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Submission + - Bell Canada wants pirate websites blocked for Canadians 1

Submitted by wierzpio
wierzpio writes: According to Rob Malcolmson, Bell Canada's VP of regulatory affairs, Canada is a safe haven to internet pirates and the only solution is to create federally mandated blocklist of pirate websites. Unlike existing blocklist in the U.K., Bell's plan appears to involve no judicial oversight. "'Engaging in extrajudicial attempts to block access to sites, I think, raises all kinds of Charter of Rights and Freedoms issues,' argues Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor and internet law expert."

Submission + - Cable giants step up piracy battle by interrogating Montreal software developer (www.cbc.ca)

Submitted by wierzpio
wierzpio writes: In more news about TVAddons, Canadian cable companies use civil search warrant to visit owner and developer of TVAddons. According to Adam Lack, "The whole experience was horrifying. It felt like the kind of thing you would have expected to have happened in the Soviet Union." During the 16 hours long visit he was interrogated, denied the right not to answer the questions, denied the right to consult his answers with his lawyer, who was present. His personal possessions were seized. Adam is fighting back (link to Indiegogo fundraising page) and already judge declared search warrant "null and void."

Submission + - North Korea Detonates First Hydrogen Bomb

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: HughPickens.com writes

The NYT reports that North Korea has announced it has detonated its first hydrogen bomb dramatically escalating the nuclear challenge from one of the world’s most isolated and dangerous states. “This is the self-defensive measure we have to take to defend our right to live in the face of the nuclear threats and blackmail by the United States and to guarantee the security of the Korean Peninsula,” said a female North Korean announcer on the state-run network. “With this hydrogen bomb test, we have joined the major nuclear powers." The North’s announcement came about an hour after detection devices around the world had picked up a 5.1 seismic event that South Korea said was 30 miles from the Punggye-ri site where the North has conducted nuclear tests in the past.

“North Korea’s fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action,” says Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. According to the Times, the test is bound to figure in the American presidential campaign, where several candidates have already cited the North’s nuclear experimentation as evidence of American weakness — though they have not prescribed alternative strategies for choking off the program. The United States did not develop its first thermonuclear weapons — commonly known as hydrogen bombs — until 1952, seven years after the first and only use of nuclear weapons in wartime.
The Internet

Ray Bradbury Loves Libraries, Hates the Internet 600

Posted by kdawson from the in-the-air-in-the-tubes-whatever dept.
Hugh Pickens was one of several readers to let us know that, according to a NY Times story, the 89-year-old Ray Bradbury hates the Internet. But he loves libraries, and is helping raise $280,000 to keep libraries in Ventura County open. "Among Mr. Bradbury's passions, none burn quite as hot as his lifelong enthusiasm for halls of books. ... 'Libraries raised me,' Mr. Bradbury said. 'I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.' ... The Internet? Don't get him started. 'The Internet is a big distraction,' Mr. Bradbury barked... 'Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,' he said, voice rising. 'They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? "To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet." It's distracting. It's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere.'"
The Internet

Wolfram Promises Computing That Answers Questions 369

Posted by timothy from the he's-feeling-lucky-you-feel-lucky-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram feels that he has put together at least the initial version of a computer that actually answers factual questions, a la Star Trek's ship computers. His version will be found on their Web-based application, Wolfram Alpha. What does this mean? Well, instead of returning links to pages that may (or may not) contain the answer to your questions, Wolfram will respond with the actual answer. Just imagine typing in 'How many bones are in the human body?' and getting the answer." Right now, though the search entry field is in place, Alpha is not yet generally available -- only "to a few select individuals."
The Media

Lawsuit Stops Headline Scraping 85

Posted by kdawson from the ok-geez-so-i'll-stpop-sending-you-traffic dept.
Stephen Larson alerts us to the out-of-court settlement of Gatehouse v NY Times, a lawsuit that attempted to stop the Boston Globe from linking to headlines and excerpting initial sentences from a competitor's Web site. At issue was the Globe's practice — barely distinguishable from those of Google News, Yahoo, and others — of linking to another news source's coverage of local news. The upshot is that the Boston Globe will stop the linking. No judicial precedent was set, because the case was settled before reaching a judge.
Bug

Submission + - Software Bug Halts F-22 Flight

Submitted by mgh02114
mgh02114 writes: The new US stealth fighter, the F-22 Raptor, was deployed for the first time to Asia earlier this month. The first flight from Hawaii to Japan was forced to turn back when a software glitch crashed the F-22 on-board computers as they crossed the international date line. The delay in arrival in Japan was previously reported here and here, with rumors of problems with the software. CNN television, however, this morning reported that all every fighter completely lost all navigation and communications when they crossed the international date line. They reportedly had to turn around and follow their tankers by visual contact back to Hawaii. According to the CNN story, if they had not been with their tankers, or the weather had been bad, this would have been serious. CNN has not put up anything on their website yet. This follows previous reports that a software bug in the F-16, caught in simulation before the plane ever flew, that would have caused the fighter to flip upside down when flying over the equator.

NASA Avoids "Happy New Year" On Shuttle 181

Posted by CmdrTaco from the also-booze-is-heavy dept.
ClickOnThis noted that NASA is actually avoiding a Shuttle in Space over New Years. It says "The worry is that shuttle computers aren't designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. NASA has never had a shuttle in space December 31 or January 1. 'We've just never had the computers up and going when we've transitioned from one year to another,' said Discovery astronaut Joan Higginbotham. 'We're not really sure how they're going to operate.'" You may notice some deja vu while reading this story. Sorry. Not much happens on Sundays :)

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