Slashdot Mirror

http://www.espn.com/ (Bill Simmons' column, NBA, MLB NFL section in that order)
http://www.foxsports.com/ (MLB, NBA, NFL)
http://slashdot.org/ (duh...)
http://www.anandtech.com/ (although I just check the RSS feed lately...)
http://www.cnn.com/
http://www.inq7.net/ (Philippine news)

From there I usually branch out into different sites. I do keep a lot of RSS feeds that mainly get linked from those sites (Truehoop, Deadspin, Wages of wins, Extremetech, etc.). It's really easier and more efficient to just check RSS feeds on most sites.

So from those sites, you can see I'm pretty much a sports fan. I also browse through some Philippine computer retailers' websites to check up on prices if I'm in the hunt for something (like right now, I'm in the hunt for a decent LCD). Of course, if I still have time, pr0n gets to be part of that rotation :)

I live in Manila (yup fil-a-peens) and I'm a PLDT subscriber. Its as slow as molasses. Dial-up wasn't this bad. Dial-up was slow but steady. Now, most sites just time-out. If what you said was true, I feel sorry for Bayantel and Destiny subscribers. I've had to switch off graphics just to get to some sites. I don't know where our local paper Philippine Daily Inquirer is hosted, but sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

Wow, so this isn't just a nightmare. I thought /. had finally succeeded in /.ing the world.

I don't know if any of you are aware - but a Congressman from the Philippines made a bill (not yet a law) that mandates the use of Open Source in all government offices here in the Philippines. FOSS BILL: www.chinwong.com/Documents/FOSS_bill_draft_.pdf Now with this Thailand (our neighbor) news and opposition from the Philippine Software Industry Association here: http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_ article.php?article_id=32834 It could mean the end of it all for the Open Source Revolution in our country. **Sigh** If only there was Neo to battle those black shirts.

It is even more moronic. Our country's very own Software Industry Association is opposing a gov't bill mandating educational institutions to offer open source training to prepare a possible shift to open source software in government, stating "Government has no business or expertise mandating the use of one technology platform over the other. Government's role is to partner with the private sector in providing the environment and business framework in which innovation, creativity and freedom of informed choice can thrive, especially in the area of technology which is characterized by dynamism and disruptive change."

If they bothered to read what they just said, it clearly shows a total lack of understanding of FOSS (which isn't even a platform in itself) and its principles.

While our third-world country seeks freedom in FOSS, our very own defenders of the faith, the very same people in the position to effect such change strongly oppose it. As with the case of Thailand, I smell Microsoft here, but that's another story.

TFA:
http://technology.inq7.net/infotech/infotech/view_ article.php?article_id=32834

What can it hurt?? A friend of mine was trekking in Kenya a few months ago, chillin with the natives. He told me that they make a killer alcoholic drink that tastes pretty good. Little did I know what he meant by killer until I saw this: http://news.inq7.net/world/index.php?index=1&story _id=41596 Either way, no methanol moonshine for me thnx fsckr

Hopefully they add call forwarding too. With Skype I can get calls forwarded to my cel phone even when the computer if off.

The Y! linux client is a real bummer, it looks like they haven't done anything to it for years. The reason I started using windows again was because my Y! chat friends kept wanting to see me on a webcam.

I can even think of a whole country where the internet users would like to see a linux client as good as a windows client. After the raids last year many internet cafes in the Philippines took down their illegal copies of Windows and installed Linux. I heard alot of complaints for a while.

My favorite is actually wigiwigi, I use it whenever I can find someone computer literate enough to use it on the other end.

I have yet to hear the Ayatollahs (let alone one of them) denounce the violence.

You just proved his point - they've been doing that from the very beginning. Maybe you should ask yourself if your news sources are trustworthy?

(While doing some quick googling to find sources in English on what I've already read in my native language, I'm a bit amazed as to how extremely US centric Google News is. I've never noticed this before - or it's part of the propaganda machine this thread is all about)

http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?ar ticleid=4475

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfi le=data/theuae/2006/February/theuae_February319.xm l&section=theuae

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&stor y_id=65780

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/13/news/cartoo n.php

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=8873

Speaking as a developer starting out, and having just joined a startup myself, I believe if your project is cool enough, people will be willing to work with you. And what's more, the people you'll attract will most likely be the ones who stand to contribute most to the project. The converse is also true. Startups have succeeded and and failed according to this rule.

Motivation is a key factor among geeks. Spread awareness of the project, show people that it's worth something, and that its success is in their best interests, and you can stand back and watch the magic. Of course, that's easier said than done. Learn to manage your geeks.

Sun Cellular, who has started a price war in the Philippines by offering unlimited free calls and text (SMS), is tapping Huawei for a $200M GSM equipment rollout.

If they throw in the dog bark translator I'll buy two! No, make that three!

When is the useless feature creep in cell phones going to stop, and the research on actually making the batteries last longer going to start?

There have been concerted effort with Linux, however, and it has some concerted long term backing. China, Japan, and South Korea are working together on this - there have various reports like this in April 2004, or this in Spetember 2003. The notable aspect is that, as mentioned here, this isn't a short term program to adopt Linux, and results shouldn't be expected immediately - rather it is a long term plan to reposition themselves to be more independent of Microsoft.

A large part of the push is making sure Linux support for Chinese, Japanese and Korean character sets and translations is robust and well developed - think of it as a massive scale localization project that reaches down as deep as they can get it.

How this current Debian push fits into the grand scheme of things (part of the larger project, at least in some sense, or just an independent push) is not clear to me, but regardless it represents a growing desire in Asia to move to a more flexible system that can be adapted to their specific needs. This isn't an attempt at promotion so much as a growing interest from China, Japan and Korea. Expect to see more such stories over the next 5 to 10 years.

Jedidiah.

• $300/metric ton ~= $0.15/pound
• $0.15/pound times 1 pound/person/day = $0.15/day/person
• $0.15 a day per person times 30 days/month
• $4.50 to feed a person for a month

In Sweden (and probably in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland) you can stop your PM/President in the street and talk to them.

And yet recent events show why this might not be the best thing in the World.

Not trying to flame either -- just pointing out something obvious. I think it's cool that you can walk up and chit-chat with such high-level officials but that incident clearly shows why it might not always be a good idea.

A.) Doubt it, eh? There are tons of stats about SUV safety, do a search.

B.) That's quite obvious, which is why I never said that. Here's a tidbit about the personality of your average SUV driver, however. There are MANY more articles like this, and you can be sure that it's for a reason. I didn't say all SUV drivers drive like assholes, but I (and a whole lot of others, whether you like it or not) would say a disproportinate and noticable amount are, which is dangerous when coupled with A)

C.) This is a product of you thinking that because I'm against SUVs that I'm a greenie and on top of that I'm trying to decide "what other people need." Although I think one of the reasons SUVs are obnoxious is the amount of crap they put out in the air which isn't necessary, that's just one piece of the whole. The reason you think that is because you're trying to over-simplify things to something you can contend with, IE we're all just tree-hugging hippies that are looking to take your freedom of choice away or something more or less dramatic.

I got rear ended by a Toyota one time, does that make all Toyota drivers simpletons?

You told me I should press my case, I gave them to you, and now you try to turn it around? Although this may sound redundant, the implication was never made that ALL SUV drivers are simple assholes, so it's sort of silly to make that sound as if that was my argument.

Are all drivers of four banger rice burners assholes?

Obviously no, but they're another category where the ration of assholes to non-assholes is disproportionate. Your contempt at "four bangers" is rather amusing and insightful. Many of them undoubtedly will out-perform an SUVs acceleration and top speed, ironically.

So at the risk of repeating myself, making Sierra Club class envy propaganda...

You didn't answer my question, and are indeed repeating yourself. I'll ask again - what is there to envy about an SUV? Performance? No. Cost-effectiveness? No. Safety? No. The fact that they cost so much? No, anyone who knows anything about SUVs know that the profit margin SUV manufacturers make is the highest in the mainstream industry, so if anything an SUV makes you look you've been had. Besides, SUVs are all over the roads. They are FAR from rare. It would also be wrong to state that in order to own an SUV, you must be rich, and thus non-SUV drivers might be envious of the money, but they can be seen quite regularly driving past high school and college parking lots, owned by kids.

Is it possible to you that people hate SUVs not because they're jealous or "greenies?" Hell, look at wikipedia's listing of "SUV." Half of the entry is about the opposition to it. This isn't the case of insane greenies or envy you are apparently convinced that it is. You're either ignorant, uninformed, or naive if you think the opposition exists because of envy or "greenies." And once again, if this were a class envy thing, then you would be hearing LOUDER opposition about actual performance/sports cars that are actually good performers and look sleek. That's something to envy, however the opposition isn't there. How do you account for that?

Speaking of "greenies," it's a bit ironic and bewildering that you criticized my argument because somehow you figured I was saying all SUV drivers are assholes, yet you've made it clear that you think the opposition is nothing but "greenies" and (chuckle) envious folks. Interesting.

...into a government program is incompatible with a free country.

It would probably be enough if the government would classify SUVs as they should be, which is NOT as light trucks. It would also be nice to see the correct perception of safety in an SUV in the public. Make them illegal? Can't say I'd miss them,

since the war on drugs eliminated drugs.

also heard that they are not believed by some it companies here. (with grain of salt)

from the philippines here so i "hear" some things from the industry.

i don't want to pass judgment because i have not seen the product yet. but it makes me wonder what differences it has with applications such as wine.

here is a link (from a local newspaper about the issue just today.

"According to Peter Valdes, chief technology officer of SpecOps, David uses a "new approach" in simulating the Windows environment in a Linux-powered system."

"As of 2002, SpecOps said that the WINE project remained in the hands of developers, and out of reach of Windows users. The project also inherited the flaws inherent in the Windows system so early adopters experienced system crashes and performance problems."

"According to SpecOps's technical executives, David used reverse engineering to create a "Windows Subsystem Simulation Environment" to allow Windows applications to run "natively" on the Linux operating system."

I'm not sure what to make of this now; it seems they have made a presentation of the technology to the press. Is it a scam or is this for real?

There's an Accout of a David demo here

• IBM backs Filipino software startup battling Microsoft
• ' SpecOps projects revenue of around $35 million within two years of David's commercial launch...'

Whew - after reading that link, I'm once again glad I fidget constantly. On the other hand, I worry that the increased energy burn might shorten lifespan, since the best age-extension techniques in animals involve calorie restriction. I need this body to last till we can upload minds!

pot/kettle/black

...reality and math says that the Chinese will be better at it simply because they have more people and their people are willing to work for alot less money.

Just like with the car industry, and all the other industries.

Does this give anyone else flashbacks from the Clonaid thing only six months ago? The tactic seems to be the same: counter the public's increasing doubt with even more outrageous claims.

Typical Slashdot. Bluetooth has been dead since 981 and only *now* we have an article? Is this news for nerds or news for fans of dead Danish kings?

If you're already searcing for E.T. and not a cure for cancer, why would you search for a cure for SARS? SARS is scary because it's new not because it's a currently uncontrollable viral disease, we've got loads of them. HIV/AIDS, TB, the common cold. Somwhere between 80% and 95% recover quite nicely from SARS, IIRC 500,000 die each year of the flue, you don't see us jumping around over that.

Disclaimier: I'm not saying SARS shouldn't be fought, all disease should, but let's all get some perspective.

(To back some of this up with a _little_ more reliable resource found through Google, look here)

Yes they were engaging in questionable behavior, however the RICO law permits criminal prosecution and civil suits against groups and organizations that engage in a "pattern of racketeering activity" in order to acquire or maintain a business "enterprise." source: Not So Suave: the Problem with RICO Laws. The devil is in the lack of specificity as to what constitutes a 'pattern of racketeering' and 'enterprise' The Catholic church has been sued under this these provisions and the Texas Medical Assoc. is suing HMOs Humana and CIGNA for profiteering. The problem with these laws is their built-in generalities to cover every occasion. The real damage these laws do never comes when they first are enacted, only after time, usually when the political landscape changes, is their power abused.

Hmm, I've seen them almost universally described as Jr. and sr., such in dissection of the crisis. (Risks Digest also carried Cornell's self-absolution -- I had no idea "damage estimates" ran as high as $96 million! That's criminal exaggeration, if there is such a thing.)

But the press screwing up names -- it's going to take me some time to readjust. :) (I checking NSA really quick -- did you know they have a secure Linux project? Something about them using Linux surprises me.)

Mr. Morris reminds me of Mrs. O'Leary's cow. (Actually, the cow was recently absolved; a vagrant started the fire. :) It was a mistake to play with the fire, but should the fire have been so scucessful? What kind of system gives a single individual that much power?

Anyone who follows Morris, however, cannot plausibly argue they had no idea of the potential risk. The Melissa author got 20 months for causing (supposedly) $80 million in losses (should that be offset by the extra money made by the media overhyping it?). That idiot in the Philipines who wrote iloveyou -- alleged to have got $10 billion in damages The incident caught the Philippines flat-footed to the point that they ask the U.S. to prosecute. De Guzman had a great thesis proposal ("the Internet should be free"). I don't think he or anyone else was ever punished, because of the inadequacy of then-existing law.

1) his english (sic) is damn near perfect

3) the pictures could have easily be taken somewhere in california (sic)...

4) his domain is registered in the U.S.

Considering that the invasion of Iraq is estimated to cost $200 billion, I'd say $50 billion over a few decades is a bargain. You never know what good will come of research. People were screaming (and still are) bloody murder about AIDS research. Now it looks like a cure for parkinson's will use the HIV virus as a delivery mechanism for gene therapy.

You don't know what you'll find if you don't go.

Cat
"It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross... But it's not for the timid." -- Q

That season (1997/1998), the fires spread because the forests were unusually dry. This was partly because it was an El Niño year, which caused severe drought.

But human activity was probably a more important factor--in the mid '90s large drainage canals were cut in the peat forests (as part of the Mega Rice Project), which dried out large areas of peat; and large areas of the forest have been damaged by other activities, especially logging. So the fires spread along the banks of the drainage canals (see this article from the Guardian), along logging roads, and in general, areas where humans had damaged the forest--pristine areas were far less affected by the fire, even when they did burn. (See Satellite shows how logging makes forest more flammable, which is based on an article in the Nov 22 2001 issue of Nature.)

So, yeah, I'd blame humans for this fire--they started the fires, human use of the forest made the fires both larger and more damaging than they would have been otherwise. El Niño was a huge factor in the spread of the fires, but humans made it way worse.

While the carbon released by the fires is something to worry about, these fires also caused a big loss of biodiversity. Borneo is one of the few places where orangutans are found in the wild, along with other endangered primates. The fires are thought to have killed thousands of orangutans and destroyed much of their habitat. This wouldn't be such a huge problem--forest can grow back, after all--except that Borneo is being heavily deforested, because of (largely illegal) logging, conversion to farmland, and so on. At current rates of deforestation, some think that Borneo's forest might be essentially gone in two decades, driving orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and other species to extinction.

Incidently, since these fires were burning in peat, some of them never really stopped--the peat has just been smoldering for years. It's an El Niño year right now (much weaker than '97/98), and there are fires on Borneo again (or at least there were, as of August--it's hard to find current information, though you can look at the Global Fire Monitoring Center's webpage for southeast Asia). Another chance to take measurements of carbon emissions, I guess.

We never liked those stupid old towers anyway. 3000 wankers dead, and NYC traffic still blows. C'mon Osama, you can do better than that!

In certain cities in the Philipines, they crucify themselves as part of Good Friday. And, since his website is ".ph", one might assume that...

That's pretty unlikely considering that China recently signed a pact with several other nations to fight Islamic extremists like the Taliban, and that China has been fighting Islamic Uighur separatists on its own soil. China sees Islamic militants as a serious threat and groups like the Taliban, with their practice of training and exporting terrorists, are pretty unlikely to gain any Chinese support.

I could certainly see China sending troops in that direction to prevent people crossing its borders during this conflict, but they hardly have an interest in siding with the Taliban.

A plan to hijack commercial planes and fly them into U.S. targets was reportedly incorporated into a terror strategy by Ramzi Zhmed Yousef, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, Inquirer News Service reported. The plan was first uncovered in Manila in 1995 after police arrested four suspects in a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II, and was passed on to U.S. officials by the Philippine government. At least four of Yousef's partners in the 1993 bombing have remained at large, increasing suspicions that they could be involved in the Sept. 12 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

http://www.inq7.net/nat/2001/sep/13/nat_4-1.htm