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Submission + - John Cleese Warns Campus Political Correctness Leading Towards 1984 (washingtonexaminer.com) 2

An anonymous reader writes: Ashe Schow writes at the Washington Examiner that, "The Monty Python co-founder, in a video for Internet forum Big Think, railed against the current wave of hypersensitivity on college campuses, saying he has been warned against performing on campuses. "[Psychiatrist Robin Skynner] said: 'If people can't control their own emotions, then they have to start trying to control other people's behavior,'" Cleese said. "And when you're around super-sensitive people, you cannot relax and be spontaneous because you have no idea what's going to upset them next." Cleese said that it's one thing to be "mean" to "people who are not able to look after themselves very well," but it was another to take it to "the point where any kind of criticism of any individual or group could be labeled cruel." Cleese added that "comedy is critical," and if society starts telling people "we mustn't criticize or offend them," then humor goes out the window. "With humor goes a sense of proportion," Cleese said. "And then, as far as I'm concerned, you're living in 1984." Cleese is just the latest comedian to lecture college students about being so sensitive.

Submission + - Torrents Time Lets Anyone Launch Their Own Web Version Of Popcorn Time

An anonymous reader writes: Popcorn Time, an app for streaming video torrents, just got its own web version: Popcorn Time Online. Unlike other attempts to bring Popcorn Time into the browser, this one is powered by a tool called Torrents Time, which delivers the movies and TV shows via an embedded torrent client. Oh, and the developers have released the code so that anyone can create their own version. If Popcorn Time is Hollywood’s worst nightmare, Torrents Time is trying to make sure Hollywood can’t wake up.

Submission + - Microsoft Black Tuesday Blue Screens of Death

snydeq writes: Two of Microsoft's kernel-mode driver updates — which often cause problems — are triggering a BSOD error message on some Windows systems, InfoWorld reports. 'Details at this point are sparse, but it looks like three different patches from this week's Black Tuesday crop are causing Blue Screens with a Stop 0x50 error on some systems. If you're hitting a BSOD, you can help diagnose the problem (and perhaps prod Microsoft to find a solution) by adding your voice to the Microsoft Answers Forum thread on the subject.'

Submission + - US Supreme Court upholds removal of works from Pub (wsj.com) 2

langelgjm writes: While much of the web is focused on the SOPA and PIPA blackout, supporters of the public domain today quietly lost a protracted struggle that began back in 2001.The Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, rejected the argument that Congress did not have the power to convey copyright upon works that were already in the public domain. The suit was originally filed to challenge provisions that the U.S. adopted when signing the TRIPs agreement. Justices Breyer and Alito dissented, arguing that conveyed copyright on already existing works defied the logic of copyright law. Justice Kagan recused herself. The text of the opinions is available here (PDF).
Security

Submission + - Air Force Comments on Drone Malware (securityweek.com) 4

wiredmikey writes: Air Force officials have revealed more details about a malware infection that impacted systems used to manage a feet of drones or UAVs at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada as reported last week.

According to the Air Force, the 24th Air Force (24th AF) first detected the malware – which they characterized as a “credential stealer” as opposed to a keylogger as originally reported — and notified Creech Air Force Base officials Sept. 15 that malware was found on portable hard drives approved for transferring information between systems.

The infected computers were part of the ground control system that supports remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) operations. The malware is not designed to transmit data or video or corrupt any files, programs or data, according to the Air Force, which explained the infected computers were part of the ground control system that supports drone flight operations. The ground system is separate from the flight control system used by RPA pilots to fly the aircrafts.

Games

Submission + - Sony Could Face Developer Exodus on PSN (industrygamers.com)

donniebaseball23 writes: As the PlayStation Network outage continues, developers continue to feel the economic pinch. There's been no word from Sony on whether they'll compensate companies who produce games for PSN, but Capcom has already said it's losing potentially "millions" from the downtime. Worse yet, developers who rely on PSN revenues may jump ship if they aren't compensated, warns Dylan Cuthbert, creator of popular PSN game PixelJunk. "I have a feeling they [Sony] are thinking about doing something or they will lose developers which of course is pretty bad for them," he told IndustryGamers.
IOS

Submission + - Apple discusses iOS privacy issues before congress (edibleapple.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Earlier today, Apple’s VP of software technology Guy L. “Bud” Tribble appeared before a congressional hearing on mobile privacy to address concerns that were first brought to the forefront following the “location tracking” controversy that emerged a few weeks ago
Google

Submission + - Google launching music service without labels (reuters.com)

fysdt writes: "Google Inc is set to launch an online music locker service to allow users to store and access their songs wherever they are, similar to one launched by Amazon.com Inc in March.

And like the Amazon Cloud Drive player, Google music service is being introduced on Tuesday without any prior licensing deals with major music labels, following months of fruitless negotiations."

Graphics

Submission + - WebGL poses new security problems (h-online.com)

Julie188 writes: "Researchers are warning that the WebGL standard undermines existing operating system security protections and offers up new attack surfaces. To enable rendering of demanding 3D animations, WebGL allows web sites to execute shader code directly on a system's graphics card. This can allow an attacker to exploit security vulnerabilities in the graphics card driver and even inject malicious code onto the system."
Idle

Submission + - Stewart & Colbert plan competing D.C. rallies (theglobeandmail.com)

Lev13than writes: In a direct retort to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert have announced competing rallies on October 30th. Stewart plans to host a “Rally To Restore Sanity” on Oct. 30 on the National Mall in D.C. for the Americans he says are too busy living normal, rational lives to attend other political demonstrations. Colbert, meantime, will shepherd his fans in a “March To Keep Fear Alive.” “Damn your reasonableness!” Colbert said. “Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom!” Stewart, meanwhile, has promised to provide attendees with signs featuring slogans such as “I Disagree With You But I'm Pretty Sure You're Not Hitler” and “I'm Afraid of Spiders.”
Piracy

BSA's Latest Piracy Claims 'Shockingly Misleading,' Says Geist 277

An anonymous reader writes "This week the Business Software Alliance published a new study which purports to estimate the economic gain from a ten percent reduction in piracy of business software. For Canada, the BSA claims that the reduction would create over 6,000 new jobs and generate billions in GDP and tax revenue. But Michael Geist says the BSA claims are based on nothing more than the economic gains from a ten percent increase in proprietary software spending. The BSA now admits its estimate is based on the presumption that every dollar 'saved' by using unlicensed software would now be spent on proprietary software." Glyn Moody pointed out more flaws in the BSA's report.

Comment Re:Stupid... (Score 1) 315

If I cited wikipedia as my source for stating that copper's atomic number is 29, why is my source not credible?

You shouldn't need to cite that, it's common knowledge. It's in any elementary chemistry text book.

At least the ones outside of Texas...

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