10 Reasons it doesn't pay to be "The Computer->
Submitted
by
Shaun Boyd
Censorship is changing the face of the Internet->
Submitted
by
Lucas123
Lucas123 writes "Amnesty International is warning that the Internet "could change beyond all recognition" because state-sponsored censorship has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments that apply mandated net filtering, and because companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have remained complicit, according to a BBC story. '"More and more governments are realising the utility of controlling what people see online and major internet companies, in an attempt to expand their markets, are colluding in these attempts,"' said Tim Hancock, Amnesty's campaign director."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Pirate Bay founders defendhosting pedophilia site
Submitted
by
Jared
Jared writes "Though disagree with its subject matter and opinions, they defend the site owner's freedom of speech. "I have read the material and personally I don't agree. They claim among other things that children can have voluntary love affairs with adults, and that is completely ridiculous. But I believe more in an open debate than in burying our heads in the sand. They have the right to say this," said Svartholm Warg, one of the founders of the Pirate Bay."
Belgian biometric security->
Submitted
by
jjq
jjq writes "A research team in cryptography from the Catholic University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve) disclosed serious weaknesses in the Belgian biometric passport, the only type of passport distributed in Belgium since the end of 2004. The works carried out in Louvain-la-Neuve during the course of May 2007 show that Belgian passports issued between end 2004 and July 2006 do not include any security mechanism to protect the personal data embedded in the passport's microchip. Passports issued after July 2006 do benefit from security mechanisms but these ones are flawed. This means that anyone possessing a little electronic reading device, which is easy and cheap to acquire, can steal the passport content while it is still in the pocket of the victim owners and thus without their knowing. Face and signature are among the data at risk. This news is all the more surprising because Karel De Gucht, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, declared in the Parliament on 9th January 2007 that the Belgian passport benefited from the security mechanisms advocated by the International Civil Aviation Organization. More see http://www.dice.ucl.ac.be/crypto/passport/index.ht ml"
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Link to Original Source
Truth Behind the Great Pyramids->
Submitted
by
cbroglie
cbroglie writes "Ever feel like less of a man because the ancient Egyptians could lift heavier things than you? You can rest easy now that professor Michel Barsoum from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel has discovered that the great pyramids were actually made from a primitive cement."
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Link to Original Source
China won't license new Internet cafes->
Submitted
by
dteichman2
dteichman2 writes "While regulators investigate the Internet's impact on young people, China will not be licensing any new Internet cafes. Investigators will evaluate cafes and look for those that improperly rent out their licenses or fail to properly register the identities of customers. Government authorities worry that the Web may provide children with access to gambling sites, sexually explicit material, and violent video games. Chinese President Hu Jintao has ordered officials to clean up 'Internet culture.'"
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Link to Original Source
2008 Presidential Candidates and Tech Issues
Submitted
by
Tokimasa
Tokimasa writes "Following last night's debate with the Democratic presidential hopefuls and tomorrow's debate with the Republican presidential candidates, I noticed that the questions addressed issues that affect the American people as a whole — education, health care, the "war on terror" and combating terrorism, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, jobs and the economy, gas prices, and energy.
But what about issues that are important to the technical savvy Americans, including those in technical industries? Issues such as intellectual property reform (especially copyrights and patents), funding for research and development (both private and government led), DMCA, and other topics that might be of interest to engineers and scientists? Why are these topics not discussed (or even mentioned) during a campaign?
Is there any material out there that discusses how each candidate stands on issues that are of interest to certain groups (in my case, engineers and those working in highly technical fields)?"
But what about issues that are important to the technical savvy Americans, including those in technical industries? Issues such as intellectual property reform (especially copyrights and patents), funding for research and development (both private and government led), DMCA, and other topics that might be of interest to engineers and scientists? Why are these topics not discussed (or even mentioned) during a campaign?
Is there any material out there that discusses how each candidate stands on issues that are of interest to certain groups (in my case, engineers and those working in highly technical fields)?"
Notorious spammer Robert Soloway arrested
Submitted
by
Dave Q. Lintard
Dave Q. Lintard writes "http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/317795_soloway 31.html
Federal authorities are accusing a Seattle man of not only sending out millions of spam messages himself, but selling the software for others to do the same and stealing unique e-mail addresses and domain names to further his operation.
Robert Alan Soloway, 27, of Seattle will make his initial appearance Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle on 13 counts of money laundering, 10 counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, five counts of aggravated identity theft and two counts of fraud in connection with electronic mail."
Vigilante group wreaks havoc on LJ fandom
Submitted
by
minkowski
minkowski writes "A mysterious group called Warriors for Innocence has approached Six Apart (the company which owns LiveJournal) demanding that certain journals and communities on LJ be terminated.
The common trait shared by many of these journals and communities is that they contain fanfiction slash and incest.
Of the blogs targeted for termination, most of them have been fandom related. The criteria for getting a journal deleted appears to be very broad. Many blogs have been deleted for merely mentioning the keyword "incest" in
the list of interests. A post on this LJ users blog
summarizes the rumors and accusations now flying between LJ users who feel betrayed — and Six Apart."
Michael Geist Sued for Defamatory Blogroll
Submitted
by
Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist, the well known Canadian law prof and columnist, is
apparently being
sued for a defamatory blogroll. The suit apparently claims
that Geist should be considered the publisher of a libel because his
site includes a blogroll
that links to a site that in turn links to a site that contains some
allegedly
defamatory third party comments. At this rate, Slashdot will
presumably be sued for linking to Geist who links to a site that links
to site that may contain a defamatory comment."