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Submission + - RIM co-CEO cries "No Fair" on security question (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by bulled
bulled writes: When asked about letting governments in Asia and the Middle East into the "secure" message service used by their Blackberry devices, Mike Lazaridis, the co-chief executive or RIM, walks out on the interview and says "We've dealt with this, the question is no fair." By dealt with, we can only assume he meant "been paid handsomely to let governments read what they wish."

Comment Re:GPL is the problem (Score 1) 1075

by bulled (#35601184) Attached to: Apple Remove Samba From OS X 10.7 Because of GPLv3
The BSD license is more concerned with "your" freedom while the GPL is more concerned with "mine". The GPL guarantees that everyone involved with a particular piece of GPL'd code will all have the same rights as the first user/distributor did. No one can take rights present for that particular code away. The BSD license makes no such promise, I can take some or all of your project, redistribute without source, and keep all modifications. Now the user of this derivative project doesn't have the same rights as the distributor of said project did. This situation is not possible with the GPL. Use whatever license you want, neither is _more_ free as they both remove rights (the GPL from the distributor and the BSD from the user).
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Snow Leopard Kernel defaults to 32 bit (cnet.com)

Submitted by bulled
bulled writes: CNET reports that OSX 10.6 will boot into a 32 bit kernel by default unless the user holds the '6' and '4' keys down during startup. The same report notes that machines with a 32 bit EFI chipset will be prevented from booting the 64 bit kernel. No reason was given for the latter decision.
Yahoo!

Submission + - Yahoo revives pay-per-email, with charitable twist

Submitted by
holy_calamity
holy_calamity writes: "Yahoo research have started a private beta of a scheme that resurrects the idea of charging people to send email to cut spam. Centmail users pay $0.01 for each message they send, with the money going to a charity of their choice. The hope is that the feel good effect of donating to charity will reduce the perceived cost of paying for mail and encourage mass adoption, making it possible for mail filters to build in recognition of Centmail stamps."
Earth

Submission + - Ice-Core Researchers Need to Chill Out

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Ice cores, containing tiny bubbles of trapped air allowing scientists to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from hundreds of thousands of years ago, are one of the most useful research tools for studying climatic parameters such as air temperature, precipitation rate, and solar radiation so that scientists can identify the natural cycles in global warming and cooling. Now Nature reports that the cores, drilled at multi-million-dollar expense from polar and glacial ice, are in danger of losing some of their value because of a lack of proper storage facilities. Oxygen in the cores is gradually lost when cores are stored at -20 to -30 degrees C, the standard temperature of current cold-storage facilities in the United States and Europe resulting in higher ratios of nitrogen to oxygen that can distort the conclusions scientists draw from them. In 2005, Japanese researchers showed that colder storage temperatures could mitigate this gas loss and the ice-core storage facility at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo was subsequently upgraded with technology used to maintain cold stores for high-grade tuna at -50 degrees C. Now US researchers are seeking roughly $5 million to rebuild cold-storage facilities at the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, New Hampshire, which would also have its storage capacity increased by about 25%. In the interim, Jeffrey Severinghaus, an IPICS steering-committee member from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography says some institutions like his are building smaller units to keep parts of cores at -50 degrees C. These units can be created for about $15,000, but the necessary freezer adaptations void warranties and there are concerns that keeping sections of ice cores in many different locations may hamper researchers' access."
Software

Submission + - Software suggestions for coprorate lobby LCD? 5

Submitted by xjohnx
xjohnx writes: I have been tasked with configuring a flat screen in our corporate lobby. The business wants this screen to display things like a news ticker along the bottom, local weather, our current stock price, etc. Simply put, a dashboard of information dynamically updated and populated primarily by RSS feeds, and a couple of user updated or static fields. Think something along the lines of what you see every day in banks, malls, etc. There does not need to be any viewer interaction with the device.

I thought there would be a number of open source solutions to do just this, however my research thus far has only revealed commercial solutions, most of which are sold as an appliance and bundled with a hosting service.

Ideally, I would like to be able to run this on our own hardware and handle all hosting and configuration internally. Does anyone have experience with any open source or software only solutions?
NASA

Submission + - SPAM: Killer asteroids getting free pass on NASA's watch

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "NASA seems hamstrung on this one. Tasked with watching out for huge chunks of space rocks that could smash into the earth, it has been denied the money to actually do the job. The problem is that while Congress mandated four years ago that NASA detect and track 90% of space rocks known as near earth objects (NEO) 140 kilometer in diameter or larger, it has not authorized any funds to build additional observatories, either in space or on the ground, to help NASA achieve its goals, according to a wide-ranging interim report on the topic released by the National Academy of Sciences this week. The report notes that NASA has managed to accomplish some of the killer asteroids mandate with existing telescopes but with over 6,000 known objects and countless others the task is relentless. NASA does carry out the "Spaceguard Survey" to find NEOs greater than 1 kilometer in diameter, and this program is currently budgeted at $4.1 million per year for FY 2006 through FY 2012. [spam URL stripped]"
Link to Original Source
Government

Submission + - $18M Contract For Transparency Website Blacked Out (propublica.org) 2

Submitted by
zokuga
zokuga writes: "The U.S. government recently approved an $18 million contract for Smartronix to build a website where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money, as part of President Obama's promise to make government more transparent through the Internet.

However, the contract, which was released only through repeated Freedom of Information Act requests, is itself heavily blacked out. ProPublica reports:

After weeks of prodding by ProPublica and other organizations, the Government Services Agency released copies of the contract and related documents that are so heavily blacked out they are virtually worthless.

In all, 25 pages of a 59-page technical proposal — the main document in the package — were redacted completely. Of the remaining pages, 14 had half or more of their content blacked out.

Sections that were heavily or entirely redacted dealt with subjects such as site navigation, user experience, and everything in the pricing table.

The entire contract, in all its blacked-out glory, is here"
Space

Submission + - US Report: NASA Can't Track Deadly Asteroids (spacefellowship.com) 1

Submitted by
xp65
xp65 writes: "A new U.S. government report says the U.S. space agency does not have enough money to find asteroids that could destroy life on Earth. The National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday that Congress has yet to give NASA the money it needs to build telescopes to track the potentially deadly space objects. Congress passed a law in 2005 ordering NASA to find 90 percent of asteroids bigger than 140 kilometers by 2020. The academy report says NASA cannot meet this goal under its existing budget."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - WTO Rules China too restrictive on media import

Submitted by bulled
bulled writes: Business Week is running a story on a recent WTO complaint lodged by the USA against China. The complaint states that China is too restrictive on import of music and movies. The WTO sided with the USA on two of the three complaints but denied the third complaint that China's laws were not strict enough on copyright infringement.



I wonder if the USA plans on listening to WTO complaints by Antigua against them.
Privacy

Submission + - Australian ISPs soon to become copyright cops (zeropaid.com)

Submitted by srjh
srjh writes: In the Australian Federal Government's latest assault on the internet, draft legislation has been released that allows network operators to intercept communications to ensure that their networks are being "appropriately used". Such legislation is particularly important given the interference of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy in a recent copyright lawsuit against iiNet, one of the largest ISPs in the country. Conroy called prominent filtering opponent iiNet's inaction over copyright infringement "stunning", whereas iiNet claimed that it would be illegal under current Australian law to intercept its users' downloads. While this latest legislation appears to be a concession of that point, the government is said to be watching the case closely and along with attempts to introduce a three-strikes law in Australia, it appears the law will be changed if the government dislikes the outcome of the case. The internet villain of the year just continues to earn his title.
Role Playing (Games)

Submission + - Virtual property is a bad idea; here is why

Submitted by pacergh
pacergh writes: Many legal commentaries on virtual property argue that it should exist. Others argue why it can exist. None seem to explicitly spell out what virtual property will look like or how it will affect online worlds.

Lost in the technology love-fest are the problems virtual property might bring. The Virtual Property Problem lays out a model for what virtual property might look like and then applies it to various scenarios. This highlights the problems of carving virtual property out of a game developer's rights in his creation.

From the abstract, "'Virtual property' is a solution looking for a problem." The article explains the "failure of property rights to benefit the users, developers, and virtual resources of virtual worlds."

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