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Comment Re:Evidence and Explanation (Score 1) 596

Sigh... they are acquiring association data from the tracked users. These fake users entered 'delhipublicschool40 chdjob' into the Bing search bar, then clicked on a link to 'a Credit Union website'. If they were copying directly from Google, then 100% of honeypot search terms should have worked...

As far as I understood it, the users did not use the Bing search bar. They used Google.
So.. You are saying that since they copied it from the *users* using Google then it is ok?

-RG

Music

Submission + - Record companies lose, artists gain (espen.com)

mork writes: A recent MSc thesis from two students at Norwegian School of Management show that after 10 years of digitalization of music, the average (Norwegian) musician's income has increased by 66%. As a group, the only losers in digital music seems to be the record companies. The musicians' income increase is due to increased income from concerts, various collection agencies and stipends from the government in the period from 1999 to 2009. During the same period, record sales have decreased by about 50%. The fall in income from record sales is less important for the musicians, however, since, on average, they only receive 15% of record sales, whereas they receive on average 50% from concerts and 80% from collection agencies (who collects provisions from radio play and other uses of the artists' productions.). The thesis also shows that the fall in record sales also means that record companies are becoming less important as launchpads for new artists, and that records to a larger degree become "business cards" — i.e., a marketing tool — to attract audiences to concerts.

Submission + - WikiLeaks Founder on the Run, Trailed by Notoriety (nytimes.com)

Richard.Tao writes: A story detailing the ongoing struggles of Julian Assange after the release of the Afghan documents. From the article...
"Effectively, as Mr. Assange pursues his fugitive’s life, his leadership is enforced over the Internet. Even remotely, his style is imperious. In an online exchange with one volunteer, a transcript of which was obtained by The Times, he warned that WikiLeaks would disintegrate without him. “We’ve been in a Unity or Death situation for a few months now,” he said."
Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/world/24assange.html?hp

Comment Re:Not as clear cut as that (Score 2, Informative) 178

Here is a question for you?
How many hours do they expect you to work?
How much vacation time?
How much sick time?

And if they have been doing this for a while why do people keep working their if it so bad?

I don't really know all the numbers and right now I am too lazy to look it up, but here is the gist of it:

You are expected to to work when they decide they need you, Night and day.
An ordinary work week is 37,5 hrs a week[1] (by law, yay Norway), but jurnos and tv/radio people are by and large exempt from that. That is, your employer can make you work more, YMMV.
The pay is good even for temps. Overtime is well paid, but the rules are convoluted and the forms are kinda complicated to fill in correctly[2].
Vacation and sick time is the same as everyone with a job in Norway has.

But the real issue is that IF you can get a job with NRK you are pretty much set, they pay really well, have excellent benefits, pension plans etc.. AND you get to work for the most respected broadcaster in Norway.
NRK knows this and uses the fact to use or even abuse the temp system for all it is worth, and very few complains in fear of not landing a regular job with the broadcaster.

-RG

[1] I think.. Someone correct me if wrong.
[2] I have only worked there as a contractor (in IT - implementing some SGI servers) years ago, and back then the paperwork was staggering, even for me..

Comment Not as clear cut as that (Score 5, Interesting) 178

According to her, and the workers unions, NRK is screwing and abusing their temp workers (which she was) royally.
In Norway the law says that if you are a temp for 4 years you will be granted the benefits and protection of a regular employee. NRK (which is government owned and run) will let a temp work for *almost* 4 years then leave them high and dry.
Before your four years are up they will not let you have any say in any matters, expect you to work un"bob"like hours, and keep your mouth shut while not on the air. She basically just had enough and gained a lot of sympathy for it in Norway, where the workers unions have been complaining about these practices by our state owned broadcaster for years.

But rebelling on the air.. Well, ballsy, but not the brightest of moves.

-RG.

Canada

'Wi-Fi Illness' Spreads To Ontario Public Schools 663

An anonymous reader writes "Readers of Slashdot might be familiar with Lakehead University's ban on WiFi routers a few years ago in Thunder Bay, Ontario because of 'health concerns,' a policy apparently still in effect. Now it seems a group of concerned parents in a number of communities in Ontario have petitioned the local school boards over similar concerns at public schools, where their kids are apparently experiencing 'headaches to dizziness and nausea and even racing heart rates' — symptoms that appear only when they are in school on weekdays, not on weekends at home. 'The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless ...' Besides Wi-Fi signals, could there possibly be any other logical explanation for kids having more symptoms of illness on school days than at home on weekends or in the summer?"
Apple

Submission + - Apple Launches 12-core Mac Pro (thinq.co.uk)

Stoobalou writes: Apple has reopened the online store after an hour or two of outage to reveal pretty much what everyone was expecting.

The Mac Pro range of desktop workstations has had a bump to Intel's latest six core Xeon processors — and if your wallet is healthy enough, you can have two of them crammed into Apple's beautiful aluminium case for a total of twelve cores.

Not surprisingly, Apple is touting the new twelve-core beast as the fastest Mac ever.

Submission + - Interview With The Man Behind Wikileaks (dontpaniconline.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Julian Assange, the man behind Wikileaks, explains why he feels it is right to encourage the leaking of secret information. He maintains that the more money an organisation spends on trying to conceal information, the more good it is likely to do if leaked. For Assange, leaked intelligence reveals the true state of governments, their human rights abuses, and their activities, it’s what the ‘history of journalism is’.

On the media’s role in making information available to the public, Assange maintains that “the rest of the world's media is doing such a bad job that a little group of activists is able to release more of that type of information [classified documents] than the rest of the world press combined.”

Science

Submission + - Big bang investigators want a bigger bang (skunkpost.com)

crimeandpunishment writes: When it comes to smashing the atom, size matters. Scientists behind the European particle collider are pushing to build a bigger machine. More than 1,000 physicists are in Paris this week to hear the latest findings from the colliders, and the preparations for their successors. Scientists say the next generation of atom smasher would complement existing colliders in helping to uncover the secrets of the universe, and bring them closer to understanding why we're here.
The Courts

Submission + - Rambus Wins Patent Case Vs. NVIDIA

ideaMUX writes: Rambus, a designer of semiconductor chips, won a long-running patent battle with NVIDIA, barring the import of certain kinds of memory chips without a license. In a ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission, NVIDIA was found to be violating Rambus' patents for certain kinds of memory controllers. The ITC has been investigating the claim against NVIDIA since 2008; NVIDIA also lost a patent ruling before the commission in January. At that time the ruling said three Rambus patents were violated.
Books

Submission + - Amazon Provokes Big-Time Ebook Rights Fight (fictioncircus.com)

Miracle Jones writes: "The biggest NYC agent (Andrew "The Jackal" Wylie) and the biggest NYC publishing house (Germany's Bertelsmann Corporation, also known as "Random House") are no longer doing business together, at odds because of a big-time fight about electronic rights. Last week, Wylie started its own ebook publishing company called Odyssey Editions in order to distribute backlist books exclusively to the Amazon Kindle. Random House, calling Wylie direct competition, has declared they will no longer buy books from the agency. Either way, Amazon wins."
Apple

Submission + - Phantom Emails Plague iPhone 4 Users (thinq.co.uk)

Stoobalou writes: iPhone 4 users have been reporting phantom emails appearing in their in boxes.

The mysterious mails, which appear with 'No Sender' in the from line and 'No subject' in the subject line are causing much annoyance as they cannot be read or deleted in the normal way.

Submission + - A portrait of the founder of WikiLeaks (guardian.co.uk)

shikaisi writes: A rather more balanced and in-depth portrait of Julian Assange than you usually get in the media. "We have values. I am an information activist. You get the information out to the people. We believe a richer intellectual and historical record that is fuller and more accurate is in itself intrinsically good, and gives people the tools to make intelligent decisions."

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