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Comment Re:Will referee? (Score 1) 206

by greppling (#38851877) Attached to: Scientists Organize Elsevier Boycott
I am mathematician, and I am intending to sign the pledge, and I think most likely I will also omit pledge no. 2). The reason I am hesitant to make 2) a strict rule is the following (not unlikely) scenario:
  • A young scientist (say, with a post-doc position) submits an article to an Elsevier journal.
  • I am a natural choice as referee (i.e. it's easier for me to judge the work than for any other potential referee the editor might think of).

If I refuse to referee the article, the editor may have trouble finding a referee, or the referee may be less qualified. Either will result in a longer delay of the process, and in a more random outcome of the process. Meanwhile, maybe the next job application for the author is only a few months away. My own judgment is that the author preferably shouldn't have sent this article to an Elsevier journal. But I don't feel so strongly about it that I want this to cause him to have one fewer published article on his CV during his next job hunt.
The other scenario where I would accept to referee is the one pointed out by other commenters: I am aware of a problem with the article (does not cite related results/correct result, but one of the proofs is wrong/incorrect results/...) - it would be a disservice to the community not to point this out to the editor. Which is all a referee report is in such a case.

Comment I wish the NSF would follow suit (Score 1) 147

by greppling (#22409164) Attached to: Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement
The NSF would really be in a position to push open access with such a policy. It they required all (partially) NSF-funded research articles to be available online, electronically, in their final published version, that would have a huge immediate effect on all scientific journals.
Anyone have an idea whether this has been discussed or might be realistic?
The Internet

Congress Pressures DoJ With PIRATE Part II 217

Posted by Zonk from the nothing-better-to-do-obviously dept.
Anonymous Pirate writes "Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) have re-introduced the 'PIRATE Act' (pdf) to Congress. According to Ars Technica, the purpose of this act is to get the DoJ to go after individual copyright infringers. It would allow the Department of Justice to bring civil lawsuits instead of criminal ones so that they would be able to prosecute copyright infringers with only a minimal burden of proof, rather than the heavier burden required for criminal prosecution." Took a long time to do a sequel; we first talked about this proposal quite some time ago.
Censorship

AT&T Denies Censorship, Won't Change Contract 170

Posted by kdawson from the trust-us-we're-good-guys dept.
Vox writes "As we discussed here a few days back, AT&T's Terms of Service has very broad language giving them the right to terminate the account of any AT&T Internet service customer who criticizes the company. Ars Technica notes that such broad language is not unusual in ISPs' terms of service, and that AT&T told them they won't be changing the contract. A company spokesman said it's not a big deal because they have no intent to censor criticism. AT&T claims to respect its subscribers' right to voice their opinions and says that the contract is aimed at stopping the exploitation of children, and other tangible wrongs. As the article notes, taking the company on faith after the spying scandal is asking maybe a little too much."
Space

Solar Hurricane Rips Off Comet's Tail 105

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the cited-for-comet-abuse dept.
coondoggie writes to mention that NASA recently captured images of a solar hurricane ripping the tail off Encke's comet. "In a release, NASA said preliminary analysis suggests that the tail was ripped away when magnetic fields bumped together in an explosive process called "magnetic reconnection." Oppositely directed magnetic fields around the comet "bumped into each" by the magnetic fields in the hurricane. Suddenly, these fields linked together--they "reconnected"--releasing a burst of energy that tore off the comet's tail. A similar process takes place in Earth's magnetosphere during geomagnetic storms fueling, among other things, the Northern Lights, NASA said."
GNU is Not Unix

First US GPL Lawsuit Heads For Quick Settlement 196

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the owning-up-shows-character dept.
DeviceGuru writes to tell us that the first lawsuit centered around the GPL seems to have been quickly resolved outside of the courtroom. Monsoon Multimedia was quick to admit that they had violated the GPLv2 in their modified BusyBox code and will soon be releasing the source to come into full compliance with the license.
Education

Linux To Be Installed In Every Russian School 293

Posted by Zonk from the lots-and-lots-of-penguins dept.
J_Omega writes "According to an article from last week at the Russian IT site CNews, Linux is slated to be installed in every Russian school by 2009. The article makes it appear that it will be going by the (unimaginative) name 'Russian OS.' As stated in the article: 'The main aim of the given work is to reduce dependence on foreign commercial software and provide education institutions with the possibility to choose whether to pay for commercial items or to use the software, provided by the government.' Initial testing installations are supposed to begin next year in select districts. Is 2008/09 the year of Linux on the (Russian) desktop?"
Windows

Vista Pirates To Get "Black Screen of Darkness" 873

Posted by kdawson from the there-goes-china dept.
jcatcw writes "Microsoft has just turned on Reduced Functionality mode, worldwide, and sent a letter to OEMs explaining the consequences of Vista piracy. These include a black screen after 1 hour of browsing, no start menu or task bar, and no desktop. Using fear as a motivator, the email warns resellers to 'make sure your customers always get genuine Windows Vista preinstalled.'"
United States

U.S. Attorney General Resigns 845

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
willie3204 is one of many to mention that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned. One of Gonzales' main opponents praised his decision stating that: "'For the previous six months, the Justice Department has been virtually nonfunctional and desperately needs new leadership,' said the Schumer statement. 'Democrats will not obstruct or impede a nominee who we are confident will put the rule of law above political considerations. We beseech the Administration to work with us to nominate someone whom Democrats can support and America can be proud of.'"
Spam

Submission + - "Spam King" pleads guilty in U.S. federal

Submitted by Monty
Monty writes: As previously reported by Cmdr Taco in February, 2006 (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/28/14 41229) looks like Adam Vitale finally decided to plead guilty (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN 1120537620070611) to violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in federal court in New York City. Is his cohort Moeller next?
Censorship

Digg.com Attempts To Suppress HD-DVD Revolt 1142

Posted by kdawson from the toothpaste-back-in-the-tube dept.
fieryprophet writes "An astonishing number of stories related to HD-DVD encryption keys have gone missing in action from digg.com, in many cases along with the account of the diggers who submitted them. Diggers are in open revolt against the moderators and are retaliating in clever and inventive ways. At one point, the entire front page comprised only stories that in one way or another were related to the hex number. Digg users quickly pointed to the HD DVD sponsorship of Diggnation, the Digg podcast show. Search digg for HD-DVD song lyrics, coffee mugs, shirts, and more for a small taste of the rebellion." Search Google for a broader picture; at this writing, about 283,000 pages contain the number with hyphens, and just under 10,000 without hyphens. There's a song. Several domain names including variations of the number have been reserved. Update: 05/02 05:44 GMT by J : New blog post from Kevin Rose of Digg to its users: "We hear you."
Censorship

Censoring a Number 1046

Posted by kdawson from the you-can't-copyright-that dept.
Rudd-O writes "Months after successful discovery of the HD-DVD processing key, an unprecedented campaign of censorship, in the form of DMCA takedown notices by the MPAA, has hit the Net. For example Spooky Action at a Distance was killed. More disturbingly, my story got Dugg twice, with the second wave hitting 15,500 votes, and today I found out it had simply disappeared from Digg. How long until the long arm of the MPAA gets to my own site (run in Ecuador) and the rest of them holding the processing key? How long will we let rampant censorship go on, in the name of economic interest?" How long before the magic 16-hex-pairs number shows up in a comment here?
Movies

MPAA Committed To Fair Use and DRM 212

Posted by kdawson from the crack-in-the-wall dept.
Doctor Jay writes "At a LexisNexis Conference on DRM this week, MPAA's Dan Glickman announced that the MPAA was fine with consumers ripping DVDs for portable video players and home media servers. 'In his speech to industry insiders at the posh Beverly Hills Four Seasons hotel, Glickman repeatedly stressed that DRM must be made to work without constricting consumers. The goal, he said, was "to make things simpler for the consumer," and he added that the movie studios were open to "a technology summit" featuring academics, IT companies, and content producers to work on the issues involved.'"
Communications

Thousands of White House E-mails Deleted 799

Posted by Zonk from the they-have-also-misplaced-their-homework dept.
kidcharles writes "The Washington Post reports that in the midst of an investigation by the U.S. Congress into the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Department of Justice, numerous White House e-mails have been lost. Among them are communications from presidential adviser Karl Rove. Parallels are being drawn with the infamous '18 minutes' missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes. Also at issue is the use of Republican National Committee e-mail domains (such as gwb43.com and georgewbush.com) rather than the official White House domain. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act."

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