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The Almighty Buck

Submission + - How Much is a Dragon Worth? - Michael Noer - Backs (forbes.com)

Submitted by timothy
timothy writes: Forbes magazine's "crack team of fictional reporters" creates annually a list of the 15 richest fictional characters. Good work, if you can get it, right? To silence critics who seem to think they might pull their numbers straight out of some nether orifice in a land far, far removed from fictional reality (vs. real reality, or fictional fiction), they've now put up a piece explaining their methodology.

Submission + - Judge rules: ISP is not a person (torrentfreak.com) 3

Submitted by AffidavitDonda
AffidavitDonda writes: A possible landmark ruling in one of the mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. may spell the end of the “pay-up-or-else-schemes” that have targeted over 100,000 Internet users in the last year. District Court Judge Harold Baker has denied a copyright holder the right to subpoena the ISPs of alleged copyright infringers, because an IP-address does not equal a person.

Among other things Judge Baker cited a recent child porn case where the U.S. authorities raided the wrong people, because the real offenders were piggybacking on their Wi-Fi connections. Using this example, the judge claims that several of the defendants in VPR’s case may have nothing to do with the alleged offense either.
Idle

Submission + - Hacker pwns police cruiser and lives to tell tale (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Gunkerty Jeb
Gunkerty Jeb writes: As a penetration tester hired to pierce the digital fortresses of Fortune 1000 casinos, banks and energy companies, Kevin Finisterre has hacked electronic cash boxes, geologic-survey equipment, and on more than one occasion, a client's heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system.

But one of his most unusual hacks came during a recent assignment testing the security of a US-based municipal government. After scanning several IP addresses used by the city's police department, he soon discovered they connected directly into a Linux device carried in police cruisers. Using little more than FTP and telnet commands, he then tapped into a digital video recorder used to record and stream audio and video captured from gear mounted on the vehicle's dashboard.
Privacy

Submission + - Aaron Bros rental computers spy on you! (yahoo.com)

Submitted by Kiralan
Kiralan writes: Aaron Brothers installs tracking hardware and software on it's rented computers.
PITTSBURGH – A major furniture rental chain has software on its computers that lets it track the keystrokes, screenshots and even webcam images of customers while they use the devices at home, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Blackberry

Submission + - Is Microsoft Planning To Buy RIM? (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: "By getting Windows Phone 7 on Nokia handsets, Microsoft seems to have firmly set its strategy for the mobile world. Or has it? Today we learned that that Bing will be the default search engine for BlackBerry OS, and Steve Ballmer says that MS will "invest uniquely into the BlackBerry platform." It might just be possible that Microsoft is planning to buy RIM altogether, which may be RIM's only hope to avoid collapse."

Submission + - Decolonizing Outer Space (csmonitor.com)

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: Dinesh D'Souza posits an interesting theory: that Obama is trying to decolonize outer space. He believe that President Obama sees outerspace as the last U.S. colony and as such it must be dismantled. The future? Lots of shared projects like the international space station....

Submission + - Trolling Comes to Newspapers (wired.com)

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: First there were patent trolls. Then Copyright Group started copyright trolling. Now a new start up company is trolling for unlicensed news stories posted to blogs and websites. The company has already filed 80 lawsuits and are threatening sites with $150,000/offense penalties if they don't settle.

Submission + - eBook Sales Outpace Hardbacks (wsj.com)

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: Amazon announced that for every 100 hardback books they sell, 180 eBooks are sold. In addition they've seen sales for Kindles triple since they lowered the price. But traditionalists shouldn't panic yet — paperbacks are still the king.

Submission + - Increasing Solar Efficiency to 66% 3

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: Scientists at the University of Texas have discovered a way to up solar cell's efficiency to about 66%. Using quantum dot technology the scientists can capture the sun's energy that is transmitted as heat, which could dramatically change solar technology.

Submission + - Record Companies to Colapse in a Few Months? (chron.com)

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: According to Radiohead frontman Thom York, the major record companies are poised to collapse in only a few months. He recommends that all new artists avoid signing with a record company. No explanation for WHY he thinks this is going to happen. Thoughts?

Submission + - Prosecuting DDOS attacls 1

Submitted by dptalia
dptalia writes: We all have heard of major DDOS attacks taking down countries, companies, and organizations. But how many of them are ever prosecuted? And how many prosecutions are even successful?

I've done some research and it appears the answer is very few (Well duh!). And those that are successfully prosecuted tend to have teenagers as the instigators. Does this mean DDOS is a fairly safe crime to conduct? Are the repercussions nonexistent?

Does anyone have some knowledge an insight into this that I don't have? How would you go about prosecuting a DDOS attacker? As this becomes tool in the political toolbox of countries and organizations this becomes more important. So I need your help. What's your experience with getting the responsible parties to justice?

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