18 Dec 09 3D Blu-ray Spec Finalized, PS3 Supported
Lucas123 writes "The Blu-ray Disc Association announced today that it has finalized the specification for Blu-ray 3-D discs. The market for 3-D, which includes 3-D enabled televisions, is expected to be $15.8 billion by 2015. Blu-ray 3-D will create a full 1080p resolution image for both eyes using MPEG4-MVC format. Even though two hi-def images are produced, the overhead is typically only 50% compared to equivalent 2D content. The spec also allows PS3 game consoles to play Blu-ray 3-D content. 'The specification also incorporates enhanced graphic features for 3D. These features provide a new experience for users, enabling navigation using 3D graphic menus and displaying 3D subtitles positioned in 3D video.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: graphic menus, graphic features, daying, 1080p, billi, new experience, blu ray, ly, images, game
19 Dec 09 Upgrade Santa for the 21st Century [Photoshop Contest]
For this week's Photoshop Contest, I want to spruce our old friend Santa up with technology. His sleigh only runs on what I assume is 8 horsepower, after all. Let's give him an upgrade.
Your task is to upgrade Santa Claus with technology. Come up with your best images and email them to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "Upgraded Santa" in the subject line. Save your images as JPGs, PNGs or GIFs, and save your files named as FirstnameLastname.jpg using the name you want to be credited with.
On Tuesday, I'll go through the entries, pick three winners and then post the rest of the best in our Gallery of Champions. Get to it!
Tagi: pngs, santa claus, old friend, horsepower, ly, subject line, 21st century, images
05 May 10 CBSA Reveals Some Laptop Search Info, But Not Much
gmcmullen writes "The Canada Border Service Agency took its time getting documents on its policy for border searches of laptops to the BC Civil Liberties Association in response to an Access to Information request the BCCLA filed in October 2009. When the reply did come through, there wasn't much there. The documents were heavily redacted and whole sections of the Access to Information request were ignored, including requests for information on the number of laptops searched and policies for copying data from electronic devices. We did learn that the CBSA knows that 500 megabytes is roughly equivalent to 'a pickup truck full of books,' and use Windows-only software called ICWhatUC to scan for images. Documents also revealed that the CBSA understands that most 'Japanese Anime' is not child pornography, and that your family photos (even with kids in the tub) aren't child pornography either. We've made the documents we did receive available online so you can see for yourself."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: child pornography, cbsa, border service, japanese anime, civil liberties, family photos, pickup truck, megabytes, laptops, images
25 May 10 Citizen Scientists Help Explore the Moon
Pickens writes "NPR reports that NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is doing such a good job photographing every bit of the moon's surface that scientists can't keep up, so Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott is asking amateur astronomers to help review, measure, and classify tens of thousands of moon photos streaming to Earth using the website MoonZoo, where anyone can log on, get trained, and become a space explorer. 'We ask people to count the craters that they can see... and that tells us all sorts of things about the history and the age of that bit of surface,' says Lintott. Volunteers are also asked to identify boulders, measure the craters, and generally classify what is found in the images. If one person does the classification — even if they're an expert — then anything odd or interesting can be blamed on them. But with multiple independent classifications, the team can statistically calculate the confidence in the classification. That's a large part of the power of Moon Zoo. Lintott adds the British and American scientists heading up the LRO project have been randomly checking the amateur research being sent in and find it as good as you would get from an expert. 'There are a whole host of scientists... who are waiting for these results, who've already committed to using them in their own research.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: citizen scientists, amateur research, npr reports, mdash, craters, boulders, nasa, good job, chr, all sorts, astromers, zoo, tens of thousands, volunteers, oxford, pers, moon, earth, images, photos
04 Jun 10 12th Internet Problem Solving Contest, This Sunday
misof writes "Roughly a thousand teams from all around the globe have already
registered for IPSC 2010, which takes place on
Sunday, June 6. $3,000 in prize money (courtesy of Facebook, Inc.) is waiting for the best few of them. Participation is free and the contest is open to everybody. IPSC is what you could call a programming contest with a twist. Over the years, the problems always push the boundary and go
beyond the usual stuff you see in a programming contest. For example, in past few years the contestants have had to understand how arithmetic in computers differs from that in mathematics, produce a sequence of cache requests that generates many page faults,
solve
a logic puzzle given as a Flash game, and
recognize
images to evaluate a rock-paper-scissors game."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: logic puzzle, page faults, internet problem, ipsc, facebook, flash game, mey, twt, arithmetic, ace, usual stuff, mathematics, globe, ctest, images
