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The Internet

Wikipedia's New Definition of Truth 428

Posted by kdawson from the beware-the-man-with-the-lantern dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Simson Garfinkel has an interesting essay on MIT Technology Review in which he examines the way that Wikipedia has redefined the commonly accepted use of the word 'truth.' While many academic experts have argued that Wikipedia's articles can't be trusted because they are written and edited by volunteers who have never been vetted, studies have found that the articles are remarkably accurate. 'But wikitruth isn't based on principles such as consistency or observability. It's not even based on common sense or firsthand experience,' says Garfinkel. What makes a fact or statement fit for inclusion is verifiability — that it appeared in some other publication, but there is a problem with appealing to the authority of other people's written words: many publications don't do any fact checking at all, and many of those that do simply call up the subject of the article and ask if the writer got the facts wrong or right. Wikipedia's policy of 'No Original Research' also leads to situations like Jaron Lanier's frustrated attempts to correct his own Wikipedia entry based on firsthand knowledge of his own career. So what is Wikipedia's truth? 'Since Wikipedia is the most widely read online reference on the planet, it's the standard of truth that most people are implicitly using when they type a search term into Google or Yahoo. On Wikipedia, truth is received truth: the consensus view of a subject.'"
The Almighty Buck

Video Game Actors Say They Don't Get Their Due 573

Posted by timothy from the 100k-isn't-exactly-peanuts dept.
Dekortage writes "The New York Times reports today about Michael Hollick, the actor who provided the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. Although the game has made more than $600 million in sales for Rockstar Games, Hollick earns nothing beyond the original $100K he was paid. If this was television, film, or radio, Hollick and the other GTA actors could have made millions by now. Hollick says, 'I don't blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games. Yes, the technology is important, but it's the human performances within them that people really connect to, and I hope actors will get more respect for the work they do within those technologies.' Is it time for video game actors to be treated as well as those in other mediums?"
Moon

The Case for Lunar Property Rights 387

Posted by timothy from the title-check's-a-bitch dept.
longacre writes "Who owns the moon? In a thought provoking piece, Instapundit blogger/law professor Glenn Reynolds gives us a brief history of earthlings' discourse on lunar property rights, a topic which has stagnated since the 1979 Moon Treaty. Is it possible to claim good title on land that is not under the dominion of a nation? He goes on to plead his case for the creation of lunar real estate legislation. From the article: 'Property rights attract private capital and, with government space programs stagnating, a lunar land rush may be just what we need to get things going again.'"
Security

How Would You Prefer To Send Sensitive Data? 542

Posted by samzenpus from the by-armored-truck dept.
sprkltgr writes "Our HR department is implementing new software. The HR Director has tasked me with sending our data out of our network to the consultant that's loading it in to the new package. Obviously this data includes items such as SSN, name, birth date, etc. Upon being told that I would not email this data to her, the consultant asked what my security requirements were for sending the data. What would be on your wishlist for the best way to send sensitive data to someone outside your firewall?"
Censorship

Submission + - How Strong is Viacom's $1 bn Claim Against Google?

Submitted by Kermit
Kermit writes: Yesterday, Viacom sued YouTube and its owner Google for damages in excess of $1 billion for infringing Viacom's copyrights. Viacom is the media giant which owns television programming including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and movie studios including Dreamworks and Paramount. Viacom claims that YouTube has actively infringed Viacom's copyrighted works by publicly performing these movies on its website, and by permitting copies to be embedded in websites across the Net. Central to Viacom's claim is how the court will interpret provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Will Viacom win, or will Google be granted a "safe harbor"? Read this excellent analysis by David Mirchin to find out.
Biotech

The Birth of Semiconductor 2.0 89

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the printing-your-hardware dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to several articles in the press, an Austrian company has opened a new chip printing factory. But there is a twist. The chips produced by this factory, dubbed Semiconductor 2.0 by the company, will be organic semiconductors, and will be produced by inkjet printers. According to the company, the new factory will be able to produce 40,000 square meters of semiconductors per year, mainly for the biotech, clean tech, and defense industries."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Geeks Never Need to Sleep Alone

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Reality Bedding (www.realitybedding.com) features amazing lifesize photo designs on bedding; current designs of scantily clad women have received worldwide attention, and mean no geek needs to sleep alone again, ever."
Businesses

Submission + - If you could do it all over, would you choose IT?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Given some of the complaints against IT and software as careers (long hours, offshoring, visa workers, ageism, boring projects, etc...), what would you do differently if you could do it all over again? Knowing what you know now, would you choose the same college major and the same career?
User Journal

Journal Journal: In defense of being deaf

Journal by Cyclopedian
I wanted to preserve my comments in reply to someone who was lamenting the loss of hearing in his/her children. Now, it may have been a troll, but that didn't matter to me. I wanted to let them know what I felt and that they were giving up too easily.

The parent post is here , along with my replies.

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