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Quotable Quotes™ |
"ohhh ... the inside of my nostrils feel so heavy!!" --kerri, on morphine at the hospital |
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Another win for the PC freaks |
Posted by just_dave on Monday, December 15 @ 08:51:35 UTC (14963 reads) |
Wolfguard writes: NEW YORK (AP) -- The manufacturer of a video game that has been harshly criticized for its portrayal of Haitians has agreed to remove dialogue that encouraged players to "kill all Haitians."
Take-Two Interactive Software said Tuesday that it would remove the statements from new copies of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," a game in which an ex-convict is hired to recover stolen drug money in the streets of Miami.
"We are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community and have listened to the community's objections to certain statements made in the game," the company said in a statement. "Accordingly, we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies."
Haitian Americans and elected officials, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have denounced the game, which the Haitian government called "an incitement to genocide." Protests were held outside City Hall late last month.
The game is published by Rockstar Games, a division of Take-Two Interactive Software.
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RIAA Pledges Not To Target Casual File Sharers |
Posted by just_dave on Wednesday, August 20 @ 00:00:00 UTC (6463 reads) |
The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) this week said it will not target small-scale copyright infringers, only the big boys.
The statement follows questions put to the music industry group by Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Associated Press reports.
As chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations, Coleman plans to investigate the RIAA's campaign to bring individual alleged copyright infringers to court.
Coleman has said the RIAA's plan is "excessive" - in his opinion, the crime doesn't justify the scale of the action. The RIAA is targeting individuals and demanding they cough up compensation for their alleged infringing behaviour. The money demanded could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, based on the US copyright law damages limit of $750 to $150,000 per track.
....more inside
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Two Arrested Trying To Save Beached Whale In Oregon! |
Posted by just_dave on Monday, August 11 @ 10:04:10 UTC (7225 reads) |
SEASIDE, Oregon (CNN) -- Two people were arrested after a whale washed ashore of a northern Oregon coastal community and bystanders on the beach rushed into the water in a failed attempt to save it.
Up to 60 people, most of whom were attending a volleyball tournament, rushed into the ocean when the whale beached Sunday evening in Seaside and began trying to get the creature back into the water, according to Jason Hussa of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
The whale was thrashing around, Hussa said, but the rescuers were unable to get it off the beach and back into deeper water.
Hussa said that the bystanders "had the best of intentions, but it was far more dangerous for them to be around this whale."
Police managed to get everyone out of the water, but then one bystander, apparently frustrated by the failed attempts to save the whale, broke through a police line, authorities said.
more inside
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Dissertation could be security threat! |
Posted by just_dave on Wednesday, July 09 @ 15:48:51 UTC (4727 reads) |
July 8 — Sean Gorman’s professor called his dissertation “tedious and unimportant.” Gorman didn’t talk about it when he went on dates because “it was so boring they’d start staring up at the ceiling.” But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Gorman’s work has become so compelling that companies want to seize it, government officials want to suppress it, and al Qaeda operatives — if they could get their hands on it — would find a terrorist treasure map. TINKERING ON a laptop, wearing a rumpled T-shirt and a soul patch goatee, this George Mason University graduate student has mapped every business and industrial sector in the American economy, layering on top the fiber-optic network that connects them.
He can click on a bank in Manhattan and see who has communication lines running into it and where. He can zoom in on Baltimore and find the choke point for trucking warehouses. He can drill into a cable trench between Kansas and Colorado and determine how to create the most havoc with a hedge clipper. Using mathematical formulas, he probes for critical links, trying to answer the question: “If I were Osama bin Laden, where would I want to attack?” In the background, he plays the Beastie Boys. For this, Gorman has become part of an expanding field of researchers whose work is coming under scrutiny for national security reasons. His story illustrates new ripples in the old tension between an open society and a secure society. more inside
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No camera phones — even our own!! The Joke Is On Samsung! |
Posted by just_dave on Wednesday, July 09 @ 15:38:05 UTC (4756 reads) |
SEOUL, South Korea, July 7 — Samsung Electronics, the world’s third largest maker of mobile phones, has banned the use of camera phones in some of its factories, fearing they could be tools of industrial espionage. The decision is an embarrassing admission by the South Korean company of the potential misuse of one its fastest-growing products.... “Use of camera phones will be restricted in our most sensitive plants such as research and development centers and semiconductor labs,” Samsung said.
Camera phones have become part of everyday life in South Korea and Japan, the world’s most advanced wireless markets, with people using the devices to e-mail photographs to friends and family.
But as use of camera phones has become more widespread, so too has concern about possible criminal use of the tiny camera lenses in mobile phones. Camera phones look like normal handsets. A user could take a photo of a person or a place without anybody knowing and immediately distribute it via the internet. Security experts have warned that camera phones could be used by criminals or terrorists to monitor individuals or sensitive buildings, while the devices could be used at concerts or other entertainment events in violation of copyright. Governments in several countries have also expressed fears about their use by pornographers.
J-Phone, the Japanese wireless operator, has responded to the concerns by making its camera phones emit a noise to alert people when a picture is being taken.
Samsung has chosen a low-technology remedy. It said people would be allowed to bring camera phones into its factories if lenses were covered with a plastic sticker.
Samsung has overtaken Siemens and Sony Ericsson to take third place in the global ranking of handset makers, behind Motorola and Nokia, the market leader.
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Inkjets And Counterfeiting! |
Posted by just_dave on Sunday, May 25 @ 18:16:32 UTC (13797 reads) |
Barry Fox
Fierce competition in the inkjet printer market has made digital colour printers so cheap and the print quality so high that a $100 printer can produce fake banknotes that pass for the real thing in the dim light of a bar or nightclub.
This warning comes from De La Rue, the world leader in security printing. The company has coined the name "digifeiters" for the new generation of counterfeiters spawned by ultra-cheap high-resolution inkjet printers.
In speaking out, De La Rue has broken its traditional stony silence on alleged security problems. "This is very sensitive subject but we thought it was time to say something and make people think," says spokesman John Winchcombe.
In a warning document, De La Rue tells banks and governments: "There appears to be little appreciation of the nature of the problem and even less sense of urgency. The world¹s central banks are now having to deal with an increasing number of counterfeit banknotes, generated by colour inkjet printers."
Commercial colour copiers that work on the xerographic principle, with multiple drums and coloured inks, have been available for 25 years. But they cost tens of thousands of pounds and since the mid-1980s their makers have voluntarily built in software that detects the fine detail of banknote security marks and stops them from being copied.
Modern inkjet printers are often dirt cheap or are given away with PCs. Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark are now making "all-in-one" machines that combine a printer, copier, scanner and fax for around $200. And resolution is very high at least 4800 dots per inch. Anyone can copy just about anything.
"These low-cost devices have completely changed the nature of counterfeiting," says Mark Cricket, bank note security specialist with De La Rue.
De La Rue has been working with computer firm Software 2000 on an anti-digifeiting system, which modifies printer driver software to recognise data patterns indicative of banknotes from many countries. But printer makers are showing no signs of wanting to adopt the technology.
De La Rue thinks the printer makers may fear potentially degraded performance from such printers as they may perhaps refuse to print similarly detailed but innocent items. Epson, Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark say they currently have no home-grown technology to stop cash copying, but would incorporate it if they did.
10:00 25 May 03
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Metallica and Barney Used To Torture Iraqis?? |
Posted by just_dave on Tuesday, May 20 @ 23:18:48 UTC (5925 reads) |
Heavy metal music and popular American children's songs are being used by US interrogators to break the will of their captives in Iraq.
Uncooperative prisoners are being exposed for prolonged periods to tracks by rock group Metallica and music from children's TV programmes Sesame Street and Barney in the hope of making them talk.
The US's Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) said the aim was to break a prisoner's resistance through sleep deprivation and playing music that was culturally offensive to them.
However, human rights organisation, Amnesty International, said such tactics may constitute torture - and coalition forces could be in breach of the Geneva Convention.
More Inside.
Note from the Editor: Thanks to CatKnight and Vigilante!
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Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy |
Posted by adminn on Sunday, May 04 @ 07:58:31 UTC (16992 reads) |
Some of the world's biggest record companies, facing rampant online piracy,
are quietly financing the development and testing of software programs that
would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of people who download
pirated music, according to industry executives.
The record companies are exploring options on new countermeasures, which some
experts say have varying degrees of legality, to deter online theft: from
attacking personal Internet connections so as to slow or halt downloads of
pirated music to overwhelming the distribution networks with potentially
malicious programs that masquerade as music files.
If employed, the new tactics would be the most aggressive effort yet taken by
the recording industry to thwart music piracy, a problem that the IFPI, an
industry group, estimates costs the industry $4.3 billion in sales worldwide
annually. Until now, most of the industry's anti-piracy efforts have involved
filing lawsuits against companies and individuals that distribute pirated music.
Last week, four college students who had been sued by the industry settled the
suits by agreeing to stop operating networks that swap music and pay $12,000 to
$17,500 each.
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Paypal Email |
Posted by just_dave on Sunday, April 27 @ 23:25:46 UTC (7311 reads) |
If you get an email from "paypal" asking to validate your account, think twice. Someone just asked your for your ID and credit card #s.
This is a Detnet PSA.
I read about this somewhere and then I got the email.
http://news.com.com/2100-1018-991639.html
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BBS Bullying! Parents Rally! |
Posted by just_dave on Friday, April 18 @ 01:27:40 UTC (13621 reads) |
When Internet users log onto schoolscandals.com and click on the Beverly Hills High School link, they will find a message calling one student a "retard" who "deserves to go to hell." A posting in the Frost Middle School chat room describes a student as a "homosexual with a pigeon-like face and a penguin-like body."
Such name-calling and gossip about students are common on the 3-year-old Web site, similar to the crude messages scribbled inside of school bathroom stalls for decades but on a much larger scale.
That "cyber bullying" has an audience of tens of thousands, and it features links for chat rooms about nearly 100 Southern California middle and high schools, particularly in the San Fernando Valley. As a result, parents and school administrators are calling for the site's closure, contending much of its content is libelous and harmful.
more inside
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Just something to make you think |
Posted by Beldurin on Thursday, April 03 @ 05:46:59 UTC (8975 reads) |
Wolfguard writes: Whether you like Rush Limbaugh or not, this is worth reading!
By Rush Limbaugh
I think the vast differences in compensation between the victims of the September 11th casualty, and those who die serving the country in uniform, are profound. No one is really talking about it either because you just don't criticize anything having to do with September 11th.
Well, I just can't let the numbers pass by because it says something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11th attack, you're going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million. If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable. Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt. Keep in mind that some of the people that are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. We also learned over the weekend that some of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11th families are getting. In addition to that, some of the families of those bombed in the embassies are now asking for compensation as well.
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War is on Early! |
Posted by adminn on Wednesday, March 19 @ 20:47:29 UTC (5775 reads) |
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Teh Uber-Hacker Returning To The Net; Mitnick's Coming! |
Posted by just_dave on Friday, December 27 @ 11:49:45 UTC (7143 reads) |
CALIFORNIA
Hacker's Internet Cuffs Coming Off!
Felon Kevin Mitnick's probation ends Jan. 20.
He says he's starting a computer security firm.
By David Ho, Associated Press
A man the federal government once labeled "the most wanted computer criminal in U.S. history" can soon resume surfing the Internet and using electronic devices he was forced to give up after his conviction.
Kevin Mitnick, 39, of Thousand Oaks served five years in federal prison for stealing software and altering data at Motorola Inc., Novell Inc., Nokia Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and USC. Prosecutors accused him of causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to corporate computer networks.
Mitnick was freed in January 2000. The terms of his probation, which expires Jan. 20, require that he get government permission before using computers, software, modems or any devices that connect to the Internet.
More Inside...
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New Updates For The Rivet Joint Spy Plane |
Posted by just_dave on Thursday, November 28 @ 13:43:03 UTC (8556 reads) |
Storied Rivet Joint Adds New Missions
By David A. Fulghum/Aviation Week & Space Technology
22-Nov-2002 2:35 PM U.S. EST
The RC-135 Rivet Joint, a collector of enemy electronic signals and communications for more than 30 years, is making the transition to the 21st century. It is becoming a key element in the Pentagon's efforts to fuse the available intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and feed it--in rivulets of useful information and not as a tsunami of raw data--to tactical commanders on the battlefield.
Modifications to Rivet Joint are apparent even from the exterior. The large new engines add altitude, endurance and shorter takeoff distances. Two new satcom antennas on the fuselage sides ensure communications coverage during turns.
More inside!
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The (semi) Anonymous Internet |
Posted by waltre on Wednesday, November 27 @ 08:09:36 UTC (10897 reads) |
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Andrew Hampton McCrae, 23, posting under the very creative alias of "Andy" confessed to the murder of a police officer at the sf.indymedia.org website Monday leading to his arrest. From the source:
"FBI agents in California and New England would not say exactly how they tracked down McCrae after seeing the postings in his name."
..but the 1337 h4x0rs at the FBI were able to find enough proof that he was their man to drive out and draw a confession. Here's the post BTW.
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There have been discussions at DetNet recently about finding skript kiddies through IP and the little info you can get on a users via the internet, I wonder how the FBI found their guy so quick... |
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