U.S. cautious on Mexico plan to legalize drugs

Ambassador says measure could make law enforcement more effective
Associated Press
Updated: 10:30 p.m. ET April 29, 2006

MEXICO CITY - The United States reacted cautiously on Saturday to a Mexican measure that would make it legal to carry small amounts of cocaine, heroin and other drugs for personal use.

... President Vicente Fox has yet to sign the bill, which would eliminate penalties for those caught with small amounts of some drugs, but his office has applauded it.

Source and full story: MSNBC

Sony to bring net-based TV-to-PSP streaming to Europe

By Tony Smith
28th April 2006 11:05 GMT

Sony will next month launch its LocationFree TV (LFTV) service in the UK and other key European territories, allowing PlayStation Portable users to receive television programmes transmitted from the home and out across the internet. Mac users are to get access to the service too.

LPTV support is included in the PSP firmware update - version 2.7 - Sony announced this week. The upgrade - due to be posted on the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe website on 25 May - also adds podcast and RSS support, and the ability to handle AAC and WMA music files.

Source and full story: RegHardware

TDK cracks 200GB Blu-ray Disc problem

By Tony Smith
28th April 2006 15:42 GMT


TDK has gone ahead and produced the 200GB Blu-ray Disc it announced a few weeks ago that it was working on. And while it appears to have failed to compress four standard dual-layer 50GB discs together into a single unit, it has nonetheless come up with a novel alternative.

According to a subscription-only report on Japanese-language site Techon, the 200GB BD contains six data-storage layers.

... And since the 200GB disc is not more part of the current Blu-ray Disc specification than this reporter is, you can argue that the 200GB disc, while technologically impressive, isn't about to allow anyone to cram the whole of the extended edition Lord of the Rings movies, extras and all, on a single, HD disc. ®

Source and full story: RegHardware

Revolution Officially Renamed 'Wii'

Nintendo has officially ditched the drab "Revolution" name for its next-gen console, and adopted the more sophisticated "Wii".
By Kris Graft
Updated: Thursday, 27 April 2006

Less than two weeks before E3, Nintendo has released a statement addressing the change-up, and explained what exactly the name Wii represents:

"While the code-name 'Revolution' expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer. Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else."

"Wii will put people more in touch with their games … and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean? Wii sounds like 'we,' which emphasizes this console is for everyone."

View: Nintendo Wii
I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: Next Generation

Firefox Backers Create 'Destroy IE' Campaign

'Explorer Destroyer' movement takes aim at Microsoft's browser.
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Tuesday, April 25, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- A group of self-titled "political activists" in Massachusetts has started an aggressive campaign to get browser users to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to Mozilla's Firefox.

Taking advantage of a new program by Google, the campaign, called Explorer Destroyer, pays users $1 for each referral to Firefox made through Google Toolbar, according to the group's Web site.

"You already want people to switch to Firefox. Now's the time to get serious about it," according to the site. "Google is paying $1 for each new Firefox user you refer....Now you can advance your ideals, save people from popups and spyware hell, and make some serious money."

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: PCWorld.com

Microsoft WGA Becomes Nagware

Posted by Tim Davis on 25 April 2006 - 16:59

Microsoft announced that on Tuesday it will make Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) more bothersome than ever. A new update for WGA is now on the Windows Update website as a mandatory update. Once installed, your copy of Windows will be checked for validity. If your Windows installation is found not to be genuine, Windows will display a message telling you that “This copy of Windows is not genuine.” Windows will check and display messages on every boot as well as once an hour (or so). The new WGA tool also puts an icon in your system tray if your copy of Windows is not genuine.

Once notified and prompted to validate your copy of Windows, you will have 14 days to do so. If after 14 days you do not comply, you will not be able to download updates from the Windows Update website. Critical security updates will still be available via the Automatic Update built into Windows.

More information: Aviran's Place
Source and full story: neowin.net
Related: Disable Non Genuine Windows Warning Messages: WGA Workarounds remove WGATray.exe

Gay flamingos strike long-term relationship

Carlos and Fernando: model pink parents
By Lester Haines
Published Monday 24th April 2006 14:44 GMT

... According to the WWT report, greater flamingos Carlos and Fernando have been hitched for five years. Twice a year they strut their stuff in an "elaborate courtship dance" before "stealing eggs from their heterosexual neighbours to bring up as their own".

WWT aviculture manager Nigel Jarrett elaborates: "Their parental instincts are very strong prompting them to raid the nests of other couples in the flock. They have been known to fight the heterosexual birds and there is usually a 'handbags at dawn' moment where they will fight with another couple before stealing their egg. They are both large adult males so as a partnership they are quite formidable and are afforded more respect from the other birds. They are also very good parents and behave just as the heterosexual birds do when rearing their young."

Source and full story: theregister.com

Seagate readies 750GB desktop hard drive

By Tony Smith
21st April 2006 08:41 GMT

Seagate is on the verge of announcing a 3.5in desktop hard drive with a capacity of 750GB - increasing the Barracuda 7200.10 line's maximum storage space by 50 per cent. Seagate hasn't formally announced the 750GB model, but it is already beginning to appear on the company's marketing material.

The drive runs at 7,200rpm and contains 16MB of cache memory. Like other models in the line, it has an average latency of 4.2ms. Seagate will offer the HDD with a choice of Ultra ATA 100, 1.5Gbps SATA or 3Gbps SATA interfaces. The Serial ATA versions both support Native Command Queuing (NCQ).

Source and full story: RegHardware

Mozilla users warned--upgrade now

Users have been urged to upgrade to the latest versions of Mozilla's software to protect themselves from a series of critical security holes.
By Tom Espiner, ZDNet (UK)
Published on ZDNet News: April 19, 2006, 8:11 AM PT

The Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) warned on Monday that earlier versions of Firefox, and other Mozilla software based on Firefox code, contain a clutch of vulnerabilities that expose users to attack.

The Mozilla Foundation released a new version of Firefox last week, version 1.5.0.2, which it said contained fixes for several security flaws.

According to security firm Secunia, there are a total of 21 flaws in the older versions of Firefox, such as Firefox 1.5, some of which it described as critical.

I found this at: neowin.net
Full story: ZDNet

Philips Attempts to Patent Advertisement Enforcing

Posted by Tim Davis on 19 April 2006 - 12:56

If Philips has their way you may not be skipping through TV commercials much longer. In fact, you might not even be able to change the channel on your TV during a commercial.

Philips has filed a patent application to stop people from changing channels during commercials or fast forward commercials for pre-recorded shows. According the patent application, Philips solution is to use MHP (Multimedia Home Platform) to read flags in broadcasts. If an advertisement is marked as such, your STB (Set-Top Box), DVR or even your TV could stop you from changing the channel or skipping past commercials. MHP software is already built into most digital TV receivers and recorders available today.

View: Philips Patent Application

Source and full story: neowin.net