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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 213 declined, 37 accepted (250 total, 14.80% accepted)

Privacy

Submission + - California PUC Judge Violates CA Robodialing Law (thomashawk.com)

Thomas Hawk writes: Victoria Kolakowski, a current sitting law judge at the California PUC, is running for Alameda Superior Court judge in California. As part of her campaign she is robodialing people in California with a pre-recorded message. The only problem is that in Califorina robodials are actually *illegal* unless first introduced by a non-recorded natural person who gains consent to play the call. Ironically, the very agency set up to protect our privacy and enforce this law, the California PUC, is the very agency where Kolakowski works today. Kolakowski originally apologized for the calls but then later deleted messages on her Facebook account from people objecting to her use of these calls. Now Kolakowski is trying to argue that because "techincally" she is routing her calls through Colorado from outside the state that her robodials are actually legal.
Patents

Submission + - TiVo Patent Victory Over Dish Network Upheld (thomashawk.com)

Thomas Hawk writes: "An appeals court today shot down Dish Network's last chance to avoid a multi-million lawsuit verdict won by TiVo over their time shifting DVR technology. In addition to having to pay TiVo a minimum of $92 million, Dish Network will also now have to honor a court injunction to turn off DVR software to most of their customers. I hope Dish Network customers like commercials with their daily dose of Dr. Phil."
Technology (Apple)

Submission + - ATT&T iPhone Activation Hell (thomashawk.com)

Thomas Hawk writes: "Unfortunately it appears that the activations with Apple's new iPhone have gone FUBAR. After waiting in line 36 hours (number 8 in line) on Thursday and Friday I'm still unable to activate my phone. I'm documenting the AT&T circus call by call on my blog. http://thomashawk.com/2007/06/activating-new-iphon e-thus-far-is-pain.html I've had my hold calls dropped, been patched into other users unable to activate their phone instead of AT&T customer service reps, been told that my wife must get a new phone and that the family plan can't work for me. I've been told that the problem is that I'm not putting a new chip into my iPhone in the slot on the left side of my phone when no slot there exists. PR Blogger Steve Rubel has also been documenting his problems on his Twitterstream http://twitter.com/steverubel. According to an unscientific poll being conducted by Engadget about half of the people who bought iPhones have had activation trouble with about 38% of problems still unresolved. http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/01/poll-got-iphone -activation-problems/. We've been documenting the last 36 hours or so of iPhone activation hell live on ZooomrTV. http://zooomr.com/tv."
United States

Submission + - Tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Thomas Hawk writes: "Last month Robert Scoble and I were able to do a video/photo shoot of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) with SLAC Emeritus Bebo White . SLAC is both the longest and straightest building in the world and is the home of three Nobel Prizes in physics. My writeup with photos on our tour is here: http://thomashawk.com/2007/03/want-tour-of-longest -building-in-world.html. You can see the video tour part one here: http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/technology/1349/ tour-of-stanford-linear-accelerators-visitor-cente r and part two here: http://www.podtech.net/scobleshow/technology/1385/ photowalking-6-2-slac-tour-longest-building"
The Internet

Submission + - How Will Yahoo "Monetize" Their Social Net

Thomas Hawk writes: "One of the interesting things to come out of Yahoo's earnings call with analysts yesterday was the statement by Yahoo's COO, Daniel L. Rosenweig on Yahoo's plans to "monetize" their various social network properties. Flickr was mentioned five times on the conference call and their de.lic.io.us property was as well, after neither were mentioned in last quarter's call. Rosenweig characterized these services as being largely unmonetized and talked about leveraging these "assets" and targeting and profiling a large growing registered audience base. It will be interesting to see how some of Yahoo's popular web properties change through the monetization process. http://thomashawk.com/2006/10/yahoo-coo-daniel-l-r osenweig-on-future.html"
The Internet

Submission + - Flickr Launches Drag and Drop Geotagging

Thomas Hawk writes: Flickr today launched a mash up of sorts creating a tool in their organizer where users can use Yahoo! maps to geotag their photographs at Flickr. The new feature allows Flickr users the ability to simply drag and drop their photos onto a map, filter their photos by tags in order to geotag, and use interesting search technology to browse photos that have been geotagged on Flickr maps. I wrote up a detailed review of the new service here: http://thomashawk.com/2006/08/flickrs-new-geotaggi ng-pretty-damn.html

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