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Comment Re:Abandon Email (Score 1) 284

by deAtog (#26267689) Attached to: What Will Spam Be Like In 20 Years?

While I agree that web based email clients may be the way of the future, it will be a long time before messaging services provided by sites like MySpace or Facebook replace traditional email services. The main problem with these services is their inability to relay messages to users of different sites.

From a technical POV, the move to web based email services could actually be considered a good thing since it abstracts the underlying system from the user. That is to say, users need not know how it works or how to make it work, only that it does what they expect it to do. If web based email were to completely replace desktop email clients, we would be free to modify and correct the shortfalls of the current system without having to conform to protocols imposed by existing desktop based email clients.
Data Storage

US District Court Says Calculating a Hash Value = Search 623

Posted by timothy from the fair-enough dept.
bfwebster writes "Orin Kerr over at The Volokh Conspiracy (a great legal blog, BTW) reports on a US District Court ruling issued just last week which finds that doing hash calculations on a hard drive is a form of search and thus subject to 4th Amendment limitations. In this particular case, the US District Court suppressed evidence of child pornography on a hard drive because proper warrants were not obtained before imaging the hard drive and calculating MD5 hash values for the individual files on the drive, some of which ended up matching known MD5 hash values for known child pornography image and video files. More details at Kerr's posting." Update: 10/28 16:23 GMT by T : Headline updated to reflect that this is a Federal District Court located in Pennsylvania, rather than a court of the Commonwealth itself.
Linux Business

Submission + - My Experience today at the Obama Campaign Office

Submitted by hoffmanjon
hoffmanjon writes: I went down to my local Obama Campaign office today to see about getting a yard sign, bumper stickers and to see what I could do to volunteer (yes me volunteering for a political cause, never thought that would happen). I told them I not interested in door to door knocking or phone calling for personal reasons and then told them I do Computer Programming and System Administration for a living (that got some people excited). They brought me back to talk with one of the field organizers who brought be back to a room that had a number of computer in it. He said they had a number of hardware "guys" but no one that could do the software side and asked if I could install operating systems on these computers so they could use them. I told them I would be glad to do that. Now here comes the good part, he told me that they would prefer to have Linux with open office, skype and Firefox installed and ask me if I knew anything about Linux (if you do not know, I am a hugh Linux and Open Source advocate). I told him I have worked with Linux/Unix for over nine years and more familiar with Linux then probably any other operating system. I had known that the Obama Campaign used Linux for their Web Pages but I did not know that they preferred it in their local campaign offices as well. That means they will be showing/teaching their volunteers how to use Linux and Open Office. I am now an even bigger supporter of Obama knowing that he (and his campaign) use Open Source software, this means he will carry that philosphy into the White House and be more likely to support Open Source and Open Standards rather then proprietary software. I was just excited to hear that the Obama Campaign supported Open Source software and wanted to share my experience.
KDE

Submission + - KDE 4.0 Release Candidate 2 (kde.org) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: December 11, 2007 (The INTERNET). The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the second release candidate for KDE 4.0. This release candidate marks the last mile on the road to KDE 4.0.
Power

Submission + - Microbial Hydrogen Fuel Cells at Record Efficiency (nsf.gov)

Submitted by
Invisible Pink Unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "Researchers at Penn State University have built upon past attempts to generate electricity from microbes, reaching efficiencies of up to 91%. According the lead researcher, 'this process produces 288% more energy in hydrogen than the electrical energy that is added to the process.' In certain configurations, nearly all of the hydrogen contained in the molecules of source material converted to useable hydrogen gas, an efficiency that could eventually open the door to bacterial hydrogen production on a larger scale."
Portables (Apple)

Submission + - iPhone software unlocker prepares for release

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Iphonesimfree.com is preparing to release the first ever total software driven unlocking service for the Apple iPhone. Their software is reportedly complete and they are openly accepting invitations from the media to have their iPhones unlocked for free in order to silence any possible doubters. Hopefully Slashdot will let us know just how well it works."
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Wants Agreements to Stay Secret

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "The RIAA is opposing Ms. Lindor's request for discovery into the agreements among the record company competitors by which they have agreed to settle and prosecute their cases together, by which she seeks to support her Fourth Affirmative Defense (pdf) alleging that "The plaintiffs, who are competitors, are a cartel acting collusively in violation of the antitrust laws and of public policy, by tying their copyrights to each other, collusively litigating and settling all cases together, and by entering into an unlawful agreement among themselves to prosecute and to dispose of all cases in accordance with a uniform agreement, and through common lawyers, thus overreaching the bounds and scope of whatever copyrights they might have. ...As such, they are guilty of misuse of their copyrights.""
Music

Submission + - The day the music died (or NOT?)

Submitted by RetroGeek
RetroGeek writes: "On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry's future." And this was at the behest of the RIAA. From the wbesite: "CALL YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW TO ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE INTERNET RADIO EQUALITY ACT, S. 1353 IN THE SENATE AND H.R. 2060 IN THE HOUSE!". So all you Slashdotters in the US of A, go to The SaveNetRadio Coalition, follow the links, and contact your representative.
Businesses

Submission + - Anheuser Busch has USDA changing 'Organic' (organicconsumers.org)

Submitted by
paulevans
paulevans writes: "Anheuser Busch, Wal-Mart and other for-profit corporations have seeked and are getting a definition change on '95% Organic'. Such a change would allow for Anheuser Busch to "sell its 'Organic Wild Hops Beer' without using any organic hops at all".

Other changes would allow "sausages, brats, and breakfast links labeled as "USDA Organic" '..' to contain intestines from factory farmed animals raised on chemically grown feed, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics."

It is amazing how powerful the almighty dollar really is."

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