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Comment Re:Google censors (Score 1) 227

Oh, and Twitter is just following the law in Germany, being a neo-nazi or espousing neo-nazi ideas is illegal in Germany.

Is Twitter based in Germany, or a German company?

If not...why the fuck would they have to abide by any laws in Germany?

They don't have to.
They're doing this voluntarily as part of their new policy for working together with law enforcement in different countries.

In order to force twitter into blocking that neo-nazi content, the german judge or prosecutor would need to file an application for international assistance with the US authorities.
That would a) take a long time and there would b) be a good chance that US authorities deny their claim because the understandings and limits of free speech are quite a lot different in germany and the USA.

As far as I know you can tell almost anything and get away with it.
In germany if you publicly speak against the democratic order and/or the basic rights you'll be sentenced to a fine or even to jail.
And that's what these neo-nazi bullshit falls under.

Comment Re:I'm jailbreaking mine. (Score 1) 51

That would be my first, and main reason as well. Same reason i rooted my nook touch, so i could read mobi native.. Having native access to both main formats is far better than having to convert and hope... ( now that both support pdf, that became a non-issue, but the mobi/epub issue is still there )

Having direct access to the both 'markets' for books is good too.

You still need to get rid of either Adobe's or Amazon's DRM, the Jailbreak and software you'll later install will only display free eBooks in the other format.

Space

Submission + - How to catch a tumbling, aging satellite (networkworld.com)

coondoggie writes: "How do you catch a speeding, tumbling, aging satellite? Very carefully. Levity aside, the question is central to the plan scientists at DARPA have for catching up to and grabbing old satellites in an effort to ultimately refurbish and reuse the systems. Scientists at DARPA say there are some 1,300 satellites worth over $300B sitting out in Earth's geostationary orbit (GEO) that could be retrofitted or harvested for new communications roles and it designed a program called Phoenix which it says would use a squadron "satlets" and a larger tender craft to grab out-of-commission satellites and retrofit or retrieve them for parts or reuse."
Television

Submission + - Move over 3D, it's time for 4K UHDTV (extremetech.com) 3

MrSeb writes: "After five years of trying to convince us that 3D TVs are the future, it seems TV makers are finally ready to move on — to 4K UHDTV. At the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Sony, Toshiba, and LG are all showing off 84-inch 4K (3840×2160) TVs. These aren’t just vaporware, either: LG’s TV is on sale now in Korea (and later this month in the US), Sony’s is due later this year, and Toshiba will follow in the new year. Be warned, though: all three will cost more than $20,000 when they go on sale in the US — oh, and there's still no 4K Blu-ray spec, and no such thing as 4K broadcast TV.

In other display-related news, Panasonic is showing off a humongous 145-inch 8K (7680x4320) plasma TV, and some cute 20-inch 4K displays — but unfortunately neither are likely to find their way to your living room or office in the near future."

Twitter

Submission + - Twitter jokes: free speech on trial (pcpro.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: On 6 January 2010, Paul Chambers typed a flippant tweet that would turn his life upside-down for the next two and a half years. As the courts repeatedly showed a lack of common sense and an ignorance of technology, for a long time it looked as though our right to free speech was under very real threat. Now it's over, we can step back and take a detailed look at how such an insane case even came to trial. This feature delves deep into the the Twitter Joke Trial: how it happened, what it means, and the epic struggle to balance civility and civil liberties.
Beer

Submission + - Drinking Too Much? Blame Your Glass (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: Before you down that pint, check the shape of your glass—you might be drinking more beer than you realize. According to a new study of British beer drinkers, an optical illusion caused by the shape of a curved glass can dramatically increase the speed at which we swill. The researchers recruited 160 Brits, and asked them to watch a nature documentary while they drank beer from straight or curved glasses. The group drinking a full glass of lager out of curved flute glasses drank significantly faster than the other group--possibly because the curved glasses impaired their ability to pace themselves while drinking.

Comment Taskbar? (Score 1) 484

The window title is now solid color without any transparency, but the task bar still has the blurry transparent looks as one can see from the pictures.
Or do I misunderstand the names for the different bars in Windows' UI?

Comment Re:Step 2 (Score 1) 233

That depends on what you sell. A product or only a license.
If it's only the license that's being sold than you can pretty much define what the user may do and what not.
There's an infamous case about oracle licenses and if they may be sold on the second market.
German court ruled that is not allowed since you do not buy the software, but only a very special license.

If you sell some physical work though (and in some cases a cdrom would be enough to qualify for that), the ownership goes over to the customer and he/she may do with it whatever he/she likes.

Comment Re:Step 2 (Score 1) 233

In germany any contract can only be binding if you know the terms before you sign it.
When you purchase software in the store and are presented with an EULA after you already purchased it, that agreement is not binding to the customer.
EULAs for Download content might be valid for german customers though unless terms are diametral to general law.

Comment Re:Can't you not (Score 2) 200

Isn't scrolls a quite common word making it untrademarkeable?
Especially when it comes to role playing games, most of them use the word in the normal gameplay.
That would make it pretty nonsensical to grant a trademark on that word for using it as the product's name.

This is not even taking into account that they don't use their trademark enough for it being confused with the Mojang game.
The official name of their Elder Scrolls series contains the word, but they are most commonly known and marketed by their subtitle.
Even the link between a game with scrolls in it's name and the Elder Scrolls series is only in my mind for this stupid action, I wouldn't have made any connection otherwise.

Comment Re:Modem Tax (Score 2) 160

There are some (pretty big) rural areas here in Germany, where people can't get xDSL or cable even if they wanted.
I know of at least 5 villages with about 100 citizens each in 20km radius that don't have any chance but dialup networking for Internet Access.

In some areas you can get Networking via UMTS/(E-)GPRS, but mostly it's not faster than POTS or ISDN Dial Up.

That's also why some of the lower frequencies used for LTE/4G Networks were given to provider with the prerequisite to install networks in those areas before the frequencies may be used in cities.

Comment Re:Some clarification... (Score 1) 148

I'm diabetic Type 1 since 20 years and have read about stem-cell therapies for ages. There were clinical studies with adult stem cells from the patients own spinal cord. What I want to say is that these testicle stem cells and the ones from deceased pancreas are not the only sources. In the last clinical study with own stem cells they found out that the biggest effect is the stimulation of remaining beta-cells (Yes even Type 1 patients have some remaining cells) to produce a significant amount of insulin. Whereas only fewer than 1% of the stem cells integrate into the fabric and mutate into something comparable to beta-cells. As far as I know they don't suffer the problem of being destroyed by the own immune system. Though I don't know if this is because the auto-immune reaction is only active for some specific time or because the stem-cells are not completely identical to beta-cells.

Comment Re:Out Come the Wolves (Score 1) 223

Have a look at the other article of this author he also references, in which he talks about allowing intrusive ads for free premium services that serve ads in order to make up for the cost of running these. In special he talks about web/cgi Proxy services that have to change their IP multiple times a day in order to provide their service to users in censoring countries and that allowing even more intrusive ads for services like these is ok with him and should be with all of us. I'd also like to see such a function. But more as a developer tool than for reporting abusive popups.

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