Yahoo Exec Says "Enough DRM"

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday October 10, @02:13AM
from the content-is-not-context dept.
Music Yahoo!
bogess writes "Yahoo! Music General Manager Ian Rogers recently gave a speech to some music executives about the future of the Internet music business and promised his company will not be involved in Digital Rights Management anymore." Another straw in the wind: Nine Inch Nails has now followed Radiohead in ridding themselves of the labels and going independent.
[+] yahoo, music, abouttime, drm, getsit (tagging beta)

Researchers Aim To "Read Minds" of PC Users

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday October 10, @05:01AM
from the knew-you-were-going-to-say-that dept.
Software Science
hhavensteincw writes "Scientists at Tufts University are researching the use of light aimed at the forehead to measure the stress, work overload, or distraction a computer user may be feeling, as a way to adjust the UI to adapt to a user's emotional state. The research combines biomedical engineering and machine learning to adjust the UI. The project, which requires users to wear a futuristic head band, uses light to measure the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain that signals a user's rising stress levels typically associated with increasingly difficult tasks."
[+] science, software, tinfoilhat (tagging beta)

.Asia Internet Domain Launched

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday October 09, @09:56AM
from the always-room-at-the-top dept.

eldavojohn writes "Expect to see sites ending in .asia pop up soon, as ICANN has allowed DotAsia to recently open bidding on the new domain. A DotAsia representative is quoted as saying, 'Our research has found that Asia is one of the most searched-for terms and by having a .asia website, your ranking on Google or Yahoo will become much higher.' Is there really a need for more top level domains?"

[+] internet, technology, no, business, whynot (tagging beta)

OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown hits the brakes on jacked cars

Posted Oct 9th 2007 9:39AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: GPS, Transportation

Although OnStar has offered Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance to its subscribers since 1996, the firm is getting set to add a snazzy new enhancement for 2009 vehicles. The feature, dubbed Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, can use GPS to pinpoint a vehicle once it has been reported as stolen, and after OnStar confirms with local police that it has the vehicle within sight, it can then be slowed down remotely. The system actually receives a signal that "interacts with the powertrain to reduce engine power, which will [in turn] slow the vehicle down gradually." Interestingly, customers will have the option of opting out of the service if they so choose, but we'd rather be safe (and potentially paranoid) than sorry.

Tags: general motors, GeneralMotors, gm, onstar, Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, StolenVehicleSlowdown

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Interpol Unscrambles Doctored Photo In Manhunt

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 09, @05:39AM
from the blur-schmlur dept.

jackpot777 writes in with an AP story out of Paris reporting that Interpol has distributed photos of a man suspected of sexually exploiting children. The images were recovered from pictures taken off the Internet in which the man's face had been blurred using something like Photoshop's Filter > Distort > Twirl tool. German police were able to recover recognizable images of the man, whose identity and nationality are not known. Interpol would not discuss the techniques used to recover the images. jackpot777 writes: "It does show one interesting facet of internet privacy that has also been noted with topics ranging from reading blurred check numbers in images to Google's plan to blur out license plate and face data for Street View. And that is: blurring is not the same as completely obscuring. As computers become more adept at extrapolating data of different types, your identity isn't safe unless you completely cover all those identifying features."

[+] privacy, !theband, !thegame, photoshop, pwned (tagging beta)