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The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Do you have to be smart to be rich? (pressesc.com) 3

Submitted by
amigoro
amigoro writes: "Do you have to be intelligent to be wealthy?

The answer is yes, according to a study which tracks a large group of young US baby boomers, but only if all other factors are held constant. But regression results suggest that statistically, there is really no distinguishable relationship between IQ scores and wealth."
United States

Submission + - Government: iPhone and US cell service is unfair (blorge.com)

Submitted by
fdmendez
fdmendez writes: "Lawmakers in Washington believe the Federal Government needs to regulate the cell service industry in order to create a better experience for consumers. Other countries provide examples for the US to follow.

Recently, Amp'd Mobile shut down leaving 175,000 customers suddenly out of cell service. Sprint canceled the accounts of about 1,000 customers last month for complaining too much. Verizon is always behind the rest of the world when it comes to phone selection and phone technology, and don't get me started on AT&T's reception and call quality. Basically, America isn't satisfied with its cell service.

The House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Internet thinks it might be a bad idea for wireless companies to be regulated at the state utility level rather than the federal level."
Security

Submission + - New glitches in touch screens -- 40% failure rates (blorge.com)

Submitted by
destinyland
destinyland writes: "A new investigation by Dan Rather found 40% of voting machine touch screens from one parts supplier had to be returned as defective. It was only discovered after a new manager took over the manufacturing plant in "the shanty towns of Manilla." Even the $2.50-a-day workers were spotting parts defects, but their hurried managers would perform only one test — shaking the machine to see if anything rattled. A Florida elections specialist ultimately had to return 1800 touch screen voting machines as defective, because selecting the first box on a ballot would highlight the second box. But even after testing newer machines, he's not re-assured. "It seems like they'll work today, and tomorrow they might not work... They're just unreliable, in my opinion.""
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T proves Net Neutrality fears well founded

Submitted by
LinearBob
LinearBob writes: "The Chicago Tribune has an article describing in detail how AT&T censored a live concert by Pearl Jam. Here is a link to the Chicago Tribune article.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-th u_jam_0809aug09,1,6237615.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

The following was quoted from the Tribune article:

"A live Internet broadcast of Pearl Jam's performance at Chicago's Lollapalooza music festival Sunday went off without a hitch — until singer Eddie Vedder criticized President Bush.

Lyrics critical of the president didn't make it past editors of the show's Webcast, the band complained Wednesday on its Web site.

The performance, sponsored by AT&T Inc. and carried on AT&T's "Blue Room" site, omitted the lyrics "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home" as part of a version of the song "Daughter," according to the Pearl Jam Web site.

An AT&T spokeswoman confirmed the omission Wednesday, saying that it had been a mistake made by someone working for the agency hired by AT&T to handle its Blue Room content.

"We don't have a policy in place to censor," said AT&T's Tiffany Nels. "We have a policy on excessive profanity. This was an honest mistake. There was no censorship intended."

Nels said that there is a delay of a few seconds between the performance and its streaming to the Web so that an editor can cut out profane language because the Web site is available to all ages and AT&T doesn't want foul language going out.

End quote

Perhaps there was no censorship intended, but censorship IS what AT&T did here. I find AT&T's explanation for the missing lyrics to be disingenuous at best. To me, this is a clear case of censorship, and is precisely why we need "Net Neutrality" now."
Censorship

Submission + - Porn to be blocked by Australian Goverment (news.com.au)

Submitted by wallior
wallior writes: In a bid to swing voters, John Howard is promising $189 million (AU) on 'cleaning up the internet'. Blocking pornography, removing terror sites and scouring MySpace and Facebook for online predators. Also included will be free internet blocking tools available for all families. The presentation was primarily aimed at Christian voters.

"...the federal Government will enter an unprecedented partnership with service providers to filter pornography at the source..."
Privacy

Submission + - Helping to clear a man's name by deleting it (wendymcelroy.com)

Submitted by
fima59
fima59 writes: "Apparently the fellow's job prospects are severely damaged by his name on the Web being connected to child porn — even a connection that clears him of guilt. Prospective employers do what has become customary: an online search on an applicant's name — and there he is. Hundreds and hundreds of times — I checked. And, so, the fellow has assumed the laborious task of contacting each online site and source that mentions his name. http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.931"
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors webcast

Submitted by
mcgrew (sm62704)
mcgrew (sm62704) writes: "Several outlets, including the Chicago Tribune (ironically with Registration required), Salon (also rather obnoxious), The LA Times, the WSJ and others are reporting that Pearl Jam webcast its Lollapalooza music festival Sunday "without a hitch" as the Trib says, until lead singer Eddie Vedder slamed George Bush. The Tribune reports

The performance, sponsored by AT&T Inc. and carried on AT&T's "Blue Room" site, omitted the lyrics "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home" as part of a version of the song "Daughter," according to the Pearl Jam Web site.
AT&T claimed it was a "mistake".

Slashdot readers will no doubt cry that it wasn't censorship at all, since it wasn't a government entity that did the censoring. But seeing as how the multinational corporations are the puppetmasters of "our" government through its method of financing elections, I'd say any censorship by any MNC is a defacto government censorship."
Books

Submission + - To Translate Harry Potter is a Crime (reuters.com)

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: An article on Reuters informs that police arrested a teenager suspected of posting his own translation of the latest Harry Potter novel on the Internet weeks before the official French release. [...] "Concerned that such acts of counterfeiting are threats to basic authors' and creators' rights, (author J.K. Rowling and Gallimard) immediately agreed to support the investigation as it was launched," spokeswoman Marie Leroy-Lena said in a statement. "It is not a young person or a fan we are talking about here — these are organized networks that use young people,".
The Courts

Submission + - Chair of BU Computer Science Dept Fights RIAA

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Two expert witnesses, one the Chairman of Boston University's Computer Science Department, have submitted declarations supporting the motion of a Boston University student trying to vacate the RIAA's ex parte discovery order in Arista v. Does 1-21. Prof. Bestavros stated that some of Linares's factual statements were "not possible" (pdf), while Jesse Stengel stated that some of Mr. Linares's contentions were "not true" (pdf). These declarations, attacking the underpinnings of the RIAA case set out in the declaration of Carlos Linares, were referred to in Arista v. Does 1-11, the Oklahoma case in which several Oklahoma State University students have attacked the order which had been granted ex parte permitting the RIAA to subpoena their names and addresses from the university. These filings come on the heels of rulings in New Mexico and Virginia denying the RIAA's ex parte discovery motions."
Music

Submission + - When IP Protection Incites Consumer Rage

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: How many industries of late have managed to generate such genuine consumer hatred over the last several years? says Richard Menta about the record industry. He was refering to that industry's aggressive activities to control its content in the digital age and he makes a solid argument that these efforts, including oppressive DRM tactics and legal actions, have alienated the consumer to the point where it is a key contributor to decreasing CD revenues. This quarter alone EMI saw a 20% drop in CD sales, while Warners 3rd quarter loss widened. The article lays out 17 events including the Sony rootkit scandal and the payola scandal that have tarnished the industry's public image and undermined its credibility with the average record buyer.
Google

Submission + - Google Filters Torrents From Search Results (torrentfreak.com) 1

Submitted by HiddenL
HiddenL writes: According to TorrentFreak.com:

Google has been filtering its search results for years. That's proven very useful for the Chinese government, and of course content owner representatives like the MPAA and RIAA. According to Google, the filtering of torrents from the search results is a response to the DMCA complaints they receive. The owner of SumoTorrent told TorrentFreak that he discovered that A search on Google for sumotorrent now triggers the following message at the bottom of the results page:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.
A search for other BitTorrent sites like Torrentspy and Torrentreactor comes up with the same message (note. the sites are still indexed but some results are removed).
Apparently "Do No Evil" includes mass filtering of legitimate content.
Google

Submission + - Google News to Add Participants Comments (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
* * Beatles-Beatles
* * Beatles-Beatles writes: "We'll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question. Our long-term vision is that any participant will be able to send in their comments, and we'll show them next to the articles about the story. Comments will be published in full, without any edits, but marked as "comments" so readers know it's the individual's perspective, rather than part of a journalist's report.
http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/perspec tives-about-news-from-people-in.html"

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