Comment Wall-o-txt (Score 1) 4
Too long, didn't read much more than the headline as interesting as it was...
Submission + - Real-life Frogger Ends In Hospital Visit (yahoo.com) 1
BigSes writes: A 23-year old man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game "Frogger." Authorities said the 23-year-old man was taken to a hospital in Anderson after he was struck Monday evening. Before he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his friends. Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled "go" and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway.
Has it come time to ban some of the classics before someone else goes out and breaks a few bricks with their heads after eating a large mushroom? Wait, I'm betting that has already happened.
Has it come time to ban some of the classics before someone else goes out and breaks a few bricks with their heads after eating a large mushroom? Wait, I'm betting that has already happened.
Submission + - Wikileaks And Democracy In Zimbabwe (theatlantic.com) 1
OCatenac writes: An interesting story on the collateral damage of exposing diplomatic communications.
"Later that day, the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe dutifully reported the details of the meeting to Washington in a confidential U.S. State Department diplomatic cable. And slightly less than one year later, WikiLeaks released it to the world.
"The reaction in Zimbabwe was swift. Zimbabwe's Mugabe-appointed attorney general announced he was investigating the Prime Minister on treason charges based exclusively on the contents of the leaked cable. While it's unlikely Tsvangirai could be convicted on the contents of the cable alone, the political damage has already been done. The cable provides Mugabe the opportunity to portray Tsvangirai as an agent of foreign governments working against the people of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, it could provide Mugabe with the pretense to abandon the coalition government that allowed Tsvangirai to become prime minister in 2009."
Undoubtedly there are lots of things that our governments hide from us which should not be hidden but it's a shame that no one from Wikileaks could be troubled to consider the potential repercussions of this particular exposure.
"Later that day, the U.S. embassy in Zimbabwe dutifully reported the details of the meeting to Washington in a confidential U.S. State Department diplomatic cable. And slightly less than one year later, WikiLeaks released it to the world.
"The reaction in Zimbabwe was swift. Zimbabwe's Mugabe-appointed attorney general announced he was investigating the Prime Minister on treason charges based exclusively on the contents of the leaked cable. While it's unlikely Tsvangirai could be convicted on the contents of the cable alone, the political damage has already been done. The cable provides Mugabe the opportunity to portray Tsvangirai as an agent of foreign governments working against the people of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, it could provide Mugabe with the pretense to abandon the coalition government that allowed Tsvangirai to become prime minister in 2009."
Undoubtedly there are lots of things that our governments hide from us which should not be hidden but it's a shame that no one from Wikileaks could be troubled to consider the potential repercussions of this particular exposure.
German Kindergartens Ordered To Pay Copyright For Songs 291
BBird writes "Deutsche Welle reports: 'Up until this year, preschools could teach and produce any kind of song they wanted. But now they have to pay for a license if they want children to sing certain songs. A tightening of copyright rules means kindergartens now have to pay fees to Germany's music licensing agency, GEMA, to use songs that they reproduce and perform. The organization has begun notifying creches and other daycare facilities that if they reproduce music to be sung or performed, they must pay for a license.'"
Submission + - Paris to Test Banning SUV's in the City (greencarreports.com) 3
thecarchik writes: Paris may be the first city to experiment with such a policy. Next year, it will begin to test restrictions on vehicles that emit more than a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometer--the measure of a car's contribution to greenhouse gases. An official within the Parisian mayor's office, Denis Baupin, identified older diesel-engined cars and sport-utility vehicles as specific targets of the emissions limit. Residents and travelers have responded by buying thousands of electric cars, including the low-speed fiberglass G-Wiz--despite major safety concerns with the vehicle.
Submission + - Facebook uses scare tactics to mine more user data (sophos.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Facebook is being accused of using similar scaremongering tactics to those deployed by fake anti-virus scams and phishing attacks, under the pretext of actually making users' accounts better protected.
Messages tell Facebook users that their "Account protection status" is currently "very low", but ask users to hand over alternative email addresses, mobile phone numbers, etc.
Security firm Sophos says it has received a number of messages from concerned Facebook users who were worried that the alerts were bogus, and declares that the "suggestion that users' accounts currently have a protection status of "very low" is entirely misleading and stinks of scare tactics."
Messages tell Facebook users that their "Account protection status" is currently "very low", but ask users to hand over alternative email addresses, mobile phone numbers, etc.
Security firm Sophos says it has received a number of messages from concerned Facebook users who were worried that the alerts were bogus, and declares that the "suggestion that users' accounts currently have a protection status of "very low" is entirely misleading and stinks of scare tactics."
Submission + - Websites Don't Have to Remove Defamatory Comments (internetcases.com)
DustyShadow writes: In the case of Blockowicz v. Williams, The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to force Ripoff Report to remove allegedly defamatory comments posted by a user. The Ripoff Report has a well-publicized no-takedown policy, even if the author wants to remove his/her post, so the Ripoff Report refused. The Blockowiczs then claimed that the Ripoff Report violated FRCP 65(d) because the Ripoff Report was "in active concert or participation" with the initial posters by refusing the injunction's removal order. The district court (and the Court of Appeals) disagreed with the Blockowiczs. Absent the "active concert or participation," the website was outside the court's control. Ripoff Report has released a statement concerning this case: "In keeping with our core mission of protecting speech to the fullest extent of the law, we decided that it was not just our right but also our duty to ask questions and dig deeper before we could comply with such an order. Other sites claim they support free speech, but when the going gets rough, they will usually protect their bottom line rather than the Constitutional rights and freedoms this country was founded upon. Unlike other sites, even when the speech involved is harsh or negative and even if our position sometimes generates negative press for us, we think that the First Amendment requires us to put our principles before our pocketbook and fight against censorship."
Submission + - Dell Reveals Specs For The Looking Glass Tablet
adeelarshad82 writes: Dell hasn't officially unveiled its Looking Glass tablet, but it's on record at the FCC. The spec sheets reveal a device with a 7-inch screen, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and an SD card slot. The Looking Glass will likely be announced at next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is sure to have no shortage of new tablets. Dell filed the documents for device approval by the FCC on December 17. The Looking Glass is expected to be one of the first devices to pack an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, a powerful chip for mobile devices that can support both typical functions (like e-mail and Web browsing) as well as advanced graphics — all while preserving battery life.
Submission + - Sued for e-mail we didn't send. Ideas? (google.com) 1
An anonymous reader writes: I opened a cybercafe in Brazil. The place was sued for an email a client sent — offending someone. The recipient has asked the court for some USD$30,000 in damages. Another case actually was awarded to the prosecution-complainant. A local state law here, hardly ever followed, requires collecting ID, name, phone, address, etc of every single user, plus date, time, and workstation used, which is a lot of work for a couple hundred of users a day. There is a proposal for a new national law, which seems like it could supercede state law and clear us, but it will take years to pass. Anyonymity however is actually forbidden in the local constitution, although it's built into the Internet, following US law, allowing anonymity. I got a lawyer, but we're not finding a way out. No, there's no local EFF activity or similar thing. In addition, the case is under court secrecy, as it contains offenses to the party, so I can't even discuss it until it's case closed. Any suggestions besides closing?
Submission + - Desktop virtualization is dead; long live mobile (itworld.com)
jfruhlinger writes: For years, CIOs who hated managing thousands of desktops insisted that desktop virtualization (thin clients, dumb terminals — call it whatever the buzzword of the moment is) was going to be the Next Big Thing — but they never pulled the trigger. But now, with employees more and more attached to their tablets and smartphones, and willing to jump through hoops to get them connected to office systems, we may see a virtualization revolution after all — on mobile gadgets.
Submission + - Chinese Written Language to Dominate Internet (gizmag.com)
Zothecula writes: In the beginning, the language of the World Wide Web was English. Times change though, and the United States’ military’s gift to civilization knows no national boundaries, and growing worldwide adoption of the internet has changed the audience make-up to such an extent that the dominant language of the internet is about to become Chinese. That’s not to say the Chinese are all that comfortable with this either. There has just been an official decree requiring the use of Chinese translations for all English words and phrases in newspapers, magazines and web sites. While all countries have watched the unregulated global nature of the internet erode traditional cultural values and the integrity of national languages, it seems the Chinese powers-that-be have concluded that the purity of the Chinese language needs to be preserved.
Submission + - Apple's $1 Billion Data Center Mystery (cultofmac.com)
1sockchuck writes: One of year's most tantalizing technology secrets involves Apple's $1 billion investment in a new data center in North Carolina. Is it the Death Star in Apple's plan for galactic domination? Some Apple watchers predict it will be the hub for a 21st century broadcasting network. Other enthusiasts are doing flyovers to film videos of the 500,000 square foot facility. There's also an unofficial FAQ about the new data center. What is Apple up to with this huge facility?
Submission + - Researchers build self-healing plastic (itnews.com.au)
schliz writes: Watch out for T-1000s (Terminator) — Arizona State researchers have developed a "self-healing" polymer that uses a fibre optic "nervous system" to detect and fix cracks. The system recovers up to 96 percent of an object's original strength in laboratory tests and will likely be used in "large-scale composite structures for which human intervention would be difficult", such as wind turbines, satellites, aircraft and the Mars Rover.
Comment Re:Is reverse engineering still legal ? (Score 2, Interesting) 274
Microsoft controls my Ubuntu install?
Who knew?
Comment Broken XSS (Score 1) 102
I have the same router, but apparently the script is broken if you have your internal DHCP server dishing out any other IP range BESIDES 192.168.1.x
Mine is set to 192.168.25.1 and the script failed on an unprotected browser.
Could this be another win for non-standard setups... Or would this be easy enough to code around?
