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Domain: themanpages.net
Stories and comments across the archive that link to themanpages.net.
Stories · 5
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RIAA Says P2P Encourages Illegal Downloads
stlhawkeye writes "The RIAA is at it again, attacking inconvenient technology because it can be abused. They have sent another round of letters to P2P services, asking them to stop "encouraging users" to illegally distribute copyrighted material. eDonkey, LimeWire, and Kazaa are all on the RIAA's hit list, along with 2Hub, BitTorrent, WinMX and Free Peers, maker of file-swapping software BearShare. One wonders how they intend to attack BitTorrent, which can be and is used in legitimate mass distribution efforts of legal material, such as World of Warcraft patches. Are FTP and /usr/sbin/scp next?" -
MIT Researches Map Cell Phone Usage
stlhawkeye writes "MIT researchers with the Mobile Landscape Projects have mapped a city based on cell phone usage. The article includes a map of Graz, Austria with a color-coded overlay indicating cell phone usage in various parts of the city. Using call origin and destination data, they are able to not only reverse-engineer a topographic map of the geography and landscape, but one of phone usage as well. The implications of the research have practical applications in law enforcement, emergency management, and traffic management. There are also, of course, privacy implications." -
IT Departments Are A Security Risk
stlhawkeye writes "An article at Information Week asks the question - is your IT department a security risk? The thesis of the article is that rank-and-file employees will tend to engage in dangerous/insecure/irresponsible computing and internet behavior if they know that there's an IT department to clean up the mess. 'That confidence,' says the article,'leads workers to do risky, even stupid, things at work, such as opening questionable e-mail messages or clicking on unknown Web site links.' Employee education and training doesn't help, either: '[S]ome workers slough off responsibility for even knowing about threats. Workers in larger companies don't worry about being educated. Big company employees just don't see security as their responsibility.'" -
Jan 2009 Deadline for HDTV Cutoff
stlhawkeye writes "Broadcasters have recently accepted a deadline of January 2009 for the mandatory end of analog television signal broadcasts. Broadcasters have expressed concerns that those without subscription television services will see blank screens unless they buy new units. " -
Mars Phoenix Lander Given The Go
stlhawkeye writes "The BBC is running an article which indicates that NASA has green-lit Phoenix, the next Mars mission. NASA also has some details on the mission, which is centered around locating water on the red planet. Originally planned as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor mission, the lander would launch in 2007. Among the more interesting plans for the mission is a new type of camera to photograph the landing site just before touchdown, and a robotic arm to claw through three feet of soil. The lander would touchdown near the polar ice cap. The mission is characterized as the first 'scout' mission for possible manned landing in the future."