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Privacy

Submission + - Yahoo to Implement Do Not Track (threatpost.com)

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: Yahoo has decided that it's now time to start implementing a Do Not Track system across its various Web properties. The company is one of the last large Web content providers to officially commit to using a DNT technology, and Yahoo said that it plans to have the system implemented by early summer.

Yahoo officials said that their Do Not Track implementation has been in development since 2011 and that it will be a simple way for consumers to turn on the DNT option. In most DNT implementations, which typically exist in browsers, users simply click on an option in the browser's settings to tell sites that they don't want to be tracked. What that does is instruct the browser to send a specific header to each site that includes the user's DNY preference.
Privacy

Submission + - Yahoo inserting ads, Javascript tracker, in email bodies

Submitted by t-lab
t-lab writes: Clients of British Telecom and Rogers Internet are reporting that Yahoo, which provides email services for the two companies, has started inserting ads in the body of HTML email messages. Users are incensed because this is happening to people with paid email service, not free ad-supported email accounts. As well, the inserted ad includes a Javascript tracker which reports back to Yahoo when the email is loaded. How many ethical violations can you discover in this situation? Where's Anonymous when you need them?

http://community.bt.com/t5/Other-BB-Queries/BTYahoo-e-mail-TODAY-Beta-Powered-by-Yahoo/td-p/446511/page/4

http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/Getting_connected/highlight/false/page/1/thread-id/5897
Earth

Submission + - Extreme Weather Threatens Rich Ecosystems (scienceworldreport.com)

Submitted by
fishmike
fishmike writes: "Extreme weather such as hurricanes, torrential downpours and droughts will become more frequent in pace with global warming. Consequently, this increases the risk for species extinction, especially in bio diverse ecosystems such as coral reefs and tropical rainforests."
Idle

Submission + - Why Are Fantasy World Accents British? (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by kodiaktau
kodiaktau writes: In an interesting article from the BBC News Magazine, the author explores the reasons why most fantasy worlds use British as their primary accent. Citing specific examples from recent/upcoming shows/movies like Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit and Game of Thrones. The article states that the British accent is "sufficiently exotic", "comprehensible" and has a "splash of otherness".

It would be odd to think of a fantasy world having a New Jersey accent, or even a Mid-West accent, which tends to be the default for TV and movies in the USA, but how do UK viewers feel about having British as a default? More specifically, what about the range of UK accents, like Scottish, Welsh, Cockney

The International Dialects of English Archive shows at least 9 regional sounds, with dozens of sub regional pronunciations in England alone. In the USA there have always been many regional accents that might be used more interestingly film makers might consider looking at speech accents from other areas of the world to create more interesting combinations in speech.
Botnet

Submission + - Will hacker group Anonymous bring down the Internet on 31 March? (techworld.com)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: Hacker group Anonymous has been threatening since February to "shut the Internet down" by launching a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDOS) on Saturday (31 March). The attack will target the world’s 13 DNS servers so that Internet users will be unable to perform domain name lookups , thus temporarily disabling the Internet.

Submission + - Risks of Google mail for university adopters? (ualberta.ca)

Submitted by t-lab
t-lab writes: Three universities I am affiliated with are all in the process of considering the adoption of Google Apps for Education. I have been asked to provide informal input on this.

I am troubled by this for two reasons. First, although Google promised to refrain from advertising in the email interface until a student has graduated, I don't like the idea that they may still be mining data from student email. I don't think pimping students out to advertisers is appropriate for a university. Second, I fear that the data may be stored on servers in a country with inadequate protections for personal electronic communications, e.g. the USA (we are in Canada). Google promises to protect the data legally and provide as much notice to the universities as possible should the government come knocking. But what use is a contractual agreement to protect privacy if a government can compel an email services provider to turn over files, either within, or outside, the law?

Am I being too paranoid? Or are there good reasons to resist the Google juggernaut in the academy?
It's funny. Laugh.

Anti Terror Honor System 74

Posted by CmdrTaco from the yeah-that'll-work-out-fine dept.
Fortunately for us, the FAA has imposed the honor system as our next best defense against terrorism. Hopefully this will allow them to increase the volume of non-bladder liquid I'm allowed to take on planes.
Games

Whatever Happened To Second Life? 209

Posted by Soulskill from the i-blame-ralph dept.
Barence writes "It's desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. In this article, PC Pro's Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it's raking in more cash than ever before. It's a follow-up to a feature written three years ago, in which Collins spent a week living inside Second Life to see what the huge fuss at the time was all about. The difference three years can make is eye-opening."

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