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Search results for: “sony”

  • Why I chose the Kindle over the iPad, Nook, Sony ereader or any Tablet

    In the last several months (since the Kindle 3 came out) I’ve been seriously looking at ereaders. Of course, the iPad came out early this year and was all the buzz. It looks great of course and Apple really should be proud of making the tablet relevant. How many tablets have we seen come out in the last 10-15 years that someone pushed as the wave of the future only to see the wave break before it reached the shore. Of course, some of the ideas shrunk to the size of the current pdas and smart phones, others just vanished into the ether or morphed into laptops.

    With Android nipping at Apples heels on the phone front I was sure that there would be android based tablets to rival the iPad. Serious contenders have taken longer than I expected, but realistically the iPad has not been out for a full year yet. At one point this year I looked long and hard at some of the then available tablets. None were quite “it” at that point.

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  • Sony rootkit settlement

    Here’s a followup to one of the first big stories that I posted on… the Sony rootkit – there has been a settlement with the FTC (Federal Trade Commision). It has yet to be approved but, affected customers could see up to $150 to cover cost of repair (rootkit removal/etc.) They(Sony) must also allow the cds to be swapped. Under the settlement Sony does not admit breaking any law.

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  • Sony Handycam DCR-DVD405

    Well, the Sony Handycam DCR-DVD405 that I ordered from Amazon has arrived today (ordered the 5th of July, arrived the 11th with the “slow boat” free shipping option.) I’ve had it long enough to charge batteries, set time and do a few still pictures and a few short video clips. So, these will be my initial impressions, and I’ll likely follow up later with further thoughts/experience/etc. This was certainly not a small purchase for us and I spent quite a bit of time narrowing down choices. I really wanted a dvd based recorder. The idea of having it already in a format that we could archive was a real plus there. Yes, I might pull it onto the computer for editing, but life will be much simpler if I don’t HAVE to….

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  • Florida leads in Sony Rootkit infections….

    According to the securityfix, Florida leads the nation in the number of networks with signs of computers infested with the sony rootkit. In total, 12,588 networks in Florida seem to have computers with the rootkit. Now, these numbers could reflect as few as one machine per network….

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  • Some Sony news

    You had to know we couldn’t make it to the end of the year without another story about the Sony DRM rootkit…. I noticed last night that the sunbelt blog had mention of a proposed settlement in their legal troubles in the wake of the XCP copy protection DRM rootkit MESS. *(Mediamax is not quite forgotten either.)

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  • Very good shortware radio Sony ICF-SW7600GR

    For many years I’d been curious about shortwave radio. Finally maybe five years ago, I broke down and bought a cheap ($30) shortwave radio to see what I could hear. It was ok. Probably among the best AM reception I had out of a radio, but it had analog tuning and a small dial, the switch to switch between shortwave bands was kind of tough to get “just right” and it seemed like I never found the same thing twice.

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  • Another sony lawsuit? (The DRM that stole Christmas for Sony?)

    Now it appears that the Illionois Attorney General is also investigating Sony in relation to the recent DRM software debacle related to their XCP Digital Rights Management software.

    her office has requested information from the company regarding anti-piracy software it included on music CDs that experts have shown exposes Microsoft Windows users to security holes and computer viruses.

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  • Sony releases XCP remover

    Sony has had a busy day… they’ve released software to remove the XCP DRM program that was the start of all the recent SONY DRM rootkit controversy. Of course, the original DRM software had multiple problems in it’s concept AND implementation, the uninstallers and patches since have also had problems. Today I’ve seen reports that Sony’s uninstaller for the SunnComm MediaMax DRM software (the OTHER approach sony uses for copy protection) has some serious problems.

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  • More on the Sony XCP DRM (Rootkit)

    Freedom-to-tinker.com has some good detailed analysis on Sony’s (mis) use of GPL software in their XCP DRM (Digital Rights Management) software that’s been at the center of somewhat of a firestorm the last couple months. DRMS was the source of the code that was allegedly misappropriated, but the puzzle was why a Digital Rights Management removal bit of software was used in Digital Rights Management software to begin with…

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  • Sony class-action suit picks up researcher Mark Russinovich as an expert witness

    News continues on the Sony mess…. (Expect to hear about this for some time…) The researcher that informed the world about the Sony DRM rootkit, Mark Russinovich, has joined the class-action suit against Sony and First4Internet as an expert witness on the matter.

    Russinovich said he opted to join the suit because he “wanted to make sure that a message was sent loud and clear to Sony and hopefully to the rest of the industry. And if a technical expert is required to back up the suit, then that’s what I’m willing to do to make sure that message gets driven home.”

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