Comment Oops. (Score 2) 807
Crap, forget that. After scanning through it a few more times, I found the provision. It's in section 1022. Please disregard above.
Comment Re:Free software wouldn't have helped (Score 1) 807
The version you have linked to is not the final version that the president signed.
That can be found here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-1540
The final version contains no provision whatsoever for US citizens.
That can be found here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-1540
The final version contains no provision whatsoever for US citizens.
Comment Re:Seriously? (Score 1) 764
Are the "Jury of your peers" seriously that gullible that they feel they have to institute massive punitive damages on an individual?
Yes. Or perhaps just mean. Anyone who's been through high school knows there's no one more unforgiving than your peers.
Comment Don't forget crapware (Score 1) 613
Nearly every computer you buy in store (or online even) comes preloaded with so much junk, it wouldn't surprise me if your typical computer boots with 75% of actual memory used up. Just walk into a Best Buy and try using one of their display models. Your average Joe Schmoe doesn't know that all those little icons in the system tray shouldn't be there, much less how to disable them. This isn't Win7's fault, it's the OEMs'.
Agreed, this is a very lousy report with way too many variables.
First MySQL 5.5 Beta Released 95
joabj writes "While MySQL is the subject of much high-profile wrangling between the EU and Oracle (and the MySQL creator himself), the MySQL developers have been quietly moving the widely-used database software forward. The new beta version of MySQL, the first publicly available, features such improvements as near-asynchronous replication and more options for partitioning. A new release model has been enacted as well, bequeathing this version the title of 'MySQL Server 5.5.0-m2.' Downloads here."
Comment Time to delete my ROMs... (Score 1) 289
The problem is in SMBv2 and SMBv1
A shame, really. And I suppose it'll only be a matter of time before they find a zero-day exploit for Super Mario Bros. v3...
Submission + - Software Piracy at the Workplace 3
An anonymous reader writes: What does one do when a good portion of the application software at your workplace is pirated? Bringing this up did not endear me at all to the president of the company. I was given a flat, "We don't pirate software software," and, "We must have paid for it at some point." Given that I was only able to find one burnt copy of Office Pro with a Google-able CD-Key and that version of Office was on at least 20 computers, I'm not convinced. Some of the legit software in the company has been installed on more than one computer, such as Adobe Acrobat. Nevertheless I have been called on to install dubious software on multiple occasions.
As for shareware, what strategies do you use to convince management to allow the purchase of commonly used utilities? If an installation of WinZip reports thousands of uses, I think the software developer deserves a bit o' coin for it. When I told management that WinZip has a one-second per file previously opened timeout counter, they tried to implement a policy of wait for it, do something else, and come back later, rather than spend the money.
Also, some software is free for home and educational use only, like AVG Free. What do you when management ignores this?
As for shareware, what strategies do you use to convince management to allow the purchase of commonly used utilities? If an installation of WinZip reports thousands of uses, I think the software developer deserves a bit o' coin for it. When I told management that WinZip has a one-second per file previously opened timeout counter, they tried to implement a policy of wait for it, do something else, and come back later, rather than spend the money.
Also, some software is free for home and educational use only, like AVG Free. What do you when management ignores this?
Comment I can't believe it... (Score 1) 132
Comment Re:Ogg Theora is the natural choice (Score 1) 392
Exactly. I think if Mozilla continues supporting Ogg, and if web developers continue making sites that use it (sporting "Best viewed with Firefox 3.5" at the bottom), it will eventually become the standard whether the other companies approve of it or not. No browser likes to be left behind.
Although, I suppose the converse could be true if, say, Microsoft were to support H.264 with IE8, and then began using it on all of their sites. (But then they would be competing with their very own Silverlight, so scratch that.)
Although, I suppose the converse could be true if, say, Microsoft were to support H.264 with IE8, and then began using it on all of their sites. (But then they would be competing with their very own Silverlight, so scratch that.)
Comment Typo In Summary (Score 1) 416
traveling from Tuscon to Phoenix in 30 minutes flat.
I believe it's Tucson, not Tuscon.
Comment Re:If you didn't vote libertarian, you ASKED FOR T (Score 1) 785
I'm not saying Democrats and Republicans are great stuff. Far from that. (Just look at Obama. :D)
rolfwind was using Jesse Ventura's victory as 'proof' that Independents do stand a fighting chance, but that argument is flawed, since he most likely would have won no matter what party he was affiliated with. 99% of the time Independents do not win, no matter how much more 'wholesome' they may or may not be than the Democans or the Republicrats.
rolfwind was using Jesse Ventura's victory as 'proof' that Independents do stand a fighting chance, but that argument is flawed, since he most likely would have won no matter what party he was affiliated with. 99% of the time Independents do not win, no matter how much more 'wholesome' they may or may not be than the Democans or the Republicrats.
Comment Re:Parallel programming is hard, film at 11. (Score 1) 626
And Macs are suspiciously missing from the summary. Perhaps this is what Steve Jobs has been doing in his spare time... You can't fool us, "Timothy!"
Comment Security of the Security Reasearcher's Systems? (Score 1) 98
The IOActive research will probably never be released publicly: Many of these devices are already deployed and it would be too dangerous to make the bugs known.
Hopefully they've tested the security of the computers that are storing this data. Wouldn't it be ironic if the IOActive computers were hacked and criminals got a hold of their worm?
Comment Re:If you didn't vote libertarian, you ASKED FOR T (Score 1) 785
I'm sure the fact that he's a former wrestler / actor / radio and television talk show host had nothing to do with it...
He could have been a Republican and won that election. He's Jesse Freakin' Ventura.
I suppose it's possible for the independent party to win in the future, provided they can find a famous enough celebrity to run... but I wouldn't bet my ever-shrinking stocks on it. No Independent Party candidate has been elected president since George Washington, and I don't expect that to change in the next few centuries.
Oh yeah, and Jesse turned out to be a pretty crappy governor.
He could have been a Republican and won that election. He's Jesse Freakin' Ventura.
I suppose it's possible for the independent party to win in the future, provided they can find a famous enough celebrity to run... but I wouldn't bet my ever-shrinking stocks on it. No Independent Party candidate has been elected president since George Washington, and I don't expect that to change in the next few centuries.
Oh yeah, and Jesse turned out to be a pretty crappy governor.
Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA 785
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held that the 1919 decision — rather than the Supreme Court's more recent decisions involving punitive damages — was applicable to an award against a Karaoke CD distributor for 44 times the actual damages. Of course none of the cited cases dealt with the ratios sought by the RIAA: 2,100 to 425,000 times the actual damages for an MP3 file. Interestingly, the Government brief asked the Judge not to rule on the issue at this time, but to wait until after a trial. Also interestingly, although the brief sought to rebut, one by one, each argument that had been made by the defendant in his brief, it totally ignored all of the authorities and arguments that had been made by the Free Software Foundation in its brief. Commentators had been fearing that the Obama/Biden administration would be tools of the RIAA; does this filing confirm those fears?"
