Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Privacy

Journal Journal: Google smear campaign against Privacy International exposed

Journal by firstlight01
According to a blog posting here: http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1491.html Google has gone on the attack after Privacy International published an interim report daring to suggest that Google privacy sucked so bad it was bottom of the entire list of Internet companies researched. The blog author claims that: "Google is slated for many reasons relating to privacy, including some worrying ones such as personal user information being ret
Networking

Time Warner Cable Implements Packet Shaping 492

Posted by Zonk from the neutral-networks-breath-easy dept.
RFC writes "In a move that may be indicative of modern ISP customer service, Time Warner has announced the introduction of packet shaping technology to its network. 'Packet shaping technology has been implemented for newsgroup applications, regardless of the provider, and all peer-to-peer networks and certain other high bandwidth applications not necessarily limited to audio, video, and voice over IP telephony.' As the poster observes, this essentially renders premium service useless. The company is already warning users that attempts to circumvent these measures is a violation of their Terms of Service."
Space

"Puddles" of Water Sighted on Mars 237

Posted by Zonk from the interstellar-jackpot dept.
eldavojohn writes "Further reinforcing the theory of a wet Mars, NewScientist is reporting on what appear to be water puddles in newly taken images from the Mars rover. While these results are controversial, the assumption that these blue 'puddles' are water still has to be tested by engineers. They'll try to measure the uniform smoothness of the puddle surfaces. Analysis will also examine their apparent 'opaqueness', where in some areas observers claim to see pebbles underneath the surface of the blue areas. From the article: 'No signs of liquid water have been observed directly from cameras on the surface before. Reports last year pointed to the existence of gullies on crater walls where water appears to have flowed in the last few years, as shown in images taken from orbit, but those are short-lived flows, which are thought to have frozen over almost immediately.'"
Patents

The Dangers of a Patent War Chest 125

Posted by Zonk from the not-more-powerful-quicker-easier-the-dark-side-is dept.
Timothy B. Lee writes "I've got an article in the New York Times in which I make the case against software patents. Expanding on a point I first made on my blog, I point out that Microsoft has had a change of heart on the patent issue. In 1991, Bill Gates worried that 'some large company will patent some obvious thing' and use it to blackmail smaller companies. Now that Microsoft is a large company with a patent war-chest of their own, they don't seem so concerned about abuse of the patent system. I then describe how Verizon's efforts to shut down Vonage are a perfect illustration of Gates' fears."
Media

Anti-DRM Activists Take On the BBC 200

Posted by CowboyNeal from the doing-what's-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Activists from Binary Freedom Boston have launched a campaign calling on the BBC to release their content online without DRM or proprietary formats. You might remember the BBC asking us about this earlier and even though the public chose not to use DRM by a landslide, they still decided to use it. EMI and Amazon have already ditched DRM. How long before the BBC does?"
The Courts

TorrentSpy Ordered By Judge to Become MPAA Spy 372

Posted by CowboyNeal from the watching-the-watchmen dept.
PC Guy writes "TorrentSpy, one of the world's largest BitTorrent sites, has been ordered by a federal judge to monitor its users. They are asked to keep detailed logs of their activities which must then be handed over to the MPAA. Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney responded to the news by stating: 'It is likely that TorrentSpy would turn off access to the U.S. before tracking its users. If this order were allowed to stand, it would mean that Web sites can be required by discovery judges to track what their users do even if their privacy policy says otherwise.'"

Slashdot Top Deals

"But what we need to know is, do people want nasally-insertable computers?"

Close