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The Internet

Submission + - Report Says 36.4% of World's Computers Infringe? (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "According to a new report by Digital Music News, 36.4% of the world's computers have LimeWire installed. Given their claim that filling an iPod legally would cost about $40,000, they're pretty sure that most of those computers are infringing upon at least a few imaginary property rights. BitTorrent shouldn't feel left out, though. BitTorrent actually uses more bandwidth, but the article suggests that this is because it is used to share larger files, like movies."
Music

Submission + - Amazon MP3 Now Offers Warner Music DRM-free

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This makes Amazon's MP3 download store the first to offer DRM-free music from Warner Music and brings Amazon's library up to 2.9 million songs, all without restrictions. And Warner's catalog includes some of the most popular artists: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. http://www.techconsumer.com/2007/12/27/amazon-mp3-one-ups-apple-gets-warner-music-mp3s-drm-free/
Software

Submission + - Software Firewall for Windows? 2

Submitted by
Futurepower(R)
Futurepower(R) writes: "We have found that providing security is our biggest expense in using Windows, much more than the cost of buying Windows.

Can you recommend a software firewall for Windows? We need outbound leak protection. (Windows firewall does not provide leak protection.) When one program tries to use another, we need notification of the names and locations of both programs. We would like email notification of intrusion attempts.

We know about the Matousec firewall tests, but those are only leak tests.

Recent versions of the software firewall we have been using have been slowing some computers to a crawl, interfering with our backup software, randomly blocking our remote access software, and stealing focus when it does automatic updates at times that cannot be controlled. (We use a hardware firewall, too, of course, and limit user rights.)"
Portables (Games)

Submission + - Should Retailers Wipe Used Games and Consoles? 2

Submitted by
Draconum
Draconum writes: "For Christmas this year, one of my (much) younger cousins received a used copy of Nintendogs for the DS. However, the previous owner of the cartridge felt it prudent to name his pet dog a racial slur that is highly offensive and not printable on Slashdot. As well, the saved file was not yet at the point at which you can change game settings or erase the save, so erasing it would mean my cousin (or at least someone else) would have had to play through the game's introductory section, all the while being exposed to that highly offensive term.

My aunt, who purchased the cartridge for her, was outraged and felt that the retailer should take responsibility for this. My question is, then, do you think it's reasonable for retailers to be required to factory-reset game cartridges that could possibly contain highly offensive user-created content? (This is not as simple as it seems, though, as many games make it difficult or impossible to do this effectively.) Note that I'm not questioning whether or not they should accept a return, but whether or not they should responsible for literally erasing the saved files before reselling them.

It occurs to me that, additionally, as consoles (Wii, Xbox360, and PS3 included) are starting to allow storage of vast amounts of content within the console itself, on hard drives or flash memory, should retailers wipe those as well? (As far fetched as it seems — or not — think pornographic images, offensive text, etc.)"
Biotech

Submission + - Larger human brain led to larger penis (pressesc.com) 2

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "The human penis is comparatively larger than that of the other great apes because of our comparatively larger brains, gynecologist Edwin A. Bowman explains in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Through millions of years evolution the infant babies' skulls became larger in order to accommodate bigger brains, explained Dr. Bowman. This in turn led to a female pelvis become larger to allow women to give birth to children with larger brains, and this led to the female vagina also becoming less tight."
Windows

Submission + - Windows Home Server corrupts files (computerworld.com)

Submitted by
crustymonkey
crustymonkey writes: "From the article:

Microsoft Corp. has warned Windows Home Server users not to edit files stored on their backup systems with several of its programs, including Vista Photo Gallery and Office's OneNote and Outlook, as well as files generated by popular finance software such as Quicken and QuickBooks.
Don't back up you files to Windows Home Server as recommended by Microsoft themselves according to this article. I'm not exactly what the point is in having a home server if you can't backup files on it."
Security

Submission + - AVG Anti-Virus to Users: Pray for mercy, infidels! (grisoft.com) 1

Submitted by Lincoln6Echo
Lincoln6Echo writes: I've been using and reselling AVG products for a few years now. Lately they appear to have begun a campaign to "be more corporate". I'd like to add my two cents towards their new corporate image and to user's impression of non-compromised AVG updates: remove the page that says "Pray for mercy, infidels!" from your SSL protected website. I found it when I made a mistake logging into the resellers console at https://biz.grisoft.cz/ (not https://biz.grisoft.com/) which is supposed to now redirect you to https://secure.grisoft.com.
The Courts

Submission + - DMCA subpoenas used to protect Internet security (informationweek.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Many on Slashdot accuse music and movie companies of violating privacy and legal rights when they send DMCA subpoenas, and generally excoriate the DMCA subpoena process. Will they similarly condemn AVG for sending DMCA subpoenas to search engines and domain registrars in order to discover the identity of sellers of counterfeit antivirus software? Is there a difference?
The Courts

Submission + - Has RIAA expert Jacobson contradicted himself? (blogspot.com) 1

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "A year and five months after examining the defendant's hard drive in UMG v. Lindor, the RIAA's "expert" witness, Dr. Doug Jacobson, has issued a "supplemental report" which appears to contradict his earlier "reports" alluding to the hard drive inspection. In view of the superb job the Slashdot community and the Groklaw community did in helping first to prepare for, and then to vet, Jacobson's deposition, I humbly submit for your learned review the now three (3) versions of the "expert's" opinions based on the hard drive, for your analysis. As with almost all federal litigation documents nowadays, they are, unfortunately, in *pdf format: (a) December 19, 2006, declaration; (b) unsigned October 25, 2006, report, awaiting approval from RIAA lawyers; and (c) December 15, 2007, version. The initial observations of commentators on my blog are located here."
Space

Submission + - The Green Side of the Moon (popsci.com)

Submitted by lashane
lashane writes: Scientists design a self-sustaining lunar habitat that would make Al Gore proud. Equipped with everything from gardens to studio apartments, Luna Gaia, a habitat designed by an international team of scientists, engineers and graduate students, provides up to a dozen astronauts with fresh vegetables, fish, spacious rooms and clean drinking water (albeit recycled from their own urine). In the past year, the team has presented the plan to several space programs, including NASA, which may incorporate ideas from Luna Gaia into its own lunar outpost, planned for sometime after 2020. "It's a really good stepping- stone toward designing an outpost on the moon," says William Marshall, a physicist at NASA's Ames Research Center. The article includes an interactive infographic of the base.
Games

Games That Could Have Been 99

Posted by Zonk from the sparks-in-their-creators-eyes dept.
Gamespot, to accompany a piece on the art of pitching a game has up a companion article on a few good pitches from talented developers that never quite made it into games. My favorite of the three, from Will Wright: "I've always been fascinated with airships, and I wanted to do a game about the Hindenburg. And it was originally conceived as a cross between Myst and a flight simulator, if you can imagine that. You basically wake up on the Hindenburg. You're all alone. It's flying toward Lakehurst, New Jersey. You can walk anywhere on the ship. You can turn lights on and off. You can steer. You can adjust the engines. But every time you come into Lakehurst, it blows up. And you have to figure out why, and it becomes like this weird mystery flight simulator thing. I'd still love to do that."
Space

Submission + - Universe running out of time (telegraph.co.uk)

Submitted by RenHoek
RenHoek writes: With heat death, the big crunch and quite a few other nasty ways in which the universe could see its demise, we can now add "running out of time" to the list. A team of scientists came up with a new theory that would solve the problem of the elusive dark energy that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe. They figure that the universe is not speeding up but we are, in relation to the outer regions of space, slowing down. Tests with the upcoming Large Hadron Collider will give more insight if we're going to end up frozen in time.
The Internet

Submission + - Porn Industry to Take on BitTorrent Sites

Submitted by Brave Anonymous
Brave Anonymous writes: Porn industry representatives gathered at an anti-piracy conference last week to discuss solutions to the ever growing amount of pirated porn that's traded on BitTorrent sites and other P2P-networks. "Piracy is becoming a serious problem for the adult industry. It is estimated that 5% of all files being shared on public BitTorrent trackers are adult content, and most of these files are copyrighted. The adult industry representatives that took part in the three hour anti-piracy session estimated that they lose approximately $2 billion a year thanks to piracy, about 4% of their total income worldwide. Several countermeasures were discussed during the meeting. One of the suggestions was to create an MPAA/RIAA equivalent for the adult industry that helps to track down pirates and pursue legal action. http://torrentfreak.com/porn-industry-to-take-on-bittorrent-sites-070910/
The Internet

Submission + - Porn Industry to Take on BitTorrent Sites (torrentfreak.com) 2

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Porn industry representatives gathered at an anti-piracy conference last week to discuss solutions to the ever growing amount of pirated porn that's traded on BitTorrent sites and other P2P-networks.
"Piracy is becoming a serious problem for the adult industry. It is estimated that 5% of all files being shared on public BitTorrent trackers are adult content, and most of these files are copyrighted. In an attempt to stop these sites from spreading their content the porn industry organized an anti-piracy conference."

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