Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes "Author Robert Jordan, whose was best known for the Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels has died of a rare blood disease aged 58."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6999578.stm

eldavojohn writes "DefCon usually focuses on electronic security, but Saturday a talk was held that focused on possibly the oldest form of hacking — lockpicking. As software security becomes better and better, the focus may be shifting towards simple hacking tips like looking over someone's shoulder for their password, faking employment or just picking the locks to gain access to the building where machines are left on overnight. From the article: 'Medeco deadbolt locks relied on worldwide at embassies, banks and other tempting targets for thieves, spies or terrorists can be opened in seconds with a strip of metal and a thin screw driver, Marc Tobias of Security.org demonstrated for AFP ... Tobias says he refuses to publish details of 'defeating' the locks because they are used in places ranging from homes, banks and jewelers to the White House and the Pentagon. He asked AFP not to disclose how it is done.' I'm sure all Slashdot readers are savvy enough to use firewall(s) but do you know and trust what locks 'physically' protect your data from hacks like these?"

innocent_white_lamb writes "The Church of England is demanding that Sony withdraw "Resistance: Fall of Man", as it depicts a violent shoot-out in Manchester Cathedral. Church officials say Sony used the church without permission, call the game "sick" and "sacrilegious", and are threatening legal action unless the game is withdrawn. Sony says that the game uses neither video or photography from the actual church. Details here."

"ON NEW YEAR'S EVE in 2003, I was seized at the border of Serbia and Macedonia by Macedonian police who mistakenly believed that I was traveling on a false German passport. I was detained incommunicado for more than three weeks. Then I was handed over to the American Central Intelligence Agency and was stripped, severely beaten, shackled, dressed in a diaper, injected with drugs, chained to the floor of a plane and flown to Afghanistan, where I was imprisoned in a foul dungeon for more than four months.

Long after the American government realized that I was an entirely innocent man, I was blindfolded, put back on a plane, flown to Europe and left on a hilltop in Albania -- without any explanation or apology for the nightmare that I had endured.

My story is well known. It has been described in literally hundreds of newspaper articles and television news programs -- many of them relying on sources within the U.S. government. It has been the subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies, including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in my own country of Germany are pursuing indictments against 13 CIA agents and contractors for their role in my kidnapping, abuse and detention. Although I never could have imagined it, and certainly never wished it, I have become the public face of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.

Why, then, does the American government insist that my ordeal is a state secret?"

Petra_von_Kant writes "According to the Sydney Morning Herald via The Guardian News & Media, conservatives have set up a "christian and US-centric" version of Wikipedia. One of the complaints from the founders of the Conservapedia, was that "...... many Wikipedia articles often use British spelling instead of American English ....".

Bizarre ......."

LeDopore writes "My blog has an article showing that, according to CDC data, eating a fast food meal is between 5 and 50 times more deadly to Americans than the risk of contracting HIV through unprotected sex with a randomly-chosen American."

An anonymous reader writes "Verizon charged the customer $0.002 after quoting 0.002 cents . This is a hilarious account of verizons response and its excellent customer service. Ofcourse the checkthe customer sent."

DrEnter writes "After defeating the city of Boston and Homeland Security in a brief conflict last week involving small signs made from christmas tree lights, Turner Broadcasting has agreed to pay each of them $1 million. This is a far cry from the $500+ million Boston was claiming the Aqua Teen Hunger Force "war" had cost them. Maybe they realized that if this actually went to court, they would probably only end up with a bill for the court costs?"

Ant writes "The Red Tape Chronicles reports that just last December (2006), the FTC published an optimistic state-of-spam report. It cites research indicating spam had leveled off or even dropped during the previous year. It now appears spammers had simply gone back to the drawing board. There's more spam now than ever before. In fact, there's twice as much spam now as opposed to this time last year. And the messages themselves are causing more trouble. About half of all spam sent now is "image spam," containing server-clogging pictures that are up to 10 times the size of traditional text spam. And most image spam is stock-related, pump-and-dump scams which can harm investors who don't even use e-mail. About one-third of all spam is stock spam now."

A number of readers wrote in about a U.S. federal investigation into the Venezulean ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems, which makes voting machines used in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States wonders whether the anti-U.S. government of Hugo Chávez could be trying to influence the U.S. midterm elections. From the article: "Government officials familiar with the Smartmatic inquiry said they doubted that even if the Chávez government was some kind of secret partner in the company, it would try to influence elections in the United States. But some of them speculated that the purchase of Sequoia could help Smartmatic sell its products in Latin America and other developing countries, where safeguards against fraud are weaker."