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Comment Re:Huh? (Score 1) 153

by null.account (#22749110) Attached to: NBC Still Down On P2P But Plans To Use It Themselves
Bang on.

I'm not so bloody sure these people aren't secretly _wanting_ "piracy" to continue, so that they have a giant boogey man to scapegoat when their insipid reality-TV nonsense doesn't get viewers to flock to their channel like lemmings over a cliff.

In ~10 years, that is the greatest advantageous use of p2p the media corp.s have come up with, and they wonder why they can't quantify its (positive or negative) value to their own business models. Instead of, y'know, getting their own house in order and actually solving that problem, their senior mgmt selects a VERY well paid talking head in the form of senior mgmt to declare copyright infringement to be theft irrespective of the mechanism of its execution, as if that isn't more of the same thoughtless ideological idiocy that got them into this "problem" in the first place.

In ~4 years, they've come up with reality TV as a format to "defeat" the usefulness of in-home live-recording systems (TiVo etc.).

IOW they continue the long tradition of garbage content over business development, and this is somehow supposed to be ANYONE's problem but their own.

When NBC, et al, stop hair-on-fire turning circles and shrieking at the public over p2p, I'll begin to give a damn what it *really* means to them.

So far they've shown either idiocy or laziness. I don't care which. I don't watch TV because I hate advertising. I'm damned well not about to accept what amounts to just another damned sales pitch.
Communications

The True Cost of SMS Messages 583

Posted by kdawson from the call-it-$24K-a-song dept.
nilbog writes "What's the actual cost of sending SMS messages? This article does the math and concludes that, for example, sending an amount of data that would cost $1 from your ISP would cost over $61 million if you were to send it over SMS. Why has the cost of bandwidth, infrastructure, and technology in general plummeted while the price of SMS messages have risen so egregiously? How can carriers continue to justify the high cost of their apparent super-premium data transmission?"
Math

Submission + - Open Source Mathematical Software

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The American Mathematical society has an opinion piece about open source software vs propietary software used in mathematics. From the article : "Increasingly, proprietary software and the algorithms used are an essential part of mathematical proofs. To quote J. Neubüser, 'with this situation two of the most basic rules of conduct in mathematics are violated: In mathematics information is passed on free of charge and everything is laid open for checking.'"
The Media

Submission + - Journalists Can't Hide News Anymore 2

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens
Hugh Pickens writes: "Robert Niles at the Online Journalism Review comments on the story about the 13-year-old girl who took her own life after making friends with a boy she'd met on MySpace who turned on her. The boy didn't exist. 'He' was the creation of the mother of one of the girl's former friends. But the newspaper didn't name the woman, citing concerns for *her* teen daughter. Bloggers went nuts, and soon uncovered the woman's name, her address, phone number and business registration records and plastered them all over the Web. "The lessons for journalists? First, we can't restrict access to information anymore. The crowd will work together to find whatever we withhold," wrote Niles. "Second, I wonder if that the decision to withhold the other mother's name didn't help enflame the audience, by frustrating it and provoking it to do the work of discovering her identity." Here are links to the original story on the girl's suicide, to one of the bloggers who uncovered the woman's identity, and to another look at the journalistic issues involved in naming names."
Cellphones

Shake a Secure Bluetooth Connection 107

Posted by CowboyNeal from the trembling-with-anticipation dept.
heilbron writes "The Austrian researcher Rene Mayrhofer of the British Lancaster university and his colleague Hans Gellersen developed a technology to simplify a secured wireless connection of mobile devices. With the so-called shake-to-connect technology an authenticated Bluetooth connection between two mobile phones is established by rhythmic shaking. Integrated oscillation sensors, contained in some mobile phone models, form the basis. The two researchers sketched out a prototype, which is intended for Nokia mobile phones. An example is documented in this YouTube video clip. If two mobile phones are shaken together, the software in both devices registers the same shaking frequency and authenticates the radio link. The principle is summed up in a four page PDF document."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Freeware FPS Alien Arena 2007 Reviewed 158

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the best-of-the-cheap dept.
Alienkillerrace writes "Linux.com has reviewed the brand new release of Alien Arena 2007, giving it a glowing review. 'New Alien Arena 6.10 blows away its FPS competition' claims that Alien Arena is now the very best of the freeware FPS games, surpassing even Tremulous."
Security

EA Denies DRM Problems With Sims 2 188

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the typical-mmo-company-response dept.
Fizzlefist writes "For the past 2 weeks there has been an uproar on the Sims 2 forums concerning the inclusion of Sony's SecuROM DRM software in the latest expansion pack, Bon Voyage. It seems paid customers have been having problems since day one of release, but EA is only now, 5 weeks later, issuing an official statement on the matter. A lot of what's in the statement is outright fiction with proven reports of issues with disabling of disc burning software, optical disc drives, printers, cameras, system slowdown and even system crashes. Fan responses have been cold to say the least. Interestingly enough, the expansion pack was cracked and up on the internet less than 24 hours after its release."
Patents

Submission + - Evolutionary Design works around patents. (economist.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Using computational trial-and-error allowed a Stanford team to come up with a patent-free WiFi antenna. Patent rules are tricky to formulate as self-interest dictates that the claim is as general as possible. Patent fences effectively can build a substantive competitive barrier to markets. Using evolutionary tactics may be a way to legally and ethically bypass these roadblocks.
Media (Apple)

Submission + - Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The week's debate over the iPhone 1.1.1 has finally resulted in legal action. InfoWeek reports that on Friday, California resident Timothy Smith sued Apple in a class-action case in Santa Clara County Superior court. The suit was filed by Damian Fernandez, the lawyer who's been soliciting plaintiffs all week for a case against Apple. The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but seeks an injunction against Apple, which prevents it from sell the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhone, and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T.
Security

Submission + - Online videos may conduct viruses (yahoo.com)

Submitted by
Technical Writing Geek
Technical Writing Geek writes: "As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video players, according to a report on Internet threats released Tuesday by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center as it holds its annual summit.

One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_on_hi_te/cybersecurity"
Security

When Not to Use chroot 407

Posted by CowboyNeal from the trust-no-one dept.
Hyena writes "Linux guru Alan Cox is quoted as saying 'chroot is not and never has been a security tool' in a KernelTrap article summarizing a lengthy thread on the Linux Kernel mailing list. The discussion began with a patch attempting to 'fix a security hole' in the Unix chroot command, trying to improve the ability of chroot to contain a process. When it was pointed out that people have been using chroot as a security tool for years, another kernel hacker retorted, 'incompetent people implementing security solutions are a real problem.' A quick search on the terms 'chroot+security' quickly reveals that many people have long thought (wrongly) that chroot's purpose was for improving security."
Communications

Submission + - Why municipal wi-fi networks have been such a flop

Submitted by Jake
Jake writes: Hi,
Jake Melville from Slate.com here. Today, we published a story on the failed effort of municipal Wi-Fi efforts. We thought that you and your readers might enjoy it, given your recent coverage of the wi-fi issue and tech trends.
The story can be found here: http://www.slate.com/id/2174858/
Thanks very much,
Jake Melville
The Courts

Submission + - RIAA Targets New Colleges, Still Avoids Harvard

Submitted by
NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: "Billboard reports that the RIAA has filed its eighth round of "early settlement" letters to twenty-two colleges. Continuing its practice of avoiding Harvard, the RIAA's new round does not include any letters to that institution, where certain law professors have counseled resistance to the RIAA and told the RIAA to "take a hike". The unlucky institutions on the receiving end of the 403 new letters include Arizona State University (35 pre-litigation settlement letters), Carnegie Mellon University (13), Cornell University (19), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (30), Michigan State University (16), North Dakota State University (17), Purdue University — West Lafayette and Calumet campuses (49), University of California — Santa Barbara (13), University of Connecticut (17), University of Maryland — College Park (23), University of Massachusetts — Amherst and Boston campuses (52), University of Nebraska — Lincoln (13), University of Pennsylvania (31), University of Pittsburgh (14), University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Stevens Point, Stout and Whitewater campuses (62)."
The Internet

Soviet Union TLD Owners Snub ICANN 306

Posted by Zonk from the nelson-muntz-should-be-quoted-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist has up a post about ICANN's latest decisions about country-code TLDs. The body is making an effort to tackle the problem of Yugoslavia's .yu outliving the country by over a decade but is far from getting its way with the Soviet Union's domain .su. Around 2,500 new .su sites are created every year despite ICANN ordering its retirement — the disgruntled .su registrars have announced an 80 per cent price cut in the price of .su domains in response. 'It makes the much-publicized wrangles over the ".xxx" domain seem tiny by comparison. And it convinces me of the need to reevaluate the existence of the US Dept of Commerce-backed non-profit organisation that is ICANN. The current squabbles are petty compared to the diplomatic arguments that TLDs could cause. An international body like the UN would be a more appropriate overseer, surely?'"

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