Comment Re:stop crying (Score 4, Interesting) 129
Ok, do members of the old media have to disclose all their potential conflicts of interest? Do they face penalties if they don't?
Kindle, Zune DRM Restrictions Coming Into Focus 311
It's not news that the media you buy for both Kindle and Zune are protected by DRM. Readers are sending in stories of some of the ramifications of that fact. First, Absentminded-Artist notes an account at Gear Diary recounting what an Amazon rep told one user about download limits on Kindle books. "One facet of the Kindle's DRM has reared an ugly head: download limitations. Upgraded your iPhone recently? Bought a new Kindle? You may not be able to reload your entire library. There's an unadvertised flag: 'You mean when you go to buy the book it doesn't say "this book can be downloaded this number of times" even though that limitation is there?' To which [the rep] replied, 'No, I'm very sorry it doesn't.'" Next, reader Rjak writes "DRM is a bad idea, poorly implemented. One of the many many valid reasons to drop Zune and its marketplace is the DRM validation error you see below. The vast majority of the music I had purchased last year is completely gone. There's no refund, the music doesn't exist on the service anymore, the files are just garbage now. Here's the error (screen capture): 'This item is no longer available at Zune Marketplace. Because of this, you can no longer play it or sync it with your Zune. There might be another iteration of it available in Zune Marketplace.'" Update: 06/23 00:28 GMT by KD : The Gear Diary blog has been updated with what may be more definitive information from Amazon on how the Kindle DRM behaves.
Sothink Violated the FlashGot GPL and Stole Code 312
ShineTheLight sends in news of two Firefox plug-ins: FlashGot, the original, and Sothink, the GPL-violating come-lately. "People at Sothink decided to violate the GPL by stealing a piece of core code from FlashGot and using it without even the decency of covering their tracks. It is an exact copy of a previous version of FlashGot. This deception came to light when users reported to the FlashGot support forum that their software was not working right. Some digging led to the discovery that the older module that Sothink stole and used verbatim was overriding the more recent engine on the machines of those who had both installed and it was causing the issue. It has been reported to AMO and the FlashGot developer is aware of it. The Sothink people have completely ignored and been silent on the subject. This is why most good programmers will stop contributing to the global community because there are those who will steal their work, pass it off as their own, never acknowledge or give credit, and then shamefully stick their head in the sand and ignore the consequences." The three most recent reviews of Sothink point out this plug-in's dishonest nature. A number of earlier, one-line, 5-star reviews — expressed in a similar style — sound suspiciously like astroturfing.
Comment Nah, fuck you (Score -1, Flamebait) 600
Fuck you, you goddamn asshole. When you've contributed anything to human society that approaches what Ray Bradbury has, you can feel free to call him an idiot.
Till then, you're still fucking worthless.
Comment Ok, so you could also get it on T-Mobile (Score 1) 159
Not really much of an improvement.
Obama Taps IBM Open Source Advocate For USPTO 88
langelgjm writes "President Obama has announced his intent to nominate David Kappos, a VP and general counsel at IBM, to head the US Patent and Trademark Office. This move is particularly notable not only because of IBM's much friendlier attitudes towards open source compared with some of their rivals, but also because Kappos himself is open source-friendly: 'We are now the biggest supporters of the open source development project,' explains David. 'Admittedly this policy is not easily reconcilable with our traditional IP strategy, but we are convinced that it is the way to go for the future.' Not just a lawyer, Kappos earned an engineering degree before working in the legal field. Kappos has been described as 'critical of the American approach to patent policy.' Given his background, could this mean a new era for US patent policy?"
Comment wrong (Score 1) 394
American workers are taxed on the dollar value of their earnings - this is typically payment in cash, but if you receive non-monetary compensation as part of your employment, you're still responsible for paying taxes on the dollar value of that compensation. The value of the gold coinage was far higher than the currency face value - which was the whole point of giving it instead of normal greenbacks or a check.
"Burning Walls" May Stop Black Hole Formation 100
KentuckyFC writes "Black holes are thought to form when a star greater than 4 times the mass of the Sun explodes in a supernova and then collapses. The force of this collapse is so great that no known force can stop it. In less massive stars, the collapse cannot overcome so-called neutron degeneracy, the force that stops neutrons from being squashed together. Now a Russian physicist says another effect may be involved. He points out that quantum chromodynamics predicts that when neutrons are squashed together, matter undergoes a phase transition into "subhadronic" matter. This is very different from ordinary matter. In subhadronic form, space is essentially empty. So the phase change creates a sudden reduction in pressure, forcing any ordinary matter in the star to implode into this new vacuum. The result is a massive increase in temperature of this matter that creates a "burning wall" within the supernova. And it is this burning wall that stops the formation of a black hole, not just the degeneracy pressure of neutrons. This should lead to much greater energies inside a supernova than had been thought possible until now. And that's important because it could explain the formation of high energy gamma ray bursts that have long puzzled astrophysicists."
Comment uh (Score 1) 442
ISP's are nothing more than distributors of content. They don't create or provide content, they just distribute it.
This is correct.
But if content creators want to make money from their content, then they should do so by CHARGING FOR THEIR CONTENT.
If that doesn't work because people don't want to pay, then too fucking bad. Getting my ISP to silently charge me for their content, which I apparently didn't want enough to pay for in the first place, is fuckery and ought to be illegal.
How To Seize a Laptop And Make It Stick 177
Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton takes a look back at the recent Boston case where police seized a student's laptop but had to give it back.
"The EFF was right to argue that police had no right to seize the laptop of a Boston College student who was accused of forging an e-mail from his roommate. But according to the judge's reasoning, the police probably could have gotten away with it, if they had appeared to care more about pursuing the student for downloading pirated movies instead." Click the link for Bennett's analysis.
EC To Pursue Antitrust Despite Microsoft's IE Move 484
snydeq writes "The European Commission will proceed with its antitrust case against Microsoft regardless of Microsoft's decision to strip IE from Windows 7 in Europe. Europe's top antitrust regulator said the EC would draw up a remedy that allows computer users 'genuine consumer choice,' noting that stripping out IE from Windows 'may potentially be positive,' but 'rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less.' Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera, whose complaint to the European Commission at the end of 2007 sparked the initial antitrust investigation, said Microsoft is 'trying to set the remedy itself by stripping out IE. ... Now that Microsoft has acknowledged it has been breaking the law by bundling IE into Windows, the Commission must push ahead with an effective remedy,' he said."
Comment Re:The word 'Geek' is gender neutral (Score 1) 296
Yep.
Comment Re:The word 'Geek' is gender neutral (Score 3, Informative) 296
Although never productive,
I love it when people who don't know what they're talking about correct me. The -ess morpheme was a productive morpheme for feminine nouns in English, round about the 16th century. There are a number of borrowings into English from French that use -ess(e) which are feminine forms, but was also used to form novel feminine words, such as authoress, giantess, Jewess, patroness, poetess, priestess, quakeress, tailoress, seamstress, and songstress - none of which are borrowings.
the -ess morpheme is used incorrectly in English words like actress to indicate a female noun.
Except that, of course, there's nothing incorrect about it - outmoded perhaps, but an obvious fact in the lexicon.
Consider the cigar and the cigarette.
Pirouette and pirouet.
Not sure what your point is; why not also consider:
leather and leatherette (a kind of fake leather), or
usher and usherette (a female usher).
Comment Re:The word 'Geek' is gender neutral (Score 3, Insightful) 296
Geekess would mean you are just a sub geek.
Why exactly? Although not productive anymore, the -ess morpheme is used in English words like actress to indicate a female noun.
Why does her choice of neologism mean she's a "sub geek?"
Comment well, the economy does suck (Score 4, Insightful) 379
And sequels are safer bets.
Or this is just speculation and/or distorted information as the result of a long game of telephone, like the content of most articles you find posted on slashdot these days.
