nathhad - Slashdot User

Submission + - Storm Hits Blogger Network

Submitted by ancientribe on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:54PM

ancientribe writes: Researchers have discovered the Storm Trojan nestled in hundreds of blog sites in Google's Blogger network, according to an article in Dark Reading. And this isn't simple comment spam, but actual blogs that post spam, and now, Storm executable files. A researcher who's been tracking the Storm-infested blog sites says he's working with Google to clean up this latest appearance of Storm.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=132 793&WT.svl=news1_1

Submission + - Lobbying Could Cause Legal Trouble for Microsoft (robweir.com) 2

Submitted by

Rob Isn't Weird

on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:39PM

Rob Isn't Weird writes: "After the smoking gun memo exposing how Microsoft tried to buy Sweden's vote on OOXML and Sweden's annulment of that vote due to the irregularities, IBM's Rob Weir points out that the fiasco could cause anti-trust worries for Microsoft. He quotes ALLIED TUBE & CONDUIT CORP. v. INDIAN HEAD, INC., 486 U.S. 492 (1988), which says "What petitioner may not do (without exposing itself to possible antitrust liability for direct injuries) is bias the process by, as in this case, stacking the private standard-setting body with decision makers sharing their economic interest in restraining competition.""

Submission + - Student and professor build budget supercomputer (calvin.edu)

Submitted by Luke on Thursday August 30, 2007 @05:21PM

Luke writes: This past winter Calvin College professor Joel Adams and then Calvin senior Tim Brom built Microwulf, a portable supercomputer with 26.25 gigaflops peak performance, cost less than $2,500 to construct, becoming the most cost-efficient supercomputer anywhere that Adams knows of. "It's small enough to check on an airplane or fit next to a desk," said Brom. Instead of a bunch of researchers having to share a single Beowulf cluster supercomputer, now each researcher can have their own. What would you do with a personal supercomputer?

Submission + - Livejournal extends censorship to linked content (livejournal.com)

Submitted by on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @04:52PM

An anonymous reader writes: Many of you might remember the previous story about Livejournal erroneously deleting hundreds of users as suspected paedophiles, spurred on by pressure from right-wing group Warriors for innocence. Since then, they've been taking action against users hosting material on their servers that they believe to be illegal. Today, Livejournal management have demonstrated a serious lack of understanding in how the internet works, declaring that users are responsible for the content of the webpages that they link to in their blog entries. A user points out the obvious flaw; "I get ToS'd because the link's been redirected to a page full o' porn, even though context clearly shows that when I originally put up the link that it didn't actually land on a page of porn?". One wonders how such a long-established blogging company be so ignorant about the nature of the world wide web?

Submission + - GPL Violations On Windows Go Unnoticed?

Submitted by Scott_F on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @03:36PM

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 + - "Viacom hit me for infringing my own copyright (blogspot.com) 2

Submitted by

Chris Knight

on Wednesday August 29, 2007 @02:23PM

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 + - Ultimate Censorship? China and Reincarnation.

Submitted by

michaelcole

on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @07:00PM

michaelcole writes: ":
"China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission"
— http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20227400/site/newsweek /

This article is both hilarious and sad, looking at the lengths to which a government will go to regulate thought through censorship. It also goes into some of the more subtle politics of the current 72 year-old Dalai Lama as he thinks about his political and spiritual successor.

The Dalai Lama's response: "he refuses to be reborn in Tibet so long as it's under Chinese control.""

Submission + - FSF may sue Microsoft over GPLv3 (groklaw.net)

Submitted by

mjasay

on Tuesday August 28, 2007 @01:30PM

mjasay writes: "As Groklaw reports, the Free Software Foundation has issued a press release decrying Microsoft's attempts to distance itself from its obligations to abide by GPL Version 3. Citing Microsoft's earlier refusal to abide by GPLv3, the Free Software Foundation declared, "Microsoft cannot by any act of anticipatory repudiation divest itself of its obligation to respect others' copyrights." The press release goes on to imply that the Free Software Foundation may sue Microsoft over the issue."

Journal SPAM: CNN accidentally interviews a Ron Paul supporter 8

Journal by Jeremiah Cornelius on Monday August 27, 2007 @05:59PM

Listen to the very beginning of the tape, when Ms. Morales states she favors Ron Paul the newsman says "whoa" as if he was suprised that the censors hadn't weeded Ms. Morales out prior to the interview! [spam URL stripped]

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