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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 113 declined, 9 accepted (122 total, 7.38% accepted)

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Media

Submission + - Asutralian Copyright Review Closes soon

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/22/2144069.htm
"The [Australian] Federal Government is seeking submissions on a review released today into photo and film copying law.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the review is a part of the Government's commitment to open and public consultation in achieving fair and effective copyright law."

Closing Date for Submissions is 29 February 2008
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Copyright_IssuesandReviews_Copyingphotosandfilmsforprivateuse
"The Government is reviewing the operation of two new copyright exceptions that permit 'format shifting'. These exceptions are sections 47J and 110AA of the Copyright Act 1968 which permit photographs and cinematograph films to be reproduced in a different format for private use, subject to certain conditions."
The issues paper is available at the AG's link above (.doc or .pdf format).
From the issues paper:
Issue 5: Should section 110AA be changed to permit additional copying
"(a) Under what additional circumstances should section 110AA
permit a copy to be made of a cinematograph film for private
and domestic use?
(b) What are the kinds and sources of films that are likely to be
reproduced under any proposed changes?
(c) To what extent are films likely to be reproduced under any
proposed changes subject to TPMs (such as anti-copy
measures) to block unlicensed copying?"

Whinge now or forever hold your peace."
Slashback

Submission + - Polls

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Slashdot polls should be replaced after
1) 50,000 votes
2) 60,000 votes
3) 70,000 votes
4) after CowboyNeal votes"
Security

Submission + - What MS Engineers are working on right now

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Original source as best I can find
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com.au/topics/article.asp?DocID=6100986
"security researcher Beau Butler showed us how Microsoft's completely half-arsed fix of a known issue — problems with Windows Proxy Autodiscovery — could be used by the more evil among us to seize control of vast numbers of workstation"
"You'll be hearing more on this, but in the mean time it would make sense to configure a wpad server in your organisation to stop Microsoft's silly software from seeking proxy configuration files from evil hackers outside your organisation."

http://business.theage.com.au/flaw-leaves-microsoft-looking-like-a-turkey/20071123-1cfu.html
"The software giant confirmed the issue was serious and asked The Age not to publish the details over fears they could be used by cyber criminals to seize control of workstations.

Microsoft's engineers in Australia and the US scrambled to replicate and confirm the issue, with the security team working over this week's Thanksgiving holiday to begin work on a fix."

"The problem affects all versions of Windows, including the company's most recent release, Vista software. However, it does not affect every Windows computer, Mr Stathakopoulos said. It depends on how it is configured.

Mr Butler said he tried to alert Microsoft to the problem by email before going public with his research. "I didn't get any reply — I assumed they were aware of the issue," he said.""
Censorship

Submission + - Censorship

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "What should be censored first?
1) GWB
2) government disinformation
3) real news (we don't want to know how bad it is)
4) Cowboy Neal"
Privacy

Submission + - Do you have any idea who last looked at your data?

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Or why the NSA is overspending.

"What these situations have in common is that a corporation was a ready source of data. And as search engines and social networks collect more and more user data for business purposes, governments will find that data more and more useful for their investigatory purposes.

Further, as a person's stored data profile grows to include items such as group memberships, purchases and a list of friends, it forms a very tempting target for governments to try to mine for suspected criminal contacts. This concept is of course not new, with traffic analysis (of phone calls or data) being an ancient intelligence technique. But corporations are now essentially volunteering to collect all the information, put it in a readily searchable package and then perform all the analytical work. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/nov/15/comment

Yes yahoo and friends are doing it for advertising and the governments are subverting it. But honestly, wouldn't at least some of the NSA dollars on collecting everything and doing it themselves be better spent getting people to sign up to social networking sites and let the users incriminate themselves?

"Search engine companies are understandably reluctant to confront these issues. They make predictable statements about needing to obey local laws and the benefits of their products"

"We cannot expect that having large warehouses of data on individuals will be free from unintended consequences, especially when there are incentives to try to build highly detailed models of everyone's lives. The price of total personalisation is total surveillance."

Article authors blog here:
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001280.html"
Microsoft

Submission + - ECMAScript4 - problems

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: ""Open letter to Chris Wilson
Chris,

You seem to be repeating falsehoods in blogs since the Proposed ECMAScript 4th Edition Language Overview was published, claiming dissenters including Microsoft were ignored by me, or "shouted down" by the majority, in the ECMAScript standardization group."

http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/archives/2007/10/open_letter_to_chris_wilson.html
"
Now that the proposed 4th edition looks like a competitive threat, the world suddenly hears in detail about all those bugs, spun as differences afflicting "JavaScript" that should inform a new standard.

Sorry, but most of those JScript deviations are not candidate de facto standards — they are just your bugs to fix. They should not stall ES4 for one second
"
"Since then, the sub-group has failed to present a coherent proposal — JScript informative documents are not proposals — and my next report to Ecma will have to say so plainly.
"
All you web developers looking forward to improved js — have been screwed over by your favorite monopoly and friends.

For those who like detail — the original article has lots of links to the detail"
Patents

Submission + - Redhat sued for Patent Infringement

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071011205044141
"The first ever patent infringement litigation regarding Linux. Here's the patent, for those who can look at it without risk. If in doubt, don't. "
For those who can without fear read a patent:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=3tUkAAAAEBAJ&dq=5,072,412

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/202417-recent-copyrightpatent-infringement-cases-filed-in-u.s.-district-courts

"Plaintiffs IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. claim to have the rights to U.S. Patent No. 5,072,412 for a User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects issued Dec. 10, 1991 along with two other similar patents.
"

Get your game faces on. Party Time."
Security

Submission + - NSA special

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "From The Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/28/nsa_hacker_malware_defense_project/

"The ultra-secretive US spy agency supplied network testing firm Iometrix with eight worms as part of its plans to develop what it describes as the industry's first Zero-day Attack Test Platform"

Do you even know what to look for?

"Zero-day Attack Test Platform detected both of the samples of malicious code developed by the hacker, but only three of the eight malware samples supplied by the NSA. ""
Links

Submission + - Flaming For Fun & Profit

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "What do you do for attention when your revenue model is dying? Flame the enemy.

Britannica flames Web 2.0 for profit.

How stodgy are they — they haven't even twigged they should be flaming Web 3.0 instead.

A summary from The Guardian Tech section -

"Has Britannica co-opted blogging or has it been corrupted by it?"

"
Read me first
Has Britannica co-opted blogging or has it been corrupted by it?

Seth Finkelstein
Thursday July 12, 2007
The Guardian
"
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That's what the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica apparently decided to do in a series of blog posts beginning last October with the mission of engaging web evangelists. It would rebut the claims that its values were obsolete and defend its honour on the internet." ...
Ultimately, it remained unclear whether Britannica had co-opted blogging or had been corrupted by it. One of the tragedies of substituting popularity for authority is that even critiques must then favour the bombastic over the thoughtful to be heard."

The authors blog is here:
sethf.com/infothought/blog
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/mt-comments.cgi? entry_id=1227"
Mozilla

Submission + - Planned Firefox Support changes - input wanted

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Mozilla is planning a major change to how Firefox (and Firefox only) is supported

http://wiki.mozilla.org/Support:Overview
"To date, Mozilla community volunteers have provided user support for Firefox that has met and exceeded the needs of the technology users and the early adopters of Firefox. As Firefox's market share grows beyond early adopters, our user support needs to evolve. This Firefox Support Working Group has spent the last month doing research and community outreach (see below for details) on how Mozilla should evolve user support through a community based approach."

http://wiki.mozilla.org/images/9/98/Firefox-Suppor t-Mock-Homepa.png
http://wiki.mozilla.org/images/8/8d/Firefox_Suppor t_Work_Flow.png
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Support:PRD

What is to become of mozillazine?
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.pla nning/browse_thread/thread/ff3a4aa6c0e678f6/3eab18 1c18628574#3eab181c18628574

"
We should define what its role will be. Based on previous discussions,
this is my best guess:

-Firefox support KB content will be moved to sumo (the old articles
will have a redirect to the new)
-Sumo will take over the forum for Firefox Support. The Firefox
Support forum at mozillaZine will be closed. Other Firefox discussion
and non-Firefox discussion and support will remain at mozillaZine.
-Sumo will be the preferred support avenue for Firefox. The support
avenues for other products will remain unchanged.
-mozillaZine blogs and IRC will not be affected.
"

All this is currently proposed, under discussion and subject to change.

But if you have a view — you might want to get it heard before too long.

http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.pla nning"
Google

Submission + - Google And Privacy - what is to be done

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "EU beats on google.

Google whimpers and says sorry we will fix it.

But that is only the start. You didn't think the problem is now solved and has gone away — did you?

"Is Google just the tip of the iceberg of concerns about online privacy? "
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/opinion/story/0,, 2107262,00.html ...
"But arguing over whether discussion should focus on the worst offender, versus a general industry indictment, can be a distraction from the need to implement privacy protections which cannot be easily ignored."

http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/archives/001218. html
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/mt-comments.cgi? entry_id=1218"
Media

Submission + - Blogs won't change the world

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "Blogs won't change the world.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2 091220,00.html
"It's not that nobody at all had a voice, but that the standard institutional power structures asserted themselves. ...
And blogs are no solution. Contrary to blog evangelism, blogging can sometimes even be detrimental in terms of building influence."

From the article's author blog:
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
"The more you want to do, the higher up on the curve you have to be, and it's a very hard climb. Of course, if you don't want to do anything, you won't care where you are along it.""
Announcements

Submission + - Mars - holes in surface discovered

Submitted by
tqft
tqft writes: "http://www.universetoday.com/2007/05/25/dark-caver ns-discovered-on-mars/
"
See that dark spot in the middle of the picture? It seems to be a hole, in an otherwise smooth landscape of lava. It isn't an impact crater because it lacks a raised rim or ejecta. Light from the Sun must be getting down there, but it's so deep that none of it is bouncing back out. It's just a dark hole."

Pic:http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/upload s/2007/05/2007-0525cavern.thumbnail.jpg

More here:
http://planetary.org/blog/article/00000984

Entrance to Podkayne's Bar & Grill? Collapse in a lava tunnel? Missile Bay door opened?"

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