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"Ballmer told a crowd of hardware, software and consulting companies, which provide the bulk of Microsoft's revenue by reselling its software to businesses and homes, that the world's largest software maker was on track to deliver on its 2-1/2-year-old promise to make its software more secure and reliable."

David Blunkett. British politician, now in charge of Homeland Security for the U.K. I'm sure that in spirit it would be translated to the "John Ashcroft Lifetime Award" for U.Sians, but the position Blunkett holds is probably more akin to Tom Ridge's.

David Blunkett isn't quite John Ashcroft's opposite number (he's Home Secretary, as opposed to Attorney General). However, he does sometimes seem to think he's a judge.

The reason Blunkett is recognised by this award is that he's trying to introduce a compulsory ID card scheme in the UK, which isn't very popular. He's also full of other gaffes, like he forcibly sacked the head of a police force because two girls were killed "on his watch" as it were. Even though the police force and the father of one of the girls opposed him.

And, just to add a voice to the fugue, there is no way in hell I would consider buying this product. First off, their press release is filled with marketspeak lies: "price undercuts a 40GB iPod!!" (er, actually their unit only has half the storage but they encoded the songs at 48Kb/s and compared it against Apple's standard bitrate of 128Kb/s so they could claim that it fits more songs and hope idiot consumers won't figure that out.) "will play MP3, WMA and WAV!!" (actually, it only plays ATRAC3 and you have to use their proprietary, buggy software to make a copy of your entire collection using ATRAC3 before loading it onto the device. BTW, this process could take hours.) "ATRAC3 sounds better than MP3!!" (according to their VP of Marketing's 5 year old nephew, at least, though there are a lot nuts out there doing double-blind listening tests which show that ATRAC3 is the worst audio CODEC out there, even at 128Kb/s never mind the fact that Sony assumed 48Kb/s encoding in order to make their ridiculous capacity comparison to the 40GB iPod.)

So. To sum up: decent ergonomics, no real price advantage in an apples to apples comparison (no pun intended), only supports a crappy DRM'd Sony format. Read this Wired article on why Sony sucks, and why you shouldn't buy anything from them until they get their head out of their asses and start making things their customers actually want.

The Wired article uses information from this Reuters article by Deborah Zabarenko.

Reuters: "Within hours of the first private flight to outer space on Monday, a NASA official said the agency might offer millions of dollars in prizes..." This is misleading. NASA's Centennial Challenges program has been in the planning stage for quite some time now.

• Centennial Challenges - NASA
• NASA Needs Prize Contest Ideas - Slashdot
• Centennial Challenges - Wikipedia

My opinion on prizes: Prizes are great, but they should complement grants, not replace them. An analogy: If we want to catch Osama bin Laden, we should put a big bounty on him. But that doesn't mean we should call off the military and the CIA. We should post a big bounty AND fund the military and the CIA. Same thing with space: Put a big 'bounty' on space achievements, but fund NASA too.

Exactly. The fact that hardly anyone knows about it says more about the ignorance of the American population than about the evils of censorship.

This reminds me of a recent survey of English schoolkids that found most were ignorant of D-Day. Perhaps the guys at Slate think that's because of government censorship too.

I think censorship is almost always bad, but this article seems like a weak case against it.

If you want to achieve the effects described in this article, why beat around the bush. Just get some cocaine. Compared to what these things cost, you might even be saving money.

But, for those who can't give up drinking their high.. there are new coca enhanced energy drinks coming out of Peru. Not coming into America any time soon, but still..

The world is certainly becoming a stranger place where beer and coffee are now considered health drinks.

= 9J =

They've already started?

The danish newspaper Politiken cites Reuter for writing that anonymous messengers put Microsoft on the trace on the writer. Subsequently Microsoft told FBI and the German federate police, and the three of them collaborated.

> How did they find this guy? Was it that he was bragging like in the former MS worm cases, or was there a "higher technological power" involved?

From Reuter: "Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said the man was arrested on Friday. He did not have the name of the suspect but said he was a schoolboy who lived with his parents near the central German town of Rotenburg.

"He is the programmer of the first version of the worm," said Federau. He said he did not have any details of how the suspect was found.

Police did not know if the suspect had also created other versions of the worm. They took all the teenager's computers from his parents' house, Federau said.

"He is still free. He is not in custody. There will now be a court case," he added."

Here is Reuter's take on this and the news release at Biz Ink.

Speaking of whom, they're at it again....

RIAA sues 477

Actually, they ARE searching for Atlantis next. Info here

Was watching CNN Headline news as I was working out this morning and it scrolled across the bottom that researchers are planning to look under Cyprus for Atlantis.

I immediately thought of this /. story and how much money and time these researchers are wasting.

The Chunnel is doing just fine at heading towards bankruptcy without any help from the flying car. Nine billion Euros of debt will do that to a company.

Heh, another April fools joke:

"Bill Gates sends memo on security"
Posted on: Thu 1 April, 2004 02:14

Unlikely.

Reuters has it covered - I would imagine this accounts for atleast a wee bit of credibility to the report :)

Here's some links from an almost-submitted post.

Microsoft Cuts Xbox Price to $150

Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox game console to about $150 ($149.99), a $30 drop. The price cut was widely expected by analysts in a move to spur slowing console sales for the Xbox as the current generation approaches the end of its cycle, and gamers anticipate the next-generation of consoles in 2005. Microsoft also announced several price cuts on Xbox games and titles including 'Xbox Music Mixer, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.' More coverage at CNet, CNN Money, ZDNet UK, AP via Seattle PI and Bloomberg via Seattle Times. (Microsoft press release)

Here's some links from an almost-submitted post.

Microsoft Cuts Xbox Price to $150

Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox game console to about $150 ($149.99), a $30 drop. The price cut was widely expected by analysts in a move to spur slowing console sales for the Xbox as the current generation approaches the end of its cycle, and gamers anticipate the next-generation of consoles in 2005. Microsoft also announced several price cuts on Xbox games and titles including 'Xbox Music Mixer, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.' More coverage at CNet, CNN Money, ZDNet UK, AP via Seattle PI and Bloomberg via Seattle Times. (Microsoft press release)

While the rest of the world reports the $613M fine against Microsoft as a standalone, the LinuxWorld report juxtaposes it with HP's confirmation - being reported by Reuters - that HP is wavering in its support for Windows on the desktop. Its notebooks and laptops will now support SUSE Linux. An HP'er concedes: "Does Microsoft like the fact that we do Linux stuff? Absolutely not." Is this the end of the beginning now in the Windows vs Linux desktop battle?"

Microsoft "iPod Killer" to launch this year.

Excuse me whilst I laugh. I'm laughing now.

Remember when Microsoft positioned Windows 2000 Datacenter Server as a "mainframe killer"? I remember a lot of sysadmins laughing back then. Microsoft sold fewer than 1,000 copies of Datacenter Server before withdrawing it from the market.

Apple has solved the problem of how to play digital media on the go. They can build their empire on that, and that alone.

Right you are brother! Do not believe this propaganda!

Also:

Reports of Iraqi economic growth by Agence France Presse - LIES!

Reports of a "big rebound in business" (noting a lack of oil shipments through the north, which resumed since the article went to print) by Christian Science Monitor - LIES!

"Business is phenomenal," an Iraq in Baghdad tells Reuters - LIES!

Of course, we all know that Capitalism is evil and they should be starving under a totalitarian dictator, but alas, the world is not perfect :(

Bread and circuses, comrade!

(Now back to important things, like the Sims election! I eagerly await the next /. American Idol thread too!)

Here's another story.

Funny that I come to submit the article and already find it at the top of the page...

"Regime change had been the policy for years,"

There is a difference between regime change and invasion and occupation.

'1. N. Korea has thousands of artillery pointed at Seoul, S. Korea, and could level that city killing hundreds of thousands in minutes.

We know where those positions are. We could knock them out with bombers and cruise missles. If a few get through then so what? So a few people die in south korea who the fuck cares.

2. N. Korea has a vast, modern, dedicated army with the ability to strike many of our allies very hard from afar.

Total and utter bullshit. Their military is neither vast nor modern. The only ally then can strike is south korea and maybe japan. BOth countries have ample defenses and we could certainly minimize any damage that may occur by hitting first. We flew over 300 sorties per day in the first month of desert storm. We knocked out almost everything they had in the first night.

3. N. Korea has NUKES, you IDIOT. The fact this is news to you is proof you prefer your own ignorance just so you can go on bashing Bush.

They have a few nukes. We know where they are. They don't yet have any real delivery device for their nukes and they certainly did not have anything at the time we invaded iraq. We could have invaded them first thereby preventing them from having nukes and held off iraq for a later time because saddam had nothing!.

4. N. Korea's population has been very thoroughly cut off from the rest of the world for 50 years. They remain the only country in the world where it is impossible for to get internet access. The people revere their leaders as gods, and have had no opposing points of view presented to them. Invasion, much less occupation, would be orders of magnitude more difficult than Iraq."

They are starving and opressed. They are weak. They would be easy to control.

It was much more logical to invade north korea who was close to having nukes then to invade iraq which was decades away from having nukes.

"Ok, let's try having a megalomaniacal dictator and avowed enemy of the U.S. who has invaded his neighbors twice and is pursuing WMD so he can try again w impunity in the most unstable region of the world, who is both openly and covertyly funding and supporting terrorism"

He did not have WMDs, he did not have WMD programs. Did you hear about Kay quitting and saying that? read about it. He hated the US but then again so do a lot of other people. He was fully contained. There was a no fly zone, there were thousands of weapons inspectors running all over the country, we bombed them at least once a month. He was no harm to anybody. So he funded a few palestenians big fucking whoop as I said before we give israel billions of dollars woth of funds a few thousand dollars from saddam wasn't doing anything. Israel is in firm control over west bank and gaza and a few hundred dead israelis is a pretty small price to pay for keeping 3.5 million people under occupation. Hell we lost 500 people in just a few months in Iraq.

"But let's be real here. Being an enemy of the U.S. makes any dictator more desirable to you."

I guess when you have nothing you can resort to name calling.

"A few hundred billion wouldn't make a scratch on the world's poverty situation"

It would make a huge impact. It would certainly make more of an impact then invading iraq.

"In fact, you stated Iraq was worst off now than under Saddam. I then asked if you would rather live in Iraq now or then."

Neither. I live in the US and have no desire to live in Iraq anytime. I visited there and that was enough for me. But you are asking the wrong question. the question is not whether iraq is better off it's whether we are better off. Whether spending 100 billion dollars in one year to invade and occupy iraq was a good idea and made us any safer and whether that money could have bee

Looks like michael achieved the very difficult simultaneous posted/rejected duo.

Here's the rejected post which amounts to a mixed report on the success of the mission, courtesy of Reuters, Space.com and the BBC:

Reuters and the BBC report that the first U.S. Mars Rover - the Spirit - has landed and radioed a confirmation signal, but has since gone silent. NASA/JPL are waiting to learn if it survived. Space.com reports that the Spirit has indeed landed safely.

From the Reuter's Article:

"The deal means that Bollywood producers can now distribute movies, music and other large, rich media files online that would be too large and expensive to host on a traditional Web site," the statement said.

"We are starting with promotional content but we are in the process which will allow movies and songs on a pay-per-view mode in the new year," Saleem Mobhani, co-founder of IndiaFM, which is run by Virtual Marketing India, told Reuters.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't even need to ask for that), but isn't the driving idea behind Kazaa that the downloading becomes distributed over the many computers that have already downloaded the file? I mean, I know that it would be going through altnet, which I guess is different content, and specifically hosted from a corporate server, but if they're saying that they want to do it this way rather than host it off a website, aren't the "seeding" altnet servers going to continually be hit as hard as if one had hosted a website with the movies? The files won't become distributed among other Kazaa users because anyone that downloads loses the file after they watch it.

In this case, I don't think the majority of the people in the world had the guts to make a tough decision

Rubbish. The majority of the people in the world made the decision against it. We didn't cover our eyes from anything. It was the US that was scared here. A couple of buildings had been destroyed by terrorists a year or so previous, no real progress had been made in locating bin Laden,and U.S. officials felt they had to be seen to be doing something.

Most of the world (people, even if not governments) were quite happy to let inspectors do their job and due process to go ahead. There was NO immediate threat from Iraq. Meanwhile, Americans were getting jumpy and insecure. Joe and Jane Usian didn't want to fly anymore because they thought they might get hijacked, and confidence in the incumbant government was falling... So what to do? Launch an attack on a manufactured enemy, coerce the governments of other countries against the wishes of thier people, and follow it through until presidential ratings go up.

Fuck that. You say the rest of us don't have guts? It was fear that inspired this whole mess. Fear of losing power, and fear of not feeling safe in your own country. Guess what, the terrorists DID win this one. BTW, anyone who thinks Iraq is actually being liberated should know this: "Any demonstration against the government or coalition forces will be fired upon." Freedom my ass.

Spain and Morocco to build train tunnel under sea

Spain and Morocco plan tunnel link

Tunnel to link Spain and Morocco agreed


Tunnel link for Africa and Europe


Spain, Morocco to build tunnel under Mediterranean Sea

Spain, Morocco plan undersea tunnel

DON'T MOD THIS UP. MY KARMA IS ALREADY EXCELLENT (has been for months!)

The way to protect digital content is to make it cool to buy it

It seems Coca Cola heard you already.

Come to me, I'll eat your delicious flesh.

Daniel

This actually was reported yesterday in Japan (here), but I could not find any article in English until now.

Courtesy of the Rejected Post Machine:

NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004

* 2003-12-02 11:59:33 NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004 (articles,pilot)(rejected)

Reuters cites a confidential source as saying that NTT DoCoMo will offer its customers Linux-based 3G mobile phones in 2004. DoCoMo has apparently sent specifications to handset manufacturers and DoCoMo supplier NEC has said that it will offer Linux-based phones by 2004. If true, the report would indicate a shift from the dominant TRON and Symbian-based handsets.

This was also submitted yesterday morning, but I guess Reuters wasn't considered authoritative enough until the English version of the Japanese story. =)

yo ho

And if not , then this will definitely shut them up.

New story from Reuters: Developed and developing nations are wide apart on managing the Internet and closing the digital divide between rich and poor at the end of what was meant as a final meeting before a world summit. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva December 10-12, was first proposed in 1998 at the height of the Internet boom, but two years of preparatory negotiations have failed to resolve many of the outstanding issues. Initially conceived as a way to help poorer countries to make better use of the Internet, and through it perhaps leap- frog some stages to economic development, the summit has since broadened to embrace many facets of the information society, including questions of press freedom and Net management. Developing countries will argue generally that governments do need to be involved, that it cannot simply be the private sector, and the private sector in some industrialised countries, to take the lead in how the Internet is governed.

Yes, accidental is definitely being hit by an RPG, then the pilot fucking up and crashing into the chopper above it. Good job, you fail it.

...how far down the US will the Aurora Borealis be showing?

This article says maybe as far as the southern US.

According to Reuters there's television as well..

Having read about Gates' describing Longhorn and then reading the OSDL announcement of Linux-2.6.0-test9 ready for big tests, I couldn't help noticing some differences in style.

Longhorn addresses some OS issues, but other parts of the press release talk about issues that would seem to me to belong at a higher level in the application area.

• fundamentals like security and scalability,
• new presentation technology that includes a rebuilding of Windows' graphics system,
• a new file storage system called WinFS that makes heavy use of XML, extensible markup language data, and
• new Web services and communications technology.

The first objective is great, the second and third are tolerable, and the last one makes little sense for an operating system. It's like an excuse to define a new technology because you own an old one.

"Agenda-Setting and Innovation are owned by us."

"This is what you're going to get (we'll tell you later how much you're going to pay.)"

The OSDL release announcement has much more of ringing tone of desperation:

"We need you testers. Our OS will be buggy without you."

Heres an artcle on the same subject at Reuters but without the need to register to view it. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=te chnologyNews&storyID=3678908&section=news

If the news clips of the actual lift-off show a red/black/yellow/blue/white rocket and launch tower with surpisingly blockish looking lettering, I'm selling my shares in China Aerospace International Holdings Ltd.!

Merlin.

Somebody should tell the Israelis. They think the BBC is biased, and their reporting is akin to nazi propaganda.

How's this for redundancy? A woman with two wombs.

The scary thing is that mutatations aren't just limited to animals and insects. The human body is a complex thing and one little alteration could mean a change in a subsystem, like this woman's reproductive system.

It's scary.

If some European politician made any such proposal or in fact any attempt to "secure a market" at this point in time he'd be thrown out of office.

Are you for real?

Proposing deals to secure markets for corporations is a daily occurance in Mercantile Europe. A really quick google news picked up this.

Some commentators in France fear the United States will dominate Iraq's reconstruction, freezing out France since Chirac staunchly opposed the war and incurred the wrath of Washington.

But a spokeswoman at employers federation Medef said an informal working group had been set up to look at opportunities for French businesses.

"It's a cooperation between the (government) administration and companies," the spokeswoman said. "We have not had any meetings. It is informal."

...

Finance Minister Francis Mer said on Sunday French companies including oil giant TotalFinaElf could have a role in assisting in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq's oil industry.

It's also no secret that French opposition to the war has been driven largely by economic interests:

Richard Perle, a former US Assistant Defence Secretary, said the French anti-war stance was driven by economic interests. French oil giant TotalFinaElf has exclusive exploration contracts worth ?60bn - ?75bn to develop the massive Majnoon and Bin Umar oilfields in southern Iraq, he said.

?What?s distinctive about the Total contract is that it?s not favourable to Iraq, it?s favourable to Total,? Mr Perle, the chairman of the Pentagon?s Defence Policy Board, said during an address in New York.

?One can suspect that there?s some arbitrage there, that in between the real value of that contract and the cash value of that contract there?s a certain amount of political support.

?It?s entirely possible that Saddam negotiated that deal because that along with the revenues, he could get something else.?

He said oil experts who had analysed the deal described it as ?extraordinarily lopsided? in favour of the French company.

Don't trust Richard Perle? How about Egyptian economist Khalil Al-'Anani (as presented in al-Jazeera):

France's opposition to the war in Iraq, rather than being based on political considerations, its historical ties with the Arab world, or an attempt to challenge America's role as superpower, is motivated by pure economic interests. Despite France's attempts to portray its stance against the war as a political one, it is difficult not to imagine the economic benefits to France if the war had not occurred. The consequences of war on the weak French economy will be palpable primarily in the oil and commercial sectors. . . .

The German economy is going through difficult times with a GDP growth in 2002 of 0.2% and unemployment of 11.3% which translates into 4.06 million unemployed workers. The reduction in taxes collected, coupled with rising unemployment benefits, could drive German deficits above the 3% ceiling established by the European Union, which would invite punitive measures. The war in Iraq could result in two immediate negative consequences for the German economy: first, a decline in German exports which is the main engine for German economic growth; and second, higher oil prices could intensify the German economic slow-down. . . .

Not unlike the case of France, it is difficult to overlook the extent and depth of the economic relations between Russia and Iraq which extend over 40 years. Here, again, economic considerations drive the Russian position vis-à-vis the war on Iraq. . . .

I'm drifting, but really,

Ach, one more:

Reuters UK

Sega is a public traded company and as such they can not have a secret deal with Microsoft. At least in theory,... Enron, Cough Cough

Well, there is a fairly decent precedent already set. I'd say your chances are pretty good. :-)

-B

heat is another problem, but that is something that proper internal design can usually cure
Tell that to this guy.

The U.S. "Federal Communications Commission" (FCC) set forth new rules this week on how telecommunications carriers can share certain customer information, giving telecom-related service providers a faster track to consumer data.

Carriers can share caller information with affiliates or third-party agents that provide communications-related services using an "opt-out" approach, the FCC said. The policy means that consumers' information will be shared unless they opt-out when receiving a notice of the carrier's intent to share their information.

However, when a carrier wishes to share customer information with an unrelated third party or affiliate that does not provide telecommunication-related services, the carrier must adopt an "opt-in" approach, which requires consumers to provide their consent, the FCC said.

The rules govern what the FCC calls "customer proprietary network information" (CPNI), which includes information on what services consumers subscribe to and to whom and where they call.

Up until 1999, the FCC held an opt-in policy for the sharing of all CPNI by carriers. However, these rules were vacated when a Tenth Circuit appeals court ruled in favor of U.S. West, which had filed suit claiming a "First Amendment" right to share the information under an opt-out approach.

Since then, the rules have been in a "state of play," an FCC spokesman said, with all information being shared under an opt-out approach.

Privacy advocates are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new guidelines, saying will lie in how carriers go about informing consumers of their sharing practices.

"The test is going to be whether the opt-out option is easily available and exercised," said Paula Bruening, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology ("CDT").

Telephone companies will be allowed to share, without consent, private customer data with affiliates that offer communications-related services, under rules adopted by the "Federal Communications Commission" on Tuesday.

Consumers will have to opt out of having their information used for marketing purposes, including where, when and to whom they place calls, as well as the types of services subscribers use and how frequently they use them.

The FCC left the door open for companies to use an opt-in approach if they so choose, but the agency refused to mandate that method.

However, the agency said consumers must approve when a telephone company wants to share their private information with unrelated third parties or affiliated companies that do not provide communications-related services.

The decision drew a sharp rebuke from the lone Democrat on the panel, who argued that companies would be allowed to sell information without customer consent to the highest bidder who has just the faintest association with providing telecommunications services.

"FCC"'s contentious ruling gives 'affiliated' parties default access to customer data, requires opt-in for others.

Phone companies now can share a consumer's private information with certain affiliates without first getting that customer's consent, a new Federal Communications Commission ruling says.

Details of who customers call, when they call, and how long they talk may be shared with communications-related corporate affiliates, the ruling says. Customers can choose to keep such information private, but must initiate the request. The carrier does not have to ask permission.

When it comes to sharing customer data with unaffiliated third parties, the default is reversed under the FCC's new rule. Telecom companies must get the consumers' express consent to "opt in," the FCC says.Advertisement

The decision, announced Tuesday by a somewhat divided FCC, has roiled privacy advocates who say data could be used for consumer profiling by companies with only weak links to the phone carriers.

"Everyone should understand that this decision is neither narrow or pro-privacy," says FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who dissented in part with the decision over privacy concerns.

The unclear definition of "corporate affiliates" that can access customer data invites abuse, Copps says. Consumers might find their phone companies "selling to the highest bidder personal and detailed information...as long as these companies use it for some 'communications-related' purpose and have some undefined murky affiliation," he says.

Privacy advocates expressed similar concerns.

"Corporate families are pretty big. I don't know [that] customers feel as familial about the relationship as corporations," says Mikal Condon, staff counsel at the "Electronic Privacy Information Center".

[ ... ]

However, Condon says the court ruling will likely be used as precedent in the states, discouraging any change from the FCC's new rule. States are "pretty much guaranteed litigation" if they require consumer consent, she says.

Legislation introduced by Senator Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota) would require consumer consent in all cases. However, the measure, Senate Bill 1928, but it does appear to have enough support to pass, Condon says.

Reuters also carries the story here

The original article is placed in the "oddly enough" category. A category featuring tales of see-through clothes, sex shops and bigamy.

Methinks they got the kid on work experience to file this one.