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The Courts

Submission + - Revote likey because Diebold recount impossible

Aidtopia writes: A judge in Berkeley, California, has ordered a re-vote in a 2004 medical marijuana measure which had lost by fewer than 200 votes. A group supporting the measure requested a recount, which was meaningless since the Diebold electronic voting machines didn't produce physical ballots. The group petitioned for audit logs and other supporting documentation. The Registrar initially gave them the run-around, and, with a lawsuit pending, shipped the machines back to the manufacturer where 96% of the stored votes were erased. The ruling is tentative. The revote, if it happens, will be in the 2008 general election, using different electronic voting machines that produce a paper trail.
Networking

Submission + - A killer Internet connection for mom

Rurouni_Jaden writes: 75-year old woman given killer Internet connection from her son. Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said. In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19832184/
Software

Submission + - Open Standards Threatened in Europe (lwn.net)

An anonymous reader writes: From Open Standards: 'On June 29 2007, the European Commission agency IDABC published a document revising the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) and the Architecture Guidelines (AG). This second version wants to 'update' the previous version of the EIF but, contrary to the first version, it threatens explictely the good process of more open standards that had been a long time push of IDABC. "EIF v2.0 should facilitate the most profitable business model(s) of cost versus public value, under proper recognition of intellectual property rights, if any. The support for multiple standards allows a migration towards open standards when appropriate in the long run." There are unacceptable drawbacks from the previous "EIF 2004" that promoted the use of open standards as defined in this European definition, the use of free and open source softwares as well as XML.'

Who also reads 'Microsoft and OOXML out again to find some weak spot' between the lines? Help signing the campaign and sending complaining emails in the request for comments.

Announcements

Submission + - Italy forbids RIAA scare tactics (www.ansa.it)

eiapoce writes: In Italy it is forbidden for anybody to monitor internet trafic. This is stated in a recent article by the national press agency ANSA that I gladly translate for the slashdot readers:

http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/internet/n ews/2007-07-18_11897954.html

ROMA, 18 LUG — An italian court "ruled illegal for anyone to monitor network trafic". This is as declared by the innovation responsible of the green party, Mr. Cortiana. As announced by the green leader the Giudges approved the points forwarded from the Privacy Authority in the case of Peppermint against Telecom. This is a important ruling, sais Cortiana, because it sets a important principle: On the internet it is a (exclusive) duty of law forces and judges to investigate and enforce the law.

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The case Peppermin Jam Records VS Telecom originated when the Swiss firm Peppermint used scare tactics like those employed by the RIAA sending 3636 notification letters to Italian Users sharing licensed music on P2P network. Those letters were containing a invitation to deposit a sum of money or face a trial. Telecom initially opposed but was forced to deliver the names on spite of a european directive. Now the Giudges overturned this previous ruling.

On this page http://www.hardwaremax.it/20070718767/network/caso -peppermint-vietati-i-monitoraggi-in-rete.html

Cortiana also criticises the private firm: "Internet is not a 'nobody's land' where there are no rules and you can apply do-it-yourself laws, also on the internet real world citizenship rights apply" and continues as "business models should adapt and cosider that network sharing is a collective cognitive process"

Businesses

Submission + - Where does one find a DDoS-resistent ISP?

Anonumous Coward writes: Back in April, a friend's webserver was the target of a DDoS attack. The then ISP just null-routed everything and told my friend to go fetch his server. My friend shopped around frantically for an ISP who would protect him against the attack if it continued. It's not an online casino he runs, it's some non-profit anti-cult websites, so cost is a serious concern. He ended up with a "secure managed server" on Fedora 4 (!) with Plesk and no root access at a well-known Arizona domain registrar and ISP who shall remain unnamed. This ISP did in fact defeat the attack. The problem: he also defeated most of the scripts behind the websites, thus the websites themselves, and finally the admin too, who threw in the towel. The server and the local network are a maze of unbelievable misconfigurations, support is responsive and friendly but utterly useless, and most simple things like "please unblock port 25 so that the machine can reach the advertised MX host of its own domain" are "against company policy". I am now administrating that machine and I am at the end of my wits.

Before I throw in the towel, I thought I should ask slashdot for help. Do you know of any decent ISPs who can and will defend against attacks and won't charge you a fortune for it? How hard can it be to find one?

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