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30.6.05 Permalink

BBC, le ultime tre sinfonie di Beethoven ora scaricabili

BBC - Radio 3 - Beethoven Experience - downloads

I file sono MP3 non protetti, stereo a 44100 Hz, 128 kbps, 32 bit float. Occupano da 27 a 44 mega l'uno.

I discografici vogliono più soldi dal download che dai CD

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Online music royalties challenged: "The BPI - which represents more than 300 UK record labels - has joined seven online services to bring the action.

They have taken the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Right Society (PRS) to a copyright tribunal.

The MCPS and PRS want to charge more for songs downloaded from the internet than for those on CD.

The MCPS-PRS Alliance - who set and collect royalties on behalf of composers, songwriters and publishers - are proposing a tariff of 12% of gross retail revenues on most online music.

Currently, royalties on CDs stand at 6.5% of retail price, while broadcast radio rates are up to 5.25% of net advertising revenues."

GB: limiti di velocità drastici e sorveglianza sulle strade funzionano

BBC NEWS | UK | Road death toll hits record low: "The number of people dying on UK roads fell to 3,221 last year - the lowest since records began in 1926.

The figures are 8% lower than 2003, when the number of highway deaths rose slightly compared to the year before.

It comes four years after the government set a target to cut the 1994-1998 road deaths average by 40%.

Road Safety Minister Stephen Ladyman said the figures were encouraging, but nearly nine people a day still died on roads last year, which was 'too high'."

28.6.05 Permalink

Deep Impact, pochi giorni all'impatto con la cometa il 4 luglio

NASA - Encounter Animation: un'ottima animazione di quello che succederà fra pochi giorni. Se non manca il bersaglio :-)



Nuovo sequestro ai danni di Indymedia in GB

Slashdot | Second Indymedia Server Seized in UK Within a Year: "For the second time within the past year, an Indymedia server has been seized in the United Kingdom. This time it is the Bristol Indymedia server (currently redirected to the United Kollectives IMC site); this follows on from the Ahimsa seizure last October. The current seizure was carried out using a search warrant by the UK police at approximately 16:30GMT on June 27th, 2005. This was despite being warned by lawyers 'that this server was considered an item of journalistic equipment and so subject to special provision under the law' (press release). Bristol Indymedia is currently being supported by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Liberty and Privacy International. Other media organisations have declared their support."

Altre info e dati da The Register, BBC, e ancora BBC, che si chiede se la libertà di stampa è sotto attacco.

Da Punto Informatico sul caso Autistici: la replica di Aruba

PI: Caso Autistici, la replica di Aruba: "la Polizia Giudiziaria ha potuto acquisire tutti i dati presenti sul server dell'associazione Investici invece dei soli dati presenti sul sito oggetto di indagine non solo perché così disponeva il provvedimento emesso dall'Autorità Giudiziaria, ma anche perché detto server era di esclusiva proprietà dell'Associazione ed era da essa gestito in proprio senza alcun coinvolgimento di Aruba (housing) che, in tali casi, fornisce solo connettività e alloggio al server; viceversa, se il sito oggetto di indagine si fosse trovato su di un server Aruba (hosting), poiché in tale ipotesi esso viene gestito da noi, l'acquisizione sarebbe stata limitata ai soli dati relativi al sito interessato"

Morale della favola: se vuoi fare un sito sicuro, non metterlo in casa d'altri pensando al risparmio.

Sondaggio: le vendite Apple calano dopo l'annuncio Intel?

Apple feels Intel chill | The Register: "A survey by MacWorld magazine in the US indicates that one third of readers are less likely to buy a new Mac computer in the next twelve months. That's rather similar, but slightly more encouraging for Apple than the feedback we received immediately after the announcement that Apple would be moving off PowerPC processors.

Curiously, 13 per cent of readers surveyed said they were more likely to buy an obsolete PPC-Mac in the next year."

Fa più danni la paura che il terrorismo

Bogus analysis led to terror alert in Dec.� 2003 - Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit - MSNBC.com: "Christmas 2003 became a season of terror after the federal government raised the terror alert level from yellow to orange, grimly citing credible intelligence of another assault on the United States.

'These credible sources,' announced then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, 'suggest the possibility of attacks against the homeland around the holiday season and beyond.'

For weeks, America was on edge as security operations went into high gear. Almost 30 international flights were canceled, inconveniencing passengers flying Air France, British Air, Continental and Aero Mexico.

But senior U.S. officials now tell NBC News that the key piece of information that triggered the holiday alert was a bizarre CIA analysis, which turned out to be all wrong.

CIA analysts mistakenly thought they'd discovered a mother lode of secret al-Qaida messages. They thought they had found secret messages on Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language television news channel, hidden in the moving text at the bottom of the screen, known as the 'crawl,' where news headlines are summarized.

‘Steganography’ suspected
U.S. officials tell NBC News that CIA experts — technicians working for the Directorate of Science and Technology — thought they had found numbers embedded in the crawl signaling upcoming attacks; dates and flight numbers, and geographic coordinates for targets, including the White House, Seattle's Space Needle, even the tiny town of Tappahanock, Va. What the analysts thought they had found was something called 'steganography' — messages hidden inside a video image.

President Bush and Ridge were briefed on the Al-Jazeera analysis, U.S. intelligence sources say."

Possibile che i crittanalisti teoricamente più bravi del mondo non riescano a capire che qualsiasi sequenza random sufficientemente lunga produrrà inevitabilmente alcuni gruppi di dati apparentemente significativi?

Una bella foto di Bill Gates, cosa gli avrà causato quest'espressione?



"Cosa? Firefox ha già il tabbed browsing che Internet Explorer avrà soltanto dalla versione 7?? MAC OS X Tiger ha già la ricerca locale per parole chiave integrata e Windows no?? E in America Latina NON PARLANO LATINO????"

Nikkei Net Interactive - Japan Business News Online: "Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, center, meets the press in Tokyo Tuesday, accompanied by Japanese university representatives. (AP)"

Tramonto su Marte

Catalog Page for PIA07997: "On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.... Because Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth is, the Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it appears in a sunset seen from the Earth."



Presso lo stesso sito Nasa è scaricabile una versione a risoluzione molto più alta.

Immagini da satellite: la casa in Svizzera

[map.search.ch] - Karte: Barbengo

Qui si vede meglio che con Google Maps :-)

Grazie a Marco per la segnalazione.

26.6.05 Permalink

Google Maps - La casa di Travacò

Google Maps Al centro di quest'immagine c'è la casa dove mi trovo in questo momento.

Google Maps - Casa a Barbengo

Google Maps

Qui c'è la mia futura casa :-)

L'agricoltura è stato il peggior errore della storia dell'umanità?

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race: "archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence."

By Jared Diamond, University of California at Los Angeles Medical School,
Discover Magazine, May 1987.

Controverso e affascinante.

25.6.05 Permalink

Mac Intel, alcune idee su come permettere OS X su HW non-Apple

Slashdot | First Look at Apple's Intel Developer Macs: "'Think Secret is reporting that developers have started taking receipt of Apple's Intel-based Mac kits. Along with some specs and photos, the site reports that Windows XP installs without a hitch on the systems and that casually trying to install Mac OS X for Intel on a Dell doesn't work... yet...'"

23.6.05 Permalink

La vera storia del cosiddetto "Osborne Effect"

Taking Osborne out of the Osborne Effect | The Register: "[Osborne] had transitioned to a new model, and it was finally shipping. Sales were going well, and money was flowing back into the company after months of postponed sales (the alleged Osborne Effect). But then a VP discovered the company had $150k of fully equipped motherboards from the previous model, but no parts to build them out, no CRTs, RAM or floppy disk drives, and in worst of all, no plastic cases and bezels. The injection molding company that made the complex Osborne cases had already destroyed the molds since the product was discontinued and no further orders were expected.... The VP pitched Osborne to build out the old models, so they could get some money out of their stock of old parts, but Osborne didn't realize what sort of expenditures would be involved. Before Osborne pulled the plug, the VP spent $2 million to build out the $150k of old parts, the biggest expense was getting the injection molding company to build new molds and start up production on cases. Osborne described this as the classic example of 'throwing good money after bad.'... So that was what really killed Osborne. They had made the transition to the new model, sure sales had slowed for a while, but they were starting to show a profit. Then after the transition, a rogue VP made some really bad decisions that sucked all the money out of the company, and sank it into debt at a time when it couldn't afford ANY new debt. And then when Osborne realized what happened, the company died."

La vera origine del mito del preannouncement:

'The pre-announcement fiasco stems from around 1978 when North Star Computers, one of the two or three major hardware companies at the time, was selling a disk controller for the first 5 1/4-inch floppy drives. With a subsystem you got their OS and their BASIC, which by all accounts was superiror to Microsoft BASIC since it did BCD math which engineers needed.

'One day the company announced that it it had developed and would market a double density controller doubling the disk capacity from 80K to 160K, as I recall. There was no product to ship, it was a preannouncement. Furthermore, the company said it would sell the new controller for the exact same price.

'Sales of the old controller stopped dead and the company nearly went broke scrambling to produce the new controller. This is where the myth began.'

'Note that the company did not go broke in the process. They ALMOST went broke."

L'autore di Bittorrent liquida Avalanche, l'alternativa proposta da Microsoft

Slashdot | Bram Cohen's Response to Microsoft's Avalanche: "Bram Cohen has reduced Microsoft's proposed file-sharing application--codenamed Avalanche--to vaporware, dubbing its paper on the subject as 'complete garbage'. 'I'd like to clarify that Avalanche is vapourware,' Cohen said. 'It isn't a product which you can use or test with, it's a bunch of proposed algorithms. There isn't even a fleshed-out network protocol. The 'experiments' they've done are simulations."

GB, mamma rischia galera per lo scambio di musica fatto dalla figlia

Mum faces jail over 14-year-old daughter's downloading: "Mum, Sylvia Price, was a little startled to find a solicitors letter on her doormat when she came home from work one day.

The letter claimed Mrs Price's daughter, 14 year-old Sylvie, had been breaking the law for two years by downloading songs from the Internet. Sylvie is said to have collected some 1,400 tunes on her PC, including whole albums by her favourite bands, Oasis and Coldplay.

Emily says she didn't know she was doing anything wrong. Her mum, however has to pay a �4,000 fine or face jail.

'I'll have to go to prison because I haven't got that kind of money,' Mrs Price told the Gloucestershire Echo."

ratDVD, comprimere un DVD senza perderne contenuti e menu

ratDVD: The best way to distribute DVDs online?: "In a Nutshell, it is a CFF - Container Format File - technology whereby all the items contained in a DVD are compressed and enclosed into a single .ratDVD format file.

Unlike, say DiVX for example, this one keeps the whole thing intact so that you do not have to make concessions. It plays ingeniously on compression rates and introduces one or two goodies like Dolby Virtual Surround AC-3. More interestingly, it opens up the opportunity for those enterprising enough to sell ratDVD compatible players."

Microsoft, craccato il Genuine Advantage

Slashdot | Microsoft Genuine Advantage Cracked: "An Indian researcher has cracked the much-touted 'impenetrable' Windows Genuine Advantage of Microsoft. According to Microsoft this service would soon require all Windows users to verify their license before downloading updates"

In teoria doveva impedire a chi usa una copia pirata di Windows di scaricare gli aggiornamenti. In teoria.

World Trade Center: rapporto NIST, lettura obbligata per tutti i complottisti

NIST and the World Trade Center

Prima di aprire bocca, scaricare e leggere tutta la documentazione di questo sito.

Telefonini in aereo, no alle chiamate, sì agli SMS

Airline passengers love inflight SMS, hate voice calls | The Register: "The ban on mobile phones on airplanes may soon be lifted, but most people are opposed to their use in-flight for voice calls.

That's according to a worldwide survey by IDC which indicated that far from supporting a lifting of the ban by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US, a number of consumer groups claim the use of mobile phones on board airplanes would disturb passengers. Only 11 per cent of the 50,000 respondents would support the use of mobile phones for voice calls while on board an airplane.

While the majority of respondents would not approve of passengers making voice calls during flights, some 64 percent of respondents indicated their approval of using mobile phones for data services such as SMS. Of the 11 specified wireless activities, in-flight messaging emerged as the most popular choice among respondents."

21.6.05 Permalink

[IxT] Carte di credito violate; Microsoft aiuta i truffatori; Cos'è il pharming

Avete probabilmente sentito della mega-violazione di sicurezza che ha messo a rischio circa 40 milioni di carte di credito: non ha colpito soltanto i clienti di Mastercard, e c'è rischio anche per gli utenti italiani. Meglio sorvegliare gli estratti conto, anche se valgono le consuete garanzie antifrode offerte dalle società emettitrici:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4202&numero=999



Sempre a proposito di truffe, il giovane smanettone Salvatore Aranzulla ha scoperto una falla di MSN che agevola non poco i tentativi di truffa secondo il metodo del "phishing":

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4198&numero=999


Come se non bastassero tutte queste magagne, ora arriva anche un'altra tecnica di truffa, chiamata "pharming". Se volete imparare a difendervi anche da questa minaccia, date un'occhiata al mio articolo:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4195&numero=999


Dedico questa newsletter a Biru, il mio gatto, morto oggi pomeriggio, investito da un'auto. Se avete gatti o altri animali domestici, date loro una carezza in più da parte mia. E provate, per favore, a guidare più piano.



Biru aveva una peculiarità indimenticabile: quando usciva, portava sempre a casa in regalo una foglia, e sceglieva sempre quelle più particolari, spesso coi colori rossi e gialli dell'autunno. Poi miagolava per chiamarci, e depositava la foglia in soggiorno con l'aria di dire "guarda che bella cosa che ti ho portato".

E noi lo ringraziavamo sempre. Ci manchi, Biru. Tanto.

Ciao da Paolo.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
(C) 2005 by Paolo Attivissimo (www.attivissimo.net).
Distribuzione libera, purché sia inclusa la presente dicitura.

17.6.05 Permalink

Accademia della Crusca: e-mail, maschile o femminile?

Accademia della Crusca: "In inglese anche mail è neutro e in italiano trova dei corrispondenti in 'posta' e 'corrispondenza' femminili. Anche nel recente Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso di Tullio De Mauro la parola e-mail è indicata come sostantivo femminile invariabile. Il femminile si ha spesso per analogia semantica, cioè un prestito riceve il genere di un sostantivo nella lingua ricevente che ha un significato affine (es. la star, la gang, la performance, la nomination).
E' però abbastanza diffusa l'alternanza, per quel che concerne il genere, nell'uso di questo termine e questa incertezza ritengo sia prodotta da due principali fattori:
1) La presenza di altri termini inglesi formati che hanno acquisito il genere maschile dal neutro inglese, considerato come genere più adattabile al maschile in quanto comunque meno marcato, in italiano, rispetto al femminile.
2) Il corrente uso metonimico cui è sottoposto il termine, per cui dal più generale 'posta elettronica' è arrivato immediatamente ad indicare il singolo 'messaggio' inviato tramite posta elettronica. In questo processo entra in gioco una nuova parola 'messaggio' (peraltro molto diffusa anche nella forma 'messaggino' per indicare i brevi testi che si inviano con i cellulari) che introduce il genere maschile e genera confusione e incertezza (in particolare in chi non conosce l'inglese), insinuando il dubbio, che può essere rafforzato anche dalla casualità per cui le due parole hanno anche la stessa iniziale, che mail abbia come forma corrispondente italiana messaggio, quindi una parola di genere maschile."

BBC offre download MP3 Beethoven gratis, 700,000 copie scaricate

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | 700,000 download Beethoven music: "Nearly 700,000 listeners of BBC Radio 3 downloaded live performances of Beethoven's first five symphonies, with number one proving the most popular."

Decisamente un modo efficiente per divulgare cultura.

[IxT] XP snobbato da metà dei PC aziendali; Beethoven scaricabile legalmente; Acchiappavirus in TV

Approved: topone@pobox.com 21e255

Nonostante la gran pubblicità e la preinstallazione su praticamente tutti i PC nuovi, Windows XP ha a malapena raggiunto il 50% dei PC aziendali, a quattro anni dal suo lancio. Non è un buon presagio per Longhorn, il suo futuro sostituto. Come farà zio Bill a mantenersi?

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4192&numero=999


La BBC fa "pirateria": permette a chiunque di scaricare le sinfonie di Beethoven in MP3. Niente sistemi anticopia, ed è tutto legale. L'offerta è limitata nel tempo, se vi piace Ludwig van, vi conviene prenderne nota in agenda:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4189&numero=999


Qualcuno ha visto (e soprattutto registrato) il programma Galatea di Raidue ieri notte (stamattina) alle 0.40 circa? Mi dicono che sono apparso in un'intervista registrata qualche tempo fa. Il bello è che hanno mandato in onda un pezzo che non era inizialmente previsto nel copione: quello in cui ho strappato la pagina del dodecalogo di sicurezza dal libro per invitare ad appenderla accanto al monitor come promemoria.

Se qualcuno avesse una registrazione, mi farebbe molto piacere averla: scrivetemi al solito indirizzo topone@pobox.com.

Ciao da Paolo.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
(C) 2005 by Paolo Attivissimo (www.attivissimo.net).
Distribuzione libera, purché sia inclusa la presente dicitura.

16.6.05 Permalink

BBC riferisce sulla sperimentazione biometrica inglese (2004)

BBC NEWS | UK | 'I've got a biometric ID card': "No cheesy grins will be allowed, because the machine is scanning the measurements of your face and 'doesn't like teeth'.

Current cost predicted £1.3bn to £3.1bn

The iris scan required more concentration because I had to stare hypnotically at two ellipses in the camera, while the machine verbally directed me.

'Come closer,' says a Big Brother-like voice, instructing me to shuffle my seat forward while keeping my eyes fixed on the shapes.

After about 60 seconds, the machine indicated the scanning was complete.

No messy carbon required for the fingerprints. Instead I had to put each hand's four fingers, then the thumb, on a glass scanner.

My prints appeared on a computer screen and within minutes were compared against one million others which, for the sake of the pilot scheme, had been imported from the US.

With all three tests completed, I had to give a copy of my signature which they stored electronically."

14.6.05 Permalink

[IxT] Attenti alle nuove truffe ai danni dei correntisti italiani; addio al superpassaporto

Grazie a tutti per le numerosissime segnalazioni degli ultimi tentativi di "phishing" che hanno interessato i titolari di conti correnti italiani; mi spiace non potervi rispondere singolarmente. Nel mirino dei truffatori sono finiti Banca Intesa (di nuovo), Unicredit e Banca di Credito Cooperativo.

Confermo che tutti gli e-mail che invitano a visitare (apparentemente) queste banche per ritirare un premio di 100 euro o per un "controllo di sicurezza" sono tentate truffe.

Se vi interessano i dettagli:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4186&numero=999


Se state meditando di andare a fare un viaggetto negli Stati Uniti e avete letto che presto ci vorrà un passaporto con chip e dati biometrici, niente paura: gli americani si sono arresi all'evidenza che la biometria non funziona. Tutte le info sono qui:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4187

Ciao da Paolo.



-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
(C) 2005 by Paolo Attivissimo (www.attivissimo.net).
Distribuzione libera, purché sia inclusa la presente dicitura.

Primo pianeta extrasolare non gassoso?

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Smallest extrasolar planet found: "The researchers have measured a minimum mass for the planet of 5.9 Earth masses. It orbits Gliese 876 with a period of 1.94 days at a distance of 0.021 astronomical units (AU), or 3.2 million km (2 million miles).

Though the team has no direct proof the planet is rocky, its low mass precludes it from holding on to gas in the way that Jupiter does.

Three other supposed rocky planets have been reported, but they orbit a pulsar, the corpse of an exploded star.

'This planet answers an ancient question,' said team leader Geoffrey Marcy, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.

'Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus argued about whether there were other Earth-like planets. Now, for the first time, we have evidence for a rocky planet around a normal star.'"

13.6.05 Permalink

Figuraccia per ZoneAlarm a pagamento

PI: ZoneAlarm, un update che sa di bug: "
L'ultimo update disponibile, rilasciato ufficialmente il 9 giugno, ha causato crash in oltre 50mila computer... Il bug riguarda solamente le versioni commerciali del software, destinate soprattutto all'utenza aziendale su piattaforme Windows XP.

Molti utenti hanno lamentato che all'apertura del browser Internet Explorer, DLL di True Vector causano inaspettatamente il blocco della macchina non appena inizia la ricezione di dati dalla Rete.

L'azienda dichiara di avere giàidentificato ed eliminato il problema... Zone Labs si scusa pubblicamente con i numerosi clienti in tutto il mondo."

10.6.05 Permalink

Ci hanno lasciato Ed Straker e Paul Foster di UFO

I fan di fantascienza che hanno qualche anno sulle spalle ricorderanno UFO, una serie TV inglese ideata dal grande Gerry Anderson che spopolò nei primi anni Settanta.

Purtroppo pochi giorni fa sono morti sia Edward Bishop (il comandante Straker), sia Michael Billington (il suo braccio destro Paul Foster).

Ci mancheranno.

9.6.05 Permalink

[IxT] Flash: violato il sito del Riformista

E' almeno dalle 19.30 che il sito del Riformista è stato manomesso da un attacco:

http://www.ilriformista.it/

La prima pagina è a posto, ma se cliccate sulle notizie, noterete che c'è qualcosa che non va.

Ho allertato la redazione del Riformista, adesso vediamo quanto tempo ci mettono a sistemare il pasticcio.

Dettagli, schermate catturate e aggiornamenti sono qui:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4180


Ciao da Paolo.

8.6.05 Permalink

OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta per MacOSX

OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta MacOSX — FreeSMUG: "OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta MacOSX"

Molto interessante, per chi vuole testare OOo 2.0 sul Mac. Versione che gira sotto X11.

7.6.05 Permalink

[IxT] Lo spam maccheronico; Apple passa a Intel; Acrobat spione; XML standard del prossimo Office

Perbacco! Mi avete quasi intasato la casella di posta con le segnalazioni dello spassoso messaggio di "Mario Bravetti" e del suo affarone Italpay.com, quello dall'italiano partorito da uno dei peggiori programmi di traduzione automatica al mondo, con il suo "Anti codice di protezione dello Spam" e il suo "Lascilo darLe tre buone ragioni" e altre perle.

E' una truffa, da non toccare assolutamente ma da cancellare e basta: i dettagli sono in quest'articolo:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4179


__Apple passa a Intel__

Se stavate pensando di comperare un Mac, vi conviene aspettare l'anno prossimo, quando ci saranno i nuovi Mac basati su processori Intel Pentium. E' una rivoluzione notevole, annunciata ieri (6/6). Ho preparato un rapido commento con le info che ho a questo punto:

http://www.zeusnews.it/news.php?cod=4175


__File Acrobat spioni__

Una società americana offre un servizio che consente di sapere quando viene letto un documento PDF (Acrobat) senza informare il lettore. Utile per gli editori di e-book, ma anche per spiare le abitudini di lettura degli utenti e bloccare le fughe di notizie:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4170&numero=999


_XML default del prossimo Office_

Microsoft ha annunciato che il prossimo Office non userà più i formati binari (.doc, .xls eccetera), ma salverà i documenti automaticamente in XML. Questo dovrebbe rendere molto più facile scrivere programmi compatibili con i formati di Microsoft Office, dando una botta non indifferente all'attuale costoso monopolio di zio Bill:

http://www.zeusnews.it/index.php3?ar=stampa&cod=4169&numero=999


Ciao da Paolo.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
(C) 2005 by Paolo Attivissimo (www.attivissimo.net).
Distribuzione libera, purché sia inclusa la presente dicitura.

6.6.05 Permalink

Due arresti per tentata divulgazione del nuovo libro di Harry Potter

CNN.com - Arrests 'in Potter leak attempt' - Jun 4, 2005: "LONDON, England -- Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has won a court order to stop two men leaking details of her latest work after they were arrested in a dramatic operation to recover two copies of the book.

The novel, due to be released July 16, was offered to two British newspapers ... Rowling was granted a British High Court injunction against the two men, ages 19 and 37, after they were accused of attempting to sell printed copies of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.'

The newspapers said one of the suspects worked at a distribution warehouse where copies of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' are being stored ahead of their release."

Ancora una volta, la pirateria opera dentro le organizzazioni di distribuzione, non fuori, e le fughe sono dovute agli addetti ai lavori.

Il futuro della pubblicità in TV: integrata direttamente nei telefilm

Wired News: Gadget Promos Creep Into TV Shows: "Tech product placement is going into overdrive, with several prime-time shows basing plot lines around hip gadgets and gizmos. And soon, thanks to interactive 'object-tracking' technology, consumers may be able to buy featured products with a click of the remote.

As consumers turn away from traditional advertising, tech marketers are picking up the slack by weaving lots of gadgets into the fabric of TV shows and movies. The net, video games and ad-skipping DVRs are forcing marketers to focus more attention on 'branded entertainment.'

Movies like Sony Pictures' Hitch, starring Will Smith, gave prominent placement to several Sony products, as well as the popular BlackBerry e-mail device. The plots of high-energy shows like CBS' CSI franchise, and Fox's 24 and Alias, often hinge on technology. The first season of 24, in fact, made novel use of competing computer platforms to denote the goodies and the villains....Cisco Systems, whose security-cum-video phones have appeared on 24, has provided networking technology to the show's production team for the past four years, according to Cisco."

Nomi, cognomi e abitudini delle ditte che inseriscono i propri prodotti nei telefilm. E se l'intero telefilm venisse sponsorizzato da questi prodotti? A quel punto sarebbe nell'interesse degli sponsor farlo vedere il più possibile, e quindi consentirne la libera distribuzione.

Fra qualche anno, scaricarsi il telefilm preferito non sarà più illegale :-)

Da XP Home a XP Pro cambiando due soli bit

Hack can upgrade XP Home to XP Pro Lite | The Register: "German computer magazine C'T claims that by changing only 2 bytes from the file setupreg.hiv in Windows's XP Home kit, users can get access to certain functions only avalaible in Windows XP Professional, such as Remote Desktop, User management and enhanced security features."

Che bello. XP pro: 480 euro + IVA. XP home: 325 euro + IVA (prezzi Misco.it).

E' come scoprire che la Duna e la Ferrari sono la stessa auto, venduta allo stesso prezzo, ma la Duna ha due fili staccati.

DRM nei chip Intel? Intel "smentisce"... o no?

Slashdot | Intel Claims No DRM: "'The Inquirer has an official statement from Intel claiming the Computerworld Today Australia story from May 27th was incorrect, and the Pentium D and the 945 chipsets do not have unannounced DRM technology embedded in them. The statement says Intel products support or will support several copy protection schemes such as Macrovision, DTCP-IP, COPP, HDCP, CGMS-A, and others. The statement concludes: 'While Intel continues to work with the industry to support other content protection technologies, we have not added any unannounced DRM technologies in either the Pentium D processor or the Intel 945 Express Chipset family.' "

Non sono state aggiunte tecnologie DRM non annunciate... nei Pentium D non ci sono tecnologie DRM non annunciate. Ma che razza di smentità è? Allora, ci sono o non ci sono, annunciate o meno?

Falla in Bluetooth consente intrusioni

...ma soltanto se l'utente ingenuamente accetta la nuova richiesta di connessione.

Slashdot | New Way To Crack Secure Bluetooth Devices: "Cryptographers have discovered a way to hack Bluetooth-enabled devices even when security features are switched on, according to a report from New Scientist.com. The discovery may make it even easier for hackers to eavesdrop on conversations and charge their own calls to someone else's cellphone. From the article: 'Our attack makes it possible to crack every communication between two Bluetooth devices, and not only if it is the first communication between those devices,''"

Le macchine che ti incriminano hanno il sorgente chiuso? Assolto!

Slashdot | Closed Source -> Charges Dismissed?: "According to the Tampa Tribune, judges in the central Florida county of Seminole are dismissing DUI charges when the defendant asks for information on how the breath test works. Apparently the manufacturer of the device is unwilling to release the code to the state, and all four judges in the county have been dismissing DUI cases when the state cannot provide the requested information. Could this apply to other situations where technical means (radar guns, video surveillance, wire-tapping, etc.) are used to gather evidence? ' I'd not plan on this as a legal defense, but the question it raises - of public access to information - is an important one."

Occhio all'e-mail che annuncia la cattura di Bin Laden, contiene un virus

BBC NEWS | Technology | Fake Bin Laden e-mail hides virus: "Users are being warned not to open junk e-mail messages claiming Osama Bin Laden has been captured. The messages claim to contain pictures of the al-Qaeda leader's arrest but anyone opening the attachment will fall victim to a Microsoft Windows virus... Anyone opening the attachments or visiting the website will get a version of the Psyme trojan installed on their PC.

The vulnerability exploited by Psyme is found in Windows 2000, 95, 98, ME, NT, XP and Windows Server 2003. Users were urged to update their version of Windows to close the loophole. This latest virus is the third to use the name of the al-Qaeda leader to trick people into opening it.

In July last year an e-mail began circulating that claimed to link to a website holding a video of Bin Laden's suicide. Another virus circulating in November 2004 posed as a video message from the al-Qaeda leader. "

Altre info da The Register:

"The bogus emails attempt to seed infection of a new downloader Trojan, Small-AXR, contained in a pics.scr file within a zip attachment of the fraudulent messages."

Apple passa a Intel, conferma entro oggi?

BBC NEWS | Technology | Rumours fly over Apple-Intel deal: "Apple is about to announce that it is dropping IBM chips in favour of those made by Intel, reports suggest. The first Apple computers with the Intel chips onboard could appear by mid-2006, technology site CNet reported over the weekend.

...Motorola subsidiary Freescale produces chips, known as PowerPC processors, for Apple's notebooks and the Mac Mini. IBM produces PowerPC chips for Apple's G5 machines.

The Mac Mini could be the first Apple machines to move to Intel chips with the more powerful machines following in 2007.

...IBM has the contract to PowerPC chips for Microsoft's imminent Xbox 360 console, Sony's forthcoming PlayStation 3 game machine and Nintendo's future game-playing machine. As a result the cash it gets from making chips for Apple has become a very small slice of its revenue.

...the core software, the operating system, for Apple computers will have to be re-written. This will be easier for the latest version of the operating system, known as OS X, as it is based on software that already runs in Intel chips... Apple has licensed technology from a company called Transitive which makes software that makes it easier to port programs on to different chip architectures. Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference opens on 6 June and in his keynote speech Apple boss Steve Jobs is expected to make the announcement about the tie-up with Intel."

5.6.05 Permalink

Case modding estremo: il case a forma di caccia TIE di Guerre Stellari

Science Fiction Case Mod Contest: The First Winner!: "The green laser canons on the front of the cockpit are the power-on and HDD activity LEDs. Power and reset buttons are built into a side panel. Red LEDs light up the interior of the case."

Non ho parole.


Come bloccare i banner tramite il file hosts in Mac OS X

Mac OS X hosts File for Panther

Le istruzioni si riferiscono a Panther, ma vanno bene anche per Tiger almeno queste, che ho provato direttamente e sto usando con estrema gioia per bloccare alcuni banner che rallentano i siti che mi interessano:

-- Aprire una finestra di terminale
-- dare il comando sudo pico /etc/hosts
-- viene chiesta la password di amministratore: dargliela
-- editare il file hosts in modo che a ogni sito che si vuole bloccare corrisponda 127.0.0.1
-- salvare e chiudere il file hosts
-- attivare le modifiche digitando sudo killall -HUP lookupd

Non occorre riavviare Mac OS X né riavviare il browser.

Gauss Rifle - il cannone magnetico

Gauss Rifle: "This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use."

Come fabbricare un modello di cannone magnetico con un righello, qualche sferetta di metallo e alcune calamite. Spettacolare.

Spazio: La Nasa "ritrova" le tute della stazione spaziale militare mai realizzata

NASA - Suits for Space Spies

"Begun in 1964, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program was an Air Force initiative that would have sent Air Force astronauts to a space station in a Gemini capsule. After spending a few weeks in orbit, the crew would undock and return to Earth. The Air Force abandoned the program in 1969, but the program produced a great deal of technological development, and three groups of military officers trained to be MOL astronauts.

The spacesuit with identifying number 008 had the name "LAWYER" on the left sleeve. The suit was traced to Lt. Col. Richard E. Lawyer, a member of the first group recruited to be MOL astronauts in 1965.

No records were found for the other suit, with the intriguing identifying number 007."

Apple passa a Intel, le info di ZDNet

Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | Tech News on ZDNet: "Apple Computer plans to announce Monday that it's scrapping its partnership with IBM and switching its computers to Intel's microprocessors, CNET News.com has learned."

"Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007... Motorola spinoff Freescale currently makes PowerPC processors for Apple notebooks and the Mac Mini... Apple openly criticized IBM for chip delivery problems... One advantage Apple has this time: The open-source FreeBSD operating system, of which Mac OS X is a variant, already runs on x86 chips such as Intel's Pentium. And Jobs has said Mac OS X could easily run on x86 chips."

Quest'ultima frase è linkata a questa dichiarazione di Jobs.

"...IBM loses cachet with the end of the Apple partnership, but it can take consolation in that it's designing and manufacturing the Power family processors for future gaming consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Ninendo... according to Dean McCarron of Mercury Research..., Apple has roughly 1.8 percent of the worldwide PC market.. Apple shipped 1.07 million PCs in the first quarter".