Slashback: DRM, Eldred, Aridity

Slashback's updates and corrections tonight include Declan McCullagh's photos from the Eldred / Lessig Supreme Court appearance, a denial from Microsoft that the company is planning to charge customers extra for security features, a reminder about your chance (well, if you're an American) to tell your elected representatives what you think about mandated DRM technology, and more. Read on.

Looking sharp in their suits. Declan McCullagh writes: "Here are some photos from after the arguments, including activists who slept on the courthouse steps, an exhausted but optimistic Larry Lessig, and the Internet Archive bookmobile, which visited Washington DC for the event."

A new meaning for 'decimation.' Martin writes "Here is a good write-up on what happened with the whole sendmail hack a week or so back. Apparently every 10th copy of the source that was downloaded from sendmail.org received the trojan'd version. Nice to see a linux hack getting some attention for a change, instead of the usual MS bashing. Here is the write-up."

I won't be charging entrance fees to Shangri La, either. After a report posted the other day indicating that Microsoft was considering charging customers more for certain security features, Software writes "According to a little snippet from Yahoo News (look towards the bottom), Microsoft won't be charging for security updates after all. As Yahoo puts it, 'Microsoft, however, said Mundie was referring to an internal proposal to begin offering stand-alone security software in the future.' No confirmation of this on Microsoft's site for the press"

As denials go, that seems like a weak one.

Where is Deep Fritz's deep game? screenbert writes "In an exciting best-of-eight chess match-up, the human is leading the computer 2 1/2 to 1/2. I find the fractions of winning amusing, almost as amusing as seeing that the best-of-eight series will take at least nine games since one of those games was a draw. For a general overview there is a good review here(1) or here(2) or here(3). And to save the 38 mandatory karma whoring comments I'll say it: Imagine if Deep Fritz ran on a beowolf cluster."

So it's back to BYOB. gnarly writes "An earlier report of detection of water masers on extrasolar planets has been debunked."

Workaround: Get your congresspuppet hooked on Free software. Several readers wondered why (complained that) the post offering a link to the place where you can submit your comments on DRM technology to the Senate Judiciary Committee was posted section-only. So here's a reminder; if you live near D.C. (or get a chance to stop by a local office), perhaps you'll be able to stop to chat a bit about how you determine who gets your vote. (Maybe you should check out the sections, too.)

Comments

Come on editors...

[MalleusEBHC]

You think they would at least play another game and the score would be different before the chess match got mentioned again in another slashback.

It's more than the artist

[PhysicsGenius]

Different formats go through different channels (== different employees) and the proceeds are earmarked differently. When you buy the CD but download the MP3, you are effectively stealing from the Digital Music Department at Big Recording Company, even though you paid for a different product from a different group.

If you think about it, you know it's true. You are getting for free something that honest people pay for. That's stealing in my book.

As the comic book guy would say...

[MalleusEBHC]

Worst moderation ever.

Well seeing as how this got modded up for being informative, I would like to karma whore and inform my fellow slashdotters that BSD is dying, Apple is the "gay" computer, and.... oh yeah, FP FP FP BWAHAHA I RULE.

*mutters something about how Taco needs to update the FAQ and just link to the parent as an explanation of why meta-moderation is needed*

Re:Press and Vulnerabilities in *nix

[NanoGator]

So, to summarize your post: "I could use my anti-MS zealotry to find things wrong with them and their software."

Sorry, your post reinforces my point: Slashdot loves to find problems with anything that touches MS. Never mind that Linux is busy trying to make their usabability as good as Windows'.

Focus that kind of energy on Linux, and a bunch of bad stuff will appear there too.

"A new study shows that the average productive Linux user knows 63 poorly spelt commands. Of course, Windows users don't have to worry about this since the functionality is available and easy to find in the UI. The names even have vowels in them!"

"Redhat 8 is out, and KDE still is slow to redraw filewindows. Fortunately, Windows users don't have to worry about this because window updates are hardware accellerated."

"The new round of PDAs are out, and they still don't synch up well with Linux and the Office-style apps that run with it."

"Konqueror has funny ideas about how the clipboard should work, of course Windows users..."



All hypothetical, but should adequately describe my point. If you wanna play the 'I bet I can go find problems with whatever you prefer' game, you'll get singed in the process.

The Slashdot Community should consider something: MS didn't get big by making something that wasn't useful to people. Windows works. It's usable. It'll run on your machine. It's well supported. Heck, it's hard to buy a computer that doesn't come with it. Gee, there must be something there.