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Facebook Brand Timelines? Meh.->

Submitted by Hieronymus.N
Hieronymus.N writes "Facebook launched their new Brand Timelines this week, and the tubes lit up with reviews and commentary about the new features. Reviews have been consistently positive and enthusiastic, with everyone from Mashable to Forbes verily gushing about the superiority of this latest advancement over the old way brands were able to use FB—better photos! Better layout! Private messages!

This latest ‘breakthrough’ may be better than what came before, but it’s still incredibly weak in comparison with what’s possible. In short, FB pages for brands, Brand Timelines and all, still suck."
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Open letter to ASCAP addressing Creative Commons->

Submitted by Hieronymus.N
Hieronymus.N writes "As an ASCAP member (both as a songwriter and as a publisher), I'm writing to express my serious concerns about the misconceptions demonstrated in ASCAP's recent letter to its members (signed by ASCAP President and Chairman of the Board, Paul Williams), soliciting donations to assist ASCAP's Legislative Fund for the Arts (ALFA) in fighting Creative Commons and other purported threats to the foundations of copyright."
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Comment: Re:depends (Score 1) 1137

by Hieronymus.N (#27871075) Attached to: Your Commuting Costs By Car Vs. Train?

Light rail in London, for example, is better by an order of magnitude. More trains, more stops, less overcrowding.

You must be joking - the Underground's quality has become abysmal and costs considerably more than the NYC subway system, not to mention it shuts down at midnight. Or are you only speaking about the Docklands Light Rail?

Education

Sesame Street DVD Deemed Adult-Only Entertainment

Submitted by
theodp
theodp writes "The earliest episodes of Sesame Street are being made available on DVD, but the NYT notes Volumes 1 and 2 carry a rather strange warning: 'These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child.' So why are they unsuitable for toddlers in 2007? Well, in the parody 'Monsterpiece Theater,' Alistair Cookie — played by Cookie Monster — used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. 'That modeled the wrong behavior,' explained a Sesame Street executive producer, adding that 'we might not be able to create a character like Oscar [the Grouch] now.'"
Privacy

Mixed news on Wiretapping from 9th Circuit USCoA

Submitted by abb3w
abb3w writes "The bad news: the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Al-Haramain lawyers may not submit into evidence their recollections of the top secret document handed to them detailing the warrantless electronic scrutiny they received. "Once properly invoked and judicially blessed, the state secrets privilege is not a half-way proposition." The good news: they have declined to answer and directed the lower court to consider whether "FISA preempts the common law state secrets privilege" with respect to the underlying nature of the program itself... which also keeps alive hopes for the EFF and ACLU to make those responsible answer for their actions.

Coverage at CNET, the NYTimes, and elsewhere; PDF of ruling here."
Security

NIST calls for a new security 'hash' algorithm->

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) this week opened a competition to develop a new cryptographic hash algorithm, a tool that converts a file, message or block of data to a short fingerprint for use in digital signatures, message authentication and other computer security applications. Such hash algorithms are ultimately one of the key security technologies for federal and public systems. The competition is NIST's response to recent advances in the analysis of hash algorithms. The new hash algorithm will be called Secure Hash Algorithm-3 (SHA-3) and will augment the hash algorithms currently specified in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2, Secure Hash Standard. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/21724"
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Encryption

NIST Opens Competition for a New Hash Algorithm->

Submitted by
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "The National Institute of Standards and Technology has opened a public competition for the development of a new cryptographic hash algorithm, which will be called Secure Hash Algorithm-3 (SHA-3), and will augment the current algorithms specified in the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 180-2. This is in response to serious attacks reported in recent years against cryptographic hash algorithms, including SHA-1, and because SHA-1 and the SHA-2 family share a similar design. Submissions are being accepted through October 2008, and the competition timeline indicates that a winner will be announced in 2012."
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Entropy isn't what it used to be.