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Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Is representation obsolete?

Submitted by decent_dissent
decent_dissent writes: Could the Legislative branch of government, be replaced by collaborative software? Is representation obsolete? As it was explained to me, many years ago in grade school, the founding fathers chose representatives to participate in the day to day legislative functions. This was to not burden the citizens with traveling via horse or carriages, the long distances required to collaborate. It occurred to me that this is no longer true. All of the proposed bills could be handled like wiki's and content. The voting interface could be like an email inbox, with alerts and links to new bills. Participation could be all you can eat, as much or as little. Best of all, make it all OSS. While definitely not a perfect idea, I think that with the right code it might operate better than the current method. Being a daily reader of slashdot, I am curious as to what the readers here think. Please discuss.
Iphone

Submission + - Apple Blocks Open Source Syncing (Again)

Submitted by
marcansoft
marcansoft writes: "Since 2007, Apple has been locking their users into iTunes, which isn't available under Linux, by adding secret hashes to their iPod/iPhone databases. After this hash was reverse engineered, Apple developed a new one and tried and failed to use legal threats to stifle the reverse engineering effort. Last year, the hash was finally cracked and as of today iPhone and iPod Touch users can sync music using open source tools exclusively. This is about to change, though, as Apple have once again changed their hash algorithm for the iPad and will likely use this new version for their upcoming 4.0 iPhone OS release.

If you want to keep your ability to sync music using open source, you should not update. As part of their lock-in strategy, Apple are preventing newer devices from being downgraded by requiring any firmware updates to "phone home" for approval. The iPad already includes a version of the 3.2 OS with the new hash, and does not work out of the box."
Google

Submission + - Google accused of YouTube 'free ride' (ft.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google accused of YouTube 'free ride'. Telefonica, France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom all said Google should start paying them for carrying bandwidth-hungry content such as YouTube video over their networks.
Government

Submission + - S Korea Announces Daily MMO Blackouts for Youths (koreaherald.co.kr)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Via GamePolitics I heard that South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced two new policies that will force underage gamers to pick a six hour block of time (midnight-6 a.m.,1-7 a.m., or 2-8 a.m.) where they will not be able to play nineteen online role playing games. While it targets most popular MMORPGs, some popular games like "Lineage" were left off the list.

Submission + - U.S. Rejects Demands For ACTA Transparency (michaelgeist.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Trade Representative issued a release just prior to the launch of the New Zealand round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations that has left no doubt that the U.S. is the biggest barrier to official release of the ACTA text. Unlike most other ACTA countries that have called for transparency without condition, the U.S. has set conditions that effectively seeks to trade its willingness to release the text for gains on the substance of the text.
NASA

Submission + - NASA Unveils Sweeping New Programs for Next 5 Yrs

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "The NY Times reports that after terminating the Constellation program, which was to develop rockets to return humans to the moon, NASA has announced that instead it will focus on developing commercial flights of crew and cargo to the ISS and long-range technology to allow sustained exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, including exploration by humans. "We're talking about technologies that the field has long wished we had but for which we did not have the resources," says NASA administrator, Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr. "These are things that don't exist today but we'll make real in the coming years. This budget enables us to plan for a real future in exploration with capabilities that will make amazing things not only possible, but affordable and sustainable." Among the new programs is an effort known as Flagship Technology Demonstrations, intended to test things like orbital fuel depots and using planetary atmospheres instead of braking rockets to land safely, a program that will cost $6 billion over the next five years and will be run by the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Kennedy Space Center in Florida is to get $5.8 billion over five years to develop a commercial program for carrying cargo and astronauts to the space station. These new programs will be “extending the frontiers of exploration beyond the wildest dreams of the early space pioneers,” added Bolden."

Comment Privacy and Google don't go together (Score 2, Insightful) 391

by omega6 (#31258696) Attached to: Google Italy Execs Convicted Over YouTube Bullying Video
From the article it says that Google was convicted of violating privacy law for not getting permission to post the video. The nature of the video is irrelevant. I don't know Italian privacy law, but if they do have requirements that you must get permission to post video recordings of people on the internet, then this is Google's problem for not bothering to care about the local laws.
Politics

Submission + - Net Neutrality - Canada Liberal Party Q & A (liberal.ca)

Submitted by LibParty
LibParty writes: When we were asked by the Save Our Net Coalition to discuss our position on net neutrality and the future of the internet in general we jumped at the opportunity to be able to tell Canadians how we would steer Canada to be more competitive and innovative.

Below, you will find a series of Q&As we did with the Save Our Net Coalition. The Internet is the backbone of today’s flow of free ideas and sharing. The Liberal Party supports the principles of net neutrality and an open and competitive Internet environment.
Games

Pirates as a Marketplace 214

Posted by Soulskill from the marrrrrrrket-share dept.
John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, made some revealing comments in an interview with Kotaku about how the company's attitudes are shifting with regard to software piracy. Quoting: "Some of the people buying this DLC are not people who bought the game in a new shrink-wrapped box. That could be seen as a dark cloud, a mass of gamers who play a game without contributing a penny to EA. But around that cloud Riccitiello identified a silver lining: 'There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second sale market and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace,' he said, pointing to DLC as a way to do it. The EA boss would prefer people bought their games, of course. 'I don't think anybody should pirate anything,' he said. 'I believe in the artistry of the people who build [the games industry.] I profoundly believe that. And when you steal from us, you steal from them. Having said that, there's a lot of people who do.' So encourage those pirates to pay for something, he figures. Riccitiello explained that EA's download services aren't perfect at distinguishing between used copies of games and pirated copies. As a result, he suggested, EA sells DLC to both communities of gamers. And that's how a pirate can turn into a paying customer."

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