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Comment Not FREE as in not a beer and not a bird. (Score 1) 259

by nthcolumnist (#35060032) Attached to: Facebook-Deprived Man Sues For $500K
Free is just the $0.00 price tag. It isn't a charity. fb farms your contacts, sells your privacy, pwns your identity. Surely that is payment enough. fbookers give it away far too cheaply if you ask me. Then there are the terms and conditions - a contract - if you will. "We the undersigned, one soul all eternity etc. etc." fb set the terms - did they breach their own terms? If so - stupid fb, clever Albanian.
Google

Submission + - Google Tells Congress It Disclosed WiFi Sniffing

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: While conceding 'it is clear there should have been greater transparency about the collection of this [WiFi] data,' Google asserted 'we have provided public descriptions of our location-based services' in their written response to Congress (pdf) about whether the public had been adequately informed of its data collection efforts. To prove their point, Google's how-many-times-do-we-have-to-tell-you answer included a link to a blog entry on My Location on the desktop, an odd choice considering that Google is still less-than-clear about exactly what's being captured by the service ('When My Location is active, Toolbar will automatically send local network information (including, but not limited to, visible WiFi access points)'). Congress may want to check out another as-yet unpublished Google patent filing — the 'inventors' include a Google Latitude Product Manager — that discusses the use of a 'mobile device data collection module' to 'collect data on a set of mobile devices which are using [a] wireless base station', including GPS location information, time information, and 'application specific data, such as, map requests, etc.' And while Google didn't link to it, Congress might also want to evaluate the transparency of this cute Google video, which assured the public of Street View's privacy safeguards, but gave no hint of the controversial WiFi collection.
Windows

Submission + - Vista users hit with 'Purple Screen Of Death' 1

Submitted by Stony Stevenson
Stony Stevenson writes: While most users of Microsoft Windows-based PCs have seen their systems lockup and display the dreaded 'blue screen of death,' a new, lavender-hued variant of the problem has emerged. The so-called "purple screen of death" occurs when there's a conflict between certain system drivers and Windows Vista's Desktop Window Manager, according to researchers at NeoSmart — a nonprofit technology tracking firm that first spotted the issue. When the glitch occurs, windows on the Vista desktop turn purple and become unresponsive, according to NeoSmart. "It's caused by a low-level problem in the kernel, and it does make you want to restart your PC," NeoSmart researchers said in a blog post on the subject. NeoSmart concedes that the problem is rare, and that most Vista users probably haven't encountered it. "It's something to do with the way the Windows Vista kernel handles a certain exception in the graphics driver subsystem."

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