Static.Reality - Slashdot User

Submission + - Yahoo on Congressional Hot Seat (nytimes.com)

Submitted by

Richard Silverstein

on Wednesday November 07, 2007 @06:55AM

Richard Silverstein writes: "Congress put Yahoo's Jerry Yang on the hot seat for the company's complicity in the arrest and imprisonment of Chinese pro-democracy journalist, Shi Tao, currently serving 10 years in prison:

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," Tom Lantos, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said angrily after hearing from the two executives, Jerry Yang, the chief executive, and Michael J. Callahan, the general counsel... Mr. Lantos angrily urged the two men to apologize to the journalist's mother, who was sitting directly behind them. Mr. Yang and Mr. Callahan turned around from the witness table and bowed from their seats to Mr. Shi's mother, Gao Qinsheng, who bowed in return and then began to weep.
Yahoo responded to a Chinese supeona by providing identifying information allowing Chinese authorities to track down Mr. Shi."

Submission + - Liberty Candidate Shatters Fund Raising Record 4

Submitted by

gebbeth

on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @04:22PM

gebbeth writes: "The 2008 presidential candidate and author of the American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007 (that aims to restore many of our civil liberties) shattered the GOP fund-raising record on the 5th of November (remember remember the 5th of November...) by raising roughly 4.2 million dollars in 24 hours, mostly in on-line donations. This is despite negative treatment by the Mainstream Media and poor showing in "scientific" polls. The positive publicity that he is able to gather is almost entirely from citizen journalism on youtube and various blogs. Are the traditional media outlets obsolete and dying under their own weight and lack of relevance? Is citizen journalism once again the future?"

Submission + - Darwin 9.0 Code Released (macnn.com)

Submitted by mr100percent on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @03:00PM

mr100percent writes: MacNN reports that Apple has released the source code to Darwin 9.0, the backbone of OS X 10.5 Leopard. x86 and PPC versions are available. According to Apple's developer mailing list, some key drivers are missing however.

Submission + - RFID Chips In School Uniforms

Submitted by blurker on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @02:42PM

blurker writes: According to this Information Week article, a school in the UK is testing a student-tracking system based on RFID chips implanted in their uniforms: Ten schoolchildren in the United Kingdom are being tracked by RFID chips in their school uniforms as part of a pilot program. If the program proves successful as a way to hasten registration, simplify data entry for the school's behavioral reporting system, and ensure attendance, Trevor Darnborough, whose company, Darnbro, filed for a patent on securing RFID tags to clothing, hopes other schools will be interested, according to the Doncaster Free Press.

Submission + - Cyber-Squatter Demands Job at Google (smh.com.au)

Submitted by

Kugrian

on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @02:24PM

Kugrian writes: "A German network administrator who cyber-squatted at least eight Google-related domain names, has demanded a job at Google in exchange for handing over ownership of the domains. Sebastian Klein, 27, has posted an open letter to Google in 10 languages on each of the sites saying that he would relinquish the domain addresses for free if he got a job offer in return. In a letter, he said "Hi Google, I would not like to keep these domains, earn also no money with it. I return it to you immediately free of charge. All I seek for is a job at Google.""

Submission + - P2P File Sharing Increases CD Sales (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by Foddz on Tuesday November 06, 2007 @10:50AM

Foddz writes: A new study by the University of London researchers Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz, for Industry Canada has found a positive correlation between P2P file sharing and increased spending on audio CDs.

From the article:
"The report found that for every track downloaded using peer-to-peer (P2P) software, file sharers purchased 0.44 more CDs a year than those who did not use the software.

"There is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing," the report said. "That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing.""

Submission + - Colbert enters the Presidential Race

Submitted by

zstlaw

on Friday October 19, 2007 @03:20PM

zstlaw writes: "As red, white and blue balloons fell around him, Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for president on 'The Colbert Report'. He went on to claim he will only run in South Carolina where he has roots. In a typical Colbert fashion he claimed he would run as Democrat and Republican so that he could lose twice.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hFzxF7XLwi7Il2DVEE6la0NVo — gD8SB07VO0

While the candidacy appears to be tongue-in-cheek, with Colbert's sizable audience even a tongue in cheek candidacy could pull a large number of young voters whom are unsatisfied with other candidates. How do you think this may effect the already crowded field?"

Comment Re:I do what I can to the phishers (Score 2, Insightful) 425

by Static.Reality on Friday September 15, 2006 @09:49PM (#16118370) Attached to: Can Banks Shift Phishing Losses to Customers?

Otherwise, I could print a book of checks for your account and write checks, and it'd be your fault for giving me the info to make that possible (even though a check is sufficient info).

This analogy would be better if you said that you printed a book of checks and then fooled the customer to sign them all. If you sign the check, you are liable. When you give a phisher your ssn, user name, password, ect. you are essentially signing the check. No one went through your mail, found you account number and forged your signature. You were conned into giving the criminal a signed, blank check. While I feel sorry for everyone that has been through this ordeal (and I worked for a bank for five years and saw plenty of them), I don't think that the bank should be liable.

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