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The majority of potential users out there (me inlcuded) just want something that works. They aren't going to be willing to deal with low budget hardware and second rate drivers just to push some religious agenda.

It is funny because you say you think binary drivers should be okay, but in my experience, binary drivers are like dealing with "low buget hardware and second rate drivers" and the open source drivers have been the highest quality of any drivers I have seen for the home market. I have a Nvidia card. The frakking binary drivers are total shit. Constant crashes (not only the driver, but sometimes the entire system!) while watching videos or 3D graphics. Sometimes just randomly. Sometimes during shutdown. WTF? In my decade of using Linux, I don't recall ever having an open source driver crash because it was buggy.

I don't really care what they say about needing to keep secrets. Whatever companies involved with that are either stupid or have some other agenda. Releasing programming specs won't make creating GPUs and any eaiser for their competitors. That is bullshit. The hard part is designing the internals of the chip.

Obviously, the open source drivers aren't going to do things where they aren't given the specs or can reverse engineer them. How about I give you a mystery chip and give you a vague description of what it does and expect you to make a program for it? Would you think that is reasonable or would you call me crazy???

I think the next graphics chipset I am going to buy will be open source. I wish intel made graphic cards because they work great. Open source drivers even, and I think they release the specs to everyone. I may go integrated, though I want an AMD64 processor and I don't think they make a motherboard with intel graphics and a AMD socket...

My dad's emachine runs linux great (just a minor issue with the hardware clock). It uses i810 graphics. Plus, with programming specs, (I saw a website before. I can't find it. Anyone have the url?) I may try playing with the chipset. Maybe I can make it do something interesting.

However, ATI may be going open source too?

Not sure slashdot is really losing readers to digg or reddit. One of the latest front-page additions to digg is a story named "Crazy Man Dancing In Best Buy!!!". While not much worse than yesterday's slashdot story on "unskilled musician playing instruments via stop-motion video editing" youtube stupidness, at least the latter is a well-crafted hack.

If slashdot is losing some readers for that, i'd say it's nothing losing much. Specially as digg's comments are "teh suck". Won't even touch on reddit and its political agenda: not stuff that matters for nerds...

I feel that slashdot's filter for submitted stories is a lot better than having to filter them myself when searching news on digg...

[Is] [Slashdot] trying to [redeem] itself after being conned into an instance of viral marketing?

http://digg.com/

You're a Digg reader? If so, go away. Yes the James Kim story was very tragic and I feel very much for the family. But based on the idiotic level of commentary that popped up on Digg regarding the story, I think it's better than Slashdot DIDN'T cover the story

I am a digg reader because the moderation system is so much better than slashdot. Check out my brutal and succinct commentary on this matter. The story was of interest to gadget nerds and survivalists alike! The totality Kim's disasterous decision making during the ordeal merit Darwin Award consideration.

he's up shit creek. If he did kill her, then he deserves it.

I agree. And unlike OJ he will not find a tainted jury to keep him out of the big house.

Because blogs are a way to reach audiences that are not reached through traditional marketing outlets

Yeah, because Apple has a real problem "reaching audiences." I mean, who ever heard of an iPod? They seem to think that TV commercials and word-of-mouth alone will sell the things.

they increase the amount of feedback you receive from your customers, and they provide a way to mine your user base for ideas.

If only there were some website where Apple could gather user opinions and feedback.

-- Brian Boyko
-- Professional Blogger.

It shows.

http://digg.com/tech_news/BitTorrent_merges_with_u Torrent

Some answers from #uTorrent-questions:

-will uTorrent be ported to Linux?
probably

-how many lines of code is it comprised of?
~50-60K

-will encryption be removed?
no (answered by Bram)

-features most important to you (directed @ Bram)
low memory footprint, code size, cpu usage

-is there any thoughts to an osx client?
(Bram) we plan to produce an up to date osx client, but that's significant porting work

-are there any features that will be removed from uTorrent?
(Bram) we're leaving the uTorrent client mostly alone for now, on the grounds that people like it (further defined 'mostly' as in, not much of anything substantive will change)

-will uTorrent be replacing the original python client?
(Bram) we aren't announcing integration plan details right now

-Bram, are you talking with asus and other router makers for putting uTorent in there?
(Bram) we're talking to lots of people

-will uTorrent ever be open-sourced?
(Bram) not in the forseeable future, but we'll continue to maintain an open source reference implementation

-Bram, you said before that you're not a big fan of protocol header encryption... do you still stand behind this?
(Bram) it isn't much harder for an isp to recognize encrypted headers than unencrypted headers.

-will content be monitored?
(Bram) absolutly not

-does the uTorrent codebase compile on linux today (in your labs?)
(ludde) No

-ludde can't develop anything new for uTorrent?
(ludde) bittorrent inc will do the majority of the development work

-what IDE was uTorrent developed on?
(ludde) Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 with a few routines written in visual cobol. uTorrent was written in C++ with some tiny chunks of assembly

-will uTorrent continue to be free?
(Bram) utorrent will continue to be available and continue to be free (as in, no cost, not open source)

-Utorrent uses a lot of Windows API's right? Won't that be a problem when porting to *nux/OSX
(ludde) Yes, the UI is tightly bound to Windows APis, however, the core backend is easier to port.
(Bram) the utorrent UI is windows native, so porting that part to osx or linux is a significant amount of work (but planned to be done at some point)

RD content was buried consistently due to inaccurate claims made by the author, suspicious activity related to his storys and a refusal to ever correct his mistakes.

Rather than use the critiques to become a better writer he instead lashed out and cried censorship envisioning some massive conspiracy to squelch his glorified blog.

This is the kind of garbage he was submitting over and over again:
http://digg.com/apple/Windows_5x_More_Expensive_th an_Mac_OS_X

And here we see that Daniel agrees with his own article! "Exactly right" in fact. Tell me that does not have the hallmarks of someone using secondary accounts to spam their articles. I guess he forgot which account he was on at the time.
http://digg.com/apple/How_Apple_Got_Its_Groove_Bac k

RD content was buried consistently due to inaccurate claims made by the author, suspicious activity related to his storys and a refusal to ever correct his mistakes.

Rather than use the critiques to become a better writer he instead lashed out and cried censorship envisioning some massive conspiracy to squelch his glorified blog.

This is the kind of garbage he was submitting over and over again:
http://digg.com/apple/Windows_5x_More_Expensive_th an_Mac_OS_X

And here we see that Daniel agrees with his own article! "Exactly right" in fact. Tell me that does not have the hallmarks of someone using secondary accounts to spam their articles. I guess he forgot which account he was on at the time.
http://digg.com/apple/How_Apple_Got_Its_Groove_Bac k

says he's busier than ever positioning the company to totally own online video downloads.

Intriguing; I mentioned the Slashdot Subculture page in my front page Digg submission just 10 hours ago. Did you read that, or is it synchronicity? I enjoyed reading 'Slashdot Subculture', and I thought it was well done. It was the only all in one source for that information. When I first joined Slashdot I could tell that I was missing the inside jokes. That article helped me understand what the hell people were talking about, and it showed me that the comments can be an intricate form of art. It improved my appreciation of this site. Here are the the votes for deletion of the Slashdot subculture page found via the Digg comments.

probably this will: http://digg.com/political_opinion/Should_the_U_S_G et_Rid_of_The_Penny

Where are the PC Bluray drives that go for $200?

Not everyone on Slashdot here hates Microsoft. A lot of people on Slashdot live off of Microsoft - people with MCSEs and other consultants. Not only that, but every article that is negative about Microsoft always has at least several, "I know everyone here hates Microsoft, but...." rated +5 Insightful. Basically that's the way you get modded Insightful these days - praise Microsoft in a devil's advocate tone, or bash Sony. Fact is, there are some fanboy moderators (and editors *cough* Zonk), and they are shameless in their abuse of power.

They don't realize that if Microsoft dominates the game console industry, that's their entrance into the PC market - imagine a world where Microsoft dominated software and hardware - pretty scary. Their gaming console will become a home entertainment console that coincidentally is capable of browsing the Internet (IE), and use Microsoft Office. Sony *has* to succeed - as you can see from Sony's missteps, they aren't a threat to being a monopoly - Microsoft, however is.

As for gaming news, I think I'll skip reading Slashdot - I've submitted some neutral PS3 stories, which were ranked highly on Digg, and yet they got rejected in favor of this crap. In the meantime, I'll read Digg's Gaming Section - it still has negative PS3 stories, but it's a lot more balanced than a biased editor pushing their agenda like their being paid by Microsoft.

No, just a different article, found here

Well, not quite news considering that DIGG had this three days ago. Quit playing with yourself kdawson and get with the game.

zune does not play VBR MP3 files...!!

aaargh!!!

j

I concede. Shows what happens when you cut and paste stuff without reading....

http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Scam_of_Indian_stude nt_developing_technology_to_store_450_GB_on_paper
Read comment by "earl507"

http://itsoup.blogspot.com/2006/11/scam-of-indian- student-developing.html
http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Scam_of_Indian_stude nt_developing_technology_to_store_450_GB_on_paper

It must be very hard for him to cut and paste digg.com submissions from two days ago

If something is overrated it simply means that it's been given "too much" credit. The idea here is that the moderation system _should_ be a sliding scale. Not every "good" comment deserves a score of 5. That doesn't make sense. That would basically create a system where all comments were -1, 0, or 1. Pretty meaningless, much like http://digg.com/'s. The ability to tune your viewing level is abhorrent.

Here(/.) comment scores garner recognition in the case where threads don't matter. Alternatively, if threads do matter the score doesn't. You shouldn't base your approval of a comment on whether it's popular, but I'm sure in some situations that happens (due to things such as anchoring and the general utility of status associated with a scoring system).

Anyway it's pretty clear that getting down to the basics again, the specific 'tags' of moderation aren't that meaningful compared to the numbers. I guess Funny is probably the most respected; everyone likes funny. Same with flamebait, troll. The usefulness of the rest aren't as big of distinctions, at least not in some cases.

You also run into the issue of how much should one be able to filter the content on the web. Theoretically one has the ability to filter much more than they do (even with a popup blocker). Still, it seems that if we are able to achieve 'tunnel vision' quality filters we may find a major disconnect in visibility of opposing views (not that there isn't one anyway; we seem to develop a natural blind spot to the arguments against our views).

At least it will make for some really interesting adverts, right?

I didn't say it wasn't easier, I said it just gives us another UI to learn. It might very well be the easier to learn UI in the world, but that doesn't stop it from being yet another UI to learn. You can't just forget about the old UI's because there's still a lot of applications that use them. And about that "read somewhere" sorry for not looking up the link but here's the link, with Vista still using UI from windows 3.1

As seen on Digg yesterday...

http://digg.com/tech_news/A_closer_look_at_AMD_s_C PU_GPU_Fusion

I've also noticed that the comments (on average) are dying way down. Is anyone still here? Let me guess, now I'll get my comment modded down for telling the truth. =) See ya guys on digg.

Check http://www.digg.com/ for some wii launch coverage. Also http://www.engadget.com/ has some story about wii launch. And BTW, it is interesting that slashdot is not covering launch - influenced by Sony ;-) ?

check it out http://digg.com/gaming_news/100_PS3s_To_Be_Resold_ By_ONE_GUY?cshow=

• Drive bys with BB guns in Kentucky.
• A riot for spots in line in Burbank.
• Read - 10 to 12 people robbed in PS3 line (dubious, but possible). [Via Digg]
• Read - Sheriffs shut down another California store for rowdy behavior.
• Read - Police break up NY SonyStyle store fight.
• Read - Brawl breaks out at another Wally when manager plays musical PlayStation chairs. Seriously, what an idiot. [Thanks Kyle D.]
• Read - Shots were apparently fired at a Texas Wally. Pics here and here of the 5-0. [Thanks, Jason]
• Read - Two armed, masked robbers overtook a customer in Springfield. [Thanks, Jason]
• Watch - North Fresno / Merced had stampede-riot insanity. [Thanks, Jonathan]

Yes, it's a l33t inside Slashdot joke that originated with an article long ago about remote controlled sharks. For an explanation, see here .

I think we can do that already.

Here's a story about a Tranax ATM being hacked: ATM Hack Uncovered. They discussed this on Digg: ATM Hack Uncovered.

Diebold voting machines are certainly not secure: Insecure voting. Be sure to watch the HBO Special, "Hacking Democracy", linked there and mentioned in an earlier Slashdot front page story.

It's not that there is specific information about hacking Diebold ATMs. It's that there is so much information indicating that Diebold is not interested in security.

Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on digg is submitted by the digg user community (that would be you). After you submit content, other digg users read your submission and digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of digg visitors to see.

A portion of the manual, which Democratic officials say is authentic, states: "If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a `pre-emptive strike,' " such as issuing a press release "quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting."

AFAIK the GUI can only destructive repartition. You have to use the command line version to nondestructively repartition.

That being said, there are many excellent Linux live cd's that can be used to repartition drives. Take a Look

These will boot just fine on an intel mac, and I'm sure you could piece together a PPC version.

They're probably all Firehosing.

You're right about the moderating.

No. Say what you will about Zonk but he doesn't make news posts like this.

If you followed any gaming news at all, you would know that the defect rate for the Xbox360 is much higher than that of other electronics. In fact, Microsoft have admitted to the faulty Xboxes being shipped.

I have 2 friends who both bought Xbox360s, and both their Xbox360 failed. One of them nudged his Xbox360 while it was on and it scratched his game -- this is also widely documented and remain a problem with current Xboxes being sold. What company would design a console so poorly that it cannot be moved during operation? From what it looks like, Microsoft's software engineering practices is carrying over to their hardware.

I thought this story was very helpful with links to the "evidence" that an Edgy upgrade is potentially dangerous, so I posted it to digg.com at http://digg.com/linux_unix/Slashdot_Upgrading_to_U buntu_Edgy_Eft_a_Nightmare

"Everyone raves about iPod/iTunes"

Excuse me but digg is this way.

Can I have your job? I promise I'll never dupe, and I possess enough technical knowledge to know about Enlightenment the window manager and recognize its logo. Oh, wait, Digg already lets users do your job.

kdawson--fulfilling the Slashdot rule of having one editor everybody hates. First JonKatz, then Michael, then Zonk, and now kdawson. Fun!

"Just my luck. The one time I falsely accuse a towering figure of 20th century technology of using drugs, he's actually reading my comments."

Oh my, this was hilarious! It took me a minute to actually convince myself that it really was the Woz. Well, look at it this way, yours was one of only three posts on /. that the Woz found necessary to reply to. So that's got to find a place in your resume somewhere.

"Is there nowhere that I can turn where I can safely slander people?"

digg...

Think again... apparently you get a one-time get out of jail free card.

http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2006/09/a pple_gave_me_b.html
http://digg.com/apple/Itunes_Lets_People_Re-Downlo ad_all_Your_Music_Once_

A call/e-mail to apple's tech support may be in order for you.

Note that I've not verified this but I'll take Wil's word on it. In any case it's worth a try.

I think you may be in the wrong place, you want http://digg.com/

This is on frontpage because zonk saw the link to it on digg.com today. :/

http://digg.com/gaming_news/The_20_Worst_Video_Gam es_of_All_Time_2

AOL is suffering from a lot of things but in the UK what's really hurt them is the commoditisation of the internet. AOL made its reputation on ease of use, helping my mother and millions of other newbys get online. It was simple, well supported, and dominated the dial up market. Now broadband is the norm and accounts for over two thirds of UK internet connections. There are a handful of suppliers who all sell kit that is as easy to use as AOL's code and they are largely telcos who own the pipes rather than renting them. AOL is living off its old user base, which explains their tricky cancellation procedure. There's little to keep people at AOL now. It's underfunded its internet portal, AIM is interoperating with other IM systems and Google's beating the pants off AOL in local service provision. The Carphone Warehouse deal shows how little impact AOL has today. Maybe it'll spur a retro market for AOL emails...

Probably more relevent to the /. crowd would be this article from someone that switched to Ubuntu from OS X and then went back to OS X:

http://digg.com/apple/Mac_OS_X_vs_Ubuntu

Let me say that if I could go into a store right now and buy a reasonably priced copy of OX X that would run on a plain PC, I would be running OS X at the moment (Yes, I understand that running on *any* hardware would make OS X less stable, but I would be willing to take the risk...and huge amounts of people would rather pay more for Apple's hardware and stability, and I wish Apple could see that and make us both happy).

But since that isn't going to happen, I'm really considering going to Ubuntu because I think MS is just going insane with Vista.

As the above mention, he doesn't think Ubuntu is too far behind OS X.

I would be interested in hearing others thoughts on this?

Transporter_ii

see also digg

I find it far more effective to use NoScript. Quoting from their site: While its primary aim is preventing malicious JavaScript from running, NoScript can effectively block Java(TM), Flash® and other plugins on untrusted sites.

However, ignoring all that. Flash 9 .. now I can finally use Digg Swarm/Stack .. yay!

"Spyware: It's In the Game." from a Digg comment.

PS3 controller functional.

It seems the Wii controller is still having problems working in a room with sunlight, or fluorescent or halogen lighting.

I think I'd rather have a controller that worked properly and could be change if desired.

Seattle911.com is no longer able to operate,
because the Seattle Fire Feed has been removed.
Why?
Digg the story here
Reddit Here

Shhh, or someone will make it into shareware. This appeared on digg a few days back, and started with a tutorial showing how to do this through the manipulation of some files in your System Library. A script was later released, and now this full blown GUI.

Google's not exactly staking the company's future on all its JavaScript toys. They still make something like 98% of their revenue on text, banner, Flash, and video ads. Their beta JavaScript apps just get Google lots of fluffy praise and attention from sites like Slashdot and Kuro5hin. It's fantastic marketing, but it's not like Google expects people to actually confide in Gmail and Docs for any productive purpose.