AZhun - Slashdot User

Submission + - No RealID? You'll Need a Passport (cnn.com)

Submitted by mmurphy000 on Thursday August 16, 2007 @02:47PM

mmurphy000 writes: According to CNN:

Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act.

Note that these are the same passports which are already shipping with RFID tags.

Submission + - Is Wikipedia Corrupt? (digg.com)

Submitted by

on Thursday August 16, 2007 @02:40PM

An anonymous reader writes: Almost a year ago, Wikipedia was forced to admit corruption among its volunteer administrator team when it became known that Wikipedia administrator Essjay (Ryan Jordan), had falsified his credentials online, and to the New Yorker magazine (after which he'd been hired by Jimbo Wales, who had full knowledge of the falsifications). This caused a public outcry resulting in Wales request for Jordan's resignation.

Today, new allegations of rampant Wikipedia administrator abuse have become prominent. Longtime Wikipedia administrator, Durova, one of Wikipedia's most abusive administrators has been identified as having taken a Wikipedia dispute case off-wiki, by relating false allegations of alleged editor misconduct to AP journalist Brian Bergstein. Durova is known for her recent submissions to SEO websites and other publications, exhorting them to join Wikipedia, and to seek non-legal remedies to libel on Wikipedia. Her suggestions caused an outcry from persons she'd damaged in her own right. Ross Dunn provides a report from the sidelines. Caveat Wikipedian.

Submission + - RIAA Defendant Cross-Sues Kazaa and AOL

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Thursday August 16, 2007 @02:37PM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "In what appears to be a first, RIAA defendant Michelle Santangelo, the 20-year old daughter of Patti Santangelo, has made a motion for leave to serve a third party complaint against Kazaa and AOL, as well as against someone who installed Kazaa software, in Elektra v. Santangelo II. Her proposed third-party complaint (pdf) alleges that any injuries plaintiffs might have sustained were the result of the third party defendants' "negligence and breaches... in the defective design of Sharman Network's program, "Kazaa" which was a dangerous instrumentality in its each and every use as it existed in 2002-2004; the trespassing and reckless installation by Matthew Seckler [the person who allegedly installed the software without authorization] of such program; the failure to warn by AOL and Sharman; the failure to block the downloading of such files by AOL; the improper blocking of alleged (RIAA) warning messages by AOL and Sharman; and, the secretive file sharing system of and by Kazaa.""

Submission + - 9th Circuit Very Skeptical of NSA Surveillance (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by iluvcapra on Thursday August 16, 2007 @01:18PM

iluvcapra writes: Yesterday before a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, the US government argued that two class action lawsuits against the government and AT&T should be dismissed, because to litigate them in open court would cause the revelation of state secrets. The lawsuits allege that the government has installed a vast system of electronic surveillance gear at internet gateways along the US west coast to monitor all internet traffic, and that this information is monitored without a warrant, even when both endpoints are domestic. The panel was extremely skeptical of the governments argument:

"Is it the government's position that when the country is engaged in a war, that the power of the executive when it comes to wiretapping is unchecked?" asked 83-year-old Judge Harry Pregerson, one of the court's staunchest liberals, of a Bush administration lawyer. "The king can do no wrong, is that what it comes down to?"

The government was unwilling to even provide a sworn affadavit that the eavesdropping was only of foreign correspondence. If the 9th Circuit allows the lawsuits to proceed, the government will appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Anti-Bacterial Soap No Better Than Plain Soap 479

Posted by kdawson on Thursday August 16, 2007 @11:38AM from the hand-held-mutation-experiments dept.

eldavojohn writes to advise us to stop buying antibacterial soap, as it's no more effective than the regular stuff. And, using it introduces a risk of mutation of bacteria. From the article: "The team looked at 27 studies conducted between 1980 and 2006, and found that soaps containing triclosan within the range of concentrations commonly used in the community setting (0.1 to 0.45 percent wt./vol.) were no more effective than plain soaps. Triclosan is used in higher concentrations in hospitals and other clinical settings, and may be more effective at reducing illness and bacteria. Triclosan works by targeting a biochemical pathway in the bacteria that allows the bacteria to keep its cell wall intact. Because of the way triclosan kills the bacteria, mutations can happen at the targeted site... a mutation could mean that the triclosan can no longer get to the target site to kill the bacteria because the bacteria and the pathway have changed form."

Foster Demands RIAA Post $210K Security For Fees 198

Posted by kdawson on Thursday August 16, 2007 @10:11AM from the just-in-case dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A few days ago it was reported that, in view of the RIAA's one-month delay in paying the $68,685.00 attorneys fee award in Capitol v. Foster, and its lawyers' failure to respond to Ms. Foster's lawyer's email, Ms. Foster filed a motion for entry of judgment so that she could go ahead with judgment enforcement proceedings. In response to that motion the RIAA submitted a statement that it had no objection to entry of judgment, and intimated that it thought there would be an automatic stay on enforcement of the judgment, and that it would ultimately file an appeal. After seeing that, Ms. Foster's lawyer has filed a motion for the Court to require the RIAA to post $210,000 in security to cover the past and future attorneys' fees and costs that are expected to be incurred."

Submission + - Travelocity Fined $182K for Allowing Trips to Cuba

Submitted by

NewYorkCountryLawyer

on Thursday August 16, 2007 @09:44AM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "For the first time, an online travel agency has been fined for booking trips between the U.S. and Cuba, in violation of a United States embargo. Travelocity paid federal regulators $182,750 this month to settle a complaint brought by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which said the company violated the prohibition nearly 1,500 times between January 1998 and April 2004. The complaint alleged that Travelocity "provided travel-related services in which Cuba or Cuban nationals had an interest by arranging air travel and hotel reservations to, from, with or within Cuba without an OFAC license.""

Submission + - Richard Stallman, philosopher for our generation? (tuxdeluxe.org)

Submitted by on Thursday August 16, 2007 @04:47AM

An anonymous reader writes: In the introduction to 'Free Software, Free Society', a collection of Richard Stallman's essays and lectures, published by the GNU press, Lawrence Lessig declares that "Every generation has its philosopher — a writer or artist who captures the imagination of a time. Sometimes these philosophers are recognized as such; often it takes generations before the connection is made real. But recognized or not, a time gets marked by the people who speak its ideals, whether in the whisper of a poem, or the blast of a political movement. Our generation has a philosopher. He is not an artist, or a professional writer. He is a programmer." That philosopher is Stallman. Discuss.

Submission + - Comcast Caches Web Pages 1

Submitted by

not-admin

on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @04:49PM

not-admin writes: "A little over five years ago, Comcast received some major consumer backlash for their policy of caching web pages that users requested, along with the IP address of the requesting user. It appears now that this policy has been reinstated, at least for personal customers. While this does make practical sense for an ISP, it is unpractical in many cases where site content is generated on-demand. In situations like that a cache can cause problems, making a site cumbersome or even useless. In the evolving "Web 2.0" world of today, is caching a practical solution for ISPs or just another hassle for the consumer?"

Submission + - Your cell phone number is no longer unlisted (wisebread.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14, 2007 @12:52AM

An anonymous reader writes: According to the Seattle Times, a locally-owned company named Intelius is putting together a cell phone directory that is supposed to be accurate. It costs $15 to search for an individual's cell phone number. That's right — for $15, your cell number can be given out to anyone. You might not have heard of Intelius before, but they are one of those companies that touts their services in background checks. You may have seen ads or received spam emails warning you to do a background check on your date? That's Intelius. They also purchased a small company that does a lot of background check work for employers.

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