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Piracy

US Copyright Group — Lawsuits, DDoS, and Bomb Threats 365

Posted by Soulskill from the fighting-fire-with-bombs dept.
Andorin writes "The US law firm of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver, otherwise known as the US Copyright Group, filed suit at the end of August against another 2,177 individuals for allegedly downloading and sharing the slasher film Cornered! (In total the USCG has now filed suit against over 16,200 individuals.) In retaliation, Operation Payback, the Anonymous-led project responsible for DDoSing websites of the RIAA and MPAA, targeted the US Copyright Group's website with a DDoS, temporarily bringing it down for a few hours. The group behind the attacks say they'll continue 'until they stop being angry.' Additionally, the local police department evacuated the office of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver after a bomb threat was emailed to the firm. The building was searched, but no bomb was found."
PC Games (Games)

What Game Devs Should Learn From EVE 270

Posted by Soulskill from the watch-out-for-volcanoes dept.
An anonymous reader passes along this excerpt from Gamesradar about EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management (CSM), a group of elected player representatives that serve to facilitate communications between the developers and the community: "On the last day, the devs announced that after the earlier discussions about improving the CSM’s ability to effect change, the CSM was being raised to the status of its own department within CCP. This is revolutionary; in one swift move, the CSM went from what could be considered a glorified focus group to what CCP considers to be a 'stakeholder' in the company, given equal consideration with every other department in requesting development time for a project. That means the CSM — and the entire playerbase it represents — has as much influence on development projects as Marketing, Accounting, Publicity and all the other teams outside of the development team. This is, of course, the stated intention. But has any developer gone to such lengths for its fans?"
Science

Half-Male, Half-Female Fowl Explain Birds' Sex Determination 117

Posted by timothy from the fish-nor-fowl-except-fowl dept.
Kanan excerpts from a BBC report out of Scotland: "A study of sexually scrambled chickens suggests that sex in birds is determined in a radically different way from that in mammals. Researchers studied three chickens that appeared to be literally half-male and half-female, and found that nearly every cell in their bodies — from wattle to toe — has an inherent sex identity. This cell-by-cell sex orientation contrasts sharply with the situation in mammals, in which organism-wide sex identity is established through hormones." Kanan also supplies this link to some pictures of the mixed-cell birds.

Comment Uses licensed frequencies (Score 1) 243

by tom1974 (#30698482) Attached to: MagicJack Femtocell Gates Cell Traffic to VoIP

According to this http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iVJAWp2WTjEYUHNGV8v2KY3JxlVQ/

The new magicJack uses, without permission, radio frequencies for which cellular carriers have paid billions of dollars for exclusive licenses.

Borislow said the device is legal because wireless spectrum licences don't extend into the home.

And if you come within 2.4 meters of the device, your cell is supposed to register with it automagically.

If the carriers let this fly, nano cells in licensed band are next and they'll never let this happen.
Upgrades

Some Users Say Win7 Wants To Remove iTunes, Google Toolbar 570

Posted by timothy from the you-choose-the-teapot-you-choose-the-tempest dept.
Foofoobar writes "Due to a strike with the UK's postal system, people in Great Britain are getting copies of Windows 7 early and have already posted their experiences about the install process. Some have an easy time but others post installs taking 3 hours including Windows asking them to remove iTunes and Google toolbar prior to installation." The article indicates that many of these early users, though, are having better luck.
Networking

Windows Server Trusts Samba4 Active Directory 182

Posted by timothy from the honey-it's-not-that-you-don't-trust-me dept.
Darren Ginter writes "A group of Samba v4 developers recently spent a week in Redmond to work with Microsoft on Active Directory interoperability(?!). The result? Windows Server will now join, trust and replicate a Samba-based Active Directory using Microsoft-native protocols. Although Samba v4 is still in the alpha stages, this is a huge step for open source. Or it could be a trap."
Microsoft

Ad Viewing Required For Free Zune HD Games 131

Posted by Soulskill from the read-why-in-thirty-seconds dept.
UnknowingFool writes "In releasing the Zune HD, Microsoft decided not to open up software development on the new Zune to third parties yet. Today, Microsoft released a handful of free games for the Zune HD: Texas hold 'em, Sudoku, Space Battle 3, Shell Game, Of the Future, Hexic, Goo Splat and Chess, as well as calculator and weather apps. Users, however, are required to view an ad (up to 30 seconds in length) while the game starts up. While ad-supported free games are also on other platforms, like the iPhone, the difference here is that those iPhone games are from third parties and not from Apple." Reader Rock3t notes related news that the Zune HD will be getting 3D games.

Comment Maybe not Windows fault but sure is Microsoft's (Score 3, Insightful) 438

by tom1974 (#28571359) Attached to: London Stock Exchange To Abandon Windows

From Microsoft's case study http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=200042

In the development, roll-out, and implementation processes, Microsoft worked closely with the London Stock Exchange to ensure not only that they understood their immediate requirements, but that the solution fitted their long-term business plans as specified in the TRM project.

Microsoft was equally involved in this project no matter how you try to spin it.
Windows

Draconian DRM Revealed In Windows 7 1127

Posted by kdawson from the just-who-did-you-think-owns-your-machine dept.
TechForensics writes "A few days' testing of Windows 7 has already disclosed some draconian DRM, some of it unrelated to media files. A legitimate copy of Photoshop CS4 stopped functioning after we clobbered a nagging registration screen by replacing a DLL with a hacked version. With regard to media files, the days of capturing an audio program on your PC seem to be over (if the program originated on that PC). The inputs of your sound card are severely degraded in software if the card is also playing an audio program (tested here with Grooveshark). This may be the tip of the iceberg. Being in bed with the RIAA is bad enough, but locking your own files away from you is a tactic so outrageous it may kill the OS for many persons. Many users will not want to experiment with a second sound card or computer just to record from online sources, or boot up under a Linux that supports ntfs-3g just to control their files." Read on for more details of this user's findings.

Comment Re:Maybe good in theory (Score 4, Interesting) 175

by tom1974 (#26772669) Attached to: OpenDNS To Block and Monitor Conficker Worm

Could you elaborate on this massive privacy problem you talk about? Like you don't have this massive privacy problem by using your ISP's DNS servers who can actually match DNS queries to user account?

And who asked if OpenDNS is about "Everyday internet user" crowd? It's A DNS service! Do you want a CSI type frontend with it?

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