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S&P webiste "accidentally" downgrades Goldman -> 1

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "For the second time in as many months the ratings agency Standard and Poors has put up a press release on its website that "accidentally" downgraded a major borrower.
Last month it was France, this month is was Goldman Sachs, whose shares were hit for about $460 million.

They again blame "technical issues" but as any Slashdotter knows this sort of thing isn't a typo or a fat finger if you're running a major site."
Link to Original Source
Android

EFF reverse engineers Carrier IQ config->

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes "At this point we have a fairly good idea of what Carrier IQ is, and which manufacturers and carriers see fit to install it on their phones, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation — the preeminent protector of your digital rights — has taken it one step further and reverse engineered some of the program’s code to work out what’s actually going on. There are three parts to a Carrier IQ installation on your phone: The program itself, which captures your keystrokes and other “metrics”; a configuration file, which varies from handset to handset and carrier to carrier; and a database that stores your actions until it can be transmitted to the carrier. It turns out that that the config profiles are completely unencrypted, and thus very easy to crack."
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Namecheap Opposes SOPA->

Submitted by
sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes "Namecheap, one of the top domain registrars, has come out opposing SOPA, the dangerous bill aimed to destroy the Internet by Hollywood. Namecheap CEO, Richard Kirkendall, has released an encouraging statement "While we at Namecheap firmly believe in intellectual rights, SOPA is like detonating a nuclear bomb on the internet when only a surgical strike is necessary. This legislation has the potential to harm the way everyone uses the Internet and to undermine the system itself. At Namecheap, we believe having a free and open Internet is the only option that will continue the legacy of innovation and openess that stands for everything we all value in our modern society.""
Link to Original Source
Social Networks

LinkedIn goes belly up->

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "For most of today, LinkedIn, the social media site 'for professionals', with 100 million users has been unavailable for much of today.
Users are greeted with a picture of janitor and a note that LinkedIn is "cleaning up". Occasional some parts of site functionality appear, but the dreaded pink "unexpected error" line keeps appearing, and you quickly end up getting the janitor picture again."
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Sometimes Our Product Works, Sometimes It Doesn't->

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "VTECH technical support are showing commendable honesty about the reliability of their products.

Rather than produce software that works, or replacing defective goods, The Consumerist reports that they now tells customers that their products just don't work, sometimes.

Apparently the statements on the box that VTECH toys work with Vista and Windows 7 are only true sometimes."
Link to Original Source

Guy Kewney, veteran IT journalist dies->

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "If you've read about technology in the last 35 years, you'll have read some of Guy's work, he was the longest serving tech jrounalist in the UK, and probably the world.

He covered the evolution of our industry from when the idea of a computer in your home was absurd, to the hassles you get today in getting them all to talk to each other.
At various times, he was editor of Personal Computer World, editorial fellow at Ziff Davis, columnist for PC Magazine, PCW, PC Direct and any number of his articles have been Slashdotted.
Guy cultivated a vast network of people who could help him work out what was actually going on in our industry, and he had the courage to argue with the great and the good (and Bill Gates), when he thought they had boobed. He was right often enough to get some of the credit he deserved for that. Constructively, his depth of knowledge allowed him to give advice to CEOs of major firms and newbie journalists learning the ropes, and this was freely given, for which many of us are grateful. He never took his star writer status seriously enough to become arrogant, and would listen attentively to anyone who something interesting to say.

Guy really was what most journalists aspire to be, well briefed, honest, graciosu and a good friend."
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Chiropractics lose libel case V science journalist->

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "Simon Singh, British journalist and author of several successful science book today won his appeal against the British Chiropractic Association.

The BCA had alleged that Dr Singh had made “plainest allegation of dishonesty”, which the court today ruled was 'fair comment'.

This was widely seen as an attempt to stifle criticism of Chiropractors, who who have claimed that their treatment can cure diseases from colic to cancer, with some discouraging parents from allowing their children to be vaccinated against any illness.
There has been a major backlash against the BCA in the blogosphere and amongst other science writers. This has reached such a level that lawyers for the BCA have made the effort of dealing with the backlash as part of the claim against Singh.

British Libel laws are amongst the toughest in the world. The onus is on the defendant to prove that any statement is true, and judgements including costs can often run to hundreds of thousands, allowing organisations like the BCA to use their size as a weapon against dissent. For instance in this case the costs alone, before damages were over £ 200,000, ( $ 300,000).

The BCA has vowed to fight on, presumably assuming that the science journalist will run out of money for legal fees before they do."
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The Times erects a paywall, plays double or quits->

Submitted by DCFC
DCFC writes "News International, owners of The Times and The Sunday Times announced today that from June readers will be required to pay £1 per day or £2 per week to access content.
Rupert Murdoch is delivering on his threat to make readers pay, and is trying out this experiment with the most important titles in his portfolio.

No one knows if this will work, there is no consensus on whether it is a good or bad thing for the industry, but be very clear that if it succeeds every one of his competitors will follow.

Murdoch has the luxury of a deep and wide business, so can push this harder than any company that has to rely upon one or two titles for revenue.
So if he fails, it seems improbable that any can win this fight."
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Comment: Re:Normally... (Score 1) 791

by DCFC (#31315630) Attached to: Killer Apartment Vs. Persistent Microwave Exposure?

Fair point, but being near two sources of disruption is worse than being near one.

Also, I wonder about the long term legal issues about a roof with expensive infrastructure on it ?

I'm not qualified to have a good opinion on RF, but I do know that professional equipment can be badly affected by malfunctioning domestic kit.

Some friends of mine have a heavy duty mulcher and pump for their toilet, and it sent spikes down the mains which crashed PCs, sometimes.

This took a while to track down, one does not normally try to correlate flushing with crashing.

That was merely a funny story for them, but if my equipment made the telco stuff go wrong expensively, that could get painful.

Comment: Re:Normally... (Score 1) 791

by DCFC (#31314382) Attached to: Killer Apartment Vs. Persistent Microwave Exposure?

I can't add anything to the RF debate, but be aware that being next to any major bit of infrastructure can be a real pain in the ass.

It will need fixing, and since phone companies show contempt for us all, you can assume that if it's cheaper and easier to make your life hell with noise etc, when they do maintenance or upgrade work, then that is what they will do.

You might believe in aliens, homeopathy or the existence of Sarah Palin's brain, but can you imagine a supervisor at a telco saying "no we can't do the work now, it might wake people up".

That won't always be 'working hours' either, you might never notice a drill during the day, but at 4AM you will.

Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet.