Net neutrality really is the hot topic at the moment. After the FCC slapped Comcast for slowing down Bit Torrent users, Canada is now looking into the network management practices of its ISPs. And rightly so, as a CRTC investigation reveals that most of the ISPs in Canada actively slow down customers using P2P applications.

Ignited by the Comcast fiasco in the US, the concept of net neutrality has certainly been brought into the mainstream. ISPs are rarely transparent when it comes to their throttling, capping and otherwise interfering behavior, but in Canada they had to come clean due to a CRTC investigation.
The Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is currently looking into the traffic management practices of Canadian ISPs, which came to a head as a result of a dispute between CAIP, and its wholesale provider, Bell. The core objectives of the investigation are to examine the Internet traffic management practices being used, and check...

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Will SD cards be able to rival hard drives for storage capacity anytime soon? Probably not, but it won't be because of a technical limitation – the next generation of SD cards, dubbed SDXC, have been announced this week. Among other things, the new format for the cards will result in a theoretical size limit of a massive 2TB, 64 times greater than the current 32GB limitation. That's a significant jump, considering that 32GB SDHC cards have been available for only about a year.
The SD association has been working to retain the existing form factor and interface for SD cards, but is pushing the technology forward at a very rapid rate. The SDXC standard will supposedly provide cards that will start at read/write speeds greater than 100MB/sec, and in the future could go as high as 300MB/sec. SD is a very popular format, particularly for devices like digital camcorders and cameras. With HD cameras becoming more popular and the amount of space needed to store high quality video increasing...

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What an interesting confluence of events. If anyone ever needed proof of the notion that lawyers are the only stakeholders making money on the analog-to-digital/physical-media-to-digital transitions for the media, the last couple of days should be confirmation.
First, RealNetworks releases its DVD-copying software, RealDVD, today. The software download lets a user “rip” a secure copy of a DVD so the user can watch the movie on a notebook PC (which also has to have a copy of the RealDVD software). The software, by the way, is being sold as a download from Real that will be priced at $30 for a limited time but will carry a $50 price tag. (Users have to pay another $20 for every copy of the software they want to put on up to five additional computers.)
Apparently sensing some hostility in their pre-launch visits with Hollywood studios, Real Networks filed a pre-emptive lawsuit today a asking a court to rule that the software is legal. The defendants? The major Hollywood...

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Cree, Inc. has announced high-volume availability of lighting-class XLamp XP-E LEDs with output up to 122 lumens.
The volume availability of XLamp LEDs is aimed at further stimulating the LED lighting market, driving applications in outdoor and indoor general illumination as well as portable and retail display lighting.
Cree now offers XLamp XP-E cool white (5,000K—10,000K CCT) LEDs in a minimum R2 flux bin (114-122 lumens at 350mA), which is the highest commercially available minimum-flux order code for a single-die LED, at 350mA, in the industry today.

http://www.eetindia.co.in/ART_880055...P_b22e65c1.HTM

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PNY Technologies released its new ultra high-performance graphic boards, the NvidiaQuadro FX 5800 by PNY and Nvidia Quadro FX 4800 by PNY. The 5800 is touted as "the most powerful professional graphics board in graphics history."
Both of the scalable GPU accelerated solutions are available in Genlock/framelock and high-definition serial digital interface (HD-SDI) versions. Based on Nvidia's second generation unified architecture and offering up to 4GB GPU memory, which Nvidia says is an industry-first, they are designed to handle massive datasets and specialised needs for the visualisation and simulation, oil and gas exploration, and broadcast and film markets.
"With its enormous 4GB frame buffer and high performance, the Nvidia Quadro FX 5800 SDI by PNY provides GPU-centric applications like Assimilate's Scratch with immediate benefits and huge potential going forward," said Jeff Edson, president and CEO of Assimilate.
"By combining advanced...

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This flash drive offers faster speed at a reasonable price

December 23, 2008 (Computerworld) Last month, Kanguru Solutions announced the first USB flash drive that also offers External Serial ATA (eSATA) connectivity. This month, OCZ Technology Inc. also announced an eSATA-enabled flash drive with up to 32GB capacity, as didAdvanced Media Inc.'s Ridata-brand.
So it seems this is a trend. The question is, why? Kanguru's answer is that you can have blazing fast data transfer on your home system, then pocket the device and plug it in anywhere using the USB port. Kanguru's eFlash drive, with its eSATA 3Gbit/sec. throughput, potentially offers five to six times the speed of USB 2.0, which is 480Mbit/sec. The key word here is, potentially.

Dave Bresnick, senior product manager of the Kanguru e-Flash drive, said the...

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December, 2008 - Textron Defense Systems , an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, announced that it has signed an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that will provide up to $21 million in government funding to design, fabricate and test a Unit Cell Module for a 150 kilowatt (kW) Laser Weapon System (LWS) and develop a critical design for the 150kW LWS.
Supporting TDS is Textron Systems' Advanced Solutions Center, which has based its design upon its proprietary ThinZag® Ceramic solid-state laser technology and a preceding company-funded conceptual design. The LWS must meet DARPA's aggressive weight, volume, beam quality, and runtime requirements for the High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) program.
"Our successes with prior phases of the HELLADS program have enabled our continued and enthusiastic involvement with this important DARPA project," says Textron Systems'...

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Nation's First 'Underwater Wind Turbine' Installed in Old Man River

The nation's first commercial hydrokinetic turbine, which harnesses the power from moving water without the construction of a dam, has splashed into the waters of the Mississippi River near Hastings, Minnesota.
The 35-kilowatt turbine is positioned downstream from an existing hydroelectric-plant dam and — together with another turbine to be installed soon — will increase the capacity of the plant by more than 5 percent. The numbers aren't big, but the rig's installation could be the start of an important trend in green energy.
And that could mean more of these "wind turbines for the water" will be generating clean energy soon.

"We don't require that massive dam construction, we're just using the natural flow of the stream," said Mark Stover, a vice president...

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