p2pnet World Headlines: Nov 28, 2009
Anonymous Gossip Sites Time
Horny guys, lowbrow debates and run-of-the-mill spam all seem to be in abundant supply on CollegeACB.com (the acronym stands for Anonymous Confession Board). But what sets this site–and others like it–apart from the coarse commentary found on YouTube or, for that matter, a political blog are the personal attacks against private citizens, often with last names included, that leave victims with little recourse aside from demanding that the anonymous comments be taken down. (See a video of the CollegeACB founder.) What used to be whispered on campuses is now broadcast, in the most cowardly way, for anyone with an Internet connection to see. Beverly Low, dean of first-year students at Colgate University, describes the phenomenon as an “electronic bathroom wall.” The posts–which are often suffused with racism, sexism and homophobia–can be so vicious and juvenile that Ben Lieber, dean of students at Amherst College, likens them to “the worst of junior high.” And yet even the most élite universities are struggling with the problem of anonymous gossip sites. Some sites are homegrown and deal only with one school. Others are sprawling entities, catering to hundreds of schools and offering features like search capability and, at one enterprising site, the option to vote on how truthful an anonymous post is.
‘Alienated’ gamer sues WoW for ruining life The Register
An obsessive World of Warcraft player is suing the makers of the game for ruining his life, quoth a gleeful Grauniad this week. Erik Estavillo is seeking $1m (£600,000) in damages, claiming the orc-tastic roleplaying game has turned him into a blank-eyed basketcase who can no longer function in the real world (as the lawsuit itself appears to prove). Having apparently become addicted to rampaging around some made-up mountains clobbering other collections of pixels with big clobbering weapons, Estavillo is calling pusher on the WoW developers, whom he accuses of “sneaky and deceitful practices”.
Winston Churchill’s first television screen test Telegraph
Rarely seen footage of Sir Winston Churchill, in his first screen test for television, has been unearthed to mark the 75th anniversary of party political broadcasts. In the black and white film recorded in 1949 Sir Winston, then aged 74, is heard complaining that the test will “enable me to see what are the conditions under which this thing they call TV is going to make its way in the world”. The then Leader of the Opposition was no fan of the medium and d instead confined most of his broadcasts to the radio. The video, released by the British film Institute, also showed Baroness Thatcher, newly elected as Tory leader, making a pitch for the housewives’ vote. “You know men have not made such a success of it all the time. So to yesterday’s men, tomorrow’s women say hello.”
Buying, Selling and Twittering All the Way New York Times
America’s first Twitter Christmas got under way in earnest on Friday. Across the land, retailers and their customers used the social networking site to talk to one another about bargains, problems, purchases and shopping strategies. After buying a new navigation system at 6 a.m. on the most frenzied shopping day of the year, Laura S. Kern of Los Angeles could not figure out why it was not giving her traffic updates. She sent a message to Best Buy’s Twitter account and within five minutes not one, but two Best Buy employees responded with fix-it advice. In Bloomington, Minn., Mall of America used its Twitter page to tell consumers two of its parking areas were at capacity and that their best bet was to park near Ikea.
OpenShot Linux video editor updated Heise Online
The OpenShot developers have released version 0.9.54 of their open source video editor for Linux. In addition to the usual bug fixes and updates, the latest release also includes several improvements and new features. As is perhaps indicated by the version number, the developers are still working towards a final 1.0 release and consider this a ‘development’ release.
Xbox 360 iPlayer launch delayed indefinitely Telegraph
Xbox 360 owners will have to keep waiting for the iPlayer to launch on the platform as talks between parent companies, Microsoft and the BBC, hit a “stumbling block”. According to sources close to the BBC’s Future Media and Technology department, a deal between the two parties has still been unable to be reached because Microsoft’s strategy of charging for all content on its Xbox Live platform is incompatible with the BBC’s public service remit.
“Microsoft only wants to offer its users access to platforms it can charge for as this is the model it is pursuing. It wants to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts can access its additional content services and even then there is usually a charge on top to get access to those. For example, to access the Sky Player on Xbox, you have to pay for a Gold subscription as well as a Sky subscription,” explained one of the sources close to the BBC.
Pub ‘fined £8k’ for Wi-Fi copyright infringement ZDNet UK
A pub owner has been fined £8,000 because someone unlawfully downloaded copyrighted material over their open Wi-Fi hotspot, according to the managing director of hotspot provider The Cloud. Graham Cove told ZDNet UK on Friday he believes the case to be the first of its kind in the UK. However, he would not identify the pub concerned, because its owner â a pubco that is a client of The Cloud’s â had not yet given their permission for the case to be publicised. Cove would say only that the fine had been levied in a civil case, brought about by a rights holder, “sometime this summer”. The Cloud’s pubco clients include Fullers, Greene King, Marsdens, Scottish & Newcastle, Mitchell & Butlers and Punch Taverns.
Permanent’ Arctic ice vanishing Toronto Star
One of Canada’s top northern researchers says the permanent Arctic sea ice that is home to the world’s polar bears and usually survives the summer has all but disappeared. Experts around the world believed the ice was recovering because satellite images showed it expanding. But David Barber says the thick, multi-year frozen sheets crucial to the northern ecosystem have been replaced by thin “rotten” ice that can’t support weight of the bears. “It caught us all by surprise because we were expecting there to be multi-year sea ice. The whole world thought it was multi-year sea ice,” said Barber, who just returned from an expedition to the Beaufort Sea. “Unfortunately, what we found was that the multi-year (ice) has all but disappeared. What’s left is this remnant, rotten ice.”
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November, 2009
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