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Media

Submission + - Fight DRM while there's time

ageor writes: It seems (not only) to me that DRM is about far more than intellectual property. It's also about monopoly and freedom of choice. It's one of those cases where us, the consumers, have to decide against accepting the new control-and-money-making-is-all-we-care-about industry's rules.

The whole matter is very well put in DRM, Vista and your rights where you can read about it and also follow the subject as deep as you like through numerous relevant links.
The Internet

Submission + - Sweden plans to open embassy in Second Life

An anonymous reader writes: According to an article in The Local, Sweden aims to become the first country to set up an embassy in Linden Labs' virtual 3d world Second Life. "We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden," Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg told AFP." "In the longer term the Swedish Institute envisaged buying an island in the virtual world to create a home for Swedish companies."
Intel

Submission + - Intel Creates a Less Leaky Transistor

Dino writes: "The NYTimes and the BBC are reporting that Intel has made a breakthrough that will allow it create chips that are more conservative in terms of power usage."
Businesses

Submission + - The Amazon Uncertainty Principle

elstaqub writes: Amazon.com apparently has books that are both in-stock and out-of-stock at the same time, and ships them in a way that ships in both the past and future. Apparently they have some very clever quantum mechanics working in their order processing department.

In early January I ordered a book called "Groovy In Action" from them, which they claim is "In Stock". But after I ordered, I noted that the delivery estimate slipped to March 21-23, 2007.

I figured that it just really wasn't in stock — it was a small glitch of some kind in their huge system. But when I tried to cancel the order on the web, its status was "Shipping Soon — We are preparing these items for shipment and this portion of your order cannot be canceled or changed."

Well, I've heard of slow shipping, but I figured that NOBODY could be that slow. So I sent them a note asking what was going on.

Here's what I got back:

Unfortunately, I can't cancel your order for the item "Groovy in Action" because it's already in the shipping process.

I have researched your order and see that it has entered the shipping process . We were able to ship your package in advance of the date estimated on our web site. Your actual ship date is March 18, 2007. We have prepared in advance to ship your order, so we expect your order will arrive within March 21, 2007 — March 23, 2007 or you will get before.

I have researched your order and note that it has been shipped via USPS. There is no tracking number available for this service.
So, they aren't shipping for two months, but they won't let me cancel the order. Aren't there laws against this kind of thing?
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft copies idea,admits it, then patents it

An anonymous reader writes: BlueJ is a popular academic IDE which lets students have a visual programming interface. Microsoft copied the design in their 'Object Test Bench' feature in Visual Studio 2005 and even admitted it. Now, a patent application has come to light which patents the very same feature, blatantly ignoring prior art.
This is plain wrong. How do we stop Microsoft from getting away with this?
Patents

Jury Rules That H.264 is Not Patented 111

Dr Kool, PhD writes "According to Bloomberg, a jury ruled against Qualcomm in their patent lawsuit against Broadcom. Qualcomm had sought $8.3 million in damages for patent infringement stemming from Broadcom's H.264 encoder/decoder chips. From the article: 'The patents, covering a way to compress high-definition video, are unenforceable in part because Qualcomm withheld information from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, jurors in San Diego said today after deliberating less than six hours.' This ruling clears the way for H.264 to become a widely adopted open standard."
Security

Web Honeynet Project IDs Attackers 70

narramissic writes "The Web Honeynet Project, an independent group of Honeynet researchers from Securiteam and the ITOSF, is putting a new twist on Web application honeynets by naming not only the attack details, but the IP addresses and other tracking information about the attackers as well. As security consultant Brent Huston notes, 'This approach is not unheard of, as lists of known high-volume attackers have been circulating through the Net for several years, but this is the first time someone has applied the honeynet concept to making attacker IP data publicly known.'"
The Internet

Why the .XXX Domain is a Bad Idea That Won't Die 322

Reader tqft tipped us to an opinion piece on the UK site The Guardian, which lays out the reasons why article writer Seth Finkelstein feels the .XXX domain is a terrible idea. You may recall that last year (being an election year and all), the concept of a triple-X ghetto was revived, considered, and then quashed all in the space of a few months. We also recently discussed the fact that the idea just won't die, as the company ICM Registry pushes ICANN to allow them to pass out the names by Summer. Finkelstein primarily argues that the new domain is a bad idea from a business point of view. Ignoring for a moment the issue that much of this content is already labeled, he sees this as primarily a means for ICM Registry to gain a monopoly on what is sure to be a hot-selling product. Speculators, pornographers, and above-board companies will all jump on the namespace in an effort to ensure that their domain is represented ... or not, as the case may be. Where do you fall on this issue? Would a .XXX domain be helpful for parents, or just a political salve/moneymaking scam?

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