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Comment The rights of information (Score 1) 151

by spiralofhope (#28320665) Attached to: How Should a Constitution Protect Digital Rights?
Turn the information issue on its ear and think of it in a new way. Think about the rights of information and communication. Anthropomorphise it and give it desires. Knowledge wants to be free, it wants to be spread. It wants to move unimpeded throughout your citizenry and live from generation to generation in live documents and not dusty archives restricted by lawyers. Basic knowledge should be unpatentable. Complex knowledge should have a limited patent so as to promote innovation. Same with any kind of restriction (copyright, etc). After a short period all knowledge should become public domain.

Comment Re:Cavemen? (Score 2) 269

by spiralofhope (#27760191) Attached to: Some Large Dinosaurs Survived the K-T Extinction

More evidence is always good, but once you actually start to think about it, "a small population of some dinosaurs survived in remote areas until it eventually petered out" is actually more plausible then...

Science isn't based on opinions like "more plausible then [sic]".

... than "every single last dinosaur died at once in a gigantic catastrophe that nevertheless was not large enough to affect other animals such as mammals to the same extent".

The physical evidence and thereafter the calculated energy of an entry (atmosphere alone) indicate that the global air temperature was raised to the flash point of living wood and that all the forests of the world were set on fire.

The result is the death of the bulk of above-surface land plant life.

Then the earth cooled for various reasons, starting with light reflection off of the smoke.

Dinosaurs died out because they have no internal way to heat themselves up. Mammals do.

Dinosaurs died out because they need to eat big creatures. Mammals don't.

Mammals had an edge because of some sulphur-resistance mutations which survive even today.

Don't think for a second that mammals didn't suffer. As I understand, mammals may have been down to as few as SEVEN SPECIES after that catastrophe.

Comment lolwut (Score 1) 376

by spiralofhope (#27759979) Attached to: Europe Funds Secure Operating System Research
"The latest grant will enable the three researchers and two programmers on the project to further their research into a making Minix capable of fixing itself when a bug is detected" 1) Minix?! That was a research project that was dead and buried long ago. 2) Minix?! Why reinvent the wheel? 3) "capable of fixing itself"? You mean capable of being mis-configured by an incompetent admin or capable of being tricked into auto-rooting itself. Awesome.
Software

Is Apache Or GPL Better For Open-Source Business? 370

Posted by Soulskill from the less-filling-tastes-great dept.
mjasay writes "While the GPL powers as much as 77% of all SourceForge projects, Eric Raymond argues that the GPL is 'a confession of fear and weakness' that 'slows down open-source adoption' because of the fear and uncertainty the GPL provokes. Raymond's argument seems to be that if openness is the winning strategy, an argument Michael Tiemann advocates, wouldn't it make sense to use the most open license? Geir Magnusson of the Apache Software Foundation suggests that there are few 'pure' GPL-only open-source projects, as GPL-prone developers have to 'modify it in some way to get around the enforcement of Freedom(SM) in GPL so people can use the project.' But the real benefit of Apache-style licensing may not be for developers at all, and rather accrue to businesses hoping to drive adoption of their products: Apache licensing may encourage broader, deeper adoption than the GPL. The old GPL vs. BSD/Apache debate may not be about developer preferences so much as new business realities."
Security

Australian Gov't Offers $560k Cryptographic Protocol For Free 163

Posted by Soulskill from the as-in-beer dept.
mask.of.sanity writes "Australia's national welfare agency will release its 'unbreakable' AU$560,000 smart card identification protocol for free. The government agency wants other departments and commercial businesses to adopt the Protocol for Lightweight Authentication of ID (PLAID), which withstood three years of design and testing by Australian and American security agencies. The agency has one of Australia's most advanced physical and logical converged security systems: staff can access doors and computers with a single centrally-managed identity card, and user identities can be automatically updated as employees leave, are recruited or move to new departments. PLAID, which will be available soon, is to be used in the agency's incoming fleet of contact-less smartcards that are currently under trial by staff. It will replace existing identity cards that operate on PKI encryption."
Google

Justice Dept. Opens Antitrust Inquiry Into Google Books Deal 112

Posted by Soulskill from the real-page-turner dept.
Mad Hamster points out a NY Times report that the US Department of Justice has launched an antitrust inquiry (may require free registration) to take a look at the deal Google has made with book publishers and authors for its Book Search service. Quoting: "Lawyers for the Justice Department have been in conversations in recent weeks with various groups opposed to the settlement, including the Internet Archive and Consumer Watchdog. More recently, Justice Department lawyers notified the parties to the settlement, including Google, and representatives for the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, that they were looking into various antitrust issues related to the far-reaching agreement. The inquiry does not necessarily mean that the department will oppose the settlement, which is subject to a court review. But it suggests that some of the concerns raised by critics, who say the settlement would unfairly give Google an exclusive license to profit from millions of books, have resonated with the Justice Department." Update — 4/29 at 14:25 by SS: CNet has new information on the extension Google was seeking in order to contact rightsholders for a decision on whether to join the settlement or opt out. Google had originally asked for 60 days, but a judge has now granted them four more months.
Networking

US ISPs Using Push Polling To Stop Cheap Internet 417

Posted by kdawson from the we-don't-want-your-kind-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes "What happens when a new ISP is started somewhere in the United States that completely blows out of the water all the other ISPs in the area, in terms of price and performance? Apparently, that question is being answered in North Carolina, where Greenlight Inc., a company started by a city government, is trying to offer faster, more reliable, and cheaper Internet service to the local residents. Time Warner and Embarq can't compete. So they are not only lobbying the state government to destroy the upstart competition, but are now using push polling methods to gain support, across the two cities that could benefit from the new ISP, for the 'Level the playing field' legislation they got introduced in the legislature." A local news outlet provides coverage more friendly to the incumbents' point of view.
Internet Explorer

IE8 Released As Critical Update For XP 409

Posted by kdawson from the standards-are-critical-you-betcha dept.
Binestar was one of several readers writing in to note that Microsoft is listing IE8 as a critical update to Windows XP. CNet reported a couple of weeks back that Microsoft would be rolling our IE8 to users in a gradual fashion, and requiring an opt-in before installing it. Opinion has been split as to whether IE8 is worth installing or not. Binestar notes delicately, "For those not interested in upgrading to IE8 at this time, the MSDN released information back in January on how to keep IE8 off your machine."
Social Networks

Social Networking Sites Getting Risky For Recruiting 227

Posted by kdawson from the no-clue-what-you-did-last-summer dept.
onehitwonder writes "While many recruiters and HR managers are taking advantage of the Web and online social networks to screen candidates for positions inside their organizations, a bank in Texas has decided that using social networking websites in its recruiting process is too risky legally. Amegy Bank of Texas now prohibits internal HR staff and external recruiters from using social networking sites in its hiring process. Amegy's decision to ban the use of social networking sites in its hiring process demonstrates its respect for prospective employees' privacy. It also sends a message to the employers and recruiters using social networks to snoop into job seekers' personal lives that their actions border on discrimination and could get them in a lot of legal trouble."
Software

Miro Asks Users To "Adopt" Lines of Source 178

Posted by kdawson from the pray-you-don't-get-refactored dept.
soDean writes "The FOSS video player / downloader Miro is asking its users to support development by 'adopting' a line of source code for $4 a month. Each adopted line of code comes personalized with a little avatar character that will grow older over the year. PCF, which makes Miro, says they think the project is the first of its kind and they believe it's a chance to 'to have a truly bottom up funding base.'"

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