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Comment: Re:uhh.. this is sponsored by a democrat (Score 1) 300

Anyone who lives in their districts might consider writing a letter to the local news paper explaining why this proposed legislation might not be such a great idea. James Carville says that letters to the editor published in hometown newspapers get more attention than constituent mail.

Comment: Re:Why is gender important? (Score 3, Insightful) 146

Because it is news when a women breaks the gender barrier in IT. Just read this thread, or any thread on Slashdot, the hostility to women and belittling our achievements is an very ugly part of technology culture. Something wonderful just happened. Let's celebrate it.
Businesses

More Foxconn Workers Blast Apple's Working Conditions->

Submitted by
redletterdave
redletterdave writes "After the New York Times wrote two stories detailing how Apple handles its overseas operations, CNN released a report that includes an interview with an 18-year-old female college student given the pseudonym "Miss Chen," who works overtime at the massive Foxconn in southern China building iPads — even though she had never seen one of Apple's finished tablets before. Though some experts say Foxconn's conditions are still better than most Chinese factories, workers like Miss Chen — who claim working 60-plus hours a week applying upwards of 4,000 stickers a day onto iPad screens by hand — are evidence to the contrary. Foxconn, one of Apple's biggest manufacturing partners, employs about 230,000 workers at its sprawling plant informally known as "Foxconn City," and makes them work day and night shifts to build Apple products, in addition to Microsoft's Xbox consoles and Amazon's Kindle e-readers. Workers are paid less than $17 a day and often report working 12 hours a day, six days a week. Employees are provided air conditioning, heating, cafeterias, and dormitories to sleep in. Workers say Foxconn's culture is 'military-like' and 'one of surveillance, obedience and not challenging authority.'"
Link to Original Source
Education

Gates Paying Murdoch for System to Track U.S. Kids

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes "Discussing U.S. education in his 2012 Annual Letter, Bill Gates notes the importance of 'tools and services [that] have the added benefit of providing amazing visibility into how each individual student is progressing, and generating lots of useful data that teachers can use to improve their own effectiveness.' Well, Bill is certainly putting his millions where his mouth is. The Gates Foundation has ponied up $76.5 million for a controversial student data tracking initiative that's engaged Rupert Murdoch's Wireless Generation to 'build the open software that will allow states to access a shared, performance-driven marketplace of free and premium tools and content.' If you live in CO, IL, NC, NY, MA, LA, GA, or DE, it's coming soon to a public school near you. Gates is also funding other billionaires' aligned initiatives and bankrolling astrotuf-likened school advocacy, raising concerns about undue influence and prompting a call for eliminating the charitable giving tax deduction. 'This year, governments may lose $50 billion because of tax deductions taken overwhelmingly by the rich for charitable givings intended primarily to enhance their status with their brethren or to attack the public sector,' writes David Morris. 'We can't stop the rich from using their money for their own purposes. But we should not add insult to injury by giving them huge amounts of public sums to attack the public sector.' Hey, what could go wrong?"

eVoting machines for Sale -probably worthless->

Submitted by
zg3409
zg3409 writes "7,500 eVoting machines are to be sold off. Following relevations that the machines could be compromised they have laid in storage for years. Following a total cost of €50,000,000 so far they are being sold off as part of a tender.

They expect to be sold for very little or even charged to take them away as electronic waste.

So what should be done with them?

The actual tender document is here:
http://www.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=JAN304595"
Link to Original Source
Australia

OzLog: unlimited private data retention for Oz law->

Submitted by AHuxley
AHuxley writes "delimiter.com.au has news on ISP data retention ideas in Australia.
Australia would like to follow the EU down the "European Directive on Data Retention" path.
Australian law enforcement agencies may have the option to request a log of all a users of interest telco usage without any review or time limits.
Another option would be for local politics eg. an activist community. Data retention over a postcode (suburb).
The data collection could also be out sourced to private contractors."
Link to Original Source

If a child annoys you, quiet him by brushing his hair. If this doesn't work, use the other side of the brush on the other end of the child.