Comment: Kermit! (Score 1) 283
Obviously, Kermit is the clear winner. It must be those great songs he sings and all. I will point you to the lovely band called "Dead Muppets".
Death of the Greenphone
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phobos13013
phobos13013 writes "Trolltech announced this week that they will discontinue development on their Greenphone platform. The Greenphone was advertised to be the first phone with a user-modifiable environment. Trolltech CTO, Benoit Schilling, stated that they are not really a hardware company and so will focus it's efforts on FIC's Neo 1973, now available. However, FTA, a future wifi-enabled endeavor (possibly a VOIP phone) was hinted at by Schilling."
TJX Breach (More Than) Twice As Bad As Reported->
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eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes "Attention TJX shoppers! Just when you thought the retailer was fessing up to its failings comes this revelation from courtroom documents and testimony, to the effect that 96 million customer records (not 45 million) have been lost. Talk about discounting!"
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Verizon Wireless To Sell Personal Information
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Aaron Kenny
Aaron Kenny writes "Verizon Wireless is changing its privacy policy to allow them to sell "Customer Proprietary Network Information" (CPNI). Basically CPNI is information such as the type of phone you use, places you call, and how long you talk. This is information that is typically protected against sharing by the FCC. However, within 30 days everyone will be opted in unless they opt out by calling 1-800-333-9956. The system is automated and takes just a minute."
Mobile Phone as Tracking Device a Reality->
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MissingRainbow
MissingRainbow writes "In India, privacy issues are not taken very seriously. Thats why the news, that a big telecommunications company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is providing a service named 'Target Subscriber Notification', which can be used to track subscribers, did not surprise me much. This is touted as a value added service and is available for both police and common subscribers. There are two problems with this. One is that the procedure for the police to avail this facility against an individual is not very clear. I think it will be available for the asking. Since the news article, doesn't even bother to mention the word privacy anywhere, you know the kind of importance it is given in India. The other problem is in the family. I foresee lot of trouble between husband and wife, parents and children, and between lovers because of this service."
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Terrorists use Google Earth to target missiles->
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arikb
arikb writes "Seems like terrorists are using Google Earth to target their missiles more accurately at civilian targets. "We obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas," Khaled Jaabari, the group's commander in Gaza who is known as Abu Walid, told the Guardian""
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South Africa adopts ODF as a government standard->
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ais523
ais523 writes "As reported by Tectonic, South Africa's new Mininimum Interoperability Standards for Information Systems in government (MIOS) explain the new rules for which data formats will be used by the government; according to that document, all people working for the South African government must be able to read OpenDocument Format documents by March, and the government aims to use one of its three approved document formats (UTF-8 or ASCII plain text, CSV, or ODF) for all its published documents by the end of 2008. A definition of 'open standard' is also included that appears to rule out OOXML at present (requiring 'multiple implementations', among other things that may also rule it out)."
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Humanity splitting into 2 (lower+upper) species?->
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Dilbert fan
Dilbert fan writes "Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics has told the BBC that he expects humanity may likely split into 2 sub-species in about 100,000 years' time", just as HG Wells predicted.
Curry appears to have been quoting the beliefs of the DNRC (Dogbert's New Ruling Class), when he said he expects to see the split being into a "genetic upper class" and a "dim-witted underclass". Interesting an increasing number of people here in the UK actually believe the split has already happened with the emergance of chavs. There are even jokes going around comparing chavs against people in other countries. I wouldn't go as far as describing "chavs" as a new UK species, however there is definately a clear culture split in the UK to the point that the word chav is even now in the Oxford English dictionary. On my travels outside of the UK, I have noted their culture appears to be spreading, however it would seem that some countries are fighting back by banning some of their icons, although Posh and Becks were let in... So is humankind really splitting in this way?"
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Apple admits 1 in 6 iPhones hacked
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thefickler
thefickler writes "Apple has admitted that one in six iPhones sold (that's over a quarter of a million handsets) has been cracked to allow connection to networks other than AT&T, and that's just counting SIM hacks. Including software modifications that allow the use of unauthorized software the number is thought to be twice that."
Naked-eye comet surprise->
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Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "Bad Astronomy is reporting that Comet 17P/Holmes, 220 million miles from the Sun, which Monday was a dim magnitude 17 (observable only by a few giant telescopes in remote locations) has overnight become magnitude 3 — easily visible to the naked eye. This is 400,000 times as bright. It's likely due to a sudden breakup of the comet after one too many trips around the sun. Pictures here."
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