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Government

Submission + - SourceForge Clarifies Denial of Site Access (ow.ly)

Submitted by
ScuttleMonkey
ScuttleMonkey writes: "Recently there were some complaints from certain users outside the U.S. stating that they were no longer able to access SourceForge.net. SF.net (who shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) has outlined the reasons for these bans and until someone with sufficient power to alter U.S. law or the lists governing who is allowed to access what data from where, there is unlikely to be a change in these bans. It is worth noting that SF.net is not alone in these difficulties as the same problems have been reported from other repositories like Google Code. "As one of the first companies to promote the adoption and distribution of free and open source software, and one that still puts open source at the center of its corporate ideals, restrictions on the free flow of information rub us the wrong way. However, in addition to participating in the open source community, we also live in the real world, and are governed by the laws of the country in which we are located. Our need to follow those laws supersedes any wishes we might have to make our community as inclusive as possible. The possible penalties for violating these restrictions include fines and imprisonment. Other hosting companies based in the US have similar legal and technical restrictions in place.""
Patents

Amazon 1-Click Lawyers Make USPTO Work Xmas Eve 117

Posted by timothy from the hey-those-guys-are-there-by-choice dept.
theodp writes "In a move that would do pre-makeover Ebenezer proud, Amazon.com's 1-Click lawyers put the USPTO to work on Christmas Eve. On Dec. 24th, the USPTO acknowledged receipt of yet another round of paperwork submitted by Amazon's high-priced legal muscle, the latest salvo in Amazon's 3-year battle to fend off a patent reexamination triggered by the do-it-yourself legal effort of actor Peter Calveley. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click patent is also under attack on another front — on Dec. 23rd, the USPTO received $810 from Amazon's attorneys together with a request that the agency invalidate Patent Examiner Mark A. Fadok's final rejection of 1-Click patent claims on the grounds of obviousness. On the bright side, patent clerks — unlike Bob Cratchit — get the day after Christmas off!"
Media

Last Major Supplier Calls It Quits For VHS 308

Posted by timothy from the one-death-after-another dept.
thefickler writes "The last major supplier of VHS videotapes is ditching the format in favor of DVD, effectively killing the format for good. This uncharitable commentator has this to say: 'Will VHS be missed? Not ... with videos being brittle, clunky, and rather user-unfriendly. But they ushered in a new era that was important to get to where we are today. And for that reason, the death of VHS is rather sad. Almost as sad as the people still using it.'" At least my dad's got the blank-tape market cornered.
United States

DHS To Grab Biometric Data From Green Card Holders 248

Posted by Soulskill from the imports-with-documentation dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Nextgov: "The Homeland Security Department has announced plans to expand its biometric data collection program to include foreign permanent residents and refugees. Almost all noncitizens will be required to provide digital fingerprints and a photograph upon entry into the United States as of Jan. 18. A notice (PDF) in Friday's Federal Register said expansion of the US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (US VISIT) will include 'nearly all aliens,' except Canadian citizens on brief visits. Those categories include permanent residents with green cards, individuals seeking to enter on immigrant visas, and potential refugees. The US VISIT program was developed after the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks to collect fingerprints from foreign visitors and run them against the FBI's terrorist watch list and other criminal databases. Another phase of the project, to develop an exit system to track foreign nationals leaving the country, has run into repeated setbacks." Reader MirrororriM points out other DHS news that they're thinking about monitoring blogs for information on terrorists.
Security

How Do You Monitor Documents? 237

Posted by samzenpus from the protect-yourself-at-all-times dept.
JumpDrive writes "I have been presented with a problem recently, which I know others have probably faced. During the last month, one of our customers accused us of providing another customer with their specification. So the question arose: how do we, or can we trace documents and find if they are being opened or used somewhere where they weren't intended. We don't want to be restrictive, because at times, we have people all over the place, but if one of our documents were opened in a foreign country, that would arouse suspicions. Most of our documents are made with MS office suite, and I have been thinking of working on a macro to ping a server, but that would require the user to enable the macros, and it would also require the insertion into about 1000 documents. But it's been difficult for me to find a solution that doesn't prevent someone in Omaha from opening a document for legitimate use and is not a solution that can easily be disabled or hacked around."
Games

The Role of Video Game Immersion 40

Posted by Soulskill from the what-do-you-mean-elves-can't-use-rocket-launchers dept.
GameSetWatch has a story questioning whether modern game developers are putting more effort into immersion than they should, sacrificing other aspects of the game that are more important for an entertaining experience. Quoting: "Look at popular Wii games, and at casual games. These are generally rules-emergent games, with no pretense of 'immersion.' Arguably, Nintendo chose not to compete in the technology-driven 'realism' field with the Wii, and most casual games are 2D, not 3D. The high numbers of buyers and players of these games suggests that a significant proportion of the audience — if not the majority — wants to play games, not immersive 'simulations.' Put another way, is the immersive simulation (Star Trek Holodeck, Matrix) only the desire of some of the hardcore fans? ... It seems there's a significant number of adults who want to play a video game for a while to relax, to have their attention diverted from ordinary life. They don't want to be immersed in some simulation, some dream-fulfillment — if nothing else, they don't have the time for it!"

Comment Re:Solaris to beat Linux (Score 1) 226

by stupido (#26185957) Attached to: Toshiba To OEM Laptops With OpenSolaris

Except perhaps for the "professional-looking message window" CUPS works the same way on Linux. On Fedora you get a Windows-style pop-up from the info area applet (I change it's default location on the panel, but the default should be familiar to Windows users). Hardly impressive or unique feature on Solaris.

Comment Re:Antec is the worst -- it depends (Score 1) 223

by stupido (#26172049) Attached to: Brand Names Take On Generics In PSU Showdown

I had a (350W?) PSU that came with the Sonata case (1st version), which made an annoying high-pitched noise with Radeon 9800 from the get go. It eventually started to exhibit instability after three years or so, and then would not even power off properly.

I also have a 430W Antec that comes with NSK 6500. This one is a Seasonic OEM (hat tip silentpcreview.com). No issues with this one in a couple of years of service.

So, like with other rebranded OEM products, it depends who built the PSU for Antec.

Comment silentpcreview.com nicely complements jonnyguru (Score 5, Informative) 223

by stupido (#26171913) Attached to: Brand Names Take On Generics In PSU Showdown

Yes, I agree that jonnyguru.com is the best review source for PSU stability (noise and transients are measured with oscilloscope and compared with ATX specs) and build quality (inside pics and commentary on components used). If you additionally care about the noise your PSU is making at various loads, silentpcreview.com has those measurements. I bought a couple of power supplies based on the review on to those two sites, and never had issues stability or noise wise.

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