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Businesses

Verizon Employees End Strike 591

An anonymous reader writes "Verizon today announced that the approximately 45,000 wireline employees represented by the CWA and IBEW that have been on strike will return to work beginning Monday night, August 22nd, without new collective bargaining agreements. Since the strike began two weeks ago, Verizon has been battling criminal acts of sabotage against its network facilities and union picketers intimidating non-union replacement workers and illegally blocking garage and work center entrances. One union picketer even went as far as to instruct his young daughter to stand in front of a Verizon truck to illegally block it from coming back to a Verizon work center in New Jersey. Verizon said the wireline employees now on strike would be working under the terms of the contracts that expired on Saturday, August 6th. The contracts will be extended with no specific deadline for achieving new collective bargaining agreements so that the parties can take the time required to resolve the critical issues, the company said."
Earth

Paypal Founder Helping Build Artificial Island Nations 692

MadMartigan2001 writes with a pretty crazy article on a project involving floating libertarian paradises. From the article: "PayPal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters. Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties."

Comment Re:Amazing observation (Score 1) 283

Stallman et al view the GPL as a transitional measure -- as long as copyrights exist, they need to use the system to protect themselves. Once it's gone (haha) they are well aware their GPL will be gone too. This is their plan.

Now I think they're crazy, but I get mildly annoyed at people who can't see beyond the length of their own nose thinking that if you are against an institution like copyright or patent then you are somehow morally bankrupt if you also use it. Patents in particular, you need defensively if you want to do anything remotely new.

Comment Re:Que the environmental wackos! (Score 1) 937

Please don't confuse the fossil-fuel funded anti-nuclear hysteria with those of us who actually understand how the environment works and wish to protect it. We tend to be in favor of nuclear energy as a bridge technology until something longer lasting can be developed. After all, it's safe, clean, and effective.

DRM

Reaction To Diablo 3's Always-Online Requirement 591

Last week we discussed news that Diablo 3 will include a real-money auction house for items and require a permanent connection to the internet even for single-player games. Fan reaction has been loud and varied, with many decrying the restrictive DRM. Blizzard exec Robert Bridenbecker said he was surprised by the outrage at the online requirement, saying, "it really is just the nature of how things are going, the nature of the industry. When you look at everything you get by having that persistent connection on the servers, you cannot ignore the power and the draw of that." Some other developers came out in support of the scheme; id Software's Tim Willits said always-on would be "better for everybody" in the end. Max Schaefer, one of the makers of Diablo 3 competitor Torchlight 2, said he understands why they did it, even though Torchlight 2 is not doing the same: "... it seems that most of what they are doing is related to trying to keep a truly secure, cheat-free economy in Diablo III. Whatever you do, you have to make sacrifices. We sacrifice a cheat-free environment to give players the most options, they are sacrificing options and flexibility for security of the economy like you would in an MMO. I understand their approach and sympathize with the technical difficulties of what they are trying to do."

Comment Re:Fishy smell (Score 1) 414

It's possible they wanted to get primacy fast and, knowing how good their work was, weren't concerned about the venue. Or perhaps the journal had favorable IP policy. Or maybe their methodology is crap but they "just know" it works, and this is a gambit to get primacy while they have time to nail down real results. Maybe they care a great deal about open access and know that with work like this they can get away with publishing anywhere. Or maybe it has a favorable submission deadline (primacy). Personally I'd publish on arXiv and then apply to a prestigious journal if I had results as good as they claim, but I don't know the customs of their field.

Or maybe they're crackpots. That said, LL is very well respected in scientific circles so I doubt they'd hire this guy if he weren't at least somewhat legit. The advocacy-style of writing and working in multiple fields is a bit unusual, but the very top scientists do tend to be active in more than one field (Feynman, for example).

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