Recent Posts
Look at the trading license on a US DVD or BluRay and it more than likely says it cannot be sold, lent or hired outside North America but Amazon happily break that rule - presumably because there is no mechanism for manufacturers to track those products!!-Carol Haynes (October 22, 2012, 01:24 PM)
And from other sites I've seen, it seems that the prevailing wisdom is that its because of copyright. She lives in Norway. And bought from Amazon.co.uk, which is against their rules. But there is no Amazon for Norway. And they originally let her purchase. (ref Forbes)-wraith808 (October 22, 2012, 09:33 AM)
The issue here, it seems, is that Linn bought content from Amazon.co.uk while she resides in Norway. This, according to Amazon, is in breach of the rules.
And this is why I got an Android to read on...-Renegade (October 22, 2012, 08:48 AM)
I have an iPad, but I'm not so sure that it's the device more than it's the software and DRM.-wraith808 (October 22, 2012, 09:02 AM)
A former fifth-grade teacher implicated in a cheating scandal reportedly gave students the illegal assistance because she thought they were “dumb as hell.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, math teacher Shayla Smith was accused of offering students the answers to a test they were taking at the time. She had reportedly been responsible for supervising them while the tests were being completed.
Schajuan Jones, who taught a fourth-grade class across the hall from Smith’s former room, overheard her talking to another teacher about the test.
“The words were, ‘I had to give your kids, or your students, the answers because they’re dumb as hell,’” Jones was quoted as saying about the interaction between Smith and the unidentified third teacher.
A new internet age? Web users turn on 'trolls'
Two recent online 'outings' suggest that attitudes towards online anonymity may have shifted
When mourners arrived at the peace park in Maple Ridge, Vancouver, to pay tribute to Amanda Todd this week, few could have realised quite how widely the effects of the 15-year-old's death were being felt.
News of her suicide, apparently as a result of years of cyberbullying, provoked the internet vigilante group Anonymous to reveal the personal details of the man it says tormented her under an online pseudonym.
It came in the same week that an American journalist outed the real-life identity of one of the "biggest trolls on the web" as Michael Brutsch, a man accused of posting sexualised images of underage girls and graphic images of domestic violence on Reddit, the hugely popular open-source website now considered so influential it recently hosted a question and answer session with Barack Obama.
Does this represent a turning point in the history of the web, when the cloak of anonymity was torn away from internet trolls?
"This has been a wake-up call to the people who participate in these online communities to really think through what their responsibilities are," said Zeynep Tufekci, of the centre for information technology policy at Princeton University. The events surrounding the exposure of Brutsch's identity, as well as that of Todd's alleged tormentor, represent a sea change, according to Tufekci. "People are realising they cannot afford to have this 'live and let live' ethos to what is posted on their site. I feel like this is a social movement on a par with the Arab spring."
Slashdot has a story about a (partially) 3d printed plane and it mostly went through, but the slashdot thread went all "over priced, meh". When you can't file the lawsuit, slam it in social media!
http://news.virginia...fly-printed-airplane-TaoPhoenix (October 21, 2012, 08:32 PM)
In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All-app103 (October 21, 2012, 08:34 AM)
(An exceedingly rare event today!) Free Software Foundation Certifies 3D Printer -- And Why That Matters
from the I'm-sorry,-Dave,-I'm-afraid-I-can't-do-that dept
Last week Mike wrote about a new patent from Intellectual Ventures that seeks to assert ownership of the idea of DRM for 3D printing. The article in Technology Review that Techdirt linked to explains how things would work:
"You load a file into your printer, then your printer checks to make sure it has the rights to make the object, to make it out of what material, how many times, and so on," says Michael Weinberg, a staff lawyer at the nonprofit Public Knowledge, who reviewed the patent at the request of Technology Review. "It’s a very broad patent."
That's a pretty obvious approach, which any halfway competent engineer would come up with, so it's hard to see how it was ever granted a patent. But leaving aside this familiar problem with the patent system, there's an important issue skated over in the above explanation. It assumes that the printer has the power to disobey you -- that is, to refuse to print out an object that you want, because of the DRM in the file describing it, or because it doesn't have DRM at all. This parallels the situation for computers, where DRM is based on the assumption that your computer is not fully under your control, and has the ability to ignore your commands. That's one of the reasons why free software is so important: it is predicated on the idea that the user is always in control.
Against the background of the new 3D-printing patent, this announcement from the Free Software Foundation (FSF) that it has recently certified a 3D printer made by Aleph Objects as "respecting the user's freedom", takes on a particular significance:
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded its first Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the LulzBot AO-100 3D Printer sold by Aleph Objects, Inc. The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF's standards in regard to users' freedom, control over the product, and privacy.
Here are the FSF's criteria for making the award:
The desire to own a computer or device and have full control over it, to know that you are not being spied on or tracked, to run any software you wish without asking permission, and to share with friends without worrying about Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) -- these are the desires of millions of people who care about the future of technology and our society. Unfortunately, hardware manufacturers have until now relied on close cooperation with proprietary software companies that demanded control over their users. As citizens and their customers, we need to promote our desires for a new class of hardware -- hardware that anyone can support because it respects your freedom.
That is, in making the award, the FSF has established that the LulzBot remains fully under the user's control.
Until now, that hasn't been an issue -- there's no practical way to stop someone from simply downloading a file and then printing it out on a compatible 3D printer. But the patent from Intellectual Ventures is the first step towards a time when users of 3D printers will be confronted with issues of control in exactly the same way that computer users are today.
Old Regulations Strike Again: Minnesota Says It's Against The Law To Offer Open Courseware Class Without Approval
from the oh-come-on dept
Every day, it seems, we hear of yet another story of silly out-of-date regulations, which may have had a reasonable purpose initially, getting in the way of perfectly legitimate innovation. For example, there's been a massive growth in "open courseware" or open education programs, that put various educational classes online for everyone to benefit. They're not designed to replace the degrees of college, but rather to just help people learn. One of the biggest ones, Coursera, recently told people in Minnesota that they could no longer take Coursera classes, due to ridiculously outdated Minnesota regulations:
Notice for Minnesota Users:Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so. If you are a resident of Minnesota, you agree that either (1) you will not take courses on Coursera, or (2) for each class that you take, the majority of work you do for the class will be done from outside the State of Minnesota.
Ghost in the machine (something like that)-rgdot (October 20, 2012, 10:07 PM)
If a customer feels they are being wrongly accused, they can ask for a review, which will cost them $35 according to the Verge.
Thank you for your letter.
Please note that the use of my mailbox is subject to usage fees. Your unsolicited and unauthorized use carries with it a small additional surcharge in addition to some minor penalties.
You may remit the amount you owe, USD $150,000.00 (i.e. the cash equivalent to about 1 song), to <bank account details>, on or before the due date, i.e. today. Late fees and interest charges apply.
Also find enclosed, a payment for $35 for a case review. Your acceptance of payment is considered full acceptance of the terms of this communication.
Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation.
Just how insane does this all get?-Renegade (October 19, 2012, 09:33 PM)
I fear we have only seen the tip of the iceburg. When our own government refuses to follow the Constitution of the U.S., we have become a police state. Sad how the gov't and rich can get away with it, but yet any average Joe goes against the Constitution and he/she goes directly to jail.-Tinman57 (October 20, 2012, 08:07 PM)
@CannibalCat696 Why not leverage their XNA codebase with MonoGame.Today we announced Raspberry Pi support, to go with iOS,Android,Windows8!
What is MonoGame?
MonoGame is an Open Source implementation of the Microsoft XNA 4 Framework. Our goal is to allow XNA developers on Xbox 360, Windows & Windows Phone to port their games to the iOS, Android, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows 8 Metro. PlayStation Mobile development is currently in progress.
My question is: Why is a court deciding this? Shouldn't something like this be left up to science, rather than law?Well, no, not necessarily.-Deozaan (October 20, 2012, 03:22 AM)
It is possible that the bias is so heavy on either side of the argument, and the stakes so $high, that the associated so-called "scienctific research" cannot be trusted - e.g., you might never know for sure whether the researchers had been bought off or paid to arrive at a "proof" to a preferred hypothesis.
Under such circumstances, it might seem better to let the issues be properly adjudged in a court of law, and what better standard bearer for objectivity than Italy's Supreme Court in Rome? Italy being known worldwide for things such as, for example, it's impeccable laws, incorruptible judges, negligible corruption in society, low crime rate, and scientific and judicial due process?
For example, it was via an Italianate court that, in July 1633, the final interrogation of Galileo Galilei at the hands of the Inquisition ended with a banishment sentence and him being forced to recant his heretical theory that the Earth moved around the Sun...Oh, but wait...-IainB (October 20, 2012, 04:25 AM)
I left out an important word there
what I meant to say was that if you were going to post a controversial video, I think the thread deserves an appropriate (i.e. related) title.-tomos (October 20, 2012, 04:29 AM)
Well, we've heard a few people talk about boycotting the mainstream media sources and all that, so it's probably about time for a thread dedicated to FREE VIDEOS and free sources of videos~!-Renegade (October 19, 2012, 08:42 AM)
I dont really understand - isn't every video on youtube and or vimeo etc 'free' - that is, until it's taken down, or blocked (see below).-tomos (October 19, 2012, 09:08 AM)
I unfortunately cant make any comment on the video cause I cant see the beggar (again below), but if f you're going to post a controversial video, I think it deserves an appropriate title-tomos (October 19, 2012, 09:08 AM)
It's quite good. Wasn't there a guy in Texas who claimed to have a cancer cure, and who the FDA tried to supress for years - there was a thread with a bit of discussion about him somewhere (found it).
(see attachment in previous post)
( here we have the future already)
-tomos (October 19, 2012, 09:08 AM)
Innocente Marcolini, 60, an Italian businessman, fell ill after using a handset at work for up to six hours every day for 12 years.
Now Italy's Supreme Court in Rome has blamed his phone saying there is a "causal link" between his illness and phone use, the Sun has reported.
So to put it briefly, my experience has probably been similar to yours -- unsatisfactory reading experience in an absolute sense. However, not having to be in front of a pc to read pcs has made it still worthwhile.-ewemoa (October 19, 2012, 10:41 PM)
