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Though people have some funny ideas about copyright, they're justified in assuming that if they own a CD, it's fair use for them to rip it to their own computer or iPod, right? Well, not according to the RIAA. Despite the fact that a year or so ago the RIAA's Don Verrilli told the Supreme Court that the RIAA considers this sort of space-shifting "perfectly legal," they've submitted a filing as part of ongoing DMCA rule-making proceedings that says, among other things, that what they said before is bunk and that they don't consider making for your own use a copy of your own music fair use. Ugh.

Perma LINK posted by Patacon : 8:30 AM  0 comments

Can relationship-management software for men really get them laid more often? Commentary by Regina Lynn. This column is also available as a .

Perma LINK posted by Patacon : 8:29 AM  0 comments

We were just talking about the legality of playing poker online. The law is anything but clear, leading many people to believe that playing online poker is legal, even if running an online poker operation in the US is not legal. However, US officials have made it clear in the past that they believe that the Wire Act, banning gambling wagers made over the phone, applies to any online gamblers. But, since millions of people don't seem to believe that, two politicians have decided to introduce new legislation that makes it clear: playing poker online will be a jailable offense, punishable by up to five years in prison. A similar bill has been introduced a few times before (the first time nearly a decade ago), but one of the backers claims it was shot down by Jack Abramoff lobbying efforts -- and seeing as he's a bit busy lately, that shouldn't necessarily come into play this time around. No matter what your take on gambling (online or off) may be, it's hard to see how five years in jail is reasonable punishment.

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A moderator on the Neowin forums maintains an obsessive list of freeware to get just about everything done, from 3D graphics and antivirus software to RSS readers and video players. Need a free defrag program? Try DRMS or Buzzsaw. Want to run an FTP server? Try Cerberus. You get the idea. Most of it is for Windows, though some is cross-platform. Definitely worth bookmarking.

[Via Digg]

Perma LINK posted by Patacon : 8:28 AM  0 comments

IT guru Daniel Petri has posted a very thorough tutorial on customizing a new installation of Windows XP, including taking care of the most common annoyances of a fresh install.

Some of these changes are for made for performance reasons while others are purely visual and made only for my convenience.

Either way, here are some of the steps I take to customize my own XP machine. I did not list ALL available tweaks or changes, I just wrote about the ones that I use the most and that help me get a better working experience with my own XP machine.

Tips range from getting rid of that annoying "Take a tour of Windows XP" prompt to customizing Windows Explorer. If you've freshly installed XP once (let alone many times), you know that tweaking it to how you like it can be kind of a pain. This is definitely a nice starting point, or just a good reference for a few tips to tweak a current install.

What's the first thing you do when you install a new OS (Windows or otherwise)? Let us know in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

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Web service DomainsBot provides a list of suggested domain names given a word or sentence.

Type in your search terms or domain that's not available and DomainsBot will list similar expired, available and for sale domain names. Specify what TLD you want (.com, .net, .org) and whether or not hyphens are ok. A search for "lifehack" returned "hackersoul.com." That's not so hot, but DomainsBot does seem like a good alternative tool to the domain suggestion searches at most registrars.

Perma LINK posted by Patacon : 5:55 AM  0 comments