http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/09/1450257&from=rss
The Science of eBay
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 09, @12:38PM from the on-the-auction-block dept. The Almighty Buck Businesses
PreacherTom writes "Professors of marketing, economics, management, and psychology have published dozens of papers to try to explain how and why eBay users buy and sell online. At the same time, there is no shortage of people offering helpful hints online. Kerry Miller takes a novel approach, offering 10 tips to maximize your profit that are based on a summary of these scientific analyses, rather than just 'educated' guessing."
Perhaps this site will give us the first indication of voting machine fraud...
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/09/176227&from=rss
Electoral-Vote.com Returns for 2006 Elections
Posted by Zonk on Saturday September 09, @02:26PM from the vote-early-vote-often dept. United States Politics
Klaus writes "In the 2004 Presidential race, the website electoral-vote.com tracked individual state polls, providing a map of the changing political scene. The map, updated daily, was a phenomenal success. The site is back for the 2006 Congressional elections. It is providing descriptions of the top 40 House races, and all 33 Senate races, as well as valuable information for prospective voters." 
What (if anything) were these people thinking?
http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1553329
27B Stroke 6
by Ryan Singel and Kevin Poulsen Friday, 8 September 2006
A guy who identifies himself as Jason Fortuny, a 30 year old network administrator, posted a graphic ad on Seattle's Craigslist, pretending to be a woman wanting some BDSM sex.
Not surprisingly, many men responded, many with photos and more than a few with pics of their genitals.
Some used their work accounts, provided their real names and gave out their cellphone numbers. One looks to be a contractor for Microsoft, while another used a .mil address to reply.
Fortuny, whose MySpace profile says he likes to "push people's buttons" then posted all the photos and correspondence on what may be the web's lamest wiki, Encyclopedia Dramatica.
Judging from the comments in his LiveJournal page, Fortuny seems not to realize or pretends not to realize that his prank may cost people their jobs and possibly, their marriages (if you really want to see the pics and original ad, click on the first link in that post).
He also doesn't seem to get that he's opened himself up to huge civil lawsuits under Washington law.
These aren't prominent people, there weren't breaking the law and there's no news value in posting their identifying information. There'd hardly be any value in posting the stuff even with the information removed and faces blurred on the photos, but there might be some -- if only as a warning to naive people.
And I hope Fortuny does get sued.
At first I thought of this "prank" as frat boy boorishness, but its worse than that.
It's sociopathic.
My sympathies to the guys who responded and take note -- any of you out there -- anything you divulge over email can come back to haunt you, even when divulging that information is illegal.
If you want to respond to personal ads on the internet, use a non-work address and be discreet until you are certain you can trust the other person.
And, just a note about people who say they "like to push other people's buttons" and who are prone to writing things like "See, I get away with everything I do because I understand how the system works. You sit there frustrated and bitter at people like me because, try as you might, you just can't get past yourself. And you can't see how it's possible to be like me, and that just eats you up inside."
People like that aren't charming or funny.
They're narcissistic sociopaths. In this case, a narcissistic sociopath who doesn't yet realize he needs a good lawyer.
Why? Is the EU moving to common laws at that level?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012398.html
September 08, 2006
English Version of German Civil Code Available Free Online
As posted by Marci Hoffman today, "The German Federal Ministry of Justice has commissioned a translation of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (or BGB), the civil code of Germany. The translation can be downloaded free of charge here."
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012400.html
September 08, 2006
EPIC, Privacy International Publish 2005 Privacy and Human Rights Report
"EPIC, Privacy International Publish 2005 Privacy and Human Rights Report: The 1,200 page report [Could you summarize? Bob] explores privacy developments around the globe and provides detailed information on emerging privacy topics." [Link]
Use of DRM reduces sales. What else do you need to know? (Sony should have read this...)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012405.html
September 08, 2006
Proposed Framework For Evaluating Digital Rights Management
CDT press release: "Evaluating DRM: Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World" tackles the complicated subject of copyright protection technology, offering a clear set of metrics for consumers and product reviewers to consider when evaluating DRM-protected devices and services. The goal of the paper is to educate users about what questions to ask to determine how various DRM applications may affect their ability to use movies, music, games and other media."
Evaluating DRM: Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World, September 2006 (25 pages, PDF)
It didn't take long for consumers to determine they don't like this... Note to Amazon: Yes there are a bunch of stupid consumers (Half the world is below average) but they aren't the ones who hire the lawyers...
Amazon Spends Over A Year Developing Movie Download Service Then Shackles It With Absurd Restrictions
September 08th, 2006
... In what must be the scariest license agreement in years, Amazon is requiring an amazing amount of control over your computer if you want to use Unbox. According to the license agreement:
You must install any software patch Amazon releases or you can no longer watch movies you have already purchased. Imagine if you couldn’t watch DVDs anymore unless you agreed to let Sony poke around inside your DVD player anytime it wanted.
You must agree to let Unbox report what movies you watch back to Amazon without notice.
If you try to uninstall Amazon’s Unbox player for any reason, Amazon has the right to automatically delete all of your movies without notice to you.
You have to agree to let Amazon spam your computer with “promotional downloads” that appear unsolicted in your Unbox player. You also have to agree to let Amazon delete these promotional downloads from your computer without notice.
Amazon can discontinue the Unbox service at any time without liability. What happens to all the movies you bought then?
Amazon can change the terms of the agreement at any time and you must agree to the changes or you lose the right to continue watching all of the movies you bought.
Yes, you read that right. You have to pay just as much money to build an Unbox video library as it would cost to build a DVD library, but you can lose the whole library at Amazon’s whim with no recourse.
Somehow I don’t think this is going to be the hit service Amazon that hopes it will be.
Ditto
http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6636289.html?subj=blog&part=rss&tag=6636289
My fight with Amazon Unbox
Posted by: Tom Merritt September 08, 2006, 10:04 AM PDT
... So, in summary, to be allowed the privilege of purchasing a video that I can't burn to DVD and can't watch on my iPod, I have to allow a program to hijack my start-up and force me to login to uninstall it? No way. Sorry, Amazon. I love a lot of what you do, but I will absolutely not recommend this service. Try again. For more details and a rating of Amazon Unbox, check back for James Kim's full review. Update: I received an email from Sheila at DV guru saying that she hadn't had to log in to Amazon to uninstall. On a hunch, I reinstalled Unbox and this time allowed ADVWindowsClientService.exe to access the Internet when prompted by my firewall. This time when I uninstalled, I was not prompted to login. So ADVWindowsClientService.exe is connecting to the Net without your knowledge, even when uninstalling.
Would this be considered weak encryption today? (Yes. Maybe it would work with more rotors than characters in the message?)
http://digg.com/gadgets/Enigma_Machine_Made_with_Flash
Enigma Machine (Made with Flash)
spencewah submitted by spencewah 10 hours 32 minutes ago (via http://enigmaco.de/index-enigma.html )
An online version of the German cryptographic wonder, the Enigma machine. Complete with graphics that show what is happening inside!
No comments:
Post a Comment