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Sadly, from what I've seen as a U.S. citizen, outside of various tech-related sites, it doesn't get all that much coverage. I tend to make a point of commenting on non-tech forums that I'm on if they have an off-topic board, because (in my opinion), anyone in the U.S. should be aware of what the RIAA is up to, especially after all the crap about how making MP3s for personal use is infringing (i.e. the RIAA wants to throw out fair use).

I'm equally impressed by what NewYorkCountryLawyer is doing; I strongly feel that he's a credit to his (much maligned) profession. It's also great to see these types of verdicts; if more judges were willing to throw the book at the RIAA for poorly researched and barely documented cases, perhaps we'd see far less spurious suits.

The quote "without actual distribution of copies.... there is no violation" was the icing on the cake, for me. We need more judges like this.

And these are their spokespersons.

I'm optimistic that our electoral process would work and pass effective legislation to prevent genetic discrimination.

Wow! have you read the bible? god has killed a great many in this wonderful work of fiction.
I come up with a total of 2,270,971

Thats not even considering the inquisitions and numerous Crusades!

Why all the /. love for universal health care? The US has the best health care system in the world, and /.ers want to destroy it in favor of an inefficient government controlled program?

Please stop drinking the Michael Moore kool-aid.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/02/should-rich-get-better-health-care.html

Maybe consumers can use contract law to enhance the privacy of their health records. http://hack-igations.blogspot.com/2008/02/contracts-for-patient-privacy.html

I recently read a calculation that with the expected number of cars in 2050, the 13.4 MT reserve base of lithium will be pretty much depleted. So, I don't think that we will let all that much escape into the environment. That is for 4 billion cars each with a 55 mile all electric range. But, at that kind of scale, many other environmental impacts of driving may be a concern. In my opinion, we will likely have about 3 times as much lithium serving as stationary storage as that in vehicles just because when a battery is no longer transportation grade, it is still a pretty good battery so it won't be recycled until it is kaput. Based on this idea, I estimate that the US will be able to store about 0.5 days of its average electric power consumption with used batteries from cars if transportation is converted to mainly electic power. So, renewable energy gets some extra benefits from conversion of transportation to electriciy, namely the ability to get greater penetration without having to provide its own storage.

I would be interested to know if the storage tanks and engines from these vehicles might be used in a similar way once they are no longer transportation grade. Presumably the engines last a long time since they see much less heat stress than ICEs. The tanks might be used at lower pressure safely when they are older, though not on the road. If one used the heat from compressing air to heat water for home use, one might beat battery charging efficiency (about 86%) in overall system efficiency. And, use of the engine provides cooling, perhaps for refridgeration. The stored energy might even be greater if tanks and engines last longer than degraded batteries. About 2 days of storage is all we really need for a 100% renewable grid that includes both wind and solar. This is another interesting potential freebee for renewable energy. With the cost estimates for building new nuclear power plants coming in around $5 to $6 billion, the lower cost renewable alternatives look much better if they can overcome the intermittancy issues. A synergy between conversion of transportation from fossil fuels and a more general conversion through the storage made available from the transporation sector seems quite intriguing.

http://gimp-brainstorm.blogspot.com/> The main criticism has always been that Gimp has a horrible layout. Well, Google should help them with it's design, and layout preferences/options/plug-ins could be added to the Gimp so that users can have the layout be the way they prefer, while work is done to make the default layout be ideal for most users. I'm a little ashamed of Google for not trying..

Then perhaps you could contribute here: http://gimp-brainstorm.blogspot.com/>

As for example; http://cracktohack.blogspot.com/2007/10/how-to-clone-gsm-sim.html shows, "not retrievable at all" is a bit overstating, at least regarding GSM, but at least this attack requires (a few hours' temporary) physical access to the SIM card to get Ki.

This story is another reason why state legislatures should not mandate encryption as a data security procedure.

Michael Geist's excellent newsletter on Internet law inspired ideas for using contract law to protect privacy on social networking sites.

There were a bunch of features that were planned and hyped, but then cut, like WinFS. Or how about a team spending a year designing the shutdown menu?

Yep, I beleive that's precisely what the group who hacked the Wii did. But that took alot of time and effort to pull off.

Evolution is an absolute, 100% uncontrovertible certainty. "Believing" in something that is absolutely certain is retarded.

YOU are retarded.

...does not play a role here anywhere. Stop trying to distract from YOUR absurd lie that evolution is "just a theory". We're not talking about mathematics here, we're talking about (capital R) Reality.

And with these words, you have proven conclusively that you are a brainless, mindless automaton. Mentally retarded, as I've said all along.

And like all brainless, mindless automata, you imagine that all other people are just as brainless and mindless as you.

I do not "believe" in anything whatsoever. Contrary to lying pigs like you I am entirely comfortable to say "I know" when I know and "I don't know" when I don't. In the first case there's no room for any kind of "belief" because there is knowledge and in the other case holding true something not known to me as true would be a lie.

Which is of course your standard (and only) mode of operation.

A mode, that I don't engage in.

Evolution is an absolute, 100% uncontrovertible certainty. "Believing" in something that is absolutely certain is retarded.

YOU are retarded.

...does not play a role here anywhere. Stop trying to distract from YOUR absurd lie that evolution is "just a theory". We're not talking about mathematics here, we're talking about (capital R) Reality.

And with these words, you have proven conclusively that you are a brainless, mindless automaton. Mentally retarded, as I've said all along.

And like all brainless, mindless automata, you imagine that all other people are just as brainless and mindless as you.

I do not "believe" in anything whatsoever. Contrary to lying pigs like you I am entirely comfortable to say "I know" when I know and "I don't know" when I don't. In the first case there's no room for any kind of "belief" because there is knowledge and in the other case holding true something not known to me as true would be a lie.

Which is of course your standard (and only) mode of operation.

A mode, that I don't engage in.

And YOU are absolutely right. I still don't understand why they think they're in the advertising business. It's not like they don't have some software things to work on.

Despite what Gates said, the reality is much more likely they need the patents Yahoo! holds, not the people who did the work.

- spinLock

Using renewable energy to form liquid hydrocarbon fuels is not sequestration but it can reduce emissions. In my opinion, we only need these fuels for aviation. Here is my thinking on how this might be done in a cost effective way: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/12/jet-fuel.html.

There is a form of diamond that appears easy to manufacture called Lonsdaleite. It is not gem quality but is thought to be just as strong. I calculate here that replacing all steel, wood and concrete in construction with this material would sequester at most a few percent a year of our current emissions. The place where carbon has to go is in the soil or the sea. In the soil, terra preta looks like a good bet. In the sea, calcium carbonate seems like the most natural place.

> The judge is neither "stupid" nor "a monkey" -- he acted as should be expected.

Maybe yes, maybe no. This is the same Judge who threw reporters in jail for not revealing a source http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/13/MNVTRH8G7.DTL, and who decided that the open source Artistic license can't be enforced http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/updates.html#2007-08-17, http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/09/software-freedom-law-center-files-first.html.

Maybe this is just an example of "bad things come in threes"?

I released a basic malware for this vulnerability:
http://si0ux.blogspot.com/2008/02/sara-malware.html

I would argue that, strictly speaking, you're doing iterative top-down engineering. Bottom-up engineering would consist of creating the APIs, then fleshing out the functionality defined by the API. Integration of the small parts into a large application doesn't necessarily imply bottom-up.

Bottom-up: I will need a method to retrieve the data from the database.
Top-down: I need to retrieve data X from the database.

Since I blogged about this a bit ago, I'll post my own link:
http://stewartj76.blogspot.com/2008/01/theres-no-such-thing-as-bottom-up.html

Contracts like end user license agreements (EULAs) need not necessarily be bad for individuals. For the purpose of promoting privacy or other rights, an individual might post an agreement on her web site or social networking page, or broadcast the agreement via e-mail or radio. A small business might try the same to deter a snoopy tax collector. These ideas aren't legal advice, just something to think about.

Contracts like end user license agreements (EULAs) need not necessarily be bad for individuals. For the purpose of promoting privacy or other rights, an individual might post an agreement on her web site or social networking page, or broadcast the agreement via e-mail or radio. A small business might try the same to deter a snoopy tax collector. These ideas aren't legal advice, just something to think about.

Contracts like end user license agreements (EULAs) need not necessarily be bad for individuals. For the purpose of promoting privacy or other rights, an individual might post an agreement on her web site or social networking page, or broadcast the agreement via e-mail or radio. A small business might try the same to deter a snoopy tax collector. These ideas aren't legal advice, just something to think about.

As the late Terence McKenna once said:

"But we are led by the least among us - the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary. We are led by the least among us and we do not fight back against the dehumanizing values that are handed down as control icons"

Culture is our Operating system and Culture is NOT your friend.

http://erocx1.blogspot.com/2007/12/terence-mckenna-culture-is-not-your.html

And why is the small quote at the bottom of the page saying the following right now? :D

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made. -- Jean Giraudoux"

A whole new Microsoft! It will be renamed Ballmersoft and a whole new era will begin! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

But realistically it is not possible to control all of these crazy people in this ghetto they call the internet! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

Nothing is pure! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

Listening in is a violation of his rights! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

I was wondering where all these voices telling me to do evil things were coming from! ... http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

Are you Al Gore? ... http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

This is the "free software" crowd! C'mon people! If it's any good at all they would charge for it! That is human nature! The more it cost the better it is! Sheesh! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/

It takes 4 justices to grant certiorari to a case, except in certain capital punishment circumstances. http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Certiorari Therefore, we know that at most 3 justices were interested in hearing the case. None of them felt strongly enough about this to write a dissent from the denial of a grant of certiorari. That has happened in the anti-terrorism context, with Justice Breyer writing and Souter and Ginsburg joining. URL:www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/06-1195Breyer.pdf>. President Bush has appointed two out of 9. A full four, enough to grant certiorari, are liberal and often at odds with the president.

Regardless of your politics, the decision of the trial court was awful.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/08/shocking-decision-in-aclu-v-nsa.html This just puts an ACLU fantasy about its reach to bed.

Justice is served.

There's an old quote that goes something like this. Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime. Computer science is a lot like that fish. If all you learn in school is how to use the current crop of Microsoft developer tools, then the shelf life of your degree will be about five years. However, if you learn the fundamental basics of computer science, then you will have developed the cognitive framework in your mind for easily, almost effortlessly, learning the long list of new programming languages and tools that you will inevitably encounter in your career. That is why universities should focus on the basics and not on the toolset du jour in the workplace.

There's another reason why universities should avoid Microsoft developer tools. Those tools are focused on productivity and not on learning. So, there are all these code wizards that generate tons of boilerplate for you. This may jump start your project but you end up not really developing any understanding of what the wizard generates for you. The typical OSS approach is to avoid wizards and put the productivity boosting features in the software architecture itself.

I present to you the RIAA.

Yours is one interpretation.

That link also points out that Unita were allied with (apartheid) South Africa, also being financed by the US under Reagan and Bush. S Africa's support ended when Nelson Mandela was elected. At one point the MPLA offered free, supervised elections, when Unita lost them they started fighting again. The war finally ended when Unita's leader Joseph Savimbi died and Unita fell apart. Estimates of the numbers killed vary from 500 000 to 1 500 000, basically to satisfy Savimbi's ego.

As African governments go, the MPLA are reasonable.

1) Deploy network IPS 2) Deploy HIPS 3) Deploy Anti virus solution (symantec, kaspersky, trend micro) 4) Firewall Rules 5) Windows WSUS (updates) 6) Switch IDS cards (Cisco) 7) Sniff and monitor high traffic utilization 8) Internet Content filtering (ex. WebSense + the advanced protection option to filter requests to infected hosts) 9) Good Anti Spam solution (ex. Borderware MXstream) 10) Educate users ExtremeSecurity Blog Admin http://extremesecurity.blogspot.com/

I think since Google has the technology to discover and index malware distributing sites, and they should provide a new feature which will put a small red warning beside malicious results. Like McAfee SiteAdvisor service dose. This will decrease the number of infected machines in the Internet, and this is very easy to be noticed by novice users. ExtremeSecurity Blog Admin http://extremesecurity.blogspot.com/