Comment Hope (Score 2, Funny) 140
I hope it's as good as Snow Crash!
Submission + - Child pornography's 'other victims'
netbuzz writes: "Standing falsely accused of any crime — especially one as stigmatizing as possession of child pornography — is one of those frightening prospects we'd all rather not contemplate. That gets more difficult, however, as examples keep piling up. The latest case involves a British investigation that tied some 7,000 credit-card holders to distributors of child pornography. It's now believed that at least several hundred of those accounts were stolen and that the account holders were falsely accused.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1503 5"
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/150
HBO Exec Proposes DRM Name Change 544
surfingmarmot writes "An HBO executive has figured out the problem with DRM acceptance — it's the name. HBO's chief technology officer Bob Zitter now wants to refer to the technology as Digital Consumer Enablement. Because, you see, DRM actually helps consumers by getting more content into their hands. The company already has HD movies on demand ready to go, but is delaying them because of ownership concerns. Says Zitter, 'Digital Consumer Enablement would more accurately describe technology that allows consumers "to use content in ways they haven't before," such as enjoying TV shows and movies on portable video players like iPods. "I don't want to use the term DRM any longer," said Zitter, who added that content-protection technology could enable various new applications for cable operators.'"
Submission + - RealID May Still Be Stopped
MagusSlurpy writes: "The EFF, amongst others, is alerting readers to the fact that the Real ID Act, snuck through Congress in 2005, may still be stopped. The Department of Homeland Security is accepting comments (keyword DHS-2006-0030) through 5 p.m. EST today, May 8th, on the Act, and with both growing grassroots and Congressional opposition, the Act could be stopped. Let the DHS know how you feel about Real ID!"
Sun Completes Java Core Tech Open-Sourcing 141
MsManhattan writes "A year after announcing its plans, Sun Microsystems has made almost all of the core technology in Java available as open-source software under the GNU general public license version 2 (GPLv2). However, some of the code remains 'encumbered'; that is, Sun doesn't have sufficient rights to release it under GPLv2, and the company is requesting the open-source community's help in resolving these issues. Rich Sands, community marketing manager for OpenJDK community at Sun, would not say what percentage of Java's 6.5 million lines of code are encumbered, but explained that it is largely Java 2D graphics technology, such as font and graphics rasterizing."
Submission + - Stunning Development! PC World hates Apple!
mattatwork writes: "According to Wired, senior editor Harry McCracken suddenly quit after a draft article in PC World about the 10 things they hate about Apple was initially suppressed by company CEO Colin Crawford (who knows Steve Jobs on a personal basis). What seemed like a simple dispute over an article turned out to be an overall issue of the Editor in chief clashing with the CEO over the final say in what goes down in the magazine. When questioned about it in a meeting, Crawford asserted he would have final say (see update to Wired). Is this censorship or was McCracken overreacting?"
Submission + - 22000 SSN's stolen from Univ. of Missouri Database
Anonymous UM Employee writes: 22000 records containing Social Security numbers have been stolen from a database at the University of Missouri. The records affected were of employees employed at any UM campus in 2004 and who had attended the University of Missouri — Columbia as students at any time before that. The compromised database was one used by IT services for tracking help desk quality.
See the Press Release or the IT Services QA page for more details.
This was the letter that I received:
Dear University of Missouri Employee:
A University of Missouri database was breached beginning May 3, compromising more than 22,000 names and social security numbers. Those affected include employees of any campus within the UM system during calendar year 2004 who were also current or former students at the Columbia campus.
Of those employees affected, nearly 9,000 are still employed by the University of Missouri. These employees will receive an individual e-mail outlining the specifics of the incident along with detailed instructions about how to proceed. Emails to affected employees have already been sent. If you did not already receive a separate email, you are not one of the employees affected and no further action is required.
The University of Missouri is committed to protecting the confidentiality of all employee information. A recent project has been in progress to remove social security numbers from university databases in an effort to avoid such breaches of confidentiality. As this extensive process continues, please be advised the university is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of its data.
For more information about the security breach, please access the Computer Security Web page that includes a question-and-answer section regarding the event at http://doit.missouri.edu/computersecurity.
Dear University of Missouri Employee:
A University of Missouri database was breached beginning May 3, compromising more than 22,000 names and social security numbers. Those affected include employees of any campus within the UM system during calendar year 2004 who were also current or former students at the Columbia campus.
Of those employees affected, nearly 9,000 are still employed by the University of Missouri. These employees will receive an individual e-mail outlining the specifics of the incident along with detailed instructions about how to proceed. Emails to affected employees have already been sent. If you did not already receive a separate email, you are not one of the employees affected and no further action is required.
The University of Missouri is committed to protecting the confidentiality of all employee information. A recent project has been in progress to remove social security numbers from university databases in an effort to avoid such breaches of confidentiality. As this extensive process continues, please be advised the university is doing everything possible to ensure the safety of its data.
For more information about the security breach, please access the Computer Security Web page that includes a question-and-answer section regarding the event at http://doit.missouri.edu/computersecurity.
