Comment Re:Response from the researchers (Score 2, Informative) 167
I (TorrentFreak) got the same response, they're simply ignoring the criticism and questions that I've asked.
If they want to stand by bogus data that's their choice.
Comment Re:TorrentFreak? Really? Consider the source. (Score 4, Informative) 167
Ernesto here from TorrentFreak. I do have an academic background and used to teach statistics and research methods to (PhD) students.
Not that it matters much, the comments I've made are pretty straightforward.
Submission + - Rapidshare Fined $34 Million and Ordered to Filter 1
A Cow writes: TorrentFreak reports that the Regional Court in Hamburg, Germany, has ruled that file-hosting service Rapidshare must proactively filter certain content. Music industry outfit GEMA asked the court to ban Rapidshare from making 5,000 tracks from its catalogue available on the Internet. The court obliged and fined Rapidshare $34 million.
Submission + - Interview with Aldo Ghiozzi of Free RPG Day (examiner.com)
talien79 writes: "The RPG Examiner recently chatted with Aldo Ghiozzi, owner of Impressions Advertising & Marketing and the architect behind Free RPG Day. They talk about how Free RPG Day got started, how stores, publishers, and customers can participate, and where he sees role-playing games in the near future."
Submission + - Where is the International in ISS (2di2d.com)
JerryQ writes: "NASA are sticking to imperial measurements for the next shuttle. It reminds me of Digital Vax parameter 'timepromptwait' which was in the units 'microfortnight'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17350-nasa-criticised-for-sticking-to-imperial-units.html
Is it two firkins of oxygen to 3 groats of kerosene?"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17350-nasa-criticised-for-sticking-to-imperial-units.html
Is it two firkins of oxygen to 3 groats of kerosene?"
Submission + - eBay vs L'Oreal Through a BitTorrent Prism
ACow writes: In a recent court battle, among other things L'Oreal argued that eBay could prevent the sale of counterfeit items through its site and was therefore jointly liable for offenses committed by its users. The UK High Court disagreed and ruled in eBay's favor. TorrentFreak points out that here are some interesting parallels between this case, and the upcoming court case of the BitTorrent site Mininova against the entertainment industry.
Submission + - Wolfram Alpha No Longer In Beta
nandemoari writes: "Wolfram Alpha, the online "computational knowledge engine" was recently launched.
The site, which has been in testing for a few weeks but is now fully operational, is the work of British physicist Stephen Wolfram. He's best known for developing the argument that the wider universe runs on logical rules, just like the language of computer programs.
The major difference with Wolfram Alpha is that it does not work by taking a search term and trying to find websites that may be relevant. Instead, its goal is to use data, both from the Internet and from otherwise publicly unavailable sources, to give a specific answer to a question. It's reported that the service uses trillions of pieces of data from credible sources."
Submission + - Aussie prisoners escape lock-in with Ubuntu PCs (itnews.com.au) 1
bfire writes: Prisoners at two jails in Australia have implemented a centrally managed and distributed desktop environment that runs on the Ubuntu OS. Desktops boot from a central server but everything executes in local resources. The desktops are assigned to 'realms', such as a cell block wing, and each realm has a system image (with the Ubuntu OS and all necessary applications) that loads onto the PC at boot and can't be modified. The makers hope the Prison PC could eventually provide a single, centrally-managed device
to replace a PC, TV, DVD player and stereo in individual cells. They also hope prison authorities will elect to stream online radio, IP and free-to-air TV, on-demand video such as for education, and even minority religious content using the system in the future. The system is already gaining international interest because it also means that custodians could deny or revoke rights to use parts of it, without having to go to the cell and forcibly remove the kit as punishment.
Cory Doctorow Calls Death To Music, Movies, Print 336
An anonymous reader writes "Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow depicts an unfortunate near-future for a handful of media industries being transformed or killed by the Internet. Predicting a large-scale transformation of the music, movie, book, and newspaper industry, Doctorow says, 'The Internet chews up media and spits them out again. Sometimes they get more robust. Sometimes they get more profitable. Sometimes they die.' While the Internet has the potential to help the dying book industry, for example, Doctorow predicts the 'imminent collapse' of the American newspaper industry because advertisers are uninterested in spending money on the remaining offline readership, such as senior citizens, who prove less valuable."
Submission + - P2P Researchers Fear BitTorrent Meltdown
A Cow writes: TorrentFreak reports that the Tribler P2P team at Delft University of Technology has shown that BitTorrent is more vulnerable to a global collapse than anyone has ever predicted. By collecting statistics of a sample of 283,032 torrents with 52,634,797 connected peers, they found that over 50% of all torrents were tracked by The Pirate Bay. One of the researchers commented "If The Pirate Bay goes down the load will automatically shift to others. This is because most of the Pirate Bay swarms also include other trackers. When Pirate Bay goes down it would overload others until they fall also. Meaning even more stress and further casualties. This is likely to end in a BitTorrent meltdown."
Submission + - Obama's Cyber Czare Pick a Good One (wsj.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Obama has named Melissa Hathaway as cyber security czar and some, at least, in IT are thinking this will lead to better mix of public and private sector cooperation when it comes to countering terrorism. I hope so. We'll see, of course, but anything has got to be better than the Bush/Chaney team at getting people to work together.
Submission + - LEGO VIDEOCAMERA - Exclusive Prototype photo from (hobbymedia.it)
Frankie writes: "I just come back from Nuremberg Toy Fair (the world biggest Toy Fair) where I spotted the new digital camera from LEGO from the same series showed at CES.
Seems that these are really early prototypes and there is still the chance that they will be build with real LEGO blocks..."
Submission + - Economy Profits From File-Sharing
A Cow writes: TorrentFreak reports that a government commisioned study in The Netherlands concludes that file-sharing has a positive effect on the economy — both on the long and short term. The 142 page report looks into the economic and cultural consequences of file-sharing on the music, movie and games industries. The researchers estimate the positive effect on the Dutch economy to be around 100 million euros a year. While it is recognized that the entertainment industry suffers some losses, these don't outweigh the positive effects of file-sharing.
Submission + - UK TV/movie luvvies want UK ISPs to control access (torrentfreak.com)
neuron2neuron writes: "Torrentfreak is carrying an analysis of a letter written by 116 British film and television Directors, Producers and Writers. The letter, published in the The Times, is demanding ISPs start controlling what customers access. In particular they want downloads of TV shows and movies stopped, and if the ISPs won't do it voluntarily, the government should force them."
Success Not Just a Matter of Talent 247
NinjaCoder writes "The Guardian has an interesting article based on a new book (Outliers: The Story Of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell) which examines some persons of interest to computer technology (Bill Joy, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, amongst others). It examines reasons for their successes and strongly suggests a link between practice (10,000 hours by age 20 being the magic milestone) and luck. This maybe an obvious truism, but the article does give interesting anecdotes on how their personal circumstances led to today's technological landscape. It points out that many of the luminaries of the current tech industry were born around 1955, and thus able to take advantage of the emerging technologies.
