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Comment Re:... Profit (Score 1) 528

I absolutely see your point, but it almost sounds like you'd be OK with letting the other 92% off with no consequences, just in case. (Not saying you said that at all, just that it could be inferred.) I have very mixed feelings about laws and false convictions, because it's *very* hard to know where to draw the line. Obviously, I'm against false convictions, but the debate arises at some point because we can't accept that every offense can't be absolutely factually verified, so we can't be sure what does and doesn't merit ruining the accused's life... but we also can't just decide that any offense that could be falsified gets a free pass. There's no one all-purpose, ironclad answer.

Comment Re:Intent is the key word... (Score 1) 528

Unless the photos in question have been uploaded to a site specifically and explicitly existing for the purpose of revenge-shaming your ex. There are plenty of cases that would be very hard to nail down, but there are also a fair amount where it would be pretty hard to wiggle out of admitting that you were doing exactly what the URL says.
Communications

Blackberry Network is Down 243

Brian writes "According to CNET and others, "A system failure at Research In Motion has affected BlackBerry users in the Western Hemisphere, a news channel reported on its Web site late on Tuesday. The infrastructure failed on Tuesday night, and e-mails were not being delivered to the handheld devices.""
Windows

Submission + - Only 244 genuine Windows Vista's sold in China

morpheus83 writes: "Whilst Microsoft was bragging about the sales number of their latest OS Windows Vista, few would actually know that they have only managed to sell 244 copies in the whole of China in the first 2 weeks. You heard that right, and that's the number quoted from the headquarters of the Windows Vista chief (90% national volume) distributor in Beijing."
Sony

Sony Fixes Problems With New DVDs 210

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on reports that DVDs for some Sony titles were causing problems, Video Business is reporting that Sony has fixed the copy-protection problem on recent DVD releases, and will provide replacement discs to customers. The problem was with the ARccOS DRM system. The company issued the following statement: 'Recently, an update that was installed on approximately 20 titles was found to cause an incompatibility issue with a very small number of DVD players (Sony has received complaints on less than one thousandth of one percent of affected discs shipped)... Since then, the ARccOS system has once again been updated, and there are no longer any playability problems.' Customers can call 800-860-2878 to inquire about replacement discs."
Math

Six-Dimensional Space-Time Theory 330

eldavojohn writes "PhysOrg is covering an interesting year-old paper that proposes an alternative six-dimensional theory of space and time. George Sparling's proposition, based on Einstein's general relativity and Elie Cartan's triality, is a twistor space (which I've only read of in Roger Penrose's latest work). The gist is that space-time is modeled not by four dimensions but by six, and that the extra two dimensions are time-like. Sparling is hoping that tests from the Large Hadron Collider will help prove his theory. The paper is heavy but the PhysOrg article summarizes it nicely."
Patents

Prior Art On Verizon Patents 170

greenbird sends in word that Techdirt has up information from Daniel Berninger documenting prior art in the Verizon patents being used to destroy Vonage. "...due to the fun way the patent system works, introducing that kind of prior art to the USPTO for it to review the validity of Verizon's VoIP patents will take quite a bit of time and effort — much longer than Vonage has to fight Verizon in court." From Berninger's note: "In particular, the claims in both patents were anticipated by open standards assembled by the VoIP Forum (H.323) in 1996 and published in January 1997 with the participation of members from Cisco Systems, Microsoft, IBM, Nortel, Intel, Motorola, Lucent, and VocalTec Communications, among others... The Eric Voit patent applications reflect, in particular, contributions made by VocalTec Communication to the VoIP Forum during 1996 and formally published at the same time as a separate document."

Feed Sleep Enforces The Temporal Sequence In Memory (sciencedaily.com)

We have usually quite strong memories of past events like an exciting holiday or a pleasant birthday party. However it is not clear how the brain keeps track of the temporal sequence in such memories: did Paul spill a glass of wine before or after Mary left the party? A research group has now provided evidence that sleep not only strengthens the content of a memory but also the particular order in which they were experienced.

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