Serendipity35

Some people - probably Windows users - seem to be happy that there is finally an actual Mac virus out there.

It has been 28 years of essentially virus-free surfing for Apple Mac users. Windows users have surfed in fear for those years. Things have been better in Windows land lately. For years, the claim was that the reason the Mac was safer was because there were so few out there that virus builders didn't bother making them to attack Macs. Maybe this is yet another sign that Apple sales are healthy.

The recent Mac attack was from the  Flashback Trojan horse. It looks like an Adobe Flash installer, but it changes your Web search results and sends you to the sites that it wants you to go to. I have read that about 600,000 Macs were infected. A Java update and a free removal program makes all well in Mac land. No one is safe.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Apple and five big book publishers for price fixing. The story is that back in 2010, Steve Jobs encouraged the six to meet in order to discuss ways they might be able to defeat Amazon’s effective discounting for e-books. Their plan supposedly included agreements to set their prices for e-books higher. The Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins have already settled with the government and ended their deals with Apple, but the Penguin Group USA and Macmillan have not settled and claim no wrongdoing.


http://www.chicagotribune.com

The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to consider whether the University of Texas at Austin has the right to consider race and ethnicity in admissions decisions. Those bringing the case hope the Supreme Court will restrict or even eliminate the right of colleges to consider race in admissions – a prerogative last affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2003 in a case involving the University of Michigan’s law school.


To read Inside Higher Ed's full coverage of the Supreme Court's decision, please visit:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/21/supreme-court-takes-affirmative-action-case

When I logged into my tumblr blog, i was given the option to " Black out my blog for the rest of the day to protest PIPA.

I chose not to - because I think it might be more effective to post about what PIPA is all about than to go black. (I can't wash the educator out of me)

Thanks to action by a broad and bipartisan coalition of Internet users, companies, and organizations, the U.S. House of Representatives has now put the brakes on SOPA, a well-intentioned but deeply flawed bill that would use Internet censorship to combat overseas copyright infringement. Even President Obama's White House has joined the opposition.

But nevertheless, the Senate is continuing to move forward — and fast — with its equally dangerous version of the bill, called PIPA, the Protect-IP Act.As written, PIPA would import censorship and surveillance techniques pioneered by countries like China and Iran, reversing longstanding U.S. policy on Internet freedom, betraying U.S. First Amendment values, damaging our standing around the world, threatening our job-creating innovators, and undermining Internet security for everyone.

Today is a day for action across the Internet.Learn about these destructive bills. Tell your Senator what you think. Congress needs to hear from you.