FAA, working with the EAA have put together a proposal to release old type certificates and blueprints once the copyright holders no longer exist. Sort of like Abandonware for airplanes. This very closely resembles Lawrence Lessig's idea of a creative commons, into which source code would be escrowed. Once the copyright expired or became abandonded, the sources would be released. "This set of legal guidelines will help the FAA develop a set of procedures to legally release what had previously been unnecessarily protected as proprietary data.". Hopefully the Copyright office will take note of the success here, as well as the Supreme Court's hearing of Eldred v Reno."

tramm asks: "I just -purchased- a DVD from Hastings that has some rather ominous wording on the license 'agreement': ANY UNATHORIZED COPYING, HIRING, LENDING OR PUBLIC PERFORMANCE OF THIS DVD IS ILLEGAL AND SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. What happened to the right of first sale? Can I no longer lend my movies to friends without fearing the MPAA's wrath? Or is this another overstepping of consumers' rights that will become more routine once UCITA becomes 'the law'?" And people wonder why I don't have a DVD player. Now I can point to a reason why, although I'm excited about the technology, I just can't get too thrilled about my rights to use it.

tramm writes: "As someone who works on massively parallel Linux clusters everyday, I get tired of explaining why it is not 'Just another Beowulf'. Linux World has a good article on the four major types of Linux clusters. Our work is in supporting scientific codes that have a high degree of communication. This requires a very different system from the standard Beowulf-class machines that excel at the 'embarrasingly parallel' codes that do not require as much communication. The cost of the network interconnect for a high performance cluster is vastly more than that of a generic 100base-T system."

jdesbonnet writes "Java 2 SDK preview is available". There is a bzipped file on his site, but I did not download it. edgy writes "According to LinuxHQ, Toshiba has relented and has released specifications for IrDA so that Toshiba laptops can use their built-in infrared ports." 3fer writes " The site interactive.linuxjournal.com is now open. Anybody who subscribes to LJ can now search all previous issues via the site. " It's really worth a visit. Tramm Hudson writes "After quite a long time, Digital (now Compaq) has released fast math libraries for Linux. Many people have been using DU's (now Tru-64) compilers to take advantage of the faster routines, but this runs afoul of the rather restrictive licensing on the output of the compiler. The hope is that this signals a possible first step towards releasing the DU compilers for Linux. Possibly one of the most discussed topics on comp.os.linux.alpha is the lack of high performance compilers for Alpha Linux. There is so much computational horsepower in these chips, but egcs just isn't harnessing it... " Finally ASUGeek writes "Reuters has retracted the satellite crack story." Update: 03/05 05:55 by S : Now AntiOnline says Reuters did not retract the story, and NASA's records indicate the satellite drifted by an abnormally high amount. Thanks to Kythe.

Tramm Hudson writes "In this Reuters article, Diamond Multimedia states that they are making 10,000 units a week and are still behind demand. Otherwise a fairly standard news report -- "Users love MP3, industry hates it". " I've found that they skip terribly at 128kbits, but less then that and they are tolerable. The first portable mp3 player than can store 5+ hours of music at 128kbits and not skip will do well. Until then, the Rio is a beta test for the real revolution. When the real deal is here though, the Rio will have made sure that we have lots of MP3s to choose from.