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Journal SPAM: Ann Coulter calls John Edwards 'faggot' 9

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius

Best-selling right-wing author Ann Coulter, speaking to a conservative audience in Washington Friday, called former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., a "faggot."
Coulter was a featured speaker at the 34th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Following her prepared remarks, televised on C-Span, Coulter was asked to talk about Edwards.
Microsoft

Submission + - Vista cracked thanks to Microsoft

Submitted by
Torrentex
Torrentex writes: "Following hot on the heels of the "Brute Force Keygen" for Vista which ultimately proved to be a hoax, a piracy group called Pantheon has released a full Vista crack. This one has been tested by the community and works 100% of the time. It exploits activation functionality Microsoft intentionally built in for OEM system makers churning out thousands of PCs at a time who don't have time to activate each machine individually."
United States

Journal Journal: Copyright Registrar reports extension 'Big Mistake'

Journal by rfc1394

P2Pnet has reported that Mary-Beth Peters, the Register of Copyrights spoke in a public hearing saying the extension of copyright was too long. From the article, it is reported she said, "We've certainly lengthened the term [of copyright] ... too long a term. I think it is too long. I think that was probably a big mistake..."
Windows

Submission + - Pirates crack Vista fully

Submitted by
Slinky Sausage
Slinky Sausage writes: "There have been "sort of" cracks for Vista floating around since the code went gold — but now, a piracy group called Pantheon has fully broken the copy protection. Amazingly, they are using functionality Microsoft itself built into the activation system for OEMs to preinstall Windows onto PCs. From APCMag.com which broke the news: "This crack doesn't simply get around product activation with beta activation files or timestop cracks — it actually makes use of the activation process. It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like ASUS to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Vista that doesn't require product activation — apparently because end users would find it too inconvenient.""
OS X

Submission + - Can Apple Take Microsoft on the Desktop?

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: RDM asks Can Apple Take Microsoft on the Desktop?, a comparison of recent sales and profits and the future outlook for Macs and PCs. From the article: "Apple doesn't have to take a majority share of the desktop market to win, it only needs to take the most valuable segments of the market. Once that happens, Microsoft will be forced to choose whether it wants to battle Mac OS X for control of the slick consumer desktop, or repurpose Windows as a cheaper, mass market alternative to Linux in corporate sales. If it doesn't make a choice, the company will face difficult battles on two fronts."
United States

Submission + - New copyright fees threaten streaming radio

Submitted by DebateG
DebateG writes: The United States Copyright Royalty Board has just released its new royalty fees for streaming radio. Rather than charging a fixed portion of the station revenue, the fees will consist of a fixed amount of money for each song streamed to each listener and will more than double over the next five years. Moreover, the fees will be retroactive. These onerous fees threaten to completely bankrupt small broadcasters; a station with 1000 listeners will have to pay around $150,000 per year in licensing fees, which is often more than the station's profit. This is in stark contrast to analog radio stations, which do not pay any fees at all. Is this the end for independently-owned streaming radio?
Portables

Submission + - Open Source Laptop Tracking?

Submitted by
rhs.coder
rhs.coder writes: "I've recently purchased a 2.0 GHz MacBook for school next year at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. While the campus is safe, the surrounding area is not. Consequently, I'm worried about what I see as a major investment being stolen. I've looked into a few pay-service laptop tracking agencies, some of which even use the built-in iSight to take a picture of a thief; however, I do not make enough money to pay such a company monthly or, more likely, with an "extortion" fee once my laptop is stolen. How does the Slashdot crowd track their laptops? I'm very interested in learning what scripts or other hacks readers have made for this service. Are there any open source projects which could run under OS X that will provide some basic tracking ability? Of course, reliability and unobtrusiveness are a must"
Programming

Submission + - Multi-language Game AI Competition

Submitted by A competitor
A competitor writes: Thousand Parsec, an open source framework for turn-based space empire building games, is running an AI programming competition. Entries can be written in any language with a Free implementation. Existing client libraries are available in Python and C++, with several others in various states of completion. Major prizes include AU$300 plus goodies. Competition closes at the end of March, so get cracking!
Power

Submission + - Saudi Arabian oil production declines 8% in 2006

Submitted by
BadOctopus
BadOctopus writes: "The guys over at The Oil Drum have the story that the world's biggest oil exporter, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, experienced an 8% drop in oil production since the beginning of 2006. This decline coincides with a large increase in the number of oil rigs in the country, which implies that either the Saudis are preparing for a large future increase in production, or it is getting ever harder to extract the oil. What seems more likely? What does this mean for the KSA's internal and external political relations?

If the world's largest producer joins the multitude of other nations that are post-peak, can a global peak in oil production be far off?"
Software

RIAA's 'Expert' Witness Testimony Now Online 512

Posted by Zonk from the hole-in-the-argument dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The online community now has an opportunity to see the fruits of its labor. Back in December, the Slashdot ('What Questions Would You Ask an RIAA Expert?') and Groklaw ('Another Lawyer Would Like to Pick Your Brain, Please') communities were asked for their input on possible questions to pose to the RIAA's 'expert'. Dr. Doug Jacobson of Iowa State University, was scheduled to be deposed in February in UMG v. Lindor, for the first time in any RIAA case. Ms. Lindor's lawyers were flooded with about 1400 responses. The deposition of Dr. Jacobson went forward on February 23, 2007, and the transcript is now available online (pdf) (ascii). Ray Beckerman, one of Ms. Lindor's attorneys, had this comment: 'We are deeply grateful to the community for reviewing our request, for giving us thoughts and ideas, and for reviewing other readers' responses. Now I ask the tech community to review this all-important transcript, and bear witness to the shoddy investigation and junk science upon which the RIAA has based its litigation war against the people. The computer scientists among you will be astounded that the RIAA has been permitted to burden our court system with cases based upon such arrant and careless nonsense.'"

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So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money? -- Ayn Rand

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