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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 93 declined, 42 accepted (135 total, 31.11% accepted)

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Communications

Submission + - Site to Resurrect Dead Forum Comments (wired.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "May the airing of grievances commence! Via Wired, we find out that Billy Chasen, responsible for the exploded iPod display is starting a new website called "Don't Censor Me", dedicated to horror stories about online moderators and their negative treatment of comments/posts. It is described as a site to counterbalance unfair website moderation. Apparently Digg is such a large offender that it has its own tab."
The Internet

Submission + - Flawed Online Dating Bill Being Pushed in NJ (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "According to a report on ars technica, a committee of the New Jersey Assembly is trying to push an on-line dating bill even though it contains significant flaws. The Internet Dating Safety Act would require dating web sites that interact with customers in New Jersey to indicate whether they do criminal background checks and if people who fail such checks are still allowed to register with the site. In addition, the warnings would be displayed in all emails and all sign-up web pages where the site interacts with a New Jersey customer, in a bold, 12-point font. For sites the do background checks, they would be required to inform NJ users of that fact, in the same type of font. And for sites that might allow convicted criminals to sign up, there would be a strict admonition that background checks are not infallible and that the data they use might be incomplete. While perhaps there is merit in the attempt to make online dating safer, you have to wonder what the NJ Assembly actually hopes to accomplish."
The Courts

Submission + - Vonage Lose Appeal; Verizon Owed $120 Million (bloomberg.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Things do not look good for Vonage. Yesterday, they lost their request for reconsideration of their settlement with Verizon. This means Vonage owes Verizon $120 million to end the patent lawsuit filed against them. The costs associated with defending the case have cut into Vonage's bottom line, and despite attempts to cut costs by laying off 10% of their workforce, they may be unable to make a payment against their debt come December. According to the settlement, Vonage will pay $117.5 million to Verizon and another $2.5 million dollars to charity. Vonage's shares have dropped 87% since their IPO, now hovering around $1.50 per share."
Privacy

Submission + - Facebook App Exposes User Information (valleywag.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "According to a report on Valleywag.com, the Facebook application Compare People contains a vulnerability that allows user information to be seen by search engines. What type of information? Age, gender, city, ZIP code, favorite music, favorite movies, favorite TV shows, favorite books, "about me," activities, interests, and political views are all searchable. Further, the company that built the app, Chainn, has no information available on their web site, save an email address."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - 5 Not-So-Awesome Sci-Fi Inventions (cracked.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Science fiction often makes the future seem like a wonderful place, with all sorts of cool gadgets and technologies that we can only dream of. However, the folks at Cracked.com took a hard look at what your average sci-fi enthusiast would consider some of the best inventions the genre has to offer and determined the 5 that would actually suck. They are:
  1. Matter Replicators
  2. Teleporters
  3. Holodecks
  4. Jet Packs
  5. Flying Cars


It's not so much the technologies themselves, but the reasons why they would suck that are at once funny and very cogent."
The Internet

Submission + - MLB Fans Who Bought DRM Videos Get Hosed

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Found via BoingBoing, Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Note to Criminals: Don't Call Tech Support (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Darwin Awards, here he comes: according to Ars Technica, a would-be identity thief did himself in by calling tech support about printer drivers. It seems that Timothy Short hit the mother-lode when he stole a PC and a Digimarc printer from the Missouri Department of Revenue, perhaps with dreams of cranking out thousands of fake ids. Problem: he could not unlock the computer he stole and without the necessary drivers, he couldn't use the printer. Ever resourceful, Short called Digimarc tech support a couple of days later (twice), which brought him to the attention of a Secret Service agent, who recognized his voice from a recording of the calls. Short now faces a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison."
Privacy

Submission + - New England Patriots Get Ticket Sellers' Names (go.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "The New England Patriots sued on-line ticket re-seller StubHub (a subsidiary of eBay) to obtain the list of names of people who tried to buy or sell Patriots tickets using the service. StubHub lost an appeal in Massachusetts state court last week, and was compelled to hand over the list of 13,000 names. It is currently not clear what the Patriots organization intends to do with the names, but they have intimated that they may revoke the privileges of any season ticket holders on the list. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, said the court order to turn over the names infringes on the privacy rights of Patriots fans. At issue, is whether using the on-line service allows an end-run around team rules and Massachusetts state law, by allowing ticket holders to charge extreme mark-ups on their tickets."
The Courts

Submission + - Two Porn Spammers Get Five Years In Prison (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "InformationWeek is reporting that two spammers convicted under the Can-Spam Act for sending pornographic spam emails have been sentenced to five years in prison. According to the Department of Justice, "Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, Calif., and James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., had been sentenced to 72 months and 63 months in prison, respectively, for running an international pornographic spam ring that took in more than $1 million." Each was also fined $100,000, ordered to pay AOL $77,500, and together will forfeit the profits of their illegal business. This was the first case in which obscenity charges were included as part of the Can-Spam Act."
Communications

Submission + - T-Mobile Phone Unlocking Lawsuit May Proceed (wired.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Wired is reporting that the California Supreme Court has refused to review two lower court decisions involving a class-action lawsuit against T-Mobile over their policies regarding early termination and phone unlocking. The Court rejected the reviews without comment, opening the door to the lawsuit, which aims to block T-Mobile from collecting a $200 early termination fee from users. Also on the table: an order for T-Mobile to disclose the types of phone-locking technology that may be in use on customer's phones. The ramifications if the lawsuit is successful would be to allow phone users in California to unlock their phones, and might lead to further lawsuits nationwide."
Space

Submission + - Missing Potenital Earth-busting Asteroid Found (wired.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "A potentially disastrous 40-year-old mystery has been solved: Where is asteroid 6344 P-L? Back in 1960, asteroid 6344 P-L was identified and classified as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid," meaning that it's orbit brings it perilously close to Earth's orbit (on the cosmic scale). Unfortunately, it then disappeared, or more precisely, was lost from view. Flash forward to 2007 and scientists believe that 6344 P-L has been rediscovered as 2007 RR9. Further, they are not sure it is an actual asteroid, but actually a comet fragment, which won't hit the Earth anytime soon but bears watching."
The Courts

Submission + - Sony Exec Admits RIAA Lawsuits Are A Money Pit (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Interesting testimony came out of the first RIAA lawsuit to go to trial in Duluth, Minnesota (Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas). Under cross-examination yesterday, Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, admitted that the RIAA's lawsuit campaign is a gigantic net loss for the music industry. The admission occurred during questioning regarding the damages Sony BMG was seeking against the defendant; as with all these suits, the RIAA is seeking punitive damages only, but Pariser could not in fact come up with a figure as to how much was actually being lost to downloading in this case or any other. Further, she did not know how many people were alleged to have downloaded music from the defendant. She was rather vague on the number of lawsuits that had actually been filed, but did admit that the record comapnies have spent millions on them and have recouped very little."
Security

Submission + - PEBKAC Still Plagues PC Security (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "ARS Technica is reporting on a study release by McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance (as part of the beginning of National Cyber Security Awareness Month) that suggests when it comes to PC security, the problem between the keyboard and the chair is even worse. PEBKAC has always been a problem, but the study highlights just how prevalent it has become. 87 percent of the users contacted said they used anti-virus software, while 70 percent use anti-spyware software. Fewer (64 percent) reported having their firewalls turned on, and only 27 percent use software designed to stop phishing attempts. Researchers were allowed to scan the computers of a subset of the users, and while 70 percent claimed to be using anti-spyware software, only 55 percent of the machines of those users scanned showed evidence of the software."
Communications

Submission + - Disney Mobile Coming To An End (news.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "Not everything the Mouse touches turns to gold. CNet is reporting that Disney plans to end Disney Mobile phone service on December 31st. Disney got in the mobile market 18 months ago, offering phone service that would deliver services and applications designed around the family. Among those, was the ability of parents to track their children and limit their ability to use the phone. Disney did not own its own network, working with Sprint/Nextel to offer it services. The applications may live on and become available through another provider."
The Internet

Submission + - Facebook Is Used As a Mug Book to Catch Suspect (cnn.com)

Submitted by
Billosaur
Billosaur writes: "CNN is reporting on the case of a Georgetown student, the victim of an attack near the university campus, who used Facebook to id his attacker. The unnamed victim was attacked by a person yelling homophobic epithets, and suffered cuts and bruises to the face and a broken thumb. He went on Facebook to see if he could identify his attacker, and upon finding someone who resembled the attacker, turned the information over to the police. Eventually the police created a photo lineup of possible suspects, and the victim was able to pick his alleged attacker, Phillip Anderton Cooney, from it. Cooney was arrested and has been charged with a bias/hate crime, increasing the potential penalty if convicted."

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