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Censorship

Submission + - Demonoid Blocks Canadian Users 1

Submitted by
Merritt.kr
Merritt.kr writes: "Seems that Demonoid, the popular torrent site (which even hosts Linux ISO's) has been forced by threat to start blocking Canadian users from accessing their site. From the site: "We received a letter from a lawyer represeting the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and We need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. If you reside in Canada, that is the reason you are being redirected to this message. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience." You can get around this of course, but up til now you didn't need to if you lived in Canada!"
Security

Submission + - Identity/ID Theft Trojan on Monster.com (informationweek.com) 2

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "Broadband Reports report an InformationWeek story on security researchers' finds that the popular Monster.com job site was being widely used for identity (ID) theft. Hackers are placing fake advertisements/ads, on the site, that infect computers running Windows. The Trojan takes information that job seekers place online which includes social security numbers. The scam is one of the biggest of its kind and could affect over 100,000 identities..."
Quickies

Submission + - Student finds 5000-year-old chewing gum (kierikki.fi)

Submitted by
itsthebin
itsthebin writes: "Sarah Pickin, 23, found the lump of birch bark tar — complete with neolithic tooth prints — on a dig in Finland. Ms Pickin's tutor at the University of Derby, Professor Trevor Brown, said birch bark tar contained phenols, which are antiseptic compounds. "It is generally believed that neolithic people found that by chewing this stuff if they had gum infections it helped to treat the condition. It's particularly significant because well-defined tooth imprints were found on the gum which Sarah discovered," he said. Ms Pickin was on a volunteer program at the Kierikki Centre on the west coast of Finland when she made the find. It is not for sale on Ebay yet :-)"
Windows

Submission + - Vista Performance Hotfixes are Published

Submitted by Annonymous Coward
Annonymous Coward writes: Many have been anticipating the releases of the Vista Performance and Compatibility hotfixes this Tuesday, but it has not been clear that they would be released on Patch Tuesday (8/14). However, there is some good news if you are anxious to load these updates. The final updates are out (not the Beta), and available by searching for the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.

Vista Performance and Reliability Pack:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; EN-US;938979

Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; EN-US;938194
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - iPhone's Ironic Bill

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Bills have begun rolling in from AT&T for those lucky iPhone users. Ars Technica reports on the ironically antithetic nature of these bills. For a device prized for its intuitive, elegant, and minimalist style, its bill leaves one with quite the opposite impression. The bills from AT&T, can reach around 52 pages long with both sides utilized, filled with every minutiae of vague details possible. "I had some data use that, under the To/From heading, AT&T has helpfully listed as "Data Transfer." The Type of file? "Data." My total charge? $0.00. " Imagining a minor phone book of logs like this certainly makes it hard to picture the pretty green apple it's coming from, maybe AT&T should take a page from Apple?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Plain packaging for tobacco products

Submitted by postosuchus
postosuchus writes: A new report which argues for mandatory plain packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products has been released on the Tobacco Control Supersite at the School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Australia. The report shows that legal objections raised by the tobacco industry about plain packaging violating laws and international trade agreements are without foundation. Plain packaging of all tobacco products would remove a key means for the tobacco industry to promote its products to billions of the world's smokers and future smokers. Many governments have already mandated that large proportions of the surface area of tobacco packs must be devoted to health warnings, without legal impediment or the need to compensate tobacco companies. Requiring plain packaging is a logical next step and is consistent with the intention to ban all promotion and marketing of tobacco products.
Businesses

Submission + - Penalizing for Poor Health 2

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Perhaps laying the groundwork for Sicko II, Clarian Health announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index is over 30. Even slim-and-trim employees have to worry about their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels — they'll be dinged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Smokers get a sneak preview of the policy starting next year, when they'll find $5 less in each check. Clarian credited new government HIPPAA rules that became effective July 1st for giving it the courage to follow its penalize-for-poor-health convictions."
Programming

Submission + - Hackers Extract Main Key to iPhone Unlocking (gizmodo.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: After reverse-engineering Nucleus, the iPhone's radio/multimedia chip RTOS, the iPhone Dev Team has achieved the next big milestone to free the iPhone from the AT&T network: they have extracted the full content of the S-Gold2 chip's NOR memory. Bluntly put, these are the plans for the damn Death Star and "is the main key to achieve true unlocking." They are also calling for donations to help them keep their efforts.
Television

Submission + - History Channel backpeddeling on upcoming 911 show 1

Submitted by one0them
one0them writes: The History Channel has been producing a 911 conspiracy documentary. So naturally whats on any conspiracy theorist's mind is will they discuss relivent facts and evidence, or will it be a parade of "straw-man" conspiracy theories (Bigfoot, Elvis, and Aliens did it) and pseudo-psychiatrists claiming "fools need to lie to themselves to feel better".

It has surfaced that the history channel has postponed the airing of the show one week, and changed the teaser description.

below is a snapshot of the old site
http://prisonplanet.com/images/august2007/020807sh ot.jpg

here is the updated version
http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&epis odeId=240087

so now the question, why did they change the description? the origional description read:
An Internet search for "9/11 conspiracy theories" yields nearly two million hits. Were the attacks on 9/11 perpetrated by the Bush Administration to advance its own interests? Could a government missile have hit the Pentagon? As outrageous as these ideas may sound, many people believe them. Why do these theories arise in the first place? An interview with James Meigs, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Mechanics, who refutes many of these theories. Watch as experts in the fields of aeronautics, engineering and the military put these theories to the test.

it was changed to:
Examines the various conspiracy theories espoused on the Internet, in articles and in public forums that attempt to explain the 9/11 attacks. It includes theories that the World Trade Center was brought down by a controlled demolition; that a missile, not a commercial airliner, hit the Pentagon; and that members of the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks in hopes of creating a war in the Middle East. Each conspiracy argument is countered by a variety of experts in the fields of engineering, intelligence and the military. The program also delves into the anatomy of such conspiracies and how they grow on the Internet.

dosn't look like much of a change except "members of the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks" sounds a lot more belevable than "attacks on 9/11 perpetrated by the Bush Administration" (implying the entire govt was involved), the aeronautics experts were switched for intelligence agents, and all reference to Popular Mechanics vanishes.

A while back, Pop Mechanics released an edition called debunking 911 myths so we already know there opinion on that one.

What's more important is Alex Jones reported that the history channel is owned by Hearst Publications, the same people who sell popular mechanics. If this is true then it means The History Channel interviewed their BOSSES to see what they thought about what they had already decided on.

Alex is demanding a disclosure that the show is an infomercial for their owner's magazine.

Now to the topic of Hearst Publications:
Hearst Publications is probably best known for it's infamous owner William Randolph "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Hearst. That famous quote was to a photographer with reference to a FICTITIOUS Mexican American war which Hearst was writing about in his newspaper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hear st

A lesser known case of the meddling mister Hearst is the lobbying which lead to the passage of an unconstitutional prohibitive tax law against the "Demon Marihuana" which was just the Spanish name for the hemp plant which had been used for rope, and paper, and sails, and clothing for years (but not Hearst's paper because he was in a deal with dupont to produce wood pulp paper) (and not used in dupont's new Nylon rope). it is suspicious that the illegal tax act was passed 2 years after an automatic hemp stripping machine was made (which would likely have undercut nylon, and wood paper)

  Hearst papers WERE a textbook example of "yellow journalism", we hope they have reformed, but they haven't given any evidence to support it.

I know there are good people at the history channel, they produce shows about corruption all the time, as with the BBC. But when the BBC took on 911, they ended up with a documentary which asked the hard questions, then debunked some of the official theory, then talked about some of the conspiracy theories, then put some of the easy questions to rest, let the hard ones fester, and then implied that they had debunked every single conspiracy theory and answered all the questions. Then they rolled the credits with the director of the x-files talking in a soothing voice about people who couldn't accept reality embracing theory's which simplify the world.

I hope the history channel doesn't presume to know just what did happen (I don't), and presents the evidence fairly. But they had better get rid of the interview with their bosses or else it's gonna look silly.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - iD and Valve violating GPL

Submitted by frooge
frooge writes: With the recent release of iD's catalog on Steam, it appears DOSBox is being used to run the old DOS games for greater compatibility. According to a post on the Halflife2.net forums, however, this distribution does not contain a copy of the GPL license that DOSBox is distributed under, which violates the license. According to the DOSBox developers, they were not notified that it was being used for this release.
Announcements

Submission + - Medison comes out in open regarding $150 laptop 3

Submitted by
Vinit
Vinit writes: "Medison's representatives have come out in open to say they aren't fakes and the controversial $150 laptop is on it's way for 15 August release (hopefully). In a press conference in Sweden, Medison displayed the notebook in front of ten journalists and defended itself against accusations of fraud. Regarding the low price of it's laptop, Medison said it's not their main revenue source. They plan to make money by advertising on it's site. http://www.pclaunches.com/notebooks/medison_comes_ out_in_open_regarding_celebrity_laptop.php"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - Id Goes Full Steam Ahead

Submitted by Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman writes: Today, quite wisper and rumors became fact as two FPS giants, Id and Valve joined forces to bring Id games back catalog to Valve's Steam. This marks a huge influx of old classics as well as opening up the possibility of bringing some of the newest, most anticipated Id games to Steam. Expect to hear more from Valve's appearance at Quakecon soon.

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