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Comment 246 (Score 1) 833

by aethogamous (#34379880) Attached to: Compiling the WikiLeaks Fallout

... process the quarter million diplomatic documents published by WikiLeaks on Sunday, ...

Acutally, as of 29th November Wikileaks have published a grand total of 246 cables, which by my reckoning is not quite the same as a quarter of a million.
Apple

Old Apple 1 Up For Auction, Expected To Go For $160,000+ 156

Posted by Soulskill from the doesn't-run-flash dept.
vanstinator was one of several readers to point out that Christie's is holding an auction for one of the original Apple 1 machines, complete with a manual, the original shipping box, and the letter from Steve Jobs to the owner. The invoice says the computer was purchased on December 7th, 1976, with an Apple cassette interface card, for a total price of $741.66. The auction house expects it to sell for over $160,000.
Image

Woman Trademarks Name and Threatens Sites Using It 273

Posted by samzenpus from the keep-my-name-out-of-your-mouth dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Be careful mentioning Dr. Ann De Wees Allen. She's made it clear that she's trademarked her name and using it is 'illegal... without prior written permission.' She even lists out the names of offenders and shows you the cease-and-desist letter she sends them. And, especially don't copy any of the text on her website, because she's using a bit of javascript that will warn you 'Copyright Protect!' if you right click on a link."
Television

How High-Tech Gadget Trends Differ By US Region 51

Posted by kdawson from the you-say-potato dept.
Ant writes in with news of a study revealing differences in gadget preferences by US region. The survey is not rigorous, based as it was on 7,500 online questionnaires submitted to Retrevo, a website for tech shoppers. The company plans to run the survey annually. "...in the smartphone category, the state of Maryland came out on top with 48 percent more households owning at least one such handset than elsewhere in the country. ... In iPad use, the state of New York took top honors. According to the survey, 52 percent more households have at least one iPad in the Empire State. ... Massachusetts beat out the rest of the nation in e-reader adoption..."
Image

Why You Never Ask the Designers For a Favor 238

Posted by samzenpus from the no-reward dept.
Usually there is nothing funny about a missing pet, but the tale of Missy the lost cat is hilarious. It serves as an example of just how clueless your fellow employees can be, and why you should never ask the designers to drop what they're doing, and help with a personal matter.
Cellphones

Droid X Gets Rooted 97

Posted by Soulskill from the root-root-root-for-the-home-team dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Droid X forums have posted a procedure to root the new Motorola Droid X, putting to rest Andoid fans' fears that they would never gain access to the device's secrets due to a reported eFuse that would brick the phone if certain boot files were tampered with. Rooting the phone is the first step in gaining complete control over the device."
Image

Education Official Says Bad Teachers Can Be Good For Students 279

Posted by samzenpus from the hiring-on-a-curve dept.
Zenna Atkins, the chairman of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), has raised some eyebrows by saying that, "every school should have a useless teacher." She stresses that schools shouldn't seek out or tolerate bad teaching, but thinks bad teachers provide a valuable life-lesson. From the article: "... on Sunday Ms Atkins told the BBC that schools needed to reflect society, especially at primary level. 'In society there are people you don't like, there are people who are incompetent and there are often people above you in authority who you think are incompetent, and learning that ability to deal with that and, actually surviving that environment can be an advantage.'"

Comment FBI screwed up? (Score 1) 279

by aethogamous (#32738376) Attached to: Alleged Russian Spy Ring Exposed In US
From the complaint:

... During 2009, the SVR- directed CYNTHIA MURPHY, the defendant , to " strengthen...ties w. classmates on daily basis in cl. professors who can help in job search and who will have (or already have) access to secret info , " and to "[r]eport to C[enter] on their detailed personal data and character traits w. preliminary conclusions about their potential (vulnerability) to be recruited by Service ."In response, and on many occasions, the New Jersey Conspirators conveyed names of University affiliates to Center - which then conducted checks in "C'sdatabase" to determine if a particular potential "target" was or was not "clean. "Thus, for example, when an SVR database check revealed that a particular contact of CYNTHIA MURPHY's had been suspected by a then- Sovietbloc intelligence service of belonging to a "foreign spy net[work] ,"MURPHY was told" to avoid deepening contact with them for sec[urity] reasons."...

I am guessing that the untold story behind the here is that the FBI tried to insert itself in some manner into the ring (for example, posing as contacts), but someone in the ring became suspicious. In which case the FBI may have screwed up - a much much better outcome would be to have the ring continue under surveillance. So why did the FBI attempt this? Apart from the possibility of providing misleading information to the SVR, another useful possibility is to find out the SVR thought about certain individuals (i.e. are they 'clean').
Image

Anti-Speed Camera Activist Buys Police Department's Web Domain 680

Posted by samzenpus from the I-bought-the-law dept.
Brian McCrary just bought a website to complain about a $90 speeding ticket he received from the Bluff City PD — the Bluff City Police Department site. The department let its domain expire and McCrary was quick to pick it up. From the article: "Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department's website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city's nose. Now that McCrary is the proud owner of the site, bluffcitypd.com, the Gray, Tenn., computer network designer has been using it to post links about speed cameras — like the one on US Highway 11E that caught him — and how people don't like them."
AMD

AMD Multi-Display Tech Has Problems, Potential 138

Posted by Soulskill from the emptying-my-bank-account-is-a-problem dept.
EconolineCrush writes "While AMD's Eyefinity multi-display gaming tech is undeniably impressive at first glance, digging deeper reveals key limitations. Some games work well, others not at all, and many are simply better suited to specific screen configurations. A three-way setup looks to be ideal from a compatibility perspective, and given current LCD prices, it's really not all that expensive. But would you take that over a single high-resolution display or a giant HDTV?"

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