Usenet Archive

  • UK ISPs prepare for Digital Economy P2P fallout

    UK ISPs prepare for Digital Economy P2P fallout

    Posted on April 13, 2010 | No Comments
    The Digital Economy Act passed in the UK, as you know, and it's pretty terrible. One of the more spicy sections of the law involved peer-to-peer use, and how it basically makes ISPs responsible for what their customers download. So if HBO finds that you've been download “The Pacific,” (really good show, by the way, much to my surprise) it can contact your ISP, who's then responsible for telling you to knock if off. If not, you face a truly horrible punishment: you're sent to Stoke! (That's a joke, people!)

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  • No iPad for me, thanks (but please don’t hate me)

    No iPad for me, thanks (but please don’t hate me)

    Posted on April 2, 2010 | No Comments
    To answer our own poll: no, I will not be buying an iPad. It's not that I'm "anti-iPad," which sounds pretty silly ("look, I'm against a piece of plastic~!"), it's simply that I have no need for it. Why would I buy something that I don't need? That makes no sense!

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  • FIOS packages strike your fancy?

    FIOS packages strike your fancy?

    Posted on January 19, 2010 | No Comments
    Verizon has a bunch of new FIOS packages that may interest you. The top of the pile is the Ultimate package, which gives you "90 or more" HD channels, plus an Internet connection of 35/35, which is 35 mbps download, 35 mbps upload. The upload speed is impressive, but I still have triple the download speed. (I seriously run at 11 MB/s when downloading from Usenet. It's almost unnecessary how fast it is.) This top package is $149 per month.

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  • Giganews crosses the 400-day binary retention mark (but won’t stop there)

    Giganews crosses the 400-day binary retention mark (but won’t stop there)

    Posted on September 12, 2009 | No Comments
    Six months ago, Giganews announced that it would expand its server capacity to 365 days of retention. It passed that barrier some time ago, and just yesterday reached the magical 400-day mark. In plain English, that means if someone posted Some File to alt.binaries.boneless back in July, 2008, you should be able to find it on Giganews' servers. And to think, back in my early days of Usenet use (2001ish), I was putting up with two days retention.

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  • Snow Leopard protects you from two Trojans

    Snow Leopard protects you from two Trojans

    Posted on August 28, 2009 | No Comments
    It seems that Snow Leopard contains some sort of anti-malware system. But what does it really protect you from? Not much. It seems to scan for only OSX.RSPlug and OSX.Iservice and then only scans files from Safari, Mail, and a few web browsers. Usenet and Bittorrent clients are unaffected. It doesn't even actively scan the Downloads folder.

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  • CrunchDeals: Unlimited Usenet for $10.95

    CrunchDeals: Unlimited Usenet for $10.95

    Posted on August 24, 2009 | No Comments
    This doesn’t look like it’s advertised yet - it’s not linked on the NewsDemon front page - but for a limited time you can get their unlimited plan with 20 connections for $10.95 a month. I’ve been pricing these deals for a few days now and this is on par or better than most I’ve seen. [...]

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  • Japanese dude faces 2 years in prison, $96,000 fine for hosting 1,000+ Nintendo DS ROMs on Web site

    Japanese dude faces 2 years in prison, $96,000 fine for hosting 1,000+ Nintendo DS ROMs on Web site

    Posted on August 3, 2009 | No Comments
    Here's a tip: this isn't 1998, and you shouldn't go around making “Web pages” that are filled with Nintendo ROMs. If you do, you could end up like the Japanese guy who's now facing two years in prison and a $96,000 fine.

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  • Lol: Release group pred a copy of Windows 98 today

    Lol: Release group pred a copy of Windows 98 today

    Posted on July 21, 2009 | No Comments
    Too funny! Someone (iND) actually pred a copy of Windows 98 SE today.

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  • Microsoft Office 2010 can be downloaded right now (if that’s your thing)

    Microsoft Office 2010 can be downloaded right now (if that’s your thing)

    Posted on July 13, 2009 | No Comments
    Jealous of the likes of CNET and Scobilizer getting to play with Microsoft Office 2010? Well don't be! You, too, can edit spreadsheets and send e-mail if you're willing to fire up your newsreader or BitTorrent client.

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  • Good heavens, what is LucasArts going to announce tomorrow?

    Good heavens, what is LucasArts going to announce tomorrow?

    Posted on July 5, 2009 | No Comments
    Alert the media! LucasArts' official Twitter feed has been tweeting non-stop about... something! It looks like the company is poised to announce a new game based on an old game/franchise tomorrow, July 6.

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  • The Feds shut down ‘rogue’ Internet operation

    The Feds shut down ‘rogue’ Internet operation

    Posted on June 5, 2009 | No Comments
    Score one for the good guys! The Federal Trade Commission has shut down the company that ran the Triple Fiber Network, a service that helped evildoers put verboten content online. Such content included viruses and child pornography.

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