Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Apple

New dating site for Apple fans only->

Submitted by GBC
GBC writes "A soon-to-be-launched dating site for Apple fans only, called Cupidtino (tagline: "Meet an Apple fanboy or girl"), has just been announced. Quoting their holding page:

Cupidtino is a beautiful new dating site created for fans of Apple products by fans of Apple products! Why? Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common — personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and of course a love for technology. We believe these are enough reasons for two people to meet and fall in love, and so we created the first Mac-inspired dating site to help you find other Machearts around you. Cupidtino will launch in June 2010 exclusively on Apple platforms — Safari, iPhone and iPad apps. It's time to share the love.

What do you think /. — genuine or parody?"
Link to Original Source

Privacy

Obama Administration Defends Warrantless Wiretapping 788

Posted by timothy
from the high-moral-ground-is-a-grassy-knoll dept.
a whoabot writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Obama administration has stepped in to defend AT&T in the case over their participation in the warrantless wiretapping program started by Bush. The Obama administration argues that that continuation of the case will lead to the disclosure of important 'state secrets.' The Electronic Frontier Foundation has described the action as an 'embrace' of the Bush policy." Update: 04/07 15:18 GMT by T : Glenn Greenwald of Salon has up an analysis of this move, including excerpts from the actual brief filed. Excerpt: "This brief and this case are exclusively the Obama DOJ's, and the ample time that elapsed — almost three full months — makes clear that it was fully considered by Obama officials."
Software

Opera Launches Facial Gesture Capability 199

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the because-they-can dept.
cstrep writes "Eight years ago, Opera introduced Mouse Gestures as a way to speed up your interaction with the browser, and focus on what's important: Content. In 2005, Voice Navigation was introduced, and more recently we've worked with Nintendo to create a browser that takes full advantage of the 'Wiimote' and later, the touchscreen in the DSi. Today Opera introduces Face Gestures, a revolutionary technology designed to make interacting with Opera easier on computers with cameras. Face Gestures lets you perform frequent browsing operations with natural and easy to make face gestures. By using an internal technology dubbed 'Face Observation Opera Language,' we are able to recognize pre-determined facial expressions and match them to commands on the Opera browser."
Censorship

Wikileaks publishes Australia's "secret" b 1

Submitted by GBC
GBC writes "Wikileaks have done it again. They just published the Australian government's proposed secret blacklist of internet sites. Details of the leak are covered in a Sydney Morning Herald article which notes that,

about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites, websites of fringe religions such as satanic sites, fetish sites, Christian sites, the website of a tour operator and even a Queensland dentist.

In that same article Nick Minchin, the Opposition Communications spokesman, is quoted giving a reasonable perspective on the blacklist:

"The regrettable and unfortunate reality is there will always be explicit and illegal material on the web and — regardless of blacklists, filters and the like — those with the means and know-how will find ways of accessing it. Adult supervision is the most effective way of keeping children safe online and people shouldn't be led into believing by Labor that expanded blacklists or mandatory filters are a substitute for that."

Slashdot recently covered a related story about the Australian government adding several Wikileaks pages to the banned list.

Since I am an Australian, I am not linking directly to the list (which is readily available on the Wikileaks site for those who wish to seek it out) as, according to that same article from the Sydney Morning Herald, "Australians caught distributing the list or accessing child pornography sites on the list could face criminal charges and up to 10 years in prison." So much for free speech downunder!"

Comment: Hope they get the logistics right this time (Score 5, Informative) 134

by GBC (#25725929) Attached to: OLPC's "Give 1 Get 1" Comes To Europe
I am based in the UK but ordered an XO in the initial G1G1 programme and had it delivered to a friend in the US who then sent it on to me here in London. All I can say is that the experience was an absolute debacle. If you check the forums of OLPC News you can see just how bad it was - repeated broken promises as to delivery dates, support staff who couldn't provide any answers and an end product less than what was initially promised (e.g. no separate power generating devices).

I was and still am a supporter of the OLPC; whilst the product itself is not aimed at me, even still I think it is a great computer and a lot of fun to use. I give them full credit as well for creating the "netbook" market from nothing. However, the G1G1 experience turned a lot of people off the OLPC organisation. It is hard to have confidence that they can execute their mission when they couldn't even get the logistics right for a first world country. I just hope we don't have a repeat of that this time around.
The Courts

RIAA Accuses Beckerman of 'Vexatious Litigation->

Submitted by IceDiver
IceDiver writes "

The Recording Industry Association of America is declaring attorney-blogger Ray Beckerman a "vexatious" litigator and is seeking unspecified monetary sanctions to punish him in his defense of a New York woman accused of making copyrighted music available on the Kazaa file sharing system. The RIAA said Beckerman, one of the nation's few attorneys who defends accused file sharers, "has maintained an anti-recording industry blog during the course of this case and has consistently posted virtually every one of his baseless motions on his blog seeking to bolster his public relations campaign and embarrass plaintiffs," the RIAA wrote (.pdf) in court briefs. "Such vexatious conduct demeans the integrity of these judicial proceedings and warrants this imposition of sanctions.",

Beckerman is accused, among other things, of "providing false and misleading information and for unreasonably and vexatiously multiplying and prolonging this litigation."

How can they expect anyone to believe this crap?"
Link to Original Source

The Internet

LHC Flips On Tomorrow 526

Posted by Soulskill
from the nice-knowing-you-all dept.
BTJunkie writes "The Large Hadron Collider, the worlds most expensive science experiment, is set to be turned on tomorrow. We've discussed this multiple times already. A small group of people believe our world will be sucked into extinction (some have even sent death threats). The majority of us, however, won't be losing any sleep tonight." Reader WillRobinson notes that CERN researchers declared the final synchronization test a success and says, "The first attempt to circulate a beam in the LHC will be made this Wednesday, Sept. 10 at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV). The start up time will be between (9:00 to 18:00 Zurich Time) (2:00 to 10:00 CDT) with live webcasts provided at webcast.cern.ch."
Idle

Teen's rampage over change in computer privileges->

Submitted by
GBC
GBC writes "Local6 reports that, "A 15-year-old was taken into custody after police said he chased his mother with a knife and beat his brother with a sugar cane over a change in computer privileges... Police said the boy was on the home computer when he grew angry over changes to the system. Police said the teen then threw several objects and picked up a knife and a stick of sugar cane. The older brother and mother told police the teen pushed his mother several times while clutching the knife. He also struck the brother with the sugar cane, police said."

I can see it now: You are about to attack your family members — Cancel or Allow?"
Link to Original Source
Transportation

Steve Fossett may have faked his own death ->

Submitted by
GBC
GBC writes "New claims are being made that Steve Fossett may have faked his own death. Fossett, the first man to fly non-stop round the earth in a hot air balloon, went missing last September when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went missing. His disappearance led to a massive search which has been covered previously on Slashdot — here, here, here and here. He was declared dead on 15 February 2008.

Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol, said "I've been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett should have been found. It's not like we didn't have our eyes open. We found six other planes while we were looking for him. We're pretty good at what we do."

Robert Davis, an investigator acting on behalf of insurers Lloyd's of London states "I discovered that there is absolutely no proof that Steve Fossett is actually dead. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a man who deals in facts, and I don't really care if he is alive or dead, it make no difference to me. What I am interested in is the truth — and a proper criminal investigation of this man's disappearance was never undertaken by law enforcement or officials in the state of Nevada." Of course, according to the article, Llyod's may have to make a £25m payout if Fossett is dead, so it is in their interests that he not be.

News Of The World lists some other revelations uncovered by the investigation including Fossett having mistresses, possible massive divorce payouts and not having any emergency kit with him on the flight — but it is News Of The World, so take that as you will.

What do you think — did he fake his own death or is it just that they haven't found the body yet?"
Link to Original Source

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll invite himself over for dinner. -- Calvin Keegan