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103370 submission

Submission + - E-auction Company Uses Patent to Sue Nashville PD

Submitted by Synistar on Monday March 05, 2007 @10:11AM

Synistar writes: GovDeals, an Ebay-like government auction company, is using a patent that they were awarded on a "tiered method for auctioning government assets over a computerized network, such as the Internet"to sue the Nashville Police Department . Apparently GovDeals was rejected in their bid to become a contractor for the city government. They warned the city that they were in process of obtaining a patent and that the city would be in violation of it if they did not hire GovDeals. When they lost the bid and were awarded the patent they then turned around and sued the Police Department for violating it. So were patents intended as a means to wrangle government contracts and punish those who don't hire you?

103294 submission

Submission + - Why the RIAA is Bad - In a Nutshell

Submitted by

JeremyDuffy

on Monday March 05, 2007 @08:02AM

JeremyDuffy writes: "This is probably the best summary of who the RIAA is and what they stand for that I've ever heard:

The RIAA is like the Prohibitionists of old. In their view, the law cannot allow for something completely reasonable such as legal circumvention because it could be abused. Millions of people are thereby punished. Yet this is not how a civil society typically functions. Life is full of potentially dangerous products, services, and ideas. It's up to individuals to take responsibility for their actions, because we all know that catering to the lowest common denominator does not give birth to a free society, let alone an intelligent one. Yet the RIAA will stop at nothing to make sure that you and I never have the chance to make such decisions for ourselves.
By "legal circumvention", he refers to the the practice of circumventing Data Rights Management (DRM) for legal purposes such as making personal backup copies, educational uses, and other Fair Use practices. The RIAA is against it because they know that all it takes is one user with a DRM-free copy to post a song online for it to be shared everywhere in the world."

103068 submission

Submission + - Wireless Net Neutrality

Submitted by monkey_dongle on Sunday March 04, 2007 @08:24PM

monkey_dongle writes: NPR "On The Media" had an interesting broadcast this weekend about how wireless providers are crippling handsets in order to maintain control over their customers and revenue streams, all at the expense of innovation and lower prices. Columbia University law professor Tim Wu wrote a paper on this issue and presented it to a Federal Trade Commission hearing on Internet access this month.

(NPR OTM-http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2007/03/ 02/04)

(Professor Wu abstract-http://www.timwu.org/log/archives/92)
(Professor Wu paper-http://www.newamerica.net/files/WorkingPaper 17_WirelessNetNeutrality_Wu.pdf)

Also, the Washington Post has a story on this here — http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content /article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802169_pf.html)

102906 submission

Submission + - Final AACS key found

Submitted by julie-h on Sunday March 04, 2007 @01:52PM

julie-h writes: The PowerDVD AACS private key for playing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD's have been found. This was the last key needed. What does this mean? We don't have to sniff/snoop Volume IDs anymore. We can create a program that can decrypt (or play if you will) a disc without any need for WinDVD or PowerDVD. So no sniffing/extracting of keys anymore. And more over: it can work on all platforms... In other words: we can make our own independent, user friendly player (or decrypter).

1678425 journal

Journal Journal: Informative Desktop Wallpaper

Journal by chamilto0516 on Tuesday August 29, 2006 @02:28PM

Why does it seem like there is a short supply of informative desktop wallpaper? Yes, a pretty picture is nice but what about a more subdued artsy design like many found on KDE-Look but with informative text and diagrams that are relevant to your job. I can think of a few examples:

phonetic alphabets
guitar chords
harmonica layouts
measuring conversions
parts of an engine
binary chart
network topologies

1677883 journal

Journal Journal: Write your congressman

Journal by chamilto0516 on Tuesday August 22, 2006 @11:29AM

The Lessig blog pointed me to this blog software add-on that lets you take your blog entry and make it a letter to your congressman. Excellent Idea. I remember a standalone product from the makers of Act for DOS (A popular PIM at the time) that was called Write Your Congressman. It was basically a light version of Act! but came with the database pre-poplulated

1657139 journal

Journal Journal: Fun with 'Install Everything'

Journal by chamilto0516 on Wednesday March 01, 2006 @12:36PM

I have finally started using my GNU/Linux system again. I briefly used it once prior to now as a file and print server on a large project while at Deloitte Consulting. Since I rolled-off the project it mostly has been sitting in the basement pretending to be an extra network attached hard drive which is probably not much of a glamorous life for even this class of machine.

1610733 journal

Journal Journal: PostSecret website found by NPR

Journal by chamilto0516 on Monday April 04, 2005 @02:03PM

An NPR story pointed me to this very interesting blog called PostSecret. People put secrets on post cards and send them in. It is an artistic glimpse into some anonymous person's lives. Very interesting. I hope he keeps it up. The NPR Interview with the author was also excellent and he talks about how he feels about what he started.

1584365 journal

Journal Journal: LAMPD still elusive

Journal by chamilto0516 on Wednesday October 13, 2004 @08:52AM

LAMPD or "Linux as my primary desktop" is still elusive. I have a new T41 and started over in the planning. Outlook 2003 is rather pleasant and I always have a Windows based game that I think I will have the time to play sitting in the CD drive. A USB 2.0 DVD burner and the Sprint G3 connection to my phone makes this combo hard to move from.

1525501 journal

Journal Journal: Move my desktop to Linux? 2

Journal by chamilto0516 on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @04:29PM

I have been contemplating sometime the possibility of making my primary workstation Linux instead of the corporate Windows XP. I have that Freedom (some do not) but want to build a pro/con list to do so. I think it is possible now as some things that were preventing me from moving are now available on Linux. I am going to build a list of "features" that are important to me that I use on Windows and rate that against what it would take to get it to work on Linux. Some things I have already mo

1523443 journal

Journal Journal: Got Gnome Meeting Working

Journal by chamilto0516 on Thursday March 04, 2004 @12:49PM

I downloaded Gnome Meeting and got it working (I think). As far as this kind of stuff, the speed at which Linux is moving forward is amazing. It might be behind but we are running faster than the rest (well, the other racer). Gnome Meeting, my RedHat is off to you.

1522389 journal

Journal Journal: If they are good enough for CmdrTaco...

Journal by chamilto0516 on Friday February 27, 2004 @11:51AM

Here is my latest line of thinking on how to use Slashdot. I wanted to begin experimenting with what is the best way to use the Friends/Fans/Foes/Freaks (I like how they all start with 'F', I'm sure that was the idea) stuff with Slashdot. OK, I can't force at gun point people to be my fans...multiple problems with that now that I think about it. So I had to start being a fan. But Who? So I pulled up user number 1 and thought. If CmdrTaco thinks they are valuable to have as a friend

1521571 journal

Journal Journal: Digging deeper into Slashdot outside

Journal by chamilto0516 on Monday February 23, 2004 @05:37PM

In addition to the moderation and meta-moderation features, I have begun to explore the usefulness (and I see them as useful) of slashdots friends & freaks, journals and message systems. I still haven't put it all together yet but I see something I like and is beneficial every time poke at this big Perl script.

1519543 journal

Journal Journal: Slashdot has fascinated me

Journal by chamilto0516 on Thursday February 12, 2004 @02:08AM

In the last month I have meta-moderated about a half dozen times and have even been given 5 moderator points. Until I saw it in action, I never would have understood the brilliance in this collective quality effort/program. You are basically having a group bring the quality of something they depend upon without an army of central authority. I remember my former consulting employeer's knowledge base always had poor quality because a small staff was responsible for the whole things content.

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