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Comment Expansion will not happen (Score 3, Insightful) 45

They've been promising to expand their fiber network for years, why would we believe them this time? NYC had to sue them to get them to deliver on their FIOS promises, they settled and got an extension on the growth of fiber foot print which they've still not completed. No reason to believe it wont be the same story again.

Submission + - Ken Thompson announces he is switching from Mac to Linux at SCALE conference (youtube.com)

An anonymous reader writes: During his closing keynote at the SCALE conference in Pasadena, Ken Thompson (creator of Go, Unix, Plan9 and UTF8) shared that he was a life long mac user. During Q&A he shared "what Apple is doing to something that should allow you to work is just atrocious" so "within the last month or two, to say: even though I've invested a zillion years in Apple, I'm throwing it away, and I'm going to Linux. To Raspbian, in particular." Video available on youtube.

Submission + - It Was Never About Innovation (gluster.org)

An anonymous reader writes: The secret to open source innovation, and the reason for its triumphal success, has nothing to do with the desire to innovate. It's because of the four freedoms and the level playing field (and agility) that was the end result. It's like Douglas Adams' definition of flying. You don't try to fly, you throw yourself at the ground and miss.

It was never about innovation — it was always about freedom.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

DOJ Often Used Cell Tower Impersonating Devices Without Explicit Warrants 146

Via the EFF comes news that, during a case involving the use of a Stingray device, the DOJ revealed that it was standard practice to use the devices without explicitly requesting permission in warrants. "When Rigmaiden filed a motion to suppress the Stingray evidence as a warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the government responded that this order was a search warrant that authorized the government to use the Stingray. Together with the ACLU of Northern California and the ACLU, we filed an amicus brief in support of Rigmaiden, noting that this 'order' wasn't a search warrant because it was directed towards Verizon, made no mention of an IMSI catcher or Stingray and didn't authorize the government — rather than Verizon — to do anything. Plus to the extent it captured loads of information from other people not suspected of criminal activity it was a 'general warrant,' the precise evil the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent. ... The emails make clear that U.S. Attorneys in the Northern California were using Stingrays but not informing magistrates of what exactly they were doing. And once the judges got wind of what was actually going on, they were none too pleased:"
Earth

Random Hacks of Kindness 69

Elizabeth Sabet writes "Google, Microsoft, NASA, The World Bank, and Yahoo! are unlikely partners, but they are bringing together the best and brightest in disaster relief management and the ever-growing hacker community in a progressive initiative called Random Hacks of Kindness. Its mission is to mobilize a world-wide community of technologists to solve real-world problems through technology. RHoK is gearing up for its first world-wide 'hackathon for humanity' on June 4-6, 2010. Following last year's inaugural event in Mountain View, California, which produced software solutions that were used on the ground during the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the partners have decided to take the effort global. RHoK engages volunteer software engineers, independent hackers, and students from around the world in a marathon weekend of hacking events and coding competitions to develop software solutions for problems posed by subject-matter experts. This first global Hackathon will feature sponsored events in Washington, DC, Sydney, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Sao Paulo." Here's where to go for more details or to register for the DC event.
Security

Submission + - Network security while traveling? 2

truesaer writes: I'll be spending all of next year backpacking through South America. In the past I've used internet cafes while away, but this time I plan to bring a netbook and rely primarily on wifi hotspots. I'll be facing the same issues and risks that business travelers in hotels and airports face, as well as those that millions of other backpackers, gap-year travelers, and students encounter. Since my trip is so long I'll have no choice but to access my banking, credit card, and investment accounts on public networks. Other than an effective firewall, a patched system, and the use of SSL what else should I do to protect my information? Keep in mind that many places have very poor bandwidth and latency, and that I will not have a system at home to connect through.
Debian

Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 "Lenny" Released 386

Alexander "Tolimar" Reichle-Schmehl writes "The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed Lenny) after 22 months of constant development. With 12 supported computer architectures, more than 23,000 packages built from over 12,000 source packages and 63 languages for the new graphical installer, this release sets new records, once again. Software available in 5.0 includes Linux 2.6.26, KDE 3.5.10, Gnome 2.22.2, X.Org 7.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7, Iceweasel 3.0.6, Apache 2.2.9, Xen 3.2.1 and GCC 4.3.2. Other notable features are X autoconfiguring itself, full read-write support for NTFS, Java programs in the main repository and a single Blu-Ray disc installation media. You can get the ISOs via bittorrent. The Debian Project also wishes to announce that this release is dedicated to Thiemo Seufer, a Debian Developer who died on December 26th, 2008 in a tragic car accident. As a valuable member of the Debian Project, he will be sorely missed."
Unix

Journal Journal: Ohio Linuxfest 2007

"The Ohio LinuxFest is the largest conference and expo for Free and Open Source software professionals and enthusiasts in the midwest. Join us at the fifth annual Ohio LinuxFest on September 29, 2007 in Columbus, Ohio. Everyone interested in Linux, Open Source and Free Software are welcome. Seating is limited! Register today!"
Censorship

Swedish Police to Block Pirate Bay 398

An anonymous reader writes "The Swedish Police just can't seem to leave The Pirate Bay at bay. It's been a year and two months since the worlds largest torrent tracker, The Pirate Bay, was originally raided and shut down by police, and now they're at it again, but with claims of child pornography. Brokep, over at The Pirate Bay (TPB), got a 'heads up' from a friend that the Swedish Police are going to put the site on its porn filter blacklist; this means anyone who tries to access the site from Sweden will get redirected to another site with a message explaining that they are not allowed to visit child pornography sites."
United States

DOJ Accidentally Gives Lawyer Wiretap Transcript 319

good soldier svejk writes "'It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked "top secret." And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls. You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.' That is what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew. His lawsuit takes on special significance given today's Sixth Circuit Court ruling that surveillance victims can only sue the DOJ if they can prove they were affected."

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