Balandar

419ers Diversify Into Assassination Threats? Posted by simoniker on Monday July 19, @01:52PM from the nice dept. Richardsonke1 writes "Just when you thought 419ers couldn't get any worse, now they are sending death threats, according to a story at The Register. The emails require you to 'produce a mandatory sum of US$40,000.00 {FOURTHY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS} only,into our account given below in nigeria within ninety six hours{96},alternatively you will be SNIPPED and GUNNED down during the period of our oncoming anniversary of fifty years.' All joking of 'snipping' aside, for those people who fall for regular 419 emails, this would terrify many gullible web users." http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/07/19/17521...?tid=111&tid=17 PHP 5.0 Goes For Microsoft's ASP-dot-Net Posted by Hemos on Monday July 19, @10:45AM from the classical-battles dept. Dozix007 writes "Uberhacker.Com reports : Zend Technologies quietly announced last week the final release of the open source PHP version 5. An interesting article reports the different strengths and weaknesses of ASP vs. PHP, and it becomes quite clear that with the release of PHP5, Zend has taken a shot at ASP's heart. The differences from PHP4 to 5 has created a clear advantage for the new preprocessor over Microsoft's proprietery ASP." http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/...9&tid=126&tid=1 Proof of Concept PocketPC Virus Created Posted by Hemos on Monday July 19, @08:39AM from the only-a-matter-of-time dept. SpooForBrains writes "The Register has reported that "Ratter" of the virus writing group 29A has created the world's first PocketPC virus as a proof of concept. This one has no payload and is polite enough to ask if it can spread, so the dangers are minimal, but it occurs that the possibility of PocketPC and Symbian virii suddenly makes the concept of bluejacking somewhat more sinister." http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/19/1131...9&tid=201&tid=1 LivingCreatures- The Beginning Of 'I, Robot?' Posted by timothy on Sunday July 18, @04:49PM from the little-freaky-there-now dept. An Anonymous Reader writes "LivingCreatures.com has released several new photos of the humanoid robot platform that it developed for the USC Interaction Lab. The yet to be named robot is about the same size as an 18-month-old child and will serve as a human-robot interaction (HRI) testbed for studies involving imitation, learning, and the effects that interaction with humanoid robots has on children." http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...tid=216&tid=126 Science: Ariane Launches A New Way To Get Online Posted by timothy on Sunday July 18, @01:52PM from the please-start-this-one-up-quick dept. pdaoust007 writes "According to the BBC, 'Europe's Ariane 5 rocket has lifted off after three earlier delays, carrying the world's largest commercial telecoms satellite.' There is also coverage from the CBC and some video here." What's really interesting is what's on board that satellite, though: "Telesat Canada, a subsidiary of BCE, has commercialized the Ka-band technology to allow universal high-speed access to internet service. Apparently, this should make high speed access available anywhere in North America. Gear will be $500 and service $60/month ($CDN)." http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...tid=215&tid=160 Science: NASA Preps Mars Underground Mole Posted by michael on Friday July 16, @11:45PM from the better-hope-they-don't-strike-oil dept. Roland Piquepaille writes "People at NASA never cease to surprise me. Searching for water or presence of past life of Mars obviously needs drilling beneath the surface. So NASA is developing the Mars Underground Mole (MUM), based on a previous device used for the European Beagle 2 mission. But here is the twist. MUM will include sensors which were previously used to collect spectral imagery of Earth from pilotless aircrafts, especially Hawaii, according to NASA. While the Mole will stay on the surface on Mars and drill up to 5 meters deep, it will transmit data via a fiber optic cable to a digital array scanning interferometer (DASI). And the spectral images produced by the DASI will enable researchers to identify possible water, ice, organics and minerals under the surface on Mars. And this MUM will be a small one, weighing less than a kilogram for a length of only 50 centimeters. For more details and pictures about MUM, please read this overview." http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...&tid=134&tid=14

Getting better and better. I can't wait to see some of the new website designs

Mailing lists have finally arrived!! You can sign up at the link below: http://www.lists.thehonorempire.net/ Only your guild leader(s) have access to the mailing lists.

There are currently DNS issues with our new host. Please use our IP address for the time being. Edit: Fixed

STARGATE ATLANTIS TONIGHT!!! Don't forget! Online Games a Massive Pain Electronic Arts' decision to shut down development of Ultima X: Odyssey -- the sequel to its long-running online game Ultima Online -- may force the game industry to re-examine what it takes to be a successful developer of massively multiplayer online games. http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,641...tw=wn_tophead_1 Features: I, Robot Hits the Theaters Posted by michael on Friday July 16, @12:52PM from the positronic-brain dept. tyleremerson writes "With today's film release of "I, Robot," the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence has launched a new website, 3 Laws Unsafe. 3 Laws Unsafe explores the non-fictional problems presented by Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The Three Laws are widely known and are often taken seriously as reasonable solutions for guiding future AI. But are they truly reasonable? 3 Laws Unsafe tries to address this question." Reader Rob Carr has submitted a review of the movie, below, that he promises is spoiler-free. http://features.slashdot.org/features/04/0...&tid=214&tid=97 Google Acquires Picasa, Improves Blogging Tools Posted by michael on Friday July 16, @08:51AM from the google-does-something-news-at-ten dept. clandestine writes "It appears that our lovable search engine has again expanded its horizons - the internet wasn't enough; now you can search and organize your own pictures. I don't know about you, but I use Google for nearly everything; heck, I found links about their acquisition of Picasa through Google News! Any slashdotters going to benefit from this tech, or already do? And yes, the addition of Picasa to their arsenal is a couple of days old, but they just started linking them on the homepage today." http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/16/1212...&tid=217&tid=95 Oxford Students Hack University Network Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday July 16, @12:35AM from the unintentional-online-services dept. An anonymous reader writes "Both The Guardian and BBC News are carrying the story that two students at the University of Oxford, Patrick Foster and Roger Waite, were able to easily hack into the university's internal network in minutes using only easily-available software. Once inside, they could find out anyone's email password, observe instant messenger conversations and control parts of the university's CCTV system. The students were investigating the university's network security for the student newspaper, The Oxford Student, which published a front page article and editorial on the matter. In the article, a university spokesperson is quoted as saying 'In some cases the wish to provide the widest possible computer access as cheaply as possible may mean deciding to go for a cheaper set-up, with potentially lower security.' The students now face disciplinary precedings from the university and could receive rustication (suspension) and a 500 pound fine. The matter has also been passed onto the police." http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/16/0212...&tid=172&tid=99 Japanese FTC Warns Microsoft Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday July 15, @07:50PM from the firing-back-at-redmond dept. ChibiOne writes "The Japanese Fair Trade Commission has ordered Microsoft to cut a restrictive contract clause, designed to protect the software giant from patent-related lawsuits by PC manufacturers that sell products using Microsoft's Windows operating systems. Under such provision, Japanese makers would be unable to sue Microsoft even if the software giant's technologies are deemed to violate their patents. The Japan Times Online has the scoop." http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...&tid=187&tid=99

You are the Powerhouse! Though often looked down upon by more "hardcore" roleplayers, you tend to come out on top in hack-'n-slash oriened games, and groups are often glad to have you along when things get rough. To you, power, be it physical, political, magical, or otherwise, is important to a character. What Roleplaying Character Archetype Are You? brought to you by Quizilla

It will work for now. The main websites have not moved, only the pages that say thehonorempire.net in the address bar have moved.

Science: Ammonia Could Indicate Life On Mars Posted by michael on Thursday July 15, @01:14PM from the interplanetary-slime-mold dept. Young Master writes "Just seen this story on good old Auntie Beeb, apparently traces of ammonia have been found in the Martian atmosphere. Ammonia doesn't last long on Mars, so it must be constantly replenished - it could be active volcanoes (none yet found), or it could indicate life..." Along with the detection of methane, Mars is starting to look a lot less dead than had been supposed. http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/07/...tid=134&tid=160 AOL-Yahoo-MSN Messaging Unified... in the Workplace Only Posted by michael on Thursday July 15, @10:20AM from the gaim-is-cheaper dept. bakreule writes "Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! are teaming up to link their separate instant messaging services for use in the workplace, 'the first major step by the industry leaders to enable computer users to communicate with one another no matter which of the three systems they use.' Sound to good to be true? It is. 'What this does not do,' Root said (yes, that's his name), 'is the holy grail of instant messaging, which is to allow anybody on any network to send a message to anybody on any other network.' It seems that the system, which is aimed for corporations, involves some MS software which acts as an intermediary between the different systems. Sounds like a fancy version of all the open source IM clients out there." http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/15/1157...&tid=187&tid=95 Your Rights Online: DHS Says Cellular Outage Reporting is Terrorist Blueprint Posted by simoniker on Wednesday July 14, @06:51PM from the situation-unknown dept. Tuxedo Jack writes "U.S. landline telephone companies have to file public reports when their networks have major outages, so you would think the same would hold true for cellular providers and ISPs, right? Not if the Department of Homeland Security gets its way. CNN/AP reports that the DHS wants to make cellphone outage reports secret, claiming that they could be used as 'blueprints for terrorists.' I don't know about you, but I'd kinda like to see public disclosure on what happened if my cellphone/Internet access is down for an extended period." http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/...&tid=137&tid=99 Games: Doom 3 Reaches Gold Master, Due August 5th Posted by simoniker on Wednesday July 14, @02:06PM from the happy-days-are-here-again dept. Rogerpq3 writes "Yes, this is the official word that [long-awaited PC FPS] DOOM 3 has been code released and has been approved for manufacturing! According to the .plan file of id CEO Todd Hollenshead: 'We literally just hung up with Activision and have confirmed that our latest release candidate has been mutually approved and is finally GOLD. So, the next question is release dates. Retailers in the States will be allowed to pick up games starting at 12:01 AM on August 3rd. The official street date is actually August 5th in the U.S.A., but some of your favorite stores will probably have it early for those of you who have to have it first. Check with your local retailer for that information... [internationally] the UK will probably get it first, on or about August 6th. Everywhere else will probably be Friday, August 13th (cue Twilight Zone Theme) or close to that date, with just a few exceptions (e.g. Russia and Poland)'." http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=0...tid=204&tid=206

hehehe... what shamans do when left alone. *cough* Good stories

yup, that's all I ever heard in CS. I don't know about the shooting people thing in real life though.

4 New "Extremely Critical" IE Vulnerabilities Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday July 13, @11:45AM from the are-you-ready-for-fun-and-excitement dept. TopherTG writes "Buckle your seat belts folks. On what is looking to be the next Black Tuesday, with rumors of 9 new Windows security patches being released, Secunia is reporting on 4 new vulnerabilities in IE that allow for arbitrary code execution and placing content over other windows. Combined with the new Windows patches, it is likely more Download.Ject and Sasser like viruses will be emerging in the coming months." http://slashdot.org/articles/04/07/13/1531...&tid=172&tid=95 The New York Times On Earth's Magnetic Flip-Flop Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 13, @07:53AM from the all-topsy-all-turvy dept. TolkiEinstein writes "The New York Times reports that, relatively speaking, compasses may soon point South. It's long been known that Earth flips magnetically every half-million years or so, and, with the north pole's magnetic field at about 10-15 percent [less than] its strength of 150 years ago, many geologists feel a flip is coming up. Computer simulations also suggest that the current state of the magnetic field is indicative of an upcoming flip. Though it would take hundreds of years to complete, the impact on life may be significant but not catastrophic, including phenomena such as power-outages, satellite malfunctions and disruptions in the rhythmic functions of some animals such as loggerhead turtles. The EU plans to launch a trio of satellites in 2009 to assume polar orbits & monitor the field." (Cross your fingers for some nice solar wind.) Update: 07/13 17:02 GMT by T: Note: the summary here originally misstated the Times' article; the field 's strength has decreased 10-15 percent, rather than to 10-15 percent. http://science.slashdot.org/science/04/07/...1.shtml?tid=134 Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results Posted by timothy on Monday July 12, @09:56PM from the now-it-needs-orkut-style-linking dept. Robert Accettura writes "Network Solutions has updated its whois interface, giving it an interesting new twist. On top of regular info provided, it shows data that appears to be from Alexa, including a screenshot of the homepage (though not terribly recent), as well as looks up your IP, and displays lots of information on it. It even shows the server type, if it supports SSL, DMOZ, Yahoo listing, traffic ranking, and lock status. This comes right after they announced rapid DNS updates. Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?" http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...&tid=126&tid=95 Microsoft Delays Windows XP Service Pack 2 Posted by simoniker on Monday July 12, @05:02PM from the gone-til-august dept. Rinisari writes "DesignTechnica, among some others , explains that Microsoft has once again delayed its release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, though only until August. Microsoft has declined to comment on the reason for the delay. Windows Update v5, however, is online and operational (and works with Service Pack 1!), although not officially so. I know many smaller education institutions are chomping at the bit with the looming release, as they are worried about compatibility with some of the new features in Service Pack 2." http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...tid=190&tid=201

The forums have been moved to the new website. Each game site's main page has been updated to a php version. This was done so I could import the data from the new forums (since the game sites are still on the old host) and I could not do so with SSI. The polls have been disabled as well, since they used SSI exclusively and do not work with PHP. I'll need to look into that when I have time, but they are not critical to the websites. If you notice any bugs on the forums (images not showing correctly, emails with thehonorempire.org instead of thehonorempire.net) let me know. If you have any problems send an email to: support at thehonorempire dot net

Hold ctrl and use mouse wheel

Suspect in AltaVista hacking case works at Microsoft A Kirkland man arrested last week on allegations that he stole proprietary technology from the AltaVista search engine two years ago is a Microsoft Corp. employee who has been working on the Redmond company's MSN Search initiative. Federal authorities allege that Laurent Chavet, a former AltaVista employee, illegally accessed the California company's computer system in March 2002 and June 2002, after he left AltaVista and well before he went to work for Microsoft. Chavet, then living in California, copied to his home computer source code that was used by AltaVista "to perform the function of scouring the World Wide Web," according to an FBI affidavit. Chavet's arrest was announced by the U.S. attorney in northern California last week without reference to his current employment. Microsoft acknowledged yesterday that Chavet is a Microsoft employee but declined to name the team on which he works. However, three other people with knowledge of Chavet's Microsoft employment confirmed that he has been working on the MSN Search effort. A brief biography attached to a paper Chavet co-wrote on text analytics described him as an expert "in all aspects of search technology." He worked at IBM's Almaden Research Center after leaving AltaVista and before joining Microsoft. Microsoft's MSN division has been developing its own algorithmic search engine to replace technology it currently licenses from Yahoo! Inc.'s Inktomi unit. Microsoft last week released a preview of the new MSN Search technology, and the company said it hopes to come out with a final version within the next year. The project is part of an effort by the company to compete more effectively with Google. Citing a policy against discussing personnel issues, Microsoft declined to answer questions about Chavet's case, including whether it is investigating on its own to determine whether Chavet incorporated any of the allegedly stolen AltaVista technology into any of his work at Microsoft. A Microsoft spokeswoman, Tami Begasse, referred questions about the criminal investigation to the FBI, and said company policy requires employees act "honestly and ethically, and comply with all laws and regulations." The allegations in the indictment against Chavet "do not pertain to Microsoft," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Sonderby, chief of the U.S. Attorney's Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property unit in Northern California, which is prosecuting the case. The FBI did not seize computers from Microsoft as part of the case, said Greg Fowler, the supervising special agent for the agency's Northwest Cyber Crime Task Force. AltaVista was acquired in 2003 by Overture Services, which was subsequently acquired by Yahoo! A spokesman for the company declined to comment. Reached yesterday at his Kirkland home, Chavet, 29, declined to comment and said he had yet to retain a lawyer. A French national, he was required to surrender his passport after his arrest, court documents show. He is scheduled for arraignment July 20 in San Francisco. The first alleged hacking incident took place a month after Chavet left AltaVista, authorities say. Chavet told an investigator that he used a former co-worker's log-in to access the company's computer system, according to an FBI affidavit. Authorities allege that Chavet caused more than $5,000 in damage to the AltaVista system after gaining access a second time, in June 2002. According to the FBI affidavit, Chavet told investigators that he worked on the AltaVista source code while at the company and logged into the AltaVista system after leaving because he "was 'curious' about the evolution of the source code after his departure." http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/181...ftsearch09.html Verisign Speeds Up DNS Updates Posted by michael on Sunday July 11, @05:29PM from the creating-throwaway-domains-now-much-faster dept. Changeling writes "According to Matt Larson, a representative of VeriSign Naming and Directory Services, on September 8, 2004 Verisign will be switching from performing 2 updates per day of the .com and .net zones to performing updates every few seconds. According to Matt, 'After the rapid DNS update is implemented, the elapsed time from registrars' add or change operations to the visibility of those adds or changes in all 13 .com/.net authoritative name servers is expected to average less than five minutes." Full story can be found here." http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/1...&tid=126&tid=95

Purty

I.E. Menu View -> Text Size -> Medium If that doesn't work, dunno.

New boards are offline until thehonorempire.net can propagate properly. Once that is done, I'll move the forums over to the new server. I pretty much know how to do it now.

Moving to the new datacenter seems to be taking longer than expected. I just hope no problems came up. And I am still trying to get thehonorempire.net to propagate properly. Skullcrusherorcs.org already points to the wow subfolder on the new server (except the server is currently being moved). I am not sure why thehonorempire.net would take longer.

*rolls eyes* Not these forums!!! lol. Click the link in the original post.

We will be moving thehonorempire.org to a new server over the next 4 - 5 months. To test the NEW forums, please go here In a few days, once thehonorempire.net (new domain name until website move is complete) propagates to the new domain servers, I'll make a final backup of the forums here (thehonorempire.org) and import that on the new server (thehonorempire.net). Until then please test the thehonorempire.net forums. What to look for: Check the speed at the bottom of the forums. If you see several people online and the forums decrease in speed dramatically, let me know! If the Execution time reaches 0.4 or more, let me know how many users were online at the time. (Our current forums run between 0.3 - 0.5, which is considered slow! And that is when there are only 3 people online!). If the server load reaches 1 or more, let me know how many users were online at the time. Also note that between 12am EST and 6am EST tonight (10th/11th) the new server will be down. It will be moved to a brand new datacenter.

It seems they are allowing non-euro people to sign up so they can ban those IPs and email addresses from WoW gold release. Read more here JOKE!!

Courier robots get traction in hospitals PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Near a pair of swinging doors at a local hospital, a cart sits apparently abandoned. Yet at the push of a button, it perks up to say, "thank you" and rolls itself out the door toward the pharmacy. The 50-pound machine, which looks like a vacuum cleaner mated to a cabinet, is designed to autonomously ferry loads of linens, medical supplies, X-rays, food and other materials. In a push to lower costs and free up workers for more critical tasks, hospital officials are turning more and more to robots like TUG to ply their hallways. Other robots include the RoboCart -- a motorized table -- and the droid-like HelpMate, a four-foot tall cabinet with flashing lights and turn signals that would be welcome in any sci-fi movie. It's unclear how many automated courier robots are being used in the nation's hospitals. There may be six dozen to about 120, according to experts and a small number of private U.S. companies making the robots. The Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas, has been using two HelpMates to cart medicine from the pharmacy to nursing stations throughout the six-floor, 352-bed hospital. They make as many as 30 trips a day, said Susan Dierker, a nursing supervisor. "They're wonderful and they talk to you in Spanish and English. The nursing staff is pleased with them and most people just stare because they're wandering around the hospital," Dierker said. The TUG, made by Pittsburgh-based Aethon, and the HelpMate, made by Ohio-based Cardinal Health, are more advanced than the RoboCart, made by California Computer Research Inc. The RoboCart has a fixed path determined by tape placed in a hallway and has sonar to help it avoid smacking into a person or object in its path. It mostly ferries blood samples from one end of a laboratory to another. On the other hand, the TUG and HelpMate are packed with sensors to help them "see." The TUG can tell the difference between a person standing in its way and a bag placed in a hallway. Polite machines They use wireless radios to call elevators or open automatic doors. Their "brains" are packed with detailed maps of hospitals and computer programs to help them keep track of where they are, where they're going and the right time to jump on an elevator. They're also polite. The TUG asks people to "please stand aside," when it gets onto an elevator and says "thank you" after it makes a delivery. The HelpMate asks people, "please examine my contents," when it makes a delivery. While it may seem ill-advised for a machine -- even a smart one -- to tote around drugs or medical records unsupervised, the TUG and HelpMate come with cabinets that can be mechanically and electronically locked. The HelpMate includes a fingerprint scanner for extra security. They aren't problem-free, however. On a recent run in the University of Pittsburgh's Magee Women's Hospital, a TUG en route from the pharmacy to another floor went silent and idle for several minutes while waiting for an elevator. The robot's behavior baffled Aethon President Aldo Zini, but after a call to headquarters, he figured it out. The TUG was being too cautious. It won't get on an elevator if a button is pushed -- an indication someone else is on the elevator -- or if the elevator is heavy, perhaps full with carts or beds. There were other oddities. Later in its run, the TUG crawled inches away from a wall, apparently trying to avoid two scraps of paper on the floor. "We're sensitive to the fact that it is running through a hospital and it can't hit anything. I can sleep 100 percent at night knowing it hasn't hit anything," Zini said. Robotic couriers have struggled to get widespread acceptance in hospitals, largely because they have been viewed as toys rather than tools. Even so, Montefiore Medical Center in New York City has used a HelpMate for about five years and, in May, Aethon, which has five TUGs running in hospitals, won a federal contract to sell its robots to Veterans Affairs hospitals nationwide. Other hospitals could soon turn to self-guided robots to counteract financial and staffing shortages. According to a May report from the American Hospital Association, 110,000 nursing jobs went unfilled as of January and a third of the nation's hospitals lost money. A 2000 study by Manuel Rosetti, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Arkansas, found that the University of Virginia Hospital could save as much as $218,000 a year if it replaced 15 human couriers with six HelpMate robots, which would pay for themselves in little over three years. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/07/06/hospita...s.ap/index.html

Whenever I find something of interest during my lunch break, I'll post that information here on the forums. About the Space Elevator The Space Elevator is a revolutionary way of getting from Earth into space – a ribbon with one end attached to Earth on a floating platform located in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the other end in space beyond geosynchronous orbit. The Space Elevator will ferry satellites, spaceships, and pieces of space stations into space using electric lifts clamped to the ribbon, serving as a means for commerce, scientific advancement, and space exploration. Once relegated to the realm of science fiction, the concept is now being researched and prototyped. http://www.isr.us/Spaceelevatorconference/aboutSE.html Military on alert for Coke's chip contest Specially rigged Coke cans, part of a summer promotion, contain cell phones and global positioning chips. That has officials at some installations worried the cans could be used to eavesdrop, and they are instituting protective measures. Coca-Cola Co. says such concerns are nothing but fizz. Mart Martin, a Coca-Cola spokesman, said no one would mistake one of the winning cans from the company's "Unexpected Summer" promotion for a regular Coke. "The can is dramatically different looking," he said. The cans have a recessed panel on the outside and a big red button. "It's very clear that there's a cell phone device." http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/07/02/coke.mi...t.ap/index.html Titan's Surface Revealed July 4, 2004: It didn't take long for the Cassini spacecraft to start making discoveries. In orbit around Saturn for only a few days, Cassini has already captured images of Saturn's giant moon Titan revealing never-before-seen details of the moon's surface. "Although the initial images appear bland and hard to interpret, we're happy to report that we have indeed seen Titan's surface with unprecedented clarity," says JPL's Dennis Matson, project scientist for the international Cassini-Huygens mission. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/04...htm?list1049228 Pakistani child gets Indian eye A one-year-old Pakistani boy saw the world for the first time yesterday through an eye donated by an Indian. Mohammed Ahmed gained partial vision after a difficult operation at the Agarwal Eye Institute in the southern city of Madras where another Pakistani child got a donor's eye six months ago. Doctors said Ahmed, who was born blind, would get near-normal sight by the time he heads back to Karachi next week. "It was a complicated surgery since both his cornea [the transparent circular part of the front of the eyeball] had become white and the iris [the flat coloured membrane behind it] was stuck to the cornea," said Dr Amar Agarwal, who performed the surgery. "We had to proceed very carefully, first to detach the iris and thereafter replace the defective cornea with a healthy one procured from a 50-year-old Madras donor two weeks back," Dr Agarwal told reporters. "Now the Karachi kid can see the world through Indian eyes." Sitting next to the doctor and oblivious of the media attention he was getting, Ahmed reached out to a ball placed on a table in front of him. "We never imagined he will get his eyesight," said his mother Mehmooda Salim. "It's the will of Allah. We are thrilled." Ahmed's father, Mohammed Salim, said that after he contacted the clinic and talked to Dr Agarwal it was easy to get the visa and get to Madras. "We have a lot of faith in India. We are overwhelmed by the warmth of the people here. There are many patients back in Pakistan and they could now seek a cure from Indian specialists," he said. Last year, a life-saving heart surgery was performed on two-year-old Pakistani girl Noor Fathima at a hospital in Bangalore, also in southern India. Since then a steady stream of Pakistani children has flocked to India seeking treatment for variety of ailments http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/04/...l?oneclick=true Moore: pirate my film, no problem Controversial film-maker Michael Moore has welcomed the appearance on the internet of pirated copies of his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 and claimed he is happy for anybody to download it free of charge. The activist, author and director told the Sunday Herald that, as long as pirated copies of his film were not being sold, he had no problem with it being downloaded. “I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people as long as they’re not trying to make a profit off my labour. I would oppose that,” he said. “I do well enough already and I made this film because I want the world, to change. The more people who see it the better, so I’m happy this is happening.” Moore’s views have not been well received by Hollywood’s establishment, which is fighting a war against the online pirates it claims cost the industry £1.6 billion a year in lost sales. http://www.sundayherald.com/43167

Sorry, but no to the all-post-in-news-section. I wrote a request for news posters before. http://forums.thehonorempire.net/?showtopic=5339 If you would like to do something along those lines let me know.

Where is the link!? I want to sign up tooo.