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Here it is...

Seems they settled or something...

IBM's way of handling this just sucks for those employees...

By God, down here in the benighted South, we do privacy right. First off, it's a Czar, not a Commissioner, because it sounds cooler.

In 2003, we appointed Nuala O'Connor Kelly, formerly of Doubleclick fame, as Chief Privacy Officer of DHS, which is pretty close to Czarina as it gets.

And she then appointed, two years later, J. Reed Freeman to the DHS Privacy Committee, in honor of his heroic efforts to get Gator's spyware on every PC in Am... ummm, I mean the value he added through his work at a opt-in marketing services provider called Claria...

PRIVACY? THREAT DOWN!

It looks like they are giving free software and support

What's very funny is Microsoft had a 10 question quiz in an ad here on slashdot. The quiz was to "test your knowledge of software licensing". For grins, I took the test. It will not let you go got the next question (training maze) until you got the current question correct. If they just scored it, I would have done poorly as I chose what a consumer friendly answer should be. Taking the quiz fully convinced me that with GNU style licenses out there, the MS license will lose.

For example, you have a computer with an OEM Windows install. It dies. Can you reinstall the software on another computer? The answer is no. The license is only for the dead computer and is not transferable. Just how does that stack up against my other software which includes the permission to install it on any and all computers I own. Getting me to buy their software is going to be tough. With Open Office, everyone has the same version. With MS Office, I have a machine with Office 97. The daughter has the Office 2003, and the wife's new Vista laptop has the new copy provided for the cost of the media through my employer. It expires when I lose my job or retire. Compare licenses again. One copy on one machine or a site license for all the machines in my house.. Easy choice.. We all have a copy of the up to date Open Office. It supports ODF out of the box, not as a plug-in.

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2075/word_2007_open_save_odf_documents

Schools who have to deal with donated machines and per seat licenses have the BSA to fear. Schools who use OSS software do not have this legal liability. MS will either have to blanket change their license or continue to find their market erode.

http://www.linux.com/feed/37845 (Oregon school faces BSA Audit)

Business also has to deal with the sticky terms of the MS license

http://www.news.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html (Ernie Ball's BSA audit, cost $65,000, plus $35,000 in legal fees)

Those badly hurt and afraid will need a lot more than just a sweet deal to switch back.

This is ridiculous hypocrisy!

Yahoo uses open source http://www.news.com/2100-1023-963937.html

Yahoo publishes open source http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

Yahoo are now well and truly on my sh*t list.

Damn! I have to go and expunge them from life :(

Sun has been thinking about this for a while
http://www.news.com/2100-7344_3-5562799.html

Thing is is Sun already supports an OS DB:
"Sun backs open-source database PostgreSQL".

Sun has been thinking about this for a while
http://www.news.com/2100-7344_3-5562799.html

Thing is is Sun already supports an OS DB:
"Sun backs open-source database PostgreSQL".

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=brian+reid+google&btnG=Google+Search

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5283653.html

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9792046-7.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Reid_(computer_scientist)

took me all of a minute to find that.

Sun has been thinking about this for a while
http://www.news.com/2100-7344_3-5562799.html

Coincidentally enough, apparently a major ratification to batteries is coming our way. There's an article (http://www.news.com/2100-1041-6226196.html) that claims a 10-fold increase in battery life in the near-future (up to 40 hours)! So integrated batteries will likely become the de-facto standard.

Because the passkey is in your brain and not a physical key... at least according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/15/1459243
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html

And I'd imagine that to the extent that they can retrieve it from your computer themselves, they could seize the computer after the fact and retrieve it. Unfortunately, this is really hard if you were using even a half-decent encryption system.

A better option for them would be that if they know what they want in advance of the seizure/your arrest, then they could get a warrant allowing them to place a keylogger on your system. If they catch you voluntarily using the key (making the statement) yourself, then there's not much you can do. This is the sort of warrant that was used to get an encryption key from Nicodemo Scarfo - see http://www.news.com/U.S.-keeps-PC-surveillance-under-wraps/2100-1023_3-272131.html. In the case I mentioned in my last post, however, they didn't realize they needed the encryption key until after they had accused him of having child pornography and seized the laptop, and at that point the chance of catching him voluntarily using it with a keylogger was pretty slim.

It's again the wrong reason for a lawsuit so Microsoft will win again. The problem with Microsoft is not software bundling but API's accessibility and interoperability with other 3rd party softwares. This can be solved by forcing royalty free documentation and API access. Last time EU tried to impose unbundling of Windows Media Player but at the time the only alternative was RealPlayer and they have been bought . The resulting decision was a joke for Microsoft and was forgotten.
Another big problem is hardware/software bundling. I will like to see an injunction for all computer sellers to provide at least one alternative OS for every computer type they are selling for maximum the same price. If this is not possible the computers should be provided "without OS" alternative with a reduced price that is really matching the price paid to Microsoft OS (the minimum of 1/2 from the retail price of Windows).

Gnu Privacy Guard (or other PGP) + Judge: Man can't be forced to divulge encryption passphrase = safety in communications.

The 2003 fine was paid during 2004 (http://www.news.com/2100-1014_3-5255715.html). The other additional fines most likely have been as well since Microsoft does have a business presence in Europe via Microsoft EMEA located in Ireland I belive (EMEA stands for Europe, Middle-East, Africa). Should the boardmembers refuse to pay then that would land them in court and result in possible personal punishments. No sane business professional would do that no matter how many chairs are thrown on the other side of the atlantic.

It only took me 2 minutes of Googling to come up with this: "Want to give someone a video clip from your camera? Just stick it next to a phone with TransferJet embedded in it and press go. The file swaps over." "The technology, moreover, is somewhat insulated from privacy concerns because the two devices can only be 1.75 inches away from each other for the connection to work. Someone would have to snuggle up awfully close to extract the contact list from your phone." http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9842512-7.html

Consoles are actually an excellent example of the fact that people who buy cheap systems will avoid paying for software unless they absolutely have to. If this wasn't the case, then they wouldn't have increasingly complex internal DRM systems, there wouldn't have been enough of a market for "mod chips" that bypass said DRM systems for them to exist, and the console manufacturers wouldn't have regarded those "mod chips" as enough of a threat to their licensing revenue to bother doing everything in their power to prevent them being manufactured, sold, or installed.

Here are some links which show (a) piracy flourishes when people can bypass a system's internal DRM, and (b) all three major console manufacturers take this threat very seriously indeed:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/28984/Piracy-drive-threatens-Nintendo-DS
http://www.thetanooki.com/2007/11/26/r4-chip-costing-nintendo-millions-in-ds-software-sales/
http://www.playnoevil.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/1355-Nintendos-success-is-breeding-Piracy-Problems.html
http://www.gamersevolved.com/nintendo-ds-tries-to-put-stop-to-piracy.html
http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/2884/2/
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/emergingtech/0,1000000183,39161307,00.htm
http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/05/sony-busts-down-mod-chip-retailer-with-9-mil-lawsuit/
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2003/07/31/sony-wins-australian-mod-chip-case
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/4407.cfm
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/13847/532/
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/3401.cfm
http://www.news.com/2100-1040-962797.html
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=6042
http://www.geek.com/three-people-facing-charges-for-xbox-piracy/

There are countless other similar links that prove how reluctant people are to pay for software on any low-cost platform if they can find a way of not doing so.

they know its clearly bogus, then why don't they, in fairness, also drop all the previous cases where they argued this in the first place?

I have to wonder why everyone's trying to put a band-aid on the problem.

Because politics rarely involves one person getting their way, no matter how good. So the practical person, for better or worse, examines compromises.

Here's a wacky idea--build a nuclear plant or two, and provide the energy that people are demanding.

I'm actually seriously with you on that. Lots of people fear nuclear. But if you really believe either he global warming issue, or the fact that we're peaking on oil, we're going to need cheap, clean energy soon. I'm all for wind and solar, but don't expect that to deploy in enough time to really work. So your band-aid (heh--see, everyone has one--it's only natural) of filling the gap with a bunch of nuclear plants sounds like the only way forward that makes much sense to address the cause, not the symptom... at least in the next 10-20 years.

Just, please, let's put them above the plain that might be flooded by global warming. And definitely not in the basement of anyone with a government-controlled thermostat.

The power generation infrastructure suffers from too much 'NIMBY'. I lived in Indiana for years, and during the 90's; Duke power wanted to build several 'Peak Power' generation plants fired by Natural Gas. Every time they tried to get permits, the 'NIMBY' (Not In My Back Yard) crowd showed up and whined to the elected officials. Naturally, fearing a loss of votes elected officials caved.

California is in much the same state; They haven't been able to build a power plant (thanks to the NIMBY's) for at least 2 decades. Now, they are suffering for it. Back in 2001, the DOE estimated that the US would need around 1900 power plants built by the year 2021. Yes, they've built wind farms, but now they're finding that the Wind Farms are killing Raptors and causing infestations of rats. http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18447

There is no easy answer--Conservation by us will help some, but ultimately we need clean, cheap power. On NUMB3RS last night, they were looking at putting up Solar Panels on Charlies house; which on a nice bright sunny day would generate more than what they used. IIRC, they were looking at some really cutting edge technology stuff. Currently, the break even point is about 12-18 years, but this company looks really promising. http://www.news.com/greentech/8301-11128_3-9835241-54.html?tag=nefd.top At their cost of $1/watt it cuts the break even by as much as 66%.

Enter Napster. Kids are copying music and distributing it over the internet. These corporations are now trying to sell a product that is often easier to get for free online. The iPod becomes the Walkman of the 00's. The labels fear P2P and mp3s and demand copy protection, which Apple offers them in the iTMS. Now they can sell their music online, which makes it easy to find, but control how it's copied and distributed. And it will play on the majority of players. Everything is getting back to normal, but they need more money. So they want to raise prices.

But things have changed. The labels no longer control the distribution channel of their product. Apple does. And Apple refuses to raise prices. The labels have tried other online stores, including creating their own (which is probably still their end goal), with little success because Apple will not license their copy protection, nor support other methods of copy protection on the iPod. While some governments are working to legislate this, the labels can not afford to wait for legislation to solve their problem. They are forced to make a choice.

1. Concede to Apple, sell all songs at a fixed price
2. Sell unprotected, iPod compatible files at other online retailers
3. Lose more market share

At the moment, the labels have opted to sell unprotected files on Amazon.com. If the labels can restore the retail market to at least what it was, then they can more tightly control the "authorized" distribution of their product. And for the unauthorized... While it doesn't accomplish their end goal of complete control of the distribution and retail sale of their music, it's a step closer. Apple loses some of its bargaining power, and the labels can call the shots again.

Option A will reinforce a reasonable business model that will benefit the industry, the artist, and you.

I disagree. While I would rather purchase non-DRM'd music over DRM'd music, simply because I like to play music on a number of devices; I don't believe the lack of DRM benefits artists. It may benefit me in the short term, but then again the labels might just be fattening me up to eat me. I would suggest that a solution that truly respects artist and consumer needs would: decentralize the production, marketing, and distribution chain; acknowledge that technology has lowered the cost of bringing an album to market, and pay artists appropriately; and stop intimidating law abiding citizens.

To accomplish this, we must:

1. Stop purchasing music from labels that support the RIAA
2. Support independent and local musicians. Go to their shows, buy their music.

By doing this, the artists get paid more, you often get DRM-free music, and innocent people

Seems that for every good intentioned project such as the cheap 1 Lahk ($2500) minicar to benefit India there is an immediate downside.

Look at this report on what farmers are saying about losing their land for the factory / plant that is going to build them

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9848763-7.html?tag=nefd.top

It's already been done 8 or 9 years ago. Sadly, it doesn't actually have Barbie on the front, and the company making it went bankrupt.

But you could run Linux on it if you wanted to!

There's a story right after this on on the KPC which is $200. You could swap out the HDD for a half terabyte $100 cheapy from Microcenter or rebated somewhere. I believe the motherboard has gigabit ethernet. Although I can't say for sure. I think this is as cheap as you can go without a used/DIY idea and on top of that, it will take up hardly any space.

If you're concerned about heat around the HDD, I would simply suggest a DIY project that moves the HDD to its own enclosure with heat sinks and fans. But one of those would look cute underneath your router or even in your living room.

It is here.

Daily Variety has confirmed that Universal's commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended. And Paramount has an escape clause in its HD DVD contract allowing it to release pics on Blu-ray after Warner Bros.' decision to back that format exclusively.

Neither studio is ready to throw in the towel immediately, however. Universal is committed to a series of promotions for the high-def format in coming months, and Par has said its current plans are to keep supporting HD DVD, which it backed exclusively in August.

Some folks such as Seagate CEO Bill Watkins claim that the Blu-ray HD-DVD format war dragged on long enough to make network transfer of movies the preferred format. Personally I have my doubts. If I own a physical disc DVD, I can loan it to my neighbor, bring it on the road and let my kids watch it on a hotel DVD player, and generally treat it as if I own it outright. Blu-ray will be the same. If I electronically download a movie, DRM greatly limits the hardware on which it will play: either my desktop or my laptop or maybe my Tivo, but probably not all of the above. And if I replace my media PC in two years time, how many hoops do I jump through to re-license my collection on new hardware? Nope, the DRM on network movies is worse than the DRM on the disks.

http://www.news.com/2100-1038_3-5266019.html

As much as I hate Verizon Wireless for crippling their phones, if Verizon had 62.1 million subscribers in June 2007 and 63.7 subscribers as of January 8th, 2008, how can they be "hemorrhaging" customers?

AT&T may be clobbering them, adding new acquisitions to 67.3 million lines (from 63.7 in June 07), but Verizon has a turnover rate of less than 2% and they've increased the total # of subscribers since the iPhone release.

The fact that the iPhone shookup the wireless industry and forced others to innovate and improve is true, but Verizon isn't dying. They DO need to play catchup with AT&T though; AT&T is widening their lead.

They did in 2006 and found about 0.224 defects per TLOC.

MySQL uses Coverity and Klockwork on their certified versions on several different platforms. The certified versions are based on the major releases of community versions, and are typically just more conservative in that they only make changes for critical and security bugs.

There's speculation that the community edition tested was actually an old report without a retest even back then, as the certified version based on that community version had zero defects reported and the bug count on the community edition was the same per TLOC as the previous report before those bugs were fixed in both versions.

Has anyone read "The Scoble scuffle: Facebook, Plaxo at odds over data portability" (http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9839474-36.html); why would Facebook join this, if they are doing something else like in the aforementioned story which I think you should all read!

There already are artificial processes which make synthetic diamonds that are nearly indistinguishable from natural diamonds (basically the synthetic ones are "too perfect"). If they ever approach mainstream be prepared for ads marketing natural diamonds as somehow "better" just because they were dug up, rather than any distinguishable features of the stone itself. You can read more about it in these articles:

http://www.news.com/2100-11395_3-6159542.html

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

Is he really stepping down? The link in the article asks me to install Silverlight and I can't read it as such.... The other links don't say anything like it. (My mistake: this one does) A Google search yields this, though.

Anyway, if I'd been him, I'd have retired years ago ;-)

If you're more interested in the technology, try looking at this. It doesn't work "like a hydroelectric plant." (spinning a turbine doesn't = "hydroelectric") It simply uses an array of mirrors to aim sunlight at salt and heat it. The molten salt can then be used to steam water and turn a turbine, or saved for later.

You tell Google that.

LANCOR.

Yes, I realize there are over 500 languages being used in Nigeria and their official language is English. I just hope the courts in Nigeria can grind a little faster than the courts in America.

IMO this ploy by LANCOR against OLPC is a carbon copy of the SCO scheme against Linux. I wonder if the company funding LANCOR is the same company that funded the SCO fiasco.

It would be interesting to compare the punishments of male and female child molesters.

Your wording there just highlighted on of the prime problems with our current "sex offender" laws,definitions, and perceptions. The is a huge world of difference between a child molester (has physical sexual contact with a child that has not yet reached puberty) and Ephebophilia (sexual attraction to adolescents). There is an even greater difference between actual child molesters and someone who streaks a football game, and is seen by minors. Or a minor who takes naked pictures of themselves. Or how about failing to have a good pop-up blocker.

I'm all for stopping the who will lure or grab a child off a playground, but why is this the one class of criminals that has to "register" for a lifetime of rejection and fear. Why don't drunk drivers have to register and why are they allowed near bars again? Why don't those convicted of libel have to identify themselves as such when posting online? If someone rapes a child perhaps they should be locked away for life, but if a lesser crime doesn't call for lifetime incarceration, then it shouldn't call for lifetime tracking.

According to the CEA, 50% of households have a digital TV. I would venture a guess that 80-90% of those were bought in the last 6 years. That would put most of the country on track with replacing their TV in the last 6 years. I don't think most people have TV manufactured in the 80s (or even the 90s) anymore.

The Coral Cache version of the first two links:

http://en.wikipedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wiki/Annals_of_Improbable_Research

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9837983-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&coral-no-serve

I couldn't find cache on the third link, but the original appears to be up-ish (Up but slow)

http://www.improbable.com/magazine

Slashdot story about ebay sitting on its hands and doing nothing when given proof of fraud, complete with stories from slashdotters who used to work for ebay: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/16/1316203&tid=95&tid=98&tid=123

This guy adds in his own personal experience, where eBay wanted a $25 fee to handle a fraud case: http://danwarne.com/ebay-fraud-under-scrutiny/

In 2002, ebay sits on its hands and does nothing when given evidence of fraud: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078736/

FTC says Ebay is the #1 source of online fraud complaints (circa 2003): http://www.news.com/FTC,-states-take-on-online-auction-fraud/2100-1017_3-999009.html

Still a problem in 2004: http://www.nclnet.org/news/2004/internet_fraud_stats.htm

...and the beat goes on! Just google "ebay fraud" and see hundreds of news stories and personal accounts...

I recall reading a few years ago that eBay was a source of something like 75% of all complaints about online fraud. Just yesterday I saw an item for sale by a guy with a positive rating of something like 24,000. Unless he's selling 6 items a day for the last 10 years, I see nothing has changed.

Yeah, I submitted a more accurate summary of the Energy Independence and Security Act the other day, but forgot that if it isn't sensationalized it gets rejected around here.

Actually, the new law doesn't ban incandescants (which would be an incredibly bad law); it merely sets efficiency standards where before there were none (which is actually a pretty good law). And G.E. claims to be well on the way to making incandescants that will meet the new standards.

(By the way, the standards that phase in over the next few years are still well below the efficiency of a CFL. Even the backstop provisions for 2020 -- 45 lumens per watt -- are at the low end of what a CFL can do. So if G.E. can make incandescants compete with CFL, as they say they can, then there's no issue here.)

Also, there are a bunch of exemptions and exceptions. Those allegedly-decorative candelabra bulbs have a different standard (nothing above 60W). Many special-purpose lights are exempt, and in some cases that just means the light has to be marketed as "for such-and-such use only".

But by all means, let's all panic.

Finally some is fighting back. Hopefully they'll be the first of many. Until that point though, I agree with sethawoolley, boycott them. Always Jamendo for your music fix and hopefully Pandora will be providing a record label filter so we don't have to listen to RIAA supporting music.

On a minor note, what happened to the college funded music setups? That would've been nice to have a networked repository of music we could access at any time and just have it included with tuition and fees.

I think the driver issue is not too much of a problem since the live CD distributions of Linux have drivers included which support most Ethernet cards. (With the exception, of course, of many wireless cards.) If the driver is not present there is no (simple) way to load it after you have booted off the live CD.

Maybe you are suggesting that someone might poison the Linux kernel with a Trojan. That would be dastardly indeed. Hopefully the kernel team would catch such an attempt. It has been tried before. I guess its a matter of a chain of trust of who is reviewing kernel submissions. One might more easily poison a userland application that receives less rigorous review. Either type of poisoning with a Trojan is vulnerable to discovery by people with running Ethereal to catch rogue packets leaking out of their systems.

Perhaps the most effective point to insert a Trojan would be at the point that the bank is creating the customizations for the boot device (USB flash or CD). This would require an insider, though, and would be vulnerable to packet analysis.

I'm sure I'm missing some other good attack vectors. Maybe there are some nice gaping holes in my thoughts above. Any thoughts anyone?

-Jon

Living in Europe, I do not see that this is the end of the story.

Quote: "The European Commission, as it proceeds in evaluating the Google-DoubleClick deal, may have concerns with whether challenging the merger will ultimately be overturned by the European Court of First Instance, which serves as an appeals court. ... The Commission is seeking to make its (merger) clearances, as well as its prohibitions, as appeal-proof as possible," (emphasis mine)

They will probably have a hard time doing so.

CC.

Sadly, this is a no-win case in Congress either way. With Republicans in the hands of big business and Democrats in the hands of Hollywood, the possibility of anyone looking out for the consumer is pretty much nil. Calls for reform usually only end up with even more onerous legislation.

1. Virtual PC 2007 does not run on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows Vista Home Basic, or even Windows Vista Home Premium.
2. After June 30, 2008, Microsoft will stop distributing copies of Windows XP to run in Virtual PC.
3. I am not convinced that device drivers will run as expected in Virtual PC.

...given all of the other hardware-related problems that Xbox 360 has had with overheating, brittle solder joints, optical disk scratching, and general instability.