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Submission + - Prenda lawyer kicked off 9th Circuit case

rudy_wayne writes: On Friday, Paul Hansmeier, a Minnesota attorney who has been pointed to as one of the masterminds of the Prenda copyright-trolling scheme, filed an emergency motion to stay the $81,000 sanctions order while he and his colleagues could mount an appeal. Today the appeals court flatly denied his motion.. Two appellate judges signed this order, and it gives Hansmeier the option to make a plea for delay with the district court judge. That would be US District Judge Otis Wright, the judge who sanctioned Hansmeier in the first place.

Hansmeier is also getting kicked off a case he was working on that was totally unrelated to Prenda's scheme of making copyright accusations over alleged pornography downloads. On Friday, the 9th Circuit Commissioner ordered Hansmeier, in no uncertain terms, to withdraw a the case involving Groupon since he has been referred to the Minnesota State Bar for investigation. The commissioner has delayed Hansmeier's admission to the 9th Circuit because of Wright's order, which refers to Wright's finding of "moral turpitude."

Comment What interests you exactly? (Score 1) 2

You pointed out a few things that interests you. I have a CS degree so I'm speaking from that perspective. Here's the deal, a degree only gets you knowledge so you can learn more stuff--strange I know, but that's reality. You're interest that you've listed indicates that an EE might be a better track for you if you really want to do the electrical engineering stuff. I know people that have EE degrees that after they started doing programming or network-related stuff never turned back. I also know people that have EE degrees that enjoy writing embedded software as part of their electrical engineering-related work. Here's my suggestion: if you're at a college where your lower-division coursework can be applied to either EE or CS after your second year, then I suggest decide before the end of your second year. If you can't then I suggest you look at what you've done so far between your high school electrical work and your A+ and see what really interests you more between the two.
Java

Submission + - Oracle Ships Java 7 Update 11 With Vulnerability Fixes

An anonymous reader writes: After announcing a fix was coming just yesterday, Oracle on Sunday released Java 7 Update 11 to address the recently disclosed security vulnerability. If you use Java, you can download the latest update now from the Java Control Panel or directly from Oracle’s website here: Java SE 7u11. In the release notes for this update, Oracle notes this version "contains fixes for security vulnerabilities." A closer look at Oracle Security Alert for CVE-2013-0422 details that Update 11 fixes two vulnerabilities.
Power

Submission + - US Deserves Transparency From Oil Refineries

Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Gregg Laskoski writes in US News and World Report that virtually all of the retail gasoline price volatility that Americans experienced this past year was connected to significant problems at refineries and it was those refineries' vulnerability that subjected US consumers to the year's highest average price ever, $3.63 per gallon. February delivered the BP refinery fire in Cherry Point, Washington that led to gasoline price spikes all along the Pacific coast, refinery problems in the Great Lakes region pushed Chicago gas prices to an all-time high of $4.56 per gallon, and over the summer, west coast refineries incurred outages, and California saw record highs in most markets, with Los Angeles gasoline's average price peaking at $4.72/gallon in October. Finally after Reuters reported that some 7,700 gallons of fuel spilled from Phillips 66's Bayway refinery in Linden, NJ, after Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey environmental protection officials said they were not made aware of a major spill at the Bayway plant, and the refinery failed to respond to inquiries from Reuters reporters. "Too many times, history has shown us, the Phillips 66 response or lack thereof characterizes the standard practice of the oil industry. Refineries often fail or are slow to communicate problems that create significant disruptions to fuel supplies and spikes in retail gasoline prices. More often than not, scant information is provided reluctantly, if at all," writes Laskoski. "When such things occur is silence from refineries acceptable? Or does our government and the electorate who put them there have a right to know what's really going on?""

Comment Re:Until... (Score 1) 64

Actually, as a pilot I experience this sometimes--especially when flying when visibility is not so great. The feel on the seat of my pants is not agreeing with what I'm seeing outside and in my instruments. When I was in flight school my instructor always told me to prioritize what I'm seeing, not what I'm feeling in the seat of my pants. I wonder if the same technique can be used to prevent simulator sickness?

Comment Re:Just kick him out. (Score 2) 338

I think that's they key there. You know what's expected of adults, and you decided you're going to be one. I would venture to guess that your parents raised you up to become the responsible adult that you are--that you only stayed for a week after you got your post-college job. In situations like this, I say that the parents are just as responsible as the adult child. Like others have said, give the kid a month to get his act together or he's out of the house. There comes a point when the parents needs to disconnect themselves from their children.

Comment Re:Tech time lines (Score 3, Insightful) 179

Years ago I met a CFO who had just finished grilling his tech guy for over an hour getting the tech guy to come up with a worst case scenario for the project they were about to begin. In that hour the tech guy nearly tripled his time and cost estimates. After he left the CFO doubled the time and cost estimate for the budget. In the end the CFO was nearly bang on.

I would say this is a good CFO. The CFO understood that he had a choice: get it done quickly, or get it done right the first time; and he chose the latter.

Linux

Submission + - Denial-of-Service Attack Found In Btrfs File-System (phoronix.com)

An anonymous reader writes: It's been found that the Btrfs file-system is vulnerable to a Hash-DOS attack, a denial-of-service attack caused by hash collisions within the file-system. Two DOS attack vectors were uncovered by Pascal Junod that he described as causing astonishing and unexpected success. It's hoped that the security vulnerability will be fixed for the next Linux kernel release.
Google

Submission + - Iran threatens legal action against Google for not labeling Persian Gulf (cnn.com)

PantherSE writes: From the article:
Iran has threatened legal action against Google for not labeling the Persian Gulf on its maps.
"Toying with modern technologies in political issues is among the new measures by the enemies against Iran, (and) in this regard, Google has been treated as a plaything," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Thursday, according to state-run Press TV.
He added that "omitting the name Persian Gulf is (like) playing with the feelings and realities of the Iranian nation."

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