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Submission + - Canadian Filesharing Myths Debunked (thestar.com) 1

DavidChristopher writes: "In Michael Geist's column in the Toronto Star, he discusses — and debunks — two common Canadian Filesharing Myths:

all file sharing is legal in Canada and, perhaps as a consequence of this, that Canada leads the world in illegal file-sharing activity.

... which isn't actually true. In fact, the number of infringement notices in Canada is on the decline. Canada now ranks 10th, behind Spain, Italy, and France, according to a BayTSP report http://www.zeropaid.com/news/86218/report-file-sharing-surges-in-europe-declines-in-us/"

Government

Submission + - North Korea conducts nuclear test (theglobeandmail.com)

DavidChristopher writes: "The globe & mail is reporting that North Korea has conducted another nuclear test:

From the article:

North Korea announced Monday that it conducted another nuclear test, a surprise move certain to further isolate Kim Jong-il's increasingly unpredictable regime.

News of the test, the second conducted by North Korea, came in a statement by the official Korean Central News Agency. "According to the demand of our scientists and technicians, our republic has successfully conducted another underground nuclear test on May 25 ... as part of measures to strengthen its nuclear power in self-defense," the report said.

North Korea warned last month that it would conduct another nuclear test, allegedly to protest a rather mild rebuke from the United Nations Security Council following an April 5 "satellite launch" by Pyongyang that the United States, South Korea and Japan interpreted as a camouflaged test of its ballistic missile system..

Scary Stuff..."

Comment Huh? (Score 5, Informative) 424

Sounds like you're complicating things a bit.

What you're not saying here is if you want to run multiple instances of the game at the same time. What kind of PC are you using now? It had better have a LOT of horsepower. 9/10 times, the simpler solution (a second gaming PC) is the smarter answer.

Keep in mind, Windows was not designed as a 'time sharing' system - at least not in the way you're thinking.

Comment Re:I didn't RFTA but ... (Score 1) 859

The traffics and the road condition has probably limited you from speeding. I really doubt how many people would speed in street road...With the slow acceleration of bus, and the kick off delay between the warning phase to the execution phase, chance for the system to be activated in street road is not high.

Depending on where you're from, I guess. Here in Canada, I have roads that have a posted limit of 50kph that I can easily manage at 110kph. (Eg, the Smith-Triller Viaduct). We have highway systems here that have a posted limit of 100kph, but speeds of over 160kph are easily managed by a skilled driver. The road conditions have nothing to do with the speed, nor does the traffic.

As to how many people 'speed in street road'- the 'street racing' problem has gotten so bad that Ontario, Canada now has a law that says if you exceed the speed limit by 50kph (and are caught) then you immediately lose your license and the vehicle you are driving (even if it isn't yours) is impounded.

It many not be a problem where you are but it's a problem elsewhere

Comment Fixing the problem properly... (Score 1) 859

We seem to live in a world where "technology" is the solution to all of our problems. Too bad. Everyone seems to want the instant solution, and in a defeatist sort of way goes about implementing the WRONG solution to a multitude of problems.

For example: The solution here? Driver Training. Speeding doesn't kill, it's irresponsibility. it's inability. A Bad Driver decides do do 90 through a school zone and kills someone - and "speeding" is to blame? No: It's an irresponsible idiot who thinks it's appropriate to drive at excessive speed in risk-sensitive areas. It's an irresponsible idiot without the SKILLS to drive at those speeds even where the road and conditions could possibly allow it.

I have seen, daily, drivers who don't exceed the limit that are more dangerous than the fastest drivers. Distracted, disinterested, and while licensed not qualified to drive a vehicle. Is there technology to save us from THESE people? Um... yes... how about lowering the 'standards' for dangerous driving (so that that asshole that was shaving as he changed lanes into me yesterday would be properly charged with reckless) and then trhowing the book at them. If you want to throw some high tech at the problem- how implementing technology (proper black box / telemetry recorders) to support the conviction of these drivers.

It's not how fast you go, it's what you do with the fast.

Comment Oh this is gonna be fun :) (Score 5, Funny) 391

Trying to learn what we don't know is how we grow.

I found the missing link a little while ago though- I had a conversation over coffee a couple of weeks ago with someone who turned out to be a creationist. We ended up having the dreaded creationism-vs-darwinism "discussion". The gentleman in question was extremely stubborn, and his coffin-nail-arguement against darwinism, believe it or not, was that there was "no proof of evolution". I spewed trying to contain my laughter. Needless to say, the conversation ended at that point quite abruptly.

A fascinating discovery though.

Comment Re:Hype. Awesome. (Score 1) 296

You're making it sound like a scam, but the way I see it he's selling a 100 page book of David Lynch photography, which for fans of Mr. Lynch like myself is pretty damn cool. The fact that it comes with a blank CD-R is just a neat little afterthought.

No, that's not what I meant... I don't think it's a scam at all ( I was being quite sincere ). I mean, from a sheer marketing point of view, it's Genius. The purpose of releasing a CD is to sell that CD, right? We ( http://www.bistolas.net/ ) don't have a label, or that kind of marketing muscle - and as a result we don't sell a lot of CDs (actually, we did sell out our short-first-run). What we really need is media exposure. This blank cd publication wrapped in a copyright infringement protest, with a side of "stick it to the labelism" is a great way to start multiple discussions (like this one), arguments, and is already generating awareness. Read up through the posts, and see how many people who were uninterested or unaware of Dangermouse's work have joined in on the conversation, or have downloaded the tracks (as you did yourself) - some of those will translate to sales.

Now -adding real content (David Lynch) to the package is a part of what makes this whole thing brilliant. It makes the "blank CD" valuable on it's own. It's all about sales.

That's why Damn, I wish I thought of that.

Comment Hype. Awesome. (Score 5, Insightful) 296

Damn, I wish I thought of that.

I'm quite surprised that nobody here can see through this 'protest' to it's true nature, that it's an excellent marketing gimmic. Danger Mouse has shown already that he's very good at marketing. Want great press? Fight a record label. (Even early in his career, he would wear a mouse costume - because he was to shy/stagefrightened to show his face - and then took the name dangermouse. Great hook right there. ) He's most definitely talented - having collaborated and produced some very cool artists (Gnarles Barkley, Gorilliaz) as well, each well marketed in it's own right - but this marketing ploy... I'm beside myself at it's simplicity and beauty.

Give out blank CDs. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. He's already getting amazing free press over this, and there's more coming for certain. I was reading through the replys to just this article here on slashdot, and found more than a couple of readers vowing to by multiple copies of the release just to show support. Multiple copies. Of A Blank Disk.

I envy him.

Comment I never understood.. (Score 4, Interesting) 136

... the need for people to take these quizzes - especially on Facebook - What's your favorite cheese? Which celebrity are you? Does he like you? How Sexy Is Your Name? What Does Your Eye Colour Mean?Some of them are rather clever (RealAge) and yet also evil (RealAge). Okay, maybe not 'kill puppies' evil, but all of these are datamining personal information from the poor suckers that need a webpage to tell them if they're happy or that brown eyes means that they're mysterious. I've been warning folks about this kind of thing for years, to no avail. - Not all apps are trojan horses, but why be a market research tool?

It would be interesting to see an audit of companies like zynga ( http://www.zynga.com/ - zynga is a purveyor of web based games like Vampires, Texas Holdem, Scramble or YoVille on social networking sites such as facebook and myspace) - I'm certain that part of their revenue comes from "market research support". This is the new spam, and it's tricking the gullible into being it's corporate marketing test group.

Comment Re:Tinfoil hat wearing crowd said this was man-mad (Score 1) 249

D-Day was far from quiet - in fact, during the war counter-intel had it's own codename: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude
The Manhattan Project itself owes part of it's science to a leak of sorts. (Bohr learned of a successful uranium fission experiment that had been conducted in Germany in 1938, before he came to the USA - right around the time Einstein sent a letter to Roosevelt speculating that the Nazis were developing atomic technology). Bohr was a physisist at Los Alamos, working under the name "Nicholas Baker". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr


And, finally... Coke's Recepie: http://sparror.cubecinema.com/cube/cola/chemistry/cola2.htm
Now, where's your tinfoil hat? You had better put it on...

Comment You've gotta love solar power... (Score 2, Insightful) 416

... as long as you live in the desert. This is a great idea, if they pull it off. Clean, reliable, and fast as hell. While it's not (well, probably not) feasible in 'regular' climates (like Ontario, or the prairies, or even the mid west) where sunshine isn't a guarantee - it could be a step in the right direction for self-sufficient transportation infrastructure. When you push the technology envelope, everyone wins.

Now, how long before bureaucracy clouds over this idea?

Comment 5 out of 6 wheels?!? (Score 5, Informative) 160

SOURCE: Wikipedia
On sol 779, the right front wheel ceased working after having covered 4.2 mi (7 km) on Mars. Engineers began driving the rover backwards, dragging the dead wheel. Ironically, although this has resulted in changes to driving techniques the dragging effect has also had a positive effect in the fact that the wheel dragging has partially cleared soil away on the surface as the rover travels and allows for imaging areas that would normally be covered in soil.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/images/rover1_detail_500.jpg

NASA got awesome mileage out of this vehicle... considerably more than was initially expected- over 7700 meters! Hopefully they get it unstuck. According the the NASA website, they've gotten it backed up by a few CM over the last few Sols...

Comment Re:Why would my Mom upgrade to Snow Leopard? (Score 0) 256

http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/

It's mostly under the hood, but these are the kinds of underhood changes that application developers will take to quickly- such Grand Central, OpenCL and the new QT. The performance optimizations are what will really drive this product, providing they live up to expectations. Each subsequent release of MacOS X has felt faster (to many, including myself). As to Mom's mac? She probably won't need this update, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it anyway...
:)

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