THE ROCK - Slashdot User

Canadian Coins Not Nano-Tech Espionage Devices 412

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday May 07, 2007 @11:06AM from the reality-is-always-funnier dept.

Necrotica writes "An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier this year. The odd-looking — but harmless — "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP."

VeriChip Implants 222 People With RFID 306

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @11:43AM from the i-trust-my-ass-chip-to-linux dept.

cnet-declan writes "Anyone remember VeriChip, a company that came up with the idea of implanting chips in humans for tracking them? They've been behind ideas like RFID tagging immigrant and guest workers at the border, and they've persuaded a former Bush Health Secretary to get himself chipped. In this CNET News.com article, we offer an update on how successful the idea has been. It turns out that, according to IPO documents, 222 people have been implanted, with sales revenue of $100,000."

Wikipedia On the Brink? Or Crying Wolf? 380

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday February 10, 2007 @12:52PM from the all-about-the-benjamins dept.

netbuzz writes "Might Wikipedia 'disappear' three or four months from now absent a major infusion of cash donations? The suggestion has been made by Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation. And while her spokesperson has since backpedaled off that dire prediction, there can be little doubt that the encyclopedia anyone can edit could use a few more benefactors to go along with all those editors."

Comment Re:Oh Canada (Score 1) 381

by THE ROCK on Friday February 09, 2007 @11:52AM (#17948782) Attached to: To Media Companies, BitTorrent Implies Guilt

How true

Shaw Cable used to be the same way. No longer.

Now they throttle the living shit out of their connections (like all cable companies in Canada, it seems) and reportedly have no qualms about turning over your info to anybody who asks.

DSL FTW, anyone who badmouths Canadian DSL in this day and age is only spreading FUD. I've had DSL for almost a year now and its like I found the promised land after what cable turned into. I have literally twice the upstream and downstream bandwidth that I had before (for less money), there are never any slowdowns at peak usage times, and they don't care how much bandwidth I use (my up and down is usually running at 80% of capacity, and had been almost continuously since last March.)

FUCK YOU SHAW CABLE. I get better TV and better internet from the phone company, so SUCK MY BALLS! I was nice I shaved em for you. Well actually I shaved em for my last gf, but you too can benefit.

University Professor Chastised For Using Tor 623

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 08, 2007 @06:12PM from the control-freaks-ascendent dept.

Irongeek_ADC writes with a first-person account from the The Chronicle of Higher Education by a university professor who was asked to stop using Tor. University IT and campus security staffers came knocking on Paul Cesarini's door asking why he was using the anonymizing network. They requested that he stop and also that he not teach his students about it. The visitors said it was likely against university policy (a policy they probably were not aware that Cesarini had helped to draft). The professor seems genuinely to appreciate the problems that a campus IT department faces; but in the end he took a stand for academic freedom.

To Media Companies, BitTorrent Implies Guilt 381

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 08, 2007 @01:33PM from the law-and-disorder dept.

kripkenstein writes "The big media companies immediately assume you are guilty by your mere presence on a BitTorrent swarm, an investigation by a university security worker reveals. Turns out companies like BayTSP (which the media companies employ) will send shutdown notices to ISPs without any evidence of copyright infringment; all they feel they need is an indication that you are reported by the tracker to be in the swarm." From the post: "For my investigation, I wrote a very simple BitTorrent client. My client sent a request to the tracker, and generally acted like a normal Bittorrent client up to sharing files. The client refused to accept downloads of, or upload copyrighted content. It obeyed the law... With just this, completely legal, BitTorrent client, I was able to get notices from BayTSP. To put this in to perspective, if BayTSP were trying to bust me for doing drugs, it'd be like getting arrested because I was hanging out with some dealers, but they never saw me using, buying, or selling any drugs."

RIAA Victim Wins Attorney's Fees 171

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @08:51PM from the fight-the-power dept.

VE3OGG writes "Debbie Foster, one of the many caught-up in the RIAA's drift-net attacks who was sued back in 2004 has recently seen yet another victory. After having the suit dropped against her "with prejudice" several months back, Foster filed a counter-claim, and has just been awarded "reasonable" attorney's fees. Could this, in conjunction with cases such as Santangelo, show a turning of the tide against the RIAA?"

ISP Tracking Legislation Hits the House 332

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday February 07, 2007 @05:15PM from the someone-is-always-watching-in-your-hotel dept.

cnet-declan writes "CNET News.com reports that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives announced yesterday legislation to force ISPs to keep track of what their users are doing. It's part of the Republicans 'law and order agenda,' with other components devoted to the death penalty, gangs, and terrorists. Attorney General Gonzales would be permitted to force Internet providers to keep logs of Web browsing, instant message exchanges, and e-mail conversations indefinitely. The draft bill is available online, and it also includes mandatory Web labeling for sexually explicit pages. The idea enjoys bipartisan support: a Colorado Democrat has been the most ardent supporter in the entire Congress."

Canadian Movie Piracy Claims Mostly Fiction? 151

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 05, 2007 @02:01PM from the i-never-would-have-guessed dept.

Justin Primus writes "Michael Geist's weekly column dismantles recent claims that Canada is the world's leading movie piracy haven. The article uses the industry's own data to demonstrate that the assertions about movie bootlegging and its economic impact are greatly exaggerated and that the MPAA's arguments about Canadian copyright law are misleading. I particularly liked how Geist dug up the fact that the MPAA itself says that there have only been 179 movies recorded with a camcorder over the past three years out of the 1,400 that the Hollywood studios released."

Scientology Critic Arrested After 6 Years 1046

Posted by Hemos on Monday February 05, 2007 @12:32PM from the running-to-standstill dept.

destinyland writes "Friday police arrested 64-year-old Keith Henson. In 2000 after picketing a Scientology complex, he was arrested as a threat because of a joke Usenet post about "Tom Cruise Missiles." He fled to Canada after being found guilty of "interfering" with a religion, and spent the next 6 years living as a fugitive. Besides being a digital encryption and free speech advocate, he's one of the original Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments researchers and a co-founder of the Space Colony movement."

MySpace Worm Creator Sentenced 387

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday February 04, 2007 @11:27AM from the wear-the-hat-and-sit-in-the-corner dept.

Aidan Steele writes "Remember Samy? The creator of the infamous worm was unfortunate enough to be the the target in MySpace's latest litigation. As was said in the earlier story, the script was "written for fun" and caused no damage. The source and technical explanation for the "attack" was not even released until after MySpace had patched the vulnerability. Apparently this was enough to get the 20 year old (19 at the time of writing the worm) three years of probation, three months of community service, pay restitution to MySpace and is also banned from the Internet. Clearly, disclosing security vulnerabilities doesn't pay."

Lycos Deletes Emails and Says 'Too Bad!' 513

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 02, 2007 @04:50PM from the now-that's-customer-service dept.

Billosaur writes "The Consumerist brings us a tale of woe which is apparently generating outrage in some quarters, along with death threats. Lycos email customer Whitney did not access her account for 30 days. This resulted in Lycos deleting over two years worth of email. It isn't so much Lycos' policy that's the problem (though that requires some scrutiny), but the response of the 'manager of all of Customer Service,' Mike Jandreau. Apparently he's not too service oriented, as his exchange with Whitney shows. And since this story was posted to The Consumerist, apparently Mr. Jandreau has become the focus of some unwanted attention. Of course, his final response to her might have something to with it: 'I'm sorry, no one here has any intentions of helping you with anything. I am the manager of all of Customer Service. There is no one higher than me that you will speak with. You violated our policy, which is, despite what you say, completely clear. No one is holding anything hostage. Your e-mails have been completely deleted, and no amount of money can now restore them.'"

Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study 668

Posted by Zonk on Friday February 02, 2007 @11:52AM from the you're-wrong-and-i-think-mr.-lincoln-knows-why dept.

w1z4rd writes "According to an article in the Guardian, scientists and economists have been offered large bribes by a lobbying group funded by ExxonMobil. The offers were extended by the American Enterprise Institute group, which apparently has numerous ties to the Bush administration. Couched in terms of an offer to write 'dissenting papers' against the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, several scientists contacted for the article refused the offers on conflict of interest grounds."

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt 804

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday January 31, 2007 @07:32PM from the we-do-whatever-we-want-to-whomever-we-want-at-all-times dept.

An anonymous reader writes "An ad campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force featuring the Mooninites Ignignot and Err caused major security concerns in Boston, MA when magnetic light displays were mistaken for possible bombs. The displays included one of Ignignot flipping the bird (as hard as he could), but Gov. Deval Patrick was not amused."

Microsoft Retracts Patent 182

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday January 29, 2007 @01:53PM from the too-hot dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has retracted their recent controversial patent application. The story was first brought to light by Slashdot on Saturday. Today, Jane Prey of Microsoft announced the retraction on the SIGCSE (Special Interest in Computer Science Education) mailing list. 'Many thanks to the members of the community that brought this to my attention — and here's the latest. The patent application was a mistake and one that should not have happened. To fix this, Microsoft will be removing the patent application. Our sincere apologies to Michael Kölling and the BlueJ community.'"

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