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United States

Submission + - Plight of the Surgeon General

Submitted by
gollum123
gollum123 writes: "From an editorial in Science, three former U.S. surgeons general sat before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and detailed a rising tide of political interference in the conduct of the office in which they had served ( http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5848/169 ). This is during both Clinton and Bush administrations. Richard Carmona, who resigned the position last year, told of being blocked from speaking out on issues such as stem cell research and emergency contraception, and of instructions to reference President Bush three times on every page of any speech he gave. David Satcher of the Clinton Administration recounted interference with his report on sexuality and public health, in part because of the Monica Lewinsky affair. The Surgeon General is widely considered to be the doctor for the nation and an ombudsman for the public's health. But in reality, modern holders of the office are tightly constrained by the increasingly politicized environment of Washington. It calls for new legislation to do three things: provide an independent budget for the currently mendicant position; mandate an annual Surgeon General's Report on the state of the nation's health; and, essential to all else, insulate the Surgeon General from political interference."
Privacy

Submission + - School taking action against Network freedom 1

Submitted by
Tristan Stillwell
Tristan Stillwell writes: "I am a teenage high school student in the municipality of Bunn, North Carolina.
Today I found out I was suspended from school for ten days for possessing programs that were "capable of doing damage to the private school network". The programs were Firefox Portable and VNC viewer, and BlueJ Java Development Environment. I, an 18 year old high school student, was informed through my aunt, who was called about this disciplinary problem ( Isn't this private information?). I have no chance to appeal this suspension and are being forcefully and permanently removed from my Java(c) Computer Science and US government and Politics courses which I was taking through the state. I will most likely receive grades of ZERO (0) for both classes, thus destroying any chance I ever have of getting into a decent college. I am initially receiving a 10 day suspension, and then possibly a longer suspension pending investigation. Note- the school has found nothing I might have done to potentially cause damage to the network, I was suspended for having the programs- nothing else. I plan to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help with this clearly unfair oppression. The only (thought) crime I have committed is one arousing suspicion, not arriving from action. I will provide further information after I officially receive the suspension."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - XKCD 'Dream Girl' Meetup (remote.net)

Submitted by
Fireflymantis
Fireflymantis writes: "In yet another example of Randall Munroe, author of the popular webcomic XKCD manipulating reality. A large meetup in boston was spurred today due to one of his comic strips which turned a small park in Boston into a bustling center of geekdom. Check out the photos and smile.

Everything went smooth, no velociraptor attacks occured (though there was one there, it seemed to be just want to dance), and it goes to show that sometimes wanting something actually can make it real."
The Internet

Bulletproof Tool For Golden Age Browsing? 366

Posted by kdawson from the just-the-web-ma'am dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I work in a retirement/assisted living home. Many of the residents had never used the Internet but really find it fascinating once they are given a little training. However, I've stopped introducing it to them because of the drain it puts on me. There are a million and one things that a computer novice can screw up, and I don't have time to solve all of them. These folks don't need any sophistication. and they need only the most basic options. Adjustable text size would be nice, but otherwise — no email, no word processing or editing, no printing — just Internet browsing. This may not seem like a big market, but it's getting bigger every day! Is there an absolutely fool-proof device that can provide this without requiring virus scanners and constant attention?"
Programming

The Future of C++ As Seen By Its Creator 424

Posted by Zonk from the fun-name-to-say dept.
holden writes "In a rare public talk, C++ creator Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup discusses his ideal in programming languages, as well how he sees the next version (and beyond) of C++ developing. He explains the general selection criteria used for adding new features, some of the legacy of C++, and many other interesting topics. Especially interesting is during the Q&A he explains his views of the embrace and extend mentality some implementations, such as VC++, have taken."
Science

Baiji River Dolphin May or May Not Be Extinct 175

Posted by Zonk from the they-don't-want-to-go-on-the-cart dept.
ozmanjusri writes "Major news outlets are reporting that after 20 million years, Baiji (Yangtze River Dolphin) are now officially extinct. This is apparently actually old news; it was announced on a Baiji conservation website in December of last year. One outlet, though, is claiming they may not quite be completely dead yet. The same scientist that filed the report leading the the declaration of extinction is still hopeful: '"This is only one survey and...you can't have a sample in a survey, so you cannot say the baiji all is gone by the result of only one survey," he said. "For example, there is some side channels or some tributaries [where] we cannot go because of a restriction of navigation rules, and also we don't survey during the night-time so we may miss some animals in the Yangtze River." Professor Ding says based on anecdotal evidence, he remains confident the dolphins are still out there. "I'm pretty much sure there are a few of them left somewhere in the Yangtze River," he said. "I keep receiving reports from fishermen, they say they saw a couple of baiji somewhere, sometime."'"
Security

Submission + - Federal Agent's Raid Homes for Modchips (physorg.com)

Submitted by Lunatrik
Lunatrik writes: Invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Federal Custom's Agents have raided over 30 homes and businesses looking to confiscate so-called 'mod chips', or other devices that allow the playback of pirated video games. This raises an important question: Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?
The Internet

Submission + - Disney to Buy Club Penguin for $350 million (centernetworks.com)

Submitted by babooo404
babooo404 writes: Disney has announced plans to acquire Club Penguin for $350 million in cash plus another potential $350 million if certain revenue targets are met. Founded by three Canadian fathers in late 2005, Club Penguin has quickly rocketed to prominence by offering kids the ability to customize their own virtual penguin in an online community. Armed with their penguin avatars, kids can chat with friends, play games and earn coins to buy items such as furnishings for their igloo home.
Microsoft

Submission + - Thwart the Three Biggest Internet Threats (remote.net)

Submitted by
Fireflymantis
Fireflymantis writes: "An interesting look at the three biggest Internet threats of 2007 and how to protect yourself from them. Presented by the MSN network, we find that the greatest web danger is nothing other than IE itself:

Internet Explorer heads the list of top Internet security attack targets in the most recent joint report of the FBI and security organization SANS Institute.
When recommending automatic updating to make IE and Windows safer, the MSN presented guide has this to say:

If you trust Microsoft implicitly, Download updates for me. Let me choose when to install them if you trust the company a little bit, or Notify me but don't automatically download or install them to play it safest.
Very interesting as it is on MSN, but openly makes hits against IE, ActiveX, and the integrity of Microsoft."
Censorship

Own Your Own 128-Bit Integer 477

Posted by kdawson from the anyone-can-play dept.
Byte Swapper writes "After all the fuss over the AACS trying to censor a certain 128-bit number that now has something over two million hits on Google, the folks at Freedom to Tinker would like to point out that you too can own your own integer. They've set up a script that will generate a random number, encrypt a copyrighted haiku with it, and then deed the number back to you. You won't get a copyright on the number or the haiku, but your number has become an illegal circumvention device under the DMCA, such that anyone subject to US law caught distributing it can be punished under the DMCA's anti-trafficking section, for which the DMCA's Safe Harbor provisions do not apply. So F9090211749D5BE341D8C5565663C088 is truly mine now, and you can pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!"
Music

Submission + - Harvard Law Prof Urges University to Fight RIAA

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Distinguished Harvard University Law School Professor Charles Nesson has called upon Harvard University to fight back against the RIAA and stand up for its students: "Students and faculty use the Internet to gather and share knowledge now more than ever....Yet "new deterrence and education initiatives" from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) threaten access to this vibrant resource. The RIAA has already requested that universities serve as conduits for more than 1,200 "pre-litigation letters." Seeking to outsource its enforcement costs, the RIAA asks universities to point fingers at their students, to filter their Internet access, and to pass along notices of claimed copyright infringement. But these responses distort the University's educational mission....... One can easily understand why the RIAA wants help from universities in facilitating its enforcement actions against students who download copyrighted music without paying for it. It is easier to litigate against change than to change with it. If the RIAA saw a better way to protect its existing business, it would not be threatening our students, forcing our librarians and administrators to be copyright police, and flooding our courts with lawsuits against relatively defenseless families without lawyers or ready means to pay. We can even understand the attraction of using lawsuits to shore up an aging business model rather than engaging with disruptive technologies and the risks that new business models entail...... But mere understanding is no reason for a university to voluntarily assist the RIAA with its threatening and abusive tactics. Instead, we should be assisting our students both by explaining the law and by resisting the subpoenas that the RIAA serves upon us. We should be deploying our clinical legal student training programs to defend our targeted students......""
Unix

Submission + - UNIX Command Line in One Sentence

Submitted by CowGirl
CowGirl writes: Speaking UNIX is simply a matter of building a sentence. An executable is a verb, output is a noun, and the shell operator is a conjunction. Virtually all non-trivial problems require you to filter good data from bad. Discover the many UNIX command line utilities that use regular expressions to discern the relevant from the irrelevant.
PHP

Submission + - Any good ideas for suggesting usernames?

Submitted by stillsix
stillsix writes: I've seen these around, but not impressed by what I see. I'm trying to build a script for suggesting alternative usernames when the user has requested one that already exists. The code is easy, but the logic requires a little more creativity than I have right now. I need 5 suggestions. I've seen the following: 1) original username request + 2 digits (boring) 2) add "the" + original username request (not bad) 3) original request only backwards (clever) 4) the city they entered + original request (not sure what they would look like) 5) original request in pig latin (might be fun) Any other bright ideas? Thought this would be a fun topic to discuss. Not looking to scarf anyone's prized solutions to this problem. But if you put one down I might ask if I can use that idea. Thanks.

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