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Comment Myth: Artificial banana flavor based on Gros Miche (Score 1) 195

by loren (#59085772) Attached to: The Banana Is One Step Closer To Disappearing

There is a myth that artificial banana flavor is âoebased onâ the flavor of the, now rare, Gros Michel banana. While you didnâ(TM)t claim that it was, and the Gros Michel banana *is* said to taste more like artificial banana flavor, this myth has been debunked:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/debunk...

Submission + - Life-Altering Copyright Lawsuits Coming to Regular People Under Proposed Bill (eff.org)

Submitted by SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: The Senate Judiciary Committee intends to vote on the CASE Act, legislation that would create a brand new quasi-court for copyright infringement claims. We have expressed numerous concerns with the legislation, and serious problems inherent with the bill have not been remedied by Congress before moving it forward. In short, the bill would supercharge a “copyright troll” industry dedicated to filing as many “small claims” on as many Internet users as possible in order to make money through the bill’s statutory damages provisions. Every single person who uses the Internet and regularly interacts with copyrighted works (that’s everyone) should contact their Senators to oppose this bill.

Making it so easy to sue Internet users for allegedly infringing a copyrighted work that an infringement claim comes to resemble a traffic ticket is a terrible idea. This bill creates a situation where Internet users could easily be on the hook for multiple $5,000 copyright infringement judgments without many of the traditional legal safeguards or rights of appeal our justice system provides.

Proponents of the legislation argue that the bill’s cap on statutory damages in a new “small claims” tribunal will protect accused infringers. But the limits imposed by the CASE Act of $15,000 per work are far higher than the damages caps in most state small claims courts—and they don’t require any proof of harm or illicit profit. The Register of Copyrights would be free to raise that cap at any time. And the CASE Act would also remove a vital rule that protects Internet users – the registration precondition on statutory damages.

Today, someone who is going to sue a person for copyright infringement has to register their work with the Copyright Office before the infringement began, or within three months of first publication, in order to be entitled to statutory damages. Without a timely registration, violating someone’s copyright would only put an infringer on the hook for what the violation actually cost the copyright holder (called “actual damages”), or the infringer’s profits. This is a key protection for the public because copyright is ubiquitous: it automatically covers nearly every creative work from the moment it’s set down in tangible form. But not every scribble, snapshot, or notepad is eligible for statutory damages—only the ones that U.S. authors make a small effort to protect up front by filing for registration. But if Congress passes this bill, the timely registration requirement will no longer be a requirement for no-proof statutory damages of up to $7,500 per work. In other words, nearly every photo, video, or bit of text on the Internet can suddenly carry a $7,500 price tag if uploaded, downloaded, or shared even if the actual harm from that copying is nil.

For many Americans, where the median income is $57,652 per year, this $7,500 price tag for what has become regular Internet behavior would result in life-altering lawsuits from copyright trolls that will exploit this new law. That is what happens when you eliminate the processes that tend to ensure only a truly motivated copyright holder can obtain statutory damages.

Comment Isn't this a good case for a "poisened wallet" bla (Score 3, Interesting) 188

by loren (#55187847) Attached to: North Korea Is Dodging Sanctions With a Secret Bitcoin Stash

I am no cryptocurrency expert, but my understanding is that the BTC really only has value because the BTC user base has formed a consensus that it does. I believe the vast majority of conscience human beings can agree that North Korea's (government's) recent actions and stance are dangerous and morally reprehensible.

Assuming that NK has channeled most of its BTC stash through a small number of wallets, and that most of them may be identified by NK's spending patterns, I think this is a good case for implementing "poisoned wallets" to render all BTC (or partial BTC) that left a verboten wallet after a given time stamp. This would work, of course, only for users that use the blacklist enabled version of the software... but I believe enough people find NK's position sufficiently dangerous to warrant adopting this alternative code base to at least GREATLY DEVALUE these "tainted" BTC. This type of change begs two interesting questions:

1) How are the list of poisoned wallets managed? On the micro level, I believe the choice of banned wallets should be up to the individual BTC user, but most users won't want to manage such a tedious list. I expect users would want to defer this responsibility to one or more "accusation bodies" each with their own accusation, conviction, poisoning and appeal processes, all blockchain protected (outside the BTC blockchain)... I expect users would sign up for these poisoning feeds in one of two groups: 1) organizations that uphold the users moral convictions, or 2) organizations that seek out a superset of poisoned wallets, for those that want to ensure any BTC they receive are untainted, and good for other transactions. I believe most users would be most interested in aggregators (#2), but enough users would also add original accusers (#1) to make such a system plausable.

2) Tainted BTCs wouldn't be completely valueless, as some users may still accept them, so differently tainted BTCs would trade at their own distinct prices, which may be an interesting opportunity for cryptocurrency exchange companies.

What do you think?

Comment Is it me, or does this smell like anti-trust (Score 1) 173

by loren (#54664313) Attached to: Walmart to Vendors: Get Off Amazon's Cloud

Several are commenting on if this makes Walmart a monopoly (or some permutation thereof)... and we're talking about the same laws that govern anti-trust violations and monopolies... but to me this sounds more like anti-trust style collusion. Multiple companies (Walmart and their suppliers) with some common interests organizing to give preferential or (in this case) discriminatory treatment to one or a small group of companies or individuals. Amazon is not hurting for customers, but this is hard to see as anything but a move to damage their customer base.

Not throwing any pitty-parties... just what it looks like to me.

Submission + - Legendary Sound Designer Jory Prum Passes Away at 41

Submitted by loren
loren writes: It is with much sadness that I report that legendary sound designer Jory K. Prum, who worked on more than 120 video game titles, passed away April 22, 2016, at age 41, from injuries suffered in a March traffic accident. (Disclaimer: I am a long time friend of Jory and his family.) Here are some personal recollections from family, friends and colleagues along with a more mainstream article from Forbes. Also, a list of his game credits are on MobyGames. This post doesn't do him justice, but I found news of his loss conspicuously absent on slashdot.

Comment Re: What was faked was that he "invented" somethin (Score 1) 294

by loren (#51164815) Attached to: Why Is So Much Reported Science Wrong

I have yet to hear the kid's explanation. I'm not giving him a free pass, but after just reading the post on how and why science reporting is so bad. We know he was questioned and detained for what turned out to be a commercial clock board in a pencil box (or something similar.) There are more innocuous explanations. He could have, for instance, gotten a discarded, damaged circuit board working, and put it pencil box for lack of any other available, undamaged enclosure. I'm not proposing this because I think the kid is blameless in the circumstances or their aftermath... but primarily to point out that there are other explanations.
Transportation

Bruce Schneier On Airport Security 582

Posted by CmdrTaco from the he-should-know dept.
the4thdimension writes "Bruce Schneier has an opinion piece on CNN this morning that illustrates his view on airport security. Given that he has several books on security, his opinion carries some weight. In the article, Bruce discusses the rarity of terrorism, the pitfalls of security theater, and the actual difficulty surrounding improving security. What are your thoughts? Do you think that we can actually make air travel (and any other kind of travel, for that matter) truly secure?"

Comment Re:Defective by Design (Score 5, Interesting) 386

by loren (#30479318) Attached to: DRM Flub Prevented 3D Showings of <em>Avatar</em> In Germany

Some interesting points to think about:

  • You make a film called "The XYZ Picture"
  • Millions of people download "The XYZ Picture" and see it for free without paying you a dime
  • Most of these millions of people wouldn't have paid to see in the first place. Lets say a few thousand that would have paid to see your picture don't because they found it for free yes, this costs you real money
  • Some of these millions decide to see it in theaters for various reasons:
    • it's more fun to go see it in a large groups with their friends
    • The prefer a big theater viewing experience
    • or maybe they just like the over-buttered movie theater popcorn

    and many of these people wouldn't have even known about your movie unless they found it online for free This is money you got from movie piracy that you wouldn't have gotten if it couldn't be downloaded

  • many of these millions tell the friends about it, and they go to the theater to see your movie. again more money you got from free movie piracy as advertising
  • Many of these millions decide that your movie isn't good enough, or worth the time / effort to go see in theaters, but they really liked it or want to see all your behind the scenes stuff, so they decide to buy or rent the movie on DVD when it comes out These are even MORE sales you can attribute to free movie piracy as advertising

And here is the very delicate and sensitive philosophical question

  • Do the few thousand movie tickets you lost in sales to piracy cost you more than...
  • ...the many thousand more tickets you sold because of the free advertising that movie piracy provided?

I honestly think this comes down to those movie makers who make really mediocre films being afraid that they'll loose their shirts to those movie makers that produce quality content that thrives on word of mouth advertising.

What do you think?
Hardware

Submission + - 10/GUI - Computer Interface Concept (10gui.com)

Submitted by Naznarreb
Naznarreb writes: R. Clayton Miller has an extremely impressive GUI concept he's calling 10/GUI. Essentially, it combines the high-bandwidth input possibilities of multi-touch interfaces with the ease and immediacy of a mouse. The video is quite impressive and for me at least, pretty jaw dropping. This is a dramatic re-vision of the current mouse/screen schema, one that I think significant potential.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Early Killzone 2 Reviews Looking Good 140

Posted by Soulskill from the console-exclusivity-wars dept.
Reviews are beginning to appear for Guerrilla Games' upcoming first-person shooter, Killzone 2, a PS3 exclusive that has received a great deal of hype over the past several months. The reviews are mostly complimentary, but not overwhelmingly so; Ars Technica says it has "some of the best graphics yet seen on the PS3," and is a "solid take on the war-gaming genre." They also acknowledge that this is the latest game being held up as a standard for how good PS3 games can be, though the PS3 may not need such validation anymore. Edge Magazine is critical of the story, saying, "you could play the levels in random order to little ill-effect," but found the gameplay redeeming enough to warrant a 7/10. Concerns were raised early about the quality of the controls, but Guerrilla Games has affirmed that no changes will be made. Though the game won't be out for about a week yet, rumors of some fairly typical DLC plans are already cropping up. Giant Bomb recorded some video showcasing Killzone 2's multiplayer a while back.
Image

Stabbed Student Shows Up For Job Interview 6

Posted by samzenpus from the forget-the-sick-days dept.
A 16-year-old student went to a job interview instead of the hospital after he was stabbed. The Staff at the King West Vets veterinary clinic noticed blood on the students leg during the co-op placement interview and called police. "He did really well on the interview and we were very proud of him for sticking to the appointment," said veterinarian Kent Ackerman. He wouldn't say if the student will get the job. You know times are tough when showing up after being stabbed doesn't land you the job.

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