M&M’s World Headlines: Mar 2, 2009
Kindlenomics: Keep publishers and authors happy (cave once in a while) ZDNet
Amazon has backtracked a bit on the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech feature, which riled up the Author’s Guild. Amazon’s most recent move (statement, Techmeme) is designed to appease the Author’s Guild. In a statement, Amazon says: … Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title. We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice.
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Appeals Court Allows ‘Classified, But Leaked’ Evidence To Be Used In Warrantless Wiretap Case Tech Dirt
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We’ve covered the ridiculous hoops the gov’t made people go through to prove that a document that the gov’t itself leaked could be used in a trial to prove that the gov’t was wiretapping people without warrants. Despite all the hurdles, a court ruled that the document could, in fact, be used. Some had hoped that, after the Obama administration took over, it would stop trying to kill this particular case, but that didn’t happen. In fact, the Obama administration made the same claims as before, and continued to appeal the ruling. However, an appeals court has shot the administration down and allowed the document to be used. The government, of course, will likely appeal.
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Revealed: The secrets of belly button fluff UK Telegraph
After three years of research, Georg Steinhauser, a chemist, has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel. Dr Steinhauser made his discovery after studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button. “The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks,” he said. “Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel.” [Comment: Now we know!]
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The Goldilocks Argument For Regulating Online Content In Canada Tech Dirt
The attempts by some Canadian TV writers and actors to get Canadian regulators to regulate internet content is seen by many as pretty ridiculous. The arguments make almost no sense, and seem to center on the idea that there’s so much content online, that no one can find Canadian content unless (a) ISPs pay extra to fund it and (b) certain sites are forced to promote Canadian content. What’s never explained is what’s wrong with option (c): make good content that people want to see. That option would solve all the other issues.
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Australia warns ‘big gorilla’ Telstra to back off AFP
Australia’s finance minister on Sunday told the country’s biggest telecoms firm Telstra to stop acting like a “big gorilla” and adopt a less aggressive stance towards the government. He warned though that the company’s aggressive stance was unsustainable in the long term and Telstra, which was once a publicly-owned monopoly, had to rethink its approach in the modern competitive environment. “The world is different now,” Tanner told ABC television. Telstra has “had the view that it’s the big gorilla that can throw its weight around and it can outlast any government strategy and squash its competition,” he said. “That may be true enough in the short term in the narrow interests of shareholders but we are committed to making sure there is genuine competition in telecommunications, particularly in broadband.”
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Big Retailers Pushing Legislation To Harm Online Retailers Tech Dirt
Why should you compete with new technological innovations when you can just get elected officials to pass laws that greatly limit what those innovations can do? That seems to be the position of the National Retail Federation, the trade group that represents a bunch of the big offline retailers. We wrote about their attempt to do this last year, where they went so far as to claim (and then stand behind) that eBay was driving people to shoplift. Supposedly, selling stuff on eBay was just so addictive that once people ran out of their own stuff to sell on eBay, they would all rush to the nearest big box store to shoplift. That, of course, is totally bogus and not at all backed up by the facts. But who needs facts when you have politicians willing to do your bidding? The NRF’s statement was so hilarious, we can’t resist republishing it: [Comment: "But who needs facts when you have politicians willing to do your bidding?" This seems to be the theme in Canada as well]
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Wonder What the Filter Might Look Like? Electronic Frontiers Australia
What would an Australian censorship regime might look like? The EFA has taken the initiative to explore the issue itself, in a light hearted fashion, and developed at the same time a way you can let your friends know what may be in store for all Australians. Have a look at http://nanourl.net/f5b21 to see what EFA’s website may look like at the completion of “successful” trials… [Comment: Excellent. Show your friends. Also check out http://www.siteblocker.org/]
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Giant seabird’s fossilized skull found in Peru CTV
The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, toothed sea bird that died millions of years ago was found on Peru’s arid southern coast, researchers said Friday.
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Caching bugs exposed in second biggest DNS server The Register
For years, cryptographer Daniel J. Bernstein has touted his djbdns as so secure he promised a $1,000 bounty to anyone who can poke holes in the domain name resolution software. Now it could be time to pay up, as researchers said they’ve uncovered several vulnerabilities in the package that could lead end users to fraudulent addresses under the control of attackers. djbdns is believed to be the second most popular DNS program, behind Bind. The bugs show that even the most secure DNS packages are susceptible to attacks that could visit chaos on those who use them.
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PowerBook explodes in London office The Inquirer
Flames leap “six feet high”.
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Uproar Over Netflix’s New Instant Viewer Slashdot
“Many Netflix customers are up in arms over the new instant-watch player powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. The official Netflix blog is full of complaints from users who decry not only the new player’s quality but also the way it’s being distributed, with many claiming they were deceived into downloading it. Once you opt for the new player, the old Windows Media based player won’t function, not on any computer associated with the account.
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UK rules out charges against accused Pentagon hacker News.com
* Accused hacker fighting extradition to US * British authorities will not try him at home * Prosecutors say he should be turned over. BRITISH authorities have said they will not bring charges against a computer expert accused of the “biggest military hack of all time”, dealing a blow to his bid to avoid extradition.
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Apple’s iPhone Flops in Japan, Now Sold for Free Fox
Apple’s iPhone is a hit everywhere in the world — except for Japan. It turns out that Apple’s video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market. In fact, the iPhone is such a flop in the Land of the Rising Sun that it’s being given away free with a 2-year contract, Wired News reports. Adding insult to injury is the fact that carrier charges are a lot cheaper in Japan than they are in the U.S., and Apple hasn’t learned to compete.
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Microsoft Apologizes for Xbox Live Lesbian Ban Wired
The Xbox Live banning of a lesbian gamer who self-identified her sexuality created a huge furor on Thursday, prompting Microsoft to characterize its own banning policies as “inelegant.”
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Victims of Warner Censorship: Literal Videos EFF
We’ve brought you several posts explaining Warner’s unfortunate crusade to censor its music from YouTube videos, even when those activities would clearly qualify as fair use. Here’s a concrete example: a YouTube creator that goes by the moniker Dust Films has pioneered a new parody video genre, the “literal video.” The idea is to change the lyrics to famous music videos to describe what is actually going on in the video itself. The results are hilarious. Two examples, both of which were removed on YouTube… [Comment check it out]
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Media Need Not Reveal Web Posters’ Identities Washington Post
Operators of newspaper Web sites, blogs and chat rooms that allow readers to post anonymous comments using pseudonyms do not have to readily reveal the posters’ identities in defamation suits, Maryland’s highest court ruled yesterday, further shaping an emerging area of First Amendment law in the Internet age.
March, 2009
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March 2nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm
LOL @ Aussie Filter
Still loading…………..
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
The Aussie filter story is a good one.