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Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple settles Think Secret out of existence

Submitted by jmp_nyc
jmp_nyc writes: Think Secret has just posted a press release on their site, reading as follows:

Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret's publisher, said "I'm pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits."
Since Think Secret has disabled commenting on the story on their site (big surprise), I figured /. would be the perfect place to pick up the topic.
Censorship

Submission + - Court Allows Company To Copyright Cease & Desi (techdirt.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Techdirt has the news of a lawsuit where a company was allowed to claim copyright on a cease-and-desist letter that an anonymous blogger had posted to a blog. The company then used the DMCA to not just get the C&D taken down, but to try to find out the identity of a *different* anonymous blogger that it was accusing of libel. This could create chilling effects for anyone who tries to post a cease-and-desist letter online, as you might now face copyright violation charges on the C&D in addition to whatever the C&D was originally for.
Music

Submission + - New York judge grabs all Brooklyn RIAA cases

Submitted by
newtley
newtley writes: ""I wonder how many of the defendants think the settlements were 'equitable'?" That's Recording Industry vs The People on news that a New York judge has decided only he and another judge should preside over Brooklyn cases. Judge J. Trager, "has denied the motions by the defendants in two Brooklyn cases, Maverick v Chowdhury and Elektra v Torres, for random judicial assignment of RIAA cases," it says. Trager holds, "the cases should all continue to be assigned just to himself and Magistrate Judge Levy". In this decision denying the defendants' motion, "Judge Trager said that (a) many of the defendants have retained the same attorneys, (b) there have been approximately 350 RIAA cases in the Eastern District of New York, and (c) Magistrate Levy has brought about 'equitable settlements'," says RIvTP's Ray Beckerman."
Government

Submission + - 7 Years of the Patriot Act

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Recently, my father and I were debating certain aspects of the government. I'm fairly libertarian, he is extremely republican. During the conversation, we were debating the PATRIOT act and how it has been misused. He challenged me to do some research and provide him with one documented instance of the act being misused; for every one I can find, he will donate $5 to the political charity of my choice. I'm thinking EFF or ACLU, leaning towards EFF. I would like to maximize the charity donation, so I thought I would ask the /. community for help locating as many misuses as possible.

To qualify as misuse, the case must have no legitimate connection to terrorism, and the victim of the abuse must be an American citizen. The case of the attorney in Portland, OR being imprisoned without trial does not count; my father believes that while they arrested the wrong man they did it on evidence that would have held up in a court regardless.

So, help me make money for the EFF!
Security

Submission + - Software lets lost phones cry for help (windowsfordevices.com)

Submitted by nerdyH
nerdyH writes: Corsoft's "Warden" software lets mobile phones sound a pre-recorded alarm message, such as "Where's my Daddy?" in a little girl's voice, when lost or stolen. The alarm is triggered by the phone losing Bluetooth pairing with another device, such as a headset or watch. The software also lets users disable the phone remotely via a web interface — assuming that no one silenced the bleating thing with a sledgehammer first.
Data Storage

Submission + - Why CNBC chose Apple for its primary storage (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by
Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: "Computerworld has written about CNBC and its storage infrastructure. Instead of relying on bigger vendors like NetApp or EMC for its primary storage, the cable news channel turned to an Apple Xsan. It's one of the few Apple SANs that the writer has seen in a data center of this size: 'Most corporations simply don't trust Apple — primarily because their infrastructure is Windows and Unix — to put it in their data center, much less to use it for their primary network storage,' he writes. Part of the reason why CNBC chose Apple is the CNBC graphics team uses Macs for a lot of their work, but cost and scalability figured into their choice, as well. There's a brief video interview accompanying the story, featuring CNBC's graphics engineer explaining the Xsan setup."
Quickies

Submission + - "Hot or Not" for Website Design (commandshift3.com)

Submitted by irishdaze
irishdaze writes: "CommandShift3 is like Hot or Not. Except, instead of clicking on hot babes, you click on hot websites." ~ from the site

This site gives you a seeming never ending stream of head-to-head website screen-shot matchups, and you pick the one you like best by clicking on it. Two more screen-shots are presented, click, repeat. A 10-click history on the bottom of the page lets you know how your opinion on each comparison stacks up against those of other visitors. Your vote on each match-up is all but instantaneous because it's based only on aesthetics, so this thing is a bit of idle fun to keep your hands busy while waiting on or doing something else.

An added bonus: You can add websites anonymously, and, if you provide an e-mail address, can get the weekly match-up status of any site you submit. I've already added slashdot.org.
Security

Submission + - Happy birthday Nmap

Submitted by mrwolf007
mrwolf007 writes: For those of you who havent heard it yet, Nmap is now ten years old. The network scanner is now available in version 4.5, which is the first mayor release since 4.0 two years ago. Looking past, Nmap has been featured in at least 5 films, inclunding the second part of Matrix and The Bourne Ultimatum, and is probably in the toolbox of almost every person interested in network security, be it jobwise or otherwise. Further information can be found on the official release notes.
Space

Mars Rover Technology Used to Make Better Maps 49

Posted by Zonk from the friends-in-high-places dept.
Cal writes "An article on the O'Reilly Radar site discusses a new street mapping technology by a company in Berkeley called earthmine. They are using technology developed by the Jet Propulsion Lab for the Mars Exploration Rover missions for reconstructing three-dimensional data of the street-scape. 'The licensed software and algorithms are used to create a 3D representation of the local terrain, allowing autonomous routing of the MERs through the Martian environment. earthmine has combined this JPL technology with its unique, capture hardware and web delivery technology to deliver 3D data with unprecedented density and accuracy.'"
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Touchscreen Voting Decertified in California (dotloose.com)

Submitted by bbsguru
bbsguru writes: With the news last week that University of California researchers had found vulnerabilities in every California Certified electronic voting machine, the Cal Secretary of State (who requested the assessment) had until Friday to decide what to do about it. Late Friday, she did: most Touchscreen voting machines are Decertified in California, and may not be used in the Febuary primary elections. The last minute announcement means many counties will be stuck with millions of dollars worth of paperweights. Machines by Diebold and Sequoia are out entirely, those in Orange County that were made by Hart Intercivic are allowed provide new security measures are taken.
Yes, this will end up in court.
Media

Submission + - Microsoft can evade GPL 3 ..

Submitted by
rs232
rs232 writes: ""Microsoft should be able to extricate itself from the implications of the new GPL 3, according to a leading Australian intellectual property lawyer"

"Unless there is something more specific in the certificate or the collaboration agreement between Novell and Microsoft, I would be very surprised to see this upheld. It was a nice try on the part of (the FSF), but at this stage, I'd say it's not going to be an effective strategy. It will be tough to hold up in court."

'In this case, she said, Microsoft never acted — never 'entered' into the agreement, and the terms and conditions can only apply to new actions by Microsoft, not older ones. She said: "Their actions so far are not enough to say that they are bound."'

http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39167957 ,00.htm"
Programming

Submission + - The computer that never loses.... at checkers

Submitted by
CodeShark
CodeShark writes: "According to researchers at the University of Alberta (Canada)'s Computer science department, the game of Checkers is "solved." What this means is that from a starting position, the second opponent to play (black) can only play to a draw against a perfect opponent — and the Chinook has apparently reached this milestone. According to the web site, "This is the largest non-trivial game of skill to be solved — it is more than one million times bigger than Connect Four and Awari (the previously biggest games that have been solved)."

Yahoo has a basic summary of how the U of Alberta team accomplished the goal including every possible board position from to two up to ten checkers on the board, with apparently 39 trillion calculatable positions for the endgame available from the 10 checker level.

Mathematical proofs aside, Checkers is still fun even if I won't ever beat Chinook. What do you think?"
Microsoft

Submission + - 640k and beyond

Submitted by
holden karau
holden karau writes: "NewsForge has an article on a recently recovered talk Bill Gates gave back in 1989 to the University of Waterloo and has put it online in a number of formats (wav,flac,mp3,ogg). Among other things, Bill talks about how in 1981, he thought that 640k would be ok for at least 10 years. He also covers lots of other topics, including OS/2, software piracy, the history of the software industry, and his role at Microsoft."

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