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Small potatoes.

Why is slashdot posting a lawsuit of this magnitude but failing to post anything about the world famous (and more relevant) Lexar Lawsuit worth over $460 million and will cause a massive disruption in the supply/demand equations currently applied to the significantly growing flash USB key and card memory market?

I would think that the news agency would want to be featured on Google to attract more visitors to its site! Apparently they are simply out for money when no damage has actually been done. Sure it's copyrighted material...

The words are copyrighted. The news isn't. AFP might want to recognize this if they'd like to continue to compete in the modern world.

Being the "oldest" news organization in the world can be a hindrance if you fail to recognize that you're no longer the only one in existence.

Getting yourself taken off Google does not seem a prudent business decision in such a competitive news market.

1. If you don't want a search engine spidering your pictures and news stories, don't put them on the web. If AFP were paper only, Google could not violate their copyright. It saves AFP money to stay offline.
2. If AFP decides to pay to go online to make money, they should know the rules of the Internet. First rule about search engines like Google: robots.txt. If they don't want Google to spider them, any half-decent Internet expert they hire would be able to keep Google out of their webspace in the time it takes to type

   User-agent: *
   Disallow: /

   AFP didn't do their homework, and that's a poor way to protect any investment.

3. Speaking of investments, even if they somehow managed to stay completely ignorant of search engine operation, anyone who wants to sell something online needs to protect it. This is as easy as adding password accounts. Other online news services do just that.
4. Copyright protects the rights of authors so that they can make money. Why should we give them the benefit of governmental protection when it's obvious they don't care about protecting the content themselves enough to use basic measures to do so?

To sum up: AFP, of their own volition, paid to get on the web. They completely ignored RFCs. They ignored standard practices by established companies in their business sector. They wait until $17M in damages accrue, which doesn't happen overnight. Only then do they cry foul, and sue using copyright law to protect something they won't protect themselves when they have the chance. If you were a judge, which way would you rule?

Notice that I didn't even need to talk about fair use rights. France doesn't use the US Constitution. My arguments are purely economic, and I'm fairly sure the French understand money. If any lawyers at Google are reading this, please fight this suit. AFP are being unreasonable, and need to be taught a lesson.

who investigated themselves and found themselves not-guilty for torture

the sad thing is all these abuses just increase the hate and distain for USA, make no mistake USA will pay for its crimes one way or another

but the world is safer right ?

...here!. Not too hard, is it?

Verizon and SBC are ready to get into the wireless game.

I already pointed out that SBC, AT&T, Sprint/Verizon and MCI testified in front of Congress.

Well, they mentioned the reason for the bigger mergers is so that the telcoms don't die. They want to have hands in every market, as they should to stay alive. The mergers give companies like MCI the wireless technology and it's implemented network and MCI gives up it's wired network (huge).

They touched on WiMax, but they hinted that once the cell towers are up they will be used for Internet access anyway. We see this already with Cingular's new plan. Remember, you can get "cell" reception almost anywhere now, in most cities and states, and when the technology is at the right price point we will see highspeed Internet offered over those towers.

Sprint's CEO mentioned a few highspeed trials already, along with FiOS so I assume we are talking comprable speeds. Listen to the testimony to get an insight into their plans I'd say. They are really looking at it from a perspective that they should offer what makes the most economic sense on an individual basis. Wireless in sparse areas, mixed networks in high density areas and fiber in the suburbs (for example).

According to Reuters, "But some companies, such as TaxAct, offer complete tax prep and filing for free. There are a couple of caveats to add here: To make sure your service is free, you must access it via the IRS Web site; if you go directly to a particular company's site, you may be charged for the same service. Understand that companies aren't just doing this out of generosity: Some may try to pile on extra offers that you don't want or need, or you may wind up paying next year for importing data from this year's free return. And, you'll pay to file your state returns. "

The IRS planned on offering their own free software, but the tax-preparer software industry balked. The compromise was to offer free federal versions to a large section of tax payers, with the option to sell state versions and other add-ons. The Wall Street Journal covered this on 1/19/05 "IRS Web Site Offers Free Tax Filing," but you have to pay Factiva to see the story online.

People here have a very limited view of compensation -- the total value of her exit package is $45 Million .

If Dell shiped AMD procs.. Intel would die overnight.

Probably not happening anytime soon...

February 23, 2005 19:08:32 (ET)
UPDATE 2-Dell decides against building AMD-based computers

Well, perhaps, but why pick India? The British still had substantial colonies for decades after it let go of India (still have some minor ones, of course), and in some places their actions hardly enhanced their record as model world citizens ...

"When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him." Reuters

One small blow from freedom and sanity was struck today when a Federal judge ordered Jose Padilla to be either charged or released in 45 days. Padilla is the case study in abuse of power by the Bush administration, a U.S. citizen arrested in the U.S. and detained for 2 years without charges, in a military brig in South Carolina, with no charges filed, and most of the time with no access to a lawyer.

Of course the DOJ can appeal this decision until they find a friendly court. Last time his case reached the Supreme Court they punted it on a technicality and left him in purgatory.

Padilla may be a low life scum bag and a legitimate terrorist but unless the DOJ can prove it in a court of law they have zero right to hold him. The fact that they have for two years pretty much shredded our constitution, due process and the rule of law.

In the last decade or so there was a lot of soul searching about how the U.S. treated Japanese Americans in World War II, mostly siezing all their property and indefinite internment without charges. We even paid the survivors reparations a few years ago. Then we turn around and do exactly the same thing to Muslims and Arabs.

Some quotes from the judge, ironicly appointed by George W. in 2003:

"The court finds that the president has no power, neither express nor implied, neither constitutional nor statutory, to hold Petitioner as an enemy combatant," Floyd ruled in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

"Floyd said the case was a law enforcement matter, not a military one, and that unless Padilla is charged with a crime, he should be freed."

"If the law in its current state is found by the president to be insufficient to protect this country from terrorist plots, such as the one alleged here, then the president should prevail upon Congress to remedy the problem," said Floyd, who was appointed to the federal bench by Bush in 2003."

Slap me silly, and mark this post a troll, but here it goes: Dell does Intel

But going on and on about the extended warranty after the customer flat out says they are not interested isn't cool either. The customer *KNOWS* that getting the warranty nets the salesperson extra cash. Why do you think they want to give you their fucking money? Offer the warranty once. If they don't want it, don't push the issue. If they want more info, give it to them. It's not the thirty seconds that gets annoying. It's the thirty seconds at the office store. The ten seconds at Arby's of them asking if you want fries or a cookie with your low carb wrap. The big box electronic store trying to sell you a $75 dollar Monster video cable when you just bought a shitty 15" TV. The bank sending offers for life insurance with your statement. The cell phone company pushing "two months free" of wireless web and then not turning it off when you call to cancel it. The snotty tone of voice given when you don't supersize. Radio Shack asking if I am interested in a new cell phone when I'm just picking up an RCA cable. It all adds up and soon it starts to feel like everyone is just out for your money. Upselling the customer really does get annoying after a while, and I'd take my business elsewhere if I knew I wouldn't get it there.

Actually, ever since "Supersize Me" came out, McDonald's has become really good about this. Walk up to the counter or drive up to the speaker and get a "Welcome to McDonald's. How may I help you?" instead of "Would you like to try a (insert random meal here I'm not interested in) for only (price I don't feel like paying.)" And then once you are done ordering, you may get a "Will that complete your order?" instead of "Would you like that supersized?" Seriously, McDonalds (at least where I live) doesn't push larger sizes on you any more. Now, the new "I'd hit it" slogan which I've heard about does scare me, even though it absolutely reeks of urban legend/hoax. But seriously, McDonald's is one of the quickest reacting businesses to market pressures. Once animal rights groups got on them, they proved that their beef doesn't come from South America and made sure that their chicken providers don't cut the beaks off of chickens. McDonald's was one of the first fast food chains to replace lard with veggie oil when fat became evil. Remeber styrofoam containers? You can still find them at a lot of restaraunts, but not McDonald's since the 80's. I'm not saying that they are good at heart, but they do know what most other companies don't seem to realize: Don't piss on your customers. And you know what? It seems to be a profitable business strategy

As for your stupid customer with the broken CD-RW, I've seen employees at computer stores equally as dumb. Asked about memory and being pointed to the hard drives. Asked about CPU's and being pointed towards the HPs and Packard Bells (okay, that one was a few years back, but...)

That aside, I personally usually get the warranty, as it is quite convienient. Especially through American if you have one in your area. Usually just drop the thing off, then pick it up in working condition less than a week later. And they are the only authorized repair center in my area for a lot of electronics: Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Panasonic, so you know it will be trading less hands when the repairs are done. You do still get some upselling from them, but if you're honest about what you want they help you out. And if you feel like you're being forced into a purchase, find another salesperson. They live off of their commission, so some try to make the quick buck, but the REALLY successful salesemen make their money by building up a portfolio of loyal customers who always ask for them by name when buying something. Oh, and if they want to make the sale, a salesman at American does have the authority to give you a price break. So if you don't waste too much of their tim

It's already here.

Bush didn't want any satellite photos of him smoking a joint.

Paris Hilton's T-Mobile SideKick II address book has been hacked! The worst celebrity disaster since Tom Sizemore's fake penis drug test failure has just occurred, and all you can talk about is a power outage taking down Wikimedia?!?!

GET SOME PRIORITIES!

Meanwhile, in that Bastion of Truth, Justice and the Liberty, Washington DC, George W. Bush signs The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005

<sarcasm>at least america is safe from gay weddings</sarcasm>

How much did Primedia pay for about.com? Wasn't it around $200 million more than they're selling it for?

BTW, here's part of the story on Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topN ews&storyID=7676834&pageNumber=1/

Which is why we have class action lawsuits. Of course, Congress is trying to severely limit them...

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Which carries more weight: the right of Apple to protect their trade secrets or the rights of journalists to protect their sources?

Well, in the investigation over the Valerie Plame leak, the U.S. appeals court said today "There is no First Amendment privilege protecting the evidence sought."

In others words, journalistic source "protection" is subject to the law. It may very well be that Apple's right to protect its trade secrets is more important. It'll be up the courts to decide.

Here is some rocket news that is current. Slashdot moderators in their infinite wisdon rejected it in favor of a Linux based cat feeder.

George W's Missile defense system attempted another test flight today. The target warhead launched great, the interceptor once again sat on the pad and refused to launch, for the second time in a row. They've had 4 outright failures in 9 attempts and I'm not sure the 5 were entirely successful, its hard to tell with the people running the progream controlling all the information on the test. They can't easily hide the fact the missile didn't launch so they have to admit to those failures.

Last time they discovered the data busses were overloading and when they started dropping data the flight control computers aborted the launch. Rather than fixing the overloaded busses and dropped data, which would probably be time consuming they just increased the threshold at which point an abort would occur. Yikes, for $8 billion a year you could hope for better engineering than that.

This time they did the same thing they did last time, damage control, and tried to blame ground equipment and claim the interceptor is great, though they most probably have no clue what the problem was just like last time. I'm going to laugh so hard if the dropped data exceeded the new higher threshold.

We are spending around $8 billion on this dog that wont hunt, and with its current dismal track record it wont serve as any deterrent. If it doesn't work against one missile being launched from a known location on a known trajectory launched at a known time what are the chances it will work against a surprise attack from a location not knowm in advance and attacks with potentially multiple missiles, multiple warheads and decoys or maneuvering warheads like the ones the Russians are developing to defeat it.

Tom Sizemore Fails Drug Test with Fake Penis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Tom Sizemore has been jailed for violating his probation by failing a drug test after he was caught trying to use a prosthetic penis to fake the results, a Los Angeles County prosecutor said on Friday.
Sizemore, 43, who played a battle-hardened sergeant in the war movie "Saving Private Ryan," was placed in custody on Thursday. He was ordered to remain behind bars until a hearing on Feb. 24, unless he posts $25,000 bond, Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney said.

Last month, Judge Antonio Baretto had agreed to allow Sizemore to travel to Cambodia to shoot a new film on condition that he pass a drug test every day prior to his departure.

Carney said the actor's failed attempt to fake his drug test results came on the first day of the new requirement.

The actor is required to undergo random drug tests as a condition of probation for his convictions on separate charges of methamphetamine possession and beating his ex-girlfriend, former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

During Thursday's proceedings, prosecutors told Judge Baretto that Sizemore failed three drug tests in three days, the first after he was caught using a fake penis sewn into his boxer shorts and filled with a clean urine sample kept warm by a heating pack.

Carney said the ruse was revealed when the temperature of the sample proved too cool to have come from Sizemore's body, and he was asked to remove his pants.

According to prosecutors, Sizemore had been caught once before trying to use a similar device, sold over the Internet under the brand name the Whizzinator, and had failed drug tests on at least five occasions.

Carney said two drug tests on the days following the fake penis incident showed Sizemore had methamphetamine in his system.

During the hearing, Sizemore's lawyer told the court that his client was destitute, living in a garage in Whittier, California, and that he was an expectant father, Carney told Reuters.

But Baretto told Sizemore that his drug use was "out of control," adding, "I had hoped and wanted to see a positive performance."

Reuters reports that the real news coming out of this conference is the I/S/T consortium's Cell microprocessor is ready to hit the market. The Cell will be what powers the Playstation 3.

What I was trying to say though, France is *EXTREMELY* nationalistic -- even more so than the US, and I wouldn't expect them to rule in the US's favor, ever.

About 100 years ago france had a minister of education who was a sociologist, who had some strange theories -- namely that religion was basically worship of your own culture. So he reasoned -- why not actually worship your own culture and skip the church part? And being in the position he was -- he was able to implement this idea. (this is a horribly paraphrased account of what happened)

This is why france acts so strangely --they've literally been taught they are the pinnacle of everything.

Sony said around 24 titles would be available at launch or in the days following, representing all of the industry's major game publishers and genres. Games include "FIFA 2005," "Metal Gear Acid," "Need for Speed Rivals" and "Twisted Metal: Head On."

Sony to Release PSP March 24 in North America

Pudge has me foed, and thereby doesn't allow me to participate in his journal discussions, but you might want to point out this to him in his and your thread.

Look who's accountable:
US Teen Sentenced for Unleashing Blaster Worm

Now there's definitely not a 1:1 match on any of those, but it makes you think about the "shades of gray" argument....

One Article
Another
Another that compares the Bush plan to what Europe already does (by the way, Europe already indexes against prices, just like Bush proposes)
Search google. It's easy to find more.

Even if it does, they still would have the problem of selling it in any meaningful volume. They'd basically have the same problems marketing something with the cable tuner thrown in as they have now without it.

Oh well, back to getting a MythTV box together.

Since they're screwed anyway, I wonder if they'll just say fuggit and let you move whatever you want to onto and off of the Tivo box while they're in their death throws. It'd be a nice way for them to say goodbye to their loyal customer base while giving the content guys the bird on the way down.

I should also have included some relevant links to Internet based news sources bookmarked in Safari:

Slashdot of course.
CNN of course.
NYTimes for the writing and quality of reporting.
BBC for the big mainstream non American news perspective.
Kevin Sites for on the ground reporting in Iraq.
Dan Gillmor for news grassroots news.
CBS for financial info.
CNET for tech news.
Global Security for political defense news.
Google for a good news accumulator.
Cryptome because John manages to pull some pretty damned interesting articles out.
NPR of course. Don't forget to donate.
Reuters because they have the news.
Washington Post for beltway news.
Wall St. Journal for more financial news.
NPR Marketplace for more financial news.
CBS for mainstream US news.
Technocrat for real science oriented geek news, like Slashdot only with less noise.
Oh, yeah and
Macsurfer for a Macintosh community oriented news accumulator.

In other news, the U.S. government ran a $1 billion dollar surplus in the month of December.

I've researched this issue and the headline of the article is correct. TiVo is moving to bypass cable but not by throwing the whole system away and not allowing you to record cable BUT by integrating a cable card into a standalone TiVo box. This eliminates the need for a cable decoder. Their intent is to differentiate themselves further from the cheap knockoff PVRs that the cable companies are deploying. As an avid TiVo user myself I assure you that TiVo will not be dropping the capability to record cable programming.

Here is an article that better describes what TiVo is doing: http://olympics.reuters.com/audi/newsArticle.jhtml ?type=technologyNews&storyID=7252458/


More information and analysis will most likely be available at my source for TiVo information http://www.tivoblog.com/ tomorrow.

Perhaps you missed this other announcement. DirecTV will be selling their own non-TiVo DVR (and spec-wise it's pretty nice). They claim they'll continue to sell/support TiVos, but it's unlikely they'll be adding any features or pushing them much.

According to news stories I heard this weekend, there were two problems going on: the meltdown at Comair/Delta due to weather (and as known now, software), and a work stoppage among baggage handlers trying to negotiate a new contract. It sounds like you may be dealing with fallout from the baggage issue, which was purely a human matter, not a software one.

AMD has declared dominance in the gaming and server microprocessor market in 2004?

What is this "make shit up for the headline" hour? Lets see what a professional news organization has to say: http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type =technologyNews&storyID=6960222

AMD trimmed Intel's share in PC-based servers in the third quarter, taking 8 percent of unit sales, up from 6.9 percent, according to IDC.
...
AMD also saw slight gains in unit share for desktop and notebook PCs. It now has 18.4 percent of the desktop PC market
...
Intel nevertheless held onto its overall dominance of the PC microprocessor market, retaining 81.2 percent of the overall share of units, off slightly from 81.7 percent.

Could you provide a source for that piece of info?

You can see this in Reuters... Congress has agreed to exempt from the limit 20,000 foreign students with degrees of masters or higher from U.S. universities.

Most of the traffic analysis stuff mentioned above is already being done at the loyalty card level. Your purchase history is already tied to your merchandise, and those items are already being bundled together for market research. Tracking individual serial numbered items is simply a matter of adding a column to an already very large database. And believe it or not, It seems far too unreliable to be useful as described doesn't matter. Even "mostly reliable" is good enough for marketing purposes. So what if we mistakenly send out coupons for diapers to a childless 70-year-old bachelor? Most of those coupons will end up in the hands of parents, and do their jobs.

And for the most part, traffic analysis is "unobtrusive". How many customers question why they received a coupon for discounted diapers? Do any of them give a thought as to how it was possible for the store to know they needed diapers? The vast majority of people will say "who cares, as long as I get 10% off diapers!" Also witness the success of loyalty card discount programs at places like Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, and almost every low-end supermarket chain. And Barnes & Noble and Best Buy both make customers PAY to join their loyalty programs! There just isn't likely to be enough backlash to cause a problem.

I think it *is* safe to assume that they'll avoid anything that would raise a really big stink.

Sorry, that one's completely off the mark. Look at Target. They kicked the Salvation Army bell ringers out from in front of their stores. Cutting a popular charity off at the knees at Christmas hardly seems like a "positive PR strategy" yet the third biggest retailer in the nation did it anyway. National backlash? Target's same store sales for December are up 3-5%. Ordinary people don't care about corporate behavior. Privacy wonks like Katherine Albright who do care about stuff like this are typically spun to the media as 'kooks'. For evidence of this spinning 'plot', see this article.

Furthermore, privacy protection is also not as easy to implement as you seem to imply. Just because my stores promise not to track your personal info doesn't mean X-mart will respect that promise. And if my tags can be read at an X-mart, well, there you go. As for the AutoID industry, they're recommending "spin control" rather than "technology control." AutoID magazine had an article on how to "sell" RFID to your customers. Industry is pushing hard to get RFID out there for all the non-privacy reasons.

law enforcement applications -- well, I'm all for that.

So, do you also think that the MPAA should be able to backtrack a ripped DVD to a specific original purchaser? (If so, you're braver than I am, that's kind of an unpopular viewpoint on slashdot these days.) Anyway, unique item tagging makes it possible. Ordinary screened non-unique barcodes don't.

Whether you agree or not with tracking people to this level, RFID provides the tools to enable a surveillance state.

Only if you require everything to be tagged, and make it illegal to remove or deactivate the tags.

No law against deactivating or removing tags needs to exist. Most criminals we apprehend are actually far too stupid to cover tracks like that. TV cop show criminals are just as made-for-TV as the TV cops themselves. Most real world crooks are exceedingly stupid.

Before it gets unleashed on an unprepared public, there are serious questions we need to answer, like "how much are we willing to let oursel

Newspapers actually pay for services like the AP or UPI or Reuters.

Roland makes money by copy and pasting articles and then writing a few sentences about them. I have nothing against his blog. I do have something against him profiting from it.

Amazing what a little time brings up.

African & Seychelles tides and a little more info here.

Just ask the previous ISS crew.. They really enjoyed this crew's Christmas dinner a while ago. =P

Source:
"Russian officials accused the previous crew of overeating during their 6-month mission, leaving a deficit of meat and milk and a surplus of juice and confectionery."

They've also sued three ADC members who were distributing developer builds of Mac OS X Tiger via BitTorrent.
Details here and here.

Nothing spectacular here, since besides the obvious copyright infringement, the developer builds are released under NDA.

It's a good day for Boeing all around. They also sold 50 of their new 7E7 planes today. That tops Airbus's sales of their new 'bigger' plane.

I don't know... UbiSoft seems to think it's a hostile takeover attempt.

"Pending further information, we consider this operation as hostle," an Ubi Soft spokesman told Reuters.

Well, the /. crowd is at least in line with Ubisoft's assessment: http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsAr ticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh65968_2004-12-20_15-25-41_pac 003746_newsml

Contrary to what is stated in the news text (the buyout would instantly make EA the biggest shareholder, ahead of the Guillemot brothers.), the Guillemot brothers actually own almost 23% of the shares:
According to Reuters, "EA's investment secures it access to 18.4 percent of the voting rights, against 22.8 percent held by Ubi Soft's founders, the Guillemot family, Ubi Soft said."

I've seen the comments of a lot of slashdotters... Let me tell you that people here at ubi Montreal didn't like the news either...
:|

(source)

I didn't think the article was too good. The following two are better:

Swiss Info

Reuters

Mmm, yes, sad. I can feel myself getting a little misty even as I type this.

In other news, mass murderer Osama Bin Laden released a new tape today, confirming he is alive and and kicking and intent upon more mass murdering; x people got blown up in Iraq today, where x is a real number between 10 and 300; The Sudanese are starving; and N. Korea and Iran will probably have a shitload of nukes by the end of the decade.

Goddamn those bastards at Nvidia for needlessly adding to the world's sadness.