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Comment: Give it a shot. (Score 1) 260

I had a similar realization after about 5 years of software development. I'm now doing a Masters of Engineering in Germany, having moved from Australia. Moving country provided its own challenges for sure (ie #1 being the German language), but succeeding in spite of them has given me some extra self confidence as well. I have no regrets (apart from not doing it earlier).

As far as the letter of recommendation goes, it doesn't hurt to ask, especially if you had more to do with a Professor than just attending classes (ie if they supervised a project etc). My old Honours Prof remembered me and wrote a great letter - alles klar :)
Programming

+ - Coding tricks of game developers->

Submitted by damian2k
damian2k writes "Game developers often experience a horrific "crunch" (also known as a "death march"), which happens in the last few months of a project leading up to the game's release date. Failing to meet the deadline can often mean the project gets cancelled or even worse, you lose your job. So what sort of tricks do they use while they're under the pump, doing 12+ hour per day for weeks on end?

How about changing the background story of a game to suit a bug, or even just leaving the bug in there and making it a humorous feature of the game! There's also the game studio who keep a pair of white gloves handy, just in case you need to code up some particularly nasty hack and you don't want to feel dirty when you do it! Read more at the article here: http://www.dodgycoder.net/2012/02/coding-tricks-of-game-developers.html"
Link to Original Source

+ - Dutch largest ISP hacked, shuts down all 2M e-mailaccounts to contain damage->

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Hackers that managed to gain access to servers of KPN, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, have provided proof of their actions by publishing a list of 500+ email accounts — including names, addresses and unhashed passwords — on pastebin.com. As a precaution, KPN has temporarily disabled all email accounts of 2 million subscribers."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:China (Score 4, Insightful) 72

by willodotcom (#38997967) Attached to: Germany Delays ACTA Signature, Wants More Discussion

It's a really cool place to live, and nothing I do in my day-to-day life is going to get me into legal trouble. I define this as freedom.

I prefer this definition by John Dalberg-Acton: "The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities."

Image

Florida Man Sues WikiLeaks For Scaring Him 340

Posted by samzenpus
from the don't-watch-the-news dept.
Stoobalou writes "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been accused of 'treason' by a Florida man seeking damages for distress caused by the site's revelations about the US government. From the article: 'David Pitchford, a Florida trailer park resident, names Assange and WikiLeaks as defendants in a personal injury suit filed with the Florida Southern District Court in Miami. In the complaint filed on 6th January, Pitchford alleges that Assange's negligence has caused "hypertension," "depression" and "living in fear of being stricken by another heart attack and/or stroke" as a result of living "in fear of being on the brink of another nuclear [sic] WAR."' Just for good measure, it also alleges that Assange and WikiLeaks are guilty of 'terorism [sic], espionage and treason.'"
The Courts

+ - Software Company sues Whirlpool Forum operator

Submitted by von Stalhein
von Stalhein writes "Whirlpool founder Simon Wright is being sued by accounting software firm 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd for alleged "injurious falsehood". The Statement of Claim from the company alleges that Simon Wright allowed statements "relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious" to be published on the Whirlpool forums. 2Clix is suing for at least $150,000 (plus costs), and is demanding that two forum threads be removed from the site. This case has ramifications for anybody that runs a forum where posters might give their opinion on a company/service/product. Australians don't have a right of free speech enshrined in our Constitution, and this case could set a nasty precedent. I hope it either never gets to court, or is lost (badly!). Original situation is here — http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/479484.html"
The Courts

+ - 2clix vs Whirlpool Founder - Simon Wright->

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes ""Whirlpool founder Simon Wright is being sued by accounting software firm 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 118 044 198) for alleged "injurious falsehood". The Statement of Claim from the company alleges that Simon Wright allowed statements "relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious" to be published on the Whirlpool forums. 2Clix is suing for at least $150,000 (plus costs), and is demanding that two forum threads be removed from the site. Whirlpool believes the action has no merit and will defend the matter vigorously, despite being a community website with little resources."

Link: http://whirlpool.net.au/article.cfm/1753"
Link to Original Source
Censorship

+ - Firm sues forum to silence critics->

Submitted by izz0
izz0 writes "In a move that could set a nasty precedent for Australian website operators and their users, a software firm is suing a community website over comments published on its message board. The firm, 2Clix, is suing the owner of the popular broadband community site Whirlpool, Simon Wright, for "injurious falsehood", asking for $150,000 in damages and an injunction requiring Whirlpool to remove forum threads highly critical of 2Clix's accounting software. Dale Clapperton, chairman of the online users lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, said 2Clix was using the law to silence its critics. He said if Wright lost "it might mean the end of criticising companies' products and services online", as "any company will be able to demand that people's criticisms of them be deleted off websites, and if they don't comply they'll sue". Amanda Stickley, a senior law lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, said if 2Clix won there would be severe consequences for website operators as they would have to be "very vigilant in checking material on the website and remove anything that could cause injury to someone's business reputation". In a statement of claim filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland, 2Clix said the comments, published in two threads between between late last year and July this year, led it to sustain "a severe downturn in monthly sales". It specifically referenced more than 30 comments by Whirlpool users, many strongly advising people to avoid the software at all costs and complaining that advertised features were not actually available in the product. One of the comments cited by 2Clix read: "The software became such a problem that we threw it out recently ... We stuck with it for over two years but in the end the many hundreds of lost hours of work and high stress levels was not worth it." 2Clix claimed the statements were both false and malicious, and said it contacted Whirlpool about the matter this year but Whirlpool refused to take the forum threads down. Wright did not respond to requests for comment, while a 2Clix spokesman this morning declined to comment. But Stickley said it would be very difficult for 2Clix to successfully sue Wright for injurious falsehood over comments made by Whirlpool users. It would have to prove the statements were false, that they were made in malice, that 2Clix actually suffered damage in the form of monetary loss and, critically, that Wright had intended to cause 2Clix monetary loss by allowing the material to remain on the website. "I don't think you could actually prove that for a web operator, that they personally intended the damage because of their malicious intention, especially when it's posted by a third party that they've got no relationship to," Stickley said."
Link to Original Source
The Internet

+ - Legal Case Threatens Internet Freedom of Speech

Submitted by Jumbled
Jumbled writes "An Australian ISP, 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd, has launched a legal case against a respected online forum, Whirlpool Broadband News, attempting to claim damages for negative reviews posted on the forum by users. 2Clix have described reccommendations that broadband customers avoid their service as "false and malicious." Whirlpool's founder, Simon Wright, intends to fight the accusations. He has observed that the case could have huge consequences, potentially threatening the rights of internet users to engage in free discussion. A more detailed report has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald."
The Courts

+ - Popular OZ broadband site sued for forum comments

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes "Whirlpool, a popular community-run broadband discussion forum, is being sued by accounting software firm 2Clix Australia for alleged "injurious falsehood". The Statement of Claim submitted by 2Clix's legal representatives to the Supreme Court of Queensland, alleges "registered users recorded statements on the Defendant's website relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious".

If the software company is successful in its claim, it could raise a nasty precedent for Australian website operators and their users. Pundits are are already speculating that if Whirlpool loses, it might mean the end of criticising companies' products and services online."

Repel them. Repel them. Induce them to relinquish the spheroid. - Indiana University fans' chant for their perennially bad football team

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