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The Media

Online Reporters Now the Journalists Most Often Jailed 147

bckspc writes "The Committee to Protect Journalists today released the results of its annual survey of journalists in prison. For the first time, they found more Internet journalists jailed worldwide than journalists working in any other medium. CPJ found that 45 percent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors. Their chart of journalists jailed by year is also interesting."

Comment Back to Basic (Score 1) 311

Sinclair BASIC bitches:

5 REM program to use weighted grid memoir by Geoff Wearmouth.
10 PRINT TAB 8;"Knight's Tour 4": GO TO 9000: REM initialize and run

1000 REM recursive subroutine
1010 IF x>8 OR x<1 OR y>8 OR y<1 THEN RETURN
1020 IF b$(s,1)<>a$(y,x) THEN RETURN
1030 IF SCREEN$ (20-y*2,2+x*3)<>" " THEN RETURN
1040 PRINT AT 20-y*2,1+x*3; PAPER 5+((y+x)=INT ((y+x)/2)*2);(" " AND s<10); s
1050 IF s=64 THEN PRINT AT 21,8;"SOLVED IN ";m; " MOVES" : STOP
1060 LET s=s+1: LET b$(s)="23456789": LET m=m+1
1070 LET x=x+x2: LET y=y+y1: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y-y1: LET x=x-x2
1080 LET x=x+x2: LET y=y-y1: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y+y1: LET x=x-x2
1090 LET x=x+x1: LET y=y+y2: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y-y2: LET x=x-x1
1100 LET x=x+x1: LET y=y-y2: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y+y2: LET x=x-x1
1110 LET x=x-x1: LET y=y+y2: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y-y2: LET x=x+x1
1120 LET x=x-x1: LET y=y-y2: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y+y2: LET x=x+x1
1130 LET x=x-x2: LET y=y+y1: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y-y1: LET x=x+x2
1140 LET x=x-x2: LET y=y-y1: GO SUB 1000: LET y=y+y1: LET x=x+x2
1150 IF b$(s)>="0" THEN LET b$(s)=b$(s,2 TO ): GO TO 1070
1155 LET s=s-1 : REM obsolete backtracking path
1160 PRINT AT 20-y*2,1+x*3; PAPER 8;"  "
1170 RETURN

9000 INPUT "x(1-8): ";x, "y(1-8): ";y : REM starting square
9005 IF x>8 OR x<1 OR y>8 OR y<1 THEN GO TO 9000
9010 LET x1=1-(2 AND (x>4)) : LET x2=x1*2
9020 LET y1=1-(2 AND (y>4)) : LET y2=y1*2
9030 BORDER 4: CLS : LET s=1: LET m=1
9040 FOR i=19 TO 162 STEP 16: PLOT 28,i: DRAW INK 1;192,0: NEXT i
9050 FOR j=28 TO 230 STEP 24: PLOT j,19: DRAW INK 1;0,127: NEXT j
9060 DIM a$(8,8): DIM b$(65,8)
9070 FOR i=1 TO 8: READ a$(i): NEXT i
9075 GO SUB 1040

9100 REM perfect weighted grid discovered by James Weatherley.
9110 DATA "22433422"
9120 DATA "35644653"
9130 DATA "56788765"
9140 DATA "36899863"
9150 DATA "36899863"
9160 DATA "56788765"
9170 DATA "35644653"
9180 DATA "22433422"

From http://www.wearmouth.demon.co.uk/gw03/ktour.htm
The Internet

Remembering 50 Years of (and Leading Up To) the Internet 78

katrina writes "Covering the infamous MafiaBoy bank hack, the launch of the first ever online newspaper — MIT's 'The Tech' — and Brewster Kahle developing the Internet Archive back in 1996, five decades of the most significant Internet developments, hacks, legal battles and innovations have been documented in a massive historical article on Cnet UK."
Networking

Submission + - BitTorrent can verify and repair corrupt files

jweatherley writes: "I found a new (for me at least) use for BitTorrent. I had been trying to download beta 4 of the iPhone SDK for the last few days. First I downloaded the 1.5GB file from Apple's site. The download completed, but the disk image would not verify. I tried to install it anyway, but it fell over on the gcc4.2 package. Many things are cheap in India, but bandwidth is not one of them. I can't just download files > 1GB without worrying about reaching my monthly cap, and there are Doctor Who episodes to be watched. Fortunately we have uncapped hours in the night, so I downloaded it again. md5sum confirmed that the disk image differed from the previous one, but it still wouldn't verify, and fell over on gcc4.2 once more. Damn.

I wasn't having much success with Apple, so I headed off to the resurgent Demonoid. Sure enough they had a torrent of the SDK. I was going to set it up to download during the uncapped night hours, but then I had an idea. BitTorrent would be able to identify the bad chunks in the disk image I had downloaded from Apple, so I replaced the placeholder file that Azureus had created with a corrupt SDK disk image, and then reimported the torrent file. Sure enough it checked the file and declared it 99.7% complete. A few minutes later I had a valid disk image and installed the SDK. Verification and repair of corrupt files is a new use of BitTorrent for me; I thought I would share a useful way of repairing large, corrupt, but widely available, files."
Slashdot.org

Last Chance to Enter For Slashdot Anniversary Party Grand Prize 86

Today is your last chance to enter the Slashdot 10-Year Anniversary party contest. All you need to do is send pictures, videos, or whatever party evidence you can email to anniversary at slashdot dot org. The winner will be whoever sends the things that make their party look the coolest, the most nerdish etc. We've seen signs, games, etc so far... and of course, the winner gets $1k at ThinkGeek. Both the Ann Arbor and Silicon Valley parties were great. Much alcohol consumed. Old friends chatted with. New friends met. I hope many of you around the net got your t-shirts and had good times.
Software

Games All Downhill Since Pong? 403

In a recent article Nolan Bushnell laments the current state of gaming, stating that modern games are nothing more than a "race to the bottom" resulting in complete and utter trash. In order to combat what he sees as the downward spiral in game quality he continues to work on his new dining experience uWink that features tabletop games and a "reasonably priced meal". RPS weighs in on the subject arguing that, while the unhealthy obsession with Halo 3 might be a bit misplaced, there are plenty of gems to be found amidst the flotsam and jetsam.

Top Irritating Words Spawned by Internet 576

prostoalex writes "If you're launching a new blog into the blogosphere, does the common netiquette allow you to have a separate wiki to go with a blog? If the previous sentence irritated you, you're not alone. Folksonomy, blogosphere, blog, netiquette and blook are among the most hated Internet words, Lulu Blooker Prize research found."
Apple

Apple Ships 8-Core MacPro 628

ivan1024 writes "The Apple website is announcing the availability of an 8-core Mac Pro. The machine will ship with two 3.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 processors. Older models with the Dual-Core chips remain available. Base model with two 3.0 GHz Quad-Core Xeon processors start at $3997, (albeit with unacceptably minimal RAM or HD space; fully spec'd with dual 30" monitors and tons o' RAM/HD still over $10K... bummer)"
Games

On Being a Gamer in Iraq 74

The increasingly excellent games coverage from MTV continues, with Stephen Totilo's conversation with an Iraqi gamer (Flash site, video in upper left-hand corner). Wisam, the 23 year old gamer Totilo speaks with, shares a few stories with the reporter about his life in Iraq. He gained some notoriety on the web after sitting for an interview with the 'Alive in Baghdad' blog, but at the moment he's only interested in games and having something to do. A recent graduate of his city's English department, current circumstances in the city makes it hard for him to find meaningful work. From the article: "The American-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime changed Wisam's taste in games. He and his gamer friends used to enjoy first-person shooters like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. Then a real war started around him. 'We hate the attacking, the gunfire in games,' Wisam said. 'We started to hate it.' In fact, there's only one game with guns he can still tolerate. 'Grand Theft Auto is the exception. Because Grand Theft Auto is like us.'"
Science

White Dolphin Functionally Extict 868

An anonymous reader writes "For the first time in nearly fifty years another mammal, specifically an aquatic mammal, has gone extinct. In this case, it was the white dolphin, also known as the Baiji, which used to live in the Yangtze River in China. The dolphin had been known to exist for the last 20 million years."
Caldera

Portions of SCO's Expert Reports Stricken 170

rm69990 writes "A day after Judge Dale Kimball reaffirmed Judge Wells' order tossing most of SCO's case, Judge Wells has stricken large portions of SCO's expert reports, stating that SCO was trying to do an end-run around IBM. As IBM put it in its motion papers, SCO will not be allowed to 'litigate by ambush.' This motion was regarding SCO's expert reports, where SCO attempted to insert new evidence after discovery had ended via their expert reports. Wells' ruled directly from the bench, and finished by telling SCO to 'take it up with Judge Kimball' if they had a problem. This really hasn't been a good week for SCO."
Microsoft

Zune Sales Not So Bad After All 366

pyrbrand writes "Despite the iFanboy jabber that Zune sales were horrific, CNN has a story to the contrary. Turns out Zune was the #2 Digital Audio player in its first week of sales. Not a bad start for the challenger to the iPod throne. As others have pointed out the Amazon sales rank may have been thrown off by Zune sales being divided between the three colors."
Music

Universal Wants a Slice of Apple's iPod Pie 555

vought writes "According to a Reuters report, Universal is now taking the precendent set by Microsoft's Zune and moving to force Apple to include a royalty payment with each iPod. In the words of Universal Music's Doug Morris, 'These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it. So it's time to get paid for it.' Does Microsoft's precedent mean the start of a slippery slope that will add a 'pirate tax' to every piece of hardware that touches digital music?"
It's funny.  Laugh.

MPAA Goes After Home Entertainment Systems 402

philba writes to tell us that home theaters may become the new jurisdiction of our MPAA overlords. The MPAA is lobbying to make sure that home users authorize their entertainment systems before any in-home viewings. From the article: "The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29" with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown."

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