Slashback: Squashing, N'Synch, Yopy

A quick Slashback for you this evening with more on the clones who won't get to be killed onscreen, the Yopy (alas!), hacking your PVR, and a skeptical reaction to recent claims of dramatically increased compression. Read on for the goods.

Waitaminute, what happens there between the "lead" stage and the "gold" stage again? HomerSimpson writes: "Recently on /. I read of a compression scheme reported to provide huge gains for the compression of random data. New Scientist reports, however, that the claims are unlikely at best."

Perhaps we can watch some other bands be slaughtered instead? eruditorium writes: "Apparently, the negative public reaction to n'sync's appearence in episode 2 has caused lucas to drop their cameo. See it here on Scifi Wire." san1701 links to another similar posting about this important issue at TheForce.Net.

On-again, off-again is not good for electronic projects. cd_Csc writes: "CNET is reporting on Samsung's newest Windows CE based PDA and mentioned (as a side note) that, 'A Samsung representative also confirmed the cancellation of Yopy, the company's planned Linux-based PDA.'"

Update: 01/11 02:41 GMT by T : Looks like it's not quite that simple: Bill Kendrick writes "LinuxDevices.com caught wind of today's Slashback regarding the Yopy PDA's demise.

Well, fortunately for Yopy fans, they got the real scoop directly from G.Mate..." Thanks for the quick response, Bill, and sorry for spreading false information.

Imagine explaining to your kids what VCRs were. jimmcq writes: "Slashdot previously ran a story asking about Hacking the New Replay TV Units. There have been several recent breakthroughs to allow a PC to emulate a Replay 4000 so that video can be shared in both directions. The source code has been released under the GPL. There are also several variations including a java version and an Apache/PHP Server."

Comments

Real compression from effnet inc.

[s0l0m0n]

Here's a story on eetimes concerning the compression of VoIP packet headers that claims a 40:2 ratio. Compressed Real-Time Protocol ain't a 100:1, but this is real technology that sounds like it will be in use by cisco and motorola pretty soon.

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20020108S0054

The basic idea is that the compression of the packet header becomes more and more important as the compression of the payload of the packet also increases.. since the compression ratio for the actual data is already pretty good, effnet is working on compressing the packet headers with good success. They claim an increase in traffic over a t-1 from 90 VoIP channels up to 234..

that's real.

Unseasonably Warm

[whjwhj]

From the unseasonably-warm dept.

Warm here in Minnesota too. If you've been paying any attention whatsoever to the weather in the last 10 years you have to wonder if climate change is playing a role. I'm convinced it is.

It's going to be pretty difficult for skeptics to argue the scientific merits of the "theory" of climate change when they can walk outside on any given day and experience it firsthand.

We need to do something about this pronto. Otherwise our descendents are going to have a lot more important things to chat about than compression schemes and pop bands.