The process of writing data to a recordable CD can be a complex process, as it demands a lot from both hardware and software programs. Much of this complexity is hidden from the user by the program, although you should be aware of these factors.

The Washington Post reports that elephants have passed the mirror test. They are the only other animals besides humans and apes to do so. An elephant-proof mirror was constructed and the elephants eventually recognized that it was their own reflections in the mirror they were seeing. Some of the elephants even conducted oral self-exams.

In a series of experiments, the elephants first explored the mirror — reaching behind it with their trunks, kneeling before it and even trying to climb it — gathering clues that the mirror image was just that, an image.



That was followed by an eerie sequence in which the animals made slow, rhythmic movements while tracking their reflections. Then, like teenagers, they got hooked.



All three conducted oral self-exams. Maxine, a 35-year-old female, even used the tip of her trunk to get a better look inside her mouth. She also used her trunk to slowly pull her ear in front of the mirror so she could examine it — “self-directed” behaviors the zookeepers had never seen before.



Moreover, one elephant, Happy, 34, passed the most difficult measure of self-recognition: the mark test. The researchers painted a white X on her left cheek, visible only in the mirror. Later, after moving in and out of view of the mirror, Happy stood directly before the reflective surface and touched the tip of her trunk to the mark repeatedly — an act that, among other insights, requires an understanding that the mark is not on the mirror but on her body.

It is a fascinating discovery. It is more proof that we must protect Asian elephants — not that there was ever any doubt that we should protect these magnificent and intelligent creatures.

Seidai Software has released FairGame, an application designed to convert songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store to an unprotected format. FairGame uses iTunes’ default encoder, keeping all the original ****data, lyrics, and artwork intact. The process takes 2 minutes and 42 seconds to convert a 4-minute song to AAC on a MacBook Pro 2.16GHz, […]

Three-hundred-year old UK copyright laws are out of date and should be rewritten to protect users of the iPod and other MP3 players, according to a report from an influential thinktank Sunday.
Under the UK’s current legislation, millions of Brits break the copyright laws each year when copying their own CDs onto […]

23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for the work he put in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents.
This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to “conspiracy to commit […]

The BBC reports that scientists have developed a device that translates silently mouthed words into another language.

Users simply have to silently mouth a word in their own language for it to be translated and read out in another.



The researchers said the effect was like watching a television programme that had been dubbed.



The system, detailed in New Scientist, is not yet fully accurate, but experts said it showed the technology was “within reach”.



The translation systems that are currently in use work by using voice recognition software.

The BBC says the scientists are working on a Chinese into English version and an English to Spanish or German version. They hope that eventually the device will let you mouth words into the device in English and it will speak them in Chinese, Spanish or German. The ultimate goal would be a device that could translate any language. The New Scientist article calls the device the “closest thing to the babel fish.” The article says the device still has trouble with sequence of words it has never heard before.

The researchers use software that has been taught to recognise which phonemes are most likely to appear next to each other and in what order. When it encounters a string of phonemes it is unfamiliar with or has only partially heard, it uses this knowledge to come up with a range of sequences that make sense given the surrounding phonemes and words, assigns a probability to each one, and then picks the one with the highest probability.



The system still has some way to go. Faced with a sequence of words it has never heard before, it picks the right phoneme sequence only 62 per cent of the time. This nevertheless ranks as “a very significant achievement” according to Chuck Jorgensen, who is working on using sub-vocal speech recognition to control robots at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “This is showing that the technology is really within reach.”

The universal translator is not far away.

“Microsoft Corp. plans to charge and arm and a leg to allow users of Apple Computer’s Intel Macs to run its next-generation Windows Vista operating system under virtualization.
In its licensing terms for Vista published this month, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said users of Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Basic “may not use the […]

Harness the power of Google search to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Specify the websites and or pages that you want searched - and integrate the search box and results into your own website.
Google Co-op
Faq’s at
http://www.google.com/coop/docs/cse/faq.html

“Beginning January 1st, Germany will require payment of a license fee of 5.52 euros a month on computers and mobile phones that can access TV and radio programs over the Internet. Like the current TV and radio license fees, the money will support national and local public TV and radio stations.

Internet-mad Britons are sending profits soaring at Google.
The search engine is making an incredible £4.5 million a day with profits 92 per cent higher than last year. The surge is being led by the company’s European sites, particularly google.co.uk.
It puts Google in the same league as Britain’s biggest retailer Tesco and underlines its domination of […]