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Windows

Submission + - Stopping WGA Installation sends data to Microsoft

Submitted by
rev
rev writes: "The new WGA Notification installation that can be installed using Windows Update sends data to Microsoft if the user decides to cancel the installation. A cookie is set that could be used to identify the host and information such as version of Windows and WGA as well as language of the operating system are transmitted. Part of the data is encrypted. (read more)"
Censorship

Submission + - France bans blogs from reporting violence

Submitted by
Picass0
Picass0 writes: "According to Yahoo News the French Constitutional Council has approved a law that would criminalize filming or broadcasting acts of violence by anyone other than a journalist. "The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law... ...exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991." The French government has also proposed a certification system for Web sites, blog hosters, etc..."

Feed Royalty Hike Panics Webcasters (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Internet radio gets ready for a fight after the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board quietly releases a retroactive rate hike that could mean financial disaster from music streamers. By Eliot Van Buskirk.


Censorship

Submission + - Wikipedia Admins Censor Criticism

Submitted by
Wikingo
Wikingo writes: "Wikipedia has been accused before of censoring articles that some of its admins are biased against, or that are critical of the censorship practice itself. A couple of recent incidents have only strengthened this impression. Is the select group of Wikipedia admins slowly shifting towards the Chinese Great Firewall model, where a lot of information is allowed to pass through, but nothing that doesnt toe the offical party line on certain controversial topics or is critical towards its censorship practices?"
Microsoft

Submission + - FAA May Ditch Vista For Linux

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In what could be the start of a government wave away from Microsoft, last week's news that the U.S. Department of Transportation is putting a halt on upgrades to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 is followed today by word that the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware. FAA chief information officer David Bowen told InformationWeek he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. "From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages," he said. Do you think that Vista's cost could finally put a crimp in what's been an automatic upgrade cycle to Microsoft and spur Linux adoption? Is this the start of some kind of anti-Vista groundswell?
Music

Submission + - FCC Boosts Indie Music with 'Payola Probe'

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The FCC has fined four of the largest radio station corporations for $12.5 million under FCC laws & rules against "pay for play" air time of record label's bands. There have been many 'payola' scandals in which labels have lavished & gifted the big four broadcasters through independent record promoters — who have often blatantly delivered payments to radio stations for airplay. In addition to the fine, "a separate voluntary side deal between the station groups and the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) would set aside 8,400 half-hour blocks of time for independent music." One thing is for sure, you can expect the market to be a lot fairer to smaller bands now that the FCC is cracking down on what is text book bribery and destroying the role a free unbiased market could play in music."
Quickies

Submission + - Build a news research toolkit in 5 minutes flat

Submitted by
InsurgentGeek
InsurgentGeek writes: "This note tells you how to use Yahoo Pipes, Sage and the Gnosis Firefox extension to put together a complete web-based research toolkit in less than five minutes. In a single window you can view the news (or any other RSS feed) and receive in-depth analysis of the people, companies, organizations and other items in it

If you'd like to move beyond just staring at RSS feeds and into exploring what's happening in the world — you can — in about five minutes. The note shows how to integrate Pipes, Gnosis and Sage to create a complete one-window news research & learning environment. When you're done you won't be trapped in RSS any more. You'll be able to start with the news, explore the people and learn more about the organizations and companies that *you* are interested in.

The Pipes part is optional if you want this works with any RSS feed. Take a look here to see a screenshot what youll have when youre finished. Take five minutes. Get smarter. It's good for you."
Portables

Submission + - Zune Giveaway

Submitted by
Will
Will writes: "I thought people might be interested in the Zune MP3 player Giveway on MSN. Microsoft is currently running a campaign where users who make MSN their homepage have the opportunity to win a free Zune. The promotion can be found at http://homepage.msn.com/zune."
Spam

Submission + - Email that's Spam Harvester-Proof... Seriously

Submitted by
Slimtreeshadow
Slimtreeshadow writes: "Here's a method to publish emails embedded in links. The system opens a web page w/ the encoded URL and then sends a mailto to your client of choice. Has anyone seen something like this? He claims the system is totally harvester proof. Quote:

While in the hospital a short time ago (urgent abdominal surgery), I had a lot of time to meditate and imagine without the pressures of day-to-day business intruding. And I figured out how to do it. The system is harvester-proof. No doubt. The email address can not even be harvested by manually clicking on the link. The system never discloses the real destination email address to any party, robot or human...

Click this link to try it: http://flow-to.com/email/w.u1171228517w.mth

The link can be on web pages, in emails, used in news groups, even published off-line in newspapers or on highway billboards, just like any other URL.

When the link is clicked, two things happen:

(i) your email program opens a new email form or window with the "To" and possibly other fields pre-filled, and

(ii) your browser opens a web page. Depending on your browser, the web page will be blank or it will contain normal web page content.
The full post is here."

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