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Comment Re:He might be a creep but (Score 1) 1276

The problem here is that on both sides of the political aisle, the ones not in power will criticize their opponent and question the other's loyalty to the state. In this situation, critical thinking is necessary to judge whether quality of the accusation and the propaganda angle they hope to employ. It may give us comfort that republicans make statements like that but there is an implication that they are the ones to trust instead.

Comment Re:If a student can't concentrate, it's his proble (Score 1) 804

They are teenagers just out of high school and often need the time to properly adjust to the method of study required for college. And people bother with writing notes because it has been shown to increase retention of the subject matter. Perhaps it works the same way for those who type, but I don't know what the data is for that group. While I agree with an earlier post that preferred the matter be left to the discretion of the professor, the fact remains that most students do not use their laptops in class, and may find people who use laptops distracting. Just because someone is able to use a laptop in class, that doesn't make it progress. And in a group, we should accommodate to everyone's needs, but one student should not override the study of others. To suggest that such a situation creates a "nanny policy" is hyperbole.
Image

Today's Children Are Officially Potty Mouths 449

tetrahedrassface writes "When the Sociolinguistics Symposium met earlier this month swearing scholar Timothy Jay revealed that an increase in child swearing is directly related to an increase in adult swearing. It seems that vulgarity is increasing as pop culture continues to popularize vulgarities. The blame lies with media, public figures, politicians, but mostly ourselves. From the article: 'Children as young as two are now dropping f-bombs, with researchers reporting that more kids are using profanity — and at earlier ages — than has been recorded in at least three decades.'"
Australia

AU R18+ Rating Plans Put On Hold Due To "Interest Groups" 139

Dexter Herbivore writes "Australian gamers are yet again left disappointed by their government's response to a lack of an R18+ rating for games. Gamespot reports that Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has blamed 'interest groups' for swamping the public consultation with pro-R18+ submissions. From the article: 'A strong response from gamer groups in the Australian Federal Government's R18+ public consultation has led Censorship Ministers to claim that more views from the community are needed before a decision into the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games can be reached.'" Reader UgLyPuNk adds that support for the new rating is coming from unexpected places.
Upgrades

NVIDIA Driver Update Causing Video Cards To Overheat In Games 155

After a group of StarCraft II beta testers reported technical difficulties following the installation of NVIDIA driver update 196.75, Blizzard tech support found that the update introduced fan control problems that were causing video cards to overheat in 3D applications. "This means every single 3D application (i.e. games) running these drivers is going to be exposed to overheating and in some extreme cases it will cause video card, motherboard and/or processor damage. If said motherboard, processor or graphic card is not under warranty, some gamers are in serious trouble playing intensive games such as Prototype, World of Warcraft, Farcry 3, Crysis and many other games with realistic graphics." NVIDIA said they were investigating the problem, took down links to the new drivers, and advised users to revert to 196.21 until the problem can be fixed.

Comment Re:containment theory... (Score 1) 1032

things get a little fuzzier when you consider that the us holds security council veto power and routinely violates the npt...

I don't think things are that fuzzy, access to the security council will determine whether anything gets done, and states that violate the rules are protected in large measure by who their allies are on the council. The way the United Nations is run, particularly the Security Council, shows me that whatever role the democratic process plays in its management, it is ultimately nullified by countries with economic and military dominance.

Comment Re:"Peaceful Use" (Score 1) 1032

No, that is not entirely true. Replacement parts for medical and other infrastructure equipment have been frequently blocked by the United States and Britain on the claim that they could be used to make weapons. Vaccines were denied because it was claimed that Iraq would use it to make germ weapons. In my opinion, those were the main reasons why the children suffered as they did.

Comment Re:Where's the benefit? (Score 1) 503

Currently, I can download ebooks from the New York Public Library and read it on my Sony 505 for 21 days. Unfortunately, there's a strange system where the library has access to one "copy", so if someone takes out that copy, no one else can read it until the period is up.
Networking

Comcast Intercepts and Redirects Port 53 Traffic 527

An anonymous reader writes "An interesting (and profane) writeup of one frustrated user's discovery that Comcast is actually intercepting DNS requests bound for non-Comcast DNS servers and redirecting them to their own servers. I had obviously heard of the DNS hijacking for nonexistent domains, but I had no idea they'd actually prevent people from directly contacting their own DNS servers." If true, this is a pretty serious escalation in the Net Neutrality wars. Someone using Comcast, please replicate the simple experiment spelled out in the article and confirm or deny the truth of it. Also, it would be useful if someone using Comcast ran the ICSI Netalyzr and posted the resulting permalink in the comments.
Businesses

Tech Companies That Won't Survive 2009 385

buzzardsbay writes "Fresh off their annual market survey, eWEEK channel folks have compiled the list of tech vendors their readers think will fail, falter, or be sold off in 2009. It's important to note that these aren't the opinions of the magazine or its editors. The list comes from folks who work in IT, mostly technology resellers, who are out in the field selling, installing and maintaining this stuff. If there were ever canaries in the tech coal mine, they'd be these service and solution providers who live and die by the slightest shift in the markets. Some of the companies on this list, like Sun and AMD, are shocking because of their size. Others, like CA and Symantec, not so surprising." What other companies are headed for implosion, or should be if all were right with the universe?
Biotech

Merck To Halt Lobbying For Vaccine 544

theodp writes "Reacting to a furor from some parents, advocacy groups, and public health experts, Merck said yesterday that it would stop lobbying state legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, which acts against strains of the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus. The $400, 3-shot regimen was approved by the FDA in June. Later that month, a federal advisory panel recommended that females 11-26 years old be vaccinated. The governor of Texas has already signed an executive order making its use mandatory for schoolgirls."
Television

Submission + - TV delays drive viewers to piracy

Astat1ne writes: The Register has a story about the delays Australian TV viewers are experiencing with overseas-produced series and how it is driving many of them to download the shows via BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks. From the story: "According to a survey based on a sample of 119 current or recent free-to-air TV series', Australian viewers are waiting an average of almost 17 months for the first run series' first seen overseas. Over the past two years, average Australian broadcast delays for free-to-air television viewers have more than doubled from 7.9 to 16.7 months." According to the article, the situation is compounded by the fact that Australian viewers are unable to download legal copies of the episodes from the US iTunes website and are turning to unauthorised means to get copies of their favorite shows.
Microsoft

Mr. Ballmer, Show Us the Code 462

DigDuality writes "A new campaign, Showusthecode.com, requests every leader in the Linux world, and companies invested in Linux, to stand up and demand that Steve Ballmer show the world where Linux violates Microsoft's intellectual property. He has been making these claims since the Novell-Microsoft deal. If Microsoft answers this challenge — by May 1st — then Linux developers will be able to modify the code so that it remains 'free' software. If such infringing code doesn't exist, we will have called Microsoft's bluff. And if the campaign garners enough attention and if Steve Ballmer maintains silence, then the community and companies behind Linux can take the silence for the admission that it is."

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