hp48 - Slashdot User

Submission + - Do No Evil Doesn't Exclude Pushing the Law Around

Submitted by on Thursday February 01, 2007 @01:41PM

An anonymous reader writes: This associated press article briefly describes the arm-twisting that legislatures often endure from corporations in return for jobs and investment. The "surprise" to this is that it's not Big Oil or Tobacco, but instead our "Do no evil" friends at Google who are using up elected officials time and energy. Google then threatens to pull the plug over disobeyed orders to law makers not to mention the Google by name. And all this is occurring while the legislature is creating tax-free laws friendly to Internet companies...

Submission + - From the UK - Use your phone and lose your car

Submitted by

AlHunt

on Thursday February 01, 2007 @01:14PM

AlHunt writes: "Having confiscated 1800 cars, vans and motorcycles in 8 months, London police are expanding Operation Reclaim:

Controversial powers for police to confiscate vehicles if their driver is using a mobile or not wearing a seatbelt are to be used across London.
Think what you like about talking and driving — confiscation seems like a pretty extreme punishment."

Submission + - Tennessee Libel Bill Targets Internet

Submitted by

YIAAL

on Thursday February 01, 2007 @11:53AM

YIAAL writes: "Bill Hobbs reports on a Tennessee bill that would require that allegedly defamatory material on the internet be removed within two days of a complaint being made. The bill provides:

An owner or licensee of a web site or web page shall have fifteen (15) days to remove any defamatory statements about a person from such web site or web page; however if the owner or licensee has been given notice that such statements are defamatory then that owner or licensee shall have two (2) days from the date of the notice to remove the statements from the web site or web page, whichever is less. Failure to remove defamatory statements as provided in this section shall create a presumption of malice intent.
As the poor grammar suggests, this may not have been very well thought out, and it's almost certainly invalid under any reasonable interpretation of Federal (and Tennessee) constitutional law, not to mention the Communications Decency Act. But it serves as a warning that politicians remain anxious to shut down Internet criticism — and, of course, "reasonable" interpretations aren't always the interpretations we get in these cases. Were this bill to take effect, web publishers would basically be forced to remove material upon any charge that it's defamatory, as the risk of not doing so would be higher than most commercial concerns, or impecunious bloggers, would be willing to face."

Submission + - Games don't work on Vista

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01, 2007 @11:37AM

An anonymous reader writes: Apparently, most games won't work with Vista. Is this good news for Linux desktop adoption? Many people have said they would switch to Linux except that they can't play their favorite games. Well, now they can't play their favorite games on Windows either. http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/01/30/vista_games/ Of course this may mean that people just have to re-purchase the Vista version of all their games. Some/much hardware won't work with Vista either. One of the guys at school reports that he can't get Vista drivers for his All-in-Wonder card. Then there is the price of computers that can run Vista. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/31/vista_pric e_surprise/ I knew the stuff was more expensive but >$15000. OK, I know it's an extreme case. It makes me wonder if Vista is indeed the world's longest suicide note. http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/25/vista_suicide _note_r.html (this was covered previously on /.)

Submission + - The Trouble with Vista

Submitted by jcatcw on Thursday February 01, 2007 @11:30AM

jcatcw writes: After hundreds of hours of testing Vista, Scot Finnie is supremely tired of it. And of Microsoft. Although 80% of the changes in Windows Vista are positive, there is nothing about Vista that is truly innovative or compelling; there's no transformational, gotta-have-it feature in Vista. But the real problem isn't with Vista. It's with Microsoft itself. Microsoft stopped focusing on end users. They "now seemingly makes many decisions based on these two things: 1. Avoiding negative publicity (especially about security and software quality) 2. Making sure the largest enterprise customers are happy."

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