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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 23 declined, 8 accepted (31 total, 25.81% accepted)

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Space

Submission + - Greg Zsidisin: "Where Are The Space Advocates? (thespaceshow.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "Greg Zsidisin appeared on The Space Show today to ask Where Are The Space Advocates?. For the first time in decades Space is once again a political issue with all four major presidential candidates having something to say about space policy and yet nothing is being heard from space advocates. As we enter a new "Space Nexus" like we did after Apollo, now is a critical time to let your representatives know how you feel about space exploration, and yet no-one has anything to say."
The Courts

Submission + - Hans Reiser Found Guilty Of First Degree Murder (wired.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "Despite the lack of any hard evidence, eye witnesses or even a murder weapon or body, Hans Reiser (creator of the ReiserFS filesystem for Linux) has been found guilty of first degree murder. He awaits sentencing and faces a mandatory 25-to-life term. His wife, Nina Reiser, went missing on Sept. 3, 2006 and Hans is believed to be the last person to see her alive."
Space

Submission + - Space Advocacy Groups Fail To Respond To Obama (thespacereview.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "Part two of Greg Zsidisin's story on Obama's plan to redirect NASA funding to preschool education is now available on The Space Review and explains why space advocacy groups are being so closed-lipped about it. Not surprisingly it's all about money and, in particular, tax-exempt status which carries with it prohibitions on the kinds and amount of political lobbying they can do, forbidding these groups from activities for or against a specific candidate for political office. Coming out with a statement specifically against Obama's proposal might result in their tax-exempt status being revoked."
Space

Submission + - Obama would redirect NASA funding to education (thespacereview.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "In a recent article on The Space Review, Greg Zsidisin reveals that Barack Obama plans to delay Project Constellation for at least five years, using the redirected funds to nationalize early-education for children under five years old to prepare them for the rigors of kindergarten and beyond, if he is elected president. It is feared that if this happens the Vision for Space Exploration will flounder and that may be the end of human spaceflight altogether."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Slashdot Article Is Self Referencing (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "An article on Slashdot has been submitted which refers to itself. Scientists suggest such self-referential technology may soon be available commercially. The article is otherwise devoid of content and the link it contains might not work. Will future dupes of this article reference itself or a previous article? Only time will tell."
The Courts

Submission + - Two new alleged license violations of BusyBox (linux.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "Linux.com is reporting The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed another two cases on behalf of BusyBox developers Erik Andersen and Rob Landley against High Gain Antennas LLC, and Xterasys Corp. The cases follow a similar case against Monsoon Multimedia, which was recently settled out of court. The case against High Gain Antenna claims that, since August 4, 2006, the company has been distributing firmware for the HGA-8186HP-1 wireless router that contains BusyBox code, but has not included any offer of the source code to customers, as required under Section 3 of GPLv2. The case against Xterasys is similar, claiming Xterasys has failed to provide source code in the firmware for its BM-200, WAP257, XA-2611B, MH350, XR-2408GU, XR-3106, XR-4106, and WR-254 products."
Space

Submission + - People Believe NASA Funded As Well As Defense (thespacereview.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "An essay on the Space Review is reporting that in a just-completed study, on average, respondents estimated NASA's allocation of the national budget to be approximately 24% (it's actually closer to 0.58%) and the Department of Defense budget to be approximately 33% (it's actually closer to 21%). In other words, respondents believed NASA's budget approaches that of the Department of Defense, which receives almost 38 times more money. Once informed of the actual allocations, they were almost uniformly surprised. One of the more vocal participants exclaimed, "No wonder we haven't gone anywhere!""
Space

Submission + - Armadillo Aerospace Demonstrates LLC Stage 1 (armadilloaerospace.com)

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "John Carmack (of Doom fame) and his rocket company Armadillo Aerospace have demonstrated their entry into the X-Prize/NASA Lunar Lander Challenge, first stage, at the Oklahoma Spaceport. Representatives from AST and the X-Prize Cup were present. A 3 minute, 41 second video of the feat has been posted by Carmack to the company's web site in a recent update, where he complains that were the competition not tied to a promotional event later this year, his company could have already claimed the $500,000 prize. The challenge venue will be hosted at this year's X-Prize Cup on October 26-28, 2007, at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico."
Education

Submission + - Do you educate family about copyright issues?

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "We live in a time where copyright owners form lobby groups (like the RIAA and MPAA) to misinform the public of their rights and obligations under copyright law. Those insane warnings at the beginning of movies make no mention of fair use and throw around words like "crime" and "theft" with semantic abandon. When your own mother asks you to copy a movie so she can give it to a friend, how wrong can it be? Does any else have these problems or do I just have technically competent, copyright blasé friends and family?"
Businesses

Submission + - Greg KH Offers Free Linux Driver Development!

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "Kernel hacker Greg KH has made a public offer to develop Linux drivers, for free, to any vendor that is willing to release hardware specifications or make available "an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while." The offer is made in conjunction with the OSDL/TLF Tech Board who are providing a legal framework for managing any NDA requirements that vendors may have. The announcement has been made in the hope that vendors will be more inclined to label their products as "Linux Ready" by reducing developer workload."
The Courts

Submission + - What ought I do if a friend asks me for a copy?

Submitted by
QuantumG
QuantumG writes: "It happens all the time, and it happens to just about everyone nowadays, so what is one supposed to do when a friend asks you for a copy of that game/song/movie/program which is licensed under a non-permissive license? Legally, of course, I'm supposed to say no. I'm supposed to be shocked that my friend, who I thought was an honest kind of guy, would ever ask me to make an unauthorized copy of anything. I'm supposed to look around and make sure no-one heard and maybe see if this guy, who I thought was my friend, has swiped anything while I wasn't looking. Of course, I don't. I'll happily make him a copy, so would most of us, is this the right thing to do? Do the wants of my friend outweigh the legal rights of the copyright owner? Or is the best strategy just to avoid the problem altogether by using exclusively permissively licensed works? When was the last time the readers of Slashdot thought this through?"

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