The amounts were being deposited into the same few bank accounts. The thing I can't figure out is, given the sheer number of transactions involved, how was this not spotted sooner?
If there was an assumption that it wasn't worth it prior to this (due to the tiny amounts involved in a genuine authentication check), I assume now they will implement a system that flags a bank account which receives authenticating deposits over a certain number.
Paraphrasing something I posted on OLPC News, I think the real loss here is Bitfrost which to me was one of the most interesting software developments to come out of the OLPC project. I remember reading somewhere that Ivan Krstic (the main architect behind it) was working on wrappers to help Bitfrost be usable on other flavours of Linux, but somehow I can't see it working on the XP XO...
I saw the film last night (in the UK) and it was one of Marvel's better efforts. For those who like the comics and haven't seen it yet, stay to the end of the credits to see an extra scene which gives a nod to the rest of the Marvel Universe.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of nerds suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Glad to know I wasn't the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms. Out of curiousity, what are the stats for Slashdot's uptime? It must be pretty damn good as this is the first outage I can remember for a long time...
Off-topic I know, but surely the obvious headline for the article seen at the top of this image was "Weepublican or Democrap" given the subject matter?
Just curious if there is another release of Slash coming anytime soon?
Also is there an up-to-date list of other sites running the code? The Slashcode sites list is sadly empty these days (which I hope doesn't mean there aren't any other sites that run Slash)
It certainly looked like the police over-reacted. Surely awkward questions and ranting are to be expected at a university talk like this? What warranted them taking this guy down?
From what I could see there was little effort on the part of the police to deal with and disarm the situation verbally. Instead, they went straight into physical confrontation mode (and then messed that up!).
What I want to know is what the hell Senator Kerry was doing while all this was happening. I expect once he realises footage is available online, there will be a press release from him. Let the arse-covering commence!
After all, web 2.0 helps me to design rich-client synergies, disintermediate semantic networking and, of course, let's not forget it can assist in syndicating standards-compliant widgets*. Try doing all that on your web 1.0, gramps!
Oh and whilst I know that mangling the English language has become an artform here on Slashdot, surely "Web 2.0 distracts good design" is bad even by our (admittedly low) standards.
Thanks to whomever posted the the link to VT newspaper, Collegiate Times earlier.
One of the things I really like about the internet is being able to find out about important stories quickly (with regular updating) and also being able to get closer to the original material.
Full credit to the (student?) reporters updating that site. They are doing an excellent job in getting the news out despite the most trying of circumstances imaginable. I am sure they have an excellent future ahead of them in the media if they so choose.
I have used Windows as my main OS for around 13 or 14 years, ever since boxing up my old Amiga (*sniff*). I am now pretty happy with XP, like I imagine most Windows customers are. I really like the look of Office 2007 and will probably end up buying it, but I don't need to upgrade to Vista to use it.
I just don't understand why they are announcing this new version so soon after the release of Vista. The reviews I have been reading about Vista already make me think twice about wanting to upgrade; now that I know they are bringing in another OS in a few years' time what is the incentive for a typical MS customer like me to upgrade? Surely it is better to wait and see what they come up with next.
For those that do want to upgrade there is already a built-in lag before doing so anyway (at least for the sensible ones), either because they need to buy new hardware or because they will not install a new OS without some of the early bugs being ironed out and a service pack being released.
If we assume that MS actually delivers this new OS on time (which is a big if) there is not that long a wait between the time after lag for people to upgrade to Vista and the time this is released. Won't this reduce uptake on Vista? After all, if we are already happy with XP, why not wait?
Apple's products are generally of a much higher quality than those of Microsoft which gives them a pass from most geeks. However, they have shown, both through their actions and the actions of Steve Jobs, that they are no better than Microsoft the company in how they behave.
Some examples off the top of my head - legal action against bloggers, iPhone trade mark, stock options, treatment of Woz.
If anything, they are able to get away with actions which would be considered unforgivable were they committed by Microsoft. The only reason they are not considered as evil is due to their size - except in the case of music downloads, they are not in a monopoly position.
Apple are a very big company (albeit smaller than Microsoft) and have been for many years. To pretend they are otherwise is naive to say the least.
Warner Music Group and Last.fm Strike Wide-Ranging Content Agreement
02/06/07
First Major Music Content Agreement for Leading Online Social Music Network
Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) and Last.fm, the social music networking site, today announced a broad partnership to offer WMG's renowned music catalog available over multiple services offered by Last.fm in the U.S. and Europe. This announcement marks Last.fm's first content agreement with a major media company and underscores WMG's commitment to offering consumers unique ways to experience its artists' music.
With more than 15 million active users per month currently, Last.fm is a service that analyzes what its users listen to and then presents them with an array of personal recommendations based upon their tastes including custom radio streams, music charts, users with similar tastes, and more.
As part of the partnership, Last.fms music fans will have access to WMG's catalog through Last.fm's free, advertising-supported radio streaming service and its soon-to-be released premium, subscription-based interactive radio. Through a phased rollout, U.S. music fans will have first access to these services with the European markets following suit in the coming weeks. Fans will be able to discover new music from the WMG catalog with Last.fms intelligent radio and music recommendations and share their radio channels with other subscribers.
In making the announcement, Alex Zubillaga, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development, WMG said, This agreement reflects WMGs dedication to fostering the growth of community-driven music discovery services. We want to enable fans to experience exciting ways to uncover new Warner Music artists, and to enjoy innovative approaches to customizing their digital music experience.
Martin Stiksel, cofounder and chief content officer of Last.fm said, We are very excited to have reached this agreement with WMG. This constitutes a major development for our social music network. Our innovative approach to music discovery and online radio now gives our users access to some of the greatest music ever recorded.
About Last.fm
Founded in 2002 in London, Last.fm is the online, social music revolution that connects people with music and artists with listeners. By joining the Last.fm community, music fans can choose to share their music preferences by linking their media player (e.g. iTunes) to the Last.fm database. This database is populated continually with over 500 million monthly track submissions from Last.fm music fans. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs, artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical tastes. Learn more about Last.fm at www.last.fm.
About Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Lava, Maverick, Nonesuch, Perfect Game, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers.
My knowledge and experience is from a different jurisdiction and I am not really familiar with "employment at will" situations so I don't even think this is worth $0.02. But to respond anyway - for non-competes to be enforcable, they must not be considered unreasonable restraints of trade. What that means is normally for a court to decide but the length of time of the restraint, geography and industry all play a part.
Having thought about this situation a little more, if this actually happened as described by the submitter, I suspect this is just a clueless manager mouthing off. Being told that you were being sued by a manager who is not from the legal department is not best practice (to put it politely) in these matters.
I also have to agree with some other commenters here in saying that the company in question should not have been named. It lends less credence to the arguments of the AC that submitted, but I would like to give whoever it was the benefit of the doubt.
And last, but not least, I had not realised having a written contract of employment is uncommon in the US (I am not from there). That seems crazy to me (and this from a card-carrying capitalist like me!).
On the facts provided, I think the only basis for your old employer being able to sue you would be if there was some form of non-compete in place. In that case, they could sue you for breach of the non-compete clause and they could potentially sue the new employer for inducing you to breach that provision.
Generally speaking, you should always try to have a written contract of employment so you know where you stand with regards your employment. Just because you didn't sign anything doesn't mean there are no terms under which you are employed - it is just that they have not been reduced to a written form.
If you were in a particularly senior position and/or handled sensitive information as part of your job, then it is likely that there would some form of non-compete in place. If you are able to, check your staff handbook (if any) and try to obtain a copy of a contract of employment from a friend at your old workplace to see if there is any mention of a non-compete clause. If there is, then it makes your position weaker unfortunately.
IAAL and I think the only people that ever win in court are the lawyers. It is in everyone's interests to avoid going to court if at all possible as it will be a waste of time, money and effort.
Perhaps you could try writing to the employer? Explain reasons for leaving, that you want to leave on good terms, wish them well etc. Say you were disappointed to hear that they are considering taking action against you and would like them to explain the basis for doing so.
Worse case scenario is that they go ahead. Best case, you find out that they were never consider taking action in the first place or they realise they are being silly and move on.
(Standard disclaimer: Whilst IAAL this should not be considered legal advice. See a local lawyer if you feel the situation warrants it).
Slashdot Mirror
The amounts were being deposited into the same few bank accounts. The thing I can't figure out is, given the sheer number of transactions involved, how was this not spotted sooner?
If there was an assumption that it wasn't worth it prior to this (due to the tiny amounts involved in a genuine authentication check), I assume now they will implement a system that flags a bank account which receives authenticating deposits over a certain number.
Paraphrasing something I posted on OLPC News, I think the real loss here is Bitfrost which to me was one of the most interesting software developments to come out of the OLPC project. I remember reading somewhere that Ivan Krstic (the main architect behind it) was working on wrappers to help Bitfrost be usable on other flavours of Linux, but somehow I can't see it working on the XP XO...
You wish to engage in corporate hypocrisy:
>cancel
>allow
I saw the film last night (in the UK) and it was one of Marvel's better efforts. For those who like the comics and haven't seen it yet, stay to the end of the credits to see an extra scene which gives a nod to the rest of the Marvel Universe.
"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of nerds suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
Glad to know I wasn't the only one suffering withdrawal symptoms. Out of curiousity, what are the stats for Slashdot's uptime? It must be pretty damn good as this is the first outage I can remember for a long time...
I am still not following. Could you please tell me how many Libraries of Congress blowing up that equals?
Off-topic I know, but surely the obvious headline for the article seen at the top of this image was "Weepublican or Democrap" given the subject matter?
Just curious if there is another release of Slash coming anytime soon?
Also is there an up-to-date list of other sites running the code? The Slashcode sites list is sadly empty these days (which I hope doesn't mean there aren't any other sites that run Slash)
From what I could see there was little effort on the part of the police to deal with and disarm the situation verbally. Instead, they went straight into physical confrontation mode (and then messed that up!).
What I want to know is what the hell Senator Kerry was doing while all this was happening. I expect once he realises footage is available online, there will be a press release from him. Let the arse-covering commence!
Luckily for me, Alex died young - I don't know if I could have held out for another 19-29 years...
...if Slashdot's Editors work this one out, none of us will "remember" to tag stories as dupes.
Take it away, McCoy:
It's worse than that, [it]'s dead, Jim.
Dead, Jim.
Dead, Jim.
It's worse than that, [it]'s dead, Jim.
Dead, Jim, Dead.
It is necessary to have a girlfriend (whatever that is) for this to be a problem, so I guess we are all safe...
After all, web 2.0 helps me to design rich-client synergies, disintermediate semantic networking and, of course, let's not forget it can assist in syndicating standards-compliant widgets*. Try doing all that on your web 1.0, gramps!
Oh and whilst I know that mangling the English language has become an artform here on Slashdot, surely "Web 2.0 distracts good design" is bad even by our (admittedly low) standards.
* Courtesy of The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator.
Thanks to whomever posted the the link to VT newspaper, Collegiate Times earlier.
One of the things I really like about the internet is being able to find out about important stories quickly (with regular updating) and also being able to get closer to the original material.
Full credit to the (student?) reporters updating that site. They are doing an excellent job in getting the news out despite the most trying of circumstances imaginable. I am sure they have an excellent future ahead of them in the media if they so choose.
Don't bother to RTFA. That was the only interesting thing in what is an incredibly lame piece of writing (presumably with a worse book to come).
So, now that I have saved you some time, clean your desk!
I just don't understand why they are announcing this new version so soon after the release of Vista. The reviews I have been reading about Vista already make me think twice about wanting to upgrade; now that I know they are bringing in another OS in a few years' time what is the incentive for a typical MS customer like me to upgrade? Surely it is better to wait and see what they come up with next.
For those that do want to upgrade there is already a built-in lag before doing so anyway (at least for the sensible ones), either because they need to buy new hardware or because they will not install a new OS without some of the early bugs being ironed out and a service pack being released.
If we assume that MS actually delivers this new OS on time (which is a big if) there is not that long a wait between the time after lag for people to upgrade to Vista and the time this is released. Won't this reduce uptake on Vista? After all, if we are already happy with XP, why not wait?
Anyone already using Vista care to comment?
Please mod parent up - and insightful, not funny!
Some examples off the top of my head - legal action against bloggers, iPhone trade mark, stock options, treatment of Woz.
If anything, they are able to get away with actions which would be considered unforgivable were they committed by Microsoft. The only reason they are not considered as evil is due to their size - except in the case of music downloads, they are not in a monopoly position.
Apple are a very big company (albeit smaller than Microsoft) and have been for many years. To pretend they are otherwise is naive to say the least.
02/06/07
First Major Music Content Agreement for Leading Online Social Music Network
Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) and Last.fm, the social music networking site, today announced a broad partnership to offer WMG's renowned music catalog available over multiple services offered by Last.fm in the U.S. and Europe. This announcement marks Last.fm's first content agreement with a major media company and underscores WMG's commitment to offering consumers unique ways to experience its artists' music.
With more than 15 million active users per month currently, Last.fm is a service that analyzes what its users listen to and then presents them with an array of personal recommendations based upon their tastes including custom radio streams, music charts, users with similar tastes, and more.
As part of the partnership, Last.fms music fans will have access to WMG's catalog through Last.fm's free, advertising-supported radio streaming service and its soon-to-be released premium, subscription-based interactive radio. Through a phased rollout, U.S. music fans will have first access to these services with the European markets following suit in the coming weeks. Fans will be able to discover new music from the WMG catalog with Last.fms intelligent radio and music recommendations and share their radio channels with other subscribers.
In making the announcement, Alex Zubillaga, Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development, WMG said, This agreement reflects WMGs dedication to fostering the growth of community-driven music discovery services. We want to enable fans to experience exciting ways to uncover new Warner Music artists, and to enjoy innovative approaches to customizing their digital music experience.
Martin Stiksel, cofounder and chief content officer of Last.fm said, We are very excited to have reached this agreement with WMG. This constitutes a major development for our social music network. Our innovative approach to music discovery and online radio now gives our users access to some of the greatest music ever recorded.
About Last.fm
Founded in 2002 in London, Last.fm is the online, social music revolution that connects people with music and artists with listeners. By joining the Last.fm community, music fans can choose to share their music preferences by linking their media player (e.g. iTunes) to the Last.fm database. This database is populated continually with over 500 million monthly track submissions from Last.fm music fans. As a result, Last.fm can intelligently recommend songs, artists, local concerts and even other members based on their musical tastes. Learn more about Last.fm at www.last.fm.
About Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Lava, Maverick, Nonesuch, Perfect Game, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers.
Source: Warner Music Group
Having thought about this situation a little more, if this actually happened as described by the submitter, I suspect this is just a clueless manager mouthing off. Being told that you were being sued by a manager who is not from the legal department is not best practice (to put it politely) in these matters.
I also have to agree with some other commenters here in saying that the company in question should not have been named. It lends less credence to the arguments of the AC that submitted, but I would like to give whoever it was the benefit of the doubt.
And last, but not least, I had not realised having a written contract of employment is uncommon in the US (I am not from there). That seems crazy to me (and this from a card-carrying capitalist like me!).
You're a lawyer, you insensitive clod!
Generally speaking, you should always try to have a written contract of employment so you know where you stand with regards your employment. Just because you didn't sign anything doesn't mean there are no terms under which you are employed - it is just that they have not been reduced to a written form.
If you were in a particularly senior position and/or handled sensitive information as part of your job, then it is likely that there would some form of non-compete in place. If you are able to, check your staff handbook (if any) and try to obtain a copy of a contract of employment from a friend at your old workplace to see if there is any mention of a non-compete clause. If there is, then it makes your position weaker unfortunately.
IAAL and I think the only people that ever win in court are the lawyers. It is in everyone's interests to avoid going to court if at all possible as it will be a waste of time, money and effort.
Perhaps you could try writing to the employer? Explain reasons for leaving, that you want to leave on good terms, wish them well etc. Say you were disappointed to hear that they are considering taking action against you and would like them to explain the basis for doing so.
Worse case scenario is that they go ahead. Best case, you find out that they were never consider taking action in the first place or they realise they are being silly and move on.
(Standard disclaimer: Whilst IAAL this should not be considered legal advice. See a local lawyer if you feel the situation warrants it).