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Censorship

Submission + - AT&T Censors 4chan server 13

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/94pf2/att_is_now_blocking_all_access_to_img4chanorg/ Details how img.4chan.org (home of the notorious /b/ — "Random" image board) is being actively blocked by AT&T. According to the scant details available on 4chan and Reddit there are reports that img.4chan.org has become inaccessible from California to Texas and some reports claim as far east as Connecticut. Supposedly this is to stop a ring of pedophiles, but as one Reddit poster said it best "First the came for the pedophiles and I was not a pedophile..."
Disturbing news indeed.
Censorship

Submission + - AT&T blocks img.4chan.org from customers (reddit.com) 11

Submitted by
bmecoli
bmecoli writes: "AT&T seems to be blocking img.4chan.net which hosts the infamous /b/ (random) board, as well as /r9k/. Those who have contacted AT&T representatives were told that the site is in fact blocked, so this isn't a technical problem, and all the other 4chan subdomains work fine."

Comment Re:Lol (Score 1) 936

by UltraMathMan (#27140101) Attached to: Living Free With Linux, Round 2
While on the surface the method of application installation on the Mac may seem to be the simplest, there are cases where it can get you into trouble. Dragging the .app to the Trash doesn't delete the Library files that were created in the course of running the app, containing preferences and such.

While on the whole this generally isn't a big deal, as these files tend to be size insignificant, it does make reinstalling a misbehaving application slightly more tricky. More seriously, abandoned kernel extensions can cause the system to stop booting after a major upgrade; if the extension index is deleted, when the system recreates it on next boot it will try to load the old extension and boom, kernel panic.

On the whole though, yes, I'd agree with you - from a clueless end user standpoint it certainly makes the most sense.

Comment Wait a sec... (Score 4, Informative) 269

by UltraMathMan (#26165485) Attached to: Indian GPS Cartographers Charged As Terrorists
According to TFA they were arrested for "snooping around Jamnagar" which according to Wikipedia "has shot to prominence as Reliance Industries, India's largest private company, established the world's largest [oil] refinery near Moti Khavdi village."

So very basically, this seems akin so someone driving in a car, decked out with electronics, around say, a nuclear power plant in the U.S. Not saying the charges are or aren't appropriate and there's no information as to how close to said refinery they actually were, but given the area through which they were traveling they should have expected some attention.

Wikipedia Article
Education

Submission + - College Presidents Seek Debate on Drinking Age

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "College presidents from about 100 of the nation's best-known universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus and that alcohol education that mandates abstinence as the only legal option has not resulted in significant constructive behavioral change among students.. "This is a law that is routinely evaded," said John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont who started the organization. "It is a law that the people at whom it is directed believe is unjust and unfair and discriminatory." The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the drinking age but even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts they are already facing sharp criticism. Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes, it accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem, and MADD officials are urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on."
Google

Submission + - SPAM: Gmail Account Hacking Tool

Submitted by
Ashik Ratnani
Ashik Ratnani writes: "A tool that automatically steals IDs of non-encrypted sessions and breaks into Google Mail accounts has been presented at the Defcon hackers' conference in Las Vegas.

Last week Google introduced a new feature in Gmail that allows users to permanently switch on SSL and use it for every action involving Gmail, and not only, authentication. users who did not turn it on now have a serious reason to do so as Mike Perry, the reverse engineer from San Francisco who developed the tool is planning to release it in two weeks."
Link to Original Source

Comment Re:What about the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide? (Score 1) 278

by UltraMathMan (#24587355) Attached to: Bash Cookbook
Sure, but I find that when I'm scripting it's generally on a computer - IMHO it's easier to reference something online (and to find it) than it is by combing a 598 page printed book.

Don't get me wrong, books have a place too, but I can't run a find on my printed copy. My intention was to point out that good free resources exist and, at least in this case, are well maintained.
Music

Submission + - Warner Music Group Drops DRM (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by SirLurksAlot
SirLurksAlot writes: According to an article on Ars Technica, Warner Music, Universal, and EMI (leaving Sony BMG as the last major holdout) will now be offering their entire music catalogs on Amazon completely DRM-free This move positions Amazon to be a major competitor for iTunes, and could spell the beginning of the end for DRM altogether.
Real Time Strategy (Games)

Submission + - The Secret to Winning at Rock, Paper, Scissors 1

Submitted by
Time Slows Down
Time Slows Down writes: "While most people are aware that rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper and paper covers stone, there is a psychological element to the game which many players may have missed. Recent research shows that rock is the most popular of the three possible moves in the game. That means that your opponent is likely to choose paper, because they will expect to you to start the game with stone so by going with scissors, you achieve an early victory. The scissors strategy has proven very successful in the past — in 2005 it secured auction house Christie's a £10 million deal. Rock, paper, scissors is also found in nature. A team of biologists described the curious mating strategies of a species of European lizard where some male lizards (call their type "rock") use force, invade the territory of fellow males to mate with females, others ("paper") favor deception, waiting until females are unguarded and sneaking in, and others ("scissors") work by cooperation, joining together to protect one another's females. Scientists speculate that such games may also describe human behavior in the corporate world, where strategies of force (takeovers), deception (fraud) and cooperation (mergers) also seem to supplant one another in an endless loop."
The Courts

Submission + - NYCL Needs Help Debunking the RIAA's "Expert&# (groklaw.net)

Submitted by
Groklaw Reader
Groklaw Reader writes: "The RIAA member companies have fired back after the last time we helped debunk their expert witness, they've filed a supplemental report. In it, Doug Jacobson explains how he's still sure that Marie Lindor is a filthy pirate because she and others use email and once plugged a 100 GB USB drive into the computer and didn't give it to the RIAA, even though there's no trace of Kazaa on the machine. NYCL needs our help again so as to figure out how best to pick this apart just in case her jurors have never used the internet. After all, such jurors might be confused about how Dr. Jacobson can follow the process outlined by the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists to perform a forensic investigation on a piece of paper with an IP address on it generated by a MediaSentry computer he previously testified he knew nothing about."
Privacy

Submission + - Connecticut enacts opt-out personal info law (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "The State of Connecticut wants to bring the consumer-pleasing goodness of the federal Do Not Call registry to other forms of data. Governor Jodi Rell announced this week that she plans to offer a state-wide opt-out service that Connecticut residents can use to keep personal information from being aggregated and acted upon by online data brokers.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071227-connecticut-governor-plans-opt-out-system-for-personal-info.html"
Math

Submission + - Should Wikipedia Allow Mathematical Proofs? (wikipedia.org) 4

Submitted by
Beetle B.
Beetle B. writes: "An argument has arisen over whether Wikipedia should allow pages that provide proofs for mathematical theorems (such as this one).

On the one hand, Wikipedia is a useful source of information and people can benefit from these proofs. On the other hand, how does one choose which proofs to include and which not to? Should Wikipedia just become a textbook that teaches mathematics? Should it just state the bare results of theorems and not provide proofs (except as external links)? Or should they take an intermediate approach and formulate a criterion for which proofs to include and which to exclude?"
Security

Submission + - Penn student at center of worldwide hacking invest (philly.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: When a suspicious computer server crash at the University of Pennsylvania last year denied service to 4,000 students, faculty and staff, technicians called the FBI — triggering a case that would take agents around the world and lead to the arrest of a brilliant but brash Penn junior. Ryan Goldstein, a 20-year-old bioengineering major, conspired with a New Zealand hacker known as AKILL to use Penn's computer system as a staging ground for a 50,000-computer attack against several online chat networks, authorities said. The FBI and Secret Service are expected to announce indictments today against Goldstein, a Florida man, and three others. Police recently executed related raids in New Zealand, Florida, California and Pennsylvania. The latest came Tuesday near Philadelphia. An FBI agent from the region is in New Zealand this week, and more arrests are possible. "We've been executing search warrants all over the world in this case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy. View article for more.
United States

Submission + - Senate Bill 1959 to Create Thoughtcrime (newstarget.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It's a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent." Source: http://www.newstarget.com/022308.html

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