Slashdot Mirror

A couple of stories made an interesting juxtaposition today. First read this story about information marketers scouring public records to compile personal information. Note the emphasis on cross-linking data from various sources to provide more information than any one source did - databases are synergistic. Now read this column about David Nelson, and its follow-up.

nstrom writes "The Connecticut State Lottery is giving out a PC game (for Windows, presumably) with their new scratch-off lottery tickets which offer a chance of winning $25,000 by playing. This news article from the Hartford Courant mentions that the game might be targeted at children, but there's no mention of any problems involving software cracking, which is what I immediately thought of. I'm sure there are some bored crackers out there who'd tackle this for a chance at some cash. What do you think?"

nstrom writes "The Connecticut State Lottery is giving out a PC game (for Windows, presumably) with their new scratch-off lottery tickets which offer a chance of winning $25,000 by playing. This news article from the Hartford Courant mentions that the game might be targeted at children, but there's no mention of any problems involving software cracking, which is what I immediately thought of. I'm sure there are some bored crackers out there who'd tackle this for a chance at some cash. What do you think?"

Slashback tonight with several updates, ranging from patent encumbrances to SOAP 1.2 to the transcript for Eldred v. Ashcroft, with more bits in the middle on the recent Geek Cruise in the Caribbean, the all-important cable TV lineups, and more. Read on below for the details! A little light reading. hayek writes "The transcript of oral argument at the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft is now available online."

And then we saw the sharks. a9db0 writes "Part II of Doc Searl's travelogue recounting his experiences on the Geek Cruise has been posted here by the fine folks over at the Linux Journal"

In an earlier report from Geek Cruise, Linus predicted 2.6 by June 2003. If you liked the list of features being considered for 2.6, you can thank puriots0 for "the list of what's been included in time for the feature freeze for Linux 2.6", as found at kernelnewbies.org.

Peel back your eyelids and let these images flood your brain. strredwolf writes "I think we had half the story when Cartoon Network said they were going to remove Zoids and G Gundam in their Toonami block. It was more like remove Zoids, move G Gundam to Midnight Run with GI Joe, put HeMan and Transformers on full weekdays, and double up on DB and DBZ. The website and broadcast prove it now. (This report was done while watching to Toonami live.)"

And Stalke writes "Recently, rumours about Stargate SG1 7th season included it both being renewed as well as speculation that it might be cancelled. MGM and Scifi put those rumours to rest today by officially announcing a 7th season. It will begin filming next year with a full 22 episodes ordered. No word about Daniel Jackson returning though :("

Cracking down on alien fraudsters. yep writes "Administrators of the alien-hunting distributed computing experiment SETI@home have announced they will crack down on cheats who rort statistics on computing power lent to the project. The announcement follows a united protest from the chief contributors. SETI@home director David Anderson announced SETI@home would do its best to investigate users returning suspiciously high amounts of work and delete their accounts if it uncovered solid evidence of cheating."

Sure they're not. tiltowait writes "The Hartford Courant article "The FBI Has Bugged Our Public Libraries" has been retracted (this was mentioned here - but the older article has been removed). Even if the retraction can be trusted, this doesn't change the fact that the FBI can still bug libraries as freely as the CIA can assasinate with impunity, or that more McCarthyism is on the way."

This story retracts the claims of bugging made in the previous one. Since the FBI has little incentive to tell the truth on this count, I don't see what incentive anyone has to believe their denial.

Cleaning up the future for SOAP. Makarand writes "A major hurdle in finalizing the SOAP 1.2 specification has been removed. Both Epicentric, a subsidiary of Vignette, and WebMethods, which makes integration software, had said in earlier statements that they may have patents that cover the technology used in the SOAP 1.2 specification which would have made SOAP 1.2 non royalty-free hindering approval by W3C. Epicentric has now amended its earlier statement saying they no longer believe they hold any such patents, and even if they did, they are interested in making them available on a royalty-free basis. WebMethods has made no comments yet."

Slashback tonight with several updates, ranging from patent encumbrances to SOAP 1.2 to the transcript for Eldred v. Ashcroft, with more bits in the middle on the recent Geek Cruise in the Caribbean, the all-important cable TV lineups, and more. Read on below for the details! A little light reading. hayek writes "The transcript of oral argument at the Supreme Court in Eldred v. Ashcroft is now available online."

And then we saw the sharks. a9db0 writes "Part II of Doc Searl's travelogue recounting his experiences on the Geek Cruise has been posted here by the fine folks over at the Linux Journal"

In an earlier report from Geek Cruise, Linus predicted 2.6 by June 2003. If you liked the list of features being considered for 2.6, you can thank puriots0 for "the list of what's been included in time for the feature freeze for Linux 2.6", as found at kernelnewbies.org.

Peel back your eyelids and let these images flood your brain. strredwolf writes "I think we had half the story when Cartoon Network said they were going to remove Zoids and G Gundam in their Toonami block. It was more like remove Zoids, move G Gundam to Midnight Run with GI Joe, put HeMan and Transformers on full weekdays, and double up on DB and DBZ. The website and broadcast prove it now. (This report was done while watching to Toonami live.)"

And Stalke writes "Recently, rumours about Stargate SG1 7th season included it both being renewed as well as speculation that it might be cancelled. MGM and Scifi put those rumours to rest today by officially announcing a 7th season. It will begin filming next year with a full 22 episodes ordered. No word about Daniel Jackson returning though :("

Cracking down on alien fraudsters. yep writes "Administrators of the alien-hunting distributed computing experiment SETI@home have announced they will crack down on cheats who rort statistics on computing power lent to the project. The announcement follows a united protest from the chief contributors. SETI@home director David Anderson announced SETI@home would do its best to investigate users returning suspiciously high amounts of work and delete their accounts if it uncovered solid evidence of cheating."

Sure they're not. tiltowait writes "The Hartford Courant article "The FBI Has Bugged Our Public Libraries" has been retracted (this was mentioned here - but the older article has been removed). Even if the retraction can be trusted, this doesn't change the fact that the FBI can still bug libraries as freely as the CIA can assasinate with impunity, or that more McCarthyism is on the way."

This story retracts the claims of bugging made in the previous one. Since the FBI has little incentive to tell the truth on this count, I don't see what incentive anyone has to believe their denial.

Cleaning up the future for SOAP. Makarand writes "A major hurdle in finalizing the SOAP 1.2 specification has been removed. Both Epicentric, a subsidiary of Vignette, and WebMethods, which makes integration software, had said in earlier statements that they may have patents that cover the technology used in the SOAP 1.2 specification which would have made SOAP 1.2 non royalty-free hindering approval by W3C. Epicentric has now amended its earlier statement saying they no longer believe they hold any such patents, and even if they did, they are interested in making them available on a royalty-free basis. WebMethods has made no comments yet."

zamiel writes "Bill Olds writes in the Hartford Courant: 'I know my librarian, and I believe she would tell me if the government were tracking my computer use at the library. Don't you agree? No way. There's a gag order. When the FBI uses a court order or a subpoena to gain access to library computers or a list of the names of people who have borrowed certain books, librarians can't tell anyone - not even other librarians or you. They face a stiff federal penalty if they do. It's unfair that librarians should be placed in such a position.'" The American Library Association has a page with advice to librarians and links to previous news stories on the subject.

ncstockguy writes "To its credit the Hartford Courant followed up with a second article this time from the perspective of an anti-spammer." The first story was about the life and times of a spam king.

mikey573 writes "Connecticut's main newspaper, The Hartford Courant, decided to bring the issue of spam to the forefront with a top headline front page story Spam King Living High In The Bayou in its Sunday print edition. The article goes into describing the spam marketing company "Opt-In Marketing Services". The article goes too much into glorifying one person's success with spam, while failing to underscore the potential problems he has caused for others."

Connecticut's politicians, like those in the rest of the country, range from the reasonably rational to the ignorant and manipulative. Last week saw performances by both varieties. Gov. John G. Rowland last week vetoed an anti-video game bill barring children under 18 from playing "point-and-shoot" video games in public places. The legislation, passed by a wide margin in the Connecticut legislature, was even by gaming-phobia standards so brazenly stupid and blatantly unconstitutional that it calls into serious question its sponsors fitness to hold public office. It shreds any notion of First Amendment freedom. It removes parental responsibility for children's moral and recreational lives, mis-guidedly assigning that role to government and the operators of small businesses. (Read more.)

Notice, too, the ignorance of how video games are used, by whom, and to what effect. Only a small fraction of gamers use point-and-shoot games any more. Meanwhile, violence among the young has been dropping for several years, not rising. And there is no significant or credible evidence linking point-and-shoot games with youth violence, anyway.

No less an authority than the U.S. Secret Service cautions in a special study of school shootings that it's dangerous to generalize about the causes of violence among kids. "The use of profiles is not effective either for identifying students who may pose a risk for targeted violence at school or -- once a student has been identified -- for assessing the risk that a particular student may pose for school-based targeted violence." The Secret Service study cited bullying and harassment as a primary cause of the recent spate of school attacks, and made no mention of video games in general (or point-and-shoot games in particular) as a cause of school violence. You can read the report for yourself. Too bad State Sen. Toni Harp hasn't.

Harp, a New Haven Democrat and the bill's main sponsor, predictably ripped Governor Rowland for pledging to veto her inane legislation. She told the Hartford Courant newspaper that she hopes Connecticut doesn't experience a "tragedy like Columbine, because then he can take some responsibility." Sen. Harp, the mother of three apparently unfortunate children, argues that "these are games that train people to kill." Nowhere in her proposed bill or public statements did she offer any factual support of that foolish and demonstrably false statement. But many of her fellow legislators didn't appear to notice or care, sending this message to kids: lawmakers know nothing about the contemporary world, and rarely follow even minimal standards of research, accuracy or integrity.

Harp first introduced her bill -- which passed by an 82 to 63 vote --in l999, just weeks after the Columbine killings. It would require business owners to control video gaming the same way they restrict sales of cigarettes (at least there's substantial medical research supporting the idea that tobacco is unhealthy) and liquor, by prohibiting anyone under 18 from playing games that involve firing simulated guns at simulated human beings. Operators of public video-game outlets would have faced fines up to $1,000 for letting minors grab the joysticks for games Sen. Harp considers violent and distatesful.

Under her bill -- you can't make this up -- minors could kill simulated aliens and animals at will, however. As for other "weapons," the bill doesn't address violent games that don't involve guns. There must be something in the state's drinking water. U.S. Senator and former vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman has introduced legislation in the U.S. Congress that would make it a federal crime to show R-rated movie trailers in any place where children might possibly see them.

"We've got to realize that we can't legislate everyting under the sun," said Gov. Rowland, himself the father and stepfather of five kids under 16. "It's too much big government, it's too much Big Daddy. Let's send a message to parents that, 'Hey there are some games out there that are pretty ugly, and why don't you go see what your kids are doing?" Rowland also noticed that the bill would be a nightmare to enforce, if it were even possible. We are shocked by this kind of logic from public officials, even though the idea that parents ought to yank their kids out of video game parlors for playing point and shoot games is still pretty inane.

If Sen. Harp knew anything at all about the evolution of gaming, she might re-consider her stance. If point-and-shoot games actually turned kids into murderers, there would be few people under 18 left alive in the United States.

Americans now name video games as their favorite form of entertainment, according to one recent survey by the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA). TV came in a distant second, with Web-surfing third. If you include home entertainment systems like PlayStation, then video games are the runaway national pastime. One hundred and forty-five million Americans play computer and video games, the IDSA estimates. The vast majority (80 per cent) aren't kids at all: typical gamers are between 28 and 30, and nearly half are women.

Gaming isn't merely hunt-and-kill challenges for adolescents -- it includes everything from urban-planning, trivia, gambling, bridge and chess puzzles to complex, sophisticated journeys into the imagination. And it's making a ton of money.

Game-related revenue totalled more than $8.9 billion in 1999, topping the $7.3 billion generated that year by movie box office receipts. This isn't a cult; it's mainstream entertainment.

MIT's Henry Jenkins and other scholars have been pointing out in recent years that gaming is revolutionizing the imagination. Yet it's been greeted by the same Puritan ethic that regards play as suspicious, Jenkins has written, and which denounced other new forms of entertainment and culture, from novels to TV.

The biggest category of games are strategy and role-playing games, followed by by action, sports and racing. (Hunt-and-kill games are now down to 15 percent of the market).

In some way, politicians like Sen. Harp ought to be held accountable for their laziness, their disconnection from their own constitituencies, ignorance of the cultural lives of the young, and lack of regard for basic freedom. It's hardly a democratic value to bring government into decisions like what movies kids can see or which video games parents ought to allow them to play.

As for Gov. Rowland, he gets the Penguin award for rational response to the post-Columbine hysteria.

More below on improving OS X security, AOL GPL SNAFUs, Mandrake's reputed layoffs (short answer: No.), Big Daddy's control over gaming in Connecticut, and more. All below in tonight's episode of Slashback.

We are from France! And we're doing fine ... PovRayMan writes "Mandrakesoft has denied rumors of it's recent layoffs and management change due to "financial liquidity." The article mentions how the former CEO, Henri Poole, agreed on the management change. The article even goes out to say that their "prospects never looked so good" with the recent release of Mandrake 8. Either way, I'm downloading Mandrake 8 iso's right now and look forward to playing with it."

Like Alar for the other kind of apple. Lots of people were interested in the possible security flaws in OS X; thanks to Alex Salkever of BusinessWeek, we have word from Apple SE Manager Jeff Gagne, who writes: "We have just posted a Mac OS security web page for people looking for information concerning security updates, security notifications, etc. involving Mac OS X. Please visit the following url for more information: http://www.apple.com/support/security/security.html."

Follow the bouncing lawyers, with a mallet and a browser. Mike Haisley of AOL watchdog Observers.net writes with an update to yesterday's AOL And The GPL story: "It seems that America Online has their legal team working overtime on this one, site was pulled, and back up, and we were just given notice that it's going down again." Here is the Emergency Mirror.

Go forth and legislate no more. mikey573, pointing to a Hartford Courant Article, writes: "It's nice to see that Connecticut governor John Rowland is protecting gamers' rights by vetoing a bill that would have limited access to arcade point-and-shoot games: "Asserting that government should not act as 'Big Daddy,' Gov. John G. Rowland said Thursday that he will veto a bill barring children under 18 from playing 'point-and-shoot' video games in public places." I'm going to play Duck Hunt now in celebration! My only concern is the Connecticut legislature got as far as passing the bill in the first place." Well said.

Erratus, errata, erratum. Jamie would like to make several corrections to Monday's story about Macromedia being blackholed:

(1) I really shouldn't have singled out Above.net in the headline. They're just one backbone that uses the MAPS RBL to block non-mail traffic from their subscribers. In fact, Teleglobe.net was the backbone that blocked web access from one of our submittors.

And (B), Paul Vixie, the co-founder of MAPS, is no longer the CTO of Above.net.