Slashdot Mirror

It is not clear yet.

SUP is controlled by Alexander Mamut - one of the powerbrokers during Eltsyn times. Right now he lives and owns businesses in Russia, which means that he is loyal to Putin.

It is interesting that two of the top Russian bloggers[Russian] officially work for SUP (Anton Nossik,Roustam Agadamov).

Politically aforementioned SUP bloggers distance themselves from support of Putin, and quite often Mr. Nossik expressed mild political opposition to Putin.

The purchase of Livejournal is a pure formality in terms of Russian politics, since SUP has been controlling cyrillic sector of Livejournal for quite a while now.

The completion of the transfer of the main blog-service in Russia into the hands of the company based in Russia is a logical conclusion and definitely does not add more independence to the future of content in Livejournal blogs.

So far politically motivated censure of top cyrillic Livejournal blogs has been applied to extreme right blogs.

It is somehow amazing and funny that the most danger to top Russian bloggers does not come from authorities but rather from some Russian hacker "Hell", who resides in Germany and periodically destroys and defaces top Livejournal blogs. He is loosely associated with a group of Russian internet activists calling themselves "padonki" (punks, scoundrels) and often meddles as a brute force on the side of his favorites in some heated disputes between top bloggers.

SUP was able to do little to strengthen the security of Livejournal, since little could be done. For example, Igor Petrov's journal was broken using an off-line trick: apparently the "hacker" presented a fake Russian passport in the name of Petrov (who also lives in Germany) to prove that he is the person who "lost" his access to journal.

The problem is that Facebook is lying about it, and doing so repeatedly.

1. Zuckerberg led the press and advertisers to believe that Beacon would be opt-in (it would publish only with the user's consent) but launched Beacon as an opt-out feature (it published without the user's consent).
2. Both the original design and the current design of Beacon announce to the user that a story is being sent to their profile. They do not present themselves as a choice; they do not ask for consent; they present themselves as a notification that something is already occurring.
3. Even though the new design is "opt-in", the notification has only one clearly emphasized button: "Okay". A design that offered a true choice would offer two equally clear buttons (e.g. "Publish" and "Cancel"). Again, the design is crafted to give users the impression that they have no choice.
4. Facebook collects information about its users' activities on other sites through Beacon despite public statements to the opposite. According to Stefan Berteau, Facebook does this even when you are logged out and even when no notification is displayed.
5. Facebook did not give its users reasonable advance notification that it would start publishing information about their activities on other sites. It just went ahead and did it. And Facebook is still not being upfront about the fact that it is collecting this information.
6. Facebook continues to refuse to let users just turn off Beacon. Instead users have to individually refuse Beacon for each partner site, and they cannot do this in advance; they can only do it at the moment a partner site is about to publish a story on Facebook. Again, they are clearly trying to maintain as many obstacles as possible for users who simply don't want this information shared.
7. Facebook's official response is disingenuous and insulting. The problem is not that Beacon "can be kind of confusing"; it is obviously designed to mislead. Facebook's Paul Janzer wrote:

   While we know "global opt-out" seems like the easiest solution, we believe that if we provide you with full control over your information, you and your friends can get the full benefit of sharing information and connecting on Facebook.

   Of course, if they really wanted to provide users "full control over [their] information" they would let users turn Beacon off.

Wait, you're suggesting by "I dont know of any company that could afford to beat out the fossil fuel companies to do so." that there aren't companies in the US trying to make money off alternative energy? Further, lots of state governments are actively trying to promote alternative energy, which undermines the theory that the government is afraid of a tax revenue collapse. State governments are subsidizing alternative energy using those very tax revenues, in the hopes that home-grown alternative energy producers will create even more tax revenue in the future.

I hate to sound like a slashvertisement, but I think the following US companies and groups would all disagree with you:

Evergreen Solar (producer based in Mass.)
Heliodyne (producer based in California)
Google (installing panels on its roof)
Solar Energy Industry Association (US trade group)
Tesla Motors) (selling 100% electric cars in the US)
List of solar manufacturers in the US
US solar power installations increase 33% year-to-year

The New York Times has a story about this issue: "Venture Capital Rushes into Alternate Energy" suggesting that $1.5 billion in VC money was invested in 2006 alone in new companies who hope to profit from overthrowing the energy status quo. If you add private equity money then there was $18.1 billion in dealflow in 2006 in the alternate energy sector. Or listen to a 2004 story about the same issue.

It's nice to think that there's some great conspiracy against alternate energy, but the simple truth is that there is a lot of market action in the field and nothing stopping people from making money in it. There is a HUGE amount of money to be made from alternate energy and plenty of people are trying to make it.

> The desire for greater control over how search engines index and display Web sites

Then design your sites better. Seriously. When I was on the team that launched http://jacksonville.com/, we spent a decent amount of time thinking about how to optimize our site for search engines, and that was 10 years ago. Too much showing? Not enough showing? Spend more time developing and designing your site ... instead of trying to emulate your print product (ahem ... *cough http://nytimes.com/ cough*)

I think the kid might have an easier reading the paper instead of doing the crosswords. :P

Jim: As a Jew, who is sensitive about misuse of references to the holocaust, I found no problem with your metaphor... nor to your response to the CEO...except for the reference to "creation"!

You actually allowed a colleague to be treated in that way, shameful.

The problem isn't the violent games, or the violent TV shows, or even the violent peer-groups.

The problem is, quite simply, absent and detached parents.

How do you know? It pisses me off no end to see how utterly prejudiced and unscientific even Slashdotters are. I can't even remember how many times I've seen this "it's the parents' fault" line mentioned here before, but at least one such comment is modded to five every time there's a thread about supposed videogame related violence. And I've never, ever, seen anyone mention anything in favor of such beliefs than their own ingrained preconceived ideas. If you had bothered to do even five minutes of research you'd have learned about the revolution in child psychology initiated by Judith Rich Harris 10 years ago now. Here's a primer. But you're not really interested in what science has to say, are you? You just want to be patted on the back by other Slashdotters who care just as little as you do about the real causes? Why is it impossible to have a serious discussion about this on Slashdot? God, this makes me so fucking sad.

>stay the hell away from tuna fish sandwiches

Bad advice. Eating fish is extremely good for the development of the brain and the dangers of mercury from the same is overblown.

Quoting the article:

Pregnant women who eat fish containing low levels of mercury every day apparently do not harm their babies, as many had feared, according to a major new study. ...
"Specifically, our data do not compel us to conclude that the many benefits of fish consumption during pregnancy are reduced by fetal effects," the main NeuroToxicology article said.

The women in the Seychelles test, who ate an average of 12 fish meals a week, averaged about 7 parts per million of mercury in their hair, but some had levels as high as 36 parts per million. ...
"These kids are healthy." said Thomas Clarkson, a co-author of the study. "They're doing well. And that's encouraging."

Guy Hands aims to snuff out excesses that cost EMI £100m a year

Guy Hands, chairman of EMI, has told potential investors the group's former management squandered around 100 million pounds on corporate excesses. Terra Firma, Hands' private equity firm, is expected to make major changes to senior management and transform the culture of a company considered to be stuck in the glory days of the music business. Industry observers say Hands will try to blame previous management for the firm's woes because he has paid over the odds for a business struggling to cope with a dwindling market.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2963629.ece
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/27/in-winning-emi-is-guy-hands-losing-out-on-other-deals/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/08/cnemi108.xml

Rumor has it some laser guided bombs were filled with cement

Not rumor, fact.

A 2000lb guided rock hitting a particular vehicle/tank is just as effective as a 2000lb MK-84.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/opinion/06mcwilliams.html?_r=1&oref=slogin is a pretty good survey on the subject, and it lists a nice collection of studies.

To quote "Incorporating these measurements into their assessments, scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand's clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit."

As for your case, you would most likely be better off eating local foods. But I don't have the training to conduct a life-cycle study, so I say that with great trepidation.

Hmmm, what the hell; I've got karma to burn. Your arguments fail to move me -- the examples either apply to telecom as a whole, or are simply untrue. You've clearly never had working knowledge of this industry.

As far as TV goes, most people's options boil down to little more than an antenna, DirecTV or The Cable Company.

True, there are currently 3 competing providers across the US, four if you separate DirectTV and Echostar. There's also FIOS. Some area have overbuilders, essentially a second cable company in the same area. Since I can't possibly come up with another crappy car analogy, we'll have to settle for an OS analogy: You've got over the air broadcast by FOX/CBS/*BC, around since the 1930's: Big Iron, IBM, Unix System V, systems that went into decline due to the changing face of technology. Dish: Microsoft - a newer product, with oppressive EULA's and a desire to have their product in EVERY home in the US. And the cable companies + overbuilders: Linux and it's variants...fractured and splintered amongst themselves, but with a similar goal and purpose.

How many options do you have for internet? More than 3? How about landline phone service or cell service? More than 3 local major players? This "lack" of competition exists in all of telecom, not just TV.

If there was an injection of more competition in the market I think we'd see a lot more innovative services like more robust video on demand, ala carte programming options, more and higher quality HD channels, and innovative new services we haven't even thought of.

You mean like....Youtube, Youtube, and with the exception of HD content....Youtube? In today's markets, innovative has come to mean "interactive". TV watching is not an interactive activity, and never has been...unless you count screaming at Sunday Night Football when the QB fumbles in the end zone in overtime. These innovative services are not going to come from the TV provider; they will be online. The HD issue is a tough one...a quick look online shows less than 50 HD channels currently available not counting regional sports networks and broadcasters. If you exclude HBO/SHOW/MAX, the list is under 40. I don't know about you, but Wealth TV HD just doesn't do it for me.

And before someone points out it's *their* infrastructure and they built and bought it--they did so with a lot of government subsidies and that infrastructure is sitting on a lot of public land. They only have mini-monopolies because the government has allowed it.

You're kidding, right? Cable companies receive no such subsidies; perhaps you're thinking of the telephone companies. FIOS is being laid courtesy of that lovely FCC fee on your phone bill, but not cable. Cable companies PAY the local governments for the rights to service the towns which they do -- and they pay mightily. I've seen franchise agreements where the municipality is collecting 1% of total revenue from the cable provider. This is passed to the customer, a tax imposed not by the cable company, but by city hall. Towns are greedy; Google for "FIOS franchise dispute" or read about AT&T being sued by a Wisconsin city because AT&T wasn't paying a franchise fee or a dispute for Cablevision. Austin, Texas used to collect 35 cents per subscriber each month; that was in 1996 and it's probably more by now.

Finally, there are no mini-monopolies -- overbuilders and telecoms such as AT&T/Verizon are free to come in to a town and provide service. But before they hop a ride on the money train, they have to pay f

At that point we'll probably just start accepting more students from other countries to keep the classrooms full.

Of course, I'm at work right now, and I'm on /., so YMMV.

[1] [2]

Apparently some NY pawnbrokers http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9801E6DA133AE633A25757C2A9659C946396D6CF&oref=slogin/ had the same concerns you do about not being allowed to keep stolen property they had paid somebody for.

As to your main question, I am not a lawyer but I am reasonably sure that what makes the audit lead to a different outcome when you have the receipt (for software that doesn't come with a uniquely-scoped license key) is that it would remove "mens rea" (as regards criminal charges related to the "theft" of "IP") and provides you with plausibility with regards to any civil charges.

Whoa whoa whoa, charging a 9mm handgun, and charging Marines with RIFLES are just a TAD different.

You're not referring to this incident with the Moros in 1899 I hope. I mean, bolt-action rifles with bayonets are an odd thing to compare with modern day handgun/taser vs. knife scenarios.

It's not clear what options you're presenting, but I'd take any rifle with a bayonet or any modern day service rifle over a taser to any knife fight, even with only a good running distance between us.
Besides, wouldn't the presence of any firearm do more to dissuade an attacker than a taser would? Judging by the reactions of people threatened with tasers, and there are many youtube links floating around Slashdot with examples, it would seem that those on both ends of tasers underestimate their effect. Hard to blame just the cops when they tell you at least three times their going to use it, and you don't listen.

A) How are you going to prove that another company delayed an order for that reason?

Russia is just copying, yea they be biting the U.S.

Course, the American's have them out gendered, Women's Bridge Anyone?.

Of course we shouldn't let intellectuals have any power, that's just CRAZY!

The cost of the war is about $120 Billion a year. Given that the US economy is roughly $13 Trillion a year, that represents less than a %1 percent marginal cost. During the Cold War, total defense spending ranged from 5% (the 1980's) to 14% (the 1950's) of GDP. "At 4 percent of GDP, defense spending is one and a half percentage points of GDP below the 45-year historical average and well below Cold War and Vietnam War levels." http://www.heritage.org/research/features/BudgetChartBook/charts_s/s7.cfm Given that the Surge is working (according to the NYT) and the US is crushing Al Queda in Iraq, its money well worth spent. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/opinion/21friedman.html?bl&ex=1195966800&en=39c89c8e523b54d9&ei=5087%0A

Wow, a demo of a beta product failed (of course, the video doesn't show that the demo worked perfectly the entire time before and after that incident).

BTW, David Pogue, Apple-fanboy in chief, praises Vista's voice recognition:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/telling-your-computer-what-to-do/

And here's another article comparing Vista's voice recognition with MacSpeech, the former blowing away the latter.
http://inetsynch.podbean.com/2007/09/26/windows-2-apples-episode-13/

But keep believing your own FUD if it helps you to sleep better at night.

Which is just to say that the US nuclear weapon program is one of the greatest examples of pork in history. The pork potion of the program was initiated in response to questionable analysis by the CIA, and lead to such events as the Iran-Contra drug running scandals. It is important to note that up to the point of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the CIA was reporting that Union was stable, strong, and an imminent threat. The 2.2 trillion 1980's dollar spent, along with an equal amount spent by the political successor of that administration, should be the envy of any tax and spend democrat, and has surely lead to a total deficit that will likely be at least 75% of GDP by the end of 2008.

In the end, despite past federal aid to France and Russia on delicate points of nuclear security, the administration decided that it could not share the system with the Pakistanis because of legal restrictions.

In addition, the Pakistanis were suspicious that any American-made technology in their warheads could include a secret "kill switch," enabling the Americans to turn off their weapons.

While many nuclear experts in the federal government favored offering the PALS system because they considered Pakistan's arsenal among the world's most vulnerable to terrorist groups, some administration officials feared that sharing the technology would teach Pakistan too much about American weaponry. The same concern kept the Clinton administration from sharing the technology with China in the early 1990s.

Am I alone here? I honestly have never clicked a Google ad, and I've used Google exclusively for searches since it first grew in popularity. I also use GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and occasionally use my iGoogle homepage and the Google Reader. I've downloaded Google Pack (to get StarOffice 8 for free), but I've never actually clicked one of those fancy targeted ads.

I don't avoid the ads on purpose, and I'm not one of those people who routinely argues "ads don't work on me!". I'm fully aware of the power of advertising, and my own susceptibility to a very convincing advertisement - I've clicked plenty on nytimes.com.

Honestly, the GMail ads are never relevant. Perhaps it's because I'm in academia and not the business world, but they just seem like desperate attempts to find something in my life that Google can market to.

Given this, I find it hard to believe that a small thing like 1% of users using "I feel lucky" occasionally actually has much of an opportunity cost for Google. Instead, I suspect it's one of those cute Google-y things that make so many of us web users so loyal to Google.

I understand the skepticism, honestly, I do. I think that their projections for time to market are a little cramped, although doable if their suppliers are able to deliver. But they have several things going for them. First, they are working with an existing reference model, the Carver 1 and have licensed the tilting technology from them. Second, they are going to utilize industry standard components as much as possible, which in theory should reduce supply issues. Third, they are realistic about their initial launch schedule. They are targeting a California launch and only 1000-2000 vehicles their first year using pre-fab construction facilities. Last, they have made some good strategic partners (that link on their site) is down at the moment, but check back.

Here is an article from the New York Times that spotlights them. An interesting read.

All in all, I'm still skeptical. But their CEO (who is active in their forums) is a very personable guy. He isn't looking for money from individuals for "down payments" and has been very realistic about all of the different aspects. Once they have some working prototypes then my skepticism will really drop, until then I'm just going to watch and hope it does come to market as it would probably be a really fun vehicle to drive.

Some more links. Venture1 on CBS
Some more about the Carver

The difference between Japan and the USA is that in Japan, almost all foreigners are fingerprinted, whereas in the USA lawful permanent residents are exempt. The Japanese system excludes kids under 16, diplomats, and a special category of permanent residents created for mainly ethnic Koreans left over from Japan's pre-World War II occupation of Korea. See also fears that it'll be bad for Japanese business.

In the UK, fingerprints are taken from visa applicants in their home country. If you do not require a visa to visit the UK (e.g. European Union citizens), you will not have to undergo fingerprinting and iris scans.

"Oh I don't Know About all that.... I think my second amendment rights would have something to say about it. I already live in the most dangerous city in America."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/washington/20cnd-scotus.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gun Control Case

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 The Supreme Court announced today that it would l decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendments guarantee of the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

The Supreme Court last looked at the Second Amendment nearly 70 years ago in United States v. Miller, a 1939 decision that suggested, without explicitly deciding, that the right should be understood in connection with service in a militia. The Second Amendment provides: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The justices chose their own wording for what they want to decide in the new case, District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290. The question they posed is whether the provisions of the statute violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes.

He's not alone in his conclusions that the diet being feed to us (pardon the pun) is wrong. There was an article in the NY Times in October stating this as well. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?ei=5124&en=67642ef2330f51af&ex=1349668800&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=all

I read Men's Health magazine and they have presented a number of articles on the topic

This essay is probably my favorite I've seen on the subject.

I'd couple any dietary changes with regular exercise, especially cardiovascular.

My rule of thumb is that if I model my diet and exercise to humans living a thousand years ago, I'll reap the benefits of millions of years of evolution. If I eat weird stuff and sit around all day, I'll have to wait for a few hundred generations of humans to adapt before my distant offspring can benefit.

How can we even trust the rating system when it rates Sesame Street as "Adults Only" for the coverage/comments on /. and TFA.

God forbid this actually make it mainstream. I am not advocating that the subject is ok, but just who the hell mainly lives in Africa? No one complained during all the previous incarnations where it took place in America...hello?!? terrorist training ground via video game? FSCK! Get off the damn political correct horse and take responsibility for your life!

We visit the rating issue frequently, and I still stand by my comment to this from January last year.

High energy radio active waste is an energy source. The vast majority of this so called waste is fuel. We extract around 2% of the available energy because that's the cheep part but the idea of high energy waste is silly if it's really hot then we can extract energy from it. If it's going to be around for million's of years then it's safe.

Read up on breeder reactors and take a real look at this issue.

The other issue is the extreme levels nuke plants are regulated. For an idea just how silly this is: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DA1F3AF935A15751C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

http://www.uic.com.au/ral.htm

PS: I seem to recall an issue where the concrete was producing more radiation than the "acceptable dose" before the plant went into operation. I can't find the details but background radiation is often well above the "acceptable" level inside a power plant and nobody bothers to tell people living in the area.

Yes, I shudder to think what Iraq must be costing the US. If you have to have a war, do it well, or lose it relatively quickly, develop an anti-war stance, and become an economic superpower like Germany & Japan.

Um, no. He's talking about the massive trade and government deficits the US has been running for the last 7 years. At some point the people who have been funding those (mainly the Chinese) may get tired of doing so. At which point, if they stop buying dollars to support the trade deficit and bonds to support the federal deficit, but instead start selling them, the dollar will be massively devalued, leading to a huge increase in the price of all imported consumer goods. Compared to 30 years ago, there's very little manufacturing that actually still creates goods in the US. Most of it has been outsourced to countries with cheap labour and poor environmental stewardship.

That will be good for your trade balance, of course, but bad for your economy since the high increase in the cost of goods will probably lead to a severe recession - people will be buying a lot less when everything suddenly costs many times more. It may take a decade or more for the US to recover. On the other hand, house prices won't seem that ridiculous anymore after 150% or more inflation, but anybody living on a fixed income, like retirees, are going to be seriously screwed.

And in case you think that isn't ever going to happen, apparently the Chinese have been making noise about shifting their ownership of foreign funds to away from currencies that have been showing recent weakness.

Of course, when the US can no longer afford to buy foreign goods, especially basic items like steel, and all their manufacturing capacity has been dismantled, why that might just be a good time for the Peep's Republic to invade Taiwan.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/index.html

Click on that link, press Ctrl+F, then type in "paperback". The NYT not only has best-seller lists for paperback books, it actually has multiple lists for different types of paperbacks. Your point kind of vanishes from there. If TFA specifically says 9.99 for hardcover books, then I missed it and I apologize. But I didn't see that distinction made in TFA. And I still think the life-time of the e-book will be an issue. I usually read a book once when I buy it, and if I like it, I may read it again 5-10 years later.

Wasn't Brazil that started "fingerprinting" americans just out of "reciprocity" ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3366519.stm

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE0D81E30F935A25752C0A9629C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/P/Profanity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 [2006] (AP) -- The government put a roadblock in the path of the start-up airline Virgin America on Wednesday, ruling that the company must change its ownership and corporate structure before it can receive an operating certificate.

Virgin America currently fails to meet a requirement that a United States airline must be 75 percent owned and controlled by Americans, the Department of Transportation said.

"Under Capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism, it is just the reverse." - John Kenneth Galbraith

TFA is just a summary of an article yesterday in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/technology/17code.html?ref=technology

I ask you, who controls PBS (the public entity that produces Sesame Street)? Christian right-wingers, or American Liberals? Yep, Liberals. The same people that take a Christian children's program, "Jay Jay the Jet Plane" and suck all the Christianity right out of it. To the point that when you tell people it was originally a Christian program, they are shocked.

The taxpayers will only hold still for a certain amount of screwing. We won't continue to fund every scheme somebody dreams up.

The fact that we've continued to fund Fusion research, now into it's - at least - 40th year with no payback in sight continues to amaze me. And it's only because the payback may be so great that we do so, decade in and decade out.

Some great things come out of academic research, but others are a huge money sink and have to be whacked. If it is so great, good chance somebody else will pick it up and carry on.

With what has been spent on the Iraq war, the US could have funded a national health service.

Are you sure about that? Considering that the British NHS costs about $200 million a year, and America having five times the population, it would cost at least a trillion dollars a year, over twice the budget of the entire US military.

This story explains what the original FA obscures; that some old buildings had elevators and pumps designed to run on DC. Sue me if the link doesn't work. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE7DF173DF93BA25750C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

"It's a very small vocal group bothered by this issue."
- Vint Cerf

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

-kgj

Why vote?