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Censorship

Submission + - Comcast to face BitTorrent Filtering Lawsuits

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's been widely reported that Comcast is engaged in a sneaky form of Internet filtering. The company is terminating its customers' BitTorrent sessions by sending misleading data onto the network. The end result is that instead of targeting key heavy users, Comcast is instead engaged in an all out war against P2P protocols. In an interview with CNET, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann states that Comcast is "throwing a spanner in the works of the Internet, hoping that this will somehow reduce bandwidth usage overall." Other lawyers seem to have smelled blood, and are circling in the water. Lohmann reveals that "[The EFF has] already been contacted by attorneys who are considering legal action against Comcast." Could Comcast be facing a class-action? Where do I sign up?
Space

Astronomers Again Baffled by Solar Observations 299

Posted by CowboyNeal from the back-to-the-drawing-board dept.
SteakNShake writes "Once again professional astronomers are struggling to understand observations of the sun. ScienceDaily reports that a team from Saint Andrew's University announced that the sun's magnetic fields dominate the behavior of the corona via a mechanism dubbed the 'solar skeleton.' Computer models continue to be built to mimic the observed behavior of the sun in terms of magnetic fields but apparently the ball is still being dropped; no mention in the announcement is made of the electric fields that must be the cause of the observed magnetic fields. Also conspicuously absent from the press releases is the conclusion that the sun's corona is so-dominated by electric and magnetic fields because it is a plasma. In light of past and present research revealing the electrical nature of the universe, this kind of crippling ignorance among professional astrophysicists is astonishing."
Businesses

Submission + - Jack Valenti, Dead at 85

Submitted by saforrest
saforrest writes: Jack Valenti, a man whose influence in both Washington and Hollywood was profound, died today at age 85. He first became famous as special assistant to Lyndon Johnson: he can even be seen in the famous photo aboard Air Force One; he later recounted some of his experiences with the Johnson administration. In 1966, he quit this job to become what Slashdotters will undoubtedly know him best for: the staunchest promoter of copyright powers in America, as the longtime president of the MPAA, from 1966 to 2004.
Movies

Submission + - Jack Valenti has passed away

Submitted by norminator
norminator writes: Jack Valenti, head of the MPAA for 38 years, passed away this afternoon in his home. Valenti is known among the Slashdot community as a man who did not believe in fair use, including backing up your digital media. From a Slashdot article four years ago: "In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless."
The Internet

Submission + - The Story behind funky, ad-laden domains

Submitted by Dollaz
Dollaz writes: Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample millions of domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying. It's akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party.

The grace period was originally designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about to buy. But with computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market, entrepreneurs have turned the return policy into a loophole for generating big bucks. http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20070219/domain-en trepreneurs-sampling.htm
Microsoft

Submission + - JetBlue's Windows Infrastructure Crashes

Submitted by hawks5999
hawks5999 writes: JetBlue's reservation and communication systems have been down for 5 days leaving thousands of passengers stranded and stockholders seeing red. It was almost exactly 4 years ago that JetBlue trumpeted it's reliance on Windows to help it see black. From a 2003 news.com article:

So we marched down the road of the Windows platform. We don't have any Unix; we don't have an AS/400; we don't have any mainframes — we don't have anything outside of Windows. There has been tremendous cost savings. ...everything's Windows. Every technician that works on a server works on a Windows server. Every technician working on a desktop works on a Windows desktop. That's quite a bit easier than other flavors of desktops or OS/2 or whatever else is out there.
I guess they didn't look at redundancy or reliability in their cost equation...
Operating Systems

BBC To Host Multi-OS Debate 344

Posted by samzenpus from the get-ready-to-rumble dept.
Bananatree3 writes "BBC is currently seeking submissions from all you Microsoft Windows, Mac and Linux devotees "in 100 words or less, why you are such a supporter of your chosen operating system and what features you love about it". They will then select one user of each platform to go head to head in a debate that will be part of the BBC's Microsoft Vista launch coverage on January 30th."
Announcements

Submission + - Inventor of instant noodles dies.

Submitted by solitas
solitas writes: The BBC has posted a short obituary for Momofuku Ando, the founder of Nissin and the inventor of instant noodles.

In all seriousness, who among us hasn't been grateful at one time or another for his cheap-yet-filling product in college, and/or when financial times were tough? I can remember many a long study night (and short times between classes and appointments) when there was nothing else (so inexpensive, convenient, and not-requiring-refrigeration) available.

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