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Submission + - 'w00t' word of the year

An anonymous reader writes: According to Merriam-Webster, a well respected dictionary publisher, 'w00t' is word of the year. 'w00t' is often used by online gamers to express joy. It was voted on by visitors to the Merriam-Webster web site. 'Facebook' (verb) was runner-up.
Enlightenment

Submission + - Why Nerds are Nerds! (blogspot.com)

hydra writes: "Research by the Institute of Weird Thinkers has today published their conclusions on the causes of Nerdhood. Apparently, the study which investigated over 200 famous nerds found that 95% of those studied were in fact weird because they had a weirdly complicated childhood. Many sought refuge in a life of Nerdhood because they never felt in control as a child. Others took up Nerdhood to avoid social situations and more still became nerds because they wished to avoid this stupid, pointless life altogether — but didn't want to hurt themselves to do it. Whatever the reason Nerds, keep doing it — or go and find a shrink."
Robotics

Submission + - Robots that bounce in bed (nytimes.com)

nem75 writes: "The NY Times has a review of British AI researcher David Levy's book "Love and Sex with Robots". He claims that within a span of about 50 years the day will come, when people could actually fall in love with life-like robots and want to live with them instead of a human mate. While this may seem far fetched at first, he has some pretty interesting views on this. Like the sexual part being the easyest thing, what with brothels exclusively offering life-like sex dolls already existing in Japan and South Korea. The case he builds goes much further though, and certainly provides food for thought."
Government

Submission + - Why I Don't Vote (veraverba.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Sean Hastings (of HavenCo/Sealand fame) writing at Vera Verba Blog, offers an analysis of why a libertarian doesn't vote — including an explanation of how the nature of those who seek office, and the nature of the democratic system, produces a bunch of candidates who all want to control your life in one way or another, and never offers up any truly pro-liberty candidates with a chance of being elected.
The Internet

Submission + - Congressman Hollywood wants to revisit DMCA (arstechnica.com)

Stormy seas writes: Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA) used a House subcommittee hearing today to express his view that the DMCA was in need of a rewrite. During his opening remarks for a hearing on the PRO-IP Act, Berman said that the DMCA's Safe Harbor needs further scrutiny and that it might be time to make filtering mandatory. There's more: Berman also 'wants to examine the "effectiveness of takedown notices" under the DMCA, and he'd like to take another look at whether filtering technology has advanced to the point where Congress ought to mandate it in certain situations.'
The Internet

Submission + - 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam (news.com)

mjasay writes: "There was a time — 2004 to be precise — when spam "only" consumed 70 percent of all e-mail. Those were the good old days. Today, as CNET reports, upwards of 95 percent of all e-mail is spam. In 2001, the number was 5 percent. Ironically, the United States Can-Spam Act has done absolutely nothing to stop the spam onslaught. Barracuda Networks analyzed more than 1 billion daily e-mail messages sent to its more than 50,000 customers worldwide, and found that 90 percent to 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam, increasing from an estimated 85 percent to 90 percent of e-mail in 2006. We've come a long way, baby."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - What would Jesus grep? (openjesus.org)

christian.einfeldt writes: "It's true. Jesus of Nazareth has ascended to Heaven where He and His Host of Multitudes run GNU Linux, and they keep only "three Windows servers we keep around to study the latest viruses and spam coming out of Earth." It says so right here, in His Words:

Given the shortage of folks getting past Saint Peter on a valid morality pass I'd say learning or mastering Linux and for loops is just about the best option a lot of you folks have. It's your life though, you know? If you want to spend the eternity part of it watching your skin bubble and drop from your scorched bones you could just keep spending the short human part of it running Windows.
Please note, this post is a farce, and not intended to offend anyone's practice of faith."

Books

Submission + - The Cult of Kindle (zdnet.com)

DaMan writes: Will the "Cult of Kindle" help guarantee Amazon's success in the ebook reader market? ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 thinks so:

But then I realized that the Kindle had a cult. The Cult of Kindle. A group of people willing to give it a five star rating just because someone else didn't, willing to back up every design, engineering and marketing decision that Amazon made, willing to defend the Kindle with their last dying breath. The Kindle doesn't cost money, it saves money. That 0.75 second flash as the pages turn isn't a downside because it gives you an opportunity to take in the previous page. It doesn't harm your eyes, in fact, it fixes them. Ergonomic issues that other reviewers have bought up are dismissed by the Cult of Kindle as flaws with the reviewer, not the device. The Kindle is perfect, and the Kindle 2.0 will be a little more perfect.

The Internet

Submission + - Canadian DMCA Won't Include Consumer Rights 1

An anonymous reader writes: As protests mount over the Canadian DMCA, law professor Michael Geist is now reporting that the government plans to delay addressing fair use and consumer copyright concerns such as the blank media tax for years. While the U.S. copyright lobby get their DMCA, consumers will get a panel to eventually consider possible changes to the law. Many Canadians are responding today with a mass phone-in to Industry Minister Jim Prentice to protest the policy plans.
The Internet

Submission + - WDl network drives crippled -- no serving any mult (boingboing.net)

mikesd81 writes: "Wired blogs reports that Western Digital's 1TB MyBook external hard drives won't share media files over network connections. From Western Digital's product page: "Due to unverifiable media license authentication, the most common audio and video file types cannot be shared with different users using WD Anywhere Access."

It doesn't matter what the files are: If you try to share these formats over a network, Western Digital assumes not just that you're a criminal, but that it is its job to police users. You see, MP3, DivX, AVI, WMV and Quicktime files are copy-protected formats. Here is a list of banned formats. There is instructions on how using SAMBA instead of using the included software to work around this problem."

Google

Submission + - GoogleTrends API Means Less Spam? (eweek.com)

eweekhickins writes: "Oh joy! Google is promising to open up its Trends analysis tool, allowing users to embed it in their own applications, or download data from the application for personal use. This will have the wonderful effect of allowing marketers to customize their own Trends analyses to detect new patterns, ideally to better target users with products and services. That would mean less irrelevant spam. But do we really want better, more targeted ads? Or would we rather delete, delete, delete with alacrity, knowing that nothing we're deleting is worthy of our consideration?"
Businesses

Submission + - Sun promises prizes to boost open source effort

e5rebel writes: "Sun Microsystems will today (5 December) release details of a new award program meant to spur growth and activity within the company's open-source efforts, according to a post by Sun's open-source officer, Simon Phipps, on his corporate blog. Are they finally acting on their statements at Java One that open source is Robin Hood in reverse — cash strapped programmers contributing code to rich corporations, or is it an attempt to subvert the open source ethos? http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/operating-systems/nix/news/index.cfm?newsid=6517"
Data Storage

Submission + - Can you trust Google's Gdrive? (computerworld.com) 1

Lucas123 writes: "With all the hype over Google's expected release of a hosted storage service (most recently from a Wall Street Journal story last week) and Microsoft's August announcement of 500MB of free online storage, Computerworld's Jim Damoulakis raises the question of whether companies or individuals should trust their sensitive data to a hosted storage provider. Sure, there is already some precedence for corporations adopting hosted storage in the growing adoption of SaaS-based applications, where data is housed externally, often in common databases. But "a generic file storage service differs from hosted models in that the unstructured, multipurpose nature of file data inherently provokes more concerns about security.""
Space

Submission + - Embryonic Star Captured With Jets Flaring (techluver.com)

Tech.Luver writes: "A developing star wrapped in a black cocoon of dust is seen sprouting giant jets in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The stellar portrait, seen in infrared light, offers the first glimpse at a very early stage in the life of an embryonic sun-like star — a time when the star's natal envelope is beginning to flatten and collapse, and streams of gas are escaping. The observations will ultimately help astronomers better understand how stars and their planets form. ( http://techluver.com/2007/11/29/embryonic-star-captured-with-jets-flaring/ )"

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