omega_cubed - Slashdot User

Submission + - Guy Fined For Posting Links To Official Broadcast (techdirt.com) 1

Submitted by hcs_$reboot on Saturday November 20, 2010 @09:37AM

hcs_$reboot writes: Over in Sweden, it appears that a guy has been fined for linking to an online broadcast of a hockey game. We've heard stories of people getting in trouble merely for linking to unauthorized content, but this story is even more ridiculous. The guy wasn't linking to unauthorized content. He was linking to an online video feed from the official broadcaster, Canal Plus.
The issue was that Canal Plus was apparently technically incompetent in how they set up the feeds, and never intended to make the feeds public.

Submission + - Earthquake hazard in Midwest equal to California? (failuremag.com)

Submitted by swellconvivialguy on Saturday November 20, 2010 @07:28AM

swellconvivialguy writes: Next year marks the bicentennial of the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes, with earthquake drills and disaster tourism events planned across the Midwest, including the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut. But despite the fact that Earthquake Hazard Maps equate the New Madrid seismic zone with California, geologist Seth Stein says new science (especially GPS data) tells us the hazard has been significantly overestimated and that we should not spend billions on earthquake preparations in the Midwest.

Submission + - UK law body targets RIAA style settlement letters (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by PerformanceDude on Saturday November 20, 2010 @05:52AM

PerformanceDude writes: The Register reports that a major UK law firm knew it sometimes had no reliable evidence of unlawful filesharing when it demanded hundreds of pounds damages from internet users, according to the solicitors' watchdog.

London-based Davenport Lyons threatened thousands of people with legal action for alleged copyright infringement between 2006 and 2009. They were told that by quickly paying around £500 damages, plus costs, they could avoid court.

Following complaints to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), Davenport Lyons now stands accused of deliberately ignoring concerns over the standard of its evidence.

Submission + - Nissan to Surround its Cars With Safety Bubbles (mobilesynergetics.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391 on Sunday November 07, 2010 @03:56PM

__aajbyc7391 writes: In addition to pioneering the world's first mass-marketed all-electric vehicle, Nissan has been busy developing advanced safety systems that reduce the risk of accidents by wrapping a virtual safety bubble around the car (check out the videos especially the first one). Nissan's collision-avoidance technologies encompass both active and passive safety features. The vehicle's on-board intelligent safety system categorizes potential risks into different phases of driving, and activates various barriers to provide multiple layers of protection depending on the type of approaching risk. Based on risk data collected, the car provides suitable safe-driving prompts to the driver to help avoid the risk, and also offers a succession of other safety features as the risk approaches or in case a crash occurs. Gives new meaning to 'leave the driving to us,' eh?

Submission + - TV Tropes Self-Censoring under Google Pressure (tvtropes.org) 1

Submitted by

mvdwege

on Sunday November 07, 2010 @11:18AM

mvdwege writes: "The popular wiki TV Tropes, a site dedicated to the discussion of various tropes, clichés and other common devices in fiction has suddenly decided to put various of its pages behind a 'possibly family-unsafe' content warning, apparently due to pressure by Google withdrawing its ads.

What puzzles me most is the content that is put behind this warning. TV Tropes features no explicit sexual content, and no explicit violence. It does of course discuss these things, as is its remit, but without actual explicit depictions. In fact, something as relatively innocuous as children being raised by two females, whatever the reason are put behind the content warning, even if the page itself doesn't take a stand on the issue, merely satisfying itself by describing the occurence of this in fiction."

Submission + - The Queen Joins Facebook (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by H3xx on Sunday November 07, 2010 @05:06AM

H3xx writes: The Queen is set to have an official presence on Facebook when a British Monarchy page launches on the internet-based social networking site. Buckingham Palace says it is not a personal profile page, but users can "like" the service and receive updates on their news feed.

The Queen has reportedly embraced the web and sends e-mails. A British Monarchy Twitter feed is also available.

The Facebook page is due to go live from Monday morning. The page will also feature the Court Circular, recording the previous day's official engagements.

Comment Re: move along now (Score 1) 264

by omega_cubed on Wednesday July 28, 2010 @04:20PM (#33061210) Attached to: Possible Room Temperature Superconductor Achieved

This is informative? No serious mathematician takes the Erdös number as more than pure entertainment (for what it's worth, I am a professional mathematician). You are essentially advocating authority by association, which can rapidly degenerate into nepotism. I don't know about other fields, but mathematics is actually one field where truth can be judged (though sometimes it take ridiculously long) and reputation earned.

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