To display the most relevant entries to you in priority,
vote for the stories you are interested in
()
and reject those that you are not interested in
()
BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets
Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other
sensitive information.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets
Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other
sensitive information.
Lon S. Cohen is a freelance writer and is @obilon on Twitter. He’s also the Director
of Communications at @ALSofGNY. This
post was co-authored by Steve Cohen, who is the Founder of Baywood Consulting Group and the
former CIO of M&T Bank. He can be contacted at baywoodconsultinggroup@gmail.com.
From felons on Facebook to tips through Twitter, social media is being used more and more by law
enforcement agencies, and not just to fight Internet-related crimes. We’re talking about
solving crimes that are happening on the street and in your community.
According to Lauri Stevens, founder of LAwS Communications and organizer of the SMILE (Social Media In Law Enforcement)
Conference being held in Washington D.C. this April, adoption of social media is still in the
“very, very, early stages,” but she sees it making an upward turn. “I expect
2010 will be a monumental year,” she said.
But many police departments that have embraced social media are still trying to figure it out.
“Most agencies … are not significantly proactive with keeping up with content and
updates,” said Terry Halsch from CitizenObserver.com, developers of the tip411 system for police agencies.
“There are some limitations because of uncertainty of how secure information is, how can it
be efficiently maintained, [and] the risks and liabilities of entering the world of social
media.”
Below are six different ways law enforcement is utilizing social media and real-time search to
enhance tactics, disseminate public information, and ultimately prevent criminal activity.
1. Police Blotter Blogs
A police blotter is the record of events at a police station. Traditionally, a desk sergeant kept
a register of these events. Nowadays, Twitter feeds, blogs, YouTube, and Facebook Fan Pages are being used by captains and
chiefs to put out the digital equivalent of the police blotter in real-time.
Publishing a register of crimes and arrests in an area has been an online activity for a while
now, especially through local newspaper websites. But social media is allowing many police
officers on the scene to report the publicly available details of a crime for themselves.
Reporters are getting their facts directly from a stream of real time-data and blog posts coming
from the department.
Individual cops aren’t about to turn into citizen journalists anytime soon, but the police
are able, through social media and real-time updates, to provide essential information that the
public and news gathering agencies need to know. Journalists today often use the web for their
first line of research, and rely on web-based police reports for many of the details they need
for a story.
“We don’t just release the police report; we write our own story and post it to our
website,” said Mark Economou, the Public Information Manager for the Boca Raton Police
Department in Boca Raton, Florida in a post on ConnectedCops.com. “Even more interesting, we are finding the media is
just cutting and pasting our stories to their sites, both in television and print.”
The Boca Raton Police Department has developed their own branded web platform that they call
Viper. Social media is a very important
part of their strategy, and like anyone adopting social media into a plan, they use it to support
and enhance the work they already do.
2. The Digital “Wanted Poster”
In the vein of an Old West “Wanted” poster, displayed in the most trafficked area of
town, modern-day law enforcement agencies are posting descriptions of criminals on today’s
most trafficked spots — namely the social web.
With millions of users, extraordinary reach, and the lightning-fast exchange of text, photos, and
video, platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are ideal for getting the word out about
wanted persons with up-to-the-minute updates.
The Boynton Beach Police Department is a good example. On their Facebook Fan Page, the department put up a post with the
headline, “Police need help identifying motorcyclist who robbed man at ATM.” In the
post there was a photo from the ATM machine of the crime in progress. The department also
cross-posted the information to their Twitter page.
In the UK, the Leicestershire
Constabulary is one of a number of police departments focusing on being hyper-local and
involved with the community through social media. Their website has a section titled
“Can you help?”
which is formatted like a blog, and contains posts about ongoing criminal investigations, and a
“Wanted Poster” and “Missing Persons” area with photos and requests for
residents to respond with any leads they might have.
The stories are also fed to a Facebook Page that is very interactive and updated constantly. They also maintain a
Twitter profile, a YouTube account, and the department
offers the ability to subscribe to their news feed via RSS. It’s an impressive mixture of
social media tools that seems to work fluidly and update automatically.
3. Anonymous E-Tipsters
Tips from the community have been a time-honored way that citizens have worked with the public to
fight crime.
Consulting companies are developing very sophisticated ways for the public and the police to
interact online. The tip411 program
developed by the CitizenObserver Corporation is marketed to law enforcement as a web-based
notification toolset. Citizen participation has always been a big part of fighting crime, and the
people at tip411 stress that social media “acts as a ‘force
multiplier’ by empowering your community to get involved.”
“Anonymous text tip systems are gaining significant traction because they enable young
people to provide information without fear of retribution, i.e. ‘Snitches get
Snitches,’” said CitizenObserver’s Terry Halsch.
The program allows tipsters to send information anonymously through a variety of means including
“anonymous web chat, text tips and secure social media publishing.” Filtered alerts
can then be pushed out through a police department’s central location to other web mediums.
Bundled with other offerings, tip411 can then be published with Google Maps to create a clickable, interactive crime
“heat map” of sorts where others can click on links directly to add more information
and tips based on location. This program is meant to encourage increased interaction between the
police and the community through real-time web tools.
“It doesn’t matter to us where the information comes from,” said
Detroit’s Chief of Police, Warren Evans, a tip411 user. “We just want the information
so we can act on it. I want people to know that they can feel safe using this system to
communicate with us directly.”
4. Social Media Stakeout
Social media advocates stress listening as a part of any brand’s online marketing strategy.
Listening to the bad guys doing bad things has always been a part of police work. It’s
important for police to search the real-time web to target particular keywords and phrases being
passed around on social media. Use of social media monitoring has a strategic, tactical and
operational application for law enforcement.
Boston Police Department Superintendent John Daly spoke about using Twitter search to monitor
chatter around the Boston area in real-time. He’s very sensitive to the implications of
engaging in this type of search, as many police departments are.
“We have to be very careful because there’s a Big Brother aspect to this,” Daly
said.
He stressed that they were not looking at “everyday messages,” as he put it, but
specific tweets that signaled something they should be looking into.
“But when people start saying, ‘What’s that smoke coming from the Hancock
Tower?’ or ‘Why is everybody running around Copley Place –- is
something going on?’ — if two or three things come in we look at patterns, trends,
something maybe we should be paying attention [to]. So it’s sort of an early warning
system.”
5. Thwarting Thugs in the Social Space
Myspace, Facebook and Twitter are popular with gang members, and police use this to their
advantage. Law enforcement has been able to infiltrate street gangs by posing as fellow gang
members online, making connections, and intercepting criminal communications as they happen.
Information like photos, videos, and friend links help law enforcement understand the dynamics of
gangs when investigating their activities.
“Investigators build phony profiles to ‘friend’ gang members either
within YouTube, Facebook or Bebo, and then may migrate that friendship to another platform and
gain trust and get their ‘friends’ to share useful information,”
said SMILE conference organizer Lauri Stevens.
According to an article in 219magazine, police in Cincinnati used Facebook and MySpace to
follow more than 20 members of a local gang, the “Northside Taliband.” The evidence
they gathered helped law enforcement connect members to a multitude of crimes, including a
possible homicide.
Other agencies have employed these tactics as well. The NYPD is using the Internet to monitor
gang activity, as well, and in a story reported in the Daily News, cops said that gangs have been
communicating on Twitter. They think that one Twitter exchange between gang members may even have
resulted in the shooting of a youth. The police seek out code words and slang used by individual
members to follow gang members online who are organizing illegal activities.
“It is another tool … just like old phone records,” a police source said in the
article.
6. Tracking and Informing with Twitter
As we all know, Twitter has plenty of uses for individuals and companies. Law enforcement also
uses the service to communicate with the public.
Stevens told us that she follows at least 700 law enforcement agencies worldwide on Twitter
alone. Not all of them are active, but some have found unique ways to incorporate Twitter into
their police tactics. “The LAPD used Twitter to monitor crowds during the Michael Jackson
funeral,” for example, said Stevens, and the Boston Police have been using Twitter to alert
followers of evolving situations in real time.
Sergeant Tim Burrows does media relations for the traffic services unit in the Toronto Police
Service. Tim saw his traffic safety messaging hampered by the mainstream media’s editing
time lines, so he started using
Twitter to talk to the local media about ongoing situations and inform the public. He
considers his tweets about traffic safety information a valuable public service.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office took
things a step further. When the police wanted to utilize social media they, like many agencies,
felt that existing public sites were too unsecured and vulnerable for a system-wide roll out
within the department. So inspired by Twitter, the department took things into their own hands.
“CyberVisor was my vision
of Broward County Sheriff’s Office’s own controlled Twitter,” said Lynne
Martzall, External Affairs Manager, who worked with webmaster Tony Petruzzi to create it.
Since it was rolled out, CyberVisor has been used to broadcast information about unfolding
situations, such as crimes in progress, to put out information after a bank robbery and when the
Sheriff’s Office was looking for an escaped convict. For now, the public can’t
respond to CyberVisor — it’s broadcast only — but it has still be effective.
In one instance, they alerted followers to someone in South Broward County impersonating an
officer. In another, they sent out a missing child alert from a local elementary school with a
detailed description of the child’s physical appearance and where the child was last seen.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Investment news website TheStreet.com Inc said on Wednesday it was being
investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
BOSTON (Reuters) - Investment news website TheStreet.com Inc said on Wednesday it was being
investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A Boston Legal, a Las Vegas, valamint a Jesse Stone-filmek utĂĄn
ismĂŠt sorozatban szerepelhet Tom Selleck. Most
mĂĄr csak ki kell vĂĄrnia, mĂg a CBS
csatorna berendeli
kĂŠszĂźlĂľ
pilotjĂĄt.
Sprint is making the bold first move into 4G smartphone market next week, a Wall Street Journal report said today, when the company is expected to show
off the WiMAX-enabled HTC Supersonic.
The Supersonic has been a pretty big blip on the Android community's radar for several months,
after a whole list of HTC device names was uncovered in a leaked Sense UI ROM last December.
Since that time, a few more details have been discovered, and a few blurry spy camera shots and
renders have surfaced; but as far as official specs go, there are none. It looks to have the same
massive 4.3" screen that the HD2 has, run on the Android platform, and possibly contain a
Snapdragon processor.
Sprint is the only major mobile network operator with a higher-speed "4G" network immediately
available to consumers, but it is currently only accessible through USB dongles and portable
hotspots like the Sierra Wireless
Overdrive, and these are still only available in about 10 markets nationwide.
There are nearly 30 WiMAX networks active in the U.S. now under the Clear brand (a joint venture
of Sprint and Clearwire,) and this year Clearwire expects to complete 80 more cities including
major markets Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Seattle and Washington D.C.
Since Betanews is headquartered in Baltimore, we've been using Sprint's WiMAX network since it first launched in 2008. I ran a quick
test this morning to see how well the WiMAX connection holds up against my smartphones' 3G
connections, and the performance was actually only marginally better.
Using the FCC's Ookla network tester three times for each network, Sprint 4G averaged
5.35Mbps/.30Mbps with 130ms latency, Verizon 3G averaged 1.61Mbps/.65Mbps with 122ms latency, and
T-Mobile 3G averaged .5Mbps/.45Mbps with 215ms latency. Unfortunately, I didn't have a device
handy to test AT&T's speeds in the area this morning.
We will be meeting with both Sprint and HTC at CTIA next week and will be able to give you a
crystal clear look at the device if it does, in fact, show up.
For many years, we've pointed
to the fashion industry as a perfect example of how a creative industry can be incredibly
innovative and fruitful, even without copyright protections. It's a great story, and studies have
shown, in fact, that the lack of copyright protection for fashion designs has been key to the success of the industry.
There are a few reasons for this: (1) Brand recognition still matters, so people still want the
originator's work -- and thus the copies tend to spread the concept further, and actually increase
desire for the "real" version. (2) Copying of designs helps better segment the market, and actually
allows top designers to increase their prices. (3) Most importantly, the fact that copiers so
quickly copy the works of top designers means that those designers can't rest on their laurels and
have to quickly move on to next season's design. In other words, as we've seen in many other
industries, as you remove monopoly protections, the incentives to innovate actually
increase.
And there should be no question that things work fine in the fashion industry, as it is highly
competitive, with many different players, and new designs hitting the market all the
time. Considering that copyright's sole purpose is to create incentives to promote such
innovation, it's hard to see how anyone would be justified in suggesting we need a new copyright
over fashion.
And yet, as with other types of intellectual property, what happens is the incumbents all realize
that with such monopoly rights, they would be able to block competitors, slow down their rate of
innovation, and capture greater monopoly rents. So they push for them. And, tragically, politicians
have been listening. Back in 2007, a bill was introduced to add copyrights to
fashion. That bill went nowhere, but similar efforts were made in 2008 and 2009 (when designers tried to
enlist Michelle Obama to help their cause).
This year, it looks like the plan is to hide behind an economically questionable law review article put out by a Harvard law professor,
Jeannie Suk, and a Columbia law profesor, C. Scott Hemphill (who actually appears to have a degree
in economics). A bunch of folks have sent over a Boston Globe article that focuses on how Suk is helping to craft this latest attempt at adding copyright to fashion
design, using the law review article as economic proof that such a law is needed. This
is troubling, as the economics in the paper are severely lacking.
Given the success of the industry today, combined with the studies showing how it benefits from a
lack of copyright, I wanted to read the analysis to see why Suk felt so strongly about this, and I
have to say that it makes highly questionable economic arguments with no basis in fact at all.
Instead, almost every economic argument is a random assumption about things -- with provably false
statements like "Obviously, people always want to purchase inexpensive copies of creative works or
have them for free."
No, that's not obvious and it's not right. Studies have shown that people are more than willing to
pay for scarce quality -- and recent studies proving that a huge number of buyers of counterfeit
goods later buy the real
goods suggest that people have no problem paying for the authentic versions when they can. The
myth that "people just want stuff for free" has been debunked so many times, it destroys the
credibility of this paper.
But, even worse, Suk seems to base her entire argument on one simple economically-illiterate
pretense: that competition is bad, and without monopolies, people innovate less: The reduced
profits can be expected to have a negative effect on the amount of innovation; this is a standard
result of economic theory. No. No, it is not a standard result of economic theory. It
is only the result in a market that is static, in which no additional innovation can occur. But in
the real world, in a dynamic market, this is called competition and has been a part of
every "standard" economic theory since Adam Smith, who he noted that if someone is making a profit,
it will bring in competition. But this doesn't have a negative effect on the amount of innovation.
Quite the opposite. Competition drives innovation by encouraging people to come up with
something new. Monopolies decrease innovation by taking away competition and slowing down
market innovation. That is what economic theory (and reality) says.
Basically, Suk's whole position is based on the fact that the monopoly rents of designers is
decreased by a lack of copyright, but she fails to consider that this leads to greater and more
frequent innovation (which we see all the time in the market). What's even stranger is that she
flip-flops her argument in the middle of the paper. She talks repeatedly about how designers need
big profits to have the incentive to innovate, but then says that big designers aren't the ones
really threatened. Instead, she claims, it's the smaller designers. But, those designers didn't
have those big profits to protect in the first place. They're out there trying to make a name for
themselves by designing something new and cool -- so they have plenty of incentive to innovate. And
if their design this year is copied, that's great for them because it gives them
greater recognition and means the demand for their original products will be
even greater the following season.
Now, we see bad economic reasoning all the time -- but it's troubling when it comes from a Harvard
professor (law, not economics), whose mixed up work is being used as the basis of changing the law
that could seriously harm an innovative creative industry that is currently thriving.
But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially-savvy
companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job
board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space, and beyond. Have a look
at what’s good and new on our job boards:
Mashable Job Board ListingsSenior SEO Strategist at Infuse Creative in Santa Monica, CA
The Senior SEO Strategist and Provider develops and provides effective Search Engine Optimization
strategies for client websites, with the goal of generating increased targeted Web traffic and
higher lead generation.
Intermediate-Senior Social Media Specialist at Infuse Creative in Santa Monica, CA.
An Intermediate Social Media Marketing Specialist works with our search marketing and
optimization senior leads and teams as well as client agencies, support people, and in some cases
the clients themselves.
Website Project Manager at TIG Global in Chevy Chase, MD.
As a result of continued growth and expansion, we are currently seeking a Website Project Manager
– a highly organized individual that can manage multiple interactive efforts
in a fast-paced ever-changing environment.
Share Our Strength is currently seeking an Online Community Director to lead all aspects of the
organization’s web-based activism and constituent engagement.
Author Community Manager at Eleven Learning in Cambridge, MA.
Now we’re searching for someone with both textbook industry experience and a familiarity
with social media who can help us design and run our next product: a social network for textbook
authors and adopters.
Senior Ruby on Rails Developer at Gravit in Park City, UT.
We are looking for an experienced software engineer with a strong background in Ruby, Rails, and
Javascript to help design and develop a web application that supports heavy traffic.
Social Media Online Marketing Manager at Media Storm in New York, NY.
As a Social Media Online Marketing Manager, you will lead the development of strategies and
objectives for building and executing year-round brand engagement via social media.
Social Marketing Strategy Manager at IMRE, LLC in MD.
IMRE, an agency of marketing experts in the Healthcare, Home & Building and Financial
Services industries is seeking a dynamic and fearless Social Marketing Strategy Manager to join
our growing team.
Responsibilities include research, assistance with graphics and promotional initiatives, lead
generation, creating new business presentations and proposals, and more.
Director/VP of Sales and Business Development at Comedy.com in Santa Monica, CA.
Comedy.com, the “guide to what’s funny right now,” is looking to hire a
Director (or VP depending on experience level) of Sales and Business Development in its Santa
Monica office.
Mashable has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development, and social
networking job opportunities available. Check them out at Mashable’s Job Board.
Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day
listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every
day in the Mashable marketplace).
We get the impression
that these guys are really just putting the pressure on "evil corporations" to stop grounding
mountains in the everlasting search for coal, but it's not really the environmental activism that
caught our attention here. Rather, it's the fact that we're 84.3 percent certain we saw these
exact same characters in a Daft Punk video back in college. Seriously -- check the video
out after the break and tell us we're loony.
Josh T.: "Totally off the grid in regard to both power and girlfriends." Thomas: "And now solar sprockets, we dance!" Joe: "You have to go as far as Brussels to find a Devo tribute act worth its
salt." Richard Lai: "In the future, humans won't need to eat." Paul: "Sure, they know how to capture the electricity, but do they know what to do
with it?" Justin: "In the future, all bands will play the washboard." Laura: "Did anyone make a Beastie Boys joke yet?" Darren: "SABOTAGE." Richard Lawler: "This is not what Boston meant when they said I take what I find."
Looking to champion local indie studios, Penny Arcade Expo's inaugural East Coast event in Boston
has selected several up‑and‑coming developers to display
their games for free on its exhibition floor during the three-day show (Friday, March 26th to
Sunday, March 28th).
After examining a number of submissions, organizers for PAX East have picked out six winning
entries for the Showcase, including a couple 2010 IGF Finalists (Miegakure and
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!):
Slam Bolt Scrappers (Fire Hose Games)
– A unique combination of engaging in building challenges while fighting off
wacky, cartoon baddies in a beat ‘em up brawler
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Dejobaan
Games) – Jump off buildings floating above Boston performing stunts and
making split-second decisions as you weave around buildings to score points
Dearth (MIT Gambit Game Lab)
– Save the Tribal Lands from monsters and drought playing as a great shaman
in this exciting co-operative action-puzzler
Waker (MIT Gambit Game Lab)
– Players are challenged to use both mind and reflexes to solve puzzles,
creating platforms to form a path in this puzzle/platform game set in the world of a
child’s broken dream
Turba (Keith Morgado, trailer
above) – A puzzle game where each song played will generate unique game
boards on which players much create combos of 3 or more of the same color
Miegakure (Marc ten Bosch)
– A platform game where you explore the fourth dimension to solve puzzles.
"Boston welcomed us with open arms and we wanted to give a little of the love back. We knew there
are some great companies in Boston that can’t normally take booth space, so the Showcase
was born," says Penny Arcade's Robert Khoo. "Our winners have put together a selection of titles
that are fun and original; but most importantly they show what gamers with passion and dedication
can do."
After having seen tremendous
success with its geo-local app called Where, the Boston-based
uLocate Communications today rebranded itself as Where. The company also launched a new website
that allows mobile users to sync information in the app between the phone and the PC.
Where.com users can go online to search nearby events and businesses, check in to record their
current location and share their activity via social networks.
The addition of a parallel web site is a wise move that should give users a more immersive,
detailed experience than can be delivered on a handset. And it could give Where one more place to
deliver the ads that are the foundation of its business. The company last week
launched a
hyper-local advertising network to deliver highly targeted, location-specific pitches and
scrap support for ads for generic content and services like ringtones and chat offerings.
The app is available for the iPhone, Android devices and more than 100 other handsets, and Where
claims it has seen more than 10 million downloads.
John A. Walsh has the first chapter of his new graphic novel, Go Home Paddy, on his website
here. He will be
adding new pages to the book every Tuesday and Thursday.
The book is about an Irish immigrant in Boston in the mid-19th Century.
The first chapter was strong, although be forewarned, it might be really difficult for you to see
on your screen. I ended up having to just download each individual page to be able to read them
myself, but maybe you'll have a better experience - I figure it's worth throwing that warning out
there just so I don't have to hear the complaints here if someone has a problem.
Common MySQL Queries -- a useful reference. MySociety's Next 12 Months -- two new projects,
FixMyTransport and "Project Fosbury". The latter is a more general tool to help people organise
their own campaigns for change. riak -- scalable key-value store with JSON interface. (via joshua
on Delicious) Notes from NoSQL Live Boston -- full of juicy nuggets of info...
BOSTON, March 16, 2010 -- Following the successful Gran Canaria Desktop Summit in 2009, the GNOME
Foundation and KDE e.V. Boards have decided to co-locate their flagship conferences once again in
2011, and are taking bids to host the combined event. The Desktop Summit 2011 will be the largest
free desktop event ever. In July of 2009, the GNOME and KDE communities came together for the Gran
Canaria Desktop Summit, the first co-located KDE/GNOME event. It was a major success, and was a
fantastic opportunity for the leaders of the free software desktop efforts to share talks,
communicate on common issues, and attend combined social events. The attendees from both projects
expressed great interest in repeating the event and merging the programmes to synchronize schedules
and make the event an even greater opportunity for the KDE and GNOME teams to learn from each other
and work together. "The Gran Canaria Desktop Summit was a great first event," said Vincent Untz,
GNOME Foundation Board Member. "We enjoyed working with our KDE friends at GCDS in 2009, and want
to increase our cooperation in 2011. We plan to go beyond simple co-location this time, and
actually plan a combined schedule in 2011 so that KDE and GNOME contributors have every opportunity
to work with and learn from each other." The combined summit is also an opportunity for commercial
sponsors of the GNOME and KDE projects to meet with the contributors from KDE and GNOME and to help
foster faster collaboration and development of the free software desktop. Sponsors of the first
Desktop Summit have expressed great interest in seeing both communities working together again. The
GNOME and KDE projects will hold independent events in 2010. GUADEC, the GNOME Project's annual
conference, will be held in The Hague, Netherlands on July 24 through July 30 of this year. KDE's
Akademy will be located in Tampere, Finland from July 3 to 10 this year. Both groups will likely
hold smaller sprints through 2010 and early 2011 to prepare for the combined 2011 Desktop Summit.
"The KDE e.V. board felt that GCDS was a fantastic event, and we learned what works well and what
can be improved when co-hosting an event with our GNOME friends," said Cornelius Schumacher of the
KDE e.V. "KDE and GNOME share a lot of goals for the free desktop, as well as technology, so we're
excited to make use of this experience and have an opportunity to co-locate again in 2011." More
than 850 contributors to the GNOME and KDE projects gathered in Gran Canaria last July. The event
brought together attendees from 50 countries, and helped raise local awareness of free software and
had a measurable impact on the local community. The impact of the event continues to be felt even
after the event, with nearly 2 million hits to the summit Web site following the event. "We were
thrilled to have GCDS right here, and felt that it was an enormous boost for our local commitment
to free software," said José Miguel Santos Espino, Director of IT at the University of Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria. "It's hard to overstate how important it was to have the opportunity to
meet with contributors from GNOME and KDE and learn more about what's possible on the desktop with
free software." The projects are seeking a host in Europe at a location that can handle more than
1,000 participants. For detailed requirements, prospective hosts can see the requirements for
Akademy (http://ev.kde.org/akademy/requirements.php) and GUADEC
(http://live.gnome.org/GuadecPlanningHowTo/CheckList). Applications are welcomed before May 15th
and should be sent to the KDE e.V. (kde-ev-board< at >kde.ev) and the GNOME Foundation
(board-list< at >gnome.org) boards.
When Pulitzer Prize–winning music critic Tim Page was in second grade, he and his
classmates went on a field trip to Boston. He later wrote about the experience as a class
assignment, and what follows is an excerpt:
“Well, we went to Boston, Massachusetts, through the town of Warrenville, Connecticut, on
Route 44A. It was very pretty, and there was a church that reminded me of pictures of Russia from
our book that is published by Time-Life. We arrived in Boston at 9:17. At 11 we went on a big
tour of Boston on Gray Line 43, made by the Superior Bus Company like School Bus Six, which goes
down Hunting Lodge Road where Maria lives and then on to Separatist Road and then to South
Eagleville before it comes to our school. We saw lots of good things like the Boston Massacre
site. The tour ended at 1:05. Before I knew, it we were going home. We went through Warrenville
again, but it was too dark to see much. A few days later it was Easter. We got a cuckoo
clock.”
A website that sorts everyday the most relevant information to you.
Vote for the news and Matoumba will learn your tastes and the information that you like the most.
It is all FREE!
Find here the history of the stories you found interesting.
Show this to people who share the same interests as you,
and if they use Matoumba, their own votes will fine recommandations to you.
Lon S. Cohen is a freelance writer and is 
We get the impression
that these guys are really just putting the pressure on "evil corporations" to stop grounding
mountains in the everlasting search for coal, but it's not really the environmental activism that
caught our attention here. Rather, it's the fact that we're 84.3 percent certain we saw these
exact same characters in a Daft Punk video back in college. Seriously -- check the video
out after the break and tell us we're loony.
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
