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Living Room / Re: Damn Hackers!
« Last post by IainB on August 08, 2013, 09:53 PM »Useful notes by BearWare
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DMCA Abuse Will Cause Censored Product Review to Go Viral
Andy July 31, 2013
A manufacturer of studio lighting is about to discover that censoring critics is a very bad idea indeed. After a filmmaker published a less-than-glowing review of one of their products, UK-based Rotolight deliberately abused the DMCA to have the video removed from Vimeo on copyright grounds. But far from hiding the contents away, there are now signs that the review – and subsequent takedown – will become a prime example of the Streisand Effect. ...
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University of California to allow open access to new academic papers
On November 1, faculty will be automatically enrolled in the UC's open access policy.
by Megan Geuss - Aug 3, 2013 8:45 pm UTC
The University of California—an enormous institution that encompasses 10 campuses and over 8,000 faculty members—introduced an Open Access Policy late last week. This policy grants the UC a license to its faculty's work by default, and requires them to provide the UC with copy of their peer-reviewed papers on the paper's publication date. The UC then posts the paper online to eScholarship, its open access publishing site, where the paper will be available to anyone, free of charge.
Making the open access license automatic for its faculty leverages the power of the institution—which publishes over 40,000 scholarly papers a year—against the power of publishers who would otherwise lock content behind a paywall. “It is much harder for individuals to negotiate these rights on an individual basis than to assert them collectively,” writes the UC. “By making a blanket policy, individual faculty benefit from membership in the policy-making group, without suffering negative consequences. Faculty retain both the individual right to determine the fate of their work, and the benefit of making a collective commitment to open access.”
Faculty members will be allowed to opt out of the scheme if necessary—if they have a prior contract with a journal, for example. Academic papers published in traditional journals before the enactment of this policy will not be made available on eScholarship at this time.
“As faculty members, we are asserting our control over the publication of scholarly research and recognize the responsibility for making that process sustainable and true to the intentions of scholars,” explained the UC on a FAQ page. “The faculty are also sending a strong collective message to publishers about the values and the system we would like in the future.”
The move comes at a time when the US federal government is heavily promoting open access. In February 2013, the White House announced that all science papers produced through federal funding would be made available to the public one year after their publication, and the Obama Administration is working to extend that policy to cover the information published by all federal agencies. Many other institutions have adopted open access policies, including 177 other universities and the World Bank.
As Chris Kelty, associate professor at the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, explained in a series of videos on the UC's eScholarship site: ”Everybody benefits from this really, the faculty benefit from this because their work's more widely available, it might come in for higher citations. The University benefits because the profile of the University is higher and it might send a message to Sacramento about our commitment to research. And the public benefits—whether you're a K-12 teacher, or someone in an emergency room looking for an article, or someone in business trying to get a patent, everyone in the public benefits from wider availability of our research.” In addition, Kelty explained, publishers “are quite reconciled to this” after seeing 177 other universities take a similar path.
Two weevils crept from the crumbs. “You see those weevils, Stephen?” said Jack solemnly.
“I do.”
“Which would you choose?”
“There is not a scrap of difference. Arcades ambo. They are the same species of curculio, and there is nothing to choose between them.”
“But suppose you had to choose?”
“Then I should choose the right-hand weevil; it has a perceptible advantage in both length and breadth.”
“There I have you,” cried Jack. “You are bit — you are completely dished. Don’t you know that in the Navy you must always choose the lesser of two weevils? Oh ha, ha, ha, ha!”
- from The Fortune of War, by Jack Aubrey.
Want To Learn Microsoft Office? These Top-Class Training Manuals Are Free.
Updated 1. August 2013 - 22:45 by rob.schifreen
Best STL is a London-based company that specialises in offering training courses for users of Microsoft Office. The company recently got in touch with me to say that, as well as offering commercial courses, they also make all their training manuals available for free download from their website.
There are course materials online for Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 at the moment, all downloadable as PDF files with no registration required. The 2010 documents on offer are shown below.
To browse the library, or download any of the files, just point your browser at http://www.microsoft...training-manuals.php
...
Just too good not to share. Also totally bad taste!
(see attachment in previous post)-Renegade (August 03, 2013, 08:29 AM)
Published on 6 Jun 2013
Excerpt from President Obama's speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in August 2007.
This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.
That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.
This Administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not.
Source clip: - here.
...When it occurred to me that "performance" is a really nice euphemism for "crime spree".Some people might say that (not me, you understand), but I couldn't possibly comment.
-Renegade (August 02, 2013, 05:01 AM)
... Perhaps you'll believe it if it's posted on the TSA.gov website.....Heh. Don't worry, I felt fairly sure it was true, and that it would have been confirmed if I had bothered to look on their website. It was "tongue-in-cheek" when I wrote:
http://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck-Tinman57 (August 01, 2013, 03:23 PM)
I would suggest that it is probably quite untrue that the TSA are enabling ...Maybe I should have put a smiley there, sorry.
...Dunno. I think it's just another example of how "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."Yes, I was skeptical about that too.-40hz (August 01, 2013, 12:46 PM)
Use Group Policy Editor to Run Scripts When Shutting Down Your PC
Windows: To automate some routine tasks that nobody likes doing during the day, you can use Group Policy Editor to make your PC run a script when you shut it down or log off a user account.
To set up a script to run as soon as you shut down your PC, follow these instructions:
Open GPE by entering "gpedit.msc" (no quotes) into the Run dialog (Win+R).
In the left panel, select "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration."
Double-click "Scripts (Startup/Shutdown)" in the right panel.
Double-click "Shutdown"
Click "Add..."
Navigate to the folder containing the script you want to run.
Click "OK."
You can also use this method to run scripts when logging out of a user profile. This is handy for performing regular maintenance tasks or cleaning up your workspace when you're done, or simply running apps that you don't want running while you're using your machine. Unfortunately, the Group Policy Editor is only available on Professional or Ultimate versions of Windows.
Nifty Way to Automatically Run a Windows Script or Program Whenever You Turn Off the PC | Gizmo's Freeware
...the doctors attributed the dramatic improvement to "turning patient into a prone position", and not to the IV vitamin C.- as laughable. (I was gobsmacked by this when I heard it, watching the documentary in 2010.)
...Interviewed in part two was the Principle Advisor to the Health Ministry and Senior Intensive Care Specialist, David Galler who denied that the intravenous Vitamin C was a contributing factor in the Allan Smith's recovery. He proclaimed that the recovery could have been just as likely from a "bus driving by" as the high dose Vitamin C . When asked what he would need as proof to that Vitamin C is effective, he replied he would need a randomized controlled trial, such as those for new drug approval funded by a pharmaceutical company.
Three Randomized Placebo Controlled Studies
Apparently Dr Galler is unaware of three double blind placebo controlled studies of IV Vitamin C in critically ill patients in the ICU. These studies were published in Dr. Galler's own peer reviewed specialty medical literature. (1-5)
These three studies showed reduced mortality and reduced time on ventilators for septic and critically ill patients in the ICU setting. In addition, numerous other studies have measured blood vitamin C levels in critically ill patients in the hospital showing Vitamin C is typically depleted with levels below 25 % of healthy individuals.( Nathens et al)
(6-11) As Dr Levy points out in Part Four of the Series (see below), there are thousands of studies over 70 years in the medical literature showing effectiveness, and safety of Vitamin C for viral illness. Dr Levy's book cites 1200 such articles supporting the use of Vitamin C.
Denying the Blatantly Obvious
Dr Galler appeared on New Zealand television claiming to be an authority and medical expert in the care of the ICU critically ill patient. To then make statements amounting to a public admission of ignorance of his own specialty literature is a profound embarrassment to him and to the Ministry of Health that appointed him Advisor. For Allan Smith's ICU doctors to witness a patient's dramatic recovery from sure death, and then deny the effectiveness of the treatment is astounding display of denying the obvious, and an embarrassment to the medical system in New Zealand. This is tantamount to holding up a hand in front of a person's face who then steadfastly denies a hand is in front of his face. It can also be compared to the ridiculous scenario of "denying" that parachutes are lifesaving, and insisting on "proof" by requiring a placebo controlled study. Two men jump out of a plane, one with a parachute and one without a parachute, to "prove" parachutes are effective.
