12 Jan 2005
Supreme Court: Sentencing Rules Not Mandatory

What a concept: we're going to let judges judge again! The complaints that this leads to a disparity in senteces are a red herring: of course there's a disparity in sentences between cases, because no two cases are identical. The the criminals aren't the same person, and the crimes have different circumstances, why should senteces for guilt be expected to be identical?

Reuters - A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that federal judges no longer have to abide by the controversial 18-year-old sentencing guidelines.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Security researcher to be jailed for finding bugs in software?

I wonder if the idiots clamoring for more stringent copyright (and patent) protection have ever thought about this scenerio?

On second thought, maybe they have. Maybe that's why they want stronger protection for their flawed products. Hmmmm...

A French security researcher who published exploit codes that could take advantage of bugs in an anti-virus application, could be imprisoned for violation of copyright laws.

(link) [ZD Net Australia]

via

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Floor buffer sucked into MRI machine

Oops ...

An expensive MRI machine at Virginia Mason Medical Center sustained at least $200,000 in damage when a metal floor buffer was mistakenly placed nearby and was sucked in by the machine's powerful magnets, a television station reports.

(link) [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

00:00 /Humor | 1 comment | permanent link