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A Kirk-less Star Trek
By Newsgroup Usenet September 12th, 2008
If you’ve been waiting for the announcement that William Shatner’s James T. Kirk would be making an appearance in the upcoming new Star Trek flick…er, don’t hold your breath.According to a recent interview with Star Trek director J.J. Abrams, Shatner was written into the film for a cameo, but refused to agree to anything but a pivotal co-starring role so it was nixed.
“It was very tricky,” Abrams said. “We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It’s funny — a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon. Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”
Record TiVo With Your Blackberry
By Newsgroup Usenet September 12th, 2008
Research in Motion is turning the BlackBerry into a fully featured digital media entertainment centre.
A series of agreements with companies like TiVo, Ticketmaster, Slacker, MySpace and Microsoft will bring new digital content and media services to the company’s BlackBerry wireless platform.
The new relationship between TiVo and RIM will, for example, allow BlackBerry smartphone users to see what shows are on TV and let them schedule recordings while away from home.
The companies say they will focus on software applications to simplify mobile access to video content in the future.
Slacker and RIM, meanwhile, will enable users to hear their favorite Slacker radio stations wherever they go – even when not connected to a wireless network.
As well, RIM and Ticketmaster have announced a live entertainment agreement, letting BlackBerry users browse music listings, listen to sample cuts, and finally, purchase tickets to related live event.
“TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone – anytime, anywhere – and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion. “As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content.”
“TiVo continues to transform and revolutionize the way people control and watch television and broadband video,” said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo Inc. “RIM and TiVo share a commitment to great user experiences, which cause our products to become seamlessly integrated into the consumer’s lifestyle. We also share a vision for the future of mobile entertainment services and we look forward to a variety of future innovations as a result of this relationship.”
The first software application from RIM and TiVo is expected to be available later this year. Under terms of the Ticketmaster agreement, RIM’s popular suite of BlackBerry smartphones was exclusively designated as the “Official Smartphone of Ticketmaster.”
With this agreement, Ticketmaster moves beyond the physical ticket to providing wireless, fan-friendly convenience with BlackBerry.
BlackBerry users will be able to browse, search, and purchase tickets to live entertainment while on the go, the companies describe.
Extra! Extra! Google Goes Newspaper
By Newsgroup Usenet September 9th, 2008
Google has started an ambitious project to digitally archive millions of pages of old newspapers.
In 2006, Google started working with the New York Times and the Washington Post to index existing digital archives and make them searchable via Google’s search technology. The new effort expands that initiative, with the goal of reaching every story ever printed, “from the smallest local weekly paper up to the largest national daily,” according to a post on Google’s official blog.
“For more than 200 years, matters of local and national significance have been conveyed in newsprint–from revolutions and politics to fashion to local weather or high school football scores. Around the globe, we estimate that there are billions of news pages containing every story ever written. And it’s our goal to help readers find all of them,” wrote Punit Soni, a product manager at Google, on Google’s blog.
Google plans to archive the stories exactly as they appeared on the original paper, not just text versions. The stories would include original photographs, headlines and advertisements as well.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is partnering with ProQuest and Heritage, two online archiving companies, on the project.
“You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News . Not every search will trigger this new content, but you can start by trying queries like [Nixon space shuttle] or [Titanic located],” Soni wrote on the blog. “Over time, as we scan more articles and our index grows, we’ll also start blending these archives into our main search results so that when you search Google.com, you’ll be searching the full text of these newspapers as well.”
Apple Unveils New Line of iPod and iTouch
By Newsgroup Usenet September 9th, 2008
Apple has taken the wraps of the latest version of its iPod Nano and Touch, with Steve Jobs making a joke about the recent leaks that initally broke the news of the new version.
Speaking about the announcements, Jobs said: “We’re confident that this line up will give us the strongest product range we’ve ever had in the lead up to the holiday season.”
The new iPod Nano is set to recieve a major overhaul, with the Apple detailing the thinnest-ever device, with it set to feature the accelerometer from the iPhone and iPod touch.
The addition of the device means that can now display content not just in portrait mode, but also in landscape mode when tilted. The technology is also at the centre of the model’s Shuffle mode, with users shaking the device to enable it.
Jobs revealed that the new Nano will come in 8GB and 16GB devices, with them shipping by the end of next week. The new iPod Touch would ship with 8GB, 16GB and 32GB models.
A recent criticism of the firm has been battery life problems on the iPhone, with Jobs revealing that the new Nano will have 24 hours of battery life when it comes to playing music and four hours for video. The iPod Touch is set to benefit from 36 hours of music life and six hours of video.
One thing that is likely to appeal to customers is the wide variety of colours, with around nine various colors available.
The Large Hadron Collider Atom Smasher
By Newsgroup Usenet September 9th, 2008
On Wednesday, 10 September 2008, a massive physics machine will begin spinning up. After that, things could get very interesting…
We are, of course, talking about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — a 17 Miles underground ring below the Swiss-French border that will see particle beams being hurled in opposite directions, traveling around the entire ring in less than 90 microseconds.
The first of these particle beams will be run through the ring on Wednesday — and then on 21 October two beams travelling in opposite directions are going to be placed in a collision course with each other.
And that’s what people are worried about.
Physicists are pretty sure that the resulting collision will allow them to finally see the theorised Higgs boson in action. Doomsayers fear a black hole could be formed and suck up the planet.
OK, that does sound suitably alarming and it’s not really that bad. But the LHC is still a very interesting piece of machinery.
In short, the machine could provide a miniature scale of the big bang theory in effect. It can provide an act of demonstration reflecting years of scientific theories. Or, for the very conservative, the end of the world.
More tomorrow.
UPDATE: 9:30. First beam injected and stopped at 1/8 of a circuit. Loud applause in the control room. The world is safe for now.
Sport your support for Usenet with a free Newsdemon T-Shirt
By Newsgroup Usenet September 4th, 2008
You now have the opportunity to sport a cool and stylish Newsdemon.com t-shirt when you sign up for our unlimited plan.
In a continuing effort to grow awareness of the benefits Usenet has to offer, we’re offering a Newsdemon.com t-shirt absolutely free for any of our new customers that sign up for our unlimited plan.
Be the envy of the neighborhood by owning our limited edition Newsdemon.com t-shirt while helping a good cause to grow the ever expanding world of the Usenet community.
You can also be eligible by assisting in our Free Usenet Program designed for Universities and Charities by promoting awareness of Usenet. Send us your links of our banners on your site, forum or blog and we’ll send you your choice of color and size t-shirt right to your door. We’ll even pay for shipping!
Newsdemon.com is dedicated to our users and the Usenet community. Newsdemon is known for blazing speeds, high completion rates, retention and outstanding support. With this offer, you now gain a long lasting stylish t-shirt as well!
What are you waiting for? Supplies are limited and this giveaway ends either way by September 31st, so don’t delay! Sign up now for our premium Usenet unlimited plan and join the largest community network on the planet. Newsdemon.com
Newsdemon Now Offers 50% More Bandwidth
By Newsgroup Usenet September 4th, 2008
On September 1st, Newsdemon.com began offering new customers 50% more bandwidth per month on each of its plans. This special is available to all plans that remain at the same low price.
This limited time offer is part of the Newsdemon initiative to grow awareness to Usenet and to grow the community.
Almost 30 years ago, the foundation of Usenet was created by two college grads. Since then, Usenet has grown to become one of the largest online community.
Newsdemon.com is proud to announce that all new customers will now receive 50% more bandwidth per month on any available plan. Additionally, the 50% more GB per month offer continues each additional month of uninterrupted service.
As stated before, this offer is for a limited time. If you’ve been thinking about joining Usenet, or if you’re a season veteran of the Usenet community – now is your time to join now at this low price for America’s #1 Usenet provider – Newsdemon.com
Google Announces Chrome Browser Release
By Newsgroup Usenet September 2nd, 2008
Recently, Google sent out a comic book unveiling the Google Chrome browser to bloggers and the media. Google now also officially announced Chrome on their blog and says that the beta version of Google Chrome will be available for download today.
Google’s reason to launch a new web browser is their believe that they can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.
Google is releasing a beta of Chrome for Windows today and is at work building versions for Mac and Linux.
The announcement of Google Chrome will increase yet again the amount of testing for web developers and web design agencies. Albeit Google Chrome is based on existing open source components it will behave for sure differently again for rendering and executing JavaScript.No word yet on any support for Newsgroups like Firefox add-ons and IE extensions allow.
NASA Unknowingly Hacks You
By Newsgroup Usenet August 31st, 2008
You’d think the United States’ space agency, which conducts highly sensitive research and has had its servers hacked before would be extremely thorough about computer security, but that does not appear to be the case. A worm that steals online gamers’ user names and passwords has been running rampant on laptops on the International Space Station (ISS).
Fortunately, there is no risk of the ISS hurtling out of control back to Earth. Antivirus vendor Symantec’s malware database entry said the code is only used to steal account information to online games.
The worm, known as W32.Gammima.AG, is spread through removable media such as USB drives and external hard drives. Gamimma steals sensitive information for various online games, including ROHAN, R2 (Reign of Revolution), Talesweaver, Seal Online, and several games popular mainly in China, including ZhengTu and HuangYi Online, according to Symantec, which wrote up the Gamimma worm on August 27, the day it was discovered.
In its paper on Gamimma, Symantec said the worm offers a very low risk. It affects all Windows systems, copying itself to all drives from C through Z and modifying the registry so it executes whenever Windows starts.
According to a white paper by Avert Labs researcher Igor Muttik, data-stealing Trojans (like Gamimma) record user IDs and passwords as well as the IP addresses or the names of the servers they use. This information lets cybercriminals log into the victims’ accounts and steal anything of value, which they then sell.
Because NASA computers have been infected before, the agency needs to take a very close look at what it’s doing, Marcus said. “Things are not locked down or as tight as they should be,” and Marcus recommended NASA “look at real strong management and real strong policy enforcement.”
Newsdemon.com Now Offers SSL Support For EU Members
By Newsgroup Usenet August 27th, 2008
Newsdemon.com is proud to announce the new European SSL server has moved out of Beta into full production mode. The SSL server will allow European users to enjoy the same 256 bit encryption served out of our Amsterdam server farm.
SSL encryption provides security and privacy while using Usenet and Newsgroups services provided by Newsdemon.com.The SSL protocol allows two programs to communicate with each other in a secure way. It also allows programs to create “sockets” which are endpoints for communication, and make connections between those sockets.
For several months, Newsdemon.com had included testers for the new SSL encryption through a server that was used for the beta stage. After closely monitoring and maintaining the new server and collecting valuable feedback from beta testers, Newdemon.com has announced that it has successfully graduated the server farm from it’s beta stage and is now ready and available in production.
New and current European members who opted for an SSL plan automatically receive the new SSL encryption services. Please visit http://www.newsdemon.com/ports.php for port information for your plan. Any members with questions or concerns can contact Newsdemon.com Customer Support.