Slashdot Mirror

Dr. Mu writes "According to this story in today's Seattle Times, 'The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia blocked implementation of FCC regulations that would have allowed companies to own more radio and television stations in the same market, and directed the agency to rewrite the rules.' In the interim, the FCC has already granted waivers to the old (1975) rules. It's unclear whether these waivers will now be revoked. Nonetheless, this ruling spells relief for smaller media interests and the diversity they provide."

antediluvian writes "The Seattle Times reports Sun Microsystems shares surged forward on speculation the computer maker may be bought by a rival company. Prospective buyers could include Dell, IBM or Hewlett-Packard. Computer sales of rival companies have been outpacing sales of Sun's machines. Over the past three years Sun's stock has declined 92 percent."

rootrider writes "Mark Rahner of the Seattle Times has written a great article discussing the recent trend here in the US to outlaw the purchase of violent video games by minors. I'm sure articles have been written in the past that refute the idea that video games lead to violence, but this is the first mainstream article I've seen that details the issue and does it well." The trend isn't really that new. In the past, Ozzy Osbourne and Dungeons and Dragons have been favorite scapegoats, and when I was in high school it was gangsta rap music. I can't wait until we can attribute violence to the nightly news.

chikanamakalaka writes: "I found an article at the Seattle Times about Microsoft's upcoming "Hailstorm" service and associated privacy concerns. The story is here."

CygnusTM writes: "The Seattle Times has a story about a high-school student who has been suspended for cracking a school computer after being challenged to do so by a teacher. The teacher says he wasn't serious. Raw deal." Aaron Lutes apparently got tripped up for what should have perhaps gotten him extra credit. The article notes: "The Lutes family and the district also acknowledge that Lutes' computer-science teacher, Giovanni Colombo, told students they'd get a reward from the software company if they cracked the security system and that Colombo wanted a 10% cut of that reward." Welcome to school, take a seat.

Lady and Gentlemen, sit back and brace yourself for the assault of the quickies: AlexPixel sent us the curiously named Bilbo.com which actually sells feet keyboards for key modifiers and mouse clicks. cadfael sent us a sordid tale of a coder scorned. Some billboards: first from Ant we have a windows error and from mazur we have a bit of unix (must be california ;) mmca noted that scientists have discovered why candy wrappers are loudest in movie theaters. IcesTorm-I noted a supposed windows bug that will make ya wonder. DuncMonk sent us a cool comic strip called Sinfest that you might wish to add to your morning coffee. How about the x86 Still for those of you who believe that controlling your stereo, lights, garage door, and neighbors dog just isn't enough for your PC. Not out there enough for ya? How about RSA implemented entirely in javascript? (Doesn't work for me ... I leave that crap turned off ;) And finally to leave everyone on the proper melodic note, gribbly Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers. Fortunately it's available in MP3 just in case you don't have a dot-matrix printer still handy...

rudedog writes: "According to this Seattle Times article, the Washington Supreme Court has upheld a shrinkwrap license limiting recovery of damages due to buggy software. Apparently, the software manufacturer agreed that there was a bug that cost the plaintiff $1.95 million, but asked the court to dismiss the claim based on the license agreement [which disclaimed all liability]. Kinda answers the old open source FUD question 'who you gonna sue if something goes wrong?'. According to the WA courts, nobody." The opinion is available here, and a dissenting opinion by two of the judges is also available.

ThatGuyAZ writes "A King County (Wash.) Superior Court Judge threw out a lawsuit under the tough Washington Anti-Spam law, calling the law "unduly restrictive and burdensome" in limiting interstate commerce. While the state can appeal this low-level ruling, this is definitely the opening shot in the coming legal battle over state attempts to regulate spam. "

bridgette writes "The Mayor has declared a state of civil emergency, there is a curfew at 7 p.m. and the police have been using pepper spray and allegedly tear gas, paintball guns and rubber bullets." Stories are at KOMO-TV, MSNBC, Seattle Times, CNN, and probably almost anywhere else you look.

&y writes "Yes, and they appear to be serious. Here's a quote from the Seattle Times article: "When asked why scientists are trying to bring back a mammal that lived so long ago, Agenbroad said: 'Why not? I'd rather have a cloned mammoth than another sheep.'" A very convincing argument indeed."

MsWillow writes "Here's an article on something the states are proposing to do to Microsoft: force them to auction off source code and trademark to Windows. Microsoft could still make *a* Windows, but not *the* Windows. I personally doubt this will happen, but hey, a grrl can hope, can't she? "

Garrett Smith writes "The seattle times takes a look at the geek parties at comdex and compares them to the exec parties. " H:Hehe-having spent some time at events along these lines (first SF convention at age 12!), I can attest to this. It's true, we, well, get down differently. Granted, this article looks at a party Gates attends-I'd love to see an article on alternative OS partying.

Wade Naveja writes "Study Links Internet And Depression according to this Seattle Times story." Allright, I think this warrants some discussion. Hit the link below to read things that depress me about The Internet, you can add your own if you're bored. No doubt about it, Internet usage leads to depression. Either that or anger. Examples:

1. Email Marketing Works!
2. Document Contains No Data.
3. No Route to Host
4. "Why did you delete my comment you sack of turd!"
5. "Why do you use Cookies you sack of turd!"
6. Email Marketing Works!
7. Smurf attacks forcing sites to turn off ICMP.
8. Web sites that don't let me use Netscape under Linux
9. Email Marketing Works!
10. 33.6 modems connecting at 19.2
11. I'm sorry, we don't support Cable Modem/ASDL/ISDN in your area.
12. Email Marketing Works!
13. Embedded Midi in web pages
14. You must download Plug-in foo to view this page
15. Starting Java... segmentation fault.
16. Trying to print out a page in a frame
17. Trying to bookmark a page in a frame
18. Trying to navigate a page in a frame
19. Frames
20. HTML embedded in email
21. ICQ
22. Server splitting on efnet.
23. BUSY
24. AOL Instant Messenger
25. Firewalls and Proxy Servers
26. "I got the first comment!"
27. Your web page is cool, can I have the source?
28. Will you help me set it up?
29. For free?
30. NO CARRIER
31. Dynamic IPs
32. The Slashdot Effect nuking every site I post 5 minutes after I post it.
33. and how could I forget, Email Marketing Works!

writes "Adam Engst, publisher of TidBITS, filed a lawsuit Friday against Worldtouch Network (the Bull's Eye Gold people). Check it out. "
Halleujah! Get them! And I will follow the Bull's Eye people unto the End of the Earth, and destory them, and their children's children etc etc.

Cameron Parish writes " In a victory for free speech on the Internet, a Seattle federal court yesterday upheld the right of an Internet user to post heated opinions about credit-reporting agencies on his website, as well as personal (but publicly available) information about the "scumbags" who have antagonized him. Judge William Dwyer called the Internet an "arena of free speech " So does this mean we can post spammers phone numbers yet?

Scott Francis sent us a link to an article this Seattle Times Article where you can read about a company called Pixel, who apparently has some clever patent pending (grr) software that allows them to shrink the desktop, and put icon bars and stuff around the edges. I'm curious to see if it really works. Currently it is a win95 only technology, but if this really works, it could certainly be put to good use somewhere. arielb also sent us a similiar article from wired. And the MySpace Homepage claims that Mac and Unix versions are coming.

Joe Hamelin wrote in with this link to the Seattle Times where you can read about the first real anti spam bill to get passed into law. The laws are against deceptive header information, which I regard as a crime deserving of the death penalty.

Everything in Bill's house is run by NT...