Comment From "the boxes told us" idiots (Score 0) 109
IBM sure did have RFID pegged right...... <smirk>
Comment Re:Atlas Shrugged (Score 0) 346
Atlas Shrugged, indeed.
Comment Re:For being the opposite of Bush (Score 2, Insightful) 1721
QUOTE: "This win was more a rebuke to the conservatives than anything else."
So, in other words, the premise of the '09 award is a sham? The committee has lowered itself to making trivial political statements?
Nevermind, they already trashed their credibility with Arafat and Gore. Give him an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Grammy, or Razzi for all I care. Do it to spread your political view and you're an imbecile.
So, in other words, the premise of the '09 award is a sham? The committee has lowered itself to making trivial political statements?
Nevermind, they already trashed their credibility with Arafat and Gore. Give him an Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Grammy, or Razzi for all I care. Do it to spread your political view and you're an imbecile.
Viacom Sued Over YouTube Parody Removal 99
A self aware computer input device writes "Just a week after Viacom sued Google over copyrighted material, MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films LLC have sued Viacom claiming the cable network company improperly asked the video-sharing site YouTube to remove a parody of the network's 'The Colbert Report.' Couple this with the iFilm fiasco reported earlier, and you have to question how a company like Viacom can cry foul when it can't even accurately account for its own copyrighted material."
Astronomers Explode Virtual Supernova 97
DynaSoar writes "Scientists at the University of Chicago's Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes have created a simulation of a white dwarf exploding into a type 1a supernova. Using 700 processors and 58,000 hours, they produced a three second movie showing the initial burst that is thought to be the source of much of the iron in the universe. Understanding these supernovas is also important to testing current cosmological theories regarding dark matter and dark energy, as their brightness is used as a measurement of distance, and discrepancies found in the brightness of very distant supernovas consistently seem to indicate a change in the speed of expansion of the universe over time."
RIAA Wins Worst Company In America 2007 306
An anonymous reader writes "After 15 punishing rounds of combat involving 32 of America's most hated companies, 100,000 voters have spoken: More hated than Halliburton, more despised than Walmart, the RIAA has defeated all comers to become the Worst Company in America 2007."
PTO Rejects Instant Live Patent 77
Jivecat writes "Instant Live, a service of the concert promotion company Live Nation, makes recordings of live concerts that are rapidly burned onto CDs to be sold to the audience before they leave the venue. It's a nice service for fans, but Live Nation holds the patent for a technology that places markers between songs so they can be written as separate tracks rather than one big track — in effect giving them a monopoly on in-concert recordings. Now, thanks to the efforts of the EFF and a patent attorney, who found prior work of similar technology, the U.S. Patent Office has revoked Live Nation's patent. This is good news for those who consider Live Nation to be the Evil Empire when it comes to concert promotion."
Is Assembly Programming Still Relevant, Today? 676
intelinsight asks: "Consider the following question given the current software development needs, and also the claims of the Assembly lovers for it being a language that gives one insights of the internal working of a computer. How relevant or useful is it to learn Assembly programming language in the current era? "
Surprise, Windows Listed as Most Secure OS 499
david_g17 writes "According to a Symantec study reported by Information Week, Microsoft has the most secure operating system amongst its commercial competitors. The report only covered the last 6 months of vulnerabilities and patch releases, but the results place Microsoft operating systems above Mac OS X and Red Hat. According to the article, 'The report found that Microsoft Windows had the fewest number of patches and the shortest average patch development time of the five operating systems it monitored in the last six months of 2006.' The article continues to mention the metrics used in the study (quantity and severity of vulnerabilities as well as the amount of time one must wait for the patch to be released)."
EU Official Labels Microsoft's Behavior Unacceptable 290
InfoWorldMike writes "EU commissioner Neelie Kroes has lashed out at Microsoft in comments to European parliamentarians Thursday, saying it is 'unacceptable' that the company continues to gain market share using tactics that were outlawed in the Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling against the software vendor. 'Three years later Microsoft still hasn't complied with the main demand imposed by the European antitrust ruling: that the company share interoperability information inside Windows at a reasonable price to allow rival makers of workgroup servers to build products that work properly with PCs running Windows.'"
Congress Must Make Clear Copyright Laws 179
WSJdpatton writes "WSJ's Walt Mossberg takes a look at what's wrong with the DMCA and DRM given the recent lawsuit brought against Google's YouTube by media giant Viacom — 'Under fair use, as most nonlawyers have understood it, you could quote this sentence in another publication without permission, though you'd need the permission of the newspaper to reprint the entire column or a large part of it. A two-minute portion of a 30-minute TV show seems like the same thing to me. But why should I have to guess about that? What consumers need is real clarity on the whole issue of what is or isn't permissible use of the digital content they have legally obtained. And that can come only from Congress. Congress is the real villain here, for having failed to pass a modern copyright law that protects average consumers, not just big content companies.'"
Submission + - The Science of a Very Beautiful Sunrise or Sunset
An anonymous reader writes: In his excellent paper " The Colors of Twilight and Sunset ," Stephen F. Corfidi, a Lead Forecaster with the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, explains why "some parts of the world enjoy more beautiful sunsets than others, and why do they favor certain months? What are the ingredients for truly memorable sunrises and sunsets?" (Hint: Lots of clean air.)
Submission + - The Automotive X PRIZE
BoredStiff writes: The NPR show OnPoint (you can listen online with Real Alternative) had a show about the first successor to the Space X-PRIZE called the Automotive X-PRIZE, and it's the next big competition coming down the road offering a $25 million dollar prize to the builder of the first commercially-viable 100 mile per gallon car. The goal of the competition is to stimulate automotive technology breakthroughs that will allow for the design and manufacturing of super-efficient cars that radically reduce oil consumption, harmful emissions, and have and mainstream appeal.
Submission + - Purdue University decides not to follow UW-Madison
An anonymous reader writes: I attend Purdue University and apparently, they will be bowing to the RIAA not soon after another Big 10 school spat in their face (University of Wisconsin). Every student has been sent the following email:
Some users of the Purdue University Internet network this week will begin receiving notices of threatened legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America.
In a stepped-up effort to enforce music copyright, the association is harvesting Internet addresses of computers that allegedly offered music for others to download illegally. It then is sending emails to Internet service providers and asking that the emails be forwarded to these computer users.
The notices offer the option of paying a settlement fee or facing legal action.
Purdue University, as an Internet service provider, will forward these emails to the user of the specified address when the user can be accurately identified. While the university will do its best to deliver these notices to the proper individuals, it is not responsible for the accuracy of the identification or address to which such notices are sent.
It will be up to each recipient to decide how to respond to these notices.
All users of Purdue IT resources are ultimately responsible for their own conduct and for responding to any notification received from a copyright owner. Should an individual choose not to pay the settlement, the RIAA may ask Purdue for its logs for the purpose of pursuing legal action. The next step would be for RIAA to file a request to subpoena the name of the computer owner. The university will at all times honor valid subpoenas.
Purdue does not generally monitor the content of Internet transmissions.
The university, however, can match computers to the addresses they use when connecting to the Internet.
Information on your legal obligations and methods to protect yourself can be found at:
http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/copyright.cfm
Individuals with questions regarding the settlement notice should contact legal counsel of their own choosing for advice.
Sincerely,
Gerry McCartney
Interim Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Purdue University
Thomas B. Robinson
Vice President for Student Services
Purdue University
Some users of the Purdue University Internet network this week will begin receiving notices of threatened legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America.
In a stepped-up effort to enforce music copyright, the association is harvesting Internet addresses of computers that allegedly offered music for others to download illegally. It then is sending emails to Internet service providers and asking that the emails be forwarded to these computer users.
The notices offer the option of paying a settlement fee or facing legal action.
Purdue University, as an Internet service provider, will forward these emails to the user of the specified address when the user can be accurately identified. While the university will do its best to deliver these notices to the proper individuals, it is not responsible for the accuracy of the identification or address to which such notices are sent.
It will be up to each recipient to decide how to respond to these notices.
All users of Purdue IT resources are ultimately responsible for their own conduct and for responding to any notification received from a copyright owner. Should an individual choose not to pay the settlement, the RIAA may ask Purdue for its logs for the purpose of pursuing legal action. The next step would be for RIAA to file a request to subpoena the name of the computer owner. The university will at all times honor valid subpoenas.
Purdue does not generally monitor the content of Internet transmissions.
The university, however, can match computers to the addresses they use when connecting to the Internet.
Information on your legal obligations and methods to protect yourself can be found at:
http://www.purdue.edu/securepurdue/copyright.cfm
Individuals with questions regarding the settlement notice should contact legal counsel of their own choosing for advice.
Sincerely,
Gerry McCartney
Interim Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer
Purdue University
Thomas B. Robinson
Vice President for Student Services
Purdue University
NBC, News Corp Join to Create YouTube Clone 126
Brett writes "It's official: NBC Universal and News Corp have announced their plans to
create a video sharing site of their own. The
joint venture will features both TV and movie shows in full length, including episodes of '24,' 'My Name is Earl,' and movies like 'Borat.' The plan is to also syndicate content on
other portals like MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo! It's unclear how YouTube's previous deal with NBC relates to this, but it's clear that the major players are now shunning YouTube."
