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Journal SPAM: "I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America" 4

"ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America,

Remember the community of outrage and national resolve? America had not been so united since the first Day of Infamy - 12/7/41.

We knew who the enemy was then.

America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

Bug

Submission + - Y2K bug causes overestimation of global temps (blogspot.com)

NtroP writes: Canadian statistician Steven McIntyre noticed a problem with the temperature records he was reviewing. After digging deeper he discovered a Y2K-related error in the temperature adjustment calculations which caused temperatures to be incorrectly reported. When he pointed out the error to the Goddard Institute for Space Science, they concurred and quietly changed the data. The fact that the temperature changes appear to weaken the position of those who claim that global warming is due to man-made greenhouse gasses means that the media is not likely report this. FTA:

"What USA Today published about 1996 to 2006 being the warmest decade was widely accepted as factual. Yet three of the five warmest years were not in the last decade at all, they were 73, 86 and 76 years ago. And they were before man-made greenhouse gases could be blamed. And three of the next five hottest years also are a bit early to be blamed on man: 1953, 1938 and 1939."
Whatever your position is about man's impact on global warming, it should be based on data that is as accurate as possible.

Censorship

Australia to Offer Widespread ISP-level Filtering 208

Phurge writes "According to a Sydney Morning Herald article, the Australia government has decided to take the controversial step of having internet service providers filter web content at the request of parents, in a crackdown on online bad language, pornography and child sex predators. 'The more efficient compulsory filtering of internet service providers (ISPs) was proposed in March last year by the then Labor leader, Kim Beazley. At the time, the Communications Minister, Helen Coonan, and ISPs criticised his idea as expensive. Three months later Senator Coonan announced the Government's Net Alert policy, which promised free filtering software for every home that wanted it. She also announced an ISP filtering trial to be conducted in Tasmania. That trial was scrapped. Today Mr Howard will hail the ISP filtering measure as a world first by any Government, and is expected to offer funding to help cover the cost. Parents will be able to request the ISP filter option when they sign up with an ISP. It will be compulsory to provide it. The measures will come into effect by the end of this month.'"
Hardware Hacking

Chinese Pirates Copy iPhone, Make Improvements 716

An anonymous reader writes "Popular Science notes that manufacturers in China duplicate many well-know products. This includes the Apple iPhone, imitations of which are rolling off the assembly line already. That might actually be a good thing for some users, who might enjoy the user experience of China's own miniOne. 'It ran popular mobile software that the iPhone wouldn't. It worked with nearly every worldwide cellphone carrier, not just AT&T, and not only in the U.S. It promised to cost half as much as the iPhone and be available to 10 times as many consumers.' The cloned iPhone uses a Linux-based system. 'The cloners hire a team of between 20 and 40 engineers to begin decoding the circuit boards. At the same time, coders start to develop an operating system for the phone with a similar feature set. (The typical cloner either uses off-the-shelf code, writes something entirely new, or modifies a publicly available Linux-based system.)' Using the iPhone as an example, the PopSci site walks through the process of making imitation technology."
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors Webcast

iter8 writes: AT&T's "content monitor" muted part the lyrics of Pearl Jam's "Blue Room" during a live Lollapalooza Webcast sponsored by the telecom, censoring some anti-George Bush lyrics link. AT&T says it was a "a major mistake by a webcast vendor and completely contrary to our policy. We are working closely with the vendor and the band to post the song in its entirety on this site and ensure that this does not happen again." Pearl Jam says "But what if there is only one provider from which to choose? If a company that is controlling a webcast is cutting out bits of our performance — not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations -fans have little choice but to watch the censored version. What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band."
Music

Submission + - When IP Protection Incites Consumer Rage

An anonymous reader writes: How many industries of late have managed to generate such genuine consumer hatred over the last several years? says Richard Menta about the record industry. He was refering to that industry's aggressive activities to control its content in the digital age and he makes a solid argument that these efforts, including oppressive DRM tactics and legal actions, have alienated the consumer to the point where it is a key contributor to decreasing CD revenues. This quarter alone EMI saw a 20% drop in CD sales, while Warners 3rd quarter loss widened. The article lays out 17 events including the Sony rootkit scandal and the payola scandal that have tarnished the industry's public image and undermined its credibility with the average record buyer.
Google

Submission + - Google Filters Torrents From Search Results (torrentfreak.com) 1

HiddenL writes: According to TorrentFreak.com:

Google has been filtering its search results for years. That's proven very useful for the Chinese government, and of course content owner representatives like the MPAA and RIAA. According to Google, the filtering of torrents from the search results is a response to the DMCA complaints they receive. The owner of SumoTorrent told TorrentFreak that he discovered that A search on Google for sumotorrent now triggers the following message at the bottom of the results page:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.
A search for other BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy and Torrentreactor comes up with the same message (note. the sites are still indexed but some results are removed).
Apparently "Do No Evil" includes mass filtering of legitimate content.

Security

Submission + - Wikipedia unmasks top US spy -- 15 months ago

sgml4kids writes: Yahoo News is reporting that Jose Rodriguez, head of the CIA's National Clandestine Service has unmasked himself in the months preceding his upcoming retirement. From TFA:

Rodriguez is the most important man in the U.S. spy game whose name you probably never knew. When he was mentioned publicly before now, he was referred to only as "Jose."
You probably never knew "Jose"'s real identity, unless, of course you've looked up "Director of National Clandestine Service" on Wikipedia anytime in the last 10 months or Rodriguez's own Wikipedia entry as early as 15 months ago.
Censorship

Submission + - Liberal Democracy Becomming Corporate Dictatorship (democracynow.org)

dhavleak writes: "John Pilger (a reputed investigative journalist and documentary film maker who acted as a war correspondent in conflicts in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh and Bahrain) recently gave a stirring speech at the Socialism 2007 conference in Chicago. The speech is a startling reminder of how mainstream journalism is just an extension of government, and it encourages people to keep reading between the lines to see the concealed role of the media. From the transcript:

Real information, subversive information, remains the most potent power of all — and I believe that we must not fall into the trap of believing that the media speaks for the public. That wasn't true in Stalinist Czechoslovakia and it isn't true of the United States.
and..

We now know that the BBC and other British media were used by the British secret intelligence service MI-6. In what they called Operation Mass Appeal, MI-6 agents planted stories about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, such as weapons hidden in his palaces and in secret underground bunkers. All of these stories were fake. But that's not the point. The point is that the work of MI-6 was unnecessary, because professional journalism on its own would have produced the same result.
"

The Internet

Submission + - Expert Claims Internet is NOT Haven for Pedophiles (timpeut.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A University of California PhD student has claimed the Internet is NOT a haven for pedophiles.

Danah Boyd, a University of California PhD student and social networking guru, told delegates at the Generation MySpace seminar in Brisbane on Monday that the internet itself was not to blame for online sexual stalking. "The data shows that this is basically not an issue to be worried about," she said during a break.

Programming

Submission + - An Open Source Social Network That Don't Suck?

cyphgenic writes: Why isn't there an open source social network web application that doesn't suck? There are a few packages on freshmeat that are pre-alpha or just plain don't work because there's a lot of hacking to be done. There are some packages that cost you money, which makes you think that they haven't really figured the data structures for social networking. They are learning on your dime. There are some packages that look like a scalability nightmare waiting to happen.

So, what gives? Why won't friendster open source itself? Why won't any of these social networks open their code base? I'm pretty sure it could benefit from the wisdom of crowds.
Patents

Submission + - Google circles wagons to protect Linux

inkedgeek writes: Google has stepped up to join the ranks of IBM and Oracle to join the Open Invention Network. The Open Invention Network members share their Linux patents with each other and offer the prospect of a joint defense if Linux is confronted with a legal challenge. Google hasn't announced which patents will be added to the OIN portfolio, but with it's current standing of about 100 patents, this certainly will strngthen the OIN's ability to challenge threatening patent cases monted against Linux.
Patents

Patent Lawsuits Galore 149

eldavojohn writes "Guess who owns the patent on the touch-screen keyboard. Not Apple — SP Technologies has filed a suit based on just that. Ars brings out the intriguing detail that the founder of the patent troll company is serving prison time for health-care fraud." Read on for four more patent developments in the day's news.

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