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The Internet

CRTC Rules Bell Can Squeeze Downloads 245

Posted by samzenpus from the throttle-away dept.
pparsons writes "Bell Canada Inc. will not have to suspend its practice of 'shaping' traffic on the Internet after a group of companies that resell access to Bell's network complained their customers were also being negatively affected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today released a decision that denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell be ordered to cease its application of the practice to its wholesale customers."
The Courts

Submission + - Tenise Barker Takes on RIAA Damages Theory (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Tenise Barker, the young social worker from the Bronx who took on the RIAA's 'making available' theory and won, has now launched a challenge to the constitutionality of the RIAA's damages theory. In her answer to the RIAA's amended complaint (PDF), she argues that recovering from 2,142 to 428,571 times the actual damages would be a violation of Due Process. She says that the Court could avoid having to find the statute unconstitutional by construing the RIAA's complaint as alleging a single copyright infringement — the use of an 'online media distribution system' — and limiting the total recovery to $750. In the alternative, she argues, if the Court feels it cannot avoid the question, it should simply limit the plaintiffs' damages to $3.50 per song file, since awarding more — against a single noncommercial user, for a single upload or download of an MP3 file for personal use — would be unconstitutional."
Sci-Fi

Submission + - Excerpt from Arthur C Clarke's last work (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by
Ubuntukitten
Ubuntukitten writes: "The Telegraph is running an excerpt from Arthur C Clark's last work, called "The Last Theorem". Fellow writer Frederik Pohl helped out. It's a reassuring chunk of old-fashioned sci-fi, describing an Olympics that's set on the moon, and typically for Clarkian sci-fi, is very much about the practicalities of Lunar Olympics, rather than any wild fantasy."
The Internet

Submission + - Full "Operating Thetan" documents leaked

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Wikileaks has received a copy of the Church of Scientology's full, unabridged "Operating Thetan" documents, including "Operating Theten Level 8" and "Clear." These documents were written on a typewriter and include none other than L. Ron Hubbard's handwritten notes in the margins. Previously leaked OT documents were missing sections and didn't include the marginalia. Furthermore, at

[t]he final level, 'OT8', you are to "have full certainty and, therefore, perception on all" of your issues. According to Hubbard, the 'OT8' manuals are supposed to stay aboard the Free Winds Scientology ship which has heavy security because nothing is supposed to leave the ship. Despite that, Hubbard himself claims to have smuggled out his own 'OT8' instructions for the "elite" Scientologists. "I am breaking security as I disagree that this should only be released to an elite in Scientology. I do, however, ask it not be released to psyches or 'squirrels' or anyone who will break the Independent Security Network and allow it to get back to the Church of Scientology. It would be best if they do not find out that we have it. Please treat this data responsibly. It is the key to the only truth possible," said Hubbard in regards to his 'OT8' instructions.
Space

Submission + - Firefox Logo Spied In Deep Space 5

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is an image of the variable star V838 Monocerotis which lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy. The photo was taken way back in March 2004 and if you rotate the photo a bit, the star resembles the Firefox logo very much!
Microsoft

Submission + - Why Windows Sucks

Submitted by
mikkl666
mikkl666 writes: "In a presentation at a conference in Las Vegas, Gartner analysts gave a detailed analysis on what exactly is wrong with Windows, and what mistakes Microsoft made that let it happen. They point out that 'Microsoft has not responded to the market, is overburdened by nearly two decades of legacy code and decisions, and faces serious competition on a whole host of fronts that will make Windows moot unless the software developer acts.' An example is the market for mobile devices: 'Apple introduced its iPhone running OS X, but Microsoft requires a different product on handhelds because Windows Vista is too large'. As a conclusion, 'for Microsoft, its ecosystem and its customers, the situation is untenable. Windows as we know it must be replaced'."
Patents

Submission + - Rambus Wins Patent Case 1

Submitted by Blowfishie
Blowfishie writes: In another sad day for patents, memory chip maker Rambus has won the case that has been running since the late 90's. You know, the one where Rambus worked its technology into the standards for SDRAM and DDR data transfer, then waited for the major players (Hynix, Micron and Nanya) to be heavily committed before revealing that it had patents on the technology.
Music

Submission + - Big 4 record labels sue Ireland's largest ISP

Submitted by Gopher971
Gopher971 writes: Silicon Republic among other news sites are reporting that the 4 big music labels, EMI, Universal, Warner Music and Sony BMG are suing Ireland's largest ISP, Eircom for failing to prevent illegal music downloads. The case was brought in the high court and is the first in Ireland aimed at an ISP instead of individual downloaders who have been targeted previously. The full story can be found here. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single10490
Wii

Submission + - C64 classics set for Wii Virtual Console (play.tm)

Submitted by
londonlives
londonlives writes: "Released in 1982, the C64 sold 22 million units — an individual computer model record which stands to this day. Nintendo today inform us that C64 releases will begin hitting the Wii Virtual Console service later this year, joining hits from Nintendo, Sega, Turbografx and NeoGeo.

The first titles will be retrograde favourites Karate and Uridium, and we learn that these downloadables will cost 500 Wii Points each. A welcome blast from the past or a re-release too far for the VC?"
Space

Messenger Discovers "Spider" Crater on Mercury 74

Posted by Soulskill from the hey-look-at-that dept.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property brings us a Washington Post story which discusses how scientists are finding surprises among the pictures sent back from Mercury by the Messenger spacecraft. In particular, images depicting a crater with over 100 troughs radiating out from it are stumping researchers. The crater is referred to as 'The Spider', and it occupies a basin that has turned out to be larger than once thought. NASA also has a discussion of the crater. The Messenger craft began taking the up-close photos earlier this month. From the Post: "Scientists were also surprised by evidence of ancient volcanoes on many parts of the planet's surface and how different it looks compared with the moon, which is about the same size. Unlike the moon, Mercury has huge cliffs, as well as formations snaking hundreds of miles that indicate patterns of fault activity from Mercury's earliest days, more than 4 billion years ago."

Comment Re:Sharepoint weakness (Score 3, Informative) 370

by Gopher971 (#22235174) Attached to: Best Practices For Process Documentation?
The main weakness with using Sharepoint as a knowledge repository is that the MOSS search functionality is extremely limited. The search used is the MS developed search, not the search that is used on their OS's or on MSN. When creating a knowledge repository or Knowledge base always ensure that you use a platform that allows you to integrate a search engine.

The message is brought to you by someone who has been struggling (badly) with a Sharepoint based knowledge base for the last 8 months.
Microsoft

Submission + - OLPC developing dual-boot Windows, Linux OS (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by Ian Lamont
Ian Lamont writes: The OLPC Project and Microsoft are developing a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on the laptops, according to an interview with Nicholas Negroponte. The article is thin on details, as the OLPC/Microsoft talks are apparently at an early stage. Could this be the end of the OS wars in Nigeria and other developing countries?
Space

Submission + - Universe running out of time (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by RenHoek
RenHoek writes: With heat death, the big crunch and quite a few other nasty ways in which the universe could see its demise, we can now add "running out of time" to the list. A team of scientists came up with a new theory that would solve the problem of the elusive dark energy that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. They figure that the universe is not speeding up but we are, in relation to the outer regions of space, slowing down. Tests with the upcoming Large Hadron Collider will give more insight if we're going to end up frozen in time.
Microsoft

Microsoft 'Stealth Update' Proving Problematic 257

Posted by Zonk from the we're-all-learning-together dept.
DaMan writes "According to the site WindowsSecrets, the stealth Update that Microsoft released back in August isn't quite as harmless as the company claims. The site's research has shown that when users try to do a repair to XP subsequent to the update, bad things happen. 'After using the repair option from an XP CD-ROM, Windows Update now downloads and installs the new 7.0.600.381 executable files. Some WU executables aren't registered with the operating system, preventing Windows Update from working as intended. This, in turn, prevents Microsoft's 80 latest patches from installing -- even if the patches successfully downloaded to the PC.' ZDNet's Hardware 2.0 has independently confirmed that this update adversely affects repaired XP installations: 'This issue highlights why it is vitally important that Microsoft doesn't release undocumented updates on the sly. Even the best tested update can have unpleasant side-effects, but if patches are documented properly and released in such a way that users (especially IT professionals) know they exist, it offers a necessary starting point for troubleshooting.'"

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