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Communications

Submission + - Senator warns of e-mail tax this fall

Submitted by
cnet-declan
cnet-declan writes: "State and local governments this week began an all-out lobbying push in Wahsington for the power to tax the Internet, according to our article at News.com. A new Senate bill would usher in Internet sales taxes, and the Federation of Tax Administrators (representing state tax collectors) advised senators at a hearing on Wednesday not to renew a temporary moratorium limiting broadband taxes that expires in November. One irked Republican senator warned that unless it's renewed, we could start seeing email taxes by the end of the year. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey blames it on the Democrats taking over, as do Yahoo and eBay lobbyists. Is this the return of the proposed-then-abandoned United Nations email tax and a non-hoax version of bill 602P?"
Censorship

Submission + - Holocaust Dropped From UK Schools

Submitted by
dteichman2
dteichman2 writes: "It appears that UK schools are ignoring The Holocaust. A government-backed study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, found that some teachers are reluctant to teach history lessons on The Holocaust for fear of offending Muslim students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial. As such, many schools are not covering the subject. Additionally, similar problems are being met with lessons on The Crusades because these lessons contradict teachings from local mosques.

Isn't there a law that requires UK schools to cover these topics? Should there be?"
Communications

Submission + - Skype Leaves Customers Hanging on Mother's Day

Submitted by Scleronomous Howard
Scleronomous Howard writes: Many users of Skype's Skype Unlimited subscription service for SkypeOut calls to the U.S. and Canada discovered over the weekend that their accounts had stopped working. As of Monday afternoon, none of the posters complaining on the Skype Forum had received any word back from the company. It seems the only place on earth you can't reach with Skype is Skype itself. Belated Happy Mother's Day Mom.
The Courts

Submission + - Kaleidescape Beats DVD CCA Re: DVD Server

Submitted by Ripper
Ripper writes: Video server manufacturer Kaleidescape has beaten the DVD CCA, the group that licenses DVD decryption/encryption technology to every manufacturer of legitimate DVD players. The group had argued that Kaleidescape breached a licensing agreement by making a product that enables (indeed encourages) users to rip copy-protected DVDs onto a hard drive. Kaleidescape argued that nothing in the contract says anything about prohibiting such functionality. The judge agreed. The broader copyright issues that could have emerged during the non-jury trial, in fact did not, so the case has little implication for those who want to rush out and rip their DVDs, or make products that do so. The judge also stopped short of agreeing that, in fact, the DVD CCA is an innovation-stifling cartel.
Businesses

Submission + - Exempt Employees and the fight against Overtime

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: I'm employed as a Software Engineer, to clarify; I'm a combination third-level tech support and systems engineer. I work for a fairly large company in Michigan. My boss, under the stress of completing the latest huge project, has started to demand that I, and the rest of my team, complete mandatory overtime to meet some very shortsighted deadlines. I'm an exempt employee, which means that I make a salary and am not required to keep track of my time each week. I don't feel I'm compensated well enough to work unlimited hours, but that seems to be my boss's goal. What options do I have in restricting my employer and my boss's ability to destroy every little bit of my free time while still staying employed?
Portables

Submission + - Quanta plans to sell OLPCs to all

Submitted by
Kadin2048
Kadin2048 writes: "According to a story in the Financial Times, and reported at Ars, Quanta — the OEM responsible for manufacturing the OLPC laptops — is planning on selling low-cost portables, similar or identical to the OLPC XO, to consumers in developed countries. Although this is good news for many folks who have been hoping to get their hands on an OLPC for themselves, it seems like a missed opportunity for the OLPC project, since unlike the proposals rejected by Negroponte which would have used the profit from First World sales to finance Third World ones, this will only benefit Quanta, not OLPC. No word yet on what software Quanta's OLPC-for-everyone might run."
Math

Submission + - Can you read a scientific graph? Test yourself.

Submitted by
word munger
word munger writes: "On Cognitive Daily we get a lot of complaints that our graphs aren't complete. We always omit error bars because we have found that most people misunderstand them. But perhaps our readers are more sophisticated than that. We put them to the test — and they failed, unable to correctly interpret the error bars on two sample graphs. Think you can do better? The polls are still open. But beware, you're not likely to succeed — even most scientists published in peer-reviewed journals don't get it right.

But we wonder: If sites like Cognitive Daily took more time to present and explain error bars, perhaps more people would understand them, and in the end, that would be a good thing. What do Slashdot readers think? Should mainstream media report scientific data, complete with messy error bars? Would that help the general public understand science better?"
Windows

Submission + - Stopping WGA Installation sends data to Microsoft

Submitted by
rev
rev writes: "The new WGA Notification installation that can be installed using Windows Update sends data to Microsoft if the user decides to cancel the installation. A cookie is set that could be used to identify the host and information such as version of Windows and WGA as well as language of the operating system are transmitted. Part of the data is encrypted. (read more)"
Censorship

Submission + - France Bans People from Recording Violence

Submitted by DrEnter
DrEnter writes: According to this PC World story found on Yahoo!, the French government has made it illegal for anyone except a professional journalist to film or broadcast an act of violence. Civil liberties groups warn that the law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who record acts of police violence, or the operators of web sites that publish them. The government is also discussing a method of government "certification" of web sites, blog hosters, mobile phone operators, and ISPs if they adhere to certain rules.
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista activation circumvented with BIOS emulation

Submitted by
Steve Kerrison
Steve Kerrison writes: "If a brute force Vista product key-gen won't work, then a tool to exploit the volume licensing used by OEMs might. HEXUS.net reports that a toolkit has been produced that emulates an OEM BIOS to make the system appear as a pre-activated machine. Combined with the correct certificate and OEM key, Vista won't perform any further activation."
United States

Submission + - U.S. plans for new nuclear weapons

Submitted by
oitotheworld
oitotheworld writes: "The Bush administration is planning a secret meeting in August to discuss the construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons, including "mini-nukes", "bunker-busters" and neutron bombs designed to destroy chemical or biological agents, according to a leaked Pentagon document. ("http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,8985 50,00.html) is the article. These smaller nuclear weapons are meant to fit in with the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes. It is thought that smaller nuclear weapons will be seen as more of a threat by foreign countries because there will be less hesitation about using them than its current arsenal of planet decimating warheads. It is in fact an expansion of our existing nuclear arsenal, as the U.S. has no intention of decommissioning any of its existing nukes."

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