Arcquist - Slashdot User

Submission + - Big Oil threatens gas prices because of biofuels

Submitted by Stickerboy on Thursday May 24, 2007 @01:53AM

Stickerboy writes: Just in case it wasn't clear that Big Oil has Americans by the short hairs, now they're making thinly veiled threats: Quit pushing biofuels so hard, or we won't expand any more fuel refining capacity (NYT registration needed). A lack of refining capacity is one of the top culprits for higher prices at the pump. Of course, never mind the number of domestic refineries and total refining capacity is at a lower level than it was in 1980. If trying to pass off record profiteering as mediocre business results doesn't work, maybe threats to gas prices will keep the public cooperative and in line!

Submission + - Woman trades sex for WOW gold

Submitted by JTT on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @01:56PM

JTT writes: There are multiple sites reporting that in April a woman used craigslist to trade sex for WOW gold in order to purchase an 'Epic Flying Mount'. Aparent pictures of the craigslist ads can also be found floating around the net. The 'player' followed up with 'I got MY epic mount AND I got laid which is more than most of you failures can ever hope for.'

Submission + - Copyright Misuse Claim Against RIAA Upheld

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @11:24AM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's attempt to dismiss a "copyright misuse" counterclaim against it has been rejected by Judge Charles L. Brieant, in a White Plains, New York, case, Lava v. Amurao. The counterclaim (pdf) calls for the record labels to forfeit their copyrights on the ground that they "are competitors in the business of recorded music.....[and] are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and public policy, by litigating and settling all cases similar to this one together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in an identical manner and through common lawyers..... Such actions represent an attempt....to secure for themselves rights far exceeding those provided by copyright laws......Such acts constitute misuse of copyrights, and lead to a forfeiture of the exclusive rights.....". The judge also upheld (pdf) a counterclaim for declaratory judgment of non-infringement, and granted the motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Submission + - Checkers has been Solved

Submitted by

r55man

on Tuesday May 22, 2007 @12:23AM

r55man writes: "The Chinook project recently announced that checkers has been solved. Perfect play from both sides results in a draw. From their website:

On May 8, 2007, we were pleased to announce that checkers is now solved. From the standard starting position, Black (who moves first) is guaranteed a draw with perfect play. White (moving second) is also guaranteed a draw, regardless of what Black plays as the opening move. Checkers is the largest game that has been solved to date.
"

Submission + - A Chip on DVDs Could Prevent Theft

Submitted by Dieppe on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @06:46PM

Dieppe writes: A simple chip added to a DVD disk could prevent retail theft. According to the AP article at MSNBC, the chip would be activated at the register to make a previously dark area of the DVD clear, and therefore readable. Could this help to stem the tide of the approximate $400 million dollars in losses from brick and mortar stores? Game console DVDs could also be protected this way too. Could this help to bring the prices down on DVD games and movies?

Submission + - WoW Stratics HoC with Blizzard

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @06:43PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "On May 15, 2007 join WoW Stratics for a House of Commons with the Developers of World of Warcraft at 3 PM Pacific / 6 PM Eastern / 11pm British Summer Time (BST, London) and 23:59 Central European (Summer) time in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client or you can visit our Downloads section to choose a suitable client. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you.

* stratics.frws.com — USA
* irc.stratics.com — USA
* irc.gamers-irc.org — USA
* us.irc.stratics.com — USA
* irc.us.glowfish.de — USA
* irc.glowfish.de — Germany

Java Clients:

* chat.stratics.com -USA
* webchat-us.glowfish.de — USA
* webchat-de.glowfish.de — Germany

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

Please note: Questions for this HoC can only be submitted before the chat. No questions will be taken during the chat. We will have [QT]'s available 48 hours before the HoC chat is scheduled to start. You can submit your questions at that time to any user with a [QT] in front of their name. [QT]'s are Question Takers who also have operator status in the #StraticsHoC channel. To submit your questions just type the following command: /msg [QT]Bot# Question here. All questions will be recorded automatically, in order to ensure this please submit one question per line.

Open chat will be available for discussing World of Warcraft in our IRC channel #worldofwarcraft before, during, and after the chat.

We hope to see you there!"

Submission + - Shredded secret police files being reassembled

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @05:17PM

An anonymous reader writes: German researchers at the Frauenhofer Institute said Wednesday that they were launching an attempt to reassemble millions of shredded East German secret police files using complicated computerized algorithms. The files were shredded as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and it became clear that the East German regime was finished. Panicking officials of the Stasi secret police attempted to destroy the vast volumes of material they had kept on everyone from their own citizens to foreign leaders.

Submission + - Wisconsin Orders Gas Station to Raise Gas Prices

Submitted by

hahafaha

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @04:24PM

hahafaha writes: "Raj Bhandari, a gas station owner in Wisconsin, offered a 2 cents/gallon discount for gas to seniors, and 3 cents/gallon to those that supported youth sports. However, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture is threatening to penalize him for each discounted gallon, with the fine at a judge's discretion. According to the Department, he is violating Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price."

Submission + - FAA Balks At Vista Hardware Requirements

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @02:43PM

An anonymous reader writes: New details have come to light about the FAA's moratorium on upgrades to Window Vista and Office 2007. InformationWeek reports on a leaked internal memo from top Federal Aviation Administration officials, which worries that Vista requires "twice the memory ...than that currently specified in the FAA Desktop standard configuration." The memo, dated January 26, 2007, (a few days before the Vista launch) was hand signed by FAA CIO Dave Bowen and VP for acquisition James Washington. The memo also warns tech staffers at the FAA to be on guard against heavy sales pitches from Microsoft during the initial rollout period for Windows Vista. "We anticipate that this introduction will be accompanied by significant advertising hype and salesperson activity," the document states. (The original story on the FAA moratorium is here.)

Submission + - George Lucas Anounces Two New Star Wars Movies

Submitted by alberion on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @02:39PM

alberion writes: In interview to the Fox News, George Lucas anounces two new Star Wars Movies. From the interview:
Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era. "But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu." The two extra films will also be made for TV and probably be an hour long each. But, like "Clone Wars," Lucas doesn't know where on TV they will land.

Submission + - RIAA Challenges Cause Foster Fees to Double

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @02:27PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA's challenges to Judge Lee R. West's order (pdf) awarding the defendant attorneys fees in Capitol v. Foster and to the "reasonableness" of Ms. Foster's attorneys' fees have not only forced the RIAA to disclose its own attorneys fees, and caused the judge to issue a second decision labeling them as "disingenuous", their motives "questionable", and their factual statements "not true", but have now caused the amount of the fees to more than double, from $55,000 to $114,000, as evidenced by Ms. Foster's supplemental fee application (pdf's)."

Submission + - Club Owner Has To Pay $40k For 10 Cover Songs

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @01:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: The music industry continues to look to squeeze money out of every possible place. The latest is the story of a club owner in Colorado who was forced to pay $40,000 because a cover band performed at his club and played 10 whole songs. It's true that the club owner in question did not have an ASCAP license, but it's hard to imagine why the club owner should be paying those fees rather than the band, and how it could possibly be fair to pay $40,000 for 10 cover songs that, if anything, probably acted as advertising for the real bands' songs.

Submission + - RSA Factoring Challenge is no more!

Submitted by

iplayfast

on Wednesday May 09, 2007 @10:10AM

iplayfast writes: "RSA Factoring Challenge is no more. http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2092
From the site Why is the RSA Factoring Challenge no longer active?

Various cryptographic challenges — including the RSA Factoring Challenge — served in the early days of commercial cryptography to measure the state of progress in practical cryptanalysis and reward researchers for the new knowledge they have brought to the community. Now that the industry has a considerably more advanced understanding of the cryptanalytic strength of common symmetric-key and public-key algorithms, these challenges are no longer active. The records, however, are presented here for reference by interested cryptographers.

I think they've realized that with cheap cpu's and modern OS's, these challenges are more at risk, and can be cracked more easily. They just don't want to pay the money :)"

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