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Is it a coincidence this happened so shortly after Microsoft finally accepted to comply with the EC's decision in the anti-trust case?

It might be totally unrelated, but I noticed no one had mentioned this yet.

I assume this is the source:

from Reuters: http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=2007-09-17T124601Z_01_L10398398_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MICROSOFT-EU-DC.XML&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage1

A jubilant Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the EU executive now expected to see a "significant drop" in Microsoft's overwhelming market share.

Asked how the Commission would assess the result, she told a news conference: "A market level of much less than 95 percent would be a way of measuring success ... You can't draw a line and say exactly 50 (percent) is correct, but a significant drop in market share is what we would like to see."

  - her spokesman later said that she was saying it would be a logical outcome, but her words are clear -- market share is how she would measure success.

I assume this is the source:

from Reuters: http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=2007-09-17T124601Z_01_L10398398_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MICROSOFT-EU-DC.XML&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=&WTModLoc=InvArt-C1-ArticlePage1

A jubilant Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the EU executive now expected to see a "significant drop" in Microsoft's overwhelming market share.

Asked how the Commission would assess the result, she told a news conference: "A market level of much less than 95 percent would be a way of measuring success ... You can't draw a line and say exactly 50 (percent) is correct, but a significant drop in market share is what we would like to see."

  - her spokesman later said that she was saying it would be a logical outcome, but her words are clear -- market share is how she would measure success.

This article has the following detail:

"The state wing of the Civil Air Patrol resumed its search on Wednesday, focusing on a 600-square mile (1,554-sq-km) area south of the airstrip used by Fossett about 80 miles (128 km) southeast of Reno, Nevada."

Hmm, Reno is way outside the area covered by the fresh satellite imagery.

It's more accurately described as well-polished propaganda. Clearly, Hon Han has hired Public Relations representatives for some other agenda.

This story would lead me to believe they want to buy Western consumer electronics brands. http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesti ng.aspx?type=media&storyID=nTP151265

Or maybe do it themselves: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118470395184169274 .html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

Either way, this "story" is so light on facts and any objectivity whatsoever it hardly resembles journalism. Since the WSJ is "reporting" it, it will not be scrutinized.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - Attacks in Iraq last month reached their highest daily average since May 2003, showing a surge in violence as President George W. Bush completed a buildup of U.S. troops, Pentagon statistics show.

The June numbers showed 5,335 attacks against coalition troops, Iraqi security forces, civilians and infrastructure.

Attacks on Iraqi security forces fell to 889 in June from 987 in May, while attacks on coalition forces rose about 7 percent to 3,671 from 3,423.

Sales rank is meaningless because Amazon.com sells far too few consoles to be considered a large sample; after watchin Amazon sales/sales rank for several weeks I noticed that (about) 20 sales in a day will put you close to #1 in the games section. NPD on the other hand is far more accurate and has sales for the month of March at:

Wii: 259,000
XBox 360: 199,000
PS3: 130,000

reuters link

Also, Japaneese numbers have been released pretty constantly and the year to date sales for the PS3 and Wii are:

Wii: 1,173,733
PS3: 397,991

The PS3 sales really are that bad!

$1.29/track. 256K AAC encoding. Starting in May. These are known unknowns, RTFA. They'll even still sell the DRM'ed, lower encoding rate ones so you can choose.

That covers one online retailer Apple. Since EMI is offering the tracks in other encodings and qualities, I wonder what other online retailers will do with the music. The pressure was on Apple to break the 99 cent price ceiling. The pressure on the industry was on to offer DRM free. They both gave a little and took a little.

"From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality," EMI added.

From ;
http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesti ng.aspx?type=allBreakingNews&storyID=2007-04-02T12 4659Z_01_N01345958_RTRIDST_0_APPLE-EMI-UPDATE-3.XM L

EMI may offer DRM-Free audio formats in a variety of bitrates up to CD quality, but Apple is picking only the AAC choice at one DRM free bitrate.

"From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality," EMI added.

Reuters, amoungst others, is reporting this is a sub-orbital Research rocket, not a space missile.

Actually we are getting dangerously close to a nuclear war. The US now has TWO Carrier Strike Groups in the Persian Gulf. The Gulf is getting so crowded that a US sub bumped into a Japanese tanker. Ted Koppel on NPR Friday evening said that people in the military have indicated that our assets in the Gulf are not useful for combating the insurgency in Iraq but are well suited for strikes on Iran. Koppel said that senior military personnel have told him that it is likely that the US will be at war with Iran before 2007 is over.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=6836561

Israel is drawing up plans for a NUCLEAR strike on Iran's nuclear power program.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t ype=topNews&storyID=2007-01-07T185259Z_01_L0675940 5_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAN-NUCLEAR-ISRAEL.xml&WTmodLoc=To p%2BNews-C1-Headline-8

In the last several weeks Bush has fired and reassigned several high level military and intelligence people that were in some way in his way to a broader mid-east war. Generals John Abizaid and George Casey who were opposed to an escalation in Iraq and John Negroponte who has recently stated that Iran is 10 years from having the Bomb.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010807R.shtml

I'd say that the doomsday clock is definitely ticking, and we are in for a shit storm in 2007.

After all they were the only country scoring below the USA for belief in Evolution (recent survey). They were 34 on the list the USA was 33. Then again maybe he is disgruntled that Turkey is winning the race to root out rational thinkers.

When is "Intelligent Design" going to incorporate the belief that Darwins Evolutionary theory is the root of Terrorism? Another area where Turkey is ahead.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t ype=scienceNews&storyid=2006-11-22T141111Z_01_L092 65541_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-RELIGION-TURKEY-EVOLUTION- DC.XML

The Telegraph and several other news outlets are reporting on the international deal to build the world's most advanced nuclear fusion reactor that was signed in today. Representatives of the EU, the US, Japan, India, Russia, South Korea and China signed the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) agreement in Paris, finalising the project which aims to develop nuclear fusion as a viable energy source to fossil fuels. According to the ITER consortium, fusion power offers the potential of "environmentally benign, widely applicable and essentially inexhaustible" electricity, properties that they believe will be needed as world energy demands increase while simultaneously greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced,justifying the expensive research project.

The write-up is wrong. Now is the time to download ALL the above-mentioned documents, and share them. Let them try to arrest all of us.

I think it is safe to say you missed the essential elements of what happened, so lets recap what we know from the news:

The arrested was Samina Malik, 22, an Asian woman who allegedly was working or had worked at Heathrow airport as a shop assistant. (Could she have been an insider at a juicy target for terrorists?) She has been charged with four offences under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Malik was allegedly associated with Sohail Anjum Qureshi, previously charged as part of the same investigation. How was he nabbed? It is alleged that on 18 October he was plotting to go to Pakistan (well known as home to various terrorist organizations, training camps, and the gateway to Afghanistan)(groups in Pakistan have been tied to a number of attacks planned against the UK) taking with him, among other things:

-Camping equipment
-£9,000 cash
-A night vision scope
-The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook
-Two metal batons
-Combat manuals

It is alleged that was taking terrorist materials to Islamabad..

Investigators then followed the trail from Anjum, back to Malik. Allegedly, she had a number of publications on her computer from what look to be a narrow range of interests:

The al-Qaeda Manual,
The Terrorists Handbook
The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook
How To Win Hand-To-Hand Fighting
The Firearms and RPG Handbook
Dragunov sniper rifle manual
9mm pistol manual
Anti-tank mine manual

(Fascinating reading for a 22 year old woman, isn't it? Do you think her goal was to be the life of the party?)

She was allegedly filling a writing pad full of handwritten notes, which led to one of the charges against her. (Any bets about what those notes were about? Hmmmm... Heathrow... Pakistan... Al Qaeda....)

No doubt there are other aspects of this that we don't know about. As it is, you have to scour several news reports to get this much.

Woman charged in terror investigation
Female terror book suspect in the dock
Airport worker on terror handbook charges is remanded
Woman charged under UK terrorism act
Too many terrorist plots to name, say MI5
Woman charged under anti-terror laws

Now, I very much doubt that she is in trouble simply for having those document in and of themselves. What is likely the case is that it is the combination of what she was doing, involving herself with some sort of terrorist cell, AND having those documents. That is trouble in the same sense that having a crowbar in the garage means you have a crowbar in your garage, whereas having a crowbar in your hands at 3:00 AM in back of somebody's house in the next town over means you have a burglar tool, which will make you subject to heavy penalties.

I doubt that the authorities have much interest in trying to arrest people for simply having those publications. Everything I've seen seems to indicate that their hands are more than full simply trying to cope with the small percentage of people that both have those publications and are trying to use them in attempts to kill large numbers of people. You may also want to keep in mind that the more false signals you generate, the less effective the police will be in tracking down those who are trying to kill you for being, take your pick: an infidel, British

Planned obsolescence ... that's a bit like linking to Yahoo! News; the story can also be permanently read at Reuters for posterity's sake. Think of the slashdot grandchildren!

...on the next day of testing, it again bested the record. This time it was 350.092 MPH. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t ype=topNews&storyID=2006-08-23T151359Z_01_L2331696 1_RTRUKOC_0_UK-TRANSPORT-DIESEL-RECORD.xml

Sorry, links to support my previous post:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/200 6/07/23/2003320046
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?t ype=topNews&storyid=2006-07-17T081430Z_01_L1677892 8_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&src=071706_1228_TOPSTORY_off icers_escape_charges_over_menezes_shooting

the companies say that the resulting user community will be the world's largest, at around 350 million accounts

U.S. Internet traffic measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings data shows AIM with 47.2 million users in June, compared with 28.0 million MSN/Windows Live users and 22.5 million Yahoo Messenger users. The unduplicated audience of Microsoft and Yahoo was 43.5 million U.S. users, the survey showed.

Yahoo and Microsoft took issue with these numbers, citing comScore Networks's global figures which showed that Microsoft IM had 204 million users and Yahoo IM had 78 million users world-wide. AIM had 34 million users, the comScore data showed.

You must be This__Tall to Golf -- Volkswagen's newest verb, replacing Farfegnugen.

Except in this case, where the german police decided acting "inconspicious" was suspicious in and of itself:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=worldFootballNews&storyID=2006-06-06T201822Z_0 1_L06509705_RTRIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-STRIPSEAR CH.XML

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=internetNews&storyID=2006-05-11T162448Z_01_L11 387050_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-EU-INTERNET.XML

By those Conventions, summary execustion of non-uniformed combatants and spies is perfectly legal.

"A key feature of the Wii is its one-handed controller that looks like a television remote control and uses motion-detection sensors that allow players to control the game by wielding it like a sword, waving it like a conductor's baton, or swinging it like a baseball bat." Nintendo Wii" Riiightt... I'm gonna wave me Wii stick around and play games... sounds like a fun time.

I would not have a go at cracking what's in the slashdot summary (if it's missing one letter who know's what else is wrong)

It is "smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz".

This page contains the code as it appears in the submission.
The BBC made a typo?

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-04-27T114844Z_01_ L27170666_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-DAVINCI-CODE.XML

And don't forget, soon you'll also need a new new EU approved drivers licence.

you can convert any diseal into one that runs on vegetable oil.
http://www.greasecar.com/
you can also rent one in LA
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=scienceNews&storyID=2006-03-01T012042Z_01_N282 18334_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-LIFE-BIODIESEL-DC.XML

if you site your sources.

Brown mentions HBHG explicitly, and the character name Leigh Teabing is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent, the authors. He made no secret of using HBHG as source material.

Read it here.

This is a money grab attempt.

just becuase it's being built by western companies means we like it. It's increasingly looking like a large segment (or at least an important one)of the US population dislikes the fact that US companies are doing it.

Do I need a licence?

If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one.

• 
     
• NTL and BitTorrent debut UK's first 100Mbits broadband
• 
     
• Cable co. NTL signs BitTorrent file-sharing deal

Actually "befehl ist befehl" was the excuse they used last time they got a dissident into jail:
"Yahoo defended itself at the time saying it had to abide by local laws, but declined to confirm or deny it furnished the government with the information." source
Thats why this time they had to pull the we didn't know card:
"The firm says it simply responds to requests from the authorities for data without ever knowing what it will be used for,"

Come on, everyone knows you should *triangle the wagons.

Don't you remember geometry?

Of course, you should be able to firgure that out on your own.

Just saw this over at Fark: Plants are producing methane

As for his 2 ---> 12 volts problem... how about using a capacitor and a voltage regulator & step-up converter?

You smooth out the current delivery, step up the voltage... I'm sure the article is leaving out a lot of information. The solution couldn't be that easy

I didn't read Slashdot's article (or even glance at where it's from) but in this Reuters piece they mention that the standard licensing deal is a one shot $5 million and that Microsoft, Yahoo, and Verizon have signed up. Presuming that these three behomoth corporations have the "standard deal" (who's to say?) then these three capitalist success stories decided they should pay $5 million to deal with this problem.

[Voice of Stewie]Ok, ok, bear with me. Say you've got $5 and a problem. You can either, A) pay the problem $5 to go away, or B) pay me, a sleazy, ethically vacant lawyer $4 to stab the problem in the face until its death throes signal your glorious freedom from the shackles of.. whatever it was the problem happened to be. Whaddya do? What do you do?[/Voice of Stewie]

Let's all put on our thinking caps. Microsoft presumably paid in the ballpark of $5 million to license this. Yahoo paid in the neighborhood of $5 million to license this. Verizon paid in the vicinity of $5 million to license this. All three had the option to fight it in court for less than $5 million, invalidate it, and pocket the change, yet none of them did. That doesn't prove anything in an absolute sense, but for crying out loud.

"They're gonna get toasted in court."

Maybe, but I think it's more prophetic to say, "They're gonna get toasted in court at a cost of more than $5 million to Google."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=topNews&storyID=2005-12-29T072325Z_01_MCC92648 5_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BRITAIN-TEXT.xml

Hmm do you mean you don't agree with:

"Avram Noam Chomsky, Ph.D. (born December 7, 1928) is the Institute Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is credited with the creation of the theory of generative grammar, often considered the most significant contribution to the field of theoretical linguistics of the 20th century. He also helped spark the cognitive revolution in psychology through his review of B. F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior, which challenged the behaviorist approach to the study of mind and language dominant in the 1950s. His naturalistic approach to the study of language has also impacted the philosophy of language and mind (see Harman, Fodor). He is also credited with the establishment of the so-called Chomsky hierarchy, a classification of formal languages in terms of their generative power."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

Or is it that you don't agree with his viewpont back up with thousands of pages of data from the USA goverment documents that shows that the United States Of America is likely the biggest terrorist that ever existed!

Or is his veiwpoint that people are fools not to own the company the work "at"? Rather than being a slave working for some mindless corporate CEO - of whom fortunately a handful are now serving time in prison, For example, see http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=businessNews&storyID=2005-11-10T230907Z_01_FLE 083316_RTRUKOC_0_UK-FINANCIAL-REFCO.xml

Need to add NYS Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to the list for going after the white collar CEO crooks who have bilked millions of investors out of billions of dollars http://www.oag.state.ny.us/

Chat rooms used by child predators will be shut down by Yahoo Inc. ...

  Yahoo agreed to develop education materials promoting the safe use of chat rooms, restrict Yahoo Chat to users 18 and older and remove the Teen category.

According to this Reuters link:

"Because of this agreement, Yahoo chat rooms are a safer place today," said Jon Bruning, Nebraska's attorney general, in a statement.

Yahoo agreed to develop education materials promoting the safe use of chat rooms, restrict Yahoo Chat to users 18 and older and remove the Teen category.

If they got it wrong, then Reuters got it wrong too.

Slashdot editors - why haven't you posted the news that Sun and Google are going to make an announcement later today, perhaps "Google Office"?? That's a much bigger story than this.

(Thank goodness for Fark!)

Reuters article quote:
"PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris-based media watchdog released a handbook on Thursday to help cyber-dissidents and bloggers avoid political censorship in countries as far apart as China, Iran, Vietnam and Cuba."

Xinhua article quote:
"BEIJING, Sept. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A Paris-based media watchdog released a free guide Thursday to help bloggers and cyber-dissidents avoid political censorship in countries as far apart as Iran, Vietnam and Cuba."

1. See news item that Dell had released a new flash-memory-based music player to compete against the iPod Shuffle: the Dell DJ Ditty.

2. Note that no picture of said Ditty accompanies news item.

3. Visit dell.com.

4. Note that no picture of said Ditty appears on front page of dell.com, even after several reloads to cycle through random promotional images.

5. Search for ditty in text of front page of dell.com.

6. Note that ditty is not found.

7. Begin to suspect that even Dell is not very proud of this device.

8. Visit apple.com.

9. Note prominent and primary emphasis on luscious product porn of new iPod Nano.

10. Hop back to dell.com and search for Ditty in site-wide search box.

11. Note vague resemblance to a 50-cent Bic lighter:

12. Note footnote attached to claim in Product Highlights that the Ditty can pack 220 songs into 512 MB of memory, roughly twice the songs Apple claims can fit on a 512 MB iPod Shuffle.

13. Follow footnote to see explanation that this storage estimate requires encoding songs as 64 kbps WMA, which bit rate is half that of Apples default of 128 kbps AAC, and roughly equivalent in fidelity to that of transmissions carried over tin cans and string, but which, perhaps, is not a dirty marketing trick, but, rather, a fair assessment, considering that anyone with such profoundly bad taste in industrial design who would consider purchasing this device probably also has such bad taste in music as not to notice that their 64 kbps-compressed songs sound like mush.

14. Sit back and recall, with tremendously smug satisfaction, a decades worth of tech industry punditry holding that superior design would never get Apple anywhere, and that Apple should instead, you know, be more like Dell.

From reuters On the other hand, Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack said at a Reuters gathering earlier this year that Apple is benefiting from two revenue streams, sales of both the iPod devices and song downloads, while the music industry has only one.

Translation:
Steves has two lolly pops we only have one, WAAAAAA.

Since the two links in the article don't seem to work at present, here's a link to a Reuters story for more information.. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=topNews&storyID=2005-09-20T113746Z_01_HO038752 _RTRUKOC_0_UK-GOOGLE-WIFI.xml&archived=False

A spokesman for Bild told Reuters the story was meant to show that cat remains could "in theory" be used to make fuel with Koch's patented method.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-09-14T160628Z_01_ MAR457954_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-GERMANY-CATS.XML

From the original link (opens in new window)
"The music industry told the court that Sharman Network licensed users to access a network it knew was being used for piracy and hence it was authorising people to infringe copyright."

"Officials said a 3-foot (0.9-metre) shark had been spotted cruising the flooded streets"

I can guarantee you nobody was prompted or paid off. It was truly just like that. These kids were going nuts. Sales numbers reflect that too http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?t ype=technologyNews&storyID=2005-09-01T175232Z_01_M AR164333_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MEDIA-NINTENDO-DC.XML. This thing is huge.

Here's a link to the reuters story so you don't have to register with the NYT. http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?t ype=technologyNews&storyID=2005-08-24T080642Z_01_D IT429146_RTRIDST_0_TECH-JAPAN-HITACHI-DC.XML