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Comment Re:Rat Race (Score 2) 391

by Turn-X Alphonse (#27856147) Attached to: Phony Wikipedia Entry Used By Worldwide Press

As someone who is sitting here recovering from an operation I must strongly disagree with you. I met some damn incompetent people at the hospital and wouldn't of minded smacking them up side the head, but I also met some very good nurses and last time I checked my operation went well and that says my surgeon probably did his job pretty damn well.

We remember the incompetent far more than the competent, if people are doing their jobs well you will rarely hear about them but the moment they make 1 mistake there will be giant flashing billboards 3 inches from your nose. Not everyone is terrible at what they do, it's just if they do what they are meant to you will never have them stand out to you.
Censorship

Submission + - EU Commissioner Calls For Censorship Of Web Search (reuters.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: According to the Reuters, "Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday". Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security commissioner, "intend[s] to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism ..." So, how long before the tech companies in USA are being investigated for assisting the evil EU to curb free speech of their citizens? And what chances there are for the Europeans among us to kick Mr. Frattini out of his office before it's too late to even talk about it in the Internets?
Censorship

Submission + - Law students sue anonymous message board posters (wsj.com)

Submitted by
The Xoxo Reader
The Xoxo Reader writes: "The Wall Street Journal reports that two female students at Yale Law School have filed suit for defamation and infliction of emotional distress against an administrator and several anonymous posters (identified only by their pseudoynms) at the popular law student discussion board AutoAdmit (a.k.a. Xoxohth). One of the claims is that the posters have violated copyright laws by reposting pictures of the women without their permission. Since AutoAdmit's administrators have previously said that they do not retain IP logs of posters, it is unclear how the plaintiffs will ultimately be able to identify the actual people behind the pseudonyms named in the complaint. Apparently, one method was to post the summons on the message board itself and ask the posters to step forward. The controversy leading to this lawsuit was previously discussed on Slashdot here."
Software

Submission + - Bush names anti-open source lobbyist as counselor (pressesc.com)

Submitted by
Citizen Pain
Citizen Pain writes: "President Bush today appointed as his counselor a man who received $820,000 from Microsoft to lobby during negotiations over its antitrust settlement as well as to oppose the use, especially within the government, of "open source" systems such as Linux. Enron also paid him $700,000 in 2001 alone to lobby on the "California energy crisis" and thwart efforts to re-regulate the Western electricity market through price controls."
Intel

Submission + - Intel in graphics partnership with Nvidia?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel may get some help building its upcoming floating point accelerator Larrabee. Following some rumors earlier this month, which claimed that Intel and Nvidia will be trading technologies, TG Daily now says that it has received information that the two companies will be announcing a "graphics partnership". An acquisition of Nvidia is a bit unlikely right now, but if Intel has access to Nvidia GPU technology, what exactly does that mean for AMD/ATI? Looks like Intel is catching up with AMD's ideas much faster than we thought.
Businesses

Submission + - Computer Nerds being sued over Trademark

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: This Guy is trying to claim exclusive rights to use the term "Computer Nerds" " Computer Nerds® 3301 East Rancier #G101 Killeen, Texas 76543 (254) 690-6373 — Killeen Texas (850) 244-6373 — Fort Walton Beach Florida (239) 226-0014 — Fort Myers Florida (416) 630-6373 — Toronto Canada (866) 451-0588 — Fax www.computernerds.net www.690-nerd.com www.clickanerd.com www.livepcrepairtechs.com You are currently advertising a registered trademark Computer Nerds. (USPTO) You have not obtained our permission to utilize said mark. Please be advised that you are in violation of California, Texas and Federal Laws. You are hereby ordered to cease and desist immediately with the use of our trade mark. You are hereby noticed to seek legal representation. If you fail to remove our trademark immediately, we will enforce our rights under the law. Respectfully, Computer Nerds By: S.A. Richeson — Trademark Owner"
Security

Submission + - Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!

Submitted by
Underholdning
Underholdning writes: "As part of an experiment security researcher Didier Stevens bought a Google ad six months ago that said, "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" 409 people clicked on the ad. Didier writes that during those six months, the ad was displayed 259,723 times and clicked on 409 times. 98% of the machines ran Windows. Now that's a pretty cheap way of acquiring zombies."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft Patents Disclosed (somewhat)!

Submitted by CptRevelation
CptRevelation writes: Just recently Microsoft announced a list of the most detailed info yet against the open-source community. Even though they accuse companies of infringement, they state they would rather do licensing deals instead of any legal action. Microsoft states that the free Linux software violates 42 patents. Graphical user interfaces, the way menus and windows look on the screen, breach 65. E-mail programs step on 15, and other programs touch 68 other patents. As well as accusing Open Office of 45 patent infringements. "Microsoft can't drive a company out of business and make Linux go away," said Al Gillen, an analyst at the technology research group IDC.
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft claims Linux violates over 200 patents

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Fortune Magazine has an article which states that FOSS developers and distributors could soon face a patent litigation blitzkrieg from Microsoft, which holds over 200 patents that the company claims Linux violates. The article further states that the recent Novell-Microsoft patent deal is a de facto admission of infringement — is anybody surprised?
Quickies

Submission + - Which Countries Have An IT Skills Shortage?

Submitted by
bugg_tb
bugg_tb writes: "I am a programmer based in England and after a few years in the same job have finally got itchy feet. I don't want to leave the industry but I would like a change in scenery.
So my question is, if the destination really isn't an issue(I've done some contract work in Afghanistan), which countries have an IT skill shortage where I could put my skills to good use?"
Quickies

Submission + - The face, not the body, attracts a mate.

Submitted by
Ant
Ant writes: "New Scientist reports that it appears that the opposite sex is much more interested in human's face than their bulging biceps or elegant figure, especially if you're a man. At least that's the upshot of the first study to assess how much faces and bodies contribute to someone's overall attractiveness... Seen on Blue's News."
Censorship

Submission + - Scientologists In Row With BBC

Submitted by
CmdrGravy
CmdrGravy writes: "The Church Of Scientology is currently engaged in a row with BBC over a Panorama investigation by the BBC reporter John Sweeney. John is investigating the Church Of Scientology for the program to find out if they have changed in the last few years and moved away from the questionable practices and secrecy they have employed in the past.

The row centres around a YouTube video posted by the scientologists and a DVD they have released which show Mr Sweeney losing his temper with a scientology spokesman Tom Davis in which Mr Sweeney is driven to yelling at Tom Davis at the top of his voice. Mr Sweeney has since apologised for losing his temper which he says he now realises was both wrong and stupid. In the DVD the scientologists also accuse the BBC of organising an anti scientology demonstration and yelling terrorist death threats at John Travolta, allegations which the BBC denounce as being clearly laughable and utter nonsense. John Travolta has also accused of Mr Sweeney of harbouring "personal prejudices, bigotry and animosity" against Scientology in the documentary, and accused the reporter of displaying "hatred against my religion." This despite the fact that in the UK scientology is not classed as a religion due to the financial nature of their practices.

Mr Sweeneys outburst came at the end of a tour of a scientology exhibition which attempts to portray psychiatrists as evil nazi type torturers entitled "Psychiatry: Industry of Death" which is both gruesome and utterly unconvincing. In the days previous to this Mr Sweeney and his camera team became the latest in a long line of reporters to suffer harassment at the hands of scientologists whereby he has been shouted at, spied on, denounced as a bigot by John Travolta had his hotel invaded at midnight, and had mysterious strangers visit his neighbours and family and spy on his wedding. You can begin to see why someone might lose their temper having been victim to this sort of activity.

There is an excellent article in the Telegraph and you can read about the incident in Mr Sweeneys own words here at the BBC.

The video of Mr Sweeney losing his temper is available on YouTube, the argument is about Tom Davis claiming he has said things in a previous interview with someone else at which Tom Davis was not present and therefore cannot know what he has said. During this interview with, I think, an ex scientologist Tom Davis burst in half way through to make claims that the interviewee was some kind of paedophile.

Happily it looks like the BBC is going to stand behind their reporter, judging by this interview with the programs editor and the general tone of their reporting but, really why I'm posting this on /., what can be done against an organisation so determined to prevent fair and unbiased reporting on their activities and is clearly able to utilise the power of the internet and YouTube to further their aims. The BBC is a large organisation and can survive attacks like this which would easily cause a lot more problems to individuals or smaller organisations, is there a way of levelling the playing field in favour of the general population being able to access accurate information on organisations or corporations rather than propaganda put out by the said organisations or corporations ?"
Robotics

Submission + - South Korea plans to guard border with robots

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/fea ture-5-future-military-technologies Samsung has partnered with Korea University to develop a machine-gun equipped sentry robot, which consists of "two cameras: one for day-time and one for infrared night vision, zooming capabilities, a speaker for notifying the intruder, sophisticated pattern recognition to detect the difference between humans/trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun."

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