Comment How can they tell? (Score 1) 224
They claim the porn sites they shut down featured "incest". How can you tell that from looking?
Oh, I get it... this is just something that sounds nice in sound-bite form.
Comment Re:rm -rf / (Score 1) 2362
Please allow me to introduce you to the words "BEGIN TRANSACTION".
Comment Re:This is why I keep my /b/ folder encrypted (Score 1) 345
In a civil case, maybe. In a criminal case, very unlikely. People often confess to crimes and are found not guilty -- the burden of proof is pretty high. If the prosecution doesn't have a case without you revealing your password, your case will probably never see trial.
Comment Re:This is why I keep my /b/ folder encrypted (Score 1) 345
Sure, I can be compelled to provide the passphrase in court
Not in the US.
The Pirate Bay — "Just a Very Large Hobby" 214
praps writes "In a fascinating interview with two of the founders of The Pirate Bay entitled 'Are they baby-eating monsters or what?,' Swedish news site The Local discovers that far from being the radical Robin Hoods of the digital age, Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij are actually 'polite, humorous and down-to-earth.' They may run one of the biggest sites in the world but 'it's just a hobby that's grown to be very, very large.' Financially, they are 'happy as long as it doesn't make a loss,' and both hold down regular IT day jobs. And apparently they spend a lot of time with a Bedouin in the Sinai desert."
Comment Windows Mojave (Score 1) 496
Considering how well Windows Mojave has been perceived by the public a repackaged version of Vista might be good for Microsoft.
Comment stop treating SSNs as secret (Score 3, Interesting) 187
It seems to me that we'd go a long way in fixing identity theft if we stopped treating knowledge of personal info as proof you are that person. My cable company uses my social security number as "proof" that it's really me - but god only knows how many people know my social security number. My bankers, my employer (and everyone who can touch the payroll system) my doctors office, my insurance companies. The list is very long.
It should be illegal to use the SSN as a shared secret, and anyone who does use it as a secret identifier should be liable for any expenses they incur. VISA would be a lot more effective at combating fraud if they had to pay for every false credit card opened in my name.
Even better, if we didn't have to treat SSNs as secret information anymore, it'd make our lives a lot easier. The SSN is a great primary key for me - it's one number I can remember, and it does a good job of uniquely identifying me. I want to be able to give it to more people.
If Congress really can act quickly when it wants to, a good way to bring this about is to require all members of Congress to publicly disclose their SSN on January 1st 2008.
It should be illegal to use the SSN as a shared secret, and anyone who does use it as a secret identifier should be liable for any expenses they incur. VISA would be a lot more effective at combating fraud if they had to pay for every false credit card opened in my name.
Even better, if we didn't have to treat SSNs as secret information anymore, it'd make our lives a lot easier. The SSN is a great primary key for me - it's one number I can remember, and it does a good job of uniquely identifying me. I want to be able to give it to more people.
If Congress really can act quickly when it wants to, a good way to bring this about is to require all members of Congress to publicly disclose their SSN on January 1st 2008.
Appeals Court Denies Safe Harbor for Roommates.com 253
Mariner writes "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Roommates.com Safe Harbor status under the Communications Decency Act in a lawsuit brought by the Fair Housing Councils of San Fernando Valley and San Diego. Roommates.com was accused of helping landlords discriminate against certain kinds of tenants due to a couple of questions on the Roommates.com registration form: gender and sexual orientation. 'Though it refused to rule on whether Roommates.com actually violated the Fair Housing Act, the Court did find that it lost Section 230 immunity because it required users to enter that information in order to proceed. As Judge Alex Kozinski put it in his opinion, "if it is responsible, in whole or in part, for creating or developing the information, it becomes a content provider and is not entitled to CDA immunity."'"
Comment Typical of liberals... (Score -1, Flamebait) 477
Making fun of the RIAA and the DMCA to justify pirating music. You are all criminals.
Month of PHP Bugs Has Begun 165
An anonymous reader writes "The previously announced Month of PHP Bugs started three days ago, and already lists 8 security vulnerabilities in PHP and PHP related software. From the site: 'This initiative is an effort to improve the security of PHP. However we will not concentrate on problems in the PHP language that might result in insecure PHP applications, but on security vulnerabilities in the PHP core. During March 2007 old and new security vulnerabilities in the Zend Engine, the PHP core and the PHP extensions will be disclosed on a day by day basis. We will also point out necessary changes in the current vulnerability management process used by the PHP Security Response Team.'"
Comment Re:Fantastic (Score 5, Funny) 198
"Excellent, some piece of technology that can magically make my problem go away without me expending any effort to try and actually solve it."
That's how we ended up with all these fucking computers in the first place.
KFG
That's how we ended up with all these fucking computers in the first place.
KFG
Submission + - Geothermal energy will power America - MIT
amigoro writes: " This article says that mining the huge amounts of heat that reside as stored thermal energy in the Earth's hard rock crust could supply a substantial portion of the electricity the United States will need in the future, probably at competitive prices and with minimal environmental impact, according to a new MIT-led study.
The panel also evaluated the environmental impacts of geothermal development, concluding that these are markedly lower than conventional fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants.
And that might counteract the "imaginary" fears the world leaders have that global warming causes economic hardship"
The panel also evaluated the environmental impacts of geothermal development, concluding that these are markedly lower than conventional fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants.
And that might counteract the "imaginary" fears the world leaders have that global warming causes economic hardship"
Submission + - ABC/Disney shuts down blog exercising fair use
An anonymous reader writes: A blogger named Spocko had his blog shut down by ABC/Disney lawyers because he had posted clips from an ABC Radio-affiliated program and commented on their content, as well as informed show advertisers of what exactly they were paying for. Summaries can be found on The Daily Kos and Calling all Wingnuts as well as in a YouTube video. It is sad to see how much large media companies count on fair use, yet try to step all over it when it is used against them.
Sony Shrugs Off Bad Press - Still A Strong Brand 281
netbuzz writes "The Sony brand name took a beating last year over all those burning batteries and the rootkit fallout, right? Wrong, at least according to a recent survey of 2,000 adults who are apparently willing to forgive just about anything ... if you give them the right reason. Other technology companies, most anyway, also fare well in the brand survey. From the article: 'According to the survey, the Sony brand finished a gaudy ninth among the "Top 20 Winners for 2006," sandwiched comfortably between a couple of saintly American icons: Oprah and the National Football League. Moreover, the respondents see Sony climbing to No. 4 among this year's gainers, right above Amazon and eBay. Moral: Build a better PlayStation and the American consumer will forgive all else.'"
Roomba + Wii remote + Perl = Awesome 175
Anonymous Wii Lov'n Coward writes "Check out the WiiRoomba, a mashup using a Wii remote, a perl script, and the Darwiin Remote software. While a little sluggish to respond, the Roomba is entirely controlled by the Wii remote accelerometers." All of the source code to do it yourself is available at the site linked, along with a youtube video of how it works.
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If you teach your children to like computers and to know how to gamble then they'll always be interested in something and won't come to no real harm.
