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Businesses

Submission + - U.S. DoJ approves XM and Sirius merger (cnn.com)

Submitted by s13g3
s13g3 writes: The U.S. Dept. of Justice has finally approved the XM-Sirius merger, though the FCC still has yet to sign off on the deal. There seem to be concerns from various parties regarding the merger, but the DoJ seems to have decided that the deal is not anti-competitive, even though the two companies are the only U.S. based satellite radio providers, and as far as this reader is aware, the only companies providing such service in the continental U.S.
Debian

Submission + - Ubuntu Dev Summit lays out plans for Hardy Heron (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Opurt
Opurt writes: On the first day of the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Boston this week, a roundtable session focused on the vision for the upcoming Hardy Heron Ubuntu release. Unlike Gutsy Gibbon, which brought a handful of experimental features along with some new functionality, the focus with Heron will be on robustness as it will be supported on the desktop for 3 years. 'The Compiz window manager, which adds sophisticated visual effects to the Ubuntu user interface, will be a big target for usability improvements. Keyboard bindings and session management were noted as two areas where Compiz still needs some work.' PolicyKit and Tracker will also be significantly tweaked, while Heron is also likely to see a complete visual refresh.
Music

Submission + - Freakonomics - the future of the music industry (nytimes.com) 2

Submitted by mlimber
mlimber writes: The Freakonomic guys and friends take a look at the future of the music industry in light of digital music. An excerpt from one of their "Quorum" contributors: "[W]hat is the explanation for the sales reduction that has occurred [with albums]? The most obvious culprit is illicit file-sharing on networks such as Napster, KaZaA, eDonkey, and BitTorrent. While linking the two seems tantalizing — file sharing rose to prominence at roughly the same time that record sales started to fall — there is surprisingly little evidence to support the claim that file sharing has significantly hurt record sales.... If file sharing hurts record sales, then albums that are more heavily downloaded should experience lower sales than comparable albums that are less downloaded. But, after controlling for the role of popularity, we found that downloads had little effect on album sales." He also notes: "[A]lbum sales fell 18 percent between 2000 and 2006, after accounting for paid digital downloads from online stores like iTunes. While these numbers are not good, other industries have experienced similar downturns. For example, new car sales are down 22 percent for U.S. automakers."
Microsoft

Submission + - Secret info on Windows XP Service Pack 3 leaked! (techarp.com)

Submitted by
crazyeyes
crazyeyes writes: "As Microsoft winds down sales of Windows XP by January 2008, they will bid goodbye with a service pack to end all service packs. A sayorana service pack. That is exactly what the Windows XP Service Pack 3 is all about.

The Technical Beta is almost over, and Microsoft is getting ready to release the second build, which will be a public beta test. Join us as we examine the secret details of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 programme. Here's a quote from the editorial :-

"Those who are still hanging onto Windows XP (32-bit) will be heartened to know that the Service Pack 3 programme is chugging along nicely. In fact, Microsoft is scheduled to wrap up the Technical Beta and release Service Pack 3 for public beta testing within the next two weeks."
"
Businesses

Submission + - Sun to change stock symbol from SUNW to JAVA

Submitted by flanksteak
flanksteak writes: In a move that seems to make no sense (even after a long explanation), Sun's CEO Jonathon Schwartz announced on his blog today that Sun will be changing their NASDAQ stock trading symbol from SUNW to JAVA.

Initial reaction in the comments of the blog appears to be mostly negative.
The Internet

Submission + - Don't Kill The Trolls, But Feed Them (seorefugee.com) 2

Submitted by
Henk van Ess
Henk van Ess writes: "Voelspriet.nl has initiated an idea to rid communities (be it forums, blogs, whatever) of trolls. Not get rid of them by banning them or nuking their posts, no, by accepting their trolly messages and keeping them at ease. The smart thing is that this anti-troll plug-in only shows the trolly stuff to the troll itself. That way, the other community members need not suffer. The idea was presented today on Dutch radio in Radio Online. A free beta plug-in for Wordpress will be available soon."
Republicans

Karl Rove Resigning Aug 31 739

Posted by CmdrTaco from the start-the-clock-ticking dept.
tetrahedrassface writes "According to CNN current Bush Administration political advisor Karl Rove will be resigning his post as senior political advisor at the end of August to spend more time with his family. Few if any prior senior political advisors to presidents have been the lightning rods for controversy that Mr. Rove has. Accused of running smear campaigns and celebrated for pioneering district level up campaigns that rely heavily on databases and fake grassroots origins, Mr Rove is one of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution."
Data Storage

Submission + - IP rights? Server hosting site hijacks content (therangerstation.org)

Submitted by
blanchae
blanchae writes: "Over at The Ranger Station (www.therangerstation.com), there is a battle over who owns the rights to the Ranger Station's online forum. The Ranger Station owner was unhappy with the service of OnlineSolutions.org and changed server hosting. Online Solutions have hijacked The Ranger Station's forums stating that they own the databases and content and started their own Ranger Station forum under www.therangerstation.org. This doesn't seem right to me and I want to know who owns the content on a hosted server?"
Censorship

Submission + - Corporate CEO targets teenage blogger 3

Submitted by
marylouluddite
marylouluddite writes: "A corporate CEO named Patrick Byrne, who runs a company called Overstock.com, has sicced his Director of Communications, Judd Bagley, on a teenage blogger who lampooned him.

The blogger's name is Zac Bissonnette, a college freshman and 19 years old. Zac blogs on stocks at AOL, and also has a parody website, wwww.hedgefunnies.com.

One of his items lampooned Patrick Byrne, and he has also been critical of Byrne in Blogging Stocks. See http://hedgefunnies.com/2007/07/30/patrick-byrne-u nveils-irrefutable-proof-of-naked-short-selling

Byrne struck back by having Bagley attack Zac on Wikipedia, and by threatening to do an item about him in antisocialmedia.net, a website dedicated to attacking critics of Patrick Byrne.

An investigative reporter, Gary Weiss, has the scoop on his blog: http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/08/overstockcom -sinks-to-new-low-targets.html

It's really a shame that a big company is so paranoid and sensitive to criticism that it has to chase after a teenage blogger."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone: The $1,975 iPod (infoworld.com)

Submitted by
InfoWorldMike
InfoWorldMike writes: "After nine days doing nothing but living, breathing, and dissecting a 4GB iPhone, Tom Yager's analysis is such: Apple's and AT&T's high-price gadget is a heartbreaking triumph of greed over genius. "iPhone is good enough as a phone, a PDA, a media player, and a mobile browser to hit the sweet spot of those consumers who can afford the device, along with activation and monthly service fees. So, I say it again: If it's a gadget you're after, you're looking at a $499 wide-screen iPod with oodles of extras." But: "The unhappy fact is that for all the glamorous marketing and positioning, iPhone turns out to be the worst $1,975 investment (iPhone plus two years minimum, mandatory service) you could make in mobile communications. If you put that kind of money into a BlackBerry, Treo, Windows Mobile, or Symbian device, you will be blown away by what a genuine professional mobile handset can do for you, out of the box, through incremental improvement by the manufacturer and wireless operator, and extension by downloadable third-party software.""
Education

Submission + - Creation Museum now open

Submitted by flanksteak
flanksteak writes: Several media outlets sent reporters to tour the new Creation Museum in Kentucky. The AP story is at the SF Chronicle, but a longer and more in depth article is at Salon (must watch ad first). All I can say is, Wow, some people's self-denial knows almost no bounds.

Feed Sprint Latest To Sue Iowa Telcos Over Sketchy Deals (techdirt.com)

From feed by techdirtfeed
Following Qwest's complaint to the FCC and ATT's lawsuit, Sprint Nextel is the latest to get upset by the regulatory loopholes being exploited by Iowa telcos and services like FreeConference.com. Sprint is now suing 14 rural Iowa telcos, claiming that the companies are striking "illegal deals" with the various service providers. It's easy to understand the big telcos frustration -- but again (as when the big telcos blocked calls to these Iowa numbers) the blame is misplaced. It's not that the rural telcos were doing anything illegal. They were simply exploiting a regulatory loophole put in by regulators who never bothered to consider the consequences. So why not focus on getting those regulators to change the laws so that big telcos don't have to pay a lot more than a phone call is worth to a bunch of random Iowa telcos?
Movies

Submission + - Lucas To Make New Live Action Star Wars films

Submitted by DrNASA
DrNASA writes: An article that quoted George Lucas as saying that SpiderMan 3 is a 'silly movie' also had this interesting bit of King Geek speak: "And here's a little news: Lucas tells me he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" era. "But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu." " TFA — http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270874,00.html
Input Devices

Submission + - Voting Machines Hinder French Elections

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The electronic voting machine has claimed another victim. Some French voters have reportedly turned away in disgust after facing up to two hours in lines to use the machines. On top of that, the article reports, "Researchers at Paul Verlaine University in Metz said that trials on two of the three machines used in France showed that four people out of every seven aged over 65 could not get their votes recorded." This article concentrates primarily on usability & efficiency but surprisingly mentions little (aside from user trust issues) about security that the machines implemented or whether it was satisfactory. I think all three aspects are of grave importance to anyone aiming to produce voting machines. The manufacturer of these particular machines is France Élection."

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