SimpleTracking provides an RSS feed to track your UPS - USPS - FedX - DHL package! No more periodic visits to the UPS site to see where your package lives in realspace. All you need is the tracking number and a working e-mail address (where they will send your RSS feed URL) as well as an RSS reader.
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On the heels of claims that Sony’s DRM software is malware comes this news: an allegation that the software is "’infringing the copyright of several open source projects," according to reknowned hacker Jon Lech Johansen. According to Reuters, Thomas Dullien from Sabre Security, concurs: "We can confirm that at least five functions in the XCP software are
identical to functions in LAME." LAME is an open source MP3 player; the 49 Sony titles force Windows consumers to use a built-in music player to listen to the CD.
I was poking around the Apple Store, looking at the new iPod, when I noticed this: "USB 1.1 and 2.0 through integrated USB connector." What? No Firewire? I quickly did a web check — USB v Firewire — to try to refresh my memory as to the differences. Ah, yes, USB 2.0 is supposed to be slightly faster than Firewire (on paper) but often isn’t in reality. Then I found this at MacInTouch:
I just discovered Circuit City’s "buy-it-online, pick it up in 24 minutes" promo…. just in time for the holidays. From the website: "When you arrive at the store, follow the signs with the 24/24 Pickup Guarantee logo to the in-store pickup area…. Your In-Store Pickup can be picked up anytime during regular Circuit City store hours, and the 24/24 Pickup Guarantee will apply to purchases made up to 30 minutes before closing." This holiday season, it’s likely the lines will be shorter here than at the regular registers. Next year? All bets are off!
Paul Andrews discusses the pros-and-cons of Google Print — from the point of view of an author — in today’s Seattle Times column. Google "argues that indexing books and displaying excerpts are legal procedures
akin to quotes in reviews and do not require publishers’ permission."
As an author of two books, though, I’m not sure I want to be suing
Google. Every writer wants his or her work to be read. But to be read,
a work needs to be found. Digital search is fast becoming the de facto
way to be found.
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Despite spending untold millions on new voting equipment, the 2004
election had both real and potential error, according to a recent GAO
report. Moreover, due to January deadlines and little government
guidance for localities, the situation is unlikely to improve for 2006,
because local governments are required to have an electronic voting
machine at every polling place after 1 Jan 2006, according to ComputerWorld.
Word of the 21 October
GAO report about security problems surrounding electronic voting in the
2004 election is slowly making its way through the blogosphere, having
been thoroughly ignored
by the mainstream media. GAO - in a damning but understated manner -
reports that in 2004 “[c]ast ballots, ballot definition files, and
audit logs could be modified” (p 2). Specifically (p 7):
(1) some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast
ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without
being detected; (2) it was possible to alter the files that define how
a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be
recorded for a different candidate; and (3) vendors installed
uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level.
kegill
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