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Comment Why is so hard for people to read TFA? (Score 2, Insightful) 154

"effectively giving MySpace the power to dictate criminal law." is a load of rubbish, people need to read TFA before making statements like that. Lori was prosecuted for using a fake account to ILLEGALLY HARASS and VICTIMISE A MINOR!

The prosecution used the available and existing laws to ensure some sort of punishment for this crime as it generally fell into a non-existing law area. No laws were changed, no laws were trampled on. Unless people sign terms of agreement anywhere, AND intend to mis-represent themselves AND harass and victimise minors to the point of physical/mental harm or death, they have NOTHING to fear.

Period!

But if they do have that intention, they deserve everything they get.

Comment Re:Missing option - His campaign promises. (Score 0, Troll) 1026

Ummm...but now that you don't have Bush as president doesn't that mean that even if Obama sits on his butt for the next 2 terms he'll still go down as a better president? By him not doing anything other than not enforcing Bush's old policy of mismanagement and misinformation has to by virtue be better, so anything else is a bonus surely?

I'm not saying this to start a flamewar or a fight on who the better president is, as I think Bush's level of competence speaks for itself, at the cost of American liberty, health, wealth and happiness.

I can't speak for how Americans see Obama, but overseas he is certainly seen as a capable and educated person, someone who I think America desperately needs now given the current problems.

Comment Society is too quick to justify and remove blame! (Score 2, Insightful) 839

GOD forbid anyone should be held responsible for their actions, or be expected to have any kind of grip on reality. I think people maybe need to realise that sometimes it's not the TV's fault, or the computers fault, or anyone else's fault, perhaps some people really have no concept of consequences until they are sharing a cell with Bubba. I'm pretty sure they are able to catch with reality real quick then.

Comment Re:Chiropractors are quacks anyway (Score 1) 180

Like every one in the medical field ( like all fields), there are quacks, good quality professionals, and outright idiots. I've had enough injuries and medical problems to deal with myself and formy family over the years to find that Chiropractors can be tarred with the SAME brush all others are tarred with. When my son had unbeleivable growth spurts and developed aound a 30% spine deviation (Scoliosis) we lucked onto a Chiro after doing the rounds and got fantastic and reasonably priced treatment. On the other hand one "Specialist" wanted to have him admitted to hospital for an operation where they attach a "straightening" framework to his spine for a period of time!

I do fully agree that Chiro's can be seen to be money suckers, but I can say the same for many, many other specialists, doctors, and others in many fields of health and medicine. To label them all as quacks though I think is quite unfair.

The moral I think is that NO doctor or provider is GOD, and if they don't what to do, and cfan't admit it, they need to be avoided. We have had some absolutely shocking treatment over the years, but we have also found some fantastic, compassionate and most importantly, well qualified providers that we hang onto.

Security

Crackers Cause Pentagon to Put Computers Offline 260

Anarchysoft writes "As many as 1500 Pentagon computers were brought offline on Wednesday in response to a cyber attack. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported of the fallout both that the attack had 'no adverse impact on department operations' and that 'there will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences.' When asked whether his own e-mail had been compromised, Gates responded, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person.'"
Media

Proposed Amendment Would Ban All DVD Copying 354

Ynefel writes in with a PC Magazine article reporting that the DVD Copy Control Association is considering an amendment to the agreement equipment vendors must abide by, which would completely ban all DVD backups, whether fair use or not, and prevent DVDs from playing without the DVD disk being present in the drive. The amendment is being voted on imminently and if approved would go into effect within 18 months. Quoting: "The proposed amendment was made public in a letter sent by Michael Malcolm, the chief executive of Kaleidescape, a DVD jukebox company which successfully defeated a suit by the DVD CCA this past March."
Printer

InkJet Printers Lying, Or Just Wrong? 461

akkarin writes in about a study reported at Ars Technica on how accurate ink-jet printers are when they report that cartridges are empty. Not very, it turns out. Epson came out on top of the study (and Ars rightly questions how objective it was, given that Epson paid for it), but even they waste 20% of the ink if users take the printers' word for when to get a new cartridge. On average, the printers in the study wasted more than half the ink that users bought.
The Courts

The Privacy of Email 133

An Anonymous Coward writes "A U.S. appeals court in Ohio has ruled that e-mail messages stored on Internet servers are protected by the Constitution as are telephone conversations and that a federal law permitting warrantless secret searches of e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. 'The Stored Communications Act is very important,' former federal prosecutor and counter-terrorism specialist Andrew McCarthy told United Press International. But the future of the law now hangs in the balance."
The Courts

Judge Deals Blow to RIAA 229

jcgam69 writes "A federal judge in New Mexico has put the brakes on the RIAA's lawsuit train, at least in the US District Court for New Mexico. The case in question is part of the RIAA's campaign against file-sharing on college campuses and names "Does 1-16," who allegedly engaged in copyright infringement using the University of New Mexico's network. In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA's motion to engage in discovery. This means that the RIAA will not be able to easily get subpoenas to obtain identifying information from the University."
Television

New Review Compares MythTV to Vista MCE 234

Parkus writes "There's a nice review on AVS forum of MythTV (Ubuntu) and Windows Vista MCE. The author tried both back to back and explains the pluses and minuses of each system after using them for a month. Helpful if you're thinking about setting up your own home theater rig."
Television

TiVo Says It Could Suffer Under GPLv3 710

Preedit writes to tell us that those busy folks over at InformationWeek have been scrutinizing yet more SEC filings, and Novell and Microsoft aren't the only ones concerned about certain provisions in the final draft of GPLv3. TiVo worries too. The problem is that TiVo boxes are Linux-based. They're also designed to shut down if the software is hacked by users trying to circumvent DRM features. But GPLv3 would prohibit TiVo's no-tamper setup. "If the currently proposed version of GPLv3 is widely adopted, we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business," TiVo warns in a regulatory filing cited by InformationWeek."
Microsoft

Some Journals Rejecting Office 2007 Format 474

hormiga writes "Some scholarly journals are rejecting submissions made using new Office 2007 formats. Science and Nature are among publishers unwilling to deal with incompatibilities in the new formats, and recommend using older versions of Office or converting to older formats before submission. The new equation editor is cited as a specific problem. Rob Wier recommends that those publishers consider using ODF instead."
Yahoo!

Fan Fiction Writers Balk at FanLib.com 178

bill jackson writes "A couple of former Yahoo execs are trying to create the next MySpace by aggregating fanfiction on a website called FanLib. But the fanfic writers recognized that exploitation was written all over the idea and they've refused to participate. 'Instead of creating the Myspace of fanfic since the launch two weeks ago, FanLib.com sparked a white-hot Internet firestorm.The meltdown is a hard lesson in how not to conduct business on the Internet.But it's a firestorm of FanLib's own making because, in spite of the Yahoo pedigree (or maybe because of it), they plowed in like china shop bulls.'"

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