Comment Re:EPUB? (Score 5, Informative) 48
They publish the source .tex files at http://github.com/lydiapintscher/Open-Advice , so it's rather open.
Comment Re:Will they pull out of the UK (Score 1) 186
This is specifically addressed in the PDF at the site you link to, at 3.39:
Do downloads of electronic books or music from a website, or the purchase of ring tones and screen savers for mobile phones fall within the cancellation exceptions referred to above?
3.39 We consider that these examples are likely to constitute services, rather than goods as the consumer does not receive physical goods. The right to cancel are therefore those that apply to services.
Earlier they state that services that start before the end of the cancellation period are exempt in general, so it does in fact seem that there is an exemption for download-only software sales.
Comment Re:Bait & switch (Score 1) 364
3. As per UK contract legislation all T-mob customers who are affected now have 30 days to terminate the contract if they do not like it. Very few will do though - most phones on T-mob are subsidised so to terminate the contract one has to pay the balance on it (at the outrageously inflated "not-locked-in price).
What's the point of this legislation then if it doesn't protect you from inflated termination fees? Can't you always just cancel the contract and pay up?
Comment Re:Encrypted passwords? (Score 1) 99
Obligatory David A. Wheeler's "Fully Countering Trusting Trust" piece link: http://www.dwheeler.com/trusting-trust/
Comment The guy threw up inside his helmet (Score 2, Funny) 168
WTF wants to WATCH something like this?
Comment Re:Money (Score 3, Insightful) 89
If Microsoft fought patent trolls they would be in effect fighting the entire patent system, and could end up accidentally overthrowing all software patents. That wouldn't be good for Microsoft.
Comment Re:Public domain golden-age comic downloads (Score 2, Insightful) 257
Why don't they put this stuff on bittorrent then?
Comment Re:C on an 8-bit microcontroller? (Score 1) 496
If speed matters it's cheaper, easier, and faster to buy more processing power.
Yeah, especially if you're developing software that's supposed to run on netbooks.
Comment Re:No malloc( )s (Score 2, Informative) 587
Not only did you not get the joke, you also have some misconceptions about how the Java GC works. There is no counter, instead the program state is analysed for unreachable objects. Also, memory is not freed immediately, but some unspecified time later (i.e. during the next GC cycle)
Comment Re:Coding Standard (Score 4, Insightful) 707
Because the output is used as evidence in court?
Comment WTF, intellectual property? (Score 5, Insightful) 71
Why is everyone using "intellectual property", a catch-all phrase for trademarks, copyrights etc instead of just saying "ideas", "stories" or "settings"? I don't want to sound like RMS but it's really a dumb use of the term. The LoTR game is not based on IP, it's based on a story that happens to be protected by copyright.
Comment Re:Does it matter? (Score 2, Informative) 380
Perhaps surprisingly, for some people suspend/hibernation actually works on linux so you can boot rarely while not keeping the machine on 24/7.
I'm one of the less lucky ones that only have half of hibernation working, the "resume" part fails.
I'm one of the less lucky ones that only have half of hibernation working, the "resume" part fails.
Submission + - "Viacom hit me for infringing my own copyright (blogspot.com) 2
Chris Knight writes: "Long story short: I ran for school board where I live this past fall and created some TV commercials including this one with a "Star Wars" theme. A few months ago VH1 grabbed the commercial from YouTube and featured it in a segment of its show "Web Junk 2.0". Neither VH1 or its parent company Viacom told me they were doing this or asked my permission to use it, but I didn't mind it if they did. It was great to see the commercial was being enjoyed by a far wider audience than I'd expected. I was honored that they chose to use it and thought that Aries Spears's commentary about it was pretty hilarious, so I posted a clip of VH1's segment on YouTube so that I could put it on my blog. This morning I got an e-mail from YouTube saying that the video has been pulled because Viacom is claiming that I'm violating its copyright. Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright! Talk about chutzpah! Needless to say, I would like to fight this: not for any kind of monetary compensation, but just for the right to employ my own self-created material per Fair Use."
Submission + - BBC reports Skynet going live
rowleyrw writes: The BBC are reporting "The British military is set to take one of its most significant steps into the digital age with the launch of the first Skynet 5 satellite. The spacecraft will deliver secure, high-bandwidth communications for UK and "friendly" forces across the globe." It's not yet the Skynet of Terminator, but how long before it becomes self aware :-)
Submission + - XBOX360 Hypervisor Security Protection hacked
ACTRAiSER writes: "A recent Post on Bugtraq claims the hack of the XBOX360 Security Protection Hypervisor. It includes sample code as well.
"We have discovered a vulnerability in the Xbox 360 hypervisor that allows
privilege escalation into hypervisor mode. Together with a method to
inject data into non-privileged memory areas, this vulnerability allows
an attacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code
such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full
hardware access.""
