__aaaehb3101 - Slashdot User

Bruce Schneier vs. the TSA 741

Posted by Soulskill on Friday November 19, 2010 @06:08PM from the sees-right-through-them dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Bruce Schneier has posted a huge recap of the controversy over TSA body scanners, including more information about the lawsuit he joined to ban them. There's too much news to summarize, but it covers everything from Penn Jillette's and Dave Barry's grope stories, to Israeli experts who say this isn't needed and hasn't ever stopped a bomb, to the three-year-old girl who was traumatized by being groped and much, much more." Another reader passed along a related article, which says, "Congressman Ron Paul lashed out at the TSA yesterday and introduced a bill aimed at stopping federal abuse of passengers. Paul’s proposed legislation would pave the way for TSA employees to be sued for feeling up Americans and putting them through unsafe naked body scanners."

Land of Lisp 330

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday November 03, 2010 @02:57PM from the read-all-about-it dept.

vsedach writes "Remember the 1980s and BASIC, when programming was simple, brains flew through space, and everyone ate lasers? Computer magazines came with code listings, and classics like David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games offered a fun and easy way to get started in computer programming. Conrad Barski remembers, and with Land of Lisp, he's set out to demystify programming in the 21st century." Keep reading for the rest of Vladimir's review.

Comment "This is not the MMO you're looking for... " (Score 1) 215

by __aaaehb3101 on Sunday October 17, 2010 @12:17AM (#33921834) Attached to: Square Enix Attempting <em>Final Fantasy XIV</em> Damage Control

I played FFXI for years and enjoyed it. And I am enjoying playing FFXIV, the game is not flawless, what MMO is. It is still less that one month since the game was launched and all MMOs have been buggy at launch. From the reviews I have read it seems like all the reviewers are expecting FFXIV to be Warcraft and it is not(thankfully).

So lets go through the complaints:

No Auction House - Correct, this means the goldfarmers/gilsellers can't game the Auction House and create obscene levels of inflation that everyone complains about in MMOs. It would be nice if there was a signboard to list what you're selling but that wasn't in FFIX either, neither was the search function. However next update a search function for bazaars will be added.

Fatigue System - Did no one read any of the information on this game before they bought it? I knew about the fatigue system a good month before the open beta. The game is biased towards casual gamers not hard-core gamers this has never been a secret.

Interface -Bugs, big bugs -Developers say next months patch will have lots and lots of fixes.

Terrain is cookie cutter Yes the basic areas of the game have very similar terrain. Most of the zones in FFXI either large open areas or various twisty tunnels or corridors too.

Crafting - you either love it or hate it. Craft or don't craft it usually cheaper and faster to make what you need, or get your guild mates to craft for you. But the developers haev said that there will need to br crafters in the party at high level guild leves.

Server Lag -This is also a big problem -The Developers say that they are working on better load sharing on the servers. I have never played an MMO yet that did not have server load issues. Popular games have congested areas when lots of players are in the same area.

So in closing FFXIV may just not be the MMO you want to play. If you give FFXIV a few months I imagine it will get much better all around. I feel much better about paying for a 6 month sub to FFXIV at launch than I did about Age of Conan.
/BTW I ALT-TAB in FFXIV all the time. I run with Firefox, Winamp, Messenger, and Thunderbird up all the time. I have never had FFXIV lock-up or crash on me yet ALT-TABbing back and forth.

A Video Guide To Akihabara 121

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 25, 2010 @10:51PM from the you-mean-it's-not-an-app? dept.

freaklabs writes "Tokyo Hackerspace just put up a video guide to Akihabara in Tokyo, an area that's densely populated with electronics components shops. We get a lot of questions about where to go over there and also requests for guided tours so we figured it's probably best just to put up videos, descriptions, and Google map markers. It was always difficult to tell people where to go, since the places are hard to find, so we're hoping this makes it easier for visitors to Tokyo that want to get their geek on."

In Canada, Criminal Libel Charges Laid For Criticizing Police 383

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 18, 2010 @08:19AM from the buncha-hosers-you-say? dept.

BitterOak writes "A Calgary man is facing criminal charges of libel for criticizing police. According to the story, the RCMP have filed five charges against John Kelly for claiming on his website that Calgary police officers engaged in perjury, corruption, and obstruction of justice. What makes the story unusual is that the charges are criminal and not civil. Even in Canada, which has much less free speech protection than the United States, it is extremely rare for people to be charged criminally with libel. It is almost always matter for civil courts."

Criminals Steal House Thanks To Hacked Email 227

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday September 14, 2010 @02:20AM from the that's-not-a-scam,-THIS-is-a-scam dept.

mask.of.sanity writes with this quote from ZDNet: "An international cybercrime investigation is underway into a sophisticated scam network that used email and fax to sell an Australian man's AU$500,000 property without his knowledge. The man was overseas when the Nigerian-based scammers stole his credentials and amazingly sold two houses through his real estate agent. He rushed home and prevented the sale of his second home from being finalized. Australian Federal Police and overseas law enforcement agencies will investigate the complex scam, which is considered the first of its kind in Australia. It is alleged scammers had stolen the man's email account and personal property documents to sell the houses and funnel cash into Chinese bank accounts. Investigating agencies admit the scammers hoodwinked both the selling agents and the government, and said they had enough information to satisfy regulatory requirements. The police did not rule out if the scammers had links to the man."

Hacker Teaches iPhone Forensics To Police 193

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday September 12, 2010 @12:09AM from the strange-bedfellows dept.

Ponca City, We love you writes "The Mercury News reports that former hacker Jonathan Zdziarski has been tapped by law-enforcement agencies nationwide to teach them just how much information is stored in iPhones — and how to get it. 'These devices are people's companions today,' says Zdziarski. 'They're not mobile phones anymore. They organize people's lives. And if you're doing something criminal, something about it is probably going to go through that phone.' For example, every time an iPhone user closes out of the built-in mapping application, the phone snaps a screenshot and stores it. Savvy law-enforcement agents armed with search warrants can use those snapshots to see if a suspect is lying about whereabouts during a crime."

Rogue Employees Sell World Cup Fans' Passport Data 128

Posted by timothy on Friday September 10, 2010 @10:22PM from the penalty-box-with-bars-please dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Reports are coming in that the Information Commissioner's Office has started investigating FIFA, the world football governing body, over allegations that details of thousands of World Cup fans' — including their passport data — were accessed by one or more members of staff and then sold on the black market. It is alleged that the details of more than 35,000 English fans — who visited Germany for the 2006 World Cup — had their passport and allied data sold to ticket touts for marketing purposes."

Court Says First Sale Doctrine Doesn't Apply To Licensed Software 758

Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 10, 2010 @05:21PM from the make-up-your-mind dept.

An anonymous reader wrote to tell us a federal appeals court ruled today that the first sale doctrine is "unavailable to those who are only licensed to use their copies of copyrighted works." This reverses a 2008 decision from the Autodesk case, in which a man was selling used copies of AutoCAD that were not currently installed on any computers. Autodesk objected to the sales because their license agreement did not permit the transfer of ownership. Today's ruling (PDF) upholds Autodesk's claims: "We hold today that a software user is a licensee rather than an owner of a copy where the copyright owner (1) specifies that the user is granted a license; (2) significantly restricts the user’s ability to transfer the software; and (3) imposes notable use restrictions. Applying our holding to Autodesk’s [software license agreement], we conclude that CTA was a licensee rather than an owner of copies of Release 14 and thus was not entitled to invoke the first sale doctrine or the essential step defense. "

4chan Gives 90-Year-Old Vet a Great Birthday 363

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday September 05, 2010 @08:34PM from the the-lighter-side-of-awful dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Members of 4chan aren't known for doing things that are cute and heart-warming and when they decide to go after someone, it's typically to subject them to ridicule. But not this time. Someone at 4chan decided that the Internet should get together and wish 90-year-old WWII veteran William J. Lashua a happy birthday, and soon Lashua's local branch of the American Legion was deluged by birthday calls from people as far away as Sweden. The account someone set up for Mr. Lashua's birthday on Facebook had 3,956 'likes' and over 500 comments, most of which wished him a happy birthday and thanked him for his military service. It's not clear how 4chan originally came across a photo of Lashua, but a member of the site posted a snapshot of a flyer that was on the bulletin board at a store in Ashburnham, Massachusetts asking for guests to attend the nonagenarian's birthday on at the American Legion hall and the post took off. In contrast to their usual behavior, 4chan members 'were giving him nice phone calls and sending him nice notes' and discouraging those who wanted to do something stupid or mean. 'They were all being.. well, shucks, awful nice.'"

The Joke Known As 3D TV 594

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 04, 2010 @08:12PM from the so-funny-it-gives-you-a-migraine dept.

harrymcc writes "I'm at IFA in Berlin — Europe's equivalent of the Consumer Electronics Show — and the massive halls are dominated by 3D TVs made by everyone from Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic to companies you've never heard of. The manufacturers seem pretty excited, but 3D has so many downsides — most of all the lousy image quality and unimpressive dimensionality effect — that I can't imagine consumers are going to go for this. 'As a medium, 3D remains remarkably self-trivializing. Virtually nobody who works with it can resist thrusting stuff at the camera, just to make clear to viewers that they’re experiencing the miracle of the third dimension. When Lang Lang banged away at his piano during Sony’s event, a cameraman zoomed in and out on the musical instrument for no apparent reason, and one of the company’s representatives kept robotically shoving his hands forward. Hey, it’s 3D — watch this!'"

CTRC Orders Big ISPs To Provide Matching Speeds For Resellers 91

Posted by Soulskill on Monday August 30, 2010 @07:22PM from the streaming-hockey-is-a-serious-business dept.

Meshach writes "In Canada there has been a regulatory decision rendered by the CRTC ordering ISPs to provide the same speed to resellers as they do for their own customers. 'Smaller internet providers such as Teksavvy and Execulink had argued that without requirements to offer matching speeds, the big companies would put them out of business. Bell and Telus are selling internet connections of up to 25 and 15 megabits per second respectively over newer fibre-based networks, but smaller providers can typically offer speeds of no more than five megabits per second over older copper-based infrastructure. After holding a public hearing earlier this year, the CRTC now says it will allow phone companies to charge smaller providers an extra 10-per-cent mark-up to use their newer infrastructure in order to recoup the costs of their investments. The regulator also said it would require cable companies to modify their existing internet access services to make it easier for smaller, "alternative" providers to connect to them.'"

Germany To Grant Privacy At the Workplace 450

Posted by samzenpus on Monday August 23, 2010 @01:02AM from the snooping-on-your-lunch-break dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The German government is proposing a bill declaring that employees have an expectation of privacy at the workplace (translated article). Among other provisions, the bill would ban employers from surveilling their employees by cameras or logging and reading their emails. Also, potential employers would not be allowed to view an applicant's profile at Facebook or any other social network that hasn't actually been made for this purpose."

Tensions Rise Between Gamers and Game Companies Over DRM 447

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday August 22, 2010 @10:43PM from the opposing-interests dept.

Tootech recommends an article at the Technology Review about the intensifying struggle between gamers and publishers over intrusive DRM methods, a topic brought once more to the forefront by Ubisoft's decision not to use their controversial always-connected DRM for upcoming RTS RUSE, opting instead for Steamworks. Quoting: "Ultimately, Schober says, companies are moving toward a model where hackers wouldn't just have to break through protections on a game, they'd also have to crack company servers. The unfortunate consequence, he says, is that it's getting more difficult for legitimate gamers to use and keep the products they buy. But there are alternatives to DRM in the works as well. The IEEE Standards Association, which develops industry standards for a variety of technologies, is working to define 'digital personal property.' The goal, says Paul Sweazey, who heads the organization's working group, is to restore some of the qualities of physical property — making it possible to lend or resell digital property. Sweazey stresses that the group just started meeting, but he explains that the idea is to sell games and other pieces of software in two parts — an encrypted file and a 'play key' that allows it to be used. The play key could be stored in an online bank run by any organization, and could be accessed through a URL. To share the product, the player would simply share the URL."

UK ISP To Prioritize Gaming Traffic 196

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday August 21, 2010 @06:35PM from the facilitated-fragging dept.

nk497 writes "A UK ISP is now offering a broadband package just for gamers, which will prioritize their traffic to give them an edge over rival players. Demon Internet has also set up direct networks with gaming companies to boost speeds, and is promising lower latency and a higher usage cap than standard packages. 'Looking at the usage of gamers, it's actually more akin to a small business,' the company said. While paying to get specific content streamed more quickly may worry net neutrality campaigners, Demon says it has enough capacity for its own customers and that's who it's looking out for."

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