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Censorship

Submission + - Aggression and Games - Researcher QA

An anonymous reader writes: Looks like PC World's got a new games blogger, who just did an interview with a professor responsible for recent research showing strong links between violence in games and increased "unhealthy" aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/004098.ht ml
PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - Lair Coming in July, Features Home Trophies

fistfullast33l writes: "IGN has a very comprehensive preview of the upcoming Lair for Playstation 3. As one of only 2 exclusives coming out for the PS3 in the next 3 months (the other being MLB: The Show), it has been hyped heavily due to screenshots and various gameplay videos. The biggest takeaway from this new preview includes a release date of mid-July and the notable distinction of being the first title to feature Trophies for the upcoming Home, which won't be released yet. A demo was confirmed in progress, but there's no word on whether it will be released before or after the game ships. Finally, the most interesting aspect was more details on combat with your dragon. You will not be able to get off your dragon to fight, but why would you want to? As the article states, "As for those other elements of gameplay variety, Factor 5 promises that Lair will continuously introduce new systems to the player throughout the entirety of the adventure. Though you'll begin by simply flying around and killing dragons and peons as you'd expect, you'll eventually learn how to pick up and throw creatures (like horses), grab onto objects and shake them loose to cause structural damage to the environment, earn advanced physical attacks and more.""
Debian

Submission + - Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 Etch Released!

fdfisher writes: "It's official, Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 has been released! Code named Etch, the release supports a total of 11 architectures including amd64 and Intel EM64T (amd64). Etch features *lots* of updated software such as "K Desktop Environment 3.5 (KDE), an updated version of the GNOME desktop environment 2.14, the Xfce 4.4 desktop environment, the GNUstep desktop 5.2, X.Org 7.1, OpenOffice.org 2.0.4a, GIMP 2.2.13, Iceweasel (an unbranded version of Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3), Icedove (an unbranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5), Iceape (an unbranded version of Mozilla Seamonkey 1.0.8), PostgreSQL 8.1.8, MySQL 5.0.32, GNU Compiler Collection 4.1.1, Linux kernel version 2.6.18, Apache 2.2.3, Samba 3.0.24, Python 2.4.4 and 2.5, Perl 5.8.8, PHP 4.4.4 and 5.2.0, Asterisk 1.2.13, and more than 18,000 other ready to use software packages. Etch also features a new graphical frontend to the installation process, out-of-the-box support for fully encrypted partitions, and an updated package manager, allowing the verification of the integrity of packages downloaded from somebody else's mirror."
Nintendo

Submission + - Kansas refutes Evolution... in Pokemon

RyoShin writes: "Even after the conservative members lost control of the old Kansas school board, evolution still remains a large issue for the Board of Education in Kansas. Well, in video games. Specifically, one video game: Pokemon. On Monday, the Kansas Board of Education approved a measure to ban most content related to Pokemon, including the games themselves and trading cards "because of the franchise's blatant promotion of evolution". Furthermore, they instructed teachers to "search their students at the beginning of the school day to make sure that they aren't carrying any copies of the game". The article is sparse on further details, but states that the ACLU will challenge the decision."
It's funny.  Laugh.

Submission + - OpenBSD developers caught stealing GPL'd code

pH03n1X writes: "Michael Buesch, one of the maintainers of the GPL'd Linux wireless LAN driver for the Broadcom chip (bcm43xx), reported a possible violation of copyrights by the OpenBSD developers on their developer mailing list."
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox 3.0 alpha aka Gran Paradiso

Yesmad writes: "PCMag.com has a though-provoking feature on what's yet to come when Firefox 3.0 arrives later this year (yeah, maybe) and how the team behind it is building in several pillars that should make offline Web applications a reality or at least a possibility. He cites Google's Apps for Your Domain as an example of the possibilities for taking on Microsoft in the business/office software productivity market. I'm not sure I buy the notion that 'lite' applications will ever catch on (I mean what do we ever hear about Citrix and hosted applications anymore anyway?) but the logic is pretty straightforward. I'd guess if anybody had a shot to cobble something together it would be a combination of Mozilla with Google that could do it. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109401,00.as p"
Television

Submission + - Ads Turning Up in 'Lonelygirl15'

2%lacking writes: In last week's episode of the Web drama "Lonelygirl15," teen pals Bree, Daniel and Jonas are on the road, running from the mysterious evil group "The Order" when Daniel spots Bree clutching a small, lime-green box. The exchange is more than just a light moment in a Web drama that's taken a dark turn. It's a paid advertisement known in the entertainment industry as a product placement, a way for the popular teen Internet soap opera to boost its finances. http://ibtimes.com/articles/20070328/lonelygirl15- advertising.htm
Media

Submission + - Popular HD DVD Disc Hits a Snag

An anonymous reader writes: Following weeks of headlines touting strong sales for Blu-ray discs, rival next-gen format HD DVD looked like it had its own success story in the making with this week's HD DVD release of the cult hit 'Children of Men.' The disc recieved a stellar review at High-Def Digest, and went on to out-sell the most popular Blu-ray discs on Amazon. But now comes word of apparent incompatibility issues with the Xbox 360 HD DVD player, with some (but not all) consumers reporting that even multiple returns of the disc are unplayable on the format's leading playback device.
Intel

Submission + - Intel Users Have Lower IQs Than AMD

An anonymous reader writes: In a recent survey conducted by Moritech RAD, a study of over 5,000 computer users concluded that people who use Intel powered computers have a lower IQ than their AMD counterparts. The study took place over a six month period and involved computer users with Intel and AMD powered computers of various specifications. The test subjects were asked to complete a series of written and hands on tests covering basic computer skills up to more advanced tasks. The survey found that over 69% of people with Intel powered computers had greater learning difficulties and found computer related tasks more difficult compared with 31% of AMD. http://www.maxitmag.com/loose-wires/articles/intel -users-less-intelligent-than-amd.html
Censorship

Submission + - YouTube bans makers of the Blashphemy Challenge

Da_Weasel writes: If you followed the YouTube censorship and deletion of of Nick Gisburne's account after he posted quotations from the Quran, here's another slap in the face to freedom of expression. The Rational Response Squad, of Blasphemy Challenge fame, has had their account suspended by YouTube. No explanation yet why the account was suspended.
The Internet

Submission + - Citizendium aims to replace Wikipedia

cupidio writes: Ars Technica is running a feature on Citizendium, the new wiki-based encyclopedia started by Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger. One interesting revelation is that Sanger started work on the project only after talking with John Seigenthaler, victim of a famous Wikipedia hoax that accused him of murder. "When Seigenthaler called, I was already resigned to the necessity of making a competitor to Wikipedia," Sanger says. "The effect of Seigenthaler's call was to make me feel to some extent personally responsible for the injustice that Wikipedia was causing, which made my motivation only stronger. When after six to nine months I saw that Wikipedia wasn't going to make any significant changes, it became clear that it was on me to organize a better alternative, if I could." Can Citizendium get bigger than Wikipedia?
Education

Submission + - Substitute teacher gets 40 years for porn popups

alphamugwump writes: Substitute teacher Julie Amero faces up to 40 years in prison for exposing kids to porn using a classroom computer.
From the Arstechnica article:

Amero was substituting for a middle-school English class and asked the regular teacher permission to use the computer to e-mail her husband. The teacher granted her permission, and asked her not to log him out of the computer. Amero, the self-professed techno-noob, then left the room to use the restroom, and upon her return says that she found several students gathered around the machine looking at a web site. A series of unfortunate events occurred from this point on, resulting in a slew of pornographic pop-ups appearing on the screen. The onslaught continued despite Amero's attempts to close the windows.

According to The Register

When the students told their parents what had happened, they told the administration, who vowed that Julie would never work in the classroom again. But they went further. The 40-year-old substitute teacher was arrested, indicted, tried and here is the kicker on January 5, 2007, she was convicted of four counts of risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child (Conn. Gen. Stat. 53-21). Indeed, she was originally charged with exposing 10 children in the seventh grade class to the materials on the internet, but six of the charges were dropped.

I guess "Ambush Porn" really is dangerous.
Security

Submission + - Embarrassing Solaris 0-day vulnerability

philos writes: "According to SANS ISC, there's a vulnerability in Solaris 10 and 11 telnet that allows anyone to remotely connect as any account, including root, without authentication. Remote access can be gained with nothing more than a telnet client. More information and a Snort signature can be found at riosec.com. Worse, this is almost identical to a bug in AIX and Linux rlogin from way back in 1994."

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