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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 224 declined, 47 accepted (271 total, 17.34% accepted)

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The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Craigslist forced to reveal a seller's identity (libpipe.com) 1

mi writes: "The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts has won a judgment compelling CraigsList to reveal the identity of "Daniel", who tried to sell two tickets to the Oscar-ceremony recently. The plaintiff's argument against such sales is scary and can be taken very far very quickly: "If you don't know who's inside the theater, it's very difficult to provide security".

The CraigList's handling of the case may be even scarier, however — instead of fighting tooth-and-nail for the user's privacy, as we expect Google, Yahoo, and AOL, and even credit-card issuers to do, CraigsList simply did not show up in court and lost by default."

Businesses

Submission + - Fugitive sues C.C.-issuer for aiding his capture (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "A short article describes attempts by a disbarred lawyer, who pleaded guilty of statutory rape, to sue American Express for violating its pledge "to withhold customer information from third parties". It seems, the man was captured when police obtained information about where his credit card was used.

His crime is repulsive to most, so there will be little sympathy, but the legal implications are interesting. Was AmEx compelled to disclose the information by the authorities, or did it volunteer the information? In the latter case, what will the company do, if the next suspect-on-the-run is accused of, say, copyright violations, or threats against President, or terrorism — will it consider the magnitude of the accusations and the available evidence, or always cooperate with the police?"

Government

Submission + - France to outlaw "inciting thinness" (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "Yahoo! and others report, that "encouraging severe weight loss" may soon become a crime in France. The National Assembly has already approved the bill. The law would punish "inciting others to deprive themselves of food" to an "excessive" degree with prison time and/or fines, even though the doctors still say, the link between anorexia and media images "remains hazy"."
Linux Business

Submission + - French gendarmes switching to Linux (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "French paramilitary police will be switching their 70000 desktop computers to Ubuntu "every time they have to replace a desktop". The move is expected to affect 5000-8000 machines in the first year alone. The cost of the OS is cited as only the third of factors:

The first is to diversify suppliers and reduce the force's reliance on one company, the second is to give the gendarmerie mastery of the operating system and the third is cost.
They started migrating away from Microsoft by switching to alternative office and web-browsing software first."

Censorship

Submission + - Chinese dissident taken from house- to real arrest (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "Yahoo! is carrying an AP article on the recent arrest of Hu Jia on the charge of "inciting subversion of state power".

Gross violations of Human Rights by Chinese government are nothing new. What's special about this case, is that the victim has spent 223 days under house arrest by the time he was taken away from his home (and newborn daughter). Despite the house arrest, he was able to continue his work, including participating remotely in a European Parliament hearing..."

Government

Submission + - Amazon fights off a federal customer-list subpoena (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "While prosecuting a tax-evasion case against a used-book seller, federal prosecutors contacted Amazon requesting identities of his customers, so that some of them can become witnesses. The company refused to divulge the customers' identities and the judge agreed:

"The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission. It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."


The Feds eventually withdrew the subpoena."

Robotics

Submission + - Hurricane-research UAV to be tested on Noel (libpipe.com)

mi writes: "USA Today is reporting on an unmanned aircraft developed to research hurricanes being sent into Noel. It should reach the eye of the storm at around 10pm tonight, November 2nd. The whole flight is expected to take about 20 hours:

"Unmanned flights at very low altitude are important since they give us unique insights and continuous observations in a region of the storm where the ocean's energy is directly transferred to the atmosphere just above. Attempting this type of research flight with our hurricane hunter aircraft would risk the lives of our crew and scientists," said Joe Cione, hurricane researcher at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, and project manager for the Aerosonde field study.
"

Hardware Hacking

Submission + - "Home-made" helicopter in Nigeria (sybpipe.com)

mi writes: "Yahoo! carries an article describing a helicopter, that a Nigerian physics undergraduate has put together from various parts: Honda Civic's 133hp engine, seats from an old Toyota, and parts of a Boeing 747, which crashed nearby some years ago. The thing has already been flown several times.

If a 24 year old student can do it — while also repairing electronics to supplement his income — where is my flying car?"

Quickies

Submission + - Kilogram standard losing wait (libpipe.com) 1

mi writes: "The 118 year-old standard of kilogram has lost about 50 microgram over the years, as compared with duplicates made of the same material and at the same time, and kept in similar conditions.

Unlike the units of abstract things like information, the unit of mass needs an etalon, that all agree on. Any changes are rather inconvenient..."

United States

Submission + - Mechanical computer designs implemented with nano (sybpipe.com)

mi writes: "Although the first mechanical computer was, likely invented by an ancient Greek, it was not until Charles Babbage, that serious attempts to create a computing machine were made again.

Babbage's designs never saw a successful implementation due to the sorry state of the technology in his times — the multi-ton computer would've consisted of thousands of cogs, ratchets, &c. The makers back then simply could not supply enough of the hardware, that would match the quality and uniformity requirements.

Today, however, his designs are revisited, because advances in nano-technology may allow for his blue-prints being implemented on the nano-scale resulting in mechanical computers capable of working, where the more fragile silicone can not be used."

United States

Submission + - Army's and Air Force's use of drones growing fast (sybpipe.com)

mi writes: "An article on USA Today concentrates on the turf-war between Army and Air Force over the procurement and the use of the unmanned aircraft (drones) — some of them so small, they are launched by soldiers by hand. Even more interesting, however, are the sheer numbers of the devices in active use, and their growth rate."
Spam

Submission + - Project Honey Pot sues e-mail address-harvesters

mi writes: "Unspam Technologies, Inc. — the company behind Project Honey Pot — filed a federal lawsuit today against a number of e-mail address-harvesters, that the the project has helped identify as the "worst of the worst" by linking the harvested addresses (the harvesting itself being legal) with the actual spams. Most of them individual names are still unknown, so the suit names a number of "John Does". It is hoped, that the real names will emerge during the discovery process. Hopefully, this undertaking — in a federal court and utilizing real lawyers — will be more successful, than the lone spam-fighter suing the spammers in Small Claims Court, whom Slashdot has featured a couple of times."

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