Dvorak News Blog

Busted! Governator’s Wife Defies Hubby’s Ban on Cell Phone Chatting While Driving

By McCullough Wednesday October 14, 2009

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS) ― California first lady Maria Shriver was caught chatting on her cell phone while driving, an illegal move based on a legislation her husband Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling out his wife, Maria Shriver, for apparently violating a state law he signed — holding her cell phone while driving. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs Tuesday showing Shriver holding a phone to her ear while she’s behind the wheel. It says one was snapped Sunday and the other in July. The Web site claimed that this was not the first time California’s first lady was caught chatting on her cell while driving.

On his Twitter feed Tuesday, Schwarzenegger wrote to TMZ.com founder Harvey Levin: “Thanks for bringing her violations to my attention. There’s going to be swift action.” Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says that by “swift action,” the governor means he’ll ask his wife not to hold the phone while driving. A law that took effect in 2008 requires California drivers to use a handsfree device.

I think she deserves a public spanking.

When is a secret not a secret? On Twitter!

By Eideard Wednesday October 14, 2009

12 Comments

Toxic law on behalf of toxic corporations

An unprecedented attempt by a British oil trading firm to prevent the Guardian reporting parliamentary proceedings collapsed today following a spontaneous online campaign to spread the information the paper had been barred from publishing.

Carter-Ruck, the law firm representing Trafigura, was accused of infringing the supremacy of parliament after it insisted that an injunction obtained against the Guardian prevented the paper from reporting a question tabled on Monday by the Labour MP Paul Farrelly…

In today’s edition, the Guardian was prevented from identifying Farrelly, reporting the nature of his question, where the question could be found, which company had sought the gag, or even which order was constraining its coverage.

Having a lifetime of experience with the absence of freedom in lands which perpetually pat themselves on the back – for being free – I didn’t pay much attention to the earlier article.

STOP SHOUTING! The Bill To Limit Too Loud TV Commercials

By Uncle Dave Wednesday October 14, 2009

50 Comments

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wants the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to act—against loud commercials. Her “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act’ has just cleared a subcommittee and now moves to the full House Energy and Commerce committee for a vote.

The bill is only a couple hundred words long. It directs the FCC to come up with regulations so that:

* Advertisements accompanying such video programming shall not be excessively noisy or strident
* Such advertisements shall not be presented at modulation levels substantially higher than the program material that such advertisements accompany
* The average maximum loudness of such advertisements shall not be substantially higher than the average maximum loudness of the program material that such advertisements accompany

Found by Brother Uncle Don.

Statistics Save Us Again From An Asteroid In 2036! Hoooray!!!

By Uncle Dave Wednesday October 14, 2009

19 Comments

I feel so relieved.

Researchers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said asteroid Apophis has just a four in a million chance of hitting Earth, while previous estimates of impact were pegged at one in 45,000.

Apophis has been on the minds of astronomers since 2004, when there was a 2.7% chance of impact in 2029 — the asteroid has a diameter almost three football fields in diameter. Given its size, it’s significantly smaller than the six-mile-wide asteroid believed to have impacted Earth and eliminated dinosaur life on the planet.

After the threat of a 2029 impact was reduced, astronomers believed 2036 is the most likely year it could hit our planet.

According to the calculations calculated by the University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope and 90-inch Bok telescope, Apophis is expected to pass within 18,000 miles of Earth in 2029.

Vote for my candidate or you’re fired!

By SN Wednesday October 14, 2009

25 Comments

Wired – October 13, 2009:

The president of a Midwest office supply company is in court after a salesman claimed the boss’ pre-election e-mail rant against Barack Obama amounted to an edict: Vote for Obama and you’re fired.

Mr. Snell was terminated for voting for his presidential candidate of choice. “Voting for a president is acting in a manner that public policy would encourage as it is similar to civic duties/opportunities such as performing jury duty, seeking public office or joining a labor union,” Snell’s lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, filed in Kansas state court Oct. 6, highlights that there is no federal statute directly protecting private workers from being retaliated for their votes. “There’s not really a federal statute that would cover this. It’s just not there. It has to be a public policy argument that is covered by state law,” said Snell’s attorney, Lawrence Williamson of Kansas.

Jon Stewart asks: Why does CNN fact-check an SNL skit, but not real news sources!?

By SN Tuesday October 13, 2009

35 Comments

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

CNN Leaves It There

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Ron Paul Interview

Here’s some YouTube links for those living outside the US.

He’s BACK!

By Marc Perkel Tuesday October 13, 2009

32 Comments

He was gone 3 days. Last evening he showed up and he was hungry. Today we had the big rain storm and he was staying in his new tree most of the day but he heard me talking outside and he came up to me in the rain. I took him and his squirrel hive I made him inside and he has a warm dry place to spend the night.

Patch Tuesday Record

By John C Dvorak Tuesday October 13, 2009

5 Comments

Intel stock goes up.
MSFT sets patch Tuesday record.
iPhone starts car.
12-year olds love Steve Jobs.
Look for the Ophone.
MySpace goes gah-gah over SSD.
Nokia down. I explain why.

click ► to listen:

Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.

California’s New “Cool Car” Requirements Interferes With Cell Phones, Radios, GPS, etc.

By Uncle Dave Tuesday October 13, 2009

32 Comments

A different kind of cool car that won’t pass the requirement. Girl not included.

California’s latest requirement for the auto industry — advanced window glazing to keep vehicles cooler — could prevent drivers from making phone calls, listening to satellite radio or using garage door openers.

It also could lead Chrysler Group LLC to stop selling its soft-top convertible Jeep Wrangler in the Golden State. The standard for sunroofs is so tough that automakers warn the glass would have to be “effectively black.”

The California Air Resources Board has adopted a new “Cool Cars” regulation ordering advanced glazing of windows to block the sun’s heat and reduce the need for air conditioning. Windows must be coated with microscopic specks of metal oxide to reflect sunlight.

Advocates say the requirements will reduce the temperature inside vehicles, saving gasoline and cutting greenhouse gases.
[…]
They noted that “ankle bracelets for parolees,” along with cell phone calls and laptops, “may be adversely affected by the metallic reflective standard” because the signals “must be able to penetrate the glazing in vehicles.”

Garmin’s initial testing said the signals from GPS devices were degraded.

Major automakers, led by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, argued for a different standard that would “absorb” rather than “reflect” energy and wouldn’t risk wireless signals.

So goes California, so goes the nation. Eventually. Especially with an environment President in the WH.

Brit Driver in Hot Water for Drenching Kids at Bus Stop

By McCullough Tuesday October 13, 2009

17 Comments

Come on… you know you’d want to. Now get those kids off my curb!!!

One phrase Obama can’t do without

By John C Dvorak Tuesday October 13, 2009

24 Comments

Hilarious anti-divorce ad

By Jacob Galt Tuesday October 13, 2009

20 Comments

I can’t understand why would anyone be against divorce. By the way, this is fake — funny anyway.

2 Dead 19 Injured in Sedona Arizona Sweatlodge

By McCullough Tuesday October 13, 2009

25 Comments

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

MSNBC– A sweat lodge outside Sedona, Ariz., where two people were overcome and later died and 19 others fell ill lacked the necessary building permit, an official said Monday.At any one time, 55 to 65 people attending the “Spiritual Warrior” program hosted by self-help expert and author James Arthur Ray were crowded into the 415-square-foot space during a two-hour period Thursday night, Yavapai County sheriff’s officials said. Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee died after being overcome in the sauna-like hut, which was built specifically for the five-day retreat. Nineteen other people were hospitalized with symptoms ranging from dehydration to kidney failure. One remained in critical condition Monday, and two others were in fair condition.

WTF? People pay $9000 a week to sit in a steam-filled tent with a bunch of smelly people? Ever heard of a gym?

Cyberwarfare — Are We Going About It The Wrong Way?

By Uncle Dave Tuesday October 13, 2009

14 Comments

On the other hand, if you got a bunch of 10-year old script kiddies together they could probably do some interesting hacking. Between milk and cookie breaks, of course.

Be ready for both defense and offense. Cover all routes of attack. Practice careful surveillance. All of these would seemingly be logical paradigms for our nation’s cybersecurity efforts. However, a new report takes a different bent and says that the nation shouldn’t make cybersecurity its top priority and instead should focus on reallocating limited resources to defence of critical infrastructure.

The new report from the RAND Corporation (pdf) says that electric power, telephone service, banking, and military command and control in the U.S. are all accessible and able to be attacked from the internet.
[…]
Martin C. Libicki, the report’s lead author and senior management scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization, adds, “Adversaries in future wars are likely to go after each other’s information systems using computer hacking. The lessons from traditional warfare cannot be adapted to apply to attacks on computer networks. Cyberspace must be addressed in its own terms.”
[…]
According to the report, military networks should be top priority when it comes to defense, as attacks on military networks are potentially the most potent. They describe a hypothetical scenario in which an enemy could silence missile defenses of a nation and then pound its critical targets with rockets.

The report says that offensive cyberwarfare is largely useless as it tends to bother, but not generally disarm adversaries.

Apple Admits Snow Leopard Bug Just Might Eat All of Your Data… Yikes!

By McCullough Tuesday October 13, 2009

33 Comments

Apple has admitted that its latest operating system Snow Leopard harbours a bug that can accidentally delete data belonging to the computer’s owner.

The problem occurs when some users who upgraded to the Snow Leopard – which was released at the end of August – log into a “guest” account on their machines. When they log back in under their own name, all of the files in their home directory – such as documents, music and videos – have been deleted. One of the customer reports in the Apple discussion forum, “I had the guest account enabled on my MBP – I accidentally clicked on that when I went to log in. It took a few minutes to log in then after I had logged out of that account and back into mine my enter home directory had been wiped. All of doc, musics, etc gone.”

Another user raises two issues with the Snow Leopard — Home folder lost – user account restored to default. He states: I installed SL last weekend, no major problems but many annoying bugs. This morning when I woke up the computer had hung – screen saver was frozen. I held down the power key to shutdown. Turned the computer back on, clicked on my user account icon, and it was like I’d just picked up a new computer… my home folder had been replaced with a “straight out of the box” home folder. Standard desktop, standard dock, nothing in my documents folder, standard library. My entire home folder is gone.

The partition where my home folder lives is now virtually empty. I used stellar pheonix to try to recover the files from my home folder, but it did not find them as lost not as deleted files. It gave me the option of recovering about 40GB of deleted files, but they were legitimately deleted files.

Nice! Although I do have little sympathy for people who would apply a major upgrade without a backup.