Comment Re:Free speech (Score 1) 377
They still have a lot to learn. A lot! Poland has already banned any and all hyperlinks, effective Dec 18th. Can you beat that?
Comment Re:without any humans ever having been involved (Score 1) 898
Uh, could you point me to where this "Free Society" is? I'd like to move there.
The Dozen Space Weapon Myths 191
Thanks to Disowned Sky for finding a good debunking piece on space based weapon systems. Slightly disheartening, because I really want to have solar energy satellites that are also lasers. The article does a good job of looking further afield at nations besides the United States efforts in this area.
A Case for Non-Net-Neutrality 345
boyko.at.netqos writes "Network Performance Daily has an in-depth interview with Professor Christopher Yoo from Vanderbilt University Law School on his opposition to Net-Neutrality policies. While some might disagree with his opinions, he lays out the case for non-neutrality in an informed and informative manner. From the interview: 'Akamai is able to provide service with lower latency and higher quality service, because they distribute the content. This provides greater protection against DoS attacks. It's a local storage solution instead of creating additional bandwidth, and it's a really interesting solution. Here's the rub ... Akamai is a commercial service and is only available to people who are willing to pay for it. If CNN.com pays for it, and MSNBC.com does not, CNN.com will get better service.'"
Submission + - Re-shipping scams skyrocketting
sorry-scammed-loser writes: A new online threat, reshipping fraud, is emerging in the form of a massive organized crime ring that is recruiting people in the US and Europe as "shipment handlers", and having them re-ship items to Russia. The criminals are using stolen Visa card details to pay for shipments from many large retail and auction sites (including ebay.com and amazon.com), and having the items shipped to their recruits who re-ship them to addresses they have been provided with. I personally lost a laptop this way that I had auctioned on ebay — I shipped the laptop after verifying that the funds had been deposited into my PayPal account, and two days later was contacted by PayPal who said that the account holder had not authorized the transaction. Now I have no money and no laptop. In my case, the scammers had recruited my re-shipper through an online job posting site, which pointed her to a legit-looking website called expertdelivery.biz that claims to operate offices in Minnesota and the UK (but is hosted in Belize). This reads like an episode of "24"... Please get the word out about this scam, at this point consumer education is the best protection against perpetuation of these scams.
Submission + - Linux is legal again for the European Commission
lancho writes: "The streaming service of the Council of the EU had a legal restriction related to Linux: "We cannot support Linux in a legal way. So the answer is: No support for Linux". A Spanish association of lawyers and programmers filed a complaint at the Council and the immediate answer was: "The FAQ you refer to in your email has an error in its English version compared to the original French version. The sentence mentioning Linux does not exist in the original French version. So, the English version has been modified". Now the FAQ shows also the legal translation omitted."
Submission + - The end of Pegasus Mail
rueger writes: The Register reports that David Harris has ceased development of Pegasus Mail. I used Pegasus for years until moving to a Mac, and sorely miss the power and flexibility that it gave me. This was the e-mail client for people who really use e-mail, rather than needing handholding.
I would pay for this program, and pay well.
Submission + - Dutch Ban Segways From Public Roads
srizah writes: "Segway has been banned on the public roads of the Netherlands. The traffic authorities claim that it is a motorized vehicle and a mo-ped.
An excerpt from the story in Physorg,
"Segway Nederland director Piet Kruijt said Tuesday the company was "completely ambushed" by the decision, first announced by national police on Nov. 27, 2006.
"We're working on all fronts to get this resolved," Kruijt said. He estimated that "a number of hundreds" of Segways have been sold in the Netherlands. For the time being, they are only legal on private property.
Police said that with no approval of the vehicles in sight by the country's Royal Traffic Agency, they could not be allowed to continue using public streets.
The Segway "is a motorized vehicle, and according to Dutch law, a mo-ped," a police statement said.
But because the Traffic Agency hasn't approved the vehicle, the police statement said, it can't be issued license plates.
"It's a nice vehicle, I've ridden one myself," said Hans van Geenhuizen, a spokesman from the Traffic Agency, which is responsible for licensing. But he said the agency cannot license the Segway under current law.
"It doesn't have a brake, you brake by leaning back, and that's clearly not permissible," he said. "
http://www.physorg.com/news86965198.html"
Submission + - French court slaps down Sony DRM
john-da-luthrun writes: A French court has ruled that Sony's CONNECT Store infringes French consumer law, reports the TechnoLlama IP blog. Under French law, it is illegal to tie the purchase of a service (such as downloading a music file) to the purchase of a another product, so Sony were held to be breaking the law by selling music files that required a Sony player in order to access them. The court also found that Sony had failed to inform customers that its ATRAC 3 files can only be played on Sony digital players. A similar case in France involving Apple's iTunes/iPod tie-in is ongoing.
Submission + - What do politicians know about videogames?
steven williamson writes: "Bumbling Conservative MP Boris Johnson has used his personal website to attack the state of education in the UK, citing videogames as being the reason why many children will grow up to be illiterate. HEXUS.gaming have detailed the story.
Bumbling Boris concludes his rant by calling for parents to "Summon up all your strength, all your courage. Steel yourself for the screams and yank out that plug. And if they still kick up a fuss, then get out the sledgehammer and strike a blow for literacy."
"
Researchers Find Potential Cure for Cancer 324
MECC writes "Researchers at Johns Hopkins University may have found a way to kill cancer cells without radiation or toxic chemicals. The group is taking the step of patenting the idea, as this new approach using sugars may hold real potential for the fight against cancer. This is not the first approach to use sugars, the article states, but is (by the researchers' estimation) the most successful. From the article: 'Sampathkumar and his colleagues built upon 20-year-old findings that a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate can slow the spread of cancer cells. In the 1980s, researchers discovered that butyrate, which is formed naturally at high levels in the digestive system by symbiotic bacteria that feed on fibre, can restore healthy cell functioning ... The researchers focused on a sugar called N-acetyl-D-mannosamine, or ManNAc, for short, and created a hybrid molecule by linking ManNAc with butyrate. The hybrid easily penetrates a cell's surface, then is split apart by enzymes inside the cell. Once inside the cell, ManNAc is processed into another sugar known as sialic acid that plays key roles in cancer biology, while butyrate orchestrates the expression of genes responsible for halting the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.'"
Submission + - Another Indian state shutting doors for Microsoft
ssmaurya writes: Another indian state is about shut the doors for Microsoft products.
http://egovernance.wordpress.com/2007/01/04/tn-may -shut-door-on-microsoft/
Previously Kerala Government had decided to move out Microsoft from schools.
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/ 30/0156206
Submission + - Pegasus Mail development ends after 17 years
daveewart writes: According to the Pegasus Mail web site, David Harris has ceased development and distribution of Pegasus Mail, citing funding difficulties. He says "Effective January 2007, development and distribution of Pegasus Mail and Mercury has ceased. We regret this decision, but ongoing difficulties with funding have forced it upon us." Pegasus Mail used to be one of the primary free email clients for Windows and, although it has clearly had its day, will be missed. It has had a long history: the first version of Pegasus Mail was released for DOS in 1990.
Submission + - 1TB hard drives are here
Submission + - Hitachi, Seagate announce terabyte drive plans
EconolineCrush writes: "Because 750GB drives just aren't big enough, Seagate and Hitachi have both announced plans to bring terabyte drives to market in 2007. Hitachi's Deskstar 7K1000 will come in the first quarter of the year riding five 200GB platters. The drive will also boast a beefy 32MB cache, and will sell for $399. Seagate's stab at the terabyte space will come sometime in the first half of this year, and although details are scarce, the drive will be a four-platter design that packs 250GB per platter. Both drives will use perpendicular recording technology, giving you one more excuse to Get Perpendicular."
