Schmam - Slashdot User

A Whitelist for Phone Calls? 151

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @07:50PM from the i'd-settle-for-a-blacklist-on-my-cell-phone dept.

javacowboy asks: "I've been getting lots of strange phone calls lately. Most of the time, my phone would ring less than three times and then stop before I can answer. Then, a couple of nights ago, I got a call at 3am in the morning. It had stopped ringing by the time I woke up. *69 revealed a number with an area code of 632, which does not exist. I called the number, and the call would not complete past the area code. I want a product or service with which I can set up a -whitelist- of numbers that I allow to make my phone ring. Any number not on the list, or an unlisted phone number, tries to call me, and the phone doesn't ring at all. I would pay as much for this service as I would pay to have my number removed from the phone directory. Is something like this possible? If so, how would I do it?"

Google Spends Money to Jump-Start Hybrid Car Development 352

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 19, 2007 @07:44PM from the to-the-googmobile dept.

slugo writes "Internet search giant Google (GOOG) hopes to speed the development of plug-in hybrid cars by giving away millions of dollars to people and companies that have what appear to be practical ways to get plug-in hybrid automobiles to market faster. 'While many people don't associate Google with energy, analysts say the fit isn't all that unnatural. Renewable energy, unlike coal or nuclear, will likely come from thousands or tens of thousands of different locations. Analysts have long said that one of the big challenges will be managing that flow into and out of the nation's electric grid, and that companies that manage the flow of information are well placed to handle that task.'"

AOL's Embarassing Password Woes 192

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday May 06, 2007 @10:26AM from the top-sekrit dept.

An anonymous reader writes "AOL.com users may think they have up to sixteen characters to use as a password, but they'd be wrong, thanks to this security artifact detailed by The Washington Post's Security Fix blog: "Well, it turns out that when someone signs up for an AOL.com account, the user appears to be allowed to enter up to a 16-character password. AOL's system, however, doesn't read past the first eight characters." This means that a user who uses "password123" or any other obvious eight-character password with random numbers on the end is in effect using just that lame eight-character password."

Comment Not at all like eminent domain (IAAL) (Score 1) 765

by Schmam on Saturday May 05, 2007 @02:22PM (#19003177) Attached to: Brazil Voids Merck Patent On AIDS Drug

The eminent domain power is used to *permanently* acquire property; a compulsory license, as the name would suggest, is not a permanent taking. The compulsory licensing scheme set out in article 31 of the TRIPS agreement sets out a number of conditions that a country seeking such a license must meet, and the terms of the license are also limited in a number of ways (for example, the license "shall be authorized predominantly for the supply of the domestic market of the Member authorizing such use").

Importantly, if the conditions upon which the compulsory license is based (in this case, the inability for Merck and Brazil to see eye-to-eye on price) change, the license will *expire*. Thus, it's not accurate to imply that Brazil is acquiring the patent by what is basically its power of eminent domain. Brazil isn't acquiring anything really, since a change in circumstances could terminate its rights to continue using the patent.

And lastly, don't forget that (since this is a license, after all) TRIPS requires Brazil to pay Merck at some rate which will have to be determined later. Brazil wouldn't have to do that if it simply acquired the patent via its eminent domain power.

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