Blackhacker

Cheap PCs could herald a spam epidemic
Outsourcing isn’t good only for software companies who keep an eye on the bottom line; it’s also great news for blog spammers, 419 scammers, and pump-and-dump stock operations. That’s because the same market forces that make developers in India and Eastern Europe such a good deal to American and Western European firms also make it easy for miscreants to hire legions of cheap workers to help with spam operations.

WARNING: rant mode is in FULL tilt.

There is no other way to describe it. Apparently, even if My iPod filled with ONLY legal downloaded I am thief just because somebody out their is “gankin’” their stuff off the internet.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, QOTSA, T.I. Rock For Zune
Microsoft is working with all major and independent labels to establish similar revenue-sharing agreements. According to published reports, UMG is expected to receive more than $1 for each $250 device and sources at UMG have confirmed that half of all the proceeds from the device’s sales will be shared equally among all its artists.

This is YET ANOTHER example of why Music sales are so low. They treat customers like idiots by putting out formulaic crap, and we are expected to think it is hot because they shake some flesh in a video and pay the radio stations to spin a gazillion times. Then they treat us like criminals, with statements like this. So what do people do? They steal the stuff. Don’t get it twisted. Theft is theft. And all theft is wrong. And the industry has a right to protect itself from thieves, but I am not thief. And people who are like me are not thieves. And I am sure most of the people currently being sued by the RIAA, are not thieves.

QUESTION: How much of the Zune “kickback” is going to back to the artists?

ANSWER: Not a red cent. Actually 50 red cents. Sometimes a I get a head of myself

They know they are not going to be able to sue their way to stopping file sharing. So they now want a “piece of the action.” But if one of their legal questionable “witch hunters” discover that the name of a file on my hard drive that might happen to match the name of one of their artists, or the title of a song and BAM!!!

“You have been served.”
The big thieves hang the little ones. — Czech Proverb

Dap: Boing Boing

Doctors using Google to diagnose illnesses | the Daily Mail
The internet search engine Google has added another impressive string to its bow - by helping doctors diagnose illnesses, according to a new study.

Researchers found that almost six-in-10 difficult cases can be solved by using the world wide web as a diagnostic aid.

It would be good to build dedicated health search index like for BSD,Linux, and the US Gov’t

Dap: /.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | R&B star Gerald Levert dies at 40
Grammy-nominated R&B star Gerald Levert has died aged 40, his record company has confirmed.

Ed Bradley, Veteran CBS Newsman, Dies - New York TimesEd Bradley, an anchor on CBS’s 60 Minutes, died today after suffering from leukemia, CBS News reported. He was 65.

With the number of Blacks in broadcast Journalism a precious few, this accomplished mans presence will be missed. But He left a body of work, and a legacy for all of us to follow, and a work in in telling us about ourselves that should be continued. RIP Ed Bradley. Please take the time to read his biographies that may be found at CBS News, Wikipedia, and I am sure other places around the Internet.

Sun Set To Move On GPL License For Open-Source Java - Sun Microsystems, General Public License, Software - CRN
The company is very close to announcing that it will put the mobile (ME) and standard (SE) editions of the Java platform into the GNU General Public License (GPL), with the Java Enterprise Edition and GlassFish reference implementation (currently open-sourced under Sun’s Common Development and Distribution License, or CDDL) to follow, several industry sources said.

I really am waiting on baited breath for this. Once it goes GPL I can find have NATIVE Java on my FreeBSD box at home without out having to jump through a lot of hoops to to install it.

Dap: osnews

NTP: A Taste of Its Own Medicine
Oren Tavory, a 43-year-old software developer living in West Palm Beach, Fla., says he got there first. Tavory says he did much of the work developing the technology behind NTP’s patents. And since NTP has spun those patents into a big payday with hopes of another, Savory says he deserves part of the credit for the patents, and some of the payouts, too.In September, Tavory filed a lawsuit against NTP in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., demanding that a judge issue a court order naming him as co-inventor on seven NTP patents, and accusing NTP of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment.

Goodbye quarterly reports? | CNET News.com
The top accounting firms, including Deloitte Touche Tohumatsu, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KMPG, joined forces to release a report on Wednesday that proposes a real-time reporting system to allow people to access and choose business information as easily as buying a book on Amazon.com.

Interesting idea. A feed of business information. Knowing on today what a company earned on yesterday. It would give companies less chance to cook the books, if an Enron style operation was going on, but the devil is in the details. Whether something like this is possible, and practical always depends on implementation.

Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats - New York Times
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday.

Microsoft beats Apple to the TV with Xbox Live Video
Beginning on November 22, Xbox 360 owners will be able to buy and rent over 1,000 hours of programming using the new Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The Marketplace will see Microsoft selling programming from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “CSI,” “South Park,” “Batman Forever,” and “Nacho Libre” are a few of the titles that will be offered by year’s end. At launch, TV shows will be offered as download-to-own, while movies will only be available as 24-hour rentals.