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The Courts

Submission + - Convicted BitTorrent Admin, Force to Dump Linux.

Submitted by
loconet
loconet writes: "TorrentFreak is running a story about Sk0t, an ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker, who is to have his internet connection monitored by the US Government. Further more, the monitoring software only runs on Windows, which, according to his parole officer, means that if he wants to use a computer, it will have to be a computer running Windows, where the software can be installed or face being barred from the internet."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Bioshock PC is defective by design 4

Submitted by ringbarer
ringbarer writes: Kotaku reports that the long-awaited spiritual successor to System Shock has a few shocks for any PC gamers who want to buy it. Customers are discovering that the 'SecuROM' anti-copying technology will only permit them to install the game twice, after which the DVD becomes nothing more than an expensive coaster. As PC Gamers are renowned for rebuilding and reinstalling their machines on a regular basis, it is clear that this will only hurt legitimate players.
Security

Submission + - Do hackers prevent the release of source code? 3

Submitted by
HotdogsFolks
HotdogsFolks writes: "I've been considering releasing the source code from one of my job websites under the GPL licence for quite some time now. It's a fully functioning, everything-you-could-possibly-want system, so I'm happy to give it away to save people from having to write a similar system from scratch.

The only thing holding me back is the cycle of security patches I'll no doubt find myself in once the bad guys start analysing my code.

I'm not a security expert — I code for fun — so I'm not totally confident I'd be able to spot security issues even if I analysed my code myself.

What would you do if you were in my shoes? How do I get my software out there in the least painful way possible?"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - DMCA means you cannot delete files on your own PC (wired.com)

Submitted by
DragonHawk
DragonHawk writes: "According to Wired, John Stottlemire found a way to print duplicate coupons from Coupons.com by deleting some files and registry entires on his PC. Now he's being sued for a DMCA violation. He says, "All I did was erase files or registry keys." Says a lawyer: "It may cover this. I think it does give companies a lot of leverage and a lot of power." So now the copyright cartels are saying that not only can we not copy things on our computers, but we cannot delete things on our computers. Time to buy stock in Seagate."
Television

Submission + - Paramount to dump Blu-Ray for HD DVD

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation Each Declare Exclusive Support for HD DVD. A press announcement was made this morning by Paramount Home Entertainment indicating that the studio will throw its entire weight behind HD-DVD starting August 28, abandoning Blu-Ray entirely. In plain English, this means that films like "Transformers" and "Shrek The Third" will come only to HD-DVD! http://www.dvdreview.com/news/
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - DMCA lawsuit for circumventing coupon print limits

Submitted by whoever57
whoever57 writes: A Fremont, CA man (John Stottlemire) who claims that he was trying to show his skill in order to get a job at Coupons, inc. created a program and showed people how to delete the files and registry entries that limited the printing of coupons using software from coupons.com. He now faces a lawsuit, from Coupons, inc., alleging DMCA violations. The company alleges that his actions are equivalent to those of DeCSS creator "DVD Jon". Mr. Stottlemire asks how deleting files off one's own computer can be illegal, while some lawyers suggest that the DMCA is very broad and may apply in this case.
Sci-Fi

Submission + - US Patent office considers patenting Warp Drive

Submitted by darthcamaro
darthcamaro writes: Think that Warp drive is just a figment of Star Trek imagination? Think again. A patent application is now before the USPTO to patent Warp drive.
The Worsley-Twist warp drive does not depend upon traditional emissions of matter to create thrust. Rather, the drive creates a change in the curvature of the space-time continuum — thus allowing travel by warping space-time.
Media

Submission + - Penny Arcade Recieves email on homeless man murder

Submitted by Gots_Hussies
Gots_Hussies writes: Penny Arcade artist Mike "Gabe" Krahulik recently recieved an email from a woman who knew one of three teenagers who beat and murdered a homeless man. The email is a response to Krahuliks attack on the media for believing the teenagers story that 'violent videogames were the reason we did it'. Excerpt from article "Your news post about the kids and the homeless man yesterday made me sick to my stomach, before I even read the CNN article. I knew what it was going to be about before even reading the article. It was not the article itself, or even your post that made me sick, it was the fact that I know this boy. Or, rather that I could be considered one of the "parents" of this boy."
Windows

Submission + - Vista not selling well because of...piracy?

Submitted by techmuse
techmuse writes: DailyTech reports that Steve Ballmer blames the slow sales of Windows Vista (down 60% compared to the launch of Windows XP) not on the 5 year delay in shipping, the failure to ship before the holiday season, the high system requirements, the poorly implemented user account control, the significantly harsher licensing restrictions, the price increase, the increased interest in Mac OS and Linux, or the much stricter antipiracy technologies already built into the OS. Rather, he blames the entire drop in sales on piracy, and promises to step up antipiracy efforts. What do you think?
Networking

Submission + - How much storage do you "control"?

Submitted by linkedlinked
linkedlinked writes: While looking for some old backups with a friend, we started talking about storage space, and how so many of our random files wind up in obscure places. We realized that each of us has "access" to a pretty sizable heap of storage (for college kids). I would guess that, between ftp accounts on friends' servers, random school storage space, root access to a few work servers, and my own half-dozen computers and servers, I probably have near 5-6 TB of usable storage. Out of curiosity, we decided to ask Slashdot- legality aside, how much storage space could you feasibly dominate on a whim?
Software

Submission + - The future of packaging software in Linux

Submitted by
michuk
michuk writes: "There are currently at least five popular ways of installing software in GNU/Linux. None of them is widely accepted throughout the popular distibutions. This situation is not a problem for experienced users — they can make decisions themselves. However, for a newcomer in the GNU/Linux world, installing new software is always pretty confusing. The article tries to sum up some of the recent efforts to fix this problem and examine the possible future of packaging software in GNU/Linux."
Music

Submission + - Classical Music Hoax of the Century?

Submitted by
Retrospeak
Retrospeak writes: "The CD recordings of Joyce Hatto, a concert pianist often described as "the greatest living pianist that almost no one has ever heard of" and praised by one critic as performing "the most extraordinary recordings I have ever heard" has come under a cloud of musical suspicion, as reported in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/arts/music/17ha tt.html?th&emc=th). Seems that many the Hatto recordings are digitally identical to those of a variety of other classical performers, some relatively obscure and some more famous. Because of the growing storm of sonic controversy, the British audiophile magazine "Gramophone" requested the folks at Pristine Classical to subject some of the tracks in question to detailed digital scrutiny and the results are very interesting (http://www.pristineclassical.com/HattoHoax.html)."
Networking

Submission + - Videoconferencing server for Linux ?

Submitted by Hymer
Hymer writes: Well it is really a simple question: Does anyone here know a vidoconferencing server for Linux ? It may be a non-standard solution but the clients have to exist for at least Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. The communication channel should preferably encrypted. I need video and some kind of common workplace or desktop sharing, audio is optional. I've searched the Net and found nothing... geeks do not need to look at other geeks to understand eachother but CEO's obviously does... ;-)

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