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Comment Re:Theoretical Problem. (Score 1) 210

But maybe low orbit isn't really more bigger than the pacific ocean than the proposed nets are to pool skimmers.

Let me try again :-)

Low orbit is big, but so is the pacific ocean. And these nets are big too, much bigger than pool skimmers. Plus, they could hang out for a long time with little or no human intervention.

And probably someone has, in fact, used a pool skimmer to clean something out of the Pacific Ocean in a useful way.

So it sounds like it could be a useful plan.

Sony

Submission + - Gitorious refuses to remove other PS3 content (jailbreakscene.com)

xstahsie writes: Sony recently demanded Gitorious to take down PS3 related repositories that are in violation of their copyrights/patents. Gitorious complied and removed what was asked but now they are refusing to remove any more content until Sony can prove that it is in violation of Norwegian law--since the claim made on February 1st, 2011 was referencing US law.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Why? 1

Why would anyone write in their journal?

It's 2/3/11. How long before I read this again?

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Asking Congress for Patent Reform (redmondmag.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's legal counsel is asking Congress to reform existing U.S. patent law by making five change that "stakeholders" want — including "weeding out bad patents," changing to a "first inventor to file" policy and allowing third parties to submit prior art.
Censorship

Submission + - Wyden Asks DHS To Explain Domain Seizures (techdirt.com)

An anonymous reader writes: With Homeland Security continuing to seize domain names without warning and without giving site operators a chance to respond to charges, it appears that at least some people in the US government are quite concerned about this turn of events. Techdirt has a copy of the full letter Senator Wyden has sent to both Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE director John Morton, asking a series of pointed questions concerning the domain seizures and how they impact due process, free speech and sovereign rule in foreign countries.

Comment Re:Century (Score 2) 495

it was given to barack obama, because instead of emphasizing divisions and accumulated (rightful) anger, he chose to express a road of peace, union and collaboration in between races, and managed to successfully bring black and white together during his election campaign

As far as I could tell, he conducted a very ordinary campaign for a Democratic presidential candidate with the exception of himself being a black dude. This is not particularly noteworthy, and in my opinion, that speaks the loudest.

You make it sound as if US politics is being conducted in the deep South in 1965 or something with race riots and the like dominating the political process. That's absurd. It's not like that and the proof is in the fact that the majority of Americans voted for him and race wasn't really an issue.

Give the Nobel Prize to the American people for that. Obama was mostly in the right place at the right time.

Comment Re:This is fantastic news. (Score 1) 840

Sigh. I may not believe in links, but I guess you don't believe in search engines. But since you asked so nicely here's a quote from the second search hit:

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.

There are other references to this in the press, but as you said, I don't believe in links. Or maybe they aren't links I can believe in. Or maybe one of us just isn't believing hard enough.

Comment Re:Internet kill switch (Score 1) 840

Haha, they'd better be sure to phone and email their reserves and tell them to show up for that mission _before_ they take out the ISPs. They'd also better order some extra food ahead of time because those distribution channels are going down too.

There's probably nothing that could hamper a US mobilization more at this point than doing what Egypt is doing.

Censorship

Submission + - Google Censors 'Piracy Terms' From Instant Search (torrentfreak.com)

Chaonici writes: A few weeks ago, Google promised that, on behalf of the entertainment industries, they would begin filtering 'piracy related' terms from their search system. Now, TorrentFreak reports that Google has lived up to their promise, and certain keywords (such as 'bittorrent' and 'rapidshare') will no longer produce results with the Autocomplete or Instant Search features. The standard search feature, however, continues to display results as normal. Simon Morris of BitTorrent Inc., RapidShare, and Jamie King (the founder of Vodo) are critical of the change, pointing out the many legitimate uses of popular file-sharing technology.

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