UriahZ - Slashdot User

Submission + - Appeals Court Says RIAA Hearing Can't be Streamed (blogspot.com)

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Thursday April 16, 2009 @05:14PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has overturned a lower court order permitting webcast of an oral argument in an RIAA case, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, in Boston. As one commentator put it, the decision gives the RIAA permission to 'cower behind the same legal system they're using to pillory innocent people'. Ironically, the appeals court's own hearing had been webcast, via an mp3 file. The court admitted that this was not an appropriate case for a 'prerogative writ' of 'mandamus', but claimed to have authority to issue a writ of 'advisory mandamus'. The opinion came as a bit of a surprise to me because the judges appeared, during the oral argument, to have a handle on the issues. The decision gave me no such impression. From where I sit, the decision was wrong in a number of respects, among them: (a) it contradicted the plain wording of the district court rule, (b) it ignored the First Amendment implications, and (c) there is no such thing as 'advisory' mandamus or 'advisory' anything — our federal courts are specifically precluded from giving advisory opinions."

Submission + - SPAM: Comcast, DirecTV fined $4M for 2M annoying calls

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Thursday April 16, 2009 @04:16PM

coondoggie writes: "The Federal Trade Commission today chalked up two more Do Not Call rule victories as it won fines against Comcast and Directv for not only violating that rule but for re-calling consumers who specifically had told the companies not to call them again. Under the settlements announced today, Directv has agreed to pay $2.31 million to settle the FTC's charges that it violated the Do Not Call provisions and, as a result, violated a 2005 court order barring it from such conduct. Combined with the $5.3 million DIRECTV paid under the earlier 2005 Do Not Call order, the company has now agreed to pay a total of more than $7.6 million for Do Not Call violations, the FTC said. Comcast agreed to pay $900,000 to settle the FTC's claims that it violated Do Not Call provisions. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Conficker botnet much smaller than feared (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7 on Thursday April 16, 2009 @02:35PM

Trailrunner7 writes: An analysis of the Conficker peer-to-peer network set up by the latest variant of the worm shows that the size of the network is far smaller than originally thought. Estimates of the size of the botnet have run far into the millions, but analysts at Kaspersky Lab have been observing the network using a custom application and found that it includes about 200,000 machines. This is way below the estimates that have been circulating for months now.

Submission + - High Speed Rail for the Land of the Auto?

Submitted by fantomas on Thursday April 16, 2009 @02:28PM

fantomas writes: The BBC reports that "US President Barack Obama has announced his 'vision for high-speed rail' in the country, which would create jobs, ease congestion and save energy". Can rail work in the land where the car is king? Would you travel on the new high speed lines? High speed rail lines are popular in countries like China, Japan and Germany, but would they work in the USA?

Submission + - Obama unveils high-speed passenger rail plan (washingtonpost.com) 1

Submitted by ozgood on Thursday April 16, 2009 @12:27PM

ozgood writes: President Obama unveiled his administration's blueprint for a new national network of high-speed passenger rail lines Thursday, saying such an investment is necessary to reduce traffic congestion, cut dependence on foreign oil and improve the environment. His plan would be funded in part through the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan, which includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service. Obama has also proposed a separate five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration's suggested fiscal year 2010 budget.

The city of Chicago, Illinois, would be the hub of the proposed Midwest Regional Rail System, which would stretch to Madison, Wisconsin, in the Northwest; St. Louis, Missouri, in the South; and Detroit, Michigan, in the East.

His plan would be funded in part through the recently passed $787 billion stimulus plan, which includes a total of $8 billion for improvements in rail service. Obama has also proposed a separate five-year, $5 billion investment in high-speed rail as part of the administration's suggested fiscal year 2010 budget.

Submission + - The Professionalisation of Free Software (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by

Glyn Moody

on Thursday April 16, 2009 @11:24AM

Glyn Moody writes: "Free software may begin as somebody scratching an itch, but one of its great strengths — its collaborative development approach — means that many others get involved. That requires some kind of organisation, for example through the use of "lieutenants", as with Linux. But there's a new approach that's gaining in popularity: to bring in professional, non-coding managers to handle day-to-day running. Examples include Mitchell Baker at Mozilla, Peter Brown at the FSF and more recently Stormy Peters at GNOME. Here's the latest: the Free Software Foundation Europe is now looking for a professional Executive Director too. Is this an inevitable development for large-scale, successful free software projects — and does it matter if the hackers are losing control?"

Comment satellite gaming (Score 1) 131

by UriahZ on Sunday September 17, 2006 @10:57AM (#16124695) Attached to: Satellite Internet for Gaming?

Satellite is completely unacceptable for any real net junkie, especially gamers. The ping is even higher than with dial-up. Man, I played FPS games over dial-up for a few years-- it's not so terrible as all that if you've got a good phone line. And of course, if you're out in the boonies you probably don't have a great phone line. My tip is this: get yourself a nice desktop replacement laptop like a Macbook Pro or some such, and mooch off some free hotspot in town. You'll spend about the same, and have a kickass lappy in the bargain. Might help you to prioritize some things differently. Find some roommates and get an apartment. Unless your parents are letting you stay for free, it's the way to go, even if you wind up spending three times as much on rent. I had a guy come in to my work yesterday straight out of A Confederacy of Dunces, a huge fat man nearly in his 40s and living with his elderly mother, trying to return the guitar amp he'd bought because he couldn't get a good sound out of it with his inexperienced hands. Man, move out of your parents' house! Don't be that guy. Noone really cares (except any potential girlfriend) if you're living with your parents when you're 25, but something happens when you turn 30 and you won't have much in the way of friends or life. Suicide might become your only option. Get out there, get a job, make some money. If you can't get a job consider the idea that perhaps there's some aspect of your personality or attitude that is poorly suited to the hard realities of the working world, and endeavor to change those aspects. It's not that hard once you get started. I spent the last 7 years of my life not working (fortunately I did not have to live with my parents) and surfing the internet 10-16 hours a day, and I gotta tell you-- it's not that hard to work and make money and live on your own. It might not be the comforts you're adjusted to, but it's totally reasonable, and socially rewarding. Speaking of which I gotta go to work to pay for my rent. Yes, it is a worthy tradeoff, and it does make your life more enjoyable to make it. Quit making excuses for yourself and go do it. The video games will still be there after work.

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