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Anonymous warns NATO not to challenge it

Responding to a recent report from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization condemning Anonymous, the online "hacktivist" group has issued a public response warning the global organization not to challenge it.

Claiming that the NATO report singled it out as a threat to "government and the people," Anonymous defended some of its recent actions in the name of freedom and dissent. In its message (Google cached version), it also asserted that NATO fears the group not because it's a "threat to society," but because it's a "threat to the established hierarchy."… Read more

Atlantic Records wants to redefine music-label sites

In an age of shrinking music sales and disappearing revenue, Atlantic Records is trying to put all of its resources to work.

Take Atlantic's Web site, AtlanticRecords.com, for example. Most label sites offer little more than a list of their acts and some promotional materials, but Atlantic is trying to give visitors a reason to stick around.

The label, part of Warner Music Group, dug into the vaults and began digitizing old photos, concert posters, and recorded interviews involving some of the iconic acts it has represented over 63 years. Managers unearthed signer Ray Charles' first contract (he … Read more

Atlantic Technology's wireless solution works with speakers and subwoofers

Atlantic Technology's WA-50 Wireless Audio System can transmit high-quality sound throughout your home, or out to your pool. The system accommodates up to three zones and eliminates the need to run long cables to subwoofers or amplified speaker systems.

I've heard these sorts of quality claims before, but this time it's for real. During my in-home trials, the WA-50 was noise-free and didn't suffer from any malfunctions. I first put the WA-50 into service transmitting sound from my Mac mini to my high-end stereo system. Setup took about two minutes, and the sound was really good, … Read more

Who can afford the carbon-friendly skies?

Directflights.com is now offering a search engine for finding the cheapest carbon-friendly flights between two destinations, the company announced today.

The tool was developed in conjunction with The Carbon Consultancy, a British company that offers reports on emissions data and offset procurement information for travel industry companies.

It offers to show international flights, as well as those contained within the U.K. and Europe, or contained within the U.S., among other places. Flights can be viewed by cheapest only, or by most carbon-friendly with a choice to see flights in different currency options.

The tool ranks flights on … Read more

IBM to create cloud-computing system for NATO

IBM has been tapped by NATO to build a new cloud-based computing system designed to help the 28 member nations better use and share data.

Selected for the project by NATO's Allied Command Transformation (ACT), Big Blue will be called upon to design and demonstrate a cloud-computing environment that would help the North Atlantic Treaty Organization plan and implement critical tasks, such as intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

The goal is to see if NATO members can use a collaborative cloud to access data faster and make decisions more quickly.

Though NATO's 28 countries share common goals, they … Read more

Offshore wind cable plan highlights grid bottleneck

Without a "backbone" to shuttle megawatts of power, the offshore wind resource on the U.S. Atlantic coast will remain undeveloped, according to one of the architects behind the Atlantic Wind Connection offshore transmission line project.

Trans-Elect Development today detailed an ambitious project to lay underwater cables to carry electricity generated by offshore wind turbines along the eastern seaboard from Virginia to New Jersey.

The group said that an initial group of investors, including Google and Good Energies, have put in tens of millions of dollars each into the project, which they hope to begin construction of in … Read more

Latency matters even across the ocean

When I wrote a research note entitled "Latency Matters!" in 2002, I was primarily reacting to the tendency of computer system vendors to highlight how much data they could move around rather than how quickly that data could get from point A to point B. This made comparing server designs--one of my main areas of focus at the time--difficult given that the speed, rather than the amount, of data movement within and between various subsystems was often the more important metric. As I wrote:

Latency is the time that elapses between a request for data and its delivery. … Read more

Denon S-5DB: When a home-theater-in-a-box isn't good enough

People buy home theater-in-a-box systems for a lot of reasons, but sound quality isn't one of them.

The problem with HTIBs, even the very best ones, is they don't come with great speakers or subwoofers. Denon has a solution at hand: the S-5DB. Think of it as a HTIB that doesn't come with speakers or a subwoofer. No HTIB ever made has speakers as good as the better ones I've reviewed from Aperion Audio, Atlantic Technology, Definitive Technology, Energy Speakers, Klipsch, Mirage, or Polk. You want great sound? You gotta have great speakers.

The S-5BD combo … Read more

iFear when iFly...finally, there's an app for that

Virgin Atlantic has already worked to put passengers at ease with its Flying Without Fear course, which the airline claims has a whopping 98 percent success rate. So it only makes sense that Virgin would release the course in the far more mobile format of an iPhone app.

The $4.99 app features a video that guides the user, who may or may not be able to concentrate on said video, through an explanation of the flight process, frequently asked questions, and relaxation exercises.

There's even a fear attack button, replete with breathing exercises, for the lucky few whose … Read more