Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

[ Create a new account ]

ppz003 (797487)

ppz003
  (email not shown publicly)
http://slashdot.org/

ppz003 (797487)

by thermian on Saturday July 12, @09:03PM (#24163777)
Attached to: "Probable Cause" Hearing Against MediaSentry

Yes, but we still need a (fair) way of helping media creators to make a living from their work.

I'm not saying all downloaders should be criminalised, that's a batshit insane approach.

I'm thinking a parking ticket type system, so if you get caught, you pay a small fine, and move on without your life being poured down the crapper.

A parking ticket type system would acknowledge that not everyone plays nice, but there is a possible consequence if you choose to grab something of TPB rather than buy it. I'd say a ten, or even 100 buck fine every time your caught (not per file or anything like that) would be suitable. It would be enough to discourage some people, and if you did get caught? Pay up and move along, no big deal.

+ -
 [+] comment
by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12, @01:03PM (#24162953)
Attached to: KDE Responds To Misconceptions About KDE 4

That would have helped so tremedously! It would have made clear to trolls and dumb people that it is not for them and real FOSS lovers would have still tested it and filed bug reports and feature request.

In hindsight that would have been the best solution. Especially for a release that has so many new libs and a new UI and stuff.

Naming convention for the future:

*Insert big FOSS project X.0 ( X > 1 )* "Developer Release"

Otherwise all the dumb users will think it is Photoshop CS4 or something.

IMHO that is the path to happiness!

BTW KDE4.1 ROCKS!

+ -
 [+] comment

  Microsoft Censors... Its own Naughty Santa 2007-12-05 22:08 CajunArson

Submitted by CajunArson on Wednesday December 05 2007, @10:08PM
CajunArson writes "The Register has a story about a rather naughty Santa. It appears that the seemingly nice holiday service provided via Windows Live Messenger took on a mind of it's own. When the AI version of Santa Claus began to talk dirty to underage children, it appears that the ghost of Microsoft management present decided to sent AI Claus packing back to the digital north pole."
+ -
 [+] submission, it, humor

  New law forces university-RIAA cooperation 2007-11-12 17:26 ppz003

Submitted by ppz003 on Monday November 12 2007, @05:26PM
ppz003 writes "From a DailyTech article — The College Opportunity and Affordability Act (PDF) aims to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, and buried deep inside is a nasty secret sponsored by the entertainment industry: universities would be required to help fight piracy or risk the loss of federal funding.

One section of COAA would force universities to publicly disclose their policies and procedures relating to copyright enforcement, and to develop plans for exploring "technology-based deterrents" and alternatives — like Napster or the ad-supported Ruckus service. These requirements would be backed up with federal grant money, which would be authorized for the purchase and implementation of whatever programs a university may try to implement."
+ -
 [+] submission, education
From feed by sdfeed on Tuesday May 29 2007, @10:12PM
Evidence is accumulating that depression is a risk factor for osteoporosis. A recent study found that people ages 50 and over who regularly took antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors had double the rate of fractures as people not using such medications. Other research points to depression itself as a source of endocrine changes that can damage bone.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070529211558.htm
+ -
 [+] feed
  • Nothing More

  Zero Tolerance Firing 2007-05-29 21:45 TheSHAD0W

Submitted by TheSHAD0W on Tuesday May 29 2007, @09:45PM
TheSHAD0W writes "A friend of mine was working as a consultant for a power company in Michigan. Awakened early this morning on an emergency call, unable to log on remotely to fix their emergency response software, he asked whether he needed to "smack one of those guys in the head at network security". He was fired for that remark."
+ -
 [+] submission, it, business
  • Nothing More

  LiveJournal's lawyers mistake tags for crimes 2007-05-29 21:00 lrucker

Submitted by lrucker on Tuesday May 29 2007, @09:00PM
lrucker writes "LiveJournal has been targetted by a self-proclaimed watchdog group called "Warriors for Innocence" (warriorsforinnocence.org) which has caused them to delete many journals that list interests which they disapprove of — not journals that wrote about or promoted such interests, merely ones that had them on their user profiles. For the most part, these were fiction-writing or fictional characters in RPGs, and had disclaimers stating that quite clearly — one fictional villain's disclaimer stated in no uncertain terms that anyone who shared those interests was expressly not welcome.

People who complained were sent a boilerplate response:

Dear LiveJournal user,

Material which can be interpreted as expressing interest in, soliciting, or encouraging illegal activity places LiveJournal at considerable legal risk. When journals that contain such material are reported to us, we must suspend them. Because LiveJournal's interests list serves as a search function, and because listing an interest enables other people also interested in a similar topic to gather and/or congregate, we have been advised that listing an interest in an illegal activity must be viewed as using LiveJournal to solicit that illegal activity.

We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, we have no discretion in these cases; if a journal profile is reported to us and contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal. Journals, on the other hand, may express or imply interest in illegal activity or express or imply a desire to meet and/or interact with others with similar interests, but only if the journal clearly (1) is in opposition to or condemnation of the illegal activity, (2) does not encourage the illegal activity and (3) is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.


Last time I looked, fiction was not an illegal activity, even if the activities described were — and some of these merely expressed interest in those activities, but never actually wrote about them.

Also hit was a Spanish-language journal to discuss Lolita — yes, that Lolita.

http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/266024.html — on the difference between people who work with law enforcement to catch net predators, and the ones who just make their lives more difficult
http://heidi8.livejournal.com/777063.html — DNS info about the group behind the deletions"
+ -
 [+] submission, yro, censorship
  • Nothing More

  Worlds Longest Tunnel 2007-04-18 14:23

Journal by WED Fan on Wednesday April 18 2007, @02:23PM

Russia is planning on building the World's Longest Tunnel to connect it and Alaska.

Russia plans to build the world's longest tunnel, a transport and pipeline link under the Bering Strait to Alaska, as part of a $65 billion project to supply the U.S. with oil, natural gas and electricity from Siberia.

A joint project between the U.S. and Russia could draw upon lessons of Chunnel construction, and become a new "Wonder of the World".

(Cue: Soviet Russia joke in...5...4...3...2...in Soviet Russia, tunnel digs you.) Now that's out of the way...

+ -
 [+] journal,

  T-Rex are chickens 2007-04-17 11:50 semiotec

Submitted by semiotec on Tuesday April 17 2007, @11:50AM
semiotec writes "Scientist have found that the collagen from a fossilized T-Rex matches more closely to chicken collagen than other species (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/58 22/277). While this merely "confirms" what we already know from the movie-documentary "Jurassic Park" (relax, it's a joke), the other interesting part here is that they managed to run protein (Western) blot and mass spectrometry on a fossilized tissue/protein sample. And all this just to let us know what most of us have already suspected: dinosaurs tasted like chickens."
+ -
 [+] submission, science, biotech
  • Nothing More

  How to Keep America Competitive 2007-02-26 10:35 pkbarbiedoll

Submitted by pkbarbiedoll on Monday February 26 2007, @10:35AM
pkbarbiedoll writes "In a Washington Times column from this weekend, Bill Gates writes,

This issue has reached a crisis point. Computer science employment is growing by nearly 100,000 jobs annually. But at the same time studies show that there is a dramatic decline in the number of students graduating with computer science degrees. The United States provides 65,000 temporary H-1B visas each year to make up this shortfall — not nearly enough to fill open technical positions. Permanent residency regulations compound this problem. Temporary employees wait five years or longer for a green card. During that time they can't change jobs, which limits their opportunities to contribute to their employer's success and overall economic growth.


Interesting read, but this argument is not new and is based on a distortion of truth. If US companies simply offered fair pay, good benefits, and a general sense of job security to US citizens there would be no reason to insource labor from other countries. Mr. Gates implies that US workers are not willing to work IT anymore. He fails to mention why. Most college students do not wish to throw away 4 years of their lives (and thousands of dollars) on a career in an industry rife with outsourcing. Mr. Gates acknowledges that most US companies are not interested in offering competitive wages, so the only solution in his eyes is to import coders willing to work for a lot less (or, outsource). This has nothing to do with innovation and everything to do with creating downward pressure on IT costs."
+ -
 [+] submission, it, usa
  • Nothing More

  Slashdot FAQ - Tags[->] 2006-08-27 01:41

Bookmark by yray on Sunday August 27 2006, @01:41AM
http://slashdot.org/faq/tags.shtml#tags300
+ -
 [+] bookmark
  • Nothing More

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2008 SourceForge, Inc.