You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 3rd, 2006.
Home network equipment maker D-Link entered the mobile phone market Tuesday, introducing a new line of “V-CLICK” handsets that work with both traditional GSM operators as well as Wi-Fi networks. Users can switch between the technologies with a click of a button.
As wireless hotspots become more ubiquitous, phone manufacturers have turned to building handsets that are able to utilize Internet connectivity for making calls over VoIP. The idea is that such calls are cheaper than traditional cellular calling, especially when dialing internationally. In addition, Wi-Fi coverage could help areas where cellular signals are limited or non-existent.
Theoretically, a user could hop onto a Wi-Fi network when in range and save money, as well as ensure their call won’t drop while indoors. The problem, of course, has been perfecting such a capability, as handing off a call between a cellular and Wi-Fi network has proven quite complicated. T-Mobile, however, has been testing such a service in the northwest United States with positive results.
http://www.betanews.com/article/DLink_Introduces_WiFi_GSM_Phone/1159890483
corridors full of unknown consoles, originally uploaded by ezekiel.eugene.
I just made a photoset of a derelict White Alice / DEWline military radar installation I visited about a month ago out in remote western Alaska. The Distance Early Warning system (or DEWline for short) was built during the Cold War for the purpose of ‘hearing’ soviet airplanes as they approched. The government spent untold hundreds of millions of dollars on these installations back in the sixties and seventies and i’m unable to find a single picture of one anywhere on the internet. (…)The photos from inside the facility look bright and illuminated but that’s just camera flash. They were pitch black, and infested with caribou. It was a classic videogame scenario: naively exploring a derelict radioactive military facility in the middle of nowhere full of rusting filthy machinery with low-battery flashlight. Fun stuff.
Creative has unveiled a new device called the Xmod, which is based upon the company’s X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio platform and promises to improve the audio quality of compressed music, such as that purchased from Apple’s iTunes or any MP3 files.
Shaped like a candy bar, the Xmod plugs in between an audio source and stereo speakers or pair of headphones. It works with any portable audio player including the iPod, along with plugging into a computer’s USB port without requiring the use of software. Creative claims the result is “better than CD quality” sound.
Essentially, the Xmod up-converts the audio signal to 24-bit surround. The X-Fi Crystalizer identifies which areas of the audio file have been truncated or damaged during compression. Creative says the technology can “restore” the highs and lows of the music that otherwise would not have been audible.
The X-Fi CMSS-3D component of the Xmod, meanwhile, creates virtual surround sound through speakers or headphones. Because most digital audio included on movie and TV show downloads includes only two-channel stereo, Creative has designed the Xmod to emulate a multi-channel speaker setup. It can place specific voices in the virtual center channel while ambient noise is in the background.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Creative_Xmod_Claims_to_Improve_Music/1159894240
Linux.com | Running .Net applications on Linux with Mono
Mono is an open source project (sponsored by Novell) that allows you to run .Net applications on Linux (as well as Unix, Mac OS X, Solaris and even Windows).
To obtain it, go to the Mono download page and find the version you need for your distro.Once you’ve installed Mono, get one of your .Net programmers to create and compile a simple Microsoft Visual Studio C# console application.
On Sept. 25, IBM took its crack at ending its case with SCO by summary judgment. Now, it’s Novell’s turn, and the company appears to be attempting to cut off SCO’s lifeline to its cash reserves.
On Sept. 29, Novell Inc. filed for “partial summary judgment as to its Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Claims for Relief for constructive trust, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and accounting, respectively” at the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City.
These claims are not, as one might think, concerning Novell’s claims that it, and not The SCO Group Inc., still owns Unix’s copyrights. Novell has claimed that neither the APA (asset purchase agreement) of Sept. 19, 1995, which transferred Unix and UnixWare to Santa Cruz Operations, nor Amendment 2 to the APA gave SCO any copyrights to Unix.
Instead, Novell is going after the money that SCO has made from Unix. In particular, according to Novell’s memo in support of its motion for summary judgment, the company wants its share of the “payments SCO received from SVRX [Unix System V Release any] license agreements that it executed in 2003 with Sun Microsystems, Inc. (”Sun”) and Microsoft Corporation (”Microsoft”).”
Recent Comments