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Submission + - Help. American Idol is going after me. (gk2gk.com)

Submitted by
Geek 2 Geek
Geek 2 Geek writes: "Hi, I was referred to slashdot as a place where I might get help for a problem I'm having. A while ago, I devised a contest for my web site — Geek 2 Geek. It is a "talent" show for geeks in which they submit humorous videos. I called it "Geek Idol". We received a letter from a law firm representing American Idol regarding our contest contest. A complete copy of the letter can be seen at www.gk2gk.com/topten/template20.asp . They express the concern that "... your use of GEEK IDOL will most likely cause confusion, mistake, and/or deception among the consuming public regarding the source or sponsorship of your services, and will give the false impression that your services are associated with ... 'American Idol' in violation of our client's rights. They also say that "... since AMERICAN IDOL is a famous mark, ... your use of GEEK IDOL would also constitute dilution of our client's marks and unfair competion. If we do not withdraw our use of "GEEK IDOL", they say they will seek remedies including, "without limitation, immediate and permanent injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, and an award for attorney's fees and costs incurred in obtaining such remedies. I asked our members whether anyone who read about the contest got the impression that it was somehow affiliated with American Idol. Of course, no one would, it was described in a humorous, satirical way, for one thing. The word "IDOL" is hardly a new word. And, having seen the American Idol show a few times, I don't see that anybody who performs as a "geek" will win their contest, although, I guess, Clay Aiken started out that way, but it was bred out of him by the time he was a finalist. Are there any lawyers out there? Any advice from anyone as to how we should respond? Thanks."
Security

Submission + - Car Rental Agency with poor Credit Card verify

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In an time of increased Credit Card Fraud it's amazing that one of the worlds largest Car Rental Agencies has such poor Credit Card Verification technology leaving countless users open to Credit Card Fraud.

Rather than being a victim of Credit Card fraud, I discovered on June 14th that a car I booked and paid for on January 31st was charged to some other poor person's Credit Card. How did this happen? The other persons credit card was the same as mine with 2 digits (11th and 13th) swapped and the same expiry date. Sounds impossible, but not it's actually not that difficult to occur given that the Checksum is the same if numbers are swapped and Credit Cards are generally only issued for a period of up to 4 years (48 expiry periods). They blame me for user input error, I blame them for systems error.

You'd think that a company the size of Hertz would use proper verification technology. However, they only verify the Credit Card Number and Expiry Date. They don't verify against the Credit Card Owner Name or Address or CVC number. With chip and pin and more secure online technology such as "Verified By Visa" becoming increasingly common place, to combat fraud, this seems like absolute madness. They have the lowest form of online Credit Card verification.

In resolving the matter Hertz Ireland sent me an email containing all the details of the booking (including the Credit Card Number and Expiry Date). That gave me real confidence that they are protecting my data.

Hertz's answer to this. My fault of course. The poor owner of the credit card had to wait 4 months (mainly because they didn't contact me till the end of the dispute with her) for a refund and I had to make a new booking for next month. Thankfully, there was still availability of the convertible mustang I'm so looking forward to driving. ;-)
Programming

Submission + - I'm in Your PC, Writing Your Code (lolcode.com)

Submitted by
Samah
Samah writes: "As internet memes become increasingly prevalent in our society, sometimes a gem like this comes about. From this article: "The attack of the lolcats has spilled over to programming, with LOLCODE, a language based on the mangled grammar of lolcats...LOLCODE has no practical or educational value, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun""
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - An In Depth Look Into Chinese "Gold Farming

Submitted by Henry V .009
Henry V .009 writes: The The New York Times describes the life of a Chinese World of Warcraft "Gold Farmer": At the end of each shift, Li reports the night's haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Bicycling from Alaska to Panama for Charity (cyclingforacause.com)

Submitted by
MBrichacek
MBrichacek writes: "This summer, instead of taking classes or getting a job like other college students typically do, Michal Brichacek has decided to do something radically different. He has decided instead to ride a bicycle from Anchorage, Alaska to Panama City, Panama in order to raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He plans on covering a distance of over 12,000 km in just 120 days and plans on raising $1 for every kilometer he covers. Currently in the city of San Francisco, he has already covered a distance of 5,300 km and has experienced countless adventures. You can check out daily journal updates and photos on his website or even make a donation if your feeling extra generous!"
Television

Submission + - Finnish ISP announces 5 terabyte DVR service (saunalahti.fi)

Submitted by nlitement
nlitement writes: Saunalahti, a Finnish telecommunications subsidiary of Elisa Oyj, has announced a (Finnish) novel DVR content storage service that offers up to 5 terabytes of space per user, named SaunaVisio. The service is bundled with a dedicated DVR unit which is connected to the Internet. The service is not tied to the ISP's Internet service, although Saunalahti claims a minimal required download speed of 8 MBit/s as the content will be streamed through the Internet for the user to watch. The DVR unit itself will include HDTV support and will come with an HDMI cable. The monthly fee is 14.95€ ($19.95) for the remote storage service and the rental of the DVR unit. The unit will not upload data to Saunalahti's servers as the recording of the user's choice will be done by the servers and stored on the user's account for the DVR to download. Because of this, it'll be possible for the user to program virtually any amount of simultaneous reocrdings, and remotely through the Internet or WAP. The service will not be available until July, but preorders can already be made.
Software

Journal Journal: Dear Japanese language speaking software coders... 7

Journal by Zarf
Do you have to write java.math.BigDecimal in English or is there a Japanese version of the library? Do you have to know English in order to program? Do some English programming constructs seem immensely stupid to you? Just wondering since I speak English as my native language and it occurs to me that this is not true of everyone in the world and yet we all seem to run software based on the same sets of source code files. If those files are in C/C++ and so on then they have a lot of English in th
Security

Submission + - India plans tag & release humans.

Submitted by
palewook
palewook writes: "Swadhin Kshatriya, the State Housing Department Principal Secretary, approved a plan to begin tagging residents living in the slums of Mumbai, India with a Bio-ID. The biometric identification system is based on creating an individual's unique number from the image of their eyeball and thumb impression. The Indian state of Maharashtra has yet to reveal how many of the 4.5 million people living in affected area of Mumbai will be placed into the "identification process"."
Power

Journal Journal: Mutant Wildlife at Chernobyl 337

Journal by ozmanjusri
The wilderness is encroaching over abandoned towns in the Chernobyl exclusion zone http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070607/D8PK6ID80.html.

Scientist are divided as to whether the animals are flourishing in the highly radioactive environment.

Robert J. Baker of Texas Tech University says the mice and other rodents he has studied at Chernobyl since the early 1990s have shown remarkable tolerance for elevated radiation levels.

Security

Submission + - Unpatched Symantec flaw leads to UC Boulder breach

Submitted by jcatcw
jcatcw writes: An unpatched flaw in a Symantec anti-virus management console resulted in the compromise of a server containing the names and Social Security numbers of nearly 45,000 students at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The students, enrolled at the university from 2002 to present, are presently being notified about a potential compromise of their information as a result of the breach.
Google

Submission + - OpenDNS says Google-Dell browser tool is spyware

Submitted by
PetManimal
PetManimal writes: "David Ulevitch, the founder of OpenDNS, claims that Google and Dell have placed 'spyware' on Dell computers. Ulevitch made the claim based on his observation of the behavior of the Google Toolbar and homepage that comes preinstalled on IE in new Dell machines. He says that a browser redirector sends users who enter nonexistent URLs to a Dell-branded page loaded with Google ads. Another observer, Danny Sullivan, says that this is a different result than what happens on PCs without the redirector. However, the original article notes that Ulevitch has a vested interest in the results of mistyped URLs:

Ulevitch's complaint also stems from the fact that the error redirector breaks some of OpenDNS's functionality. If an OpenDNS user types "digg.xom" by mistake, their browser pulls up the correct "digg.com" instead. But the redirector breaks the free service's typo correction — as well as the browser shortcut feature it unveiled last month. "Google's application breaks just about every user-benefiting feature we provide with client software that no user ever asked for," Ulevitch said.
"
Wireless Networking

Submission + - How good is Muni Wi-Fi?

Submitted by
Chris Price
Chris Price writes: "Recently we've heard quite a bit about munis installing free/subsidized Wi-Fi for its residents and businesses. Google/Earthlink is doing one in SFO. While a lot of hype is generated in the market the reality is something else. Business Week recently ran a story about state of public wi-fi in Anaheim. I found a really good article that explains a little more in depth the current on state on Wi-FiGurus.com. Here is the link Is public Wi-Fi good enough?. Enjoy."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft bans modified Xbox 360s from Xbox Live

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has now officially started banning Xbox 360s that have had their DVD drive firmware modified from Live, possibly using information brought in by the Crackdown-originated Halo 3 beta downloads. Scene site forums have already collapsed under traffic, and Microsoft has officially confirmed that they are banning modded Xbox 360s to keep the online playing field fair and level.

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