On the other hand Google gets into hot waters for recording the signals sent from a voluntarily bought and voluntarily used wifi router...

When I was in the army in Hungary (mandatory military service) sometimes we were ordered to go out to the soccer field and cut the grass with scissors.

Actually, you are wrong about the buzz in. It gives the humans an advantage. The reason is that Watson has a mechanical buzzer that it presses. So the only advantage would come from reacting faster. However, the rules state that you can buzz in only after the host has finished reading the clue. If you buzz in earlier then you are penalized by .25sec. Jeopardy is prepared for hearing disabled people, so they have a signal indicating that the host has finished reading. I presume this is what Watson uses. However, I'm certain that humans process intonation as well and can anticipate when the host will finish. So they have a better chance to buzz in first if they decide to buzz in.

Who has modded parent informative? The story clearly (whether correctly or not I do not know) says Stemgraph.

> If it's not illegal, then they'll probably have to adapt their process to take care of the problem.

That is exactly what Wikipedia might be doing: block Verizon customers from editing Wikipedia. They take care of the problem... At that point it will become Verizon's problem as perhaps a number of their customers will complain loudly. And a solution is that Verizon updates their TOS and then kicks out the vandals. Even if something is not illegal, it may be against the TOS, so Verizon can terminate the connection. Of course, so many things are against the TOS, that they can terminate almost anybody's connection :-(.

> Isn't the definition of insanity repeating the same action and expecting different results?

Why would it be insanity? They are aware of the fact, do not expect different results, saddened by it, but that does not alter the fact that they, the authors have a say how their work can be distributed.

> If you want to end DRM, you need to support Apple since they are the only large company who has worked to end DRM and had some success. You need to keep things like VLC alive in the app store, so that users will be more tempted to use non-DRM downloads and consume them on modern computing devices.
> But instead, the FSF is playing into the hands of the media companies by keeping things like VLC player out of the mainstream and attacking the only company with the same goals of ending DRM.

I beg to disagree. Apple has worked to end DRM when it is not *their* DRM and when it harms their business. They protect their own DRM as much as they can. In fact, in this very case the app store's distribution/license rules are the restriction and not what the app may play. Also, I don't see the logic in why would VLC in the app store tempt users to use non-DRM downloads. Non-DRM downloads play on anything (provided the codec is supported).

> Nice work FSF,

Indeed. I like it when they force companies to abide by the license terms.

> this is seriously making me re-think my yearly donation...

That is your decision.

Even if you decline storage of your passwords some still make it into the "Web Data" file!

--Laci

8 pages; only 11 (eleven) lines on the first page; not navigable without javascript enabled; no printable page option.

Remind me never to go to cnet's page...

--Laci

> They very conveniently lost the original order (where I disclosed exactly what I required, down to what networks I will announce)

You are in luck then! Take them to court. If you have your copy (you *do*, right?) and they can't produce a copy, then I can't imagine how you could lose. And you can demand lots of compensation. Afterall, this may drive you out of business, so 10 years worth of salary+benefits for all your employees + penalty + lawyer's fees is the minimum.

Just to let you know: as of this spring even legal US residents (green card holders) get fingerprinted...

I have yet to see a serious, insightful post about this story. A little googling turned up pics and data although I confess that I don't know what 16 kwh / 100 KM works out to in MPG.

If 1 kWh costs $0.2 then it costs you $3.20 to drive roughly 60 miles. A moderately efficient combustion engine car woud use 2 gallons of gas which costs $3.3 at current average prices. However, you can use cheaper electricity since you'd recharge during the night. A lot depends on how much maintenance this car will need.

--Laci