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Comment Re:Flame Bait (Score 1) 292

There's the Marvel Universe, and the Ultimate Universe, and they are COMPLETELY separate. There's a well-known super-hero that is very recently dead in one and totally alive in the other.

Comment Re:We don't use sudo? (Score 1) 592

Along the same lines, where I used to work we had some n00bs (one really) that would su, do his or her work, and then leave the lab, completely forgetting the exit part. On any given day, you could walk in the lab and see root prompts up on at least half the boxes.

There are a hundred things wrong with this scenario. I know. That's why I quit. I don't need to hear them all. Mind the forest, not the trees.

Comment Re:I loved the original, but.. (Score 1) 412

Yes yes, +1. I really dug how Flynn wanted to make a perfect, open, free system for everyone, and the evil capitalists took it and over-charged for it. Pretty cool message for a Hollywood film. Even referenced that the only difference between releases was the release number. I was half-expecting that the Encom was the reason Flynn went missing, that some corporate henchman trapped him in the machine.

And every computer shown in the movie was Unix based...
% whoami
flynn

EPIC

Comment Re:So, how long before... (Score 0, Offtopic) 577

Thankfully, I can think of nothing else that will get the average American more in a tiff than their chosen source of entertainment suddenly not working.

Don't mention gay marriage or legalizing pot. I may be slightly off topic here, but only /.ers and the like will know who to blame, and why to be mad. And that's not the average American. We're lucky if we make up 5%.

If only we could become the archetypal American, Joe the IT guy, as opposed to Joe the plumber.

Patents

Submission + - Webvention Demanding $80k for Rollover Images (arstechnica.com)

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "Webvention is demanding that websites with rollover images pay $80,000 or face a patent lawsuit based on US patent 5,251,294, which it bought from Intellectual Ventures. Webvention claims to already have licensing deals with Apple, Google, Nokia, Sears, Sony and Orbitz. Right now, they're suing Abercrombie and Fitch, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dell, Gamestop, E*Trade, Neiman Marcus, Visa and ten others in a court in east Texas."
Privacy

Submission + - Ubuntu Privacy Remix 10.04 (locked lynx) released (privacy-cd.org)

An anonymous reader writes: After a long period of work and testing, the UPR team has released the
final version of Ubuntu Privacy Remix 10.04 (Codename Locked Lynx). And
yes, we know Ubuntu 10.10 has just been released. But we believe
stability is more important for UPR, so we are focusing on LTS releases
whenever possible.

What is Ubuntu Privacy Remix?

The goal of Ubuntu Privacy Remix is to provide an isolated working
environment where sensitive data can be dealt with safely. The system
installed on the computer running UPR remains untouched, UPR is not
intended for permanent installation on hard disk. Instead of that the
sealed-off Ubuntu Privacy Remix system runs from a modified Live-CD
based on Ubuntu Linux. All user data reside exclusively on encrypted
removable media.
Ubuntu Privacy Remix is a tool to protect your data against unsolicited
access. The risk of theft of such private data arises not only from
"conventional" criminals, trojans. rootkits, keyloggers etc. In many
countries, measures are taken by the state aiming at spying and
monitoring its citizens.
Learn more about it at https://privacy-cd.org/

What is new in UPR 10.04?
Ubuntu Privacy Remix 10.04 is based on Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" and
supports more and newer hardware. Still, system requirements remain the
same. The UPR kernel has been rebuilt based on the Ubuntu kernel
2.6.32.23. UPR 10.04 shows the same improvements to boot times as Ubuntu
10.04

With UPR 10.04, it is no longer possible to burn the ISO to a CD due to
its size, sorry! The standard UPR 10.04 now includes english, german,
spanish, french and italian language.

We have extended and improved the following features:

        * TrueCrypt has been updated to version 6.3a. Version 7.0 obviously
has introduced changes to the container format, at least containers
created with it cannot be opened with an earlier version. Unfortunately,
we found no documentation about these changes, so we will use 6.3a until
we have done a full review of Truecrypt 7 on our own.
        * We have written our own frontend to GnuPG, which replaces
seahorse. With it, you can use GPG features like key groups or restoring
original filenames. Use it like the seahorse plugins from the context
menu (Encrypt, Sign). Settings can be made from "Applications — Security
- GnuPG Settings". It is also possible to show all recipient keys of an
encrypted file. This frontend is optimized for dealing with large
keyrings (>300 keys), key lists can be searched and filtered. For
password caching, the "normal" gpg-agent is used, which has fewer bugs
than seahorse. For key management, seahorse is still used.
        * The scripts for extended TrueCrypt volumes have been improved. The
backup feature during close now can backup other open containers as
well. Printer configuration is now saved.
        * New applications: VYM Mindmapper, GIMP, xterm (for enabling
TrueCrypts "repair filesystem" feature)
        * Simple creation and use of LUKS-encrypted volumes

Comment Re:Undercover work is spying, is violating privacy (Score 1) 240

You're attempting to extend property rights such that they provide privacy. I don't think that works, except in cases of Intellectual Property, wherein the idea itself has monetary value and can therefore be "stolen" simply by being seen. But the only way to legally protect your IP is to disclose it via the patent office, so still no.

I own a car. Yes, I am about to make a car-Facebook analogy. I am very sorry.

If you look at my car, you haven't violated my property rights. If you write down my license plate, you haven't violated my property rights. If, from my bumper stickers and whatnot, you determine that I have a kid named Billy who plays football, a daughter named, Billy, who plays cello, that one of my kids is an honor-roll student (Billy, most likely), that I have a wife, that I most likely voted for Ralph Nader in 2004, and from the make and model of the car ascertain with reasonable certainty which socio-economic bracket I fit, you still have not violated any of my Constitutional Rights. Would it be creepy? Yes. The same is true of gathering info on Facebook, message boards, etc.

However, if you set your privacy settings and they circumvent them, that's totally different, and may fall under DMCA protection, since "You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings." [Facebook terms of use: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php ]
Government

Submission + - FCC approves changes to cable box rules (thehill.com)

GovTechGuy writes: The FCC issued an order Thursday that should make it much easier and cheaper for consumers to purchase and install third-party cable boxes made by manufacturers such as TiVo. The rules are aimed at spurring competition in the cable box market; currently consumers overwhelmingly choose to rent a box from their cable provider rather than buy their own. Lawmakers have complained the current cable box technology is outdated and doesn't allow consumers to leverage new sources of video content such as the Web or streaming services from providers such as Netflix. The new rules should result in a smarter, more advanced cable box in the near future.

Comment Re:Undercover work is spying, is violating privacy (Score 1) 240

There's no general right of privacy guaranteed by the Constitution or any other U.S. document. We're generally protected from Search and Seizure. There are only specific privacies guaranteed, such as medical records and school records.

Courts have ruled that there is no expectation of privacy for e-mail. It's not a far stretch to say that covers Facebook and other social networking sites as well. It immediately includes those sites when the user has e-mail notifications enabled.

It's not spying. Maybe information-gathering. We can only call it spying if they're actually playing "I spy."

I spy with my little agent eyes, something slutty.

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