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Comment Re:get shitcanned, its good for character (Score 1) 958

Not in Mexico. Here the BSA isn't acting on its own; they hire law firms which in turn contact authorities so they can storm on your front door, with a warrant, and the police can seize your computers while a lawyer runs the compliance software and checks the licenses etc. It usually ends up with an agreement and the company pays a rather large fee and buys all the licenses it needs, but sometimes the company doesn't have the money so they're shut down.

Comment XCode + iPodTouch/iPhone (Score 1) 1095

I think a good way to introduce a teenage kid to program is a cool platform. And the coolest platform for a teenage kid might be to program something for their iPod Touch or iPhone, because they will be able to show off their work to other kids and will really open his eyes to the potential of the device they usually just carry around to listen to music and talk on the phone.
Plus, they get to use a really cool development platform (XCode + Interface Builder) with a really nice programming language (Objective-C), learn about OOP, can do some stuff in C, there are some really good tutorials on the Apple Developer Connection site.
Even if he doesn't end up writing an app to put up on the iTunes store, he can just play around with stuff and load it onto his iPod or iPhone. I would have loved to have something like this when I was 13; instead of just writing stuff that only I could use, with no one around to see how cool it was, I would have been able to show it to my friends.

Music

Submission + - Microsoft patents tech to lock down DRM-free music (infoworld.com)

InfoWorldMike writes: "Microsoft has won a patent for a digital-watermarking technology that could be used to protect the rights of content owners even when digital music is distributed without DRM protection. The technology, called "stealthy audio watermarking," inserts and detects watermarks in audio signals that can identify the content producer, "providing a signature that is embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed," according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trade Organization (USPTO). Microsoft declined to comment on how it plans to use the watermark technology it has patented. However, Microsoft Research already has licensed similar yet non-forensic watermarking technology to a company called Activated Content, which is using the technology to insert and extract non-secure data into audio files."
Privacy

Submission + - German BundesTrojan on the move.

nachtkap writes: A lot of conservative politicians have been going nuts since the terrorist cell was busted last week in Germany. They have been trying to 'explain' the merits of the so nicknamed 'Bundestrojan' to the public. The ZDF (2nd German Television) hosted a short discussion last sunday (Google translation) with left leaning Jürgen Trittin from the German Green Party and the conservative Wolfgang Bosbach from the Christian Social Union.
The conservative demonstrated a serious lack of understanding, for what is and what is not possible with a Trojan or data in general.

Tritin: "We are today in a situation, where the search in the end — in the sense of the execution — can't be controlled anymore."
Bosbach: That is simply wrong. Every time the forensic software (read: Bundestrojan) is employed a protocol is created. It can be exactly traced back what data was accessed. The data itself can not be manipulated, because the use of malware is explicitly forbidden.


I find his ignorance and the fact that to ordinary people he sounds like he knows what he is talking about disturbing.
Power

Submission + - Salt water as fuel? 1

SpryGuy writes: FTA:

"For obvious reasons, scientists long have thought that salt water couldn't be burned. So when an Erie man announced he'd ignited salt water with the radio-frequency generator he'd invented, some thought it a was a hoax. John Kanzius, a Washington County native, tried to desalinate seawater with a generator he developed to treat cancer, and it caused a flash in the test tube. Within days, he had the salt water in the test tube burning like a candle, as long as it was exposed to radio frequencies."

Is this the Cold Fusion of the new millenium? Or a new power source for the future? The obvious question is posed, but not answered, in the article:

"One immediate question is energy efficiency: The energy the RF generator uses vs. the energy output from burning hydrogen."

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