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Comment Re:Missing Option: Don't Care (Score 1) 381

by sdhankin (#42212657) Attached to: When I see gov't CCTV cameras, I think:

Too late? Really? I think not.

Maybe you've read about those red-light cameras that were all the rage a while back. I've never seen one, and it wouldn't matter if I did - I don't run red lights, so it's not an issue. If you really followed those stories, you also read about the large number of communities where the citizens got pissed off and decided to have them removed. So the towns did. Not everywhere, certainly, but in enough places to convince me that after they were put up, it wasn't "too late".

The cameras will stay so long as they don't cause issues. When they do, they'll be removed - perhaps by popular vote, perhaps by "citizen justice". But they'll go if they're causing problems for people who are just going about their lives. Don't misunderstand - if enough people think, "I don't like being watched", that's causing problems. If no one cares, they'll stay.

If they aren't causing problems, what's the issue?
Google

Submission + - Judge Robert Bork on antitrust: Google Is No Microsoft (cnet.com)

Submitted by Freshly Exhumed
Freshly Exhumed writes: Robert Bork, the fiery former federal judge whose U.S. Supreme Court nomination battle galvanized a generation of conservative activists, spent the late 1990s arguing that Microsoft should be carved up into multiple pieces because of antitrust violations. Bork, an antitrust scholar and author of a landmark book on the topic, is now saying that Google is no Microsoft. In a new analysis released at an event in Washington, D.C., today, Bork offers a point-by-point refutation of claims that Google has violated the law or acted in an anticompetitive fashion. Rather, Bork says, it's a case of competitors' sour grapes. 'None of the purported antitrust problems that Google's critics have raised indicates that Google is behaving anticompetitively,' concludes the 29-page legal analysis. 'Given the serious factual, logical, and economic flaws in the antitrust complaints about Google's practices, one can reasonably conclude only that Google's competitors are seeking to use antitrust law to protect their own market positions.'
Your Rights Online

Submission + - Dutch DoJ admits breaking the law (volkskrant.nl)

Submitted by xonen
xonen writes: A spokesman for the dutch police, Mr. Lodewijk van Zwieten — national officer for cyber-crime and interception — admitted that the dutch police violates the law by breaking into foreign computers on a frequent base.

He claims the law does not cover current times when it comes to 'the online hunt for pedophiles and other criminals' — as the digital world is border-less but most jurisdiction isn't.

"While we have to ask our foreign colleagues for permission, criminals can access the whole world with a press of the button", van Zwieten sais. As examples are mentioned a recent kp case, and the 'Bredolab' botnet. "When cyber criminals infected 30 million computers worldwide with a hostile virus, the dutch recherche hacked foreign computers".

They plead for laws that 'can catch up with the current speed of developments, because else detectives are always a step behind'.

According to Van Zwieten "internationally, investigation bodies are all having the same problem, and 'have to learn to look at the existing rules with new glasses"

Apparently, laws do not apply to the police, and international criminal activities did not exist before internet, outdating any existing law, giving a free ticket to break them — as long as Justitia is your employer.

--With my humble excuses for the primitive translation.

Submission + - DHS monitors...Popular Science Magazine (popsci.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Department of Homeland Security is busy keeping us safe from scary bad guys. For example, they're closely watchiing Popular Science magazine, which dares to publish terrorist-friendly stories on things like kid's toys. Turns out they're interested in phrases like "waging war" (on winter), anything relating to disasters, and even zombies. Meanwhile the CIA is trying to find nonexistent pictures of Khloe Kardashian on the PopSci site, and the FBI is interested in trendy cuisine. Huh?
Android

Submission + - Battleheart developer drops Android as 'unsustainable' (electronista.com)

Submitted by mr100percent
mr100percent writes: Battleheart's creator Mika Mobile in an update explained that it was dropping Android support. Google's platform was losing money for the company, since it spent about 20 percent of its time supporting the platform but only ever made five percent or less of the company's revenue. Much of the effort was spent on issues specific to Android, where the diversity was only creating problems rather than helping. "I would have preferred spending that time on more content for you, but instead I was thanklessly modifying shaders and texture formats to work on different GPUs, or pushing out patches to support new devices without crashing, or walking someone through how to fix an installation that wouldn't go through," one half of the husband and wife duo said. "We spent thousands on various test hardware. These are the unsung necessities of offering our apps on Android."
Technology

Submission + - MIT Hails GE's Jet-Engine Powered Power Plants as Key Innovation (gereports.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: MIT’s Technology Review magazine just published its TR50 list of the 50 most innovative companies in 2012. “The TR50 companies are leaders,” said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of the magazine. “They are setting the agenda in their markets and prompting other companies to follow them.”

GE is on the TR50 list. The editors recognized GE’s jet engine-powered gas turbines as a “key innovation” for “building flexible and efficient natural-gas power plants.”
Canada

Submission + - Cdn Music Industry Wants Subscriber Disclosure Without Court Oversight (michaelgeist.ca) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The incredible demands of the Canadian music industry as it seeks a massive overhaul of Canadian copyright law continues. It is seeking increased liability for social networking sites, search engines, blogging platforms, video sites, and many other websites featuring third party contributions plus a new iPod tax, and an extension in the term of copyright. Last week, it went further, demanding a requirement for Internet providers to disclose customer name and address information to copyright owners without court oversight as well as takedowns with no due process and unlimited statutory damages.
United Kingdom

Submission + - No Pardon For Turing (i-programmer.info) 1

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: A petition signed by over 21,000 people asked the UK Government to grant a pardon to Alan Turing. That request has now been declined. A statement in the House of Lords explained the reasoning:
"A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted.
It is tragic that Alan Turing was convicted of an offence which now seems both cruel and absurd-particularly poignant given his outstanding contribution to the war effort. However, the law at the time required a prosecution and, as such, long-standing policy has been to accept that such convictions took place and, rather than trying to alter the historical context and to put right what cannot be put right, ensure instead that we never again return to those times".

Submission + - World record attempt for most commented story - Is (trefor.net)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: quote: "At 6am Greenwich Mean Time (that’s in the the UK) an attempt at the world record for the most comments on an online news item in 24 hours began (ie this blog post). According to Guinness World Records® we need around 100k unique comments. That’s just over 1 comment a second!"

There's obviously an easy way the readers of Slashdot can help in this situation !

(Remember — it's all for charity)

Comment Re:Maybe, just maybe... (Score 1) 391

by sdhankin (#36468286) Attached to: Apple Patents Tech to Stop iPhones Filming in Venues

Of course that goes against the default view that Apple is evil, but I was thinking the same thing. Maybe Steve is actually a defender of people's rights - he patents a technology that Apple never implements on their own products, and makes it prohibitively expensive for others to license, guaranteeing that the technology is never used. If it is, Apple can sue.

I'm not saying that's what went down, just that it's possible. It's easily as likely as some of the shoot-themselves-in-the-head scenarios others have suggested, particularly when you're talking about Apple. Love them, hate them, but you have to admit they know how to market stuff.
Robotics

Submission + - Flying robot balls! (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Flying robot platfoms are not new — quadrotors etc — but this one is special. It's a ball, with a single rotor and vectored thrust, that hovers like something from a Sci Fi movie. Landing is just a matter of bouncing away that excess energy and so what if it bumps into things. Its controlable and stable enough to chase the pretty reporter in the video around an office and get close without looking dangerous — menacing perhaps but dangerous like a quadrotor no...

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