14 Jul 2007
Indiana Allows BP To Pollute Lake Michigan

On Slashdot, of all places. I'm ashamed to be a Hoosier - and I know who's ultimately responsible.

An anonymous reader writes "Indiana regulators exempted BP from state environmental laws to clear the way for a $3.8 billion expansion that will allow the company to refine heavier Canadian crude oil. They justified the move in part by noting the project will create 80 new jobs. The company will now be allowed to dump an average of 1,584 pounds of ammonia and 4,925 pounds of sludge into Lake Michigan every day."

(link) [Slashdot]

22:21 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Will Microsoft Put The Colonel in the Kernel?

See my previous post - what are these idiots in Redmond thinking?

The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted advertising as 'part of the OS.' Microsoft, who once teamed with law enforcement to protect consumers from unwanted advertising, goes on to boast that the invention can 'take steps to verify ad consumption,' be used to block ads from competitors, and even sneak a peek at 'user document files, user e-mail files, user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, [and] computer status messages' to deliver more tightly targeted ads.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:33 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Vista Makes Forensic PC Exam Easier for Lawyers

One more reason for not "upgrading".

Jason Krause, a legal affairs writer for the American Bar Association's 'ABA Journal' reports in the July issue that Windows Vista will be a boon for those looking for forensic evidence of wrongdoing on defendants' PC's and a nightmare for defendants who hoped their past computer activities would not be revealed. Krause quotes attorney R. Lee Barrett, 'From a [legal] defense perspective, [Vista] scares me to death. One of the things I have a hard time educating my clients on is the volume of data that's now discoverable.' This is primarily attributable to Shadow Copy, TxF and Instant Search.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:28 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link