ricera10 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Do Not Call Registry gets wake-up call (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Thursday August 02, 2007 @01:58PM

coondoggie writes: "If you signed up for the federal or your state's Do Not Call Registry a few years ago, you might want to thing about refreshing it. Pennsylvanians this week got a wake up call, so to speak from the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett who kicked off a public awareness campaign designed to remind people what many have forgotten or never knew — that the 2002 law set registrations to expire after five years. That is of course unless you want to start hearing from those telemarketers as you sit down to dinner. Corbett said about 2 million people signed up in the immediate aftermath of the law taking effect and those who do not act by Sept. 15 will have their numbers dropped from the registry on Nov. 1. The Pennsylvania action is a reminder that the National Do Not Call Registry has a five year life span as well. The Federal Trade Commission is set to being a nation campaign in Spring 2008 to remind all US citizens to refresh their federal Do Not Call Registry standing. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18066"

Submission + - Microsoft seeks patent that lets your TV watch you (tvsquad.com) 1

Submitted by C3ntaur on Wednesday August 01, 2007 @08:32PM

C3ntaur writes: Your favorite evil empire might be coming to a living room near you. TV Squad has an interesting little story about the latest idea from our friends in Redmond, WA.

Most television programs are supported by advertisers. But advertisers these days aren't sure how much money it's worth spending on your eyeballs. After all, you might have a PVR that you use to fast forward past commercials. Microsoft thinks they may have the answer.

The company has applied for a patent that would use cameras, biometric sensors, and other tools to determine if you're sitting in front of the TV. Or if your wife, or kid, or other identifiable person is.

Submission + - Firefox 3.0 may block sites fingered by Google (computerworld.com)

Submitted by

bookmarkrobin

on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @07:36AM

bookmarkrobin writes: "Mozilla Corp. is considering adding a tool to Firefox 3.0 that would automatically block Web sites thought to harbor malicious downloads, but the company's security chief refused to spell out details, saying Mozilla is "not ready to talk about the feature.""

Submission + - Best Buy Lawyer Discovered Editing Documents

Submitted by tengu1sd on Wednesday June 06, 2007 @12:20AM

tengu1sd writes: A new chapter in the Best Buy Saga. Everyone's favorite vendor may have it's head in a noose. . . . revelations about the actions of Minneapolis attorney Timothy Block do not bode well for the company. The lawsuit, filed in 2003, accuses Best Buy of signing up at least 100,000 customers for trial subscriptions to Microsoft Corp.'s MSN Internet service from 1999 to 2003, in many cases without their knowledge. Once the trial period ended, the customers began incurring credit card charges they had not approved. He's accused of altering documents during discovery. Is Tim falling on his sword and taking one for the team and is Best Buy trying pull another over us?

Submission + - Blogger Blocks Legitimate Sites in Hunt for Spam (bigdlittled.com)

Submitted by

Sam Machkovech

on Tuesday June 05, 2007 @10:02PM

Sam Machkovech writes: "Last week, a few of my favorite blogs were frozen without weekend updates. The sites were still online, though, so this wasn't a server freeze; rather, this was a result of Blogger's anti-spam robots tagging legitimate sites and locking their webmasters out. Though I only noticed this on two blogs over the weekend (music site We Shot JR and photography site The Online Photographer), I can't imagine this is an isolated incident, and the sort of sudden blocks reported on both sites seem out of line with Blogger's stated policy of warnings. From We Shot JR: 'This apparently happens to dozens of legit blogs every single day, and once a blog is locked for spam, Blogger insists that you wait for up to a week or longer in order for a human being to actually go to your blog and confirm that it isn't spam...I know, bitching about a free service is kind of stupid, but Google certainly isn't running Blogger out of the kindness of their hearts, and this 'guilty unless proven innocent' approach to security seems to go right along with Google's happy new partnership with the Chinese government. Get in where you fit in, I suppose.'"

Submission + - Vulgar language, if Pres. can do it so can you

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04, 2007 @10:48PM

An anonymous reader writes: The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a fascinating decision today in a case pitting the television networks against the government over indecency rules involving expletives. Our colleague Stephen Labaton captures it this way in his lead paragraphs: If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can use vulgar language, then the government cannot punish others for doing the same thing on television. That, in essence, was the decision on Monday, when a federal appeals court struck down the government policy of fining stations and networks that broadcast shows containing profanities. Both network executives and top officials at the commission said that if the opinion is not reversed on appeal, it would gut the commission's ability to regulate any speech on television or radio. Kevin J. Martin, the chairman of the commission, said the agency was now considering whether to seek an appeal before all the members of the appeals court or to take the matter directly to the Supreme Court. The decision, by a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, was a sharp rebuke for the Federal Communications Commission and for the Bush administration. For the four television networks that filed the lawsuit, Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, it was a major victory in a legal and cultural battle being waged between them and the commission and its supporters.

Submission + - Internet Tax Moratorium

Submitted by Matt on Saturday May 26, 2007 @08:09PM

Matt writes: An article on CNET expresses concern as the 3 year Internet tax ban could be lifted this November, provided an extension is not granted. "WASHINGTON — With only months left on a moratorium restricting state governments from taxing Internet access, the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday began a debate over whether the ban should be made permanent or allowed to lapse."
See also www.donttaxourweb.org

Submission + - Linux, what is all the fuss about?

Submitted by

guruevi

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @07:21PM

guruevi writes: "Dell's got a neat infomercial for clueless people that don't know what Linux is and wonder what all the fuss is about featuring their choice of Linux, Ubuntu. The 4min movie goes over what Linux is (the free, stable, virus-free open source system that is owned by the world as they put it) and some of it's features like The Gimp, OpenOffice and Aptitude. If you know somebody you still have to convert to Linuxdom, please send them the following link: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/glob al/shared/corp/media/en/studio_dell?c=us&l=en&s=co rp&targetNetwork=1&targetChannel=1&targetMedia=v__ 296 Now if they got rid of the stupid background music..."

Submission + - Geek Squad: Good work experience, or bad?

Submitted by

Denshuu

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @06:59PM

Denshuu writes: "My goal is to eventually be granted a position as a network administrator, but as an uncertified Information Systems BS holder fresh out of college, I'll need time to earn work experience and certifications before being considered. I figured a good, or at least well-traveled, career-path would be to spend a year or two in a technical support position. The Best Buy / Geek Squad location nearby is hiring, but my fear is that its reputation as being the laughing stock of businesses in the PC world [UrbanDictionary] will make me a less attractive candidate for other businesses. Do employers give less consideration to potential hirees who have worked for Geek Squad due to its poor reputation (at least amongst anonymous netfolk)?"

Submission + - Life Imprisonment for Copyright Infringement

Submitted by

ronadams

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @06:06PM

ronadams writes: "P. Parameswaran writes in his AFP article:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he proposed comprehensive legislation to Congress Monday against copyright thieves, including raising the maximum penalty to life imprisonment and seizing the illicit profits of offenders.
Nick Ferrel at the Inquirer confirms the reports and adds a few interesting insights of his own. Good to know RIAA is a vital part of the US Government. I must have been asleep when my Government & Law professor glossed over that one."

Submission + - Why Gnu-Linux will soon be THE gaming OS.

Submitted by dcrockerjr on Saturday May 26, 2007 @05:54PM

dcrockerjr writes: After graphics and sound rendering what is the biggest gaming processor hog: AI & path finding. Enter Nvidia's announcement that their graphics cards can be used as an extra processor when not used for graphics. Consider that Gnu-Linux is already used in high end multi-processor supercomputers and blades, and has a lead over windows in making use of extra processors. Add a motherboard manufacturer thats willing to put around 7 graphics card slots on a board. Now add an open source project for AI & path finding acceleration as a GPLv3 alternative to CUDA. Hence: Gnu-Linux THE gaming OS. Nvidia may also find themselves in competition with creative for audio acceleration. In the other corner, as rig prices rise, IBM or Sun could partner with AMD to bring low end blades to gamers. Imagine games like Starcraft with no unit limit... less scripted more responsive games... Links: http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php/id;99052718 6;fp;16;fpid;0 http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1582455.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda.html

Submission + - Cinemas use night goggles to nab pirates

Submitted by

fluffman86

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @04:06PM

fluffman86 writes: "Reuters reports that movie theaters in Malaysia are cracking down on movie piracy by giving military style night vision goggles to ushers. According to the article, after cinema staff seat patrons, they don the NVGs in order to catch people who are recording the film with hand held camcorders. The article also mentions that Malaysia has purchased two DVD sniffing dogs — Lucky and Flo, in order to find large quantities of burned and pirated DVDs. There are some reports that there is a bounty for killing the dogs."

Submission + - No charges for chatroom suicide observers

Submitted by

Benjamin Fox

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @02:52PM

Benjamin Fox writes: "The BBC reports that chatroom participants who apparently "watched" a man commit kill himself will not face charges for the comments made up to and during the suicide. A crown prosecution spokesman said, "We examined all the evidence passed to us by the police and have concluded that none of the comments made in the chatroom amounted to a criminal offense." What could this mean for electronic witnesses of other meatspace crimes and tragedies in the UK?"

Submission + - handhelds and linux

Submitted by

dnix

on Saturday May 26, 2007 @08:48AM

dnix writes: "The Linux development for handhelds devices is going along, but in the wrong direction! It looks like instead of focusing on development, which is very hard due to the heterogeneity of devices, developers are fighting about trademarks and forks. You can read the whole history from Handhelds.org and the Fl0rian blog."

Submission + - Gore Criticizes Trivialities in News

Submitted by 54mc on Saturday May 26, 2007 @12:30AM

54mc writes: At a New York City book signing on Friday, former US vice president Al Gore criticized the "trivialities and nonsense" of celebrity gossip in the media and called on people to focus instead on issues like Iraq and climate change. The story is hosted on Breitbart, who were kind enough to give an example of this "nonsense" in a story about a boy who bagged the largest wild hog ever.

Slashdot Top Deals