StrangeCargoFromKeyL - Slashdot User

California Balks At Internet Sales Tax 268

Posted by kdawson on Monday February 12, 2007 @08:06PM from the what's-$2B-among-friends dept.

bob_calder writes "California has walked away from $2 billion a year in revenue by declining to get on board with a group working to standardize tax rates so a national tax on Internet sales could eventually be implemented by Congress. Supporters of the tax think they still have a chance in New York, Texas, and Florida. At the moment the largest states pursuing the Streamlined Sales Tax Initiative are New Jersey, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. California didn't want to give up its autonomy in setting taxes to a coalition of smaller states."

Comment Conjecture (Score 1) 349

by StrangeCargoFromKeyL on Monday January 29, 2007 @10:17PM (#17808646) Attached to: Restrictions On Social Sites Proposed In Georgia

Right now, I'd venture to say (read: totally blind-guessing here) that roughly 33% of deadly malicious beastghosts are computer-savvy (not to mention sane) enough to get on a computer and find some prey to victimize. It stands to reason that in the coming years, that percentage will rise as more Americans who grew up wrangling computers come of age... which translates to: a higher percentage of our nation's raving degenerate lunatics who are totally computer savvy. This techno-savvy wave of deranged folks will make the internet wilder, woolier, and more every-man-for-himself than ever before...

Which brings me to my point:
Networked youngun's shouldn't be sheltered from the very thing they need seared into their instincts: defensive surfing.

-Daniel

(2nd /. post ever, first 'serious' one, go easy, and please appraise of any glaring etiquette errors/faux pas...)

_______________
The site I've been working on for four months just went live!

Decryption Keys For HD-DVD Found, Confirmed 473

Posted by kdawson on Saturday January 13, 2007 @02:14PM from the house-of-cards dept.

kad77 writes "It appears that, despite skepticism, 'muslix64' was the real deal. Starting from a riddle posted on pastebin.com, members on the doom9 forum identified the Title key for the HD-DVD release 'Serenity.' Volume Unique Keys and Title keys for other discs followed within hours, confirming that software HD-DVD players, like any common program, store important run-time data in memory. Here's a link to decryption utility and sleuthing info in the original doom9 forum thread. The Fair Use crowd has won Round One; now how will the industry respond?"

Civil UAVs Still A Distant Prospect 109

Posted by Zonk on Friday December 01, 2006 @06:53PM from the i-want-to-be-a-rigger dept.

holy_calamity writes "The aerospace industry has failed to obtain the radio frequencies that would allow the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in civil airspace, New Scientist reports. It will be 2011 before it can even begin to lobby for space on the radio spectrum. What's more, no national aviation authority in the world will allow civil UAVs without a system for avoiding other aircraft. And no firm has even started development of one. Has the industry cheated us of the benefits of civil UAVs by focussing on the demands of the military?" From the article: "On the brighter side, last week the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization, based in Montreal, Canada, said its navigation experts would meet in early 2007 to consider regulations for UAVs in civil airspace. That could be a step towards internationally agreed rules for how UAVs should operate. Even if the UN body makes rapid progress, however, it will be meaningless unless the industry can obtain the necessary frequencies to control the planes and feed images and other sensor data back to base."

MSN Music Purchases Not Compatible with Zune 453

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday November 06, 2006 @09:35PM from the digital-restrictions-management dept.

lewiz writes "The BBC is reporting that music purchased at MSN Music will not play on the new Zune music player." From the article: "The problem has arisen because tracks from the MSN Music site are compatible with the specifications of the Plays For Sure initiative. This was intended to re-assure consumers as it guaranteed that music bought from services backing it would work with players that supported it. MSN Music, Napster, AOL Music Now and Urge all backed Plays For Sure as did many players from hardware makers such as Archos, Creative, Dell and Iriver. In a statement a Microsoft spokesperson said: 'Since Zune is a separate offering that is not part of the Plays For Sure ecosystem, Zune content is not supported on Plays For Sure devices.'"

Hitch-Hackers Guide To the Galaxy 84

Posted by Zonk on Saturday November 04, 2006 @05:29AM from the using-a-towel-while-coding dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Jay Beale, of Bastille Linux fame, has written a hacking puzzle short story based on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's called Hitch-Hackers Guide to the Galaxy. The short story is pretty funny and the puzzle lets you have some quick fun with web hacking. There are prizes for best technical answer and most creative (while technically correct) answer."

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