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Comment Re:Streisand Effect (Score 1) 581

I was under the impression that a contract cannot take away rights guaranteed by the constitution. Am I wrong?

First, IANAL. However, this is a common misconception. The constitution does not guarantee you free speech in all circumstances. It just guarantees that the Government itself will not make any laws that restrict your speech. Anyone else can restrict your speech in any way they see fit using whatever powers they may have. Your company can fire your if they don't like what they say. Your doctor can refuse to treat you. Your school can expel you (assuming it is a private school). Most especially, you are free to restrict your speech by voluntarily entering into a contract not to speak on certain issues. How else would NDAs work? To the best of my knowledge, the Bill of Rights (and most of the other amendments) limits only what actions the Government may take and does not inhibit the actions of individuals or groups such as corporations.

Comment Re:Uh oh (Score 1) 627

I'm not sure it's a troll exactly, though it probably wasn't phrased in a completely accurate manner. Since apple's move to Intel it has consistently taken longer to offer access to the newest processors than other hardware manufacturers. This is because apple has a philosophy of fewer hardware models that get refreshed on an anual basis, as opposed to Dell, HP, and the like which have no problem offering the newest chip the day after release. I think that TFS was simply commenting that it is interesting that good timing on the Macbook Pro refresh and an unintended supply chain error had conspired to make Apple the first out with the newest processor rather than having a delay of a few months which is more typical. If you read "new technology" to mean "new CPU technology" (I feel it is clear from context that they are talking about processor technology) then the statement is reasonably accurate. Admittedly, TFS could have been more clear. And yes, I know that "processor" and "CPU" are not necessarily synonymous, but I think the statement holds in either case.

Submission + - GPL wins in court. (theregister.co.uk)

fishthegeek writes: The Software Freedom Conservancy has received a judgement against Westinghouse Digital Electronics for $90,000 in damages, $50,000 in costs plus a donation of all of the offending HDTV's that were using BusyBox in violation of the GPL. Given that WDE is nearly bankrupt it's likely that most if not all of the cash will disappear in a legal "poof", but it is a victory regardless.
Iphone

Submission + - My smartphone can beat up your smart phone (kismetwireless.net)

An anonymous reader writes: Noted wireless security expert, Dragorn, goes into detail on why the iPhone web based jail break is worse than people think. Security researchers have already talked about why this is more dangerous than it seems but Dragorn drives the point home with some very neat scenarios that have yet to be discussed involving using an IMSI catcher to control the phone, send spoofed SMS messages and jail break someones phone forcibly. Also drive by jail breaking's are now a possibility, weather you wanted to or not. Now with updated scenarios in the original blog post.
News

Submission + - Trends in Patent and Trademark Filings Worldwide

David Weiskopf writes: While many ways exist to establish, create and protect continuing and valid intellectual property rights, many of which differ from country to country, one telling inquiry presents itself: how, in these interesting , changing and tumultuous times, have worldwide patent and trademark filings around the world trended, compared both over time and across geography? Thanks to data made publicly available by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), we can see the answer:

Submission + - Artificial life forms evolve basic intelligence (newscientist.com)

Calopteryx writes: New Scientist has a story on how Avidians — digital organisms in a computer world called Avida — replicate, mutate and have evolved a rudimentary form of memory. They — or things like them — might eventually evolve to become artificially intelligent life forms.

Submission + - Fast Forensic Test Match Suspects' DNA in 4 hours 1

An anonymous reader writes: A newly developed test could make checking DNA from people arrested for crimes with DNA samples from crime scenes stored in forensic databases almost as easy as matching fingerprints. With the test, police could check on whether a person's DNA matches that found at past crime scenes while suspects are still being processed and before a decision on whether to release them on bail. A report on the fast forensic test appears in the ACS' Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal.
Google

Submission + - Google kills Wave (blogspot.com)

mordejai writes: Google stated in it's official blog that they will not continue developing wave as a standalone product. It's sad because it had a lot of potential to improve communications, but Google never promoted it well, denying it a chance to replace email and other collaboration tools for many uses.
Security

Submission + - Two Unpatched Flaws Show Up in Apple iOS (threatpost.com)

Trailrunner7 writes: The technique that the Jailbreakme.com Web site is using to bypass the iPhone's security mechanisms and enable users to run unapproved apps on their phones involves exploiting two separate vulnerabilities. One of the vulnerabilities is a memory-corruption flaw that affects the way that Apple's mobile devices, including the iPad and iPod Touch, display PDFs. The second weakness is a problem in the Apple iOS kernel that gives an attacker higher privileges once his code is on a targeted device, enabling him to break out of the iOS sandbox.

The combination of the two vulnerabilities--both of which are unpatched at the moment--gives an attacker the ability to run remote code on the device and evade the security protections on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The technique became public earlier this week when the Jailbreakme.com site began hosting a set of specially crafted PDF files designed to help users jailbreak their Apple devices and load apps other than the ones approved by Apple and offered in its official App Store.

Submission + - Gamers beat algorithms at finding protein structur (arstechnica.com)

jamie writes: "Researchers have turned the biochemical challenge of figuring out protein folding structures into a computer game. The best players can beat a computerized algorithm by rapidly recognizing problems that the computer can't fix."
Open Source

Submission + - CIA Software Developer Goes Open Source (wired.com)

von_rick writes: Some of the people who manage and use the softwares used in CIA and defense related systems find it hard to work on cases when they have to pay, repay and keep paying for a program because it never becomes the property of the government even after paying hefty sums of money. Some of them seem to be in favor of open sourcing their work in order to share ideas and lower the costs involved in solving crime and managing the gathered intelligence.

Submission + - Why Music From World War I Isn't The Public Domain (techdirt.com)

An anonymous reader writes: While Disney and others have done a great job pushing the end date for works entering the public domain ever further forward, most people have assumed that anything from before 1923 is in the public domain. However, it turns out that this is not true for sound recordings, in part due to an accidental quirk in copyright law history — in that Congress, way back in 1909, believed that sound recordings could not be covered by copyright (they believed the Constitution did not allow recordings to be covered), and thus, some state laws stepped up to create special copyrights for sound recordings. A court ruling then said that these state rules were not overruled by federal copyright law. End result? ANY recorded work from before 1972 (no matter how early it was recorded) won't go into the public domain until 2049 at the earliest.

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