Comment Re:Answer: No. (Score 1) 404
True, but once you get up to speed, they can give you almost a baby each month. Assuming no twins, you could get 9 babies in 17 months, and if you keep going, 52 in 50 months.
Err, I mean 52 in 60 months.
Comment Re:Answer: No. (Score 1) 404
True, but once you get up to speed, they can give you almost a baby each month. Assuming no twins, you could get 9 babies in 17 months, and if you keep going, 52 in 50 months.
Submission + - Lavabit forced to shut down
clorkster writes:
I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on--the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.
No doubt this has much to do with Snowden's use of the provider
Comment Spain is caving (Score 3, Interesting) 310
Actually I'm pissed off because Spain got off the list :-(
Comment Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score 1) 402
It is certainly true that some people Simply Aren't Interested in ye olde western enlightenment values
This is looking less and less like "some", and more and more like "most".
You both are talking about Sarko and his friends, right?
Submission + - U.S. pressured Spain to approve the Sinde law (elpais.com)
An anonymous reader writes: We discussed recently the Spanish Website Blocking Law. It seems that such legislation was enacted in Spain in spite of the opposition of the general population, likely to comply with the wishes of the United States (original in Spanish). It seems that Washington threatened to take measures against Spain, like putting it back in their piracy black list.
Comment Re:More slashcrap (Score 4, Insightful) 65
You may be Spanish, but don't seem to know shit about what you are talking about. There is no much fearmongering in the linked articles. The point of the law is precisely to bypass the due process that you claim that exists in Spain.
Thanks to this law, any copyright holder can ask to have a website closed without having to prove before a judge that there is an actual copyright infringement. There is a judge involved somehow, but he does not get to judge the case before closing the site (as was the case until now). This law opens the gates for American style corporate censorship (like when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement decides that a web site should have its DNS stolen because Warner Bros or Universal say that it hosts "illegal" content).
And the change in government has very little to do with this law. Both PP and PSOE agree with it. Both voted for it.
NYT: IBM PC Division Sold To Advance China's Goals 210
theodp writes "Back in 2005, Wharton's Michael Useem speculated that IBM's sale of its PC Division to Lenovo was more about ingratiating Big Blue with the Chinese government than getting top dollar for the assets. 'Government relationships are key in China,' Useem explained. Now, a NY Times article on outgoing IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano seems to confirm that Useem's analysis was spot-on. From the NYT article: 'In 2004, I.B.M. sold its PC business to Lenovo of China. Mr. Palmisano says he deflected overtures from Dell and private equity firms, preferring the sale to a company in China for strategic reasons: the Chinese government wants its corporations to expand globally, and by aiding that national goal, I.B.M. enhanced its stature in the lucrative Chinese market, where the government still steers business.'"
Comment Re:Which side were the Greens on? (Score 2) 88
However, the guy is a member of the green party. If he thinks that linking to something is the same as publishing it, I would not want him near any position of power. Hence, I would only consider voting for the greens if they expelled him from the party (and if I were German).
Yahoo! To Close Delicious 311
Thwomp writes "A leaked internal presentation from Yahoo shows that Delicious, the popular bookmark sharing site, will be wound down. According to Daring Fireball's John Gruber the whole team was let go just yesterday. It appears that Delicious is just one of the services in Yahoo's portfolio that is going the way of the Dodo."
Google To Block Piracy-Related Terms From Autocomplete 275
An anonymous reader writes "Google is making changes in the way it presents web search results to try to exclude links that may be tied to pirated content. In a move enthusiastically praised by the RIAA, Google says it will not include terms closely associated with piracy from appearing via autocomplete. The company acknowledged that it can be hard to know what terms are being used to find infringing content, but 'we'll do our best to prevent Autocomplete from displaying the terms most frequently used for that purpose.'"
MagicJack Femtocell Gates Cell Traffic to VoIP 243
olsmeister writes "MagicJack is demonstrating a femtocell device at CES that will allow any GSM phone (locked or unlocked) to place free phone calls over the internet using VOIP. The device costs $40 and includes free service for 1 year. It supposedly will cover a 3,000 sq ft house."
Comment Re:What did you expect? (Score 5, Insightful) 427
Yay for living in Europe, where the spirit of the law still counts for something.
I am European, but I am sick of reading claims like this one in Slashdot and elsewere. It makes no sense to pretend that we are better than the Americans, or that our laws are more fair or that our politicians are better. In most areas we are almost as bad as the states (and copyright is one of them), while in other areas we are even worse.
And we both (Americans and Europeans) are seeing our laws changing continuously for the worse, and we will end up with a very similar set of laws in the end: those that are good for the people in power (i.e.: the corporations).
You think "the spirit of the law" counts for something in Europe? Do you trust those currently in power in your country to uphold it? Do you think the European Comission cares about "the spirit" of anything?
Comment Undoing wrong moderation - do not read (Score 1) 254
This comment is to undo a wrong moderation. Slashdot interface sucks.
Comment Re:Disgusting... (Score 1) 271
This type of news is disgusting to me as a Canadian.
They disgust me as an European, too.
