Year: 2007

OK, This is Insanely Neat

No Comments

I know that whenever I Mapquest something (actually Yahoo), I frequently know a better way to get there once presented with the map.

Now you can fix it before printing.

WOOT!

Google embarasses MapQuest

Driving directions redux
By Cade Metz in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Friday 29th June 2007 20:26 GMT
Mobile computing: Opportunities and risk – Free whitepaper

You’ll never use MapQuest again. With a new addition to its Google Maps service, Google has completely reinvented the notion of online driving directions, letting you adjust routes with a simple drag and drop.

In the past, when you asked services like MapQuest or Google Maps for driving directions, you took what they gave you. Now, thanks to Google’s latest brainstorm, you can customize your directions on the fly. If you’re dead-set on avoiding a particularly-congested part of town, for instance, you can drag your driving route a little this way or that – and Google will automatically change the turn-by-turn directions.

…

Space nuke boffin: NASA Moonbase needs nuclear rockets | The Register

No Comments

If you reference some of the links off this page, a nuclear powered engine of this type does give a higher ISP 875 vs 350 for the very efficient SSMEs.

Of course, other technologies, Ion and plasma are much higher (a quick google gives an ISP of 3300 for early ion drives).

Of course, Ion and plasma are low thrust, and cannot be used for ascent or descent, but neither can NERVA class motors, as their exhaust is radioactive.

Space nuke boffin: NASA Moonbase needs nuclear rockets
By Lewis Page
Published Saturday 30th June 2007 07:02 GMT

One of America’a top nukes-in-space boffins says it’s time to consider nuclear-powered rockets again. He reckons atomic boosters could cut the cost of NASA’s upcoming Moonbase plan.

….

This guy runs the premier RTG battery (nuclear batteries) manufacturer in the US, The Center for Space Nuclear Research, and he is someone who has a hammer, and sees everything as a nail.

But Howe reckons that there’s more to nukes in space than just providing electricity. He says that nuclear power should be used for propulsion, too. According to an article in New Scientist, his plan is to update a 1960s design called Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) to carry payloads from Earth orbit to the Moon.

NERVA-type rockets use a fission reactor to heat up hydrogen and blast it out of the thrust nozzle at extremely high speed, faster than can be achieved by normal chemical-powered boosters. This allows a nuclear-driven spacecraft to achieve more with a given amount of liquid fuel, or “reaction mass.” The NERVA test programme had its problems – not least the fact that the reactor tended to come apart and fire itself out of the exhaust – and was terminated in 1972 during NASA budget cuts.

Howe and his team reckon that the greater efficiency of nuclear drive would allow each Moon shot to carry an additional eight tons of payload, which would mean fewer launches being needed. He thinks the savings from a lower number of launches would more than offset the cost of updating the original NERVA design, perhaps yielding overall savings of as much as $2bn.

…

ICANN Breaks the Law

No Comments

It’s interesting how ICANN’s internal meetings are run. This informality is in fact illegal. The by-laws are a legally binding document upon a corporation.

I have had fairly extensive experience with and exposure to (though I am NOT a lawyer) non-profit corporate governance in the US.

It is clear that ICANN is opening up themselves for a lawsuit, and given the millions and perhaps billions of dollars involved in their decisions, if they continue to run their meetings in this manner, they will lose, particularly in California.

Now you see us, now you don’t: ICANN goes transparent
By Burke Hansen in San Juan
Published Saturday 30th June 2007 13:02 GMT

ICANN San Juan 2007 The Wednesday ICANN-arama wrapped up with a session covering ICANN’s ongoing efforts to improve its management and accountability practices: the “Accountability and transparency management operating principles” workshop.

Maybe the title itself had something to do with it, but this very lightly attended workshop had the ring to it of one of those obscure sessions where useful information tends to get swept out of sight and mind. Much of the discussion revolved around making the ICANN board actually accountable to someone other than, well, the ICANN board. There are procedures already in place at ICANN that allow appeals of board decisions, but those procedural appeals always seem to circulate back to the board itself.

Milton Mueller contrasted ICANN’s structure with that of the American Cancer Society, which has a national council that decisions may be taken up with. Mueller also recommended bringing back the short-lived direct election of board members, a suggestion we endorse here at El Reg, too. We believe there are enough clever people at ICANN to work out the technical kinks of direct elections – after all, we’ve given them the authority to run the entire internet.

Of course, ICANN is a California nonprofit corporation, and as such is bound by California law, which means that public or even private attorney general actions are a possibility. However, litigation is never the ideal solution and ICANN is wise to consider some institutional options before someone takes matters into their own hands.

……

Paul Levins, vice president of corporate affairs and moderator of this session, let slip, however, that under Chairman Vint Cerf, formal voting requirements have frequently been relaxed, and the opinions of non-voting members have been given equal weight in the decision-making process. This is clearly a violation of the corporate by laws and clearly not a model for transparent management. That may be a way to encourage wider input and greater consensus, but that also means that non-voting members have more of a say than widely believed, which hardly encourages transparency.

If the board wants those other parties to have a stronger voice, they should amend the bylaws, rather than just ignoring them when convenient. It also creates an unwieldy de facto voting board of 21 members – hardly a model of efficiency. This is also why there is lingering public paranoia about the role the government affairs committee (GAC)-and particularly the US Department of Commerce (DOC)- in the decision-making process, since GAC meetings are typically closed to the public and the GAC is one of these “non-voting” members.

…

Emphasis mine. They are admitting breaking the law here.

Gangs of San Jose

No Comments

Rival criminals gangs on the net, sabotaging each other.

On the bright side, no one is being shot gangland style, which implies, contrary to the hype that the Russian Mafia, the Cali Drug Cartel, and al Queida are not involved.

Additionally, any effort spent going after each other is time NOT spent going after us.

This is the real second life.

Rival malware gangs wage turf war
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Published Sunday 1st July 2007 07:02 GMT

Security researchers have uncovered evidence of a turf war between rival criminal enterprises connected to two of the most sophisticated malware toolkits in current use.

Like competing gangs in the Mafia – for those who followed the HBO series The Sopranos, think the New York-based Lupertazzi crime family and its sometimes enemy the DiMeo crime family, which Tony Soprano ran from New Jersey – the malware groups are fighting for turf and control.

But rather than clashing over who gets to skim money off a garbage collection contract or a major construction project, the cyber criminals are battling to own tens of thousands of compromised computers.

Enter the propagators of a piece of malware Symantec dubs Trojan.Srizbi (http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2007-062007-0946-99&tabid=1), one of a handful programs spread by the MPack attack kit (http://www.theregister.com/2007/06/18/hijacked_sites_install_malware/). A trojan that makes infected computers part of a botnet that churns out spam, Srizbi is also known to uninstall competing spam malware being spread by another nasty piece of malware dubbed the Storm Worm.

“The Storm Worm criminals appear to have taken exception to that,” says Lawrence Baldwin, a malware researcher who has recently observed Storm zombies DDoSing the server Srizbi uses to download installation files. Baldwin is unable to estimate how much traffic the Storm bots are sending to the Srizbi server, but he says attempts to get an infected machine in his lab to update the Storm malware makes him believe the attack is significant.

…

Pratt Whitney considers geared open rotor concept-28/06/2007-London-Flight International

No Comments

Previously, P&W had previously said that the geared turbofan would make propfan/un ducted fan technology irrelevant.

Pratt Whitney considers geared open rotor concept

By Victoria Moores

Pratt & Whitney has begun studies of open rotor engine architecture despite its long-standing pursuit of geared turbofan (GTF) technology, and does not rule out shifting to a propfan configuration if this path is favoured by the airframers.

The company is developing a GTF engine to power the next generation of regional and single-aisle aircraft. This engine’s low-pressure spool operates at high speeds for peak efficiency, while its fan operates at slower speeds to maximise efficiency and significantly reduce noise.

…

Rampant Speculation Points to Crash

No Comments

Another sign of the oncoming crash. Vast quantities of capital racing hither and yon looking for the next big “15 minutes of fame” thing.

It’s a sign that the market is over capitalized and over priced, and due for a major correction.

It’s a game of musical chairs, and it gets most frantic towards the end.

Here comes China 2.0

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large
June 28 2007: 1:41 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — As Google’s stock slouches toward $600 a share and Wall Street debates the future of Yahoo following the ouster of Terry Semel, it’s easy to forget that there are other Internet stocks out there competing for investor attention.

But for those who prefer to take a more worldly view of the World Wide Web, paying attention to areas outside of the U.S. has been incredibly rewarding, particularly for investors that have discovered the booming Internet sector in China.

Several Chinese Internet stocks trade in the U.S. on Nasdaq so investing in these companies is as easy as buying shares of Google (Charts, Fortune 500) and Yahoo (Charts, Fortune 500). And many Chinese Internet stocks have far outperformed America’s big two Net giants this year.

Shares of search engine Baidu, portals Sina and Sohu, online gaming companies The 9 Limited and Shanda Interactive and online travel site Ctrip.com are each up at least 20 percent this year, compared to gains of 8 percent and 14 percent for Yahoo and Google respectively.

…..

Cessna and Thielert collaborate on diesel aircraft programmes

No Comments

I’ve always liked the aircraft diesel technology.

This is a VERY important development for Thielert.

Cessna and Thielert collaborate on diesel aircraft programmes

Cessna has reached and agreement with Germany’s Thielert Aircraft Engines (TAE) to collaborate on future programmes centred on the Thielert diesel engine.

Although both companies are remaining tight-lipped on specific developments, the first programme is likely to be a 135hp (100kW) Centurion 2.0-powered version of the 172 Skyhawk.The engine is already available as a retrofit on the piston single type, but the venture is the first time Cessna will offer a diesel version as standard.

…

PICTURES – Cirrus unveils single-engine personal jet

No Comments

That plane is dirt cheap. Even assuming that the range drops by half with a full load of people and luggage, it’s a very good deal.

PICTURES – Cirrus unveils single-engine personal jet
Cirrus Design has taken the wraps off its first jet, and the manufacturer of the popular SR22 piston-single light aircraft is bracing for a major sales boost.

Seating up to seven people, “the-jet” has its single Williams FJ33-4 turbofan mounted above the fuselage and exhausting between the V-tail, in a similar arrangement to the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft.

“We’re not going to be a smaller business jet. We’re trying to be a bigger SR22,” said CEO and co-founder Alan Klapmeier at the 28 June event.

…

As for price, Klapmeier says: “Our goal is to have it be about $1 million”. The final price is uncertain, he cautions, since the certification date is unknown along with many other factors.

The fuel capacity will be “well over 1,000lb”, depending on the number of passengers, and range will be more than 1,000nm with only one pilot aboard and less than that when carrying seven people.”

…

Completely NO Surprise

No Comments

Actually, I know people who work for the Redmond Borg™, and there is a level of real stupidity there that drives them crazy.

Microsoft security engineer makes top-10 worst jobs list

By Lewis Page
Published Wednesday 27th June 2007 11:39 GMT

Summer’s here, and ’tis the season to be compiling lists. One of the most eagerly awaited is the Ten Worst Jobs in Science, issued by Popular Science magazine. This year the roster of horrible occupations has gained widespread attention because it includes “Microsoft Security Grunt”.

Working at the Microsoft Security Response Centre (MSRC), according to the PopSci writers, is “like wearing a big sign that says ‘hack me’… It’s tedious work… to most hackers, crippling Microsoft is the geek equivalent of taking down the Death Star, so the assault is relentless.”

PopSci places a job on the Redmond battlements at number five, worse than whale-dung analyst, corpse-maggot expert, Olympic drug tester and zero gee health-effects guinea pig.

The only things worse than standing between Windows users and the ravening haxor hordes were being a rubbish-dump researcher, elephant vasectomist, oceanographer – because the oceans are getting so polluted – and at number one, hazmat diver. (“They swim in sewage. Enough said.”)

…

Russia Tests 3M14 Bulava SS-N-30

No Comments

Note that the name Akula is the Russian name for the Typhoon class mammoth SSBN. What the West calls the Akula is called the Bars class in Russia.

She SS-N-30 is basically a cut down Topol.

3M14 Bulava SS-N-30

On 28 June 2007 Russia successfully tested the new Bulava (SS-NX-30) sea-based ballistic missile after several previous failures. Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press that the Bulava missile hit its target on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) east of Moscow, after being launched in northern Russia’s White Sea from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi, a 941 Akula / TYPHOON class submarine outfited in 2005 as the SS-N-30 Bulava test platform.

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) is the submarine-launched version of Russia’s most advanced missile, the Topol-M (SS-27) solid fuel ICBM. The SS-NX-30 is a derivative of the SS-27, except for a slight decrease in range due to conversion of the design for submarine launch. The SS-27 has is 21.9 meters long, far too large to fit in a typical submarine. The largest previously deployed Russian SLBM was the R-39 / SS-N-20 STURGEON, which was 16 meters long. Russian sources report that the Bulava SS-N-30 ballistic missile can carry ten warheads to a range of 8,000km. Other sources suggest that the Bulava probably might have a range of 10,000 km, and is reportedly features a 550 kT yield nuclear warhead. Apparently up to six MIRVs can be placed at the cost of offloading warhead shielding and decoys.

…

DARPA Wants A Few Good Men

No Comments


These are the guys who invented the internet.

DARPA RFP

Description

Request for Information
Routing Protocols and Management (RPM) for High Capacity Networks

– Request for Information Word Version 01 – Posted on Jun 22, 2007

General Information
Document Type: Special Notice
Solicitation Number: Reference-Number-SN07-39
Posted Date:
Original Response Date: 06 August 2007
Current Response Date:
Original Archive Date:
Current Archive Date:
Classification Code: A — Research & Development
Naics Code: 541710 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences

Contracting Office Address

Other Defense Agencies, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Contracts Management Office, 3701 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203-1714, United States

Description

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION – Routing Protocols and Management (RPM) for High Capacity Networks

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) is requesting information on revolutionary ideas and approaches to map administrative, business, and war fighting mission requirements to the supporting networks and information systems. The requested information is sought to determine if industry has ideas that warrant specific project-oriented investment by DARPA in this area. No funding has currently been allocated to this effort. A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) and/or other solicitation may or may not result from the findings of this Request for Information (RFI).

Introduction

Modern communications networks were designed and developed when memory and processing power were limiting factors rather than plentiful and generally ubiquitous throughout the network. Today’s environment finds memory and processing power available even at the tactical edge of the Global Information Grid (GIG). Routing Protocols and Management (RPM) for High Capacity Networks is considering methods to re-think and potentially redesign some of the basic concepts that have shaped today’s Internet technology. The goal of any DARPA program in this area is to improve transfer speeds, network routing efficiency, reliability, simplify network configuration, and reduce cost.

Problem Definition

Modern communications networks were designed and developed when memory and processing power were limiting factors rather than plentiful and generally ubiquitous throughout the network. Today’s environment finds memory and processing power available even at the tactical edge of the Global Information Grid (GIG). Routing Protocols and Management (RPM) for High Capacity Networks is considering methods to re-think and potentially redesign some of the basic concepts that have shaped today’s Internet technology. The goal of any DARPA program in this area is to improve transfer speeds, network routing efficiency, reliability, simplify network configuration, and reduce cost.

Problem Definition

DARPA is interested in ideas that will lead to the development of new addressing schemes (e.g., a structured hierarchical addressing system) to supplement the current IP scheme. New addressing schemes should make the network faster, cheaper, or easier to administer. Additionally, we hope to implement a prioritization system to allow higher priority traffic faster service through the network, along with the authentication system such a system requires.

This RFI seeks ways to enhance network prioritization and authentication for priority users; create multipath route discovery and distribution; lower manpower requirements for network configuration; and efficiently connect Dense Wave Division Multiplex (DWDM) networks and conventional IP networks. The program assumes the existence of DWDM switched networks and seeks to make the connection between a normal IP network and a DWDM switched network as simple and efficient as possible.

The long-term goal is to develop new systems that use network capacity as efficiently and inexpensively as possible. Ideas that require modifications to addressing schemes (e.g., modifying IP), changes to the Domain Name Server (DNS), or other established Internet Standards are acceptable as long as these changes can be justified.

DARPA is interested in responses describing the solution with low granularity, at the device or process level, rather than at the macro or enterprise level. DARPA is interested in autonomic or semi-autonomic systems that require little manual intervention. Finally, simplicity and ability to transition a solution are of interest – large theoretical systems that require extensive training to operate would be of little value as a potential program.

DARPA is not interested in evolutionary improvements to existing fielded or commercial systems, nor funding requests or investment opportunities to bring existing work into production. This RFI seeks potential high-risk, high payoff research opportunities related to Routing Protocols and Management for High Capacity Networks that may provide revolutionary capabilities for the Department of Defense.

Request for Information Focus Areas

In an effort to shape future work on Routing Protocols and Management for High Capacity Networks, DARPA/STO is soliciting position papers addressing the following areas:
1. Concepts and ideas for novel methods to allow multipath route discovery and multipath route distribution; improve network routing efficiency and reliability; simplify network configuration and management; provide for different levels of priority and precedence; and improve authentication/attribution.

2. Technical methods to efficiently and inexpensively interconnect DWDM networks and conventional IP networks. These can be linked to, a part of, or separate from a submission for #1 above.
3. The impact of your proposed idea(s) on the personnel needed to operate networks
4. Potential metrics to measure the effectiveness of what you propose

Workshop

DARPA will hold a workshop for selected RFI respondents in the vicinity of Arlington, VA in October 07. The workshop may include an overview of previous DARPA programs, historical assumptions, today’s requirements and challenges, invited presentations, submitter presentations, discussions, and Q&A. Respondents interested in attending should visit the registration website at https://www.enstg.com/Signup/default.cfm?ThisCode=NEX74474

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPONDERS
This announcement contains all information required to submit a position paper. No additional forms, kits or other materials are needed.

DARPA appreciates responses from all capable and qualified sources including but not limited to universities, university affiliated research centers, federally-funded research centers, private or public companies and Government research laboratories.

Position papers have the following formatting requirements:
a) A one page cover sheet that identifies the title, organization(s), responder’s technical and administrative points of contact – including names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, and email addresses of all co-authors;
b) An executive summary with a one page limit summarizing the key ideas;
c) A single overview briefing chart graphically depicting the key ideas;
d) A technical response to one or more of the 4 RFI Focused Areas posed above in question/answer format, with a 10 page limit in 10 point font;
e) An optional list of citations including URLs if available;
f) An optional briefing if the submitter wishes to be considered to present at the workshop;
g) The above should be submitted as MS Word, PDF, and/or MS PowerPoint documents.

Respondents are encouraged to be as succinct as possible while at the same time providing actionable insight.

Respondents must submit one original and one paper copy of the full response and one electronic copy of the full RFI response (in Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, and/or Microsoft PowerPoint on a single CD ROM). Disks must be clearly labeled with RFI SN07-39 the offering organization, and points of contact. The full RFI response (original and designated number of hard and electronic copies) must be submitted to: DARPA/STO, Attn: Dr. Timothy Gibson, 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-1714. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) are due no later than 2:00pm, Local Time, Arlington, VA, on 06 August 2007. ANY INQUIRIES ON THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AND/OR WORKSHOP MUST BE SUBMITTED TO RPM07-39@darpa.mil. NO TELEPHONIC INQUIRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED.

DARPA will host a web site in support of RFI SN07-39, Routing Protocols and Management (RPM). The web site will contain information supplementary to this document such as Question & Answer lists in the event that clarifications are needed. The URL for the web site is http://www.darpa.mil/sto/solicitations/RPM/index.html. In the event of any discrepancies between material published on this web site and FedBizOps, FedBizOps takes precedence.

DISCLAIMERS AND IMPORTANT NOTES

This is a Request for Information issued solely for information and new program planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. No proprietary or classified information should be submitted. Respondents are advised that DARPA is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received, or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. It is the respondent’s responsibility to ensure the material has been approved for public release by the organization that funded the research.

In accordance with FAR 15.201(e) responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted glby the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.

Submissions may be reviewed by: the Government (DARPA and partners including but not limited to AFRL and OSD-NII); Federally Funded R&D Centers (such as MITRE and Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Lincoln Laboratories); and Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contractors (Booz Allen Hamilton and SRS Technologies).

Point of Contact

Timothy Gibson, Ph.D., Program Manager, Email timothy.gibson (at) darpa.mil

Point of Contact
Timothy Gibson, DARPA Program Manager, Phone 000-000-0000, Fax null, Email Timothy.Gibson@darpa.mil

Rubber Ducky, You’re the one.

No Comments

Cool.

Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey
Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey
By BEN CLERKIN – More by this author » Last updated at 22:00pm on 27th June 2007

Comments Comments (9)
They were toys destined only to bob up and down in nothing bigger than a child’s bath – but so far they have floated halfway around the world.

The armada of 29,000 plastic yellow ducks, blue turtles and green frogs broke free from a cargo ship 15 years ago.

Since then they have travelled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank, landing in Hawaii and even spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack.

And now they are heading straight for Britain. At some point this summer they are expected to be spotted on beaches in South-West England.

While the ducks are undoubtedly a loss to the bath-time fun of thousands of children, their adventures at sea have proved an innvaluable aid to science”

The toys have helped researchers to chart the great ocean currents because when they are spotted bobbing on the waves they are much more likely to be reported to the authorities than the floats which scientists normally use.

…

Just When I Thought That They Could Not Get Any Stupider

No Comments

Un-Dirtyword-believable.

This is so stupid, it shocks me, and I though I had become inured to stupidity flowing from Shrub’s mouth.

Bush cites Israel as model for Iraq

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 3 minutes ago

President Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq Thursday, saying the U.S. goal there is not to eliminate attacks but to enable a democracy that can function despite violence.

…

Still, he laid out in some of his plainest terms yet how to define when the U.S. presence in Iraq has achieved its goals.

“Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy’s ability to get a car bombing in the evening news,” he said. “No matter how good the security, terrorists will always be able to explode a bomb on a crowded street.”

He suggested Israel as a model.

There, Bush said, “Terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it’s not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that’s a good indicator of success that we’re looking for in Iraq.”

It was likely to be controversial — and possibly even explosive — for Bush to set out Israel as a model for a Muslim Middle Eastern nation. Israel has been locked for decades in an intractable dispute with Palestinians in the neighboring occupied territories, a conflict that is viewed as a major recruiting tool for Islamic extremist groups like al-Qaida.

…

All-White Jury. Nope, no racism here.

No Comments

Bet you haven’t heard about this in the news, but a European paper, the International Herald Tribune, did.
All-white jury likely to hear racial fight case in Louisiana

The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

JENA, Louisiana: An all-white jury was seated Tuesday to hear the case against the first of the “Jena Six” — a group of black youths accused of beating a white fellow student amid racial discord at a Louisiana school.

Five women and a man will hear opening arguments Wednesday morning at the courthouse in LaSalle Parish, Louisiana, where the black population is only about 12 percent.

…

The approaching trial had led to allegations of racism from parents of the accused, who said the original charges — attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder — were out of proportion to the crime. The charges carry a combined sentence of 80 years.

….

The racial tension began in late August in Jena — a central Louisiana town of 2,900 with about 350 black residents — after a black student sat under a tree traditionally used as a gathering spot by white students. The next month, three nooses were hanging in the tree when students arrived on campus.

….

The school’s principal recommended the students who hung the nooses be expelled, but they served brief suspensions instead.

On Dec. 4, Justin Barker, who is white, was attacked at school by a small group of black students. He was treated at a hospital.

RIAA Victim Goes RICO On Their Asses.

No Comments

Here’s hoping that the RIAA gets really shafted.

RIAA tried to shake down 10-year-old daughter, suit claims
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Published Wednesday 27th June 2007 18:45 GMT

An unemployed single mom with health problems has renewed her legal challenge of the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) with unseemly new details. They include accusations that the cartel’s goons tried to contact the woman’s 10-year-old daughter at school by impersonating the girl’s grandmother on the phone.

RIAA agents pursuing bogus copyright violations also called the apartment of Tanya Andersen looking for her daughter Kylee and demanded they take the girl’s deposition, according to a complaint filed last week in federal court in Portland, Oregon.

Later, during settlement discussions, the RIAA told Andersen she had to abandon all legal rights she may have in a countersuit or the association would once again demand to “interrogate and confront her little girl at the offices of the RIAA lawyers,” according to the suit.

This crosses so many lines, both ethically and legally.

“Defendants’ lawyer threatened persecution of Kylee in an effort to force Ms. Andersen to abandon her counterclaims against the defendant record companies,” Andersen’s complaint claims. “Their demand for face-to-face confrontation with Ms. Andersen’s then 10 year-old child in a deposition at the offices of RIAA lawyers were also intended to coerce and threaten her.”

She going RICO on all this. I hope that some goes Abu Ghraib on these bastards.

Careful readers will remember Andersen, now 44 years old, countersued the RIAA (http://www.theregister.com/2005/10/04/riaa_sued/) in late 2005 after being accused of illegally downloading gangster rap tunes such as “Shake that Ass Bitch,” “Bullet in the Head,” “I Stab People” and several with titles that even we cannot publish.

Her counterclaims equated the RIAA to thugs that knowingly employed illegal investigative methods and pursued factually flawed charges. Suing under state and federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization laws designed to target organized crime rings, Andersen became something of a folk hero for her refusal to submit to the 800-pound gorilla.

…

Wanker of the Day: Patent Troll Edition.

3 Comments

Daniel Leckrone, the Chairman of TPL Group.

The TPL Group describes itself as:

TPL has been “purpose built” to deliver an array of services that are fundamental to streamlining the development and commercialization of proprietary products and technologies. By consistently delivering innovation and opportunity, TPL has earned a reputation of being a trusted partner that can enable constructive licensing programs as well as new product development programs that leverage the IP assets within its patent portfolios.

These folks are patent trolls, and Mr. Leckrone is their chief.

Misnamed Patent Reform Act would stifle innovation

By Daniel E. Leckrone
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:06/27/2007 01:31:51 AM PDT

While U.S. patent law has been effective in protecting the intellectual property of inventors, which has fueled productivity growth and the U.S. economy for more than two centuries, the so-called “Patent Reform Act” introduced in Congress this year proposes major changes to the law governing how patents are obtained and enforced. Ironically, these changes are being promoted by the most powerful and prosperous high-tech corporations – the “Patent Goliaths” – which came to power based on the patent system as it now stands.

In mounting their full-scale invasion of the territory protected by patent laws, the Goliaths continue to amass political support which, if not effectively challenged, will lead to an unwarranted degradation of the legendary patent system established by the U.S. Constitution. Even the lethargic Department of Commerce has vigorously opposed most of the sweeping changes proposed by this act, as the Department of Commerce explained in its recent 11-page letter to House Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman, a lead sponsor of this misguided legislative effort.

….

The author is a patent troll, and he has an interest in keeping his “automatic injunction” shakedown legal.

The rise of patent trolls, in mobile phones, internet connectivity, etc. the Euros and Japanese are increasingly eating out lunch. You can’t make a move in the US these days without getting approval from lawyers.

It not only prevents innovation generally, it makes it prohibitively expensive for the small inventor to actually bring a product to market, because of fears that it might violate a undeveloped, and frequently completely obvious, patent held by the parasites.

There is no need for an injunction with patent trolls. They have no intention of developing a market, they are just getting money for someone else’s work.

This means that they can be made whole at any time by damages with interest.

There is no irreparable damage, so no need for an injunction.

Of course, this means that any company can tell the patent troll to take it to court rather than paying their blackmail, and this is what he fears.