It could be a while before studios release home versions of big pictures like Coraline and Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. But you don’t need to wait. Provided that you have a 3D-capable HDTV, turning it into a 3D home theater that is capable of playing any off-the-shelf DVD in 3D is surprisingly easy. Here’s how to make the conversion.
jammag writes “Setting aside the now tired debate about whether KDE or GNOME is the ‘better’ Linux desktop, Bruce Byfield compares their disparate development approaches and asks, not which desktop is subjectively better, but which developmental approach is likely to be most successful in the next few years. ‘In the short term, GNOME’s gradualism seems sensible. But, in the long-term, it could very well mean continuing to be dragged down by support for legacy sub-systems. It means being reduced to an imitator rather than innovator.’ In contrast, ‘you could say that KDE has done what’s necessary and ripped the bandage off the scab. In the short term, the result has been a lot of screaming, but, in the long term, it has done what was necessary to thrive.'”
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The California Energy Commission is going ahead with a proposal this summer that promises to ban State shops from selling televisions not considered energy efficient.
mateuscb writes “A new way of creating a CAPTCHA using 3D objects has become a reality. The idea was thought up independently by blogger Taylor Hayward and by the folks at YUNiTi.com. ‘Similar to Hayward’s idea, this new technology relies on our ability to identify objects in 3D instead of using alphanumeric characters. YUNiti’s 3D Captcha, however, has three objects in the challenge and extends the list of images to any object, not limiting it to animals as in Hayward’s idea. This increases the challenge’s level of complication to prevent computers from successfully making the correct guesses.’ I, for one, welcome the thought of not having to read more and more complex CAPTCHA. Lately, I’ve been having a hard time getting CAPTCHA to work the first time.”
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After running through a series of ad campaigns designed to make Windows look cool, then victimized, then simply inescapably ubiquitous, Microsoft is now hoping to attack Apple in new ads that portray Macs as unaffordable compared to generic PCs. According to a report by the Associated Press, Microsoft hired Crispin Porter + Bogusky…
Backed by the ACLU, a group of Pennsylvania parents is suing to block an enthusiastic DA who has threatened to file child porn charges against teen girls who appear semi-undressed in candid cell-phone photos—unless they agree to attend a five-week program on “what it means to be a girl in today’s society.”
audiovideodisco writes “Every year the Loebner Prize goes to the chatbot (and the corresponding human companion) that fares best on a Turing test administered by a panel of judges. Discover talked to Kevin Warwick, the professor who runs the competition, to get pointers on how one would go about detecting a bot. While there are some general approaches you can use, nothing is foolproof — and asking about Sarah Palin can be downright deceptive. One judge concluded an interlocutor was a bot because it didn’t recognize Palin’s name … but it turned out the chatter was a French librarian who’d simply never heard of her.” The chat transcripts show how difficult picking bot from non-bot is getting.
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MojoKid writes “Netflix isn’t the only company that sees that streaming is the future of movie rental distribution. Blockbuster, which always seems to be playing catch-up with Netflix, will start making its on-demand rental and purchase content available on TiVo DVRs. Blockbuster OnDemand has only been available as a streaming service on Windows PCs or streaming to TVs via the 2Wire MediaPoint device. Meanwhile, Netflix streaming is available on far more platforms, such as on Windows and Mac computers, TiVo, the Roku Digital Video Player, LG and Samsung Blu-ray players, the Xbox 360, as well as a number of video portal software applications, like Boxee and ZeeVee’s Zinc. Blockbuster’s partnership with TiVo is yet another indication of the coming revolution of on-demand media available to TVs — that is, if the revolution hasn’t already started.”
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Pob in our analysis labs blogged earlier this week about a new variant of the RSPlug Trojan horse for Mac OS X that he had written protection against. One of the ways in which the OSX/RSPlug-F Mac Trojan horse is being distributed by hackers is in the form of a poisoned HDTV/DTV program called MacCinema.
Johannes Larcher will be Web TV startup Hulu’s new SVP in charge of procuring international rights, according to PaidContent. Johannes takes over for Andy Forsell, who is still with the company.
