Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Almighty Buck

$33 Million In Poker Winnings Seized By US Govt 465

Posted by samzenpus from the mine-now-I-take-it dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A New York Times story reports that, 'Opening a new front in the government's battle against Internet gambling, federal prosecutors have asked four American banks to freeze tens of millions of dollars in payments owed to people who play poker online. ... "It's very aggressive, and I think it's a gamble on the part of the prosecutors," Mr. Rose said. He added that it was not clear what law would cover the seizure of money belonging to poker players, as opposed to the money of the companies involved.' Many players are reporting that their cashout checks have bounced."
The Internet

The Perils of Pop Philosophy 484

Posted by kdawson from the bloggers-beware dept.
ThousandStars tips a new piece by Julian Sanchez, the guy who, in case you missed it, brought us a succinct definition of the one-way hash argument (of the type often employed in the US culture wars). This one is about the dangers of a certain kind of oversimplifying, as practiced routinely by journalists and bloggers. "This brings us around to some of my longstanding ambivalence about blogging and journalism more generally. On the one hand, while it's probably not enormously important whether most people have a handle on the mind-body problem, a democracy can't make ethics and political philosophy the exclusive province of cloistered academics. On the other hand, I look at the online public sphere and too often tend to find myself thinking: 'Discourse at this level can't possibly accomplish anything beyond giving people some simulation of justification for what they wanted to believe in the first place.' This is, needless to say, not a problem limited to philosophy."
Television

Submission + - "You Don't Understand Our Audience" (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by
MBCook
MBCook writes: "Technology Review has a fantastic seven page piece titled "You Don't Understand Our Audience" (printer version, summed up by Ars) by former Dateline correspondent John Hockenberry. In it he discusses how NBC (and the networks at large) has missed and wasted opportunities brought by the Internet; and how they work to hard to get viewers at the expense of actual news. The story describes various events such as turning down a report on who al-Qaeda is for a reality show about firefighters, having to tie a story about a radical student group into American Dreams, and the failure to cover events like Kurt Cobain suicide (except as an Andy Rooney complaint piece)."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Stallman Attacked by Ninjas (yale.edu)

Submitted by vivIsel
vivIsel writes: When RMS took the stage to address the Yale Political Union, Yale's venerable parliamentary debate society, it was already an unusual speech: instead of the jacket and tie customary there, he sported a T shirt, and no shoes. But then he was attacked by ninjas. Apparently some students took it into their head to duplicate an XKCD webcomic before a live audience — luckily, though, Stallman didn't resort to violence. Instead, he delivered an excellent speech about DRM.
Space

Submission + - Astronomers Find Mysterious Radio Burst (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
RJ
RJ writes: ""The single, short-lived blast of radio waves likely occurred some 3 billion light-years from Earth, and it may signal a cosmic car crash of two neutron stars, the death throes of a black hole — or something else.."

"This is something that's completely unprecedented,"

"We're confused and excited, but it could open up a whole new research field,"

".....are predicted to let loose gravity waves that Einstein's theory of relativity predicts, but the phenomenon has never been directly observed...."

(( I don't have time to write an article for this, but feel free to do whatever, just wanted to get this linked! ))"
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Dungeons and Dragon's 4th edition (digital50.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/2007 0816005037/dungeons-dragonsr-flashes-4-ward-at-gen -con.html Today Wizards of the Coast confirms that the new edition will launch in May 2008 with the release of the D&D Player's Handbook(R). A pop culture icon, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is the #1 tabletop roleplaying game in the world and is revered by legions of gamers of all ages. The 4th Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game includes elements familiar to current D&D players, including illustrated rulebooks and pre-painted plastic miniatures. Also releasing next year will be new Web-based tools and online community forums through the brand new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Insider (D&D Insider(TM)) digital offering. D&D Insider lowers the barriers of entry for new players while simultaneously offering the depth of play that appeals to veteran players.
Space

Submission + - 30 years since the 'Wow!' signal

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: Thirty years ago, a signal was received by Ohio State University's Big Ear Radio Observatory which, for a brief moment, set the scientific community ablaze. Had we heard the first proof of an intelligent civilization outside our own?

Unfortunately, the signal was not repeated and has not been heard from since despite the best efforts of astronomers during the last three decades. The debate over what the signal actually was continues to this day but new help is on the way. The SETI institute will soon be using the Allen Telescope Array in California to search the same area of sky. The array uses dozens of separate radio dishes to produce an instrument that will eventually become more sensitive than the world's largest single-dish telescope in Aricebo.
Space

Submission + - Mira A: A star with a tail (itwire.com)

Submitted by
WaltonNews
WaltonNews writes: "Mira A, a red-giant star about 400 light-years from Earth, has been discovered by U.S. astronomers to have a comet-like tail that is 13 light-years in length, something never seen before by astronomers."
Media (Apple)

Submission + - AppleWorks/ClarisWorks quietly dies (macworld.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AppleWorks' last breath was masked by last week's iMac, iLife and iWork announcements — Apple has discontinued the product. Apple told resellers of the demise of AppleWorks last week, announcing that the software had reached "End of Life" status. It will no longer be sold. The AppleWorks website now directs users to the iWork section of Apple's website.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - iPhone Completely Unlocked for $96 with Forged SIM (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Gizmodo is reporting total unlocking of the iPhone: 'while the wizards are still working on a software-only complete unlock for the iPhone, hackers in Europe claim that they have completely unlocked it, allegedly using a SIM reader/writer and a blank SIM card to obtain full calling and SMS capabilities. Total cost: $96. Read on for the details.' Apparently it has been tested in Europe, but I am ordering my SIM kit now.
Businesses

Submission + - Penalizing for Poor Health 2

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes: "Perhaps laying the groundwork for Sicko II, Clarian Health announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index is over 30. Even slim-and-trim employees have to worry about their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels — they'll be dinged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Smokers get a sneak preview of the policy starting next year, when they'll find $5 less in each check. Clarian credited new government HIPPAA rules that became effective July 1st for giving it the courage to follow its penalize-for-poor-health convictions."
Wireless Networking

Submission + - 'Sidejacking ' On WiFi

Submitted by ancientribe
ancientribe writes: As if you need another reason not to use WiFi unprotected, here's one: a researcher has released a tool that lets hackers "sidejack" your machine and access your Web accounts. Called Hamster, the tool basically clones the victim's cookies by sniffing their session IDs and controlling their Website accounts.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=130 692&WT.svl=news1_2
Privacy

Submission + - Do Not Call Registry gets wake-up call (networkworld.com) 2

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "If you signed up for the federal or your state's Do Not Call Registry a few years ago, you might want to thing about refreshing it. Pennsylvanians this week got a wake up call, so to speak from the state's Attorney General Tom Corbett who kicked off a public awareness campaign designed to remind people what many have forgotten or never knew — that the 2002 law set registrations to expire after five years. That is of course unless you want to start hearing from those telemarketers as you sit down to dinner. Corbett said about 2 million people signed up in the immediate aftermath of the law taking effect and those who do not act by Sept. 15 will have their numbers dropped from the registry on Nov. 1. The Pennsylvania action is a reminder that the National Do Not Call Registry has a five year life span as well. The Federal Trade Commission is set to being a nation campaign in Spring 2008 to remind all US citizens to refresh their federal Do Not Call Registry standing. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/18066"

Slashdot Top Deals

We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan

Close