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Judge Munley is So Out of My Top 8 791

Frequent Slashdot Contributor Bennett Haselton writes "A federal judge has ruled that a school district didn't violate a student's free speech rights when it suspended her for a parody MySpace page she created calling her principal a sex addict who "hits on students". In the ruling, Judge James M. Munley made the curious argument that if the case involves a student publishing lewd and offensive speech outside of school on their own time, then the proper precedent-setting cases to look to, are cases involving students making offensive statements in school during school hours, not cases involving students making less-offensive statements outside of school on their own time. In other words, if you can't find prior caselaw where all of the factors are the same, then the lewd-speech issue is more significant than the issue of whether the speech was made in or out of school." Hit that magical link below to read the rest of these words.
Businesses

Submission + - Are you going to work this Thanksgiving? 1

Edward Smikbam writes: CNet has an article up about the increasing trend to take your work home with you, even during vacations. Entitled "How much 'off time' are you taking this holiday?", the author presents a dilemma I think most of us are going to face soon, "when it comes to special occasions such as the Christmas holidays, what are these Matrix-like drones going to do? Do you leave the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile phone in a locked drawer, or do you occasionally check it while the kids open their presents?". I for one am locking my phone in a drawer but keeping the key very close, just in case.
Programming

Submission + - Who gets the unfinished software?

zaunuz writes: What happends to unfinished software, mainly consisting of bits and pieces of perl-code, if the company you wrote it for goes bankrupt? This might be the case where i currently work. For the past year i have been in charge of a fairly big project, but due to poor economical planning higher up in the system, it is quite possible that the company will die before me and my team are finished. If this happends, we would like to continue the project on our own, since it is fairly close to completion, and it would suck to just scrap what we've invested so many hours and cups of coffee into. The creditors are most likely to be the new owners of the code, however, do the creditors care about unfinished code? Afterall, first they'd have to understand what it does. After they've done that, they'd have to finish it themselves. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation?
Intel

Submission + - Free Rootkit with Every New Intel Machine

An anonymous reader writes: Have you ever wondered about the security of Intel's active management technology (AMT) or your Intel vpro desktop? Security expert Peter Guttman has and he considers it a way to get a free rootkit on every Intel machine. See here for the details.
Programming

Ruby On Rails 1.2 Released 97

Scooter[AMMO] writes "David Heinemeier Hansson sent a post to the Rails 1.2. This new version adds a slew of buff and polish to the rest of the system, as well several new features like RESTful interfaces, response formats, improved multi-byte support, and more. If you haven't checked out the web application framework that aims to renew joy within its users, give it a look. You may be amazed at how easy it makes things without sacrificing power or functionality."
Space

Submission + - chinese shoot down satellite

An anonymous reader writes: WASHINGTON — The Chinese military shot down one of its own aging satellites with a ground-based ballistic missile last week, demonstrating a new technological capability at a time of growing Bush administration concern over Beijing's military modernization and its intentions in space. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-fg-satellite1 9jan19,0,1196978.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Communications

Submission + - LG Produces iPhone look-a-like

omegashenron writes: CNET Asia reports that LG intends on releasing a mobile phone similar in design to Apple's iphone.

The device, known as "Prada" retails for $776 (USD) and is set for European release next month. Is apple losing its edge?
Portables

Submission + - ITC Aid Organization Accuses OLPC of Exploitation

An anonymous reader writes: FAIR, an aid organization dedicated to the spread of ICT in developing countries, has accused the OLPC organization of misleading and exploiting poor countries with its $100 laptop. The aid organization claims that countries are "being misled into measures which shift the focus away from their real needs."

http://www.hwupgrade.com/news/mobile/non-profit-or ganization-accuses-olpc-of-exploitation_86.html

Feed Thumb-Print Banking Takes India (wired.com)

A pilot program developed to help illiterate farmers use cash machines could revolutionize personal banking. If it takes off, a billion Indians will need only a thumb print to withdraw cash. Scott Carney reports from Chennai, India.


Input Devices

Submission + - Gaming with iPhone

mankee writes: "Excogito has an interesting article where he discusses how the accelerometer functionality of Apple iPhone can be used for touch/button free scrolling of music files, panning of maps and even playing games."
Media

Where Do You Go for Worthwhile Product Reviews? 88

An anonymous reader asks: "What's the deal with reviews and product comparisons? My boss wants independent comparative reviews of proxy and web servers to use to make/justify his decision. We all know that what the vendors write about their own (and competitive) products, so I tried searching for 3rd party reviews. I can find heaps of articles on the web telling us how great IIS is or how good Microsoft's Proxy server is, but nothing showing a back-to-back comparison of Squid vs. Sun Java Proxy vs. Microsoft Proxy, and the same for Apache and IIS. What's happening here? Where can I find an honest back-to-back product comparison?"
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - John Carmack: Gamers Don't Need Vista or DX 10

Freshly Exhumed writes: In an interview with Marcus Yam at Daily Tech legendary PC/Console game creator John Carmack holds forth on DirectX 10: "Personally, I wouldn't jump at something like DX10 right now. I would let things settle out a little bit and wait until there's a really strong need for it." and then zings Microsoft's marketers over DX10's mandatory use of the Vista OS: "Carmack then said that he's quite satisfied with Windows XP, going as far to say that Microsoft is 'artificially' forcing gamers to move to Windows Vista for DX10." There are a few good tidbits on Xbox 360 vs. PS3 development, and a fairly clear disinterest in Wii as a platform for his company's products is shown.
The Internet

Bill to Treat Bloggers as Lobbyists Defeated 537

Lawrence Person writes "The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."

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