Journal Journal: Socialist Firefighters Are the Face of Tyranny
I am sick and tired of Socialist Firefighters and how they have taken away my liberty.
Submission + - EU to question Oracle buy out of Sun (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Looks like the deal is not a done deal yet, the EU is investigating whether Oracle's buy out of Sun will impact the MySql database.
Submission + - TomTom, Buffalo, NTFS-3G ... Who Is Next?
Domdodo writes: Shortly after the TomTom lawsuit
and the NAS and router vendor Buffalo settling with Microsoft about FAT patents, the company developing the open source NTFS-3G filesystem, has also signed up with Microsoft. One of the results of the agreement is that they can release exFAT drivers which was made, strangely, the standard file system for the next generation SD cards by the SD Card Association. The trap? It must be closed source ...
Submission + - Amazon: Google Books Deal a Copyright Hack (cnet.com)
suraj.sun writes: Amazon: Google Books Deal an 'Unprecedented' Copyright Hack
Amazon's opposition was made public last week when it joined the Open Book Alliance, but the company filed its own brief with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday arguing against making the proposed settlement final. In its filing (click for PDF), Amazon notes that it has also scanned books, but has not taken the controversial step that Google took in scanning out-of-print but copyright-protected books without explicit permission.
Way back in 2004, when Google began scanning books from libraries, it believed it had the right to scan the entire text of a copyright-protected book under fair-use laws so long as it only displayed a snippet of the contents. Authors groups and publishers vehemently disagreed, resulting in a class-action lawsuit and the proposed settlement at issue in this case.
The brief goes on to complain that the settlement "is unfair to authors, publishers, and others whose works would be the subject of a compulsory license for the life of the copyright in favor of Google and the newly created Book Rights Registry." Amazon wants Congress to intervene in the dispute over fair-use provisions in copyright laws, saying the use of a class-action settlement to obtain these rights "represents an unprecedented rewriting of copyright law through judicial action."
CNET News : http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10335976-265.html
Amazon's opposition was made public last week when it joined the Open Book Alliance, but the company filed its own brief with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Tuesday arguing against making the proposed settlement final. In its filing (click for PDF), Amazon notes that it has also scanned books, but has not taken the controversial step that Google took in scanning out-of-print but copyright-protected books without explicit permission.
Way back in 2004, when Google began scanning books from libraries, it believed it had the right to scan the entire text of a copyright-protected book under fair-use laws so long as it only displayed a snippet of the contents. Authors groups and publishers vehemently disagreed, resulting in a class-action lawsuit and the proposed settlement at issue in this case.
The brief goes on to complain that the settlement "is unfair to authors, publishers, and others whose works would be the subject of a compulsory license for the life of the copyright in favor of Google and the newly created Book Rights Registry." Amazon wants Congress to intervene in the dispute over fair-use provisions in copyright laws, saying the use of a class-action settlement to obtain these rights "represents an unprecedented rewriting of copyright law through judicial action."
CNET News : http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10335976-265.html
Submission + - USDA bans browsers other than IE 3
Dave writes: 'An Agriculture Department agency has begun enforcing a policy banning the use of Web browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer, to the surprise of employees who rely on other browsers, such as Mozilla's Firefox, to help in developing Web sites for public use.'
It seems the core issue is one of central management. Are there solutions to assist sysops with management of "alternate browser" settings for large networks? If not, it would appear such a solution would be timely.
It seems the core issue is one of central management. Are there solutions to assist sysops with management of "alternate browser" settings for large networks? If not, it would appear such a solution would be timely.
Submission + - Word processing circa 1968 (technologizer.com)
Harry writes: "In November 1968, Computerworld ran a story on Astrotype, one of the very first word processors. It had 4KB of memory, used magnetic tapes to store documents, and could serve up to four typists at once. Its inventors believed it would revolutionize corporate America by helping would-be secretaries who were crummy typists to find work."
Submission + - "Cash for Clunkers" Program Ends On Monday (philly.com)
Looce writes: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that the "Cash for Clunkers" program, also known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, would end at 8 p.m. Monday because the $3 billion allotted for trade-ins has largely been depleted — two weeks earlier than expected.
It had been anticipated that "Cash for Clunkers" would run until Labor Day.
Rebate applications will not be accepted after 8 p.m., he said, and dealers should not make further sales without receiving all the necessary paperwork from their customers. Dealers will be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline.
Submission + - WIndows 7 reg active w/ no download available (nymag.com)
jkanter writes: "The download page for Windows 7 still asks people to sign up for a product key but no longer allows people to download the installation from Microsoft. It makes you register w/ live.com, enter your info, confirm your e-mail only to tell you that you cannot download the newest Windows 7 from their site. Shouldn't they just say it's no longer downloadable from the start screen? Is this fair?"
Submission + - Sears.com Squelches Web Programming Blunder (foxnews.com)
blitzkrieg3 writes: Earlier today someone made public a trivial exploit on the Sears.com website. Sears was storing page paramaters from the client editable url into the catagory of the page, leading to some pretty funny results. Once the catagories were loaded into the cache, every subsequent hit would pull up the same user submitted catagories, even without any page paramaters. TMZ and Fox News have their own reports. Reddit has since been forced to take the post off of their front page by their parent Conde Nast, but the page can still be accessed via permalink.
Submission + - US regulators approve Oracle's purchase of Sun
An anonymous reader writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that anti-trust regulators at the US Department of Justice cleared the way for Oracle to purchase Sun Microsystems. The deal now awaits approval by the corresponding EU body.
Submission + - Sex, lies and bribery in VA technology office (nextgov.com) 2
MarineOne writes: Two reports just released by the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general reveal that former CIO Robert Howard allowed several of his employees to abuse their authority to dole out jobs, favors and cash bonuses to friends and family. Howard was also involved in an affair with his deputy Katherine Adair Martinez for two years, during which he allowed Martinez to move her job to Florida and paid for her to visit him in Washington so the two could continue their trysts.
The far-reaching scandal at VA implicates dozens, including several former high-ranking IT officials.
Submission + - Study Finds Twitter is 40% Pointless Babble
An anonymous reader writes: Recently, Pear Analytics attempted to find out how people are actually using Twitter. "Some felt it was their source of news and articles, others felt it was just a bunch of self-promotion," writes Ryan Kelly, "But mostly, many people still perceive Twitter as just mindless babble of people telling you what they are doing minute-by-minute." Their results? 40.55% of the total tweets captured were classified as "Pointless Babble," with person-to-person conversational tweets coming in a close second at 37.55%. Only 8.7% of the tweets were actually deemed worthy of passing on to others.
Submission + - Australian Police database lacks root password (theage.com.au) 1
Concerned Citizen writes: The Australian Federal Police database has reportedly been hacked, although hacked might be too strong a word for what happens when someone gains access to a mysql database with no root password. Can you be charged with breaking and entering a house that has the door left wide open? Maybe digital trespassing is a better term for this situation.
Submission + - Pirate Bay ordered to block Dutch users (securityandthe.net)
secmartin writes: "In a totally unexpected ruling, a Dutch court has decided that The Pirate Bay should block visitors from the Netherlands, or face a fine of up to 3 million euros. Peter Sunde has already announced that he will appeal the ruling.
Even though the defendents sent a letter explaining that they were unable to come to the hearing and provided arguments in their favor, these were ignored by the judge because they failed to appear in his court. The full text of the ruling was just published by Peter Sunde, and TorrentFreak has some more details."
Even though the defendents sent a letter explaining that they were unable to come to the hearing and provided arguments in their favor, these were ignored by the judge because they failed to appear in his court. The full text of the ruling was just published by Peter Sunde, and TorrentFreak has some more details."
Submission + - Employee alleges misconduct on DoD IT award (nextgov.com)
GovTechGuy writes: The Military Health System has engaged in unethical contracting with a technology company that is developing one of government's most complex and high-profile computer networks, an electronic health record system that eventually will exchange information with the Veterans Affairs Department, internal e-mails sent within the Army Medical Command and the Military Health System alleged.
Maj. Frank Tucker, chief of product development for the Defense Health Information Management System at the Military Health System, said in an e-mail on July 15 that he was directed by Tommy J. Morris, acting director of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, to provide Adara Networks Inc. with the software and documentation for the Defense Health Information Management System on the premise that the company would not compete for development contracts.
DHIMS is the umbrella organization within the Military Health System that provides information technology systems that capture, manage and share data for the military's massive electronic health record system.
Despite Morris' assurance that Adara would not receive a development contract, Tucker alleged in an e-mail provided to Nextgov that the company was awarded a sole-source contract, the value of which was not identified. He wrote in his e-mail that the contract was "unethical considering we gave them code for most of the code for MHS, giving them an unfair advantage" in a competition.
John Cook, a lead consultant with Suss Consulting Inc., which advises contractors on securing federal business, said no company bidding on a competitive contract should be given access to inside information because it would give them an unfair advantage.
Maj. Frank Tucker, chief of product development for the Defense Health Information Management System at the Military Health System, said in an e-mail on July 15 that he was directed by Tommy J. Morris, acting director of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Health Protection and Readiness Programs, to provide Adara Networks Inc. with the software and documentation for the Defense Health Information Management System on the premise that the company would not compete for development contracts.
DHIMS is the umbrella organization within the Military Health System that provides information technology systems that capture, manage and share data for the military's massive electronic health record system.
Despite Morris' assurance that Adara would not receive a development contract, Tucker alleged in an e-mail provided to Nextgov that the company was awarded a sole-source contract, the value of which was not identified. He wrote in his e-mail that the contract was "unethical considering we gave them code for most of the code for MHS, giving them an unfair advantage" in a competition.
John Cook, a lead consultant with Suss Consulting Inc., which advises contractors on securing federal business, said no company bidding on a competitive contract should be given access to inside information because it would give them an unfair advantage.
