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?
From Gearlogs "retraction" The fact is, Mr. Ulanoff, you thought you had a scoop and ran off to stick it in your blog. You did seem to think this was a "momentous discovery", at least that's what your actions suggest.
Be a man, admit you screwed up and move on.
Trolling is a art,
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.
Errr, I thought, the guy's resigned a second time?
No, indeed, it is not news. The 2005 date of the article is even embedded in the link. Halooooo Slashdot!!!
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
The companies waited 5 days before even starting to try to tell us the story was false.
With carefully worded statements that avoid coming out and saying what the AT&T case already shows, that the NSA has built snooping into the phone system. Verizon came out and said that "the NSA program" is highly classified and so it can't comment on it. BUT we are not giving them phone records. OK, what ARE you giving them?
I'd give about as much creedence to these denials as Enron saying they aren't manipulating the energy market in California.
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.
Fast forward to last year, my girlfriend at the time was a self-employed contract graphic artist, bought music all the time, and criticised me on my stance. Her friends told her to use P2P software but she said that her computer was too important to put anything on there that might upset her work. Overall her and I sort of had this ongoing argument about it. Anyway one day I get a SMS from her, a big "Help Me". I got round to her house and her computer wouldn't boot into Windows. She's in a big panic, big job due the next day, it takes days to install all the software she needs to do her work, she's lost a bunch of work and her PC is stuffed.
In the end it was a big disaster, the job was screwed up and she lost a customer. A few weeks later I realised what the problem was, she was running Windows XP x64 and had put in a new Sony CD that had rootkitted her machine and overwrote some 64 bit drivers with some 32 bit drivers. PWN3D!!!! Explaining to her what happened was like the best argument win ever!! of course then we split, but it was worth it.
Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
I think that a significantly more secure machine could have been made using an XBox!
Plus, a decent selection of games would make voting more popular.
Really, those Diebold games consoles are awful. You only get to press one button, and even when you win you lose (because a politician gets elected).
Blank until
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.