WGA to Membership: No Deal Yet
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While rumors continued to swirl in Hollywood that both the Writers Guild of America leadership and the conglomerates had hammered out a tentative deal, WGA Negotiating Committee Chairman John F. Bowman sent an email to members late Monday that was obta...
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America West Airlines said Thursday it won&#39;t try to acquire ATA Airlines out of bankruptcy. ATA, which filed Chapter 11 on Oct. 26, has a tentative deal to sell its gates and routes at Midway
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No deal. No surprise. Yesterday's deadline to sign franchise players to long-term extensions passed, with the Patriots and disgruntled cornerback Asante Samuel unable to strike a deal. The sides never were close to reaching an accord.
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Reposted in the queue as it's impossible or at least very complicated to move it as I asked (although the post where aphrael said such thing disappeared so perhaps this is not the case after all - another minor K5 mystery).  The original discussion can be found here (read it as there are some clarifications by rusty). All right, here is the (adapted) diary. Rusty posted a comment in the diary entitled "Would you pay 10USD for K5 Life Membership?" saying that K5 will become a pay site once new user registrations will be reactivated: "I was thinking $5.00 (none / 0) (#18) by rusty on Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 04:42:15 PM CET But it would actually be charged. That plus a hash of the identifying CC info so you only get one account ever, and I think we'd either shrivel up to nothing and die, or solve the spamming and crapflooding issues. Funny that someone else is thinking about this right now. It'll probably happen before I turn new signups back on." This of course begs the question: HIBT? If so I'll bite (see some considerations under the fold).
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has blamed an unspecified server problem for a 19-hour stretch during which paying users of Windows XP and Vista were accused by the company's WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) validation system of running pirated software. Any Vista system fingered during the episode was stripped of some features, including the operating system's Aero graphical interface. As of Saturday at 3 p.m. EDT, Microsoft said the problem had been fixed. "We are aware it is a server-side issue," said Phil Liu, a Microsoft program manager in the WGA group. "[But] the cause is unknown at this current time." "Customers who received an incorrect validation response can fix their system by revalidating on our site," said Alex Kochis, senior product manager of WGA, in a blog posting. The site Kochis referred to is the Genuine Microsoft Software home page, which includes links to validation tests for Windows and Microsoft Office. "After successfully revalidating, any affected system should be rebooted to ensure the genuine-only features are restored," Kochis continued. The validation server snafu began sometime prior to 8 p.m. EDT on Friday, when users started posting messages on Microsoft's support forums, including Vista Validation Issues, saying that their PCs had been tagged as running nongenuine Windows. Overnight, the number of users adding their accounts to the tale spiked significantly, as did the frustration index. "What in hell is going on, Microsoft?" asked a user named Hedgemeister. "SUPPORT? Where are you? Validation issues with Vista. Hello? All of us need help," wrote Gnrlbzik. "This is an absolute disgrace. Treating legitimate customers like criminals is a great way to make people want to buy your software in the future! [I'm] absolutely disgusted," added Costanza. Although copies of both Windows XP and Vista were being tagged as counterfeit during the 19 hours, users of the latter were especially incensed. The WGA antipiracy scheme for that operating system disables several features when it thinks the copy is bogus, among them the Aero graphical user interface and ReadyBoost. Early in the outage, several Microsoft customers posted what they said was the text of e-mail they had received from Microsoft support that suggested users sit tight for several days. "I'm sorry to inform you that the Windows Genuine server might be down for few days," the e-mail, attributed to Microsoft Technical Support, said. "I have escalated the issue to our Genuine team, kindly try to validate again on Tuesday 28 Aug 2007." If the message was intended to mollify users, it didn't work. "TUESDAY!?! Yeah, f that," said Nooaah. It wasn't until Saturday around 1 p.m. EDT that a non-anonymous Microsoft manager offered up information. "I guarantee that we're working on this issue right now," said Liu in a post to the forum. "My goal is to identify a FIX for this issue -- afterwards get you all what you are looking for, an explanation and cause. I promise I will have an explanation and resolution as soon as humanly possible." Users' testy relationship with WGA Although Microsoft did not identify the number of affected systems Saturday, based on the user comments and Liu's promises, it appeared to be systemwide. If so, it would be the biggest problem so far in the developer's contentious WGA program. Designed to spot pirated copies of its Windows and Office software, WGA has been mandatory since mid-2005 before nonsecurity updates or files can be downloaded from Microsoft's site. WGA has faced criticism almost since its inception, but until Friday, the most vocal complaints dated back to June 2006, when users discovered that the Windows XP version of WGA was "phoning home" to Microsoft every time the PC was booted. Those critics returned when Microsoft upped the ante with Vista by replacing the WGA messages that only nagged XP users suspected of running counterfeits with a new policy that used an RFM (reduced functionality mode) to cripple machines. In RFM, only Internet Explorer works, and then for just an hour at a time. Because RFM only allows a grace period of three days to those who previously activated Windows but are subsequently deemed pirates, any problems must be fixed quickly to prevent customers' PCs from going dark. Microsoft managed to beat the deadline. That, however, didn't mean much to some, who said this was it for their relationship with the vendor. One claimed that he was heading out the door to buy a Mac, while others swore they would switch to Linux. Others called on Microsoft to ditch WGA. "Once again the legitimate person gets screwed while the people who pirate software probably aren't even affected," said Mark in the support forum. "This whole validation process should be dropped. This is just another nail in the Microsoft coffin." Saturday's outage was not the first time the validation service has gone dark and then identified all PCs connecting with the servers as running pirated copies. In October 2006, Microsoft's Kochis acknowledged a similar blackout. "Earlier this week, a server on the back end of the WGA service experienced a bug that resulted in a temporary outage. As a result, some systems were incorrectly flagged as being non-genuine, and we want to confirm for those who contacted us about this that it was indeed an error," he wrote.
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Bidding remained stalled Tuesday on  a key piece of spectrum in the U.S. government's wireless  airwaves auction, prompting concern regulators will have to  modify rules requiring some of it be shared with public safety  agencies.
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Advertising giant WPP's purchase of Grey Global is temporarily put on hold after files submitted to EU regulators were found to be incomplete.
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.  will not hold General Motors Acceptance Corp. buyers liable for  General Motors'  employee benefit plans, clearing a  hurdle in the sale of the auto maker's finance arm, according  to a GM regulatory filing on Thursday.
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Blog: New fees don't appear to have stopped many Webcasters from silencing their streams yet, but they're still counting on a formal compromise with the music industry.
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Company hasn't said when the device will be available.
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Blog: Music industry group that collects royalty payments has offered a compromise, but it's unclear whether it will go far enough to please disgruntled Webcasters.
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Blog: Some Webcasters say they're encouraged by recent offers by the record industry group charged with collecting higher fees, but nothing's set in stone yet.
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Rupert Murdoch&#39;s News Corp. (NWSa.N)  has not yet reached a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc.   and discussions continue, representatives for Dow Jones and its  controlling Bancroft family said on Friday.
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Ziff Davis - A quick resolution to the Mambo open-source copyright dispute seems unlikely now that one of the parties has rejected an offer for mediation.
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To: National Desk  Contact: Kylah Hedding of the American Water Works Association, 303-347-6140, khedding@awwa.org  DENVER, Dec. 14 /U.S.
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When 'free' isn't free An online advertiser that falsely claimed consumers had won free prizes has agreed to pay a $200,000 penalty to the Federal Trade Commission, which says the outfit failed to disclose that people had to spend money first.â¦Learn &amp; Contribute, Live &amp; Online - The Register Debates Green Computing
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Sunday was the deadline for Internet radio stations to pay higher fees set by a federal agency, but the debate over when and how much they will pay has not been decided.