Comment Al Gore (Score 2, Funny) 799
Because of him your children won't be threatened by Manbearpig
Submission + - UK Secretary wants website ratings, censorship
kaufmanmoore writes: The UK culture secretary calls for a website rating system similar to the one used for movies and downright censorship in an interview with the Telegraph. He also calls for censorship of the internet saying "There is content that should just not be available to be viewed." Other proposals he mentions in his wide-ranging calls for internet regulation are "family-friendly" services from ISPs and requiring sites that host content with a proposal to force takedown notices to be enforced within a specific time interval. Mr. Burnham wants to extend his proposals across the pond and seeks meetings with the Obama administration.
Comment Just replacing one money pit with another (Score 1) 897
The auto companies would then ask for more tax money so they could retool but we already have a railroad money pit called Amtrak. It receives over $2 billion a year in federal money alone. Highways cost us $.01 per passenger mile while Amtrak costs $.22 per passenger mile, which one is more efficient use of tax dollars?
Comment Masturbate (Score 3, Insightful) 241
Fire up your favorite porno and fire one off, seems appropriate for an instance where we will get screwed either way.
Submission + - Leaning Tower of Pisa Secure for 300 More Years
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "Medieval architects only got as far as the third floor of the tower of Pisa before it began to lean in 1178 and by 1990 it had tilted more than four meters off its true vertical, with conservationists estimating that the entire 14,500-ton structure would collapse "some time between 2030 and 2040." Now the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized and declared safe for at least another three centuries after it was anchored to cables and lead counterweights while 70 tons of soil was removed from the north side — away from the lean — and cement was injected into the ground to relieve the pressure. The tilt has now returned to where it was in the early 19th century and architects say there was never any intention to straighten the 56m tower, only to stop it sinking further. Nicholas Shrady, author "Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa" says that the tower was destined to tilt from the outset because of the decision to build the tower "on what is essentially a former bog" and that the tower has previously come close to collapsing in 1838, 1934, and 1995. Although Galileo Galilei is said to have dropped cannon balls from the tower in a gravity experiment, Shrady says the myth is the "result of the overripe imagination of Galileo's secretary and first biographer, Vincenzo Viviani.""
Submission + - Domains May Disappear After Search 1
Ponca City, We Love You writes: "A perfect domain name pops into your mind, a quick check at your registrar reveals that the domain is available, you put off the registration a few minutes and when you come back to register the domain, it's taken by someone else. How much time has elapsed between the search and the attempted registration — in one case, less than 90 seconds. Daily Domainer has an interesting story alleging that there may be a leak that allows domain tasters to intercept, analyze and register your domain ideas in minutes. "Every time you do a whois search with any service, you run a risk of losing your domain," says one industry insider. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC ) has not been able to find hard evidence of Domain Name Front Running but they have issued an advisory (pdf) for people to come forward with hard evidence it is happening. Here is how domain name research theft crimes can occur and some tips to avoiding being a victim."
Submission + - Broadcasters launch ads opposing wireless internet
kaufmanmoore writes: According to an AP report, The National Association of Broadcasters is launching ads to target lawmakers over a push by a consortium of technology giants including Google, Intel, HP and MSFT who want to use unused and unlicensed TV spectrum for wireless broadband. Broadcasters are airing concerns about the devices creating interference with broadcast television and in a statement NAB chairman Alan Frank takes a swipe at technology companies saying, "While our friends at Intel, Google and Microsoft may find system errors, computer glitches and dropped calls tolerable, broadcasters do not."
Submission + - GPL Violations On Windows Go Unnoticed?
Scott_F writes: I recently reviewed several commercial, closed-source slideshow authoring packages for Windows and came across an alarming trend. Several of the packages I installed included GPL and LGPL software without any mention of the GPL, much less source code. For example, DVD Photo Slideshow (www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com) included mkisofs, cdrdao, dvdauthor, spumux, id3lib, lame, mpeg2enc and mplex (all of which are GPL or LGPL). What's worse is that the company tried to hide this by wrapping them all in DLL's! There are other violations in other packages as well. It seems that use of GPL software in commercial Windows applications is on the rise based on my testing of other software. My question is how much are GPL violations in the Windows world being pursued? Does the FSF or EFF follow-up on these if the platform is not GPL? How aware is the community of this trend?
Submission + - Microsoft forces shutdown of Autopatcher
kaufmanmoore writes: Posts on Neowin and Autopatcher's site announce Microsoft has forced the closure of the Autopatcher download section. Details are scarce as to the exact reason for the take down after over 4 years of availability, but an official from Microsoft legal says that it has nothing to do with Windows Genuine Advantage. Goodbye to another useful tool that helped sysadmins apply Microsoft's numerous patches.
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 + - Rootkit installation hits PC gaming (gamingbob.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Sony (the owners of SecureROM copy protection) are still up to their old tricks. One would think that they would have learned their lesson after the music CD DRM fiasco. However, they have now gone over and started infesting PC gaming with their DRM ideas. Recent facts have surfaced that show that BioShock, a recently released PC game, installs a rootkit as part of its SecureROM copy protection scheme. Not only this, just installing the DEMO installs the rootkit on your system, which embeds itself into Explorer. This begs the question: Since when did demos need copy protection?
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... when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or writer has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious floor. -- Fred Brooks
