Submission + - Vim Turns 20 (arstechnica.com)
quanticle writes: 20 years ago today, Bram Moolenaar released vim to the public. Share your vim stories and your tales of battles with emacs users.
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 6 declined, 7 accepted (13 total, 53.85% accepted)
Submission + - France Seeks to Push 3-Strikes Law Across Europe (openrightsgroup.org)
quanticle writes: As you may recall, France previously threatened to cut off broadband access for file sharers. However, after lobbying by the public, the legislation failed in the National Assembly. Now, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to revive the the measure by pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France.
Submission + - Electronic Arts offers $2bn for Take Two
Submission + - California Testers Find Flaws in Voting Machines (arstechnica.com) 1
quanticle writes: According to Ars Technica, California testers have discovered severe flaws in the ES&S voting machines. The paper seals were easily bypassed, and the lock could be picked with a "common office implement". After cracking the physical security the device, the testers found it simple to reconfigure the BIOS to boot off external media. After booting a version of Linux, they found that critical system files were stored in plain text. They also found that the election management system that initializes the voting machines used unencrypted protocols to transmit the initialization data to the voting machines, allowing for a man-in-the-middle attack.
Altogether, it is a troubling report for a company already in hot water for selling uncertified equipment to counties.
Altogether, it is a troubling report for a company already in hot water for selling uncertified equipment to counties.
Submission + - FCC Planning Rules to Open Cable Market (nytimes.com)
quanticle writes: According to the New York Times, the FCC is planning to unveil new regulations for the cable market that will lower barriers to entry for independent programmers.
The rules would be aimed at stopping the growth of existing cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner, while seeking to encourage more small companies to get into the field. Also, earlier this month, the FCC struck down the practice of having exclusive contracts between cable providers and apartment owners.
All in all, this looks like a welcome infusion of competition into an otherwise stagnant market. The impact that this will have on the network neutrality debate is unclear.
The rules would be aimed at stopping the growth of existing cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner, while seeking to encourage more small companies to get into the field. Also, earlier this month, the FCC struck down the practice of having exclusive contracts between cable providers and apartment owners.
All in all, this looks like a welcome infusion of competition into an otherwise stagnant market. The impact that this will have on the network neutrality debate is unclear.
Submission + - Broadband isn't broadband unless its 2Mbps?
quanticle writes: According to House Democrats, broadband isn't broadband unless its at least 2Mbps.
From the article:
From the article:
The Broadband Census of America Act, currently in draft form, asks the FCC to increase its broadband threshold speed from 200Kbps to 2Mbps and to stop claiming that a ZIP code has broadband access if even a single resident in that ZIP code does.
Submission + - Bush administration proposes retroactive immunity
quanticle writes: The government has proposed giving retroactive immunity to telephone companies for giving personal data to the government, even if such requests are later found to be illegal.
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