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Submission + - Arstechnica infected with malware? (arstechnica.com)

dlp211 writes: A recent trip to arstechnica.com has returned a "malware infected site" message from the Google Chrome browser. The message notes that it has informed ars of the situation.

Comment Re:The causes are obvious... (Score 1) 433

Where the fuck do you live that you don't pay taxes and everything is run by the free market. You are stupid if you think that the free market is the cure all for all that woes the world. The majority of my economics books are dedicated to why the free market fails. Stop pretending that the solution to every problem is less gov't. Less gov't got us that nice housing bubble, child labor, and the great depression.

Comment Re:Of course (Score 1) 671

It depends. Did he walk in for the sole purpose to spy on his roommate? If the answer is no, then no, if the answer is yes, then yes.

Equating walking in and deliberately using equipment in the room to spy on your roommate is just a terrible analogy. A more analogous analogy would be "peering through the window".

In the latter instance, the roommates privacy is being violated without him having any knowledge of the incident. In the 'walk in' scenario the roommate is aware and has been precluded to his entrance, even if just briefly.

Comment Re:One more issue (Score 1) 1065

This reminds me of, "World to end tomorrow! Women and minorities hit the hardest!" Rich people don't benefit more from society than anyone else. Probably less if you think about it. The "ultra-rich" as you like to call them, don't drive their cars 6 days a week to work over government paid roads. The don't send their kids to public schools and you won't find them at an airport. They don't visit the library or spend time at public parks and would not be caught dead at a public golf course.

Oh, and while they make up five percent of the population, they pay for half of EVERYTHING the government spends. Sorry, but the top 5% do not take up 50% of the road ways or somehow suck up 50% of the protections the military provides us. They end up paying for the services the other 95% enjoy.

You are right, they don't drive their cars 6 days a week on the roadways, their workers do. Their workers have also been largely educated with public funds. Their assets are protected by not only the police, but also through the judiciary. Also, their employees are able to travel cheaply across the country for business because of the FAA and the airport infrastructure in this country. Not to mention that they too benefit from the FAA and government subsidized small airports in order to fly around in their Gulfstream III. Also their businesses use the roadways and cause more damage to roads then passenger cars.

Now does the above apply equally to all rich people, no absolutely not, but to pretend that they don't benefit the most from government services is just ridiculous. Just because they don't appear to be the primary beneficiary doesn't mean that don't reap ridiculously large ancillary benefits, the most important one being a somewhat functioning society.

Comment Re:The bill sounds like a travesty, lets do better (Score 1) 63

Do you have any citation that proves that there is more demand for spectrum then there is spectrum. Why is this an issue only in the US, and why do we have to a) give it away or b) sell it? The rest of the world is able to do just fine with multiple carriers on a single band or two of spectrum for cell phones. Why can't the US, what makes the US this special case that has made it impossible to operate on a single band. The problem is this belief that the government can't, and hasn't done anything right ever. The fact on the other hand is the government runs well and has for a long time even though it has been slowly dismantled.

Submission + - Is Biometrics Covered Under the 5th Amendment? (volokh.com) 1

scottmatrix writes: Few years ago, there was a legal case where a U.S. Federal Court ruled that the accused does not have to turn over the passphrase of his encrypted laptop to prosecutors. The ruling was based on the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which protects the right of the accused to avoid self-incrimination.

If a passphrase is projected under the 5th Amendment, can it also be inferred that a finger swipe on the fingerprint reader is protected under the constitution?

Comment Apple TV with Boxee (Score 1) 516

Pick up a used 40GB Apple TV and throw Boxee onto it. Then just point it at your SMB share and let it populate. Cheap, queit, and efficient front end that looks good and comes with a remote control. Or wait and see if they can shoehorn Boxee onto the new Apple TV and then you get solid Netflix streaming to boot, or just wait until November and get the Boxee Box retail 199.

Submission + - Mother wins MMR case (bbc.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: A mother from the UK has won her case claiming that the MMR vaccine severely retarded her child. The main factor in her winning the case was, as the panel put it, "the balance of probabilities". A doctor Michael Fitzpatrick said, "...although a causal link has been established in law in this instance, exhaustive scientific research has failed to establish any link between MMR and brain damage." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7970199/Mother-wins-MMR-payout-after-18-years.html) Since when did law trump exhaustive scientific research in scientific matters?

It's a shock that such a case has succeeded as, despite the mother's claims that she is not anti-vaccination and it has been stated in every article which prints the story that it does not confirm a link between MMR and autism, this will only fuel the anti-vaccination movement.

Does anyone else find this story slightly troubling?

Games

Submission + - NAMCO Takes Down Student Pacman Project (techdirt.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The core of how people first learn to do stuff — programming, music, writing, etc. — is to imitate others. It's one of the best ways to learn. Apparently a bunch of students using MIT's educational Scratch programming language understand this. But not everyone else does. NAMCO Bandai sent a takedown notice to MIT because some kids had recreated Pacman with Scratch. The NAMCO letter is pretty condescending as well, noting that it understands the educational purpose of Scratch, but "part of their education should include concern for the intellectual property of others."

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