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Comment Re:inb4 people making jokes of this (Score 5, Insightful) 413

by nerdup (#33712936) Attached to: Segway UK Boss Dies After Driving Off Cliff
Or maybe people other people just don't spend a lot of time getting bent out of shape over the death of someone they didn't know and to whom they had no connection. Personally I find it just as distasteful to make insincere public expressions of sorrow over something that actually doesn't affect you at all because "it's what you're supposed to do" or because you want to show all the other random anonymous slashdotters what a sensitive and caring person you are.
The Courts

Submission + - SPAM: FBI grants Lockheed $1billion biometrics contract

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "The FBI today awarded Lockheed Martin's Transportation and Security Solutions the contract for the design, development, documentation, integration, testing, and deployment of its Next Generation Identification (NGI) System. As expected, the $1 billion, 10 year services contract will expand on the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division's current Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which is primarily a fingerprint-based identification system operated and maintained in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The project is an expansion of the data gathering the FBI already does at its Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division. CJIS is the FBI's massive central repository for criminal justice information services; the CJIS division operates national-level crime data systems that furnish name checks, fingerprints, criminal history data, mugshots and other information to law enforcement officials. The FBI said the new system will move beyond what it called a "dependency on a unimodal (fingerprints) biometric identifier" and incorporate multimodal biometrics such as iris and facial imaging. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
The Internet

Submission + - Virtual Vigilantism for Megan Meier's family (rottenneighbor.com)

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "http://www.rottenneighbor.com/story.php?title=55926 Bloggers have taken on Megan's cause, with an outburst of virtual vigilantism. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that dozens of people have apparently been calling local businesses that work with the Drew family's company, which prints advertising. The Drews' home address, phone numbers, email addresses and photographs have also been posted on blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com. And there are reports that people are driving through the once tranquil neighbourhood in the middle of the night, screaming, "Murderer!""
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - Bioshock PC is defective by design 4

Submitted by ringbarer
ringbarer writes: Kotaku reports that the long-awaited spiritual successor to System Shock has a few shocks for any PC gamers who want to buy it. Customers are discovering that the 'SecuROM' anti-copying technology will only permit them to install the game twice, after which the DVD becomes nothing more than an expensive coaster. As PC Gamers are renowned for rebuilding and reinstalling their machines on a regular basis, it is clear that this will only hurt legitimate players.
Announcements

Submission + - Major New Discovery in the Ancestry of Man (hughpickens.com)

Submitted by
Pcol
Pcol writes: "The New York Times is reporting a major new discovery in the ancestral line to Homo sapiens that challenges the conventional view that Homo erectus evolved from Homo habilis. Instead, the two hominid species apparently lived side by side in eastern Africa for almost half a million years suggesting "that they had their own ecological niche, thus avoiding direct competition," said Dr. Meave Leakey, one of the co-authors, in a statement from Nairobi. The discovery leaves the early evolution of the genus Homo even more shrouded in mystery and means that both habilis and erectus must have originated from a common ancestor between two million and three million years ago. A fossil search for the common ancestor has drawn a virtual blank. The size of the new Homo erectus skull was also a surprise. "The fact that the skull — probably belong[ing] to a young adult — is so small suggests that the size range of Homo erectus was much larger than we imagined," said Fred Spoor, who discovered the hominin fossils. Homo erectus has always been viewed as similar to Homo sapiens in both body shape and lifestyle but the new discovery of a large sexual dimorphism suggests a family set-up more akin to that of modern gorillas in which dominant males mate with a harem of females."
Software

Submission + - Bush names anti-open source lobbyist as counselor (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
Citizen Pain
Citizen Pain writes: "President Bush today appointed as his counselor a man who received $820,000 from Microsoft to lobby during negotiations over its antitrust settlement as well as to oppose the use, especially within the government, of "open source" systems such as Linux. Enron also paid him $700,000 in 2001 alone to lobby on the "California energy crisis" and thwart efforts to re-regulate the Western electricity market through price controls."
Space

Submission + - Red Planet was once Blue (www.ctv.ca)

Submitted by CowboyRaver
CowboyRaver writes: Mars, the rugged Red Planet, may have once been blue according to new research that suggests massive ancient oceans once covered a third of its surface. The discovery was made by a joint Canada-U.S. research team that says it has uncovered evidence of the shorelines of ancient seas. The team's findings are set to be released in the journal Nature on June 14.
Networking

Submission + - How to deal with an abusive web host?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: I recently sent a DMCA takedown notice to a hosting company, regarding a customer who was blatantly posting copyrighted material from my website, along with attacks against me based on sexual orientation. I was told that, because they agreed with the person's attacks, the offending content would not be removed. They also claim that copyright is irrelevant, because they agree with their customer's "comments." I couldn't believe this response, but upon Googling the name of this host, I found dozens of webmasters and ISPs complaining about legal threats and spam attacks originating from this company. What is the correct way to deal with this issue?
Privacy

Submission + - Harvard prof: computers need to "forget" m

Submitted by Jessamine
Jessamine writes: A Harvard professor argues that too much information is being retained by computers, and the machines need to learn how to forget things as humans always have. "If whatever we do can be held against us years later, if all our impulsive comments are preserved, they can easily be combined into a composite picture of ourselves," he writes in the paper. "Afraid how our words and actions may be perceived years later and taken out of context, the lack of forgetting may prompt us to speak less freely and openly." Will such massive databases make us all act like politicians? Is data retention creating a "panopticon"? These are questions that the good doctor raises.
Yahoo!

Submission + - Yahoo closes Yahoo Auctions

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Yahoo is closing its Yahoo Auctions service in the UK and Ireland, as well as in the US and Canada. The UK & Ireland service will be closing from 28th June, while the US and Canada version will shut on 16 June.

Yahoo said the US sites will no longer accept listings from 3 June. Auctions Scheduler and Auto Resubmit features will not be available from 4 May.

In a message posted on the US auction site yesterday Yahoo said the decision was made so it could better serve its "valued customers through other Yahoo properties". Yahoo will continue to provide sellers, bidders and buyers with customer care and a limited set of features and tools until 29 October.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=9 309

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