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HarperCollins Forcing Libraries To Re-Buy Ebooks A-> 1

Submitted by Japong
Japong writes "Harper Collins wants libraries to re-purchase ebooks after 26 checkouts, stating that since traditional physical library books usually "wear out" after 26 checkouts and require a re-purchase, their digital counterparts should as well.

Oklahoma's Pioneer Library responds:

The argument against the arbitrary number is twofold. First, replacement of books in libraries is based upon the condition of the book, not the number of times it has been checked out. It is not unusual for popular books to be checked out 100 times or more before the wear and tear of circulation takes its toll and the book has to be replaced or repaired. Second, eBooks, too, eventually wear out. The electronic file formats become obsolete in a matter of years as technology progresses and customer interests change. Remember the switch from VHS to DVD or cassette to CD?

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Link to Original Source

Comment: Markus' Email to Chris Russo (Score 4, Interesting) 367

by Japong (#35059598) Attached to: PlentyofFish Hacked, Founder Emails Hacker's Mom
Quoted from Russo's response:

If this data goes public I am going to email every single effected user on Plentyoffish your phone number, email address and picture. And tell them you hacked into their accounts.

Then i'm going to sue you In Canada, US and UK and argintina. I am going to completely destroy your life, no one is ever going to hire you for anything again, this isn't piratebay and we definately aren't fooling around.

Markus.

Comment: Plenty of Fish was never secure (Score 2) 367

by Japong (#35059446) Attached to: PlentyofFish Hacked, Founder Emails Hacker's Mom

Tried Plenty of Fish for a shortwhile - as a default, the service will mail 'new matches' to the email account you registered with every few days. These emails contain a a plain-text version of your password (which essentially reads as "Remember, your password is :XXXX123").

It's not entirely surprising that the site had its security compromised.

Canada

UBB limits hit Canadian ISPs->

Submitted by Japong
Japong writes "ARS Technica covers a big change in Canadian ISP services, where the CRTC's new UBB caps have dropped monthly usage allowances from 200GB and Unlimited accounts down to a mere 25GB.

"The ostensible, theoretical reason behind UBB is to conserve capacity, but that issue is very questionable," noted the ISP's CEO Rocky Gaudrault on TekSavvy's news page. "One certain result though, is that Bell will make much more profit on its Internet service, and discourage Canadians from watching TV and movies on the internet instead of CTV, which Bell now owns."

"
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:Back to earth (Score 1) 973

by Japong (#34840780) Attached to: Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay

The leak exposed massive corruption by Daniel Arap Moi, and the Kenyan people sat up and took notice. In the ensuing elections, in which corruption became a major issue, violence swept the country. "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak," says Assange. It's a chilling statistic, but then he states: "On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information and 40,000 children a year die of malaria in Kenya. And many more die of money being pulled out of Kenya, and as a result of the Kenyan shilling being debased."

People got killed because they stood up to a corrupt government, after being made aware of widespread electoral manipulation? And you hold this against Assange like it's a bad thing?

Comment: Skypenames2.exe - In case you're wondering... (Score 3, Informative) 167

by Japong (#34651048) Attached to: Skype Outage Hits Users Worldwide

Halfway through yesterday my Skype stopped working, just like everybody else's.

It then tried to reconnect, and out of the blue gave me a pop-up saying "Skypenames2.exe wants to use Skype" with the options "Allow access" or "Deny access."

This naturally set off a few alarm bells, but as it turns out it isn't malware or a virus, just a poorly named Skype component. It allows you to click telephone links in IE or a Mozilla-based browser and make direct phone calls using Skype. Personally I don't want or need that kind of integration, so I declined.

Comment: Charlie Wiederhold's Chair Story (Score 5, Informative) 565

by Japong (#27856803) Attached to: Duke Nukem For Never

This is the strangest read I've had in a while:

http://gamingisstupid.com/2009/05/06/the-chair-story-revival/

I was told to think about my next words very carefully before giving my final answer. Honestly, I felt this was a test to see how well I would hold up to pressure later when we had to "hold the lie" (the similarity to "hold the line" isn't on accident), so I held firm and said I really wanted to, but needed to have it reviewed...

oh fuck...

Faster than I can even remember (literally... I don't remember) I was knocked out of my chair by I *think* of all people Tim Sweeney (it was a wooden kitchen chair) and was pinned on the ground by Mike Wilson and Cliffy B (he's so much stronger than I ever expected). George walks over to my chair and fucking stomps the shit out of it until the legs are broken off. He casually picks up one of the legs that had split into a shit your pants style point and starts tossing it up and down. Scott and Mark Rein alternate on and off saying that I apparently wasn't aware how *real* business is done and that if I didn't want to find out why those two companies had maintained such a strong position in the industry dating back to the shareware days (when it seems people didn't ask nearly as many questions about why developers appeared, made a game, and then disappeared without a trace)... I had better reconsider my answer.

I do remember the next part very very well though... I will never forget it and I have to admit that I have dreams about it pretty frequently.

Cliffy and Mike pulled me up and shoved my face about 6 inches from the point of the chair leg. I was drenched in sweat (the trailers didn't have decent AC so it was already hot as hell in there)... and if they had let go of me I would not have been able to stand on my own.

George looked me in the eyes and asked me one more time what I was going to do... so at that point I did what anyone would do...

I mean, this guy actually did work at 3DRealms and this is his blog, but seriously, CliffyB and Marc Rein threatening developers with broken chairs? Tim Sweeny tackling people and holding them down for gang beatings?

Everything can be filed under "miscellaneous".