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Games

The top games of 2009

Submitted by RogueyWon
RogueyWon writes "The end of the year can always be depended upon to bring a flood of "game of the year" roundups. This year, Eurogamer seem to be kicking things off, with their readers' top 50 list and their editorial pick. These articles usually prove contentious, and no doubt there will be plenty of dissenting views this year. Of course, with the start of a new decade now upon us, now might be a good time to reflect on the best games of 2000-2009."
Republicans

Bush knew Iraq never had WMDs, say ex-CIA agents->

Submitted by tom_evil
tom_evil writes "Sidney Blumenthal, writing for Salon.com, reports that two former CIA agents confirmed to him that Bush knew all along that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. When presented a report telling him this in September 2002, Bush dismissed the information as "worthless." His administration then went out of its way to rewrite intelligence reports and withhold information from other government officials in order to fabricate a cause for war. Blumenthal writes: "The [CIA] officers continued to insist on the significance of [their source's] information, but one of Tenet's deputies told them, 'You haven't figured this out yet. This isn't about intelligence. It's about regime change.'""
Link to Original Source
Privacy

Vista is Watching You 458

Posted by CmdrTaco
from the also-up-is-higher-than-down dept.
greengrass writes "Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company."
The Internet

A Reprieve for Internet Radio 108

Posted by Zonk
from the i-can-keep-getting-my-soundtrack-fix dept.
westlake writes "In the wake of Internet Radio's Day of Silence, SoundExchange has proposed a temporary $2500 cap on advance payments 'per channel/per station.' The Digital Music Association responded immediately in its own press release that it would agree to this, but only if the term for the new arrangement were extended to 2010 — or, preferably, forever. On another front, SoundExchange seems aware in its PR that it will have to concede something more to the non-profit webcaster, if it is to avoid Congressional action."
Censorship

Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men 308

Posted by kdawson
from the can't-take-a-joke dept.
tom_evil notes a story up on Infoshop.org about a parody site and the lack of a sense of humor in a large multinational. "One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement of ExxonMobil's plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. 'Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum's a real Exxon product, not just a parody,' said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. Exxon's policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year,' added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. 'So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!'"
Censorship

Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men->

Submitted by tom_evil
tom_evil writes "One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. "Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum's a real Exxon product, not just a parody," said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. "Exxon's policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year," added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. "So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!" [In addition,] the Yes Men are desperately in need of a sysadmin. The position is unpaid at the moment, but it shouldn't take much time for someone who knows Debian Linux very well."
Link to Original Source
The Courts

RIAA Wants Agreements to Stay Secret 196

Posted by CowboyNeal
from the don't-share-that-either dept.
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA is opposing Ms. Lindor's request for discovery into the agreements among the record company competitors by which they have agreed to settle and prosecute their cases together, by which she seeks to support her Fourth Affirmative Defense (pdf) alleging that 'The plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have. ...As such, they are guilty of misuse of their copyrights.'"

Work expands to fill the time available. -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955