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Censorship

Submission + - Dell censors IdeaStorm Linux dissent

thefickler writes: It seems pointless seeking ideas and feedback if you 're going to ignore and delete the ones you don't like. That's exactly what Dell is doing with its IdeaStorm web site, which has been set up by the company to solicit ideas and feedback. It deleted a post that linked to an article that criticized its handling of the "preinstalled Linux" issue.
Businesses

Submission + - Fair manufacturer's technical support

VincenzoRomano writes: One year ago I decided to buy some "enterprise grade" hardware, firewalls actually, in order to replace the old ones used by the former ISP.
Before buying them I did a kind of survey. I browsed the product "data sheets" from the manufacturer web sites and in some cases, asked for more details by email.
I finally choose a top product already in the market since one year and a half from a very well known and reputable company.
The product showed a nuber of issues as soon as unpacked and put to work. I mean things like not being able to keep a VPN up and running for more than a bunch of minutes or doing bad IP routing on the LAN.
I've spent the last year to make that equipment working accordingly to both their data sheets and the features expected from an "enterprise grade" product.
Important issues are still open while the technical support is actually relying on my own stuff and setup and on my personal availability in order to do troubleshooting, firmware beta testing and other experiments.
I've finally blamed the product as

"far from being ready to market or even usable for beta testers"
and have requested some kind of compensation for all the job I had to do.
What's your opinion about such a behaviour in a company? Is it fair?
Censorship

Submission + - Lawmakers confused by copyright law

AlHunt writes: "The New York Times is reporting that C-Span recently asked Nancy Pelosi to remove copyrighted material from her website.
From TFA:

C-Span did contact the speaker's office to have it take down a different clip from her blog — one shot by C-Span's cameras at a House Science and Technology Committee hearing on global warming where Ms. Pelosi testified, Mr. Daly said. (The blog has substituted material filmed by the committee's cameras, he said.)
"
Microsoft

Submission + - Computer Pros Debate Windows Vista

An anonymous reader writes: As a follow-on to John Welch's widely read review arguing that Mac OS X is superior to Vista, IWeek is running the first in a weeklong series of roundtables where a programmer, networking consultant, and 3 IT managers have a serious technical debate on the pros and cons of Vista. Among the comments:

(negative) "As to the Vista interface and features, I am having problems making the switch from my old XP habits.
(negative)"The Administrator mode that doesn't have all permissions."
(positive)"I am glad to say that the final product is a thousand times better than the beta products I used through the end of last year."
What's been your experience with Vista? More importantly, do you think it will ever gain traction among corporate users, or is its glitzy Aero interface destined to make it mainly a consumer OS?
Software

Submission + - Wil Wheaton reviews Linux audio players

ForeverFaithless writes: Wil Wheaton has reviewed several popular audio players on Linux, including XMMS, Amarok, and Banshee. Wil comes to the conclusion that Amarok is his favorite of the bunch, stating "I have never loved a music player as much as I love Amarok, and I've never had as much fun flipping through my library and learning more about my favorite artists."
Networking

Submission + - Bizarre Virus Threatens to Kill File-Sharers

An anonymous reader writes: TorrentFreak reports:

A strange virus which taunts file-sharers and threatens to report them to the police and even kill them, is being distributed on the Winny network. The virus has two variants Troj/Pirlames-A and Troj/Pirlames-B, masquerades as a screensaver and attacks files with these popular extensions — EXE, BAT, CMD, INI, ASP, HTM, HTML, PHP, CLASS, JAVA, DBX, EML, MBX, TBB, WAB, HLP, TXT, MP3, XLS, LOG, BMP — overwriting them with images of comic book character Ayu Tsukimiya.

It's reported that one of the images, which includes a song about fish-shaped pancakes stuffed with jam, has a telephone number included although it's unclear to whom the number belongs.

Another exclaims "This is a visit from the prevalent Piro virus! Stop P2P! If you don't i'll tell the police!" while another threatens "Ah, I see you are using P2P again......if you don't stop within 0.5 seconds, i'm going to kill you!"
Google

Submission + - Let's play: "The Google of (fill in the blank)

netbuzz writes: "From AltaVista to Zillow, with the likes of Baidu, Comcast, Wal-Mart and even Barack Obama in between, they are all currently, have been or will be known as "the Google of" their domain. In fact, "the Google of" has become such a part of the lexicon that it has earned its own acronym. Even Kleenex and a wine blog are TGOs. The list seems endless.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1193 0"
Education

Submission + - MAHE, now Manipal University, Introduces online en

Sonali writes: "Bangalore, 1st March 2007: The Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) will now be known as Manipal University. The 54-year-old Academy reached this decision in December 2006 and the change will affect all MAHE campuses globally. From the coming academic year Manipal University will also introduce online entrance tests for admissions to their professional courses. Speaking about the name change from MAHE to Manipal University, Dr. H.S. Ballal, Pro-Chancellor, Manipal University said "In 1993 MAHE was granted the privileged status of a university by the Indian government. The word 'Academy' does not indicate the status of a university and this has led to some confusion in the minds of people of foreign countries. Deemed Universities were not hitherto permitted by the University Grants Commission which controls the Deemed Universities, to prefix or affix the word 'university' to their name. Taking note of this fact and based on our request, the UGC has, by its Notification No.F.6-1(II)/2006 (CPP-I) dated 13th September 2006, permitted Deemed to be Universities to use the word 'university' in their name provided it is indicated along with the name that the universities are established under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 to distinguish the Deemed to be Universities from universities established by the legislature. The Manipal Academy of Higher Education has, in pursuance of the UGC Notification and approval by its Trust and Board of Management, changed its name to MANIPAL UNIVERSITY by a Notification dated 20th December 2006. We believe that this new identity will help us attract more students especially from foreign lands". Manipal University has always set itself apart from other universities by using technology in all aspects and by being a student friendly digital campus. In the last academic year, Manipal University had conducted online exams for admissions to postgraduate medical and dental courses. Online entrance examinations will now be conducted for admission to courses such as MBBS, BDS, BE, BPharm, BSc Nursing, BHM and BA in Journalism. To conduct these exams, Manipal University has adopted the latest technologies and is giving its prospective students an added advantage of taking the exams online. This is a testimony to the fact that Manipal University is one among the best forward looking universities in India. Speaking on the online entrance exams for admissions to MBBS, BDS, BE and other professional graduate programs, Mr. Anand Sudarshan, Group President Manipal Universal Learning, said "This move of introducing online tests has been made keeping in mind students who often have to face the probability of taking two or more entrance exams on the same day. This will mean that, invariably the student takes up only one entrance exam and this reduces his prospect of having more choices. We at Manipal University will now allow candidates to schedule tests at their own convenience and allow them the flexibility. Those writing other tests will not have any difficulty, since the online test will be held over a period of time and not on a single day. Unlike other entrance examinations, the students can choose the test schedule that suits their individual requirements. This gives the student the freedom to choose the location, date & time of his choice of giving the Online Entrance Test". The online tests will be conducted at 19 centres which have been ergonomically designed with the latest computers for every student, high security communication network for electronic delivery of the test and use of bio-metric and hi-tech monitoring systems to prevent impersonation and foul play. Each computer is fitted with a web camera, which will take an image of the candidate every 20 minutes. About Manipal University: Manipal University was recognized as a University by the Government of India in 1993. Among the foremost colleges and Institutions in India, the Manipal University colleges are highly regarded in their sphere of expertise, be it MIT (Manipal Institute of Technology) for engineering, or KMC (Kasturba Medical College) for medicine. Manipal University today ranks as one of India's premier multi-dimensional educational institutions. Students from over 51 countries worldwide come seeking education in this culturally diverse campus of Manipal. The township of Manipal comprises of two universities, 24, professional colleges, affiliated institutes and numerous primary and high schools. Thousands of students study in Manipal institutions situated in Sikkim, Mangalore, Nepal, Malaysia and Dubai.Degrees from Manipal are recognized worldwide, making it a Mecca of educational services. Please refer web site http://www.manipal.edu/index.htm for more information"
Space

Submission + - Probe reveals volcano on Jupiters moon

Matthew Sparkes writes: "The New Horizons spacecraft has returned close-up pictures of Jupiter and some of its moons, including a picture of a volcano called Tvashtar on Io. The plume reaches 240 kilometres (150 miles) above the moon's surface. "This is the best image of a large volcanic plume on Io since the Voyager flybys in 1979," says John Spencer, deputy leader of the Jupiter encounter science team from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, US. "If the Tvashtar plume remains active, the images we take later in the encounter should be even better." It also snapped the closest ever photograph of Jupiter's Little Red Spot."
Television

Submission + - Sky one & Sky two dropped from Virgin Media (N

An anonymous reader writes: Sky one & Sky two dropped from Virgin Media (NTL) as of this morning 01/01/2007. After turning on my television this morning I found that the war between Sky and Virgin Media has increased to the point where the consumers are losing out. Sky One and Sky two have been replaced by Virgin's, 'Virgin Central 2' and a channel called 'old Sky 2' with Virgin Media's excuse plastered on screen. To quote the first part of the message / excuse Thanks to Sky, some of the non premium Sky channels, like Sky one and Sky news are no longer available. They have picked up their ball and gone home. http://www.relativesremembered.com/memberarea/arti cles/displayarticle.php?article_id=150 Click Here To Read More
Upgrades

Submission + - You're kidding

An anonymous reader writes: You're kidding. Newsworthy announcements get naffed for wok antennas. Wholey crap!

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