Sounds like Mission Impossible is getting ready to strike...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080112113408167

Laptop, gear stolen from haz-mat truck

Saturday, January 12 2008 @ 11:34 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A county hazardous-materials-response truck was burglarized last month, resulting in the loss of $35,000 in equipment, including a laptop with phone numbers of 1,000 employees.

No suspects have been identified, and the items, which included lists of the hazardous materials on-site at every San Diego business, plus breathing apparatus and a county officer badge, have not been recovered.

County official Nick Vent said he did not think the theft posed a security threat because access to the laptop's haz-mat lists requires passwords. [Stupid or incredibly naive? Bob]

...The burglary occurred about 4 a.m. on Dec. 9 in La Mesa. A county environmental health specialist parked the truck about 200 yards from his home, Vent said. The burglars smashed through a window and stole nearly everything inside the truck, including two radios, a digital camera, a uniform, and keys to other haz-mat vehicles and a chemical testing lab.

According to a La Mesa Police report, about 750 keys were stolen from the truck. But Vent said that only about 10 keys were stolen, including those for three of the county's five haz-mat trucks and a chemical lab. Locks for the trucks and the lab were changed the following day, Vent said.

Source - SignOnSanDiego

So much for getting your fact straight...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/13/0259216&from=rss

Student Expelled For Facebook Photo Description

Posted by kdawson on Sunday January 13, @07:58AM from the what-is-this-privacy-of-which-you-speak dept. Censorship Education

flutterecho writes "A sophomore at Valdosta State University was expelled after criticizing his university's plan to build two new parking garages with student fees. In a letter apparently slipped under his dorm room door, Ronald Zaccari, the university's president, wrote that he 'present[ed] a clear and present danger to this campus' and referred to an image on the student's Facebook page which contained a threatening description. 'As additional evidence of the threat posed by Barnes, the document referred to a link he posted to his Facebook profile whose accompanying graphic read: "Shoot it. Upload it. Get famous. Project Spotlight is searching for the next big thing. Are you it?" It doesn't mention that Project Spotlight was an online digital video contest and that "shoot" in that context meant "record."' In a post-Virginia Tech world, has university surveillance of online identities gone too far?"

All the earmarks of a Soprano-like scheme...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/01/13/courts_strip_elders_of_their_independence/

Courts strip elders of their independence

Within minutes, judges send seniors to supervised care.

By Jeff Kelly, Maggie Kowalski, and Candice Novak Globe Correspondents / January 13, 2008

Should be an interesting read...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/12/2126223&from=rss

EFF Takes On RIAA "Making Available" Theory

Posted by kdawson on Saturday January 12, @05:21PM from the lending-a-welcome-hand dept. The Courts Music

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Atlantic v. Howell, the Phoenix, Arizona, case in which a defendant who has no legal representation has been battling the RIAA over its theory that merely 'making files available for distribution' is in and of itself a copyright infringement, Mr. Howell has received some help from an outside source. On the last day allowed for the filing of supplemental briefs, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief agreeing with Mr. Howell, and refuting the RIAA's motion for summary judgment. The brief (PDF), which is recommended reading for anyone who wants to know what US copyright law really says, points out that 'contrary to Plaintiffs' arguments, an infringement of the distribution right requires the unauthorized, actual dissemination of copies of a copyrighted work.' This is the same case in which the RIAA claimed that Mr. Howell's MP3s, copied from his CDs, were themselves unlawful."

A PR site for the YouTube age. (Want to be seen as an expert?)

http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/ClipSyndicatecom---News-You-Choose/

ClipSyndicate.com - News You Choose

News junkies, producers, and broadcasters alike will love what ClipSyndicate has to offer. It’s the latest video-sharing content site with a focus on news and video news syndication. With ClipSyndicate, everyone profits. ClipSyndicate provides video content producers, advertisers and web publishers an appealing package. Partnering with more than 350 video producers and 250 TV network affiliates such as Bloomberg TV and AP, ClipSyndicate lets your content be seen by thousands and it offers you a new way to generate revenue. Have media you want broadcasted? ClipSyndicate will syndicate your clips to thousands of vertical websites, garnering you a larger audience and a significant increase in ad revenue. Advertisers have the opportunity to reach an engaged audience through specific targeted ads. Web publishers can use ClipSyndicate to find content relevant to their website. ClipSyndicate will store and serve the video, as well as offer headlines and news summaries. Currently in beta, ClipSyndicate is free to use.

http://www.clipsyndicate.com/

[Bob's video pick: http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish/video/373257/how_to_pair_wine_and_chocolate ]

Innovative archive?

http://www.whatpc.co.uk/information-world-review/features/2206817/archive-gripping-3711897

An archive as gripping as it is good

The Economist has shown how backfile digitisation should be done. Mark Chillingworth hits the search button

Mark Chillingworth, Information World Review 07 Jan 2008

Geek out, dudes!

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/12/1846256&from=rss

SimCity Source Code Is Now Open

Posted by kdawson on Saturday January 12, @03:01PM from the but-you-can't-call-it-that dept. Programming Games

Tolkien writes "Source code for SimCity has been released under the GPLv3. For legal reasons the open source version was renamed Micropolis, which was apparently the original working title. The OLPC will also be getting a SimCity branded version that has been QA'ed by Electronic Arts. Some very cool changes have been made by Don Hopkins, who updated and ported what is now Micropolis. (Here is an earlier Slashdot discussion kicked off by a submission Don made.) Among other things, it has been revamped from the original C to using C++ with Python. Here is the page linking all the various source code versions. Happy hacking!"