Slashdot Mirror

luaine writes with an Engadget article claiming the cracking of iTunes v6 FairPlay DRM. From the article: "[A] new app called QTFairUse6 looks like it can now be used (with some amount of difficulty) to dump iTunes version 6.0.4 - 6.0.5 files of their chastely protection." At present this is a Windows-only tool for those who are "not afraid to get [their] hands dirty with a little python." Engadget does not provide a link to QTFairUse6, and neither will we. We've run several DRM stories recently, but it's been 19 months since Cracking iTunes' DRM with JHymn.

jverbov writes "A Canadian firm has created what they call an 'intellgent personal robotic companion.' It can be wirelessly connected to your home Internet connection, has a built-in camera and speech recognition software. There's a recent article about it at the Toronto Star." This thing promises a lot, and while the price is steep, it's a lot cheaper than some other household robots due out.

742Evergreen writes: "Another Christmas present for the developers: Python 2.2 has been released! A 'What's new' can be found here. Python 2.2 can be found here. Documentation is here."

scarolinus asks: "Working in the computer field, I find myself asking, "Which component to specify for my customers?" It used to be I would specify the most expensive component the customer could afford. The more established and reputable the brand, the better. Now, with no change in volume, it seems that failure rates are at least double what they used to be in the last few years. And it doesn't matter if the system is a $999 special or a $9999 multiprocessor server. So, is there a website out there that cataloges the failure rates of individual PC hardware components? Is there a website that helps us hold the hardware manufacturers accountable for the quality of product they produce?"

JoeGee writes: "According to this article on ZD Net, more and more companies born from open source projects are beginning to move towards closed source products as a source of revenue. Version 5 of GFS will be closed source, and even SuSE's director of sales Holger Dyroff has a quote that seems to disparage the service model of revenue. The one company that refuses to change its operations is, surprisingly, Red Hat. Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann says 'We believe the Red Hat brand stands for open-source.'" Yes, this is a dupe. Bad Tim! *whack*

JoeGee writes: "Reuters is reporting that the quarterly meeting of ICANN got off to a very shaky start in Montevideo, Uruguay on Friday September 8th. Protesters claim that ICANN's domain registration policies are creating a "digital divide". A special telephone party line created for members who could not be present at the meeting went unused. ICANN seems to be internalizing the turmoil that has surrounded the non-profit corporation since its inception in 1998."

JoeGee writes "And it's not the Russian Space Agency. According to the Associated Press, as reported on Yahoo, NASA is looking at 4 billion US dollars worth of budget over-runs through 2006. This isn't surprising, considering the lack of budget increases, and the continued financial pressure.

ntac writes "After the recent unveiling of the nVidia cards for the new line of G4's, my graphic design co-workers and I have been debating which card has the most bang for the buck. ATI seems to have burned a lot of bridges within the Mac community. Does the GeForce2 have the juice to replace the ATI Radeon? I've also noticed that Mac drivers are available for the 3dfx Voodoo cards - is this another viable option? As designers, we are looking for high performance in Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, Flash, and Premiere. Any help would be greatly appreciated."

kakibesar writes "AVault has kicked up an article that takes a look on that lovely little screen that you see when you typically install a game, the End-User License Agreement. Basically it details why companies use EULA in games, as well as what you're giving up when you click on the 'I Agree' button."

L.Conover asks: "I figured this would be a question best hashed out by Slashdotters - I frequently use www.Mailcity.com, a free e-mail portal sponsored by Lycos. Now, each time I receive an e-mail containing a link, an automated script inserts the string 'http://proxy-mail.mailcity.lycos.com/bin/redirector2.cgi' into the link. The only reason I can think of for forcing people to use a proxy server is to collect data on where people are linking to from Mailcity. I've e-mailed their customer support folk to find out how that data collection is being used, but gotten no reply. Lycos doesn't mention any such data collection in its privacy policy, and there's no way to 'opt out' of their proxy server intrusion without cutting and pasting URLs manually. (Which I often do, because I often receive 'secure' URLs in email that include autologins.) Lycos has a partnership with DoubleClick, so I find this data collection to be more than a little shady. Anyone care to shed some light on this - and do other 'free' e-mail portals indulge in similar proxy-practices with e-mailed URLs?"

L.Conover asks: "I figured this would be a question best hashed out by Slashdotters - I frequently use www.Mailcity.com, a free e-mail portal sponsored by Lycos. Now, each time I receive an e-mail containing a link, an automated script inserts the string 'http://proxy-mail.mailcity.lycos.com/bin/redirector2.cgi' into the link. The only reason I can think of for forcing people to use a proxy server is to collect data on where people are linking to from Mailcity. I've e-mailed their customer support folk to find out how that data collection is being used, but gotten no reply. Lycos doesn't mention any such data collection in its privacy policy, and there's no way to 'opt out' of their proxy server intrusion without cutting and pasting URLs manually. (Which I often do, because I often receive 'secure' URLs in email that include autologins.) Lycos has a partnership with DoubleClick, so I find this data collection to be more than a little shady. Anyone care to shed some light on this - and do other 'free' e-mail portals indulge in similar proxy-practices with e-mailed URLs?"

Killjoy_b writes, "Dune fans never had it so good. First Frank Herbert's son's new Dune: House Atreides book came out in February and now there is a new Dune miniseries in the making. You can check out the pics at this Science Fiction Film Site. The page itself is German. Enjoy. " You know where the fish is.Tim sent this additional page of info. In English.

~spot writes "According to CNN (and the BBC), England has founded an asteroid & comet collision task force to watch for potential planet killers, known as ELE (extinction level events). " Neither Bruce Willis nor Tia Leoni has been asked to join. Steve Buscemi will be a consultant.