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Comment Re:Steve and his FUD (Score 1) 514

by Laglorden (#32942370) Attached to: Nokia and RIM Respond To Apple's Antenna Claims

The lie: 0.55% of users with cases that Apple _registers_ av "antenna problems". They might have had tousands of calls which they simply don't count or labels as, I don't know, user errors ;)

"User held the phone in the wrong hand! -> user error, not "antenna problem" since Jobs said "there is no antenna problem"

Tadaa, nice statistics!
Science

Empathy Is For the Birds 201

Posted by samzenpus from the polly-want-to-make-an-emotional-connection? dept.
grrlscientist writes "Common Ravens have been shown to express empathy towards a 'friend' or relative when they are distressed after an aggressive conflict — just like humans and chimpanzees do. But birds are very distant evolutionary relatives of Great Apes, so what does this similarity imply about the evolution of behavior?"
Microsoft

Microsoft Sends Flowers To Internet Explorer 6 Funeral 151

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the sorry-about-your-loss dept.
Several readers have written with a fun followup to yesterday's IE6 funeral. Apparently Microsoft, in a rare moment of self-jest, took the time to send flowers, condolences, and a promise to meet at MIX. The card reads: "Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven. The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft."
Earth

Debunking a Climate-Change Skeptic 807

Posted by kdawson from the so-many-notes-mister-mozart dept.
DJRumpy writes "The Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg won fame and fans by arguing that many of the alarms sounded by environmental activists and scientists — that species are going extinct at a dangerous rate, that forests are disappearing, that climate change could be catastrophic — are bogus. A big reason Lomborg was taken seriously is that both of his books, The Skeptical Environmentalist (in 2001) and Cool It (in 2007), have extensive references, giving a seemingly authoritative source for every one of his controversial assertions. So in a display of altruistic masochism that we should all be grateful for (just as we're grateful that some people are willing to be dairy farmers), author Howard Friel has checked every single citation in Cool It. The result is The Lomborg Deception, which is being published by Yale University Press next month. It reveals that Lomborg's work is 'a mirage,' writes biologist Thomas Lovejoy in the foreword. '[I]t is a house of cards. Friel has used real scholarship to reveal the flimsy nature' of Lomborg's work."
Games

Games Workshop Goes After Fan Site 174

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-anger-your-base dept.
mark.leaman writes "BoingBoing has a recent post regarding Games Workshop's aggressive posturing against fan sites featuring derivative work of their game products. 'Game publisher and miniature manufacturer Games Workshop just sent a cease and desist letter to boardgamegeek.com, telling them to remove all fan-made players' aids. This includes scenarios, rules summaries, inventory manifests, scans to help replace worn pieces — many of these created for long out of print, well-loved games...' As a lifelong hobby gamer of table, board, card and miniature games, I view this as pure heresy. It made me reject the idea of buying any Games Workshop (read Warhammer) products for my son this Christmas. Their fate was sealed, in terms of my wallet, after I Googled their shenanigans. In 2007 they forbid Warhammer fan films, this year they shut down Vassal Modules, and a while back they went after retailers as well. What ever happened to fair use?"

Comment Re:Damn leeches (Score 3, Insightful) 427

by Laglorden (#28718605) Attached to: LoTR Lawsuit Threatens Hobbit Production

I'd say the hypocrisy of RIAA is astounding.

The reason for reducing the copyright times are just because it would enable derivative works. Kind of how Disney took "Cinderella" or other stories in the public domain and made money and new stories out of them.

The hypocrisy comes in when they refuse to ever give stuff back to the public domain.

The people being screwed in this case isn't the heirs to Tolkien it's us. They shouldn't get any money after so many years. They are the true "leeches". That doesn't help or develops our civilization or culture.

Comment Re:Let me be the first one to say it ... (Score 1) 1870

by Laglorden (#27609987) Attached to: Pirate Bay Trial Ends In Jail Sentences

Of course it's good for the society to be able to communicate freely and easily.

Of course it's good for the general welfare that stuff that can be copied without cost is spread to whomever who wants it.

Why? It's so obvious you really shouldn't need any "research".

It might not be good for a very very small percentage (like 0.00001%) of the population (big record company bosses) but I doubt you (even if you a commercial software developer as you claim) are part of that percentage.

Comment Re:My dilemma is this ... (Score 1) 337

by Laglorden (#27446321) Attached to: After Sweden's New Law, a Major Drop In Internet Traffic

Sweden do have a healty TV/film industry. Problably produces as much TV/film per capita as the US or UK, but still it's not a large country and since we can enjoy UK & US stuff in addition to our own, why shouldn't we be allowed to buy this?

Sweden is (was at least a couple of years ago?) also the third most music exporting country in the world (after US and UK). Britney Spears first album is really Swedish and so on...

So, it's not a matter of "pirate it because we don't produce anything ourselves".

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