Comment Re:The terrorists have won! (Score 1) 206
> Our dumb (tm) drug laws are largely responsible [f]or this.
You think?
Comment Re:Remember when eggs were bad for you? (Score 1) 224
I only ever used margerine on toast. One day I ran out, and had to spray olive oil on instead using a little spray bottle I got off Amazon.com. I can spray olive oil much more sparingly then spreading margerine.
I haven't bought any margerine since.
Comment Re:Missing option? (Score 1) 517
I was reading a web page about a DIY project and the author had written:
"I followed my usual rules, and bought everything online so as not to have to speak to anyone."
when it occurred to me that I do much the same thing myself. I get groceries delivered, buy clothes from http://www.rohan.co.uk/, and prefer to pay delivery fees rather than buy a tube ticket and spend a Saturday looking for an item around town.
This is more so as to maximise my free time than to avoid people, but I know how he feels.
IRS Looking at Google/Mozilla Relationship 261
ric482 writes "With the release of the Mozilla Foundation's 2007 financial report, questions have been raised by the IRS, who are due to perform an audit on the non-profit organization behind the massively popular Firefox browser.
Last year, the Foundation received $66 million of its total $75 million revenue (88 percent) from search engine maestros Google, so the IRS are looking for blood over the organization's tax exempt status. Back in 2006, Mozilla got $59.5 million from Google — around 85 percent of the organization's revenue.
Google and Mozilla are part of a 'you scratch my back, I'll pay your bills' sort of agreement, with the Google search bar firmly placed in the toolbar, and on the default homepage. Things were a bit rocky a couple of months back when Google unveiled the Beta-run of its Chrome browser, but Mozilla and Google hugged it out and sealed a deal that will last for another three years. That deal will expire in November 2011."
Comment Re:The *French* recording companies suing P2P apps (Score 1) 326
Yes, I have.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Safari
It's a great album, that I bought on CD twice before downloading.
Submission + - How many slashdotters have a Pilot's licence?
permaculture writes: "Licence held?
Licensed Pilot
Licensed Sailor
Licensed Driver
Not licenced"
Submission + - Pandora will stop streaming to the UK on Jan 15th (pandora.com)
permaculture writes: "This email arrived today, indicating that the Music industry isn't softening its attitude to streaming music on the internet.
___________________________________________________
hi, it's Tim,
This is an email I hoped I would never have to send.
As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After over a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.
Based on your email address, we believe you may be listening from the UK. If you are in fact listening from the U.S., please disregard this email.
It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don't often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent — and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.
We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.
We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.
We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we'll get beyond this. We're going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We'll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.
Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.
Again, on behalf of all of us at Pandora, I'm very, very sorry.
___________________________________________________"
___________________________________________________
hi, it's Tim,
This is an email I hoped I would never have to send.
As you probably know, in July of 2007 we had to block usage of Pandora outside the U.S. because of the lack of a viable license structure for Internet radio streaming in other countries. It was a terrible day. We did however hold out some hope that a solution might exist for the UK, so we left it unblocked as we worked diligently with the rights organizations to negotiate an economically workable license fee. After over a year of trying, this has proved impossible. Both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.
Based on your email address, we believe you may be listening from the UK. If you are in fact listening from the U.S., please disregard this email.
It continues to astound me and the rest of the team here that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don't often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent — and by that I mean both well known and indie artists. The only consequence of failing to support companies like Pandora that are attempting to build a sustainable radio business for the future will be the continued explosion of piracy, the continued constriction of opportunities for working musicians, and a worsening drought of new music for fans. As a former working musician myself, I find it very troubling.
We have been told to sign these totally unworkable license rates or switch off, non-negotiable...so that is what we are doing. Streaming illegally is just not in our DNA, and we have to take the threats of legal action seriously. Lest you think this is solely an international problem, you should know that we are also fighting for our survival here in the US, in the face of a crushing increase in web radio royalty rates, which if left unchanged, would mean the end of Pandora.
We know what an epicenter of musical creativity and fan support the UK has always been, which makes the prospect of not being able to launch there and having to block our first listeners all the more upsetting for us.
We know there is a lot of support from listeners and artists in the UK for Pandora and remain hopeful that at some point we'll get beyond this. We're going to keep fighting for a fair and workable rate structure that will allow us to bring Pandora back to you. We'll be sure to let you know if Pandora becomes available in the UK. There may well come a day when we need to make a direct appeal for your support to move for governmental intervention as we have in the US. In the meantime, we have no choice but to turn off service to the UK.
Pandora will stop streaming to the UK as of January 15th, 2008.
Again, on behalf of all of us at Pandora, I'm very, very sorry.
___________________________________________________"
Journal Journal: Favourite Books
Title - Author
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Way Station - Clifford D. Simak
Footfall - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Mission Earth - L. Ron Hubbard
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Saga of Pliocene Exile - Julian May
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Have Space Suit--Will Travel - Robert Heinlein
Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
Needle - Hal Clement
Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
The Brentford Trilogy - Robert Rankin
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Bookmark Letter bombs: an expert writes (theregister.co.uk)
Journal Journal: Why Question 911 ? 1
Why Question 9/11?
James H. Fetzer
As the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth (http://www.st911.org/), I would observe that our members have established more than a dozen disproofs of the official government account, the truth of any one of which is enough to show that the government's account--in one or another of its guises--cannot possibly be correct. Here is an overview:
Journal Journal: Holy Fuck
_______________________________________________________
Video presentation by Jeff King from MIT - (15 mins)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1822764959599063248
Paul Allen's Microsoft Experience 515
theodp writes "Just in case Microsoft bashers don't have enough ammo, Robert X. Cringely has a couple of interesting tales in this week's column. The first explains how Bill Gates used Paul Allen's moonlighting at MITS to justify awarding himself 64% of Microsoft's stock vs. Allen's 36% (and Gates' failure to adjust the shares after he accepted a $10/hour part-time MITS job). The second heart-warming tale concerns a conversation Allen reportedly overheard late one night (as he was finishing up DOS 2.0) between Gates and Steve Ballmer discussing how to get Allen's Microsoft stock back if the Hodgkins disease Allen was battling killed him. Yikes."
Swedish Study Finds Cell Phone Cancer Risk 282
dtjohnson writes "A new Swedish
study has
found that heavy users of cell phones had a 240 percent increase in
brain tumors on the side of their head that the phone was used
on. The study defined 'heavy' use as more than 2,000 total hours,
or approximately one hour of use per workday for 10 years. An
earlier British
study was previously discussed
here that didn't find an increased risk, although that study
covered fewer subjects and only followed one type of brain tumor for a
shorter period of time. Or course, the biggest epidemiological
study of all is the one we are all participating in whenever we use our
cell phone. The results from that study won't be available for a
while."
Journal Journal: May 2005: Spam, Spyware and Spivs
3 main problems currently. Spam coming in through the email, spyware filling up PCs with crap, and 'spivs' who plug insecure PCs into the network.
Journal Journal: Gaobot worm
Current problem: Gaobot worm. It's out there on our network somewhere, probably brought in on a laptop like Nachia was last time.
Nowadays we have to update the Operating System patches and Antivirus Definitions offline before plugging into the network, or Gaobot disables McAfee ViruScan and you have to reimage the PC from scratch.
McAfee says it can clear this worm off if you enable scanning of compressed files, but in practise it doesn't seem to be able to. I eben tried slaving an inf
