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Comment Peter Fleischer's blog on this... (Score 5, Informative) 197

by bahbar (#30236928) Attached to: Italian Prosecutors Seek Prison Sentences For Google Execs
He's been commenting on the case itself a little bit here:
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/ciao-italia.html
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/today-in-milan.html
http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/11/european-law-on-hosting-platforms.html
This last one actually has law information in it.

Submission + - LHC physicist arrested on terrorism charges

Submitted by ErichTheWebGuy
ErichTheWebGuy writes: A nuclear physicist working on the "large collider" experiment to simulate the Big Bang has been arrested in France on suspicion of advising al-Qa'ida on possible terrorist targets.

The 32-year-old French scientist, of Algerian origin, is being held with his younger brother after being trailed, and bugged, by French anti-terrorist police for more than a year.

A judicial source told the newspaper Le Figaro: "This is very high level." The French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, said that the investigation "may perhaps show that we have prevented the worst".

The scientist, who was not immediately named, was arrested alongside his brother near Lyons on Thursday on suspicion of having contacts with al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb, or Aqim. He was said to have been suspected of giving advice on possible nuclear targets within France.
Sony

Submission + - Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Unveiled and Price Slashed

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The rumors of a Playstation 3 being slashed from $399 to $299 is here and K-Mart let the cat out of the bag as it features an ad on its home page that reveals the price cuts as well as the announcement of a new Sony PS3 Slim edition, priced at only $299. You can go ahead and preorder the new PS3 Slim for $299 and it will be available on August 24th, 2009. Sony has a press event today, which I'm sure will announce the details of the new PS3 Slim as well as the price reduction. Perhaps there will be even more news to be had.
Patents

Submission + - i4i Says OpenOffice Does Not Infringe Like MS Word (gcn.com) 2

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "With all the armchair lawyers and pundits out there, it's interesting to see that i4i believes that OpenOffice does not infringe upon their patent. As you may remember, i4i's patent is the one that lead to a permanent injunction barring Microsoft from selling, using, encouraging the use of, testing, marketing or supporting any copies of Microsoft Word which can open files containing custom XML, subject to a bit of leniency for supporting infringing copies already sold and with respect to removing the feature in future versions. Lest anyone think that the ODF will win over OOXML because of this, keep in mind that Microsoft has its own broad XML document patent, which issued just two weeks ago (and filed in December 2004), and they're telling the Supreme Court to apply the Bilski ruling narrowly, so that it doesn't invalidate patents like theirs (and i4i's). After all, Microsoft can afford $280 million infringement fines in ways that most companies and individuals cannot. Then again, given that Microsoft's new patent has only two independent claims (claim #1 and claim #12), and both of those claims 'comprise' something using an 'XML file format for documents associated with an application having a rich set of features', maybe they wouldn't be that hard to work around if you just make sure any otherwise infringing format is only associated with an application that doesn't have a rich set of features."
PC Games (Games)

Submission + - The problems with porting games (bit-tech.net)

Submitted by
mr_sifter
mr_sifter writes: "There's a large lexicon of monosyllabic, four-letter words for describing something you don't like — but only PC gamers use the word "port" with such a fervent degree of repulsion. Common complaints about console ports include meagre graphics options, dodgy third-person camera angles, poorly thought-out controls and sparsely distributed save points. In this feature, bit-tech.net talks to developers of games such as Dead Space, Red Faction and Tales of Monkey Island to find out why porting games between the three current consoles and the PC is so difficult. Radically different CPU, graphics and memory architectures play their part, as do the differences in control methods and the rules the Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo set about how games should work on their systems."
The Internet

Submission + - Researchers Say Wikipedia May Be in Slow Decline

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "New research shows that Wikipedia's ascendancy to the top of a large pool of online reference sites has come to an end as growth has leveled and the nature of the community has made it less welcoming to new contributors. "It's easy to say that Wikipedia will always be here," says Dr. Ed Chi, a senior scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center. "This research shows that is not a given." While the site is still wildly popular for those trying to figure out who played in Super Bowl XXII, the name of Pink Floyd's original frontman, or how a convection oven works, the explosive growth that characterized its early years leveled in 2006 at around 60,000 new articles per month, declining by nearly a third since then. But the trends within the community itself are far more troublesome. The year after the amount of new content flattened, the number of edits per month plateaued as well at around 5.5 million. Meanwhile, the number of users making edits leveled off at around 750,000 monthly. Data also suggests the Wikipedia community is becoming resistant to new content and new editors with passive editors who make just a single change per month seeing around a quarter of their changes erased or modified by other, more active editors. "This is evidence of growing resistance from the Wikipedia community to new content," says Chi. The resulting exclusion of more varied contributions shifts the balance of power on Wikipedia to those fewer active editors, and in turn could make Wikipedia more like a fraternity than a community-driven social encyclopedia. Wikipedia's growth "is consistent with a growth processes that hits a constraint — for instance, due to resource limitations in systems," writes Chi. "Rather than exponential growth, such systems display logistic growth.""
Networking

Submission + - IPv6 reach just increased by 1.5 million people (ietf.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Subscribers of the second largest ISP in France can now enable IPv6 without extra cost. Deploying IPv6 service took Free just 5 weeks, from getting an IPv6 prefix to offering the option to all of Free's 1.5 million customers. A modified 6to4 protocol called 6rd, short for IPv6 rapid deployment, enables reliable tunnels through IPv4-only access networks without the problems which users of 6to4 tunnels can encounter when communicating with native IPv6 hosts. Alexandre Cassens of Free presented this major step at the Ripe 58 meeting in Amsterdam and reportedly received standing ovations from Google's IPv6 expert Lorenzo Colitti.

Comment Re:H1Bs are wrong (Score 5, Insightful) 574

by bahbar (#26588441) Attached to: Senator Prods Microsoft On H-1B Visas After Layoff Plans
Funny, during my H1b days, I always thought I was paid at least as much as my colleagues. I went through my company closing, and had support of everybody around me. I worked for 3 different companies in 5 years (a couple of big ones), and never once was felt pressured as an H1B. What do I know, maybe I am the exception?

Comment Re:...because H1Bs are forms, not people (Score 5, Interesting) 574

by bahbar (#26588385) Attached to: Senator Prods Microsoft On H-1B Visas After Layoff Plans
Having been in this situation a while back, no, there is officially no grace period. As far as I know, it just happens that the administration lets people transfer anyways. I have heard 10 days, 2 months, nothing... I personally had my H1b transfer initiated in the couple of days after my company closed. Technically, you can apply for transfer, start at your new job, and have your transfer denied (or so they say, I never actually heard about a denied transfer). fun stuff!
The Internet

Submission + - "Wicked problems" better cracked alone (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "Like Matt Damon's character in Good Will Hunting, individuals can solve more complex problems quicker and more efficiently than Internet-based group brainstorming, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories said today. The researchers looked at solving what they called "Wicked problems," which they defined as problems that by their very definition are so tangled that there is no agreement about their definitions, much less their solutions. The finding that individuals are more successful than groups in computer-mediated brainstorming suggests a time- and cost-saving potential for companies, the researchers said."
Handhelds

Submission + - iPhone low 1st day sales, Apple shareprice drops (channelregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Rexdude
Rexdude writes: From this article -AT&T's declaration that only 146,000 Apple iPhones registered on its network in the first two days it was on the market has led to widespread shock at what is now being seen as the device's failure and a down period for Apple shares, sliding 7.5 per cent over a few days last week, a fall of some $10bn in total market capitalisation Is this over reaction? Too much to expect within the first two days? Or is the association with AT&T causing the problem? Selling the phone over the counter without forcing a contract would definitely have helped..
Privacy

Submission + - Banks require look into customers computers 1

Submitted by
Charon
Charon writes: "Banks who are hit by online fraud are trying to require inspection of adequacy of customers computer security otherwise the customer pays by default."

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