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Comment Re:Time to move the servers? (Score 1) 396

I really have no knowledge of the particulars of this group or incident. I’m just refuting your blanket statement, because it’s entirely possible to restrict freedom of speech by selective enforcement of regulations and laws and through untimely handling of paperwork. I can’t say whether or not this happened, only that I know it’s possible.

Biotech

Scientists To Breed the Auroch From Extinction 277

ImNotARealPerson writes "Scientists in Italy are hoping to breed back from extinction the mighty auroch, a bovine species which has been extinct since 1627. The auroch weighed 2,200 pounds (1000kg) and its shoulders stood at 6'6". The beasts once roamed most of Asia and northern Africa. The animal was depicted in cave paintings and Julius Caesar described it as being a little less in size than an elephant. A member of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology suggests that 99% of the auroch's DNA can be recreated from genetic material found in surviving bone material. Wikipedia mentions that researchers in Poland are working on the same problem."

Comment Re: Just like the FBI is not under local jurisdict (Score 1) 450

This basically allows a law enforcement officer to carry out his duties.

Why, exactly, do they need this protection? Especially given that criminal infiltration of law enforcement is something to guard against.

It is identical to when the FBI comes to a local town to investigate, they can not be hindered or stopped by the local law enforcement.

What if they hinder otherwise interfere with the investigations of local law enforcement? What if they break the law in the course of their activities?

This is obvious and should not raise any issues.

Anyone being "above the law" comes with a whole host of issues. Even more so if they are "law enforcement".

Comment Re:only 4 active windows at the moment... (Score 1) 258

I also heard the memory availabe to store applications is quite small, despite the shitload of memory the device has, which looks dumb. Is that true?

It is 2GB. The other 30GB is dynamically mounted/umounted when syncing to a external USB host (/home/user/MyDocs)

It should be possible to repartition /dev/mmcblk0 to increase the size of /home (and hence /home/opt) and reduce the size of /home/user/MyDocs.

Comment technical issue (Score 1) 308

this is, from my perspective, without a doubt a technical issue.

the people who got wiped out, if the killboards are correct - only destroyed 3 ships (helios, onyx and anathema)

for them to not have dropped any other ships in such and engagement, given their capability - can only mean they could not move or couldn't even see they were in a fight.

the killboards would also suggest the engagement was 421 against 65, even at those odds they should have destroyed a portion of the other fleet. even if it was 842 vs 65, nothing would prevent them from attacking except a technical issue.

i have been in engagements with over 800 in system (before dominion) and was able to function.

so, certainly there was a record broken on sheer lost of assets in one stroke, but it defiantly needs a foot note.

(also, if there was a deliberate attempt to drop the node, well yea - strike against them too, anyway)

there will no doubt be a rematch as the attacking alliance still owns another 20 titans

Comment Re:still flogging this old dead horse? (Score 1) 360

Sigh. You're not being creative enough. I never said that adjusting price upward cannot result in lower profits. I said that it comes out of profit doesn't mean you have to adjust downward the amount of profit you expect. Your original claim was that it follows necessarily ("their cost has got to come out of your profit"). My hypo gave an admittedly simplistic example of why that is not necessarily true.

Submission + - BBC's plan to kick free/open source out of UK TV (guardian.co.uk)

bluec writes: Generally speaking, the BBC isn't allowed to encrypt or restrict its broadcasts: the licence fee payer pays for these broadcasts. But the BBC has tried to get around this, asking Ofcom for permission to encrypt the "metadata" on its broadcasts – including the assistive information used by deaf and blind people and the "tables" used by receivers to play back the video. As Ofcom gears up to a second consultation on the issue, there's one important question that the BBC must answer if the implications of this move are to be fully explored, namely: How can free/open source software co-exist with a plan to put DRM on broadcasts?
The Courts

Submission + - Comcast Pays Out $16Million in P2P Throttling Suit (arstechnica.com)

eldavojohn writes: Comcast has settled out of court to the tune of $16 million for P2P throttling class action lawsuit in Pennsylvania. You may be eligible for up to $16 restitution if 'you live in the United States or its Territories, have a current or former Comcast High-Speed Internet account, and either used or attempted to use Comcast service to use The Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack or Gnutella P2P protocols at any time from April 1, 2006 to December 31, 2008; and/or Lotus Notes to send emails any time from March 26, 2007 to October 3, 2007.' $16 million seems a bit on the low end and it's too bad this was an out of court settlement instead of solid precedence for your right to use P2P applications and traffic. It's not clear on how this affects the slough of other Comcast P2P throttling suits or if they are included in this settlement or even if this satiates the FCC.
Microsoft

No More Fair-Price Refund For Declining XP EULA 339

mark0 writes "Getting a fair-price refund from Amazon or Asus after declining the Windows XP EULA appears to be a thing of the past. In contrast to reports from the US and the UK from earlier in the year, Amazon simply refuses and provides information to contact Microsoft. Asus is offering US$6. Despite being confronted with publicly available information about the real OEM price of Windows XP Home Edition being $US25-US$30, Asus replies, 'The refund price for the decline of the EULA is correct in it being US$6. This price unfortunately is not negotiable. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please be assured that it is not ASUS intentions to steer you away in any which way.'"

Comment Re:They don't itemize enough (Score 1) 520

If carriers are going to make termination fees proportional, why not just itemize the subsidy as a "handset finance payment" on the bill?

Because then the masses (well, the ones that read their bill every month) would realize they're getting hosed more easily. The cell companies don't want to give you any information that makes it easy to understand how badly you're getting screwed. It would hurt their business model.

Comment Re:Um, wasn't bloated Multics the reason *WHY* . . (Score 2, Insightful) 138

Linux and BSD are positively bloated compared to the first Unix systems. It first ran on a computer with only 64K after all. Unix wouldn't have survived if it had stuck to the first few versions, it would be far too limiting. What made it succeed, as opposed to its contemporaries, was that it was relatively portable and could migrate to better computers when they came along, and it was relatively open (for the time) so that others could grow and adapt it.

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