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Comment Finally (Score 5, Interesting) 155

by philmarcracken (#39741465) Attached to: Australian ISP Wins Case Against Movie Studios
I'm gladdened that the courts saw the logical fallacy of allowing one corporation legal rights to force another corporation to lose profits through direct cost or degradation of service based on a failure to adapt to market changes.

While i agree there is value being lost through piracy it just seems the courts were the easier path to take instead of adaptation and new delivery methods. That might require some planning and work after all.
I'm in 100% agreement with Gabe Newell from Valve that piracy is largely a service problem.

But since these fellows at the RIAA and the MPAA seem hell bent on using the copyright laws like a club to beat the ISPs and potential customers over the head with in order to get their way, will anything change?

Comment Re:Judgement (Score 2) 121

by philmarcracken (#39530599) Attached to: Australian National Broadband Network Releases 3-Year Plan

And private industry has historically been less effective in Australian telecommunications due to the dirty great monopoly of Telstra - which is just being replaced by the dirty great monopoly of the NBN.

Telstra was a monopoly in both the wholesale and retail sector. With this they could simply move the wholesale costs of services for competitors to just below that of their retail service offerings with their retail arm having to pay none of the wholesale costs, just overheads of a traditional retail business.

This is the current 'price squeeze' under investigation by the ACCC, again.

The NBN is a wholesale only network.. I fail to see how they could abuse a monopoly position in this manner... other than perhaps rising wholesale prices directly but lets be honest the government isn't as greedy as Telstra which, is saying something. Additionally every RSP that's using the network will make a fuss if the price rise was unjustified.

Comment Initial Fuel Cost? (Score 1) 65

Isn't the main aim of these type of rockets with no multi-stage deployment to be cost effective at launching?

Why are they launching from a static position when generating that kind of lift will cost the most.. What about building a railgun type launching platform into the ground to avoid some of the massive fuel costs on the initial burn?

Yes im aware theres no matching launcher on the moon but the gravity there is alittle bit kinder so im guessing the initial fuel costs are much less.
Security

Submission + - SCADA Systems Found to Have Numerous Built-In Flaw (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: A long list of industrial-control modules manufactured by Schneider Electric and used to control operations at various industrial facilities contain multiple weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker to modify the firmware, login remotely and run arbitrary code on the vulnerable components. Security researcher Ruben Santamarta discovered and disclosed the problems and the ICS-CERT is warning users about the issue, as well.

The devices in question are Ethernet modules that are designed to communicate with programmable logic controllers over a network. They're used in industrial control systems and Santamarta took a look at the firmware that's used on the modules and found that not only were they accessible over the Internet, but also had a slew of hidden accounts, many with hard-coded passwords. His research shows that, with services such as Telnet, FTP and others exposed and available for attackers to probe, the systems running on these Schneider Electric Quantum Ethernet Modules are vulnerable to several kinds of attack.
Hardware

Submission + - Berkeley creates electronic skin from carbon nanot (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Using semiconductor-enriched carbon nanotubes, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Berkeley Lab have pioneered a technique for creating large-scale, flexible, inexpensive, thin-film transistor “electronic skin.” These stretchy, rugged sheets are the first step in creating wearable computers, intelligent sensors that can treat infections, and computers/books that can be folded up into a jacket pocket. The team took a thin sheet of polyamide, laser-cut stretchable hexagonal cells into it, then deposited layers of silicon, aluminium oxide, and finally the carbon nanotubes. The end result is a thin-film, active matrix of transistors that the engineers then wired up to a computer to create a 96-pixel, 24-square-centimeter pressure sensor. A heavy weight was used to show how strong the polyamide electronic skin is — and the main advantage of plastic electronics over other solutions — such as inkjet-printed electronics — is ruggedness."
Patents

Submission + - Amazon Big Brother patent knows where you'll go (cbsnews.com)

Submitted by bizwriter
bizwriter writes: A new patent for Amazon just put the company squarely in the location tracking controversy. It covers a system to not only track, through mobile devices, where individuals or aggregated users have been, but determine where they're likely to go next to better target ads, coupons, or other messages that could appear on a mobile phone or on displays that individuals are likely to see in their travels. The system could also use someone's identity to further tailor the marketing according to demographic information.
Cellphones

Submission + - Is NTSB call for ban on electronics for drivers re (itworld.com)

Submitted by bdking
bdking writes: In a country where cellphones are as prevalent as drivers' licenses and vehicles, is it possible for states to effectively ban the use of electronic devices while behind the wheel, as the National Transportation Safety Board recommends? Or would it be just as futile as trying to stop drunk driving when there's a bar and happy hour on every corner and alcohol is sold in convenience stores?
Google

Submission + - Quantum PageRank faster than Google's classical ph (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "PageRank, one of the most significant inventions in recent history, has been converted by some Spanish computer scientists into a quantum algorithm that outperforms its classical physics predecessor. In the last few years there has been a steady growth of quantum networks — networks that communicate using entangled photons; usually for the sake of cryptography — and at some point, the classical web (in both senses) will probably be replaced (or augmented) by a network of quantum nodes. The quantum PageRank is essentially a quantized version of the classical PageRank, with a few band aids slapped on to take care of niggling quantum issues that Page and Brin (shockingly) didn’t foresee. The best way to think of this is to picture a quantum crawler that makes its way around a quantum network. The importance of a page/node is the chance of the crawler being found there at any given instant."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Evangelist Promises Windows Phones For t (wmpoweruser.com)

Submitted by Roman Grazhdan
Roman Grazhdan writes: Ben Rudolph, a Microsoft evangelist, tries to launch 'Get The Facts 2.0', viral and involving social networks, and this time Android is the target. Five Windows phones are to be raffled off among the authors of anti-Android tweets. It's quite a smart move, #droidrage storm is rising on Twitter, and Android fans will not even be able to strike back: much less people have seen Windows Phone, not to mention being outraged by it.
Idle

Submission + - Xmas Gifts That Maim or Poison Children?

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: If you've procrastinated on your Xmas shopping this year, fear not: Gawker's just published its tongue-in-cheek 2011 Top Picks for Gifts That Maim or Poison Children. Until President Nixon enacted the first national safety standard for playthings with the Toy Safety Act in 1969, the toy industry was pretty much anything-goes. As a result of the legislation, children may live longer, but they'll never know the joys of many beloved-but-dangerous classics, including Zulu Guns, Jarts, and Clackers.
Piracy

Submission + - Anti-Piracy Ad Caught Using Pirated Music (summify.com)

Submitted by
addam666
addam666 writes: "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag...

We all know how the rest goes, because thanks to the Motion Picture Association Of America and their foreign associates, every time you hire a DVD, you have to sit through this ad before you get to the main menu. But in what must be the most delicious slice of irony served this year, it has just been discovered that that the music used to soundtrack this 50-second pain in the ass is actually stolen."

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