Comment Non issue (Score 1) 382
I've fixed this issue in my own coding practices. I strictly use GPLv4.
Submission + - UW says it will aid RIAA (thenewstribune.com)
arlanTLDR writes: The University of Washington announced that it will not only comply with the RIAA, it will outright aid them in finding students accused of illegal file sharing. A letter from the Vice Provost for Student Life sent to all students indicates that "The University has been notified by the RIAA that we will be receiving a number of these early settlement letters. After careful consideration, we have decided to forward the letters to the alleged copyright violators."
Submission + - Day of Silence on the Internet (damontimm.com)
thornomad writes: "Time to pick up the phone (or usb headset) and call a representative or two: pandora.com (and other internet radio sites) has gone silent for the day to protest the impending legistlation that will effect internet radio:
"Hi, it's Tim from Pandora, I'm sorry to say that today Pandora, along with most Internet radio sites, is going off the air in observance of a Day Of Silence. We are doing this to bring to your attention a disastrous turn of events that threatens the existence of Pandora and all of internet radio. We need your help. Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Pandora's fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, every day will be like today as internet radio sites start shutting down and the music dies. A bill called the "Internet Radio Equality Act" has already been introduced in both the Senate (S. 1353) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2060) to fix the problem and save Internet radio — and Pandora — from obliteration. I'd like to ask you to call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to become co-sponsors of the bill. It will only take a few minutes and you can find your Congresspersons and their phone numbers by entering your zip code here. Your opinion matters to your representatives — so please take just a minute to call. Visit www.savenetradio.org to continue following the fight to Save Internet Radio. As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.
Submission + - Fruit fly free will could lead to robot domination
Lucas123 writes: "A study performed at the Free University Berlin on human free will has produced some unexpected results showing that fruit flies may have a spark of free will in their tiny brains, according to an MSNBC story. 'Their behavior seemed to match up with a mathematical algorithm called Levy's distribution ... Future research delving further into free will could lead to more advanced robots, scientists added. The result, joked neurobiologist Björn Brembs from the Free University Berlin, could be "world robot domination."'"
Submission + - Lone Programmer Writes 253 Webcam Drivers for Linu
mrneutron2004 writes: We ran across this interview/story today and felt compelled to repost it. A French physician and ardent linux support is the ONE MAN you can all thank for adding support for 253 webcam's in Linux. The Open Source OS world may still be a bit of a mess when competing with the ease of Windows, but efforts like this make you wonder. One man with drive, tenacity, and no funding does what noone else can do. And none of the major linux distributions back this guy's efforts, even the big players dipping into the corporate worlds coffers.
http://www.fastsilicon.com/latest-news/lone-progra mmer-writes-253-webcam-drivers-for-linux.html?Item id=60
Submission + - Apple grants DRM-free distribution to all labels
SexCaptain writes: AppleInsider gives details of a letter circulated by Apple to all producers of content for the iTunes Store, announcing that from May onwards they can sell their music at higher quality and free of DRM. Hopefully this opens the doors for labels like Netwerk, and although its unclear exactly what Apple means by 'higher quality', and there is no mention of price changes, this is a big step in the right direction.
"Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."
"Many of you have reached out to iTunes to find out how you can make your songs available higher quality and DRM-free," Apple wrote in the communication. "Starting next month, iTunes will begin offering higher-quality, DRM-free music and DRM-free music videos to all customers."
Journal Journal: Supreme Court sides with Microsoft Over AT&T 122
The Supreme Court today sided with Microsoft in a patent case filed by AT&T. The case centered around whether selling Windows overseas infringed on AT&T's patents that are in Windows. Microsoft argued (pdf) that since the copies being sold in Asia, etc. are only made from a copy of a mas
Submission + - Linking Video Games to Violence
ahoehn writes: "Amanda Schaffer has written a refreshingly balanced piece about the connection between video games and violence. Instead of regurgitating the typical reactionary voices in this debate, she looks at what scientific studies suggest about the issue.
From the article: "Pathological acts of course have multiple, complex causes and are terribly hard to predict. And clearly, millions of people play Counter-Strike, Halo, and Doom and never commit crimes. But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so.""
From the article: "Pathological acts of course have multiple, complex causes and are terribly hard to predict. And clearly, millions of people play Counter-Strike, Halo, and Doom and never commit crimes. But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so.""
RFID Passports Cloned Without Opening the Package 168
Jeremy writes to tell us that using some simple deduction, a security consultant discovered how to clone a passport as it's being mailed to its recipient, without ever opening the package. "But the key in this first generation of biometric passport is relatively easy to identify/crack. It is not random, but consists of passport number, the passport holder's date of birth and the passport expiry date. The Mail found it relatively easy to identify the holder's date of birth, while the expiry date is 10 years from the issue date, which for a newly-delivered passport would clearly fall within a few days. The passport number consists of a number of predictable elements, including an identifier for the issuing office, so effectively a significant part of the key can be reconstructed from the envelope and its address label."
Feed Gates Wants More Visas (wired.com)
Feed Sony Gives PS3 a Second Life (wired.com)
Bookmark SPAM: VoiceCon: Microsoft to introduce first public beta of Office VoIP products - Net
Feed Samsung: Hybrid Hard Drive (wired.com)
South Korea Drafting Ethical Code for Robotic Age 318
goldaryn writes "The BBC is reporting that the South Korean government is working on an ethical code for human/robot relations, 'to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa'. The article describes the creation of the Robot Ethics Charter, which 'will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. [...] It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and a science fiction writer.'"
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A large number of installed systems work by fiat. That is, they work by being declared to work. -- Anatol Holt
