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Censorship

Submission + - The Gentleperson's Guide To Forum Spies (cryptome.org)

An anonymous reader writes: spies cointelpro disinformation This recently leaked document describes modern COINTELPRO techniques for manipulating Internet forums. Observant readers may have noticed these techniques being used in familiar online forums. Part of modern media literacy includes understanding these techniques. This document contains information about:
1. COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum
2. Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
3. Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist
4. How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)
5. Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Comment Re:Points on your license? (Score 3, Interesting) 151

Lol what? I visited San Francisco over Christmas and rented a home inside the city center, the bus system was great! The waits at any station was never > 7 minutes, and usually 2-3 minutes. Almost everyone there used the bus systems, and you can also use BART to get outside of the Bay area if you need to. I wish the public transportation in my area (Grand Rapids Michigan) was half as good as San Francisco.

I think commentators should stick to topics they are familiar with instead of making wild, false claims.

Comment Re:Models are always right! (Score 4, Interesting) 760

The models are off because up until 2009/2010-ish were actually experiencing a natural cooling trend, which masked our artificial warming trend and came out as a wash. Now that the cooling trend has subsided, warming is expected to spike in the coming decade.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090302199.html

Or we could just jump to convenient conclusions given a tiny dataset.
Space

Submission + - Stars Found to Produce Complex Organic Compounds (space.com)

InfiniteZero writes: Researchers at the University of Hong Kong observed stars at different evolutionary phases and found that they are able to produce complex organic compounds and eject them into space, filling the regions between stars. The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble the makeup of coal and petroleum, the study's lead author Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, said.

Submission + - BSD Licence vs Reality of Life (zedshaw.com)

kix writes: Well known and respected open source software author Zed Shaw writes a good essay about why he will only use the GPL licence from now on, instead of the BSD licence. The essay provides a fresh new look at why the difference between them really matters.

Comment Re:Kill it Oracle (Score 2) 338

If you follow it to it's logical conclusion, the best programmer's flip the machine bits by hand...

Correct: the best programmers can use machine code if needed. But the best programmers also don't abuse the apostrophe as much as you did...

If I found out someone was manipulating code at the machine level - I'd definitely have issues with that. You lose portability and expose yourself to a nearly infinite amount of issues - there really aren't many cases left where this would even be remotely advisable.

PS. Nitpicking grammar - that's nearly as bad as using machine code directly. :p

Comment Re:Easy reason (Score 5, Insightful) 533

This may be an unpopular theory, but I think Wikipedia's shrinking community has little to do with the admins behavior. I've only personally heard about their poor behavior from 3rd, 4th, or 5th hand accounts. But that's purely anecdotal and a side-tangent.

I think the reason the community is shrinking is because Wikipedia, at least the English version, is complete. I'm not implying that there isn't more information that can be added, but as far as the sum of human knowledge goes, I'd guess that they have gotten past that "magic" 95% marker for easily acquired knowledge. Most of the remaining work to be done is article maintenance, and filling in mundane details of niche articles or emerging fields. The days when 5th graders wrote articles on your home town or park near you is gone. My quaint home town article for Rockford, MI (a town with less than 5000 people) is nearly 3 pages long! (I can't believe there was enough to even fill in 1 page, after the generic census data...),

This isn't a bad thing. It's the natural evolution of such a site. Wales should pat himself on the back and congratulate the community for his contribution to society as a whole. Wikipedia is a job well done and has moved our world forward in a positive direction, in what is becoming a rarer achievement every day.

Submission + - Are Internet Explorer Users Dumb? (cnn.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: "Are users of other Web browsers smarter than the people who use Microsoft's Internet Explorer?" A new survey doesn't quite say so. But it sure as heck suggests it. The survey by AptiQuaint, a Vancouver-based Web consulting company, gave more than 100,000 participants an IQ test, while monitoring which browser they used to take the test.

The result? Internet Explorer users scored lower than average, while Chrome, Firefox and Safari users were slightly above average.

Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft's Web map exposes phone, PC locations (cnet.com)

suraj.sun writes: Microsoft has collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices around the world and makes them available on the Web without taking the privacy precautions that competitors have, CNET has learned.

The vast database available through Live.com publishes the precise geographical location, which can point to a street address and sometimes even a corner of a building, of Android phones, Apple devices, and other Wi-Fi enabled gadgets.

Unlike Google and Skyhook Wireless, which have compiled similar lists of these unique Wi-Fi addresses, Microsoft has not taken any measures to curb access to its database.

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20085028-281/microsofts-web-map-exposes-phone-pc-locations/?tag=topStories2

Cloud

Submission + - OpenStack: Managing Open Source For Profit, Well (itworld.com)

jfruhlinger writes: "By inclination or from experience, many in the open source community are suspicious of projects that are primarily managed by a single for-profit corporation — Java is a pretty good example of the compromises this entails. But the OpenStack cloud operating system, which is run by a for-profit division of Rackspace, does remarkably well for its community and its bottom line. What are the lessons to be learned?"
Security

Submission + - Skype update enables account theft (h-online.com)

suraj.sun writes: The recent update to Skype 5.5 for Windows contains a severe security vulnerability that allows attackers to get control of your Skype account, according to security expert David Vieira-Kurz. The update promises close integration with Facebook – for instance, you are to be able to track your Facebook friends' activities from your Skype client and even post wall messages from there. But it turns out that the process entails a real security risk, because the client executes JavaScript code in Facebook status messages without filtering.

Skype executes JavaScript code in Facebook comments without filtering Zoom In this way, an attackers can capture a Skype user's cookie, and hence that user's Skype session. The H's associates at heise Security were able to reproduce the problem.

H-online: http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Skype-update-enables-account-theft-1288403.html

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