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Sci-Fi

William Gibson's AGRIPPA Recovered and Revealed 98

Posted by kdawson from the gripping-hand dept.
Bud Cook writes "While the text of William Gibson's elusive electronic poem AGRIPPA is widely posted around the Web, it has not been seen in its original incarnation — custom-built software designed to scroll the poem through a single play before encrypting each line with an RSA algorithm — since 1992. Today is the 16th anniversary, to the day, of the poem's initial release. A team of scholars at the University of Maryland and UC Santa Barbara used forensic computing to restore the code from an original diskette loaned by a collector and have placed video of the complete 'run,' as well as never-before-seen footage from the night of AGRIPPA's public debut in 1992, up on a Web site called the Agrippa Files. There's also a detailed essay documenting the forensic process, plus a mess of stills, screenshots, and a copy of the disk image itself."
United States

House Narrowly Avoids Having to Debate Impeachment of Cheney 1033

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sweep-it-under-the-committee-rug dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday successfully moved articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney to the House Judiciary committee. 'Today's resolution from Kucinich (D-Ohio) was essentially the same as the legislation he introduced earlier this year, which included three articles of impeachment against Cheney based largely on allegations that he manipulated intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. The last article accuses Cheney of threatening "aggression" against Iran "absent any real threat."'"
Hardware Hacking

Linux-Powered Lego-Like Devices Target Developers 164

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the plug-and-play dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A six-person startup is readying a product resembling nothing so much as a set of electronic Legos for device designers. The idea is to provide a set of snap-together components from which engineers can build 'anything,' the company claims, without having to learn solid state electronics. Both hardware and software (Linux/Java phoneME/OSGi) are open source, so that over time, the Lego box will grow, the company hopes. Initially, there's an ARM11-powered base with built-in wifi, and modules for camera, GPS, motion detector, LCD display, keyboard, touchscreen, and stereo speakers. Ooh, and a mysterious 'teleporter,' too."
Windows

Windows Genuine Advantage Servers Out 300

Posted by kdawson from the single-point-of-disadvantage dept.
krewemaynard writes to let us know that Microsoft has been having major problems with its WGA servers since at least Friday evening. Quoting Ars: "Users of both Windows XP and Windows Vista were writing to say that they could not validate their installations using WGA, and one user even said that his installation was invalidated by the service... The Microsoft WGA Forums are full of problem reports, and Microsoft WGA Program Manager Phil Liu has acknowledged that there is a problem, and that MS is investigating." Update: 07/25 22:10 GMT by KD :Microsoft has identified and fixed the problem and posted instructions for anyone whose system mistakenly failed a WGA check. (The link posted earlier was to a 2006 article.)

Feed Engadget: Microsoft's WGA servers down, everyone's a pirate today (engadget.com)

From feed by engfeed

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hope you weren't planning on installing "your" legally purchased copy of XP or Vista today, Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage servers are down at the moment, meaning your Vista install will go into "reduced functionality mode" when you fail to check in with Big Brother, and your XP install will just be generally cranky until you can give that license information to The Man. Microsoft's tech support seems to be vaguely aware of the issue, and recommends trying again on Tuesday the 28th, since the server "might be down for a few days." Oh, is that all?

[Via Boing Boing; thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Windows

Submission + - Microsoft's WGA servers dead, fix days away

Submitted by Downgrade
Downgrade writes: Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage system is offline, so users who are attempting to validate their installs are getting notices that their copies of Windows are not legit. The company is now saying that it is working to have a fix not later today, not tomorrow, but on Tuesday! Ars says that users who are hit by the outage should avoid rebooting their computers, because WGA failures will result in Aero being disabled. Way to punish your customers, Microsoft!
Windows

Submission + - Microsoft WGA servers down (boingboing.net)

Submitted by
MarkByers
MarkByers writes: "DRM bites again: the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage servers (which every XP and Vista install phones home to) all failed sometime earlier today.

The result? Every single Windows XP and Vista installation — except possibly those with volume license keys — is being marked as counterfeit when it tries to check in. Installations which are flagged as counterfeit switch to a "reduced functionality mode" which results in features like Aero and DirectX being disabled."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft activation servers are down

Submitted by anders
anders writes: On Thursday I decided to rebuild my laptop and (re-)install Vista. I activated and everything was fine until sometime yesterday, when Aero stopped working and dialogs started popping up telling me I am the victim of counterfeiting. Since my copy of Vista if perfectly legit, I did a bit of googling and it turns out that Microsoft is the victim of server downtime: the WGA/activation servers are down: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/25/microsoft_wga _server.html
Democrats

Obama's MySpace Drama 483

Posted by CmdrTaco from the highway-robbery-i-won't-pay-it dept.
fistfullast33l writes "TechPresident, which is covering the use of technology by Presidential Campaigns for 2008, has a very interesting article on how Obama's MySpace page is currently the subject of an underground battle for control by the campaign itself and the volunteer who created it in 2004. Joseph Anthony worked with the campaign initially and grew the site to include over 160,000 unsolicited friends that the campaign could use to reach out to. It currently is the main Obama page in the Impact Channel on MySpace. However, as Obama's campaign became more centralized and formal, the decision was made to attempt to acquire control of the site from Anthony. They asked him for a price, which he offered up as $49,000 plus part of the $10,000 fee paid to MySpace for the Impact Channel. Obama balked at the price, and decided to start afresh rather than pay the money. The fight broke out into the open when Anthony posted a response on his blog to rumors that the campaign was spreading regarding him wanting to cash out. MyDD has more."
Media

Submission + - AllOfMP3 responds to $1.65 trillion dollar lawsuit

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As listed previously on Slashdot, the RIAA has filed suit in New York demanding $1.65 trillion dollars from AllOfMp3 for damages (thats 150k per download). AllOfMp3 has responded to this with following:

An attempt by the major record labels to use a U.S. court to as part of its campaign against AllofMP3.com is imprudent. AllofMP3 understands that several US record label companies filed a lawsuit against Mediaservices in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3.com does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3.com operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3.com plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.

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