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Australian Politician Caught Viewing Porn 150

destinyland writes "An Australian Parliament member has resigned after admitting he'd used government computers to access porn and gambling sites. McLeay 'gave an uncomfortable press conference outside Parliament House,' notes one technology site, 'during which he admitted he had acted in a standard not expected of cabinet ministers.' Paul McLeay was also the Minister for Mineral and Forest Resources as well as the Minister for Ports and Waterways. In resigning, he apologized to his constituents and parliamentary colleagues, as well as to his wife and family."
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Frustrated Reporter Quits After Slow News Day 178

Norwegian radio journalist Pia Beathe Pedersen quit on the air complaining that her bosses were making her read news on a day when "nothing important has happened." Pedersen claimed that broadcaster NRK put too much pressure on the staff and that she "wanted to be able to eat properly again and be able to breathe," during her nearly two-minute on-air resignation.

Comment What aboout Avidemux? (Score 3, Interesting) 120

Avidemux always seemed like a natural partner to VLC to me. Based off the same FFMPEG code, QT or GTK interfaces, straightforward design, and despite the name it can do many file types. It's excellent for simple cut and paste editing, very much a Linux equivalent of Virtualdub. Why do so many free software projects try to reinvent the wheel rather reuse and improve on the code that is out there? I always thought that was the point of free software.

Debian

FreeNAS Switching From FreeBSD To Debian Linux 206

dnaumov writes "FreeNAS, a popular, free NAS solution, is moving away from using FreeBSD as its underlying core OS and switching to Debian Linux. Version 0.8 of FreeNAS as well as all further releases are going to be based on Linux, while the FreeBSD-based 0.7 branch of FreeNAS is going into maintenance-only mode, according to main developer Volker Theile. A discussion about the switch, including comments from the developers, can be found on the FreeNAS SourceForge discussion forum. Some users applaud the change, which promises improved hardware compatibility, while others voice concerns regarding the future of their existing setups and lack of ZFS support in Linux."
Space

Herschel Spectroscopy of Future Supernova 21

davecl writes "ESA's Herschel Space Telescope has released its first spectroscopic results. These include observations of VYCMa, a star 50 times as massive as the sun and soon to become a supernova, as well as a nearby galaxy, more distant colliding starburst galaxies and a comet in our own solar system. The spectra show more lines than have ever been seen in these objects in the far-infrared and will allow astronomers to work out the detailed chemistry and physics behind star and planet formation as well as the last stages of stellar evolution before VYCMa's eventual collapse into a supernova. More coverage is available at the Herschel Mission Blog, which I run."

Comment Re:splitting hairs (Score 5, Informative) 245

The UK DPA also requires that he have a legitimate reason to hold this data in the first place, which would be either a direct customer relationship, or a third party one like a credit reference agency (where the customer gives permission for the third party data-sharing as part of their credit applications). It also requires that he hold it for no longer than strictly necessary for the purposes of said business relationship. The law in question thankfully makes this an explicitly opt-in thing, outside of government no-one can legally collect your data without your permission and then require you to opt out.

Comment Re:It's so very odd..... (Score 1) 1376

the agnostic treats arbitrary claims as meriting cognitive consideration and epistemological respect. He treats the arbitrary as on a par with the rational and evidentially supported.

Bullshit. Being Agnostic does not mean you treat all ideas as worthy of equal consideration. I'm agnostic, but readily acknowledge that every religion I have ever been exposed to is utter nonsense.

The difference between an Agnostic and an Atheist is that the Agnostic remains open to new ideas, whilst the Atheist treats the absence of evidence to support the existence of any sort of God / supernatural power as proof of the opposite. The problem is, lack of proof does not equate to proof of absence. I'll readily concede that there is plenty enough evidence to discredit the fairy-tales told by the major religions, but beyond that you're into the unknown.

Comment Re:Privacy? Huh? (Score 1) 574

Throughout your little anecdote, there's one thing you neglected to point out: she was a free actor who made her own choices.

I neglected to point it out because it both goes without saying, and is only part of the story.

Ok...

Does that mean it's okay to intentionally coerce her into doing something she doesn't want to do

Make your mind up. Was she a free actor, or was she coerced?

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