Slashdot Mirror

HAHHA ROTFL good one
In other news Representave Traficant found guilty of corruption charges, refused to resign Why this isn't major news? I don't know.

I remember watching Silicon Summit (I think it was the third annual annual) on MSNBC about a month ago. I featured maybe 10 CEOs and other big wig tech-industry types. It seemed like a rather big event, there were maybe 10 thousand or so people in the audience. Anyways, one of the discussions was about digital copyright and IP law enforcement. Pretty much the general consenious was that there would need to be some kind of DRM solution in the near future, maybe not this year but within a couple of years. Ted Waitt, CEO of Gateway and the human in that commerical, was the only one to mention fair use at all or to have any significant disent. He's got my respect.

On another note, on that same show there was an Asian lady from the audience that asked a question specifically mentioning the SSSCA. Unfortunately I can't recall what their responses where, but I do remember Rob Glasser (I think, I may be wrong here) from RealNetworks claming that he had never heard of the bill.

If anybody else saw this please correct me if I'm wrong.

Robert Novak of PetsWarehouse.com has sued people after they complained about poor service in a public forum according to an article on msnbc.

"Novak claimed humiliation, emotional distress, libelous statements and the dilution of his trademark as a result of the APD posts, which have led, he said in court papers, to "headaches, nausea, nervousness, anxiety, embarrassment, humiliation, and mental distress.""

http://www.msnbc.com/news/734035.asp

Bill Gates with the Viewsonic PC

Maybe he has a bird fetish.

Web talk lands some in hot water

My favorite is the Long Island Business news article about how filing lawsuits is this guy's "hobby".

URL for the story at MSNBC. I realize it's a subset of C|Net, but it's actually propigated to their site.

Don't worry, I'm not going to get all corny and weepy. Yeah, the guy really was born on April 1st. If you met him, you'd know how well it fits. Happy Birthday, Kurt!

<rant>
For the groaners: waah. Slashdot isn't Democracy Now, The Progressive, and sure the hell isn't CNN, NPR, MSNBC or whatever "hard news" site you've been looking for. It's a pretty cool blog - it keeps me (and you) coming back.
</rant>

Anyway, at least there's one day a year everyone can act a fool - even better if it's your birthday!

As for the other 364 days...

Something I, read somewhere...

Something I, read somewhere...

Since the lazy sacks of shit who run this site are too lazy to check the facts on what they report,

Not sarcastic at all. Calling bin Laden an ex-cia operative is more a matter of semantics than anything. The CIA considered him and some others 'friendly partners'. Partner, operative, a rose is a rose. Check out this article for some details. More education here.

Gateway would have trouble making a worse PC. I would estimate 30% of them fail about 2 months into it - then you get to talk to tech support who will kindly help you erase all your files and re-install windows! Aren't you glad you bought that piece of crap?

Anyway MSNBC has much better coverage of this even though one of their partners is getting the shaft here!

I know you were shooting for irony, but other news outlets have criticized the SSSCA, like Newsweek. (I'm not sure which corporate parent MSNBC will adhere to in this fight.)

And wrote to my parents and friends an e-mail about this. It's extremely rare for me to say "Please forward" in anything I send. (Forgive me if you think this to be karma-whoring...)

Reading Slashdot every day sometimes makes me want to shoot every corporate and government entity on the planet as I figure out what they are doing to the US public every day. The DMCA, if you didn't already realize, is already doing some heavy damage, and it is highly unconstitutional: The DMCA in plain English.

Here's some of the latest abuses of the DMCA:

Writing a eBook convertor for the blind (the Sklyarov case): 1 2
No DVD software player for Linux and no research on cryptology
Blocking anti-Scientology sites

If you think that's scary, that's not even the icing on the cake! The newly-proposed law going to the Senate right now, the SSSCA, funded by the RIAA and the MPAA, is like the DMCA on crack. Passing it is suicide to all things technological!

The SSSCA in plain English: 1 2 3

The SSSCA (now the CBDTPA) is in the Senate

If this new CBDTPA gets passed, computers several years from now will not be the computers we have today. They will be limited pieces of hardware, hard-coded to prevent you from doing "bad things". They will monitor your activities. And this will affect everything from car stereos to TVs to anything else "computer related". If it has a format or something to "protect", it will be affected. This includes you and the way you use computers!

How can you make things secure, if you don't have the tools to test security? This is on par with banning crowbars because they can be used to break into a home, instead of arresting the robbers that use them.

So, what can you do about it? The ACLU actually isn't paying much attention to this one, because it's not really their realm. The real freedom fighter in cases like these is the EFF. The EFF is a well-known organization that some people have called "the ACLU for technology". Many computer techs are members. Wil Wheaton was one of the Star Trek guests on a "Weakest Link" special episode, who chose the EFF as his donating organization. (He won them $10,000 on that show.)

The EFF is truly the only line of defense for this. Voting doesn't work. Petitions don't work. The only thing that works (unforunately) is money, and fighting the system with its own laws. The RIAA and MPAA "donated" over $50 million dollars to both political parties! We need to fight back and donate to the EFF! I just donated my dues to the EFF today, because they are going to need it now.

Please forward this to all of your friends! Donate to the EFF now!!!

This isn't a new technology. Back in the 70's two were build... but here's an article on it here. Took 3 months to get /.'ed?

When I first read this, I was thinking of the application of routing theory to the movement of vehicles such as would be required in an emergency, which naturally led to...

If you thought TCP/IP over carrier pigeon had huge-azz latency, wait'll you try TCP/IP over government bureaucrat!

First, the IP datagram is printed on a form I-TCPIP by the former acting deputy chief. The scroll of paper is inserted into his briefcase and he's reassigned to acting director for international affairs.

At each hop, the source address is taken by the executive associate commissioner for field operations, and filed according to procedure. After he becomes regional director for the western region, he looks up the address of the next hop.

The next hop's address is glommed onto the datagram by the assistant commissioner for inspections, formerly the acting executive associate commissioner in the office of programs.

Finally, the router, upon receipt of the datagram, forwards it to the special counsel to the commissioner, who herself is then reassigned to assistant deputy executive associate commissioner for immigration services.

Six months after the hijackers initiate transmission via a high-delay, low-throughput, and low-altitude service, the router at the flight school gets the packet containing the 9/11 hijackers' visa approval notifications.

Security is not only a problem in a normal operation, as special measures (such as the firing of the incompetent) cannot be taken even when government bureaucrats are used in a tactical environment.

I know I'll probably come off as a pro-Linux zealot for this.. but..

I am a first year compsci student. Before this year, all of my attempts to try to use Linux failed horribly.. but in January this year, I installed Redhat, and immediately fell in love. I've slowly been learning how to take advantage of all of Linux's more advanced features, and I've lately been able to fix problems based on intuition, rather than long searches on Google.

Whenever any of my friends come over, they see my computer, and they gasp. They love the way KDE looks, they love the Liquid theme, they love transparent menu's, they love the functionality of the command prompt, they ENVY the fact I can leave it on for days.. even weeks without having to so much as log out. (probably not the safest thing to be doing.. but it makes me feel big, lol)

The only things which prevent people from installing Linux on their own computers are the following

1. Lack of MSN messenger (Kmerlin) built in. They would not know where to look, if they were going to find it.. and it seems to be the most popular messenger at my university.

2. Once and awhile the Xserver bombs, and deletes the 'fixed fonts'.. which requires some knowledge to fix.

3. Decent CD burning software

4. A file sharing program which does not bomb all the time.

5. Better media support - Built in Divx support... easy to install quicktime support.. easy to find realplayer (it takes awhile to find realplayer if you don't know where to look)

The last thing it needs is to be pre-installed on a few computers.. but this article shows why that isn't likely to happen.

In preparation for Ballmer meeting with a Dell executive to talk about the computer maker's support of Linux, a confidential Microsoft briefing e-mail notes as a talking point that "it's untenable for a 'premier partner' of Windows 2000 to be doing aggressive marketing development for another operating system."

"This little drama ends" later that year, Kuney said, with Dell abandoning its Linux efforts with the head of the program being reassigned.

Overall, I think Linux is pretty much ready for the desktop. Everyone here is always bitching about stuff like document support.. which for the desktop, IMO, is pretty irrelevant. The majority of people out there transfer documents by copying and pasting to emails.

This is from a fellow whose book I will be reviewing in the near future:

" 'The record industry should stop blaming its customers for decreased sales. Had the industry cut a deal with Napster, it might have avoided the ungovernable chaos of decentralized peer-to-peer services now taking over the Internet,' writes Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian, media scholar and author of a book on copyrights."

Check the story out over over here.

This one works.
http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_email.asp? /news/720946.asp

A dead muslim is a good muslim.

.. an intelligent discussion without a lot of FUD.

However, I do object to this constant hyping of putting a computer in front of a kid in Afganistan, Pakistan or wherever and suddenly the world has changed for him/her. There is an interesting article over at MSNBC about how truly inpoverish Pakistani schools are. If they can't even get textbooks and running water, how do you expect to support a student's school with a fiber optic line and steady power to run PCs?
Don't get me wrong, technology has a tremendously liberating effect, but the short term impact must be realistic.

Your comment works sometimes but you are wrong with this issue. Compuware is sueing IBM based on allegations that IBM could not compete and therefore cheated and copied intellectual property to improve their own product. IBM went on and increased their market share by bundling their applications (some of which contain allegedly copied code) and professional services with their hardware and software.

Compuware may not be the bohemoth of Big Blue but they ARE the leader in mainframe programming tools for Big Blue. The lawsuit has surfaced because they don't want to become the next Netscape; being forced to lose market share due to a monopoly similar to the browser wars.

More information can be seen about the case at the following links:
MSNBC
Story on Compuware's site
Actual Legal Complaint [PDF]
Complaint summary [PDF]

Better Article
Turns out the lawsuit is in California because it was NDS Americas Inc. that transmitted the details onto the Internet.

Of course MSNBC has better coverage of this. Leave it to slashdot to drop the ball again.

Geez...if you're going to link to a story - at least make it the correct link. Here, Microsoft to open the source of Windows XP.

Unlike images of the plane going into the towers, which we've all seen millions of times, this camcordered footage captures more subtle images. Every screening review I've read calls it poignant, and says something will be gained from viewing. Infact newsweek, which is even affialiated with a rival network, claims it is "time well spent"

To take your point further, there has been tons of literature, movies and information published about the holocaust and World War 2, but does that invalidate Schindler's List as something to watch, since "it is like slowing down to watch an auto accident?"

MSNBC has an article about this. They speak of the technology more which is nice.

It's hard to blame the individual; most people (in the US) wouldn't stand for it.

MSNBC just put up an article saying that Execs believe the browser cannot be stripped from the OS. Hilarious.

Of course, this is the same place that ran an "article" talking about how Microsoft couldn't have been a Monopoly, one day before the Findings of Fact. Hilarious x2.

Still think Chomsky's a kook, do ya?

I was watching meet the press this past Sunday, Sens. Tom Daschle and Trent Lott were on and there were discussions about how to eliminate US dependency on Iraqi oil.Daschele apparently wants to force auto manufacturers to change the average fuel efficiency for automobiles (which I think is a good thing) in order to reduce importing "about two million barrels of oil per week."

Interestingly, or not, Trent Lott, said, rather predictably I suppose, "I guess there's some people that think we ought to all be driving Honda Civics." His point, and he went on to say, as part of the Republican creedo, we don't need government in our lives to dictate how and what we should drive.

The point being, it is very interesting that people who would be on the side of government installing some sort of copy protection are the Dem's and it follows almost from their ideology, it would seem. I would be interested if Lott, and his ilk, would stick to their ideology in saying that govt shouldn't meddle in this. In fact, it is other people like Bob Barr (and let me say I find Lott and Barr as a particularly vile strain of politician) who speak out against surveillance cameras.

It would be interesting to know, or to hear some of the "keep govt out of my life," "let the market rule" Repub's speak out on this issue. Especially if Hollings keeps this up. Maybe it is just in my mind that I still imagine Dem's as being progessive, but the truth is that people like John Perry Barlow and Lawrence Lessig are more Liberterian than anything. The dem's are poised to lose a lot of consumers/citizens on this one, via pissing off the voter. I wonder if any of the other party's are poised to pick it up and run with it?

Read the link off of the parent articles MSNBC linked article. Seems some college students are so ticked off over M$ anti-piracy measures that they are proclaiming M$ will never have enough dollars to hire them.

Unless that content isn't text. MSNBC's "Year in Photos 2001" brilliantly uses Flash, HTML and Movies to create the best "package" of the "year in photos". All I can say is it's impressive--and I work for the competition Washington Post: Cameraworks.

Check out this link: (Choose large pictures. Then Editors Choice)
MSNBC Year In Photos"

Yes it's bandwidth intensive, but multimedia has got to be. It's a power photo essay and it's unique. It's not a magazine, not a newspapers, not television etc. It's the web at its best.

Several comments question whether Microsoft made adequate disclosures under 15 U.S.C. ? 16(g)... even if Microsoft failed to satisfy the requirements of Section 16(g), that would not provide any basis to begin the comment period anew and further delay entry of the RPFJ.

[bshanks: some background: the Tunney Act requires Microsoft to dislose "any and all written or oral communications" with "any officer or employee of the United States". However, even MSNBC reports: "In court filings, the software giant disclosed only contacts with executive branch officials and not Congress."]

There's an article on msnbc (I only found it through Google), about this too...
We learn that they're suing to, among other things, keep the products that were sent to them at AOL's expense.

I submitted my page on Bill Jones's spams a couple days ago, and it was rejected:

2002-02-28 00:58:56 California Gubernatorial Canidate Resorts to Spam (articles,spam) (rejected)

Anyway, I'm not bitter. Check out my page on it anyway: http://polpo.org/jonesspam/. Basically, I pick apart the mail and the "click here to remove yourself from our list" page (which involves some novel Javascript-based HTML obfuscation) and find out who one of the spammers might be.

After talking with some people about this and doing a simple Google search I found that he's been doing this for a couple months now, with MSNBC doing this story on it in December. They have a followup story here.

By the way, don't count on Bill Jones's office writing you back when you complain to them about the spam. I haven't recieved a response yet.

Ian

MSNBC is running a story about a fraternity house that put fibre throughout the house and also have a wireless lan in the more traditional areas of the house. A really neat project since it didn't cost them very much! Under $4,000! WOW!

Then you must have missed this article at MSNBC about the frat that put fibre optics throughout their house (30 rooms!). They got some local businesses and some of their alumni to sponsor the T1 link to the internet! Not bad!

At least you can admit that.
The users Linux and FreeBSD do not understand their respective operating systems are dying.
There is an article about it over the MSNBC.

I'm pretty sure a lot of his 'sold stock money' goes to this:

http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/694130.asp

Says 24 billion so far and counting.

Read it here. . Yeah subscribers include famous people...SSN's, phone numbers, etc etc.

If you have any doubt why this is a good idea, read this story on MSNBC.

"[Bass' flight] is just an advertising stunt, I can promise you," Spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said. "This is better advertising than he could ever pay for."

Where did that quote come from? I didn't see that anywhere in the Yahoo news article. And according to the article I read about this the other day, nothing was ever said about it begin a done deal.

If you're ever privaledged enough to be able to even SAY you want to TRY go to space on a partcular space flight, why should any of us put you down for it? It's only a step forward towards average Joe being able to take space flights, not a step backward.

MSNBC.com has this story on PayPal facing a class action lawsuit.... is it just me or does it seem like /. is skipping this story? Maybe Taco bought a whack of shares in their IPO last week :)

Here a few more links to anti-PayPal sites:

paypalwarning.com

paypalsuit.com

boycott-paypal.com

And here is Google 's return on the query "paypal problems".

I wonder if this class action suit is for US residents only, as there are 13 million members, a good number of whom live outside the borders of the States. I recall the HP/Panasonic CD-R drive class action suit a year or two ago and being Canadian (go Team Canada today and tomorrow in Hockey!) I wasn't able to partake in it.

For those of you who want to sign up for this suit, here is the link to the lawyers registration form.

originally Here

MSNBC.com has this story on PayPal facing a class action lawsuit.... is it just me or does it seem like /. is skipping this story? Maybe Taco bought a whack of shares in their IPO last week :)

Here a few more links to anti-PayPal sites:

paypalwarning.com

paypalsuit.com

boycott-paypal.com

And here is Google's return on the query "paypal problems".

I wonder if this class action suit is for US residents only, as there are 13 million members, a good number of whom live outside the borders of the States. I recall the HP/Panasonic CD-R drive class action suit a year or two ago and being Canadian (go Team Canada today and tomorrow in Hockey!) I wasn't able to partake in it.

For those of you who want to sign up for this suit, here is the link to the lawyers registration form.

You can still win an Olympic gold medal if you have Mono...

Searching Google for google results currently in two news articles about the matter:

MSNBC: Google unveils new program that lets Web sites bid for advertising
Washington Post: Google Introduces New Program

Both are almost identical, and somewhat criticize Google's actions: Online search engine maker Google Inc. is introducing a program that allows Web sites to be displayed more prominently if sponsors pay more money - an advertising-driven system derided by critics as an invitation to deceptive business practices.

The Globe and Mail has been runnign a series on this subject. A comparison of the systems can be found here while a rebuttal can be found here. While the rebuttal is significant the tone of the first article is that there are many positives and negatives to both systems and that solutions to the problems north and south of the border are going to be a little complex. Incidentally, the first article also talks about the French system approaching a crisis state.

That being said there are some interesting figures to note. US health care spending is $4055 per capita (from this Newsweek article in the "Data Bank" about 1/3 of the way down). In Canada it's about $3068.58 (The 2000 Grand Total/a 2000 population of about 31,000,000). Converted to USD that's about $1927.98 US. If we use purchasing power parity of about 80% that's still $2454.86 US. The Canadian system costs just over half of the US system and everyone is covered. That being said the extra money in the US system goes into much faster response time to help people.

Make of it what you will but both systems need to be looked at and neither contains a universal truth.

IMHO, as per.

J:)

Thanks to the rather zealous readership you've attracted, I think we all have a good idea of who you're marrying, and what she looks like. Truly a beautiful woman, and a sharp mind, too. Congratulations are definitely in order!

You certainly had to expect this would generate a lot of traffic here, but who imagined the reaction from the press?!? I was amazed to see Wired cover it... and The Register, and MSNBC (posting the C-Net story), etc! Geez Rob, you're a public icon!

Now that things have settled a bit and your proposal "story" has risen to be well-seated in the Hall of Fame (currently #5, and close to being #4!)... allow me to review the coverage your proposal generated:

• Cupid's Bull's-Eye on Nerd Site
  The co-founder of the popular Slashdot website proposes to his girlfriend on Valentine's Day. One reader wonders if the marriage would be an open-source arrangement. By Michelle Delio.
• Slashdot editor proposes on front page
  "Valentine's Day special" 14 February 2002 4:22pm
• News for Nerds: Will you marry me? (Cnet) or the same thing on MSNBC
• Geek pops the question online (ZDnet)
• A Google search on "Kathleen Fent" turns up 77 hits -- The first two being your proposal and its' place in the Hall of Fame, and nearly all of the rest referring to your proposal!

here

duhh....

MS-NBC

-rp