malsdavis - Slashdot User

Submission + - Blame women for bad TV

Submitted by IckySplat on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @08:55AM

IckySplat writes: Seen on UK Yahoo

From TFA

Eccentric astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has claimed that TV is worse today because the BBC is run by women.

Is he right? Is there a bigger market for blokes TV other than SKY sports?

"The trouble is that the BBC now is run by women and it shows: soap operas, cooking, quizzes, kitchen-sink plays.

I must admit there seems to be less and less on the tube these days thats worth watching.
Am I just getting older, or could there be something here?

Submission + - No ad skipping for you!

Submitted by smooth wombat on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @08:00AM

smooth wombat writes: ABC and ESPN have struck a deal with cable operator Cox Communications Inc. to offer hit shows and football games on demand, but with the unusual condition that Cox disables the fast-forward feature that allows viewers to skip ads. This agreement only applies to Cox's video-on-demand service and will not affect viewers using digital video recorders to fast forward through ads.

In addition, the companies will also test technology that will place ads in shows based on ZIP Codes and geographic area.

Submission + - War on Drugs a Costly Sham

Submitted by

wagneww

on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @07:58AM

wagneww writes: "We humans are a predictable lot; we continually ignore history, are afraid of everything, and act emotionally rather than rationally, especially when it comes to the vexatious and controversial subject of drugs in society. We don't learn from our mistakes; destined to repeat them over and over on a recurring loop of denial. Wash over some orchestrated religious propaganda and you have a recipe for disaster.
The author of the recently released autobiography; "Cheating the Hangman: True Confessions of a Heroin Trafficker" knows what he's talking about when it comes to illegal drugs. Wade Agnew has been using them daily for forty years. He started with alcohol, quickly dismissing it after the revelation of marijuana in 1968 while at University. This discovery would dictate the course of his life. For all the details of his terrifyingly authentic tale go to;
http://www.cheatingthehangman.com.au/home_book.htm l

That the "War on Drugs" was the brainchild of the Nixon administration; the most seriously paranoid US president of the 20th Century, tells us a great deal about its genesis and "raison d'etre". Every society that has existed since the beginning of time has used "consciousness altering" substances, often in highly spiritual circumstances. This should have told us something, but apparently not.
Ignorance and political ambition are a volatile mix. At the start of the 21st Century, Australia was experiencing a flood of heroin. Established by refugees after the war in S.E.Asia, the Vietnamese community was now well integrated into mainstream society. Many of these citizens were ethnic Chinese with strong family links back to their homeland. With the opening up of the post-war Viet Nam, they became the conduit for Thai and Burmese white powder heroin then flooding into Australia. This community was very wary of officialdom, and notoriously difficult to penetrate. As a consequence the country was experiencing a huge drop in the price of heroin on the streets of major cities. It even penetrated far flung inland country towns. The price per gram fell to unprecedented lows, and the purity was astounding high by world standards.

"I was well and truly retired by then, and could only look on with envy as no4 white powder flooded into Australian cities," says Wade from his home in Brisbane. "People were making serious money from the glut of high quality heroin."
An unfortunate consequence of the high purity was a sharp rise in the number of overdoses on the streets of Australian cities. Addicts unused to such purity were dropping like flies. At one point police in Cabramatta; a Vietnamese enclave in western Sydney; now the heroin capital of the country, begged whoever was distributing a particularly pure shipment (close to 95%) to cut their drugs to curb the death rate.
Not long after, the local market began to experience a serious heroin drought, and the conservative Australian government began crowing, claiming its "Tough on Drugs" policy had been responsible. This drought was quickly followed by an avalanche of Methamphetamines. This was no coincidence; the two phenomena were inextricably linked. It quickly became evident that the Australian Government was taking credit for decisions of criminals. The "War on Drugs" has little or no effect on the availability of illegal drugs on the streets of Australia or anywhere else for that matter. All it does is pump-prime organized crime, and turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals.
The following are excerpts from a report into the heroin glut entitled; "The Case for an Inquiry into its Causes and the Flood of Methamphetamines" by W.M. Bush; no relation.

"The article disputes the claim by the Federal Government that Australian law enforcement financed by its Tough on Drugs Strategy was primarily responsible for the heroin drought and resulting fall in overdose deaths. Law enforcement agencies, notably the Australian Federal Police through its Commissioner, have revealed intelligence to the effect that Asian crime syndicates have assessed that there is a large and very profitable market in Australia for amphetamine-like drugs, and that they have made a marketing decision to promote them rather than heroin.
The evidence suggests strongly that the prime causes of the drought were a series of poor opium harvests in Burma and these marketing decisions. No other explanation fits the known facts including;
The drought being confined to Australia
A big rise in availability of amphetamine-like drugs imported through the same channels as heroin
The known large rise in recent years in production in South East Asia of these artificial drugs
The greater profit derivable from them than from heroin
Their lower vulnerability to law enforcement interdiction.
If law enforcement had an effect it was probably only a subsidiary factor. The evidence is strong that there would have been no drought in the absence of the other factors."

"If anyone should know about the profits to be made when drugs are made illegal, it's me. I spent thirty years selling drugs; it's not for the faint hearted, but there are huge amounts of money to be made", says Wade. "I only use marijuana these days; I can't afford the high cost of heroin. "I inhale the vapours with a marijuana vaporizer. In fact I import them for the local and world market; I sell the VapoHead Herbal Vaporizer. Marijuana Vaporizers are bloody brilliant. You can check them out on my website at;"
http://www.cheatingthehangman.com.au/

I still use heroin occasionally when I have the funds. The quality in Australia is the envy of addicts everywhere; almost always white powder, and usually with 50% purity or higher. However it's very expensive, reflecting the difficulty of getting it safely ashore. If I could afford to, I would certainly use heroin more often," Wade adds with a grin."

Submission + - Brightest Supernova Ever Seen

Submitted by

u-bend

on Tuesday May 08, 2007 @07:40AM

u-bend writes: "The Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an incredibly bright and long-lasting supernova.
From the article:
The brightest stellar explosion ever recorded may be a long-sought new type of supernova, according to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes. This discovery indicates that violent explosions of extremely massive stars were relatively common in the early universe, and that a similar explosion may be ready to go off in our own galaxy.
A concise Yahoo News version can be found here."

Submission + - Russian Teacher Guilty in Re-Opened MS Piracy Case

Submitted by

eldavojohn

on Monday May 07, 2007 @04:03PM

eldavojohn writes: "The highly publicized re-opened case of a Russian school teacher pirating Microsoft software has ended with the verdict being guilty of causing $10,000 in damages. Before we cast stones (again), note that Microsoft had nothing to do with this case: 'Microsoft, however, has said repeatedly it has nothing to do with the charges, which were brought by Russian prosecutors in the Ural Mountains region where Ponosov's school is located. The case "was initiated by Russian authorities under Russian law," the company said in an e-mailed statement after the verdict. "Microsoft neither initiated nor has any plans to bring any action against Mr. Ponosov."' The closing, re-opening & guilty verdict may all have been a result of the United States placing Russia on a piracy watch-list though many people feel the media has turned this into a David Vs Goliath tale with a reprieve on the ending."

Submission + - MSNBC Poll: libertarian Ron Paul won GOP Debate

Submitted by

SonicSpike

on Monday May 07, 2007 @02:51PM

SonicSpike writes: "The libertarian leaning US Congressman Ron Paul finished first in the MSNBC poll following the GOP primary debate held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. Dr. Paul received 43 percent, beating the second-place finisher by five points, and crushing the rest of the field. "Americans met Ron Paul and loved what they heard," said Ron Paul 2008 campaign chairman Kent Snyder. "Dr. Paul's message of freedom and limited government resonates with Republicans hungry for a return to their party's core values. Americans saw that," continued Snyder. "The campaign looks forward to further debates and opportunities so even more Americans will discover Dr. Paul's message of freedom, peace and prosperity." Dr. Ron Paul ran for President in 1988 as a member of the Libertarian Party."

Submission + - Work at Home | Make Money Online Opportunities

Submitted by

limalan88

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @07:00AM

limalan88 writes: "If you thought to Work at Home to Make Money Online, you have come to the right place. This place shows you the different opportunities available in the internet which you can work at home to make a second income by setting up your 1st website to start make money online autopilot from the comfort of your home."

Submission + - Google's home page bug strikes again

Submitted by

kurtz

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @05:44AM

kurtz writes: "Google's renamed and upgraded Personalised Home Page product launched this week, has not been able to shake off a persistent bug that has affected users."

Submission + - Danish Complaint Case may have Global Consequences

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Thursday May 03, 2007 @03:47AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "In a specific complaint case, the Consumer Complaints Board in Denmark now has evidence of a hidden, original design defect in Apple's iBook G4. This can have serious consequences for the computer manufacturer, which has so far denied the existence of this defect. Thousands of users all over the world have tried to get Apple to acknowledge the fault and agree to take back the computers."

Submission + - Pandora blocking users from outside USA and UK

Submitted by

[Nahoo]

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @05:27PM

[Nahoo] writes: "Pandora Internet Radio is blocking users from outside of USA and UK. I received a mail saying that my IP indicated I was listening from another country and that the service will be blocked as from May 3... "we must begin proactively preventing access to Pandora's streaming service for most countries outside of the U.S." There is nothing on their blog (http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/) yet but I guess they will be updating it soon. Internet radio is dying..."

Submission + - The World's Most Fuel Efficient Car

Submitted by

anjrued123

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @04:06PM

anjrued123 writes: "This new car claims to be the most efficient fuel guzzler ever created with a fuel use of only 0.0074 liters / 100 kilometers."

Submission + - Australian Brewery Turns Waste Into Electricity

Submitted by nTrfAce on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @04:03PM

nTrfAce writes: Australian brewer Foster's has teamed up with scientists to create the world's first "beer battery". The technology — using bacteria which consume sugar to generate power from brewery waste water — was unveiled at the University of Queensland. The university was awarded a state grant of 140,000 Australian dollars ($115,000; £58,000) to help fund the microbial fuel cell project. The battery will be installed at Foster's brewery near Brisbane.

Submission + - A Greener Apple

Submitted by

jdbartlett

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @02:50PM

jdbartlett writes: "Apple recently received a hard bashing from misguided environmentalists and the media after another barely researched and presumptive Greenpeace report claimed they were the least eco-friendly of the companies reviewed. Once again, Steve Jobs attempts to wrest public opinion into Apple's favor, this time with a detailed analysis of Apple's environmental efforts.

After explaining why the Greenpeace Electronics Guide was flawed, Jobs writes:

Dell, HP and Lenovo all scored higher than Apple because of their plans (or "plans for releasing plans" in the case of HP). In reality, Apple is ahead of all of these companies in eliminating toxic chemicals from its products.
"

Submission + - HD-DVD decryption key on a T-shirt

Submitted by

Bernardo

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @01:35PM

Bernardo writes: "It was only a matter of time before someone made a T-shirt with those infamous 32 hex digits, so as to show the futility of the MPAA/AACS's attempts to not only DRM their content but also to censor the decryption code. Like DeCSS before it, the HD-DVD decryption code can now be proudly worn on your chest."

Submission + - BBC: "DVD DRM row sparks user rebellion"

Submitted by

wellingtonsteve

on Wednesday May 02, 2007 @12:29PM

wellingtonsteve writes: "The BBC has reported the row over the HDDVD stories removed from Digg

From the article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6615047.stm ):

Attempts to gag the blogosphere from publishing details of a DVD crack have led to a user revolt. ...
The debate has put the initial crack and, what some see as the heavy-handed tactics of the licensing authority to combat it, back in the headlines. It will also spark a fresh debate on how far user-generated content can be censored."

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