dna

A proposed file format called MusicDNA will allow content owners to ship up to 32GB of information, such as album cover art, song lyrics, and even up-to-the minute blog posts and concert listings, alongside a music file. If enough content owners and distributors sign on, it could become an alternative to the MP3, giving users a more album-like digital playback experience, and allowing artists and content owners to charge more money per download.

The proposed format was announced by Bach Technology on Sunday at MIDEM 2010, a music-industry conference under way in Cannes, France. Unlike current alternatives to the MP3, … Read more

We spend most of today's show covering holiday gifts you won't want to stuff in the stocking of someone you care about... and a few that you might.

ThinkGeek 8-bit tie

Necktie for music-loving commuters

Blacksocks — the Sockscription ™

The Cushy Tushy

Passive aggressive gifts for tardy geeks

The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

My DNA Fragrance lets you smell like a celebrity… Read more

The Podcast awards are on, and we're up against TWiT again, so we had to get drastic. We will no longer protect your chicken from Dokken if you don't vote for us. So there. Also Psystar is no longer protected from Apple, and Modern Warfare 2 is no longer available in Russia. Whew. So much less availability these days.

UPDATE: Apple wins important round In Psystar copyright case http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20091115-703736.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10397876-37.html… Read more

Turns out those terahertz scanners in the airports are mostly safe, but they do a little unzipping of your DNA. Derek says it's nothing to worry about; you won't grow a third arm in the airport--even if it would be handy for carrying baggage. We also find out e-mail isn't private. Did we need the courts to tell us that? And Facebook gets $711 million it will never see.

Federal judge says e-mail not protected by Fourth Amendment http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/29/2257209/Federal-Judge-Says-E-mail-Not-Protected-By-4th-Amendment … Read more

It's long been held that no two fingerprints are exactly alike, rendering the old-fashioned print more reliable than current DNA sampling, which has resulted in false positive identifications.

But what if a fingerprint is warped? When I volunteered to be a mentor recently, I had to get my prints taken, and the process was tedious and full of re-dos because, as I rotated each finger, I tended to slightly smudge the results. (I might have made a good criminal, but I was an annoyed--and inky--mentor.)

Now, the biggest problem with fingerprints--that a good one is hard to find--may have … Read more

NASA is sending a rocket into the moon Friday morning to study the composition of lunar material. But really, you stopped listening when you heard "blow up the Moon." And so did Cooley. For one small second, that made him love space. We also talk about the world's largest phishing sting and Windows 8. Yep, 8.

Operation “Phish Phry” nabs largest number of phishers ever. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8295945.stm

Wife bans FBI head … Read more

It took 13 years for researchers to catalog all the information in a human genome the first time. Now IBM believes it can do better--somewhat perversely by equipping a newer genetic sequencing method with brakes.

Big Blue is among those who believe electronics technology can be applied to the task of sequencing a person's genes, thereby bringing genetic testing into the computing era and lowering its cost to something like $100 to $1,000.

IBM is working on prototype DNA-processing electronics that slurps strands of DNA through an extremely small hole called a nanopore, measuring the electrical properties of … Read more

Palm's adding more apps to a commercialized app store. It's calling it the app catalog, which got us thinking about all the different names we could have for app stores. We also get a little excited about the new Sony PS3 slim. Does it herald in the resurgence of the PS3? Probably not. Will it help Blu-ray? Maybe a little.

Sony unveils slimmer PS3 http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/18/sony-debuts-slimmer-ps3/ http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/18/live-from-sonys-gamescom-press-conference/… Read more

As chip geometries get infinitesimally small, IBM is looking to DNA to make the manufacture of future chips feasible.

On Monday, IBM researchers and collaborator Paul W.K. Rothemund, of the California Institute of Technology, announced an advancement of a method to arrange DNA origami structures on surfaces compatible with today's semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

"The cost involved in shrinking (chip) features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore's Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry," said Spike Narayan, a manager in the Science & Technology division of IBM Research, in … Read more