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Submission + - Suing Trolls on Mess Boards for Threats (reuters.co.uk)

Submitted by
* * Beatles-Beatles
* * Beatles-Beatles writes: "Defendant began a thread in 2005 seeking to warn Yale students about one of the women in the suit, entitled "Stupid Bitch to Enter Yale Law." Another threatened to rape and sodomize her, the lawsuit documents said

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t ype=internetNews&storyid=2007-06-17T010410Z_01_N15 292674_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-USA-INTERNET-LAWSUIT.XML
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/16/new-suit-coul d-expose-anonymous-internet-trolls/"
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - Why Does Ebay Insult Customers? (barrisbilt.com)

Submitted by
Ralph Riccardi
Ralph Riccardi writes: "I am presently having a dispute with eBay over the fact that I mistakenly listed a car 2 minutes before their promo went in effect. (I am EDT, they use PDT). I ask for a credit ($39) and they reply with 2 emails that are both insulting and condescending in tone. This is not about the money, but rather the way a huge company in the middle of some serious competition issues treats the customers that made them the success they are. I wonder if the powers that be at eBay know about any of this questionable customer service, or in fact, set these policies. I will gladly forward all the emails to you or post them on my blog if you are interested. Feel free to contact me for any additional information. Also, I have not responded to the second email yet. Thanks for taking the time to look this over.
Ralph Riccardi"
Spam

Submission + - Pump and dump spam coming to VOIP?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This morning I received a phone spam for a penny stock. It was similar to the robotic political campaign calls that plagued during the last election (I was receiving over 10 a day in the weeks leading up to the election). The call had all the tact of a late night infomercial, proclaiming... "STOP! Do you trade in stocks? Then you need to BUY XXXX (I won't do them the justice of perpetrating their pump and dump). Thats XXXX! This stock is set to run! Get in now before the news breaks sending XXXX into the stratosphere" You get the point.

I'm on the do not call list and use a "zapper" so my normal telemarketer frequency, aside from political and charity calls is very low. I did just register a new domain name and didn't configure my private registration for a couple of days... so I imagine my number could have been scraped from WHOIS.

So I put it out to other Slashdotters... have you experienced this? Do we have to look forward to a new level of spam harassment utilizing the latest and greatest in low cost automated phone banks? Has the cost of VOIP brought the cost of spamming down so low as to be profitable for the pump and dump scam artist?
Quickies

Submission + - Cellphone "Phantom Vibration Syndrome" ... (usatoday.com)

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "This USA Today article on what some call it "phantom vibration syndrome." Others prefer "vibranxiety" — the feeling when you answer your vibrating cellular/cell phone, only to find it never vibrated at all. Though no known studies have analyzed what may cause spontaneous buzzing. Some who experienced recurring phantom vibrations wondered whether the phenomenon had physical roots: Was it caused by nerve damage or muscle memory? But experts say the false alarms simply demonstrate how easily habits are developed. Psychologically, the key to deciphering phantom vibrations is "hypothesis-guided search," a theory that describes the selective monitoring of physical sensations, says Jeffrey Janata, director of the behavioral medicine program at University Hospitals in Cleveland. It suggests that when cellphone users are alert to vibrations, they are likely to experience sporadic false alarms, he says... Seen on Digg."
Communications

Submission + - Why people write online documen (onlamp.com)

Submitted by mbadolato
mbadolato writes: The O'Reilly Network published a survey asking why people contribute to online forums, wikis, and other technical documentation. With over 350 responses, the results and analysis are published here

The article summarizes some of the debates concerning online gifting, presents the results of the survey, and attempts to analyze the meaning of the results.
Books

Submission + - Ebook Readers Where are they now?

Submitted by
Patrik_AKA_RedX
Patrik_AKA_RedX writes: "I spend quite sometime on the bus each day, and most of it I spend reading. A lot of it I get from the net and have to print to take with me. IMO this is a bit of a waste of perfectly good trees so I was looking for an alternative. I've tried taking a laptop, but even the compact Armada M300 is quite cumbersome. Real Ebook readers haven't shown up in stores around here yet, the closest thing I've found is a MP4 player with ebook support, which didn't specify how much this support actually is. My question is what ebook reader-device do you have and is it worth the trouble? Also which of these devices are available in Europe?"
Enlightenment

Submission + - Open Architecture Network for the good of Humanity

Submitted by RobBebop
RobBebop writes: The organization Architecture for Humanity has just launched the beta version of their Open Architecture Network website. The goal of the Open Architecture Network is to be the SourceForge of the art of Building Sciences by allowing blueprints, engineering specs, and construction tips to be shared in a community. An article from Wired includes more detail, "The site is built so people can upload info, comment on and, in some cases, download building or project specs". There is also an interview with the co-creators Cameron Sinclair & Kate Stohr at the end of the article.
Programming

Submission + - Auto-parallelizing compiler from Codeplay

Submitted by
Max Romantschuk
Max Romantschuk writes: "Parallelization of code is a very tricky thing. We've all heard of the challeges with Cell, and with dual and quad core pocessors this is becoming an ever more important issue to deal with. The Inquirer writes about a new auto-parallelizing compiler called Sieve from Codeplay: What Sieve is is a C++ compiler that will take a section of code and parallelize it for you with a minimum hassle. All you really need to do is take the code you want to run across multiple CPUs and put beginning and end tags on the parts you want to run in parallel.

Is this the Silver Bullet of parallelization? There's more info on Sieve on Codeplay's site."

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