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That is true. Here is a link to a story he has recently written. The story also contains an audio
recording he made of the arrest.

How's this relevant?

This isn't the first time Apple's apparently screwed over developers.

Panic made a better music player:
http://panic.com/audion/
http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/

Widgets didn't originate with Apple (at least according to Arlo Rose):
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=77382
http://www.konfabulator.com/cartoon/partOne.html
Alternative view here - http://www.randommaccess.com/articles/1088610260.shtml

Watson was slain:
http://www.karelia.com/watson/

iPodRip bullied into submission:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/jobs-may-make-mat-lose-his-job-20091125-jq6t.html

My only observation? Over time, anything that dilutes or threatens the iTunes/App Store/iDevice ecosystem is met with increasingly over-the-top responses.

Maybe that's how you get ahead in business, but it sucks nonetheless.

Hammerbacher quit Facebook in 2008, took some time off, and then co-founded Cloudera, a data-analysis software startup.

Unlike one of his more prominent Harvard acquaintances—Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg—Hammerbacher graduated. He took a job at Bear Stearns.

On Wall Street, the math geeks are known as quants. They're the ones who create sophisticated trading algorithms that can ingest vast amounts of market data and then form buy and sell decisions in milliseconds.

So basically, he says that the "brightest minds of a generation" are being squandered targetting ads at users, and that's why he left Facebook. But before he went to Facebook he was a quant, that most hated of evil on /., making money from having a picosecond headstart on the competition. And after he left Facebook, he started Cloudera. Hardly curing all the world's ills is he?

I'm wondering how Osama reconciled the use of computers with his anti-Western beliefs (which I assume includes Western technology).

Same way he rationalised drinking Coke and Pepsi, I guess.

Iraq's oil money made it possible for Saddam Hussein to compensate the families of suicide bombers US$25,000:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/03/25/1017004766310.html

Cutting off that funding helped to reduce the number of ``martyrs''.

So this announcement from the government advising people to purchase a new Windows Operating System occurs only days after Microsoft's stock was impacted due to poor Operating System sales
Microsoft Stock news

Seems like there've been a lot of stories about crazy (and poorly thought out) Australian internet rules. Apparently, that got cancelled.

No it hasn't. Internet Censorship may not be a regular story in the press at the moment, but since the 2010 election we've seen other things related to it such as Tasmanians to be forced to connect to NBN under new laws.

For those at home, the NBN is the National Broadband Network, under the control of the Australian Federal Government. They can and will have internet censorship at a time and place of their choosing.

This is VERY bad news to an already weakened dollar.

The dollar has been overvalued for decades, and look at the result: manufacturing jobs have moved overseas, and a vastly negative trade balance. With an over valued currency, It's simply cheaper to import something than to produce it locally.

A high exchange rate doesn't make a currency strong anyway, long term stability and low inflation are more important.

"Overvalued" currencies are a silly excuse for the US's poor trade performance. If currency valuation was the determining factor in the size of trade surpluses then post-plaza accord Japan's trade surplus should have narrowed significantly. In fact it's been rising and falling without much change in the average at all. Or Germany wouldn't run a huge trade surplus with the rest of the EU even though they trade in the same currency.

Furthermore there's a lot of evidence out that a large part of US trade-deficit with China with its undervalued currency is actually a deficit with Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Germany. China is becoming an end point for the assembling of products (iphone, ps3 .etc. etc.) but the reality is that the internals of those products are actually coming from Japan .etc. http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/6335 has a good analysis. The iPhone alone adds 1.9billion to the US trade deficit with China. However the reality is that the value added in China was only 3.6% of the total manufacturing costs. The rest of the value was added elsewhere and imported into China. Looked at like that the real deficit between the US and China in iPhone trade is only $73 million dollars. The rest is a deficit to 1. Resource exporting nations (Australia .etc. which btw. runs a trade surplus with all the East Asian economies and has a very strong currency while actually running a deficit with the US!) 2. High Tech manufacturers (Japan, Germany .etc.). Or in other words the Euro and the Yen are high but the US is still running a trade deficit with Japan and Germany. It just now gets hidden as a trade deficit with China.

The rest of the world is getting pretty sick of the US moaning about "undervalued" currencies as well. Here's the governor of the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) calling out the falacy in the US's constant whining about the Yuan: http://www.smh.com.au/business/rba-to-usa-wake-up-yer-drongos-20110415-1dgye.html

The reason the US hasn't succeeded as an exporter is because it has systemically failed to make the long-term capital investments necessary to make its industries competitive. It's easier for a CEO to fire 10,000 workers claim a massive increase in profits collecting outrageously huge performance-bonuses (or non-performance please just go away bonuses aka. "golden parachutes") than it is for them to make serious long term investments than sacrifice immediate profit for future-benefit. I'd blame a tax-structure that doesn't provide strong incentives for corporations to bring profits back onshore and reinvest them in infrastructure and employing new workers and an (ultra) short-term focused stock market.

I decided to do some research and found out in my travels that Ziggy Switowski is Australia's best known nuclear power expert and i was going to type up a rebuttal but I think I am going to share a bath with my toaster instead (which thankfully is fueled by coal).

Also, unlike the US we realise and understand that our laws stop at our borders.

Yeah, sure.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/sickipedia-bid-to-shut-offensive-encyclopedia-dramatica-20100317-qdv7.html

Australia could have added ED to their long list of sites being blocked to protect the sensibilities of their citizens. They instead chose to contact a US based site to warn/threaten them. Australia didn't have to call for extradition for their intended results to be made quite clear. It's not enough to for Australia to block this content; they want someone in a different country to abide by Australian law. How is this not a case of Australia applying its laws outside of its borders?

Fine if both countries have equivalent laws, in which case the Australians could ask the U.S. to prosecute their own laws. In this case though it'd be like Germany asking that a random Spanish guy take down a holocaust denial site that he never specifically intended to be accessed within German borders. It would be different if our Spanish friend was running a business selling his junk to Germans, in which case he either needs to abide by German law, or stop specifically targeting German users. Even then it's kind of shaky. It'd seem more sensible to prosecute Germans who break the law by buying his stuff.

I think we underestimate peoples stupidity. Take the recent case in Australia - invitations to a open house party go viral on facebook and tens of thousands sign up. You would think that the young girl would have got the message, but if you RTA you will see that afterwards she made a journalist her friend. WTF? http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/teens-facebook-party-cancelled-as-200k-threaten-to-show-up-20110314-1btsl.html

And millions of homes already without power

And trains

You're right about Australian's generally supporting the underdog. Unfortunately I also find us to be a very "pussy-whipped" country.

There are many examples of the legal system being more sympathetic towards females, including: punishment handed out for sexual assault of minors, availability of battered-spouse syndrome defence, rape allegations (requirement of accused to demonstrate he had consent), etc.

So the fact that this case involves sex crimes means he'll be at a disadvantage in Australia.

In fact, this article from just yesterday's Herald says:

It's just that women unleashed - as fully operating political, professional and economic (as well as personal) entities - have proved themselves so terrifyingly competent

Indeed they have.

'The CIA wants the American people and the world to understand its mission and its vital role in keeping our country safe.'

The CIA is trying to regain some credibility/reputation which has rapidly gone downhill since the Iraq war. News and leaks from Wikileaks and other sources keeps throwing their smelly shit into the fan for all to see. It seems to be nearly every day now we hear of a new scandal, or some gross misuse of our taxpayers funds. But never fear, they have a plan: Apart from this new "Spy goodies" for geeks section to woo us with pretty trinkets, they have also thought of the children - adding games and quizzes to their website - helping them become your all American family-friendly organization again. Further, soon there will be no more bad news thanks to the CIA teaming up with the Democrats to clean out those with faulty moral compasses - so we can all live safe and ignorant again.

The US (with the blessing of the Aussie government) has already convicted one Aussie of being a terrorist using retrospective law, what makes you think the constitution will stop them from doing it to another Aussie?

The guy who invented IP disagrees with you. I think you're on shakey ground.

Australia had this too http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/telstra-users-left-holding-exposed-lines/2008/12/08/1228584743353.html
"THOUSANDS of Telstra customers are putting up with crude, temporary phone connections with cables held together by tape and plastic bags and strung along fences, across lawns and through trees. In many cases the unsightly - even dangerous - cables are left in place for months and even years, despite repeated pleas to finish the job by burying them."

~223 years on, they are still ruled by idiots.
If only! Sycophants (Imagine a prime minister saying I did but see her passing by, and yet I love her till I die". About the Queen...)
and (G.W. Bush visit, US agents decide who gets into our parliament, allow CNN in despite Australian security saying no)
lackeys (Chinese officials allowed to question Chinese political dissidents .. in private... one by one...) would be far more accurate.

I still haven't seen any evidence to suggest that Assange is the target of anything more than an obsessed media and a lot of public outcry

Clearly you have very constrained sources of news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8212812/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-facing-US-prosecution-bid-says-Joe-Biden.html

Or maybe something more recent: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/us-turns-to-twitter-as-wikileaks-chase-continues-20110109-19jy5.html

t I also don't see a lot of convincing evidence that he definitely is the target of anything in particular

How much evidence would you like exactly?

http://www.smh.com.au/business/gerry-harvey-in-difficult-position-over-gst-crusade-20110107-19i3u.html
Gerry Harvey decided it wasn't the best idea to piss of his own customers..

• SMH: PM can't say what law wikileaks has broken
• SMH: No law broken, police tell PM
• and here in which the attorney-general is qouted saying "no crime was comited in Australia's juristition"

• SMH: PM can't say what law wikileaks has broken
• SMH: No law broken, police tell PM
• and here in which the attorney-general is qouted saying "no crime was comited in Australia's juristition"

• SMH: PM can't say what law wikileaks has broken
• SMH: No law broken, police tell PM
• and here in which the attorney-general is qouted saying "no crime was comited in Australia's juristition"

Clicky Clicky. No crime in Australia per the Oz Feds.

I respect your right to speak. I just wonder where your facts come from sometimes. I also disagree with the way you frame your arguments. That being said I still read your posts ;)

Sounds good, but what OP left out is that it is Daniel Domschelt-Berg leading the breakaway on the ground his ego couldn't fit in the same room as Assange's. Now while Assange is doing time for what we suspect are trumped up charges with the US Attorney General willing to make up laws to shut him up, at the same time Domschelt-Berg is publishing a book called Inside WikiLeaks: My Time at the World's Most Dangerous Website and distracting attention from the cables. Which man would you trust with your leak?

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/anger-at-slave-trader-assange-wikileaks-loyalists-decide-to-break-away-20101210-18s0w.html

WikiLeaks were collecting donations using MasterCards and VISA as forms of payment on their website, up until the two giants pulled away because they didn't want to be associated with the website.

Did they not want to be associated with Wikileaks, or where they bpressured by the government? PayPal admits US pressure over WikiLeaks account freeze. US targets groups with ties to website. WikiLeaks cables: US 'lobbied Russia on behalf of Visa and MasterCard'

Falcon

Improper use is a grey area, however some people should just apply common fucking sense and see their interpretation is pitch black of what is and isn't improper. Gordon Brown buying stuff on ebay in the middle of a parliamentary sitting is improper. These buffoons get paid a fortune to do a small amount of work and even then they don't pay attention.

Not improper enough? How about Kiddy porn viewed on parliament computers

read this (Sydney Morning Herald) his lawyers weren't even shown the evidence against him in English (a requirement of Swedish law). Then the charges where dropped and then reopened by someone more senior a few days latter. In many countries this would be enough for the case to be thrown out.

Powell WMD speech 'lowest point in my life'

Government 'sexed up' WMD report

CommanderTaco made first contact with Uranus years ago.

According to the press conference, all he got out of it was a steaming pile of....you know.

Do you mean like the absence of mandatory shoe removal and full-body scanners during flight? Italy is actually ditching the full-body scanner because they're slow, ineffective and expensive. http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/italy-to-abandon-airport-body-scanners-20100924-15pgu.html lol

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

Italy has decided to dump the full body scanners because they are slow and ineffective.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/international/italy-to-abandon-airport-body-scanner-project
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/italy-to-abandon-airport-body-scanners-20100924-15pgu.html
http://www.euronews.net/2010/09/23/italian-airport-security-axing-body-scanners/

Seems to me that ought be a clear signal that they are just security theater.

All this sounds like an argument Tony Abbott and his crew will use against the NBN in Australia. If it were up to them we'd all be using the "reliable" 3G network here for our internets...

I don't think it is really a night rate issue. We have a complicated system of energy resellers here and niche customers seem to get a bad deal:

The average non-solar home is charged between 17 and 19 per kilowatt hour of electricity used due to a Victorian government moratorium on price increases while a new ''smart'' metering system is rolled out.

But in what is described as an oversight, the moratorium does not apply to households that sign a contract to receive a premium rate for excess power generated on their roof and fed into the grid.

Instead, energy companies are charging people with photovoltaic solar panels up to double the standard rate during peak hours.

In Mr Rayner's case, AGL charges him 32 per kilowatt hour during the evening - the time he is most likely to need the power grid to run his home in McKinnon.

''If I had known, I would not have put panels on my roof - it's not worth it,'' he told The Age.

''I reckon I could just about set up a business explaining to people what they need to look out for if they are thinking of putting solar on, because it's become a very complicated exercise.''

Posted earlier today in the Sydney Morning Herald

"To the contrary, we already list many titles that were initially or solely distributed online and/or via BitTorrent," Emily Glassman wrote in an email from Seattle, where the company is based.

"As a pioneering internet company - we are celebrating our 20th anniversary on 17 October! - we are fully aware of and totally embrace digital distribution."

Glassman cited a range of recent titles, including 2009 films The Yes Men Fix the World and Blank, and 2008 films Pentagon and Emperor, that have been distributed through BitTorrent and listed on IMDb.

"We will look at and review this specific case but as a general rule we always include all films that are submitted to us as long as we can verify that they fulfil our eligibility requirements."

Glassman said the database's requirements were stringent because it had to maintain its credibility, and that "more substantial burden of proof is required to accept titles that are still in production".

They probably get hundreds (or more) of requests to list all kinds of screwy things every day, and this probably just flew under the radar of people who didn't take the time to do the due diligence of verifying that it's a real project that's well underway and that actually does have a good chance of being released and relevant. I suspect that with all of the attention, they'll probably change their mind in pretty short order and all will be well again. I find both the filmmaker's frustration and IMDB's reticence understandable. It is a valuable resource, and I don't want it trashed with every schmo who thinks that his kid's birthday party video should be listed.

Besides, as mentioned before, the publicity doesn't hurt, and IMDB did them a huge favor in an indirect way. I had never heard of the project before, but I think it's an awesome idea, one I've actually thought of and wished on many occasions that someone would take up. I hope they do awesome, and their project has motivated me to pitch in and buy some frames.

IMDb's head of public relations and marketing said the company would "review this specific case", but brushed off the producers' claims of bias.

"To the contrary, we already list many titles that were initially or solely distributed online and/or via BitTorrent," Emily Glassman wrote in an email from Seattle, where the company is based.

"As a pioneering internet company - we are celebrating our 20th anniversary on 17 October! - we are fully aware of and totally embrace digital distribution."

"excuse for vital infrastructure to be controlled via the internet."
Australians like MS at the front end?
eg http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/sinister-integral-energy-virus-outbreak-a-threat-to-power-grid-20091001-gdrx.html
http://www.zdnet.com.au/virus-hits-integral-energy-desktops-339298861.htm

While that may be part of it, it does seem to be more about the Australian MEAA union trying to use its power of international links to break into the New Zealand (note: separate country) film industry. The MEAA is not even currently operating in NZ, its NZ branch having folded up last year.
There were some forthright comments from New Zealand production people on Radio New Zealand this morning, some of which made it into this Sydney Morning Herald article

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/fight-to-filter-out-evil-leaves-bad-guys-to-do-their-worst-20100514-v4cq.html
They cut funding to the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team, a unit of the Australian Federal Police.
The filter is pure faith based pay back.

That would be a good point, except this guy is a member of the state branch of the same party that proposed the internet filter. Besides, using a work computer for looking at porn and gambling on company time would get you fired from any other job, so it's a matter of being held to the same standards as everyone else, and as a New South Wales resident and taxpayer I don't see why I should be subsidising his personal habits.

There's another example of the same kind of hypocrisy from the same state parliament, this time a Christian right politician. 200,000 sites is research? Yeah, right. Resign you wanker!

while it would appear the minister may have had some guilty consience,
and there wa irony that Christian MP Fred Nile was "involved"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Nile

* the audit was unauthorised
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/woman-behind-nsw-parliamentary-porn-inquiry-quits-20100906-14y1i.html
* the audit did not properly identify "porn sites"
"instances of inappropriate access were registered by the audit if parliamentary staff accessed sites that contained links or advertisements to pornographic or gambling material."
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reports-of-nsw-mp-internet-misuse-flawed-339305748.htm
the "porn sites" with by far the biggest number of hits were local newspaper ones, apparently because they included on-line dating ads
http://www.crikey.com.au/2010/09/03/nsw-parliament’s-flawed-prn-hunt/

I just don't like to be immersed to my neck in the cesspit of SPAM and other duplicity that the internet so uniquely enables.

The real world has crime - even turning a country into some kind of controlled Stazi state in the name of defending against "crime" will not change that. Most of us are not prepared to live in a police state/baby pen internet under the (fake) pretense of knocking a few percentage points off the crime stats or child porn bogymen population.

Apart from that - what makes you think that anonymity makes it possible to hold governments and big business to account? All this is just a dummy; something to keep potential troublemakers occupied with thundering impotently on their soapboxes instead of organizing something more worthwhile.

As for holding governments and big business to account here is one example (Disclaimer: In My Opinion) on an issue that indirectly affects most Americans in a big way : The action, enabled by anonymous open and free internet access. And here we are seeing the reaction: Two influential think tanks have seen the writing on the wall - two think tanks that have a history of being ahead of the curve in changes to government policy. Sure many here will argue that one is not related to the other in any way - that it was always the plan from the start - but that would just be unverifiable opinion, the same as mine is. My money is on the massive amount of new factual data enabling better informed decisions to be made - as should always be the case in a true democracy - something that would not have been possible if we did not have an open anonymous internet. Apparently, I am not alone in the above opinion, professionals who know better than most share it: "Afghanistan intelligence flawed, says ex-CIA man". All due to open anonymous and free internet access. Here's to apposing any attempt to messing with it by grubby little politician hands...

This might be true in Europe, but in Australia it will be priced similarly to the iPad. I have been told by Samsung that all the rumors about pricing out there are basically wrong, pricing hasn't been released. "No pricing has been announced and it’s not yet known if it will be sold outright as opposed to being tied to a telecommunications company like Telstra or Optus on a subsidised plan. McGee said the pricing would be "competitive" to Apple's iPad." http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/tablets/samsungs-ipad-rival-debuts-20100903-14rvg.html

If the pedophiles want to complain that Labor is blocking their access to their pedophilia then let them.

I wish it was only that kind of material that's getting blocked.

Unfortunately it isn't... filtering trials showed that a number of businesses, community support groups, dentists, anti-abortion political sites and even a betting agency were also getting blocked. If the ACMA were accountable for what gets blocked this wouldn't be a problem, but the block list is marked SECRET and they won't even acknowledge whether a given URI or site is in it, let alone allow you to state your case to have it removed. Where will they be allowed to draw the line?

If the pedophiles want to complain that Labor is blocking their access to their pedophilia then let them.

I wish it was only that kind of material that's getting blocked.

Unfortunately it isn't... filtering trials showed that a number of businesses, community support groups, dentists, anti-abortion political sites and even a betting agency were also getting blocked. If the ACMA were accountable for what gets blocked this wouldn't be a problem, but the block list is marked SECRET and they won't even acknowledge whether a given URI or site is in it, let alone allow you to state your case to have it removed. Where will they be allowed to draw the line?

This article just came out. It definitely looks dead. Thank goodness. I must admit, I'm rather enjoying good ol' Stephen Conroy trying in vain to introduce the filter!

and the idiotic filter idea - which was never going to get through the senate previously - will now not even make it past the house of reps, so I'd be very surprised if we heard anything about it again in the near to medium future.

They're still trying.. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/conroys-net-filter-still-alive-and-kicking-20100910-1540s.html

Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, the Opposition and the Greens have all come out against the policy, leaving it effectively dead in the water.

The GP was probably fantasizing. While a church doesn't need to file the official form to be tax exempt, if the IRS suspects they are violating the rules they'll investigate. There are really only two rules for churches: be sincere in your beliefs and don't violate U.S. laws or policies. That is, no virgin sacrifices, etc.

Specifically, that one reads:

That the practices and rituals associated with the organization's religious belief or creed are not illegal or contrary to clearly defined public policy.

There is a bit of leeway in that to allow the gov't to remove tax-exempt status from churches if they go too far against gov't policy. The first example that comes to mind is if the U.S. decided to seriously enforce immigration law, and a church -- as an organization -- was giving harbor to illegal immigrants, falsifying documents, or lying to federal agents, the IRS could revoke their charitable status and tax exemption. The thing is, what the pastor is doing isn't illegal or against U.S. Policy, thus the IRS can't legally touch his tax-exempt status. They could crawl up his ass with a microscope to see if anything ELSE might be illegal. http://www.smh.com.au/world/pastor-in-koran-furore-accused-of-using-slaves-20100909-153bf.html

On a parallel note, this is also what gives the gov't the power to regulate things like private association membership. (I.E. -- Gays in the Boy Scouts of America) If you take gov't funds, they have the legal right to meddle in your affairs. The key is to not take gov't money and be 100% private. Then you can go tell them to fuck off, and usually get away with it. That's how we still have a few private country clubs in the U.S. that don't allow blacks, jews or women. They're 100% private. Augusta National Country Club comes to mind first.