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Submission + - Yahoo provided Iran with names of 200,000

Submitted by rcamans
rcamans writes: October 8th, 2009
"ZDnet's Richard Koman accuses Yahoo of having collaborated with the Iranian regime during the recent post-election protests. Koman says the online giant provided names and emails for some 200,000 Iranian Yahoo users to authorities so that those same authorities would "unban" Yahoo on the state-controlled internet. The blog post does not include a response by Yahoo to the allegations, but promises "to provide further proof as the story unfolds." Snip:
This is according to a post on the Iranian Students Solidarity (Farsi) blog. My sources indicate the information comes from a group of resisters who have infiltrated the administration and are leaking out important information. These sources say that Yahoo representatives met with Iranian Internet authorities after Google and Yahoo were shut down during the protests and agreed to provide the names of Yahoo subscribers who also have blogs in exchange for the government lifting the blocks on Yahoo." This quote from ZDNET @ http://government.zdnet.com/?p=5547.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/09/yahoo-accused-of-hav.html#more

Yahoo has not yet responded to these claims, and they are not substantiated. Can anyone out there help substantiate these?

Submission + - SPAM: A.I. Researcher Offers Singularity Survival Tips

Submitted by destinyland
destinyland writes: A.I. researcher Ben Goertzel reports back from the 2009 Singularity Summit in New York. Stephen Wolfram discussed Wolfram|Alpha, an IBM researcher described brain emulation, and Intel CTO Justin Rattner spoke "on his firm's potential role in the Singularity." But in this follow-up article, Ben Goertzel describes what he learned in a day-long workshop/discussion group on averting catastrophic outcomes: his list of "11 ways to avoid a bad Singularity." For example, tip #5 suggests that humanity should simply refrain from building any artificial intelligences that are autonomous...
Link to Original Source
Google

Submission + - SPAM: Bahama Botnet Stealing Traffic From Google

Submitted by itwbennett
itwbennett writes: 'As part of its design, the Bahama botnet not only turns ordinary, legitimate PCs into click-fraud perpetrators that dilute the effectiveness of ad campaigns. It also modifies the way these PCs locate certain Web sites through DNS poisoning,' explains Juan Carlos Perez in an ITworld article. 'In the case of Google.com, compromised machines take their users to a fake page hosted in Canada that looks just like the real Google page and even returns results for queries entered into its search box. It's not clear where the Canadian server gets these results. What is evident is that the results aren't "organic" direct links to their destinations but are instead masked cost-per-click (CPC) ads that get routed through other ad networks or parked domains, some of which are in on the scam and some of which aren't.' 'Regardless, CPC fees are generated, advertisers pay, and click fraud has occurred,' Click Forensics reported on Thursday in a blog posting.
Link to Original Source
Hardware

Submission + - QualcommFull-Color Passive Display that Does Video (wordpress.com)

Submitted by sixwings
sixwings writes: Passive display technologies rock. You're probably familiar with the Kindle's e-Ink passive display, but that's already ancient technology. The future of low-power displays is color video, something the Kindle can only dream of doing. Qualcomm, however, isn't just dreaming it, they're living it. The company's mirasol division was proudly showing off their latest mirasol display with nothing less than full-motion color video at 30 fps. Impressed? We were.

Submission + - French Prez Caught Violating His Own Copyright Law (ruwenzori.net)

Submitted by
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been caught violating someone's copyright again. This time, presidential services made 400 unauthorized copies of a DVD when only 50 had been made by the publisher. Mr. Sarkozy, of course, is the one pushing the HADOPI law, which would disconnect the internet service of an alleged pirate after three allegations of infringement. This isn't the first time he's been connected to copyright violations, either. His party had to pay some 30,000 Euro for using a song without authorization. If he were he subject to his own law, Mr. Sarkozy would be subject to having his internet disconnected the next time he pirates something."

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