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The Media

Congress Creates Copyright Cops 533

Posted by Zonk from the story-you-are-about-to-see-is-a-fib-but-its-short dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Not satisfied with pitiful potential penalties of $150,000 for infringing upon a $0.99 song, Congress is proposing new copyright cops in the "'PRO IP' Act of 2007, specifically the creation of the Office of the United States Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER). They also feel that the authorities need the authority to seize any computers used for infringement and to send copyright cops abroad to help other countries enforce US laws. MPAA boss Dan Glickman praised the bill saying that, 'films left costs foreign and domestic distributors, retailers and others $18 billion a year,' though Ars points out that it allegedly costs the studios only $6 billion."

Comment Re:Who's the only country to have ever used nukes? (Score 1) 1033

by buzzcutbuddha (#21282127) Attached to: House Narrowly Avoids Having to Debate Impeachment of Cheney
If I could burn all my moderation points to mod the parent up I would. It amazes me that 50 years ago the US was willing to stand up to the Soviet Union and risk total nuclear annihilation in the process in the name of preserving essential liberties. And today we have leaders who ask us to give up our liberties, while undermining them in secret out of fear of a potential terrorist attack in some vague future scenario which may or may not include a nuclear bomb.

It makes me wish for a leader like Eisenhower, who incidentally said:
"How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"
Security

The Java Popup you Can't Stop 480

Posted by CmdrTaco from the once-you-pop dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In his brand new hackademix.net blog, Giorgio Maone, known as the author of the NoScript security extension for Firefox, reveals how popup blockers can be easily circumvented using Java. Worse, popups opened this way are really evil, because they can be sized to cover the whole desktop (the wet dream of any phisher) and cannot be closed by user (the wet dream of any web advertiser). Impressive demos available, all cross-browser and cross-platform, in the best Java tradition: 'Write once, hack anywhere' "
Google

Submission + - Google News Adds (Special) Comments

Submitted by Philipp Lenssen
Philipp Lenssen writes: Google News now allows individuals or organizations who are mentioned in news stories to add comments. (I've posted some screenshots.) "Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we'll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as 'comments' so readers know it's the individual's perspective, rather than part of a journalist's report," Google writes in the official Google News blog. Comments (for the US version of Google News only, right now) need to be sent to news-comments@google.com and will then be manually approved to verify that the sender is indeed who they claim they are. You can check out a live example at Google News.

Feed Schneier: Another Biometric: Vein Patterns (schneier.com)

From feed by bsfeed
Interesting: In fact, vein recognition technology has one fundamental advantage over finger print systems: vein patterns in fingers and palms are biometric characteristics that are not left behind unintentionally in every-day activities. In tests conducted by heise, even extreme close-ups...
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Russia working to claim Arctic (foxnews.com)

Submitted by Crazy Taco
Crazy Taco writes:
Two deep-diving Russian mini-submarines descended more than 2 1/2 miles under North Pole ice to stake a flag on the ocean floor Thursday, part of a quest to bolster Russian claims to much of the Arctic's oil-and-mineral wealth.


So, according to Russian thought in this article, does the United States just get the moon then? After all, we went there and planted our flag. Should that be ours? Should we just give in and accept that the Russians get the Arctic for planting a flag, since that gives us the moon (which is WAY better in the long run)?

Feed Science Daily: Why Do Children Experience A Vocabulary Explosion At 18 Months Of Age? (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Researchers have long known that at about 18 months children experience a vocabulary explosion, suddenly learning words at a much faster rate. They have theorized that complex mechanisms are behind the phenomenon. But new research suggests far simpler mechanisms may be at play: word repetition, variations in the difficulty of words, and the fact that children are learning multiple words at once.

Feed Science Daily: Identifying The Mechanism Behind A Genetic Susceptibility To Type 2 Diabetes (sciencedaily.com)

From feed by sdfeed
Type 2 diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the developed world. Determining if and how certain genes predispose individuals to type 2 diabetes is likely to lead to the development of new treatment strategies for individuals with the disease. A new study now shows that certain variants of the gene TCF7L2 make individuals more susceptible to type 2 diabetes and provides a mechanism by which these genetic variants might cause susceptibility to the disease.

Ruby For Rails 173

Posted by samzenpus from the get-on-the-train dept.
Simon P. Chappell writes "This may not be the book that you think it is, if you don't read the title carefully, but it is the book you need, if you are developing applications for Ruby On Rails (often known as just Rails, or RoR, to its friends). When learning any new development platform, there are many idioms and approaches, best practices if you will, that can benefit your development efforts. This book sets out to bring you that understanding of the best way to write the Ruby side of your Rails application." Read the rest of Simon's review.

Not Your Daddy's IT Force Anymore 342

Posted by Hemos from the relearning-the-new-skills dept.
Quill345 writes "The days of high-paying technology-based jobs right out of highschool are over. As writers for ACM report, the skill-sets required for jobs have grown over time. Academia has responded to the evolution with novel programs recruiting women and integrating IT into MBA programs. And as technology finds its way into every aspect of business life, the NSF is creating a grant program to fund service science, a blend of IT into other industries. Researchers at City University of NY are working on an NSF-funded project to infuse technology into Liberal Arts courses taken by students who are in primary tech-producer or tech-consumer majors. What are these crucial modern skills? Knowledge of laws like the DMCA? Interpersonal and group work skills? Experience with different technology platforms? The ability to discriminate between useful and useless information sources?"

U.S. Investigating Online Music Pricing 213

Posted by Zonk from the at-least-its-price-fixed-low dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Times Online has a story about the U.S. Federal Government investigating whether the music labels are fixing prices for online music sales. 'The antitrust division is looking at the possibility of anti-competitive practices in the music download industry ... Mr Jobs suggested such a move would drive owners of Apple's iPod, the hugely popular digital music player, to piracy, a problem that has cost the music industry billions in revenues in recent years.'"

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