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Comment Re:Another Stab At a Canadian DMCA (Score 1) 237

by Ironix (#32123552) Attached to: Another Stab At a Canadian DMCA

... the left is split and Canadians collectively are too daft to vote strategically

I refuse to ever vote strategically. It will lead to the downfall of a nation if everyone were to think like this. I've always voted for the party/candidate that best represents my interests, which generally happens to to be the NDP. Yes, I am splitting the leftist vote, but at least I can say I haven't sold out my values for the sake of having a lesser of two evils in government.

If everyone were to vote with the mindset of "oh, I don't want them in power, so I'll vote for the most popular opponent", we'll quickly end up with a two-party system not unlike that of the United States. Think of this another way, imagine how many more seats the NDP would have had in the last election if people did not vote strategically! There were very many close calls between the NDP and Conservatives/Liberals in many ridings.

No, I am sorry, I will not cast my vote based on who I don't want in power. I would much rather place a positive vote towards those who I would like to see running this country instead.

Comment Gentoo (Score 1) 1231

by Ironix (#29970706) Attached to: Some Early Adopters Stung By Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

I upgraded my home server from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10. After the update completed and I rebooted, the system happily announced that I was now running Xubuntu and then refused to boot until I remove the "biosize=16" option for my XFS drives in fstab.

Once the system did boot up, it wouldn't start X, but instead preferred to sit at a swiftly flickering console that could cause seizures.

I think I'll switch back to Gentoo now. =D
Microsoft

Submission + - Its official! Denmark votes NO to OOXML (groklaw.net)

Submitted by SplatMan_DK
SplatMan_DK writes: According to an official press release (Danish only) from Dansk Standard, it is now official: Denmark will vote NO (with comments) to approving Microsoft Open Office XML (OOXML) as an ISO standard at this time. Here is a translation from Groklaw:

Dansk Standard (the Danish Standard's institute) has on behalf of Denmark voted "No with Comments" to the proposed standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500 OOXML. This means, that DS will cooperate with the standards committee to approve Office Open XML as a ISO/IEC standard, if certain problems is addressed.
Biotech

Three University of Wisconsin Stem Cell Patents Rejected 92

Posted by Zonk from the i'm-so-torn dept.
eldavojohn writes "A non-profit alumni group from the University of Wisconsin (WARF) has suffered a preliminary ruling against three of their recent patents regarding stem cells. Given that these patents have been upheld in prior rulings, there is a lot of speculation that they will be upheld in a future court case. From the PhysOrg article: 'The patents, which cover virtually all stem cell research in the country, have brought in at least $3.2 million and could net much more money before they expire in 2015, the newspaper said. Companies wanting to study the cells must buy licenses costing $75,000 to $400,000. The newspaper said WARF recently started waiving the fees if the research is conducted at universities or by non-profit groups.' Should universities (or groups within universities) be allowed to hold patents and intellectual property while at the same time gaining donations and grants as an educational institution — or for that matter government funds?"
Music

RIAA Attacks Sites Participating in Its Own Campaign 384

Posted by Zonk from the need-to-get-your-stories-straight-here-guys dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The RIAA is once again at their old tricks. The band Nine Inch Nails has intentionally 'leaked' songs via USB keys hidden at restrooms during their current European tour. Sites hosting the songs are now being sent cease and desist orders. 'Ironically, with its numerous pirated downloads available, the whole album has not leaked yet. According to a source, the only leaks are the ones Reznor approved himself. And whether he realizes it or not, Reznor may be building a new option for presenting music that augments the existing CD/tour scenario.'"
The Internet

Submission + - Comcast Weans Hogs Off Their Packet Teat

Submitted by
eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: "The telecommunications giant Comcast has severed its services to internet hogs who use more bandwidth than others. From the article, "Carreiro said he received a message from a Comcast Security Assurance representative in December, who warned him that he was hogging too much of the company's bandwidth and needed to cut down. When Carreiro contacted customer service about the call, they had no idea what he was talking about and suggested it was a prank phone call. Unconvinced, Carreiro contacted Comcast several more times, but was again told there was no problem. A month later, he woke up to a dead Internet connection. Customer service directed him to the Security Assurance division, which Carreiro said informed him he would now be without service for one year." This is quite alarming to me, considering that I am forced into using a particular ISP based on some deal my neighborhood made many years before I moved here."
Microsoft

EU Rejects Microsoft Royalty Proposal 274

Posted by samzenpus from the no-money-for-you dept.
pallmall1 writes "According to MSNBC, The Financial Times has reported that the EU is going to drastically reduce or even eliminate Microsoft's proposed royalties on interoperability information required to be released by the EU's antitrust ruling issued three years ago. According to a confidential EU document, "Microsoft will be forced to hand over to rivals what the group claims is sensitive and valuable technical information about its Windows operating system for next to no compensation...". Even Neil Barrett, the expert picked by both Microsoft and the EU to oversee Microsoft's compliance with the 2004 ruling, says a zero percent royalty would be 'better.'"

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