Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Sony Blu-Ray, Phone Records, Korean Cloners
Mathew Bevan speaks out on McKinnon case. mrkuji writes "Ex military hacker Mathew Bevan AKA Kuji has released his comments and thoughts about the goings on of the McKinnon hacker extradition trial."
New Zealand revises their view of OSS. sam_vilain writes "As previously noted here on Slashdot, the New Zealand State Services Commission has some problems with open source software. The new version of their legal guidelines document for OSS in NZ government, however, is a breath of fresh air."
Korean cloners facing possible jail time. reporter writes "In a stunning conclusion to the saga of the Korean cloning scientist who fabricated his results, the Korean government wants to throw him in prison. The BBC reports, "The South Korean cloning scientist who faked his stem cell research has been charged with fraud and embezzlement. [...] Prosecutors claim he [, using grant funds,] bought a car and paid contributions to politicians and company officials who helped to arrange his grants. [...] The misuse of state funds carries a jail term of up to 10 years, while a violation of bio-ethics laws can mean up to three years in prison.'"
The fight for .xxx to continue? Robert writes "ICANN has played down the role that the conservative US government had in its decision to reject a plan to launch a porn-only internet domain, while the company backing the .xxx proposal said it was considering an appeal. From the article: 'Stuart Lawley, president of ICM, after spending at least two years and over $2m on campaigning for .xxx to be approved, told us he thought the deal was shot down for political reasons, and said he was weighing a response. [...] The reason people suspect that US concerns were key, and the reason that the media keeps harping on about it, is because ICANN's powers are granted under a contract with the US Department of Commerce. That contract ends in four months, and so far nobody seems to know what happens after it expires.'"
More details on the Diebold problem. An anonymous reader writes "SecurityFocus' Rob Lemos has published an article with many more details on the critical Diebold problems, implications for upcoming state elections next week, and quotes from key scientists who have detailed knowledge of how easily the flaws can be exploited." Relatedly eldavojohn writes "USA Today is reporting that Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell has resigned. From the article: "The board of directors and Wally mutually agreed that his decision to resign at this time for personal reasons was in the best interest of all parties," said John Lauer, Diebold's non-executive chairman of the board."
Supreme Court sides with eBay in patent suit. theodp writes "In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with eBay in a fight over the use of its 'Buy It Now' feature, which will make it easier for companies to avoid court injunctions barring the continued use of technology after a patent infringement finding, such as the one used by Amazon against Barnes & Noble in the midst of the Christmas holiday season over its soon-to-be-reexamined 1-Click patent."
AT&T denied a closed hearing. guygee writes "According to the San Francisco Chronicle, AT&T has lost its '11th hour bid' to force closed hearings on unsealing critical documents in EFF's class-action lawsuit alleging AT&T's illegal transfer of its customer's telephone and Internet records and communications to the National Security Agency. According to the report, 'An AT&T lawyer sent a letter by fax to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on Tuesday asking that the courtroom be closed during any discussion of its trade secrets or confidential information.' EFF is also reporting the breaking news on the case." Relatedly DarkAudit writes "A commissioner for the FCC wants an investigation into whether or not phone companies broke the law by handing over their records to the NSA."
Sony's Blu-Ray demo on the level. eaglebtc writes "Gearlog.com has retracted a previous accusation against Sony regarding their alleged use of a DVD+R instead of a Blu-Ray disc in a demonstration. In the original announcement, Gearlog.com claimed that Sony was using a DVD+R to demonstrate Blu-Ray technology, in an attempt to show that Sony was not ready to market the product."
Apparently, Lance was drunk during the event and thought he had some kind of big scoop when really he was too wasted to understand what was going on at the event.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
I took a look at their paper on F/OSS and I liked it. The people who wrote it really did an effort to understand the issues.
I can't help but wonder if this was mistake or an intentional attempt to boost HD-DVD sales by someone for stock reasons or something. The HD-DVD camp has been very shrill in decrying Blu-Ray the Beta of the new millennia, despite Blu-Ray's larger coalition of partners than its rival this time around and Blu-Ray's much larger storage (storage being a HUGE factor in Beta's demise). Beta did come out first, so the fit with HD-DVD is the more like Beta. HD-DVD is trying to claim a 2 month head start is insurmountable for Sony and Blu-Ray, but Beta had a least a year's head start on VHS.
I haven't seen any HD-DVD recorders yet. Do the HD-DVD notebooks have recorders or just players? Sony VIAO will come out with a read/write Blu-Ray in June I believe. If Blu-Ray is first with recorders that is the real race and death knell for HD-DVD.
Given the FUD form the HD-DVD camp I think they know that come June it is essentially all over for them. They will unload a few more players at or below cost. Brag about being first to market. then give up shortly after Christmas.
Letter To Iran
You might wanna check this out. http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2006/17050 6_b_Memorandum.htm
It turns out, the President gave a memorandum telling the National Intelligence Director he could authorize companies to lie about dealings having to do with national security without being subject to penalties almost a week before the NSA shit really started hitting the fan.
The fact still remains that Sony's "comparison" laptop was playing a DVD+R for comparison, not the production DVD. From the pictures, it appears to be a single layer DVD, which indicates that comparison DVD was, in fact, a compressed DVD. This should raise some eyebrows, as one can tell the difference between a DVD compressed to a single layer and one which fits on a douoble layer DVD. The fact that Sony resorted to degrading the quality of the control DVD indicates that the quality difference between DVD and Blu-Ray isn't as great as they would like us to believe.
First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
So were these the same machines used to re-elect George Bush in 2004? Which states used Diebold devices then? I seem to remember some counties in Ohio did.
Much of Ohio used Diebold machines in that election. And initial reports from one precinct in my hometown in suburban Columbus had more votes for Bush than total votes cast. The 2004 election in Ohio was shockingly corrupt. If people around the country knew about everything that went on, it would be regarded as a comparable disaster to 2000 Florida. Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, whose job it is to run a fair election, is a Diebold shareholder, headlined an enormous partisan ad campaign, and advised the Republican-controlled legislature on what ballot issues would generate the heaviest Republican turnout. Blackwell is now the Republican candidate for governor. Yay.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
AT&T has lost its '11th hour bid' to force closed hearings on unsealing critical documents
First, why the hell didn't the EFF go public with their evidence first? Depending on the outcome of the case, we might never know whether they stumbled onto something "real", or just something trivial that the NSA could hypothetically abuse under a combination of unlikely circumstances.
But aside from that...
How exactly does the evidence remain under seal in an open court? Do all parties involved use vague allusions and a lot of wink-wink-nudge-nudge to refer to the evidence without revealing anything about it to the public? Do spectators swear not to reveal anything they see or hear (yeah, that would work - until about 30 seconds after the end of the first session)? Do the MiB use their magic flashing memory eraser any time someone mentions a detail under seal?
So goddamned sick of all the secrets and lies. Who wants to join me in pushing for a constitutional amendment banning the use of secrecy or any form of "classified" designation (perhaps with a nonrenewable two-week-maximum exception for situations where revealing such information would directly threaten American lives)? Time to let these arrogant twats know who they work for!