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Encryption

Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3 491

Teppy writes "How's this for a disruptive technology? Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, network-based digital currency with no central bank, and no transaction fees. Using a proof-of-work concept, nodes burn CPU cycles searching for bundles of coins, broadcasting their findings to the network. Analysis of energy usage indicates that the market value of Bitcoins is already above the value of the energy needed to generate them, indicating healthy demand. The community is hopeful the currency will remain outside the reach of any government." Here are the FAQ, a paper describing Bitcoin in more technical detail (PDF), and the Wikipedia article. Note: a commercial service called BitCoin Ltd., in pre-alpha at bitcoin.com, bears no relation to the open source digital currency.
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Related: Crypto Tools
Government

DHS Wants To Monitor the Web For Terrorists 285

a user writes "Under the belief that terrorists are 'increasingly' recruiting US citizens, Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano says that increased government monitoring of the Internet is necessary to thwart them. It is believed that Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hassan and attempted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad were inspired by radical Internet postings. Speaking at a meeting of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Napolitano said, 'We can significantly advance security without having a deleterious impact on individual rights in most instances. At the same time, there are situations where tradeoffs are inevitable.'"
Earth

$1 Trillion In Minerals Found In Afghanistan 688

a user writes "American geologists working with the Pentagon have discovered deposits of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium of incredible bounty, amounting to nearly $1 trillion. In fact, the lithium deposits are so vast, an internal Pentagon memo has stated that Afghanistan could become the 'Saudi Arabia of lithium.' The wealth of the deposits completely flattens the current GDP of Afghanistan, estimated at about $12 billion. Mining would completely transform the economy of Afghanistan, which presently is propped up by the opium trade and foreign aid. However, it could take decades for extraction to reach its full potential due to the war, the lack of heavy industry in the country, and a corrupt national government."
Censorship

Pentagon Seeking Out Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange 628

a user writes "The Pentagon is desperately seeking the 'cooperation' of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in order to stop him from releasing over 250,000 pages of confidential foreign policy documents. The documents were allegedly provided to Assange by Bradley Manning, the same solider who leaked a video showing a US Army helicopter killing unarmed civilians and international press correspondents."
Hardware Hacking

Ed Roberts, Personal Computer Pioneer, 1941-2010 110

A user writes "CNET and the Huffington Post both report the death of Henry Edward Roberts, best known to all of us as the inventor of the Altair computer, at the age of 68 from pneumonia. As it happens, I never got to use an Altair, but I did meet Ed once, back in the mid-1980s. Since that time, I've never referred to the Altair bus as the 'S100' bus, since I agree with him that an inventor is entitled to name his invention." Updated 7:40 GMT by timothy: Roberts was 68, not 88 as originally stated; thanks to the readers who pointed out the typo.

Comment I've started reading the text through ... (Score 1) 201

I've started reading the text through, and all I can say is: GO CANADA!

As a Canadian I've been dreading our role in these negotiations. I feel that we really haven't pressed our position sufficiently in bilateral treaties with the US when it comes to commerce (this goes back decades). This is exasperated by the current Federal party in power in parliament (though it's a minority), which demonstrably follows the US lead in many areas.

However, it seems that at least in this case, our government (as distinct from parliament, I might add) is clearly pushing for the Right Stuff(tm). At least as hard as the EU, maybe harder. As an example, it seems that wherever punishments (remedies) for infringers are mentioned, Canada (and usually the EU) has added: [the judicial authorities] "shall take into account the need for proportionality between the seriousness of the infringement and the remedies ordered as well as the interest of third parties."

In other words, no ridiculous court cases where a 16-year-old gets saddled with a $750,000 judgement against them because they downloaded a few tracks from Kazaa (or whatever the kids are using these days :) and didn't know enough to turn it off.

DAMNED FUCKING RIGHT. TAKE THAT YOU BASTARDS.
Media

Technical Objections To the Ogg Container Format 370

A user writes "The Ogg container format is being promoted by the Xiph Foundation for use with its Vorbis and Theora codecs. Unfortunately, a number of technical shortcomings in the format render it ill-suited to most, if not all, use cases. This article examines the most severe of these flaws."

Comment Clearly no idea what you're talking about (Score 1) 268

Okay, clearly you have no idea what you're talking about, because a Cisco Universal Broadband Router is a bit of kit used to terminate DOCSIS lines. In other words, it's for cable-modem broadband, not wireless. It would be useless to you.

That said, for others who're reading and who might be interested in some high-end, Linux-based packet-processing kit (because really, the prices Cisco and Juniper and the rest of them charge really are past the ass-raping point of the screw-me spectrum), you could check out Vyatta: http://www.vyatta.com/

Enjoy. HTH.

Comment Re:The reason people ignore you Zed.. (Score 2, Interesting) 572

Your comment ("the reason people ignore you is because you're a dick") is clearly a troll, but it was also moderated Insightful ... which might also be a troll :)

Nevertheless, assuming for a moment that you're being truthful in your expression, then I have this to say:

This is what is wrong with the world today. Billions upon millions of morons who don't know what they're doing, and people trying to show them how to (or, hell, what the fuck - people trying to beat them into) do(ing) it the right way.

You want these assholes who can't even figure out how to correctly measure something to build the bridge you drive over twice a day? How about the building you work in?

Or I dunno, maybe you'd prefer having _only_ people who will point out errors when they see them working on it? How about your doctor? You want your operating room filled with maybe one smart guy who recognizes an error and six people who don't know any better? And you're saying that, when the smart guy recognizes the error and tries to point it out (no matter HOW he does it, though I'm betting the original poster isn't that much of an asshat at work), he's being a dick?

Christ, what's wrong with you? Seriously?

Comment Re:F the EC (Score 1) 334

Okay, so you don't buy that MySQL couldn't survive as a strictly open-source project without the ability to sell proprietary/closed-source licenses (like they currently can). I wouldn't argue that.

How do you respond to this scenario?:

Oracle owns MySQL. Oracle shapes MySQL's development very slowly over the course of a decade or two, cementing it in its current niche (and, thus, it will never be a threat to Oracle's ridiculously fat profit margins).

In this scenario, do you think there will sufficient impetus to fork and grow an open-source-only MySQL project (with a different brand and basically a new community starting from scratch)?

Surely you can agree that the desire for such will be radically reduced, possibly to the point that it's not feasible?

Even if it is feasible, surely you can agree that it would almost certainly slow down MySQL's developments in this direction by years? (For many years MySQL has been growing more and more feature-rich, arguable to expand the roles that it can play. I would say pretty much all of their current momentum is in this direction.)
The Internet

College Credits For Trolling the Web? 1164

A user writes "Some undergraduate and masters level courses at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary require trolling as part of their requirements. In William Dembski's classes on Intelligent Design and Christian Apologetics, 20% of the final grades come from having made 10 posts defending Intelligent Design Creationism on 'hostile' websites. There seems to be no requirement that the posts contain original writing; apparently cut-and-paste jobs are sufficient. Is this the first case of trolling the net being part of course requirements?"

Comment Re:And once again (Score 1) 913

You're a moron.

"People should have the freedom to hold on to their money if they wish if they feel it is to their benefit to do so. Especially the poor who are usually not the ones who invest in stocks for one reason or another and the only way to mitigate the erosion of their wealth is to spend that cash on something and the poor are the most in need of developing a safety net of cash that they can use to drag themselves up in the world."

The poor don't invest in stocks because THEY DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO.

They don't lose money (directly) from inflation, because they HAVE NO MONEY TO LOSE.

They (must) spend it on the necessities - food, clothing, shelter. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF POOR.

You're welcome.
Google

AP Harasses Own Member Over AP Youtube Videos 106

A reader writes "The Associated Press, who has been acting very bipolar lately about Google News (they get paid by Google for their content, and then complain about Google 'stealing' that content), has another issue with not knowing what their association is up to: they set up a channel on Youtube, and then threatened an AP affiliate for embedding that content."

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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