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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 33 declined, 5 accepted (38 total, 13.16% accepted)

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The Almighty Buck

Submission + - RIAA: strapped for cash, stops suing

Submitted by Zarf
Zarf writes: The real Paul Jones (of iBiblio fame) tweets: "Facing shrinking budget RIAA abandons suing listeners — instead turns ISPs into their thugs." The Wall Street Journal article reports: "the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers." Is this finally some good news from the economic melt down?
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Google Praises the FCC's White Space decision

Submitted by Zarf
Zarf writes: Google praises the FCC vote to allow the use of White Space spectrum for wifi. White Space spectrum for those who don't know is the intentionally unused spectrum between TV stations. The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) argues that using the previously untouched white space regions of the spectrum will degrade TV signals. The use of this additional spectrum will allow for more wifi services. Larry Page calls the white space broadband technology "Wi-Fi on steroids!" I personally welcome our super-buffed white-space spectrum overlords.
Education

Submission + - Math Skills Suffer in US Schools (nytimes.com) 3

Submitted by Zarf
Zarf writes: I'd like to file a bug report on the US educational system.
The New York Times reports on a recent study that shows the US fails to encourage academic talent as a culture.

"There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn't really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics," said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.'s math department. "Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none."

While we've suspected that the US might be falling behind academically, this study shows that it is actually due to cultural factors that are devaluing the success of our students. I suspect there's a flaw in the US cultural system that prevents achievement on the academic front as valuable. Could anyone suggest a patch for this bug or is this cause for a rewrite?

Software

Submission + - Why do we write software? (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Zarf
Zarf writes: What is the point of the software we write? Why do we bother? I have had the misfortune of working on projects that lose sight of this and I have to ask: Why do we do it? Why do we write software or create new software products? It clearly isn't to make the programmer's life easier is it? The programmer should be trying to make their user's life easier. After all isn't that why a programmer even has a job?
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Perl guy looks to stay employed 2

Submitted by Not Old yet Perl Guy
Not Old yet Perl Guy writes: So I'm a guy who has been hacking code non-stop Perl since 1996. I never got around to making any CPAN contributions. I used to know C and other nifty things like that but all those skills have aged out in light of do-or-die year after year Perl hacking. I'm wondering how employable I am? What new skill should I add to my tool box if I want to keep employed for the next 10 years? What skills other than Perl do slashdotters find that they need? What hot new projects are rolling out in Perl. (Pretend I've been under a rock for five years.) And, where have all the Perl jobs gone?
Linux Business

Submission + - GPL v3 + Microsoft + Peer to Patent at TriLug

Submitted by Zarf
Zarf writes: Back in June the TriLug had a guest speaker Sapna Kumar from Duke university. The meeting covered GPL version 3, the Novel and Microsoft deal, the SCO law suit, and the Peer to Patent project that lets you inform patent officers about prior art. Interesting and vital new developments in law space that might affect kernel space, join your local LUG and get involved! BTW: Video quotes slashdot articles.
Privacy

Submission + - Did your city post your tax return to google?

Submitted by
Zarf
Zarf writes: "A Johnston County, North Carolina resident found tax payers' personal information by entering his own address into a Google search: story here. The county had posted tax payer data to its site, but, removed the file within an hour of being notified. County officials contacted google which responded that it would take five days to remove the information from their cache. The county had the information posted on their website for six weeks. The company Bi-Tek is named as the contractor that accidentally released the personal information. I've written about the article here in more depth but the story seems to be generally DOA in local media. How would people in a more tech savvy area react to this? What if the city of Boston had made the same mistake? And, what should happen to help people deal with the potential identity theft? Should anything happen to a software company that mistakenly posts tax payer personal data to the internet?"

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