Slashdot Mirror

SourceForge.net and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

Also, this is neither news (let alone for nerds) or stuff that matters.

Web servers are intended for the dissemination of information to third parties. Wi-fi gateways are basic infrastructure, and can be reasonably be considered intended for the use of authorized parties only, given most people are unlikely to want anonymous third parties using their network without permission.

First, I don't understand how you can say with a straight face that web servers indicate and intent to share and broadcasting gateways do not. For one thing, most web services specifically forbid all sorts of uses in their terms of use. For example: http://www.ostg.com/terms.htm. For another, many people assume that information they post on the web is private (they shouldn't, but they do) if it isn't linked in to a well-known web page.

Second, couldn't you make the same argument about not wanting anonymous third parties using email servers? I only want authorized people to email me, not Mexican pharmacy bots. But since I have a publicly accessible email address I'm likely to get some such email, whether I want it or not.

I don't support the "it's open so I have a right to use it" viewpoint, but there are reasonable technical and social measures that could be employed to indicate that you don't want to share your gateway. They could simply add a the WEP password "pasword". Or not broadcast the SSID. Or put up a terms-of-use page for the first port-80 request from a new MAC address. Or posted a sign outside that said "WiFi access for customers only". Or they could have walked out to his car and asked him to stop using their network.

If they had done any one of those things and he continued using the access point I'd have no trouble prosecuting him. But when people physically trespass, they must have bypassed reasonable security measures and/or be asked to leave before they've committed a crime, and I don't see the benefit of a stricter standard for access points.

I can help with your educational journey. Please take a look at this 2004 survey done through SourceForge.

http://www.ostg.com/bcg/

About 2000 lead developers of the top SourceForge projects were surveyed. 30% responded. Of those 30% said they made money while creating open source projects. The top two motivators for open source were "intellectual stimulation" (i.e., fun) and "skill improvement" (i.e., training).

So...I'd say my basic premise holds: people often use open source projects to practice their skills for their non-open source "day jobs".

"Someone comes up with a new idea, builds a site, popularity explodes, someone tries to control and monetize it (either the original owner or someone who bought it for way too much money), the attempts at control end up smothering the product, popularity declines, someone comes up with another new idea, and so on."

Funny how that works out.

It's a trap! As has recently been discovered, KITT is a Cylon!

If VA Software thinks they're now a "media company", it's time to get off SourceForge.

OSTG (Open Source Technology Group), formerly Open Source Development Network (OSDN), has had its roots in the technology community since its early days as the ground-breaking tech network Andover.net. Founded in 1996 with the mission to provide unbiased content, community, and commerce for the Linux and Open Source communities, Andover.net grew in community relevance and popularity by adding the provocative community-centric sites Slashdot and freshmeat.net to its technology group, and ThinkGeek and AnimationFactory.com to its e-commerce division. After its acquisition by VA Software Corp. (NASDAQ: LNUX) in early 2000 and the introduction of SourceForge.net and Linux.com, the network cemented its position as the Internet's leading destination for the Linux and Open Source community.

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

Most non-profits have between 0 and a few months of operating expenses "in the bank." Why should Wikipedia be any different.

The only real "cures" to ongoing fundraising drives are to sell services, such as research services, advertising, subscriptions, or other "monetizable" services; raise an endowment; or have outside investment, which means selling out or going commercial. If they go commercial, they could go the Slashdot model, which is a "community forum" owned by a community-friendly commercial enterprise, VA Software.

OSDL are your hosts here at slashdot

Nope, actually, Slashdot is hosted by the OSTG, this acronym meaning Open Source Technology Group.

...it's product placement, stupid!

...the submitting user grants OSTG the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, all subject to the terms of any applicable license.

don't you understand? I mean, it's right there in the terms of service at the bottom of every page, just below the "owners" text you quoted. ;-)

If the governemnt comes to Facebook (or mySpace, or whoever), and demands that information on an individual, there's not much Facebook can do. Most of these sites have agreements that reserve the right to hand over information to government agencies that ask for it.

For example, Open Source Technology Group (Which owns /.) has this in it's TOS. You can also find the link to it at the bottom of the page...

OSTG, in its sole and absolute discretion, may preserve Content and may also disclose Content if required to do so by law or judicial or governmental mandate or as reasonably determined useful by OSTG to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of OSTG Sites' users and the public.

That's for the whole /. website (and whatever else OSTG owns, whatever that is...), not just accounts, so this covers terrorist threats by our good friend, Anonymous Coward.

Sadly, in the age of speed scrolling to the bottom of a website's 'Terms of Service', we have many people who wonder these things...

Idiot: What? You can't give away my information to a government agency without my permission!
Social Networking Site: We already have your permission. You agreed to our ToS, which give us that right.
Idiot: But I didn't read the ToS!
SNS: Tough luck dumbass!

Good advice would be to read these things before you click 'I Agree'. Better advice would be not to post stories or pictures on the internet that involve you doing things that are stupid and/or illegal. The best advice is to just avoid doing stupid and/or illegal things altogether.

As noted in TFA (page 4), the product is carried by Thinkgeek, which like Slashdot, is owned by OSTG.

So I presume you read and agreed to the terms of service for Slashdot? (Which is linked to from the bottom of every Slashdot page).

How is that different?

SourceForge is a corporation?

Yes.

Get your Open Source ads here

Slashdot's got several ad pricing plans. They're linked from the "advertising" link at the bottom of every single slashdot page. Look for yourself.

Absolutely.

Mirrordot and company do a decent job, but too often they don't cache enough (like Pages 2-5 of a story), and having it official would be great for users and would-be slashdotting victims. ... though this does bring potential advertising revenue into perspective; good for OSTG, bad for article hosters.

[Darkman, Walkin Dude wrote: ] The don't be evil thing is superb marketing that gained them a groundswell of grassroots support, good for them. ...

This is not ethics or morals, its like asking walmart to give up their entire inventory of shop-brand cola forever, while still buying it in. That's google's position, so spare us the hero stuff. (Shakespeare?!?)

Site sponsorships give you maximum visibility and unparalleled exposure to your target audi ence-- including premium logo placement and positioning, exclusive site advertisement, and the opportunity to contribute editorial content.

-- Page 6, OSDN press kit.

You put it too crudely, and are thus correct, but for the wrong reason.

First of all, slashdot is owned by

http://www.ostg.com/sites/index.htm

not by Rob. Rob is not in a position to handle any money, and I doubt he gets a say about the slashvertisments.

Second, the OSTG press kit

http://www.ostg.com/pdfs/OSTG%20Media%20Kit.pdf

States on page 6 of 7:

Site Sponsorships:

Site sponsorships give you maximum visibility and unparalleled exosure to your target audience--- includine premium logo placement and positioning, exclusive site advertisment, and THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT.

(caps are mine). So if you pay money you get to CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT.

So you are right. Rob does not take kickbacks. Instead, OSTG gives people the business opportunity to CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT in exchange for money.

You put it too crudely, and are thus correct, but for the wrong reason.

First of all, slashdot is owned by

http://www.ostg.com/sites/index.htm

not by Rob. Rob is not in a position to handle any money, and I doubt he gets a say about the slashvertisments.

Second, the OSTG press kit

http://www.ostg.com/pdfs/OSTG%20Media%20Kit.pdf

States on page 6 of 7:

Site Sponsorships:

Site sponsorships give you maximum visibility and unparalleled exosure to your target audience--- includine premium logo placement and positioning, exclusive site advertisment, and THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT.

(caps are mine). So if you pay money you get to CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT.

So you are right. Rob does not take kickbacks. Instead, OSTG gives people the business opportunity to CONTRIBUTE EDITORIAL CONTENT in exchange for money.

There are legit ways to advertise on slashdot.

Check http://www.ostg.com/

It will also prevent hundreds of security professionals, system admins reading slashdot to hunt you down if you coded the lame worm or not.

I know you can call it paranoia but submitting a worm story to slashdot promoting your product can make people wonder how far you would go.

Also people concerned about that worm: Update your virus databases and get latest security patches for your OS and IM Application.

Except in reality the Slashdot team members became employees of OSTG when they sold the site. They have a manager, they have tasks set before them, and these are OSTG tasks, not Slashdot tasks. They work on Newsforge, too, on Freshmeat code, etc.

They probably have a set number of hours per day to work on Slashdot, and do not have enough time to properly wade through the huge flow of incoming stories, and no, OSTG probably cannot hire more "editors".

That's good old business as usual: not enough employees, not enough money, not enough time, too much work to do.

Actually, far more likely is that they don't have time to read /. comments all day since they are busy doing other stuff and managing the sbumission queue.

I toally agree this whole ScuttleMonkey thing is BS and the guy should be fired, but if you want to make your point known, you should be emailing OSTG about it, not ranting on here where no one sees you.

Maybe they never claimed that, but it has been a part of the past of Slashdot. Hell, isn't Slashdot one of the premier members of the Open Source Technology Group (Formerly Open Source Developer's Network.) However, OSS can be coded in any language. It's not about what it's written in, it's about the accompanying liscense. And Slashdot is PRIMARILLY News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters. Just that it used to be "Stuff that would mostly matter to Open Source Nerds." (Not the actual slogan, but their general bent on stories.)

OSTG reserves the right, at OSTG's sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms periodically.

I'm not sure you understand what "or later" means, then. Which license you accept is up to the LICENSEE, not the licensor.

That means that the person *accepting* the license can choose either GPL 2, GPL 3, etc.

It also means that any further GPL revision cannot add more restrictions--they can always choose to accept it under the older license, which did not contain those restrictions.

Besides, you accept such provisions on most website EULAs you sign up for anything with, anyhow. They all reserve the right to change their rules at any time, and I can't name a one that's ever informed me of new rules, offhand. Even though they put all manner of crap in there :)

http://www.ostg.com/terms.htm

1. Branding firm gives pricey advice
2. Advice is taken
3. Calamity!

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Parent
href="//ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=167966&th reshold=-1&commentsort=0&tid=158&tid=93&tid=4&mode =thread&pid=14004578#14004712">Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by Phanatic1a (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:41PM

• Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by Genevish (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:44PM

Forget Decryption by Propaganda13 (Score:1) Thursday November 10, @10:52PM

Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by BiggerIsBetter (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:55PM

mostly analysis, I suspect by SuperBanana (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:57PM

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ref="http://slashdot.org/relocate.pl?id=12076d9d1d 102290bbd8d6c328d9352d">ITMJ
       

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Parent
href="//ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=167966&th reshold=-1&commentsort=0&tid=158&tid=93&tid=4&mode =thread&pid=14004578#14004712">Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by Phanatic1a (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:41PM

• Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by Genevish (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:44PM

Forget Decryption by Propaganda13 (Score:1) Thursday November 10, @10:52PM

Re:Decrypt ~and~ analyze by BiggerIsBetter (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:55PM

mostly analysis, I suspect by SuperBanana (Score:2) Thursday November 10, @10:57PM

You see this is all some sort of geek payola conspiracy. These pictures will be used by these guys to create the next 'must have' giant microbe that will be sold here on thinkgeek, which is owned by the same mega-hyper-nerd-congomerate that runs slashdot, which just gave them free advertising via this story . . . I too have unwittingly become a pawn in this whole twisted affair by noticing the connection (years of OSDN/OSTG brainwashing) and posting this.

Time to amend the Slashdot Terms of Service!

OSTG

SourceForge

ThinkGeek

ITMJ

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href="//slashdot.org/users.pl?op=savemiscopts&opt_ osdn_navbar=0"> X
dollars to do so. The American Council on Education (ACE) filed an appeal with the circuit court last week against the new rules that Carnegie Mellon Chief Information Officer Joel Smith referred to as "definitely an overkill."

Under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994, telephone companies must pay to maintain their systems so that federal agents can easily obtain wiretaps. The most recent orders under this act, issued by the FCC, asks that institutions providing Internet access also reengineer their systems accordingly within the next 18 months. Carnegie Mellon is one such institution. With a subpoena and the flip of a switch, federal officials could have access to e-mail accounts and online information of any student at compliant universities.

"The Department of Justice wants 24/7 access, whenever they need it, and they want remote access. We find that too extremely burdensome in terms of money, staff, and technology," said Maureen McFalls, Director of Government Relations for Carnegie Mellon and the coordinator of Carnegie Mellon's response to this issue. According to an ACE press release, the cost to universities could be upwards of $7 billion, or at least $450 extra on each student's tuition bill.

"Burdensome is really the best word for the new rules," McFalls added.

"Colleges and universities have a long history of working with law enforcement agencies pursuing criminal investigations and are proud of our working relationship," said Sheldon E. Steinbach, ACE vice-president and general counsel, in the same press release. "When you evaluate efficiency versus the incredible cost of compliance, we just dont think it makes a lot of sense."

According to the new rules set forth under CALEA, federal agencies want to be able to access a private institution's network from almost any location at almost any time. Currently, universities take special precautions to make this kind of remote access very difficult, in order to prevent online crime.

"We do recognize the need to be in compliance and cooperate with law enforcement," said Smith, "but it happens very rarely that they need this kind of access, here or nationally." According to a report from Educause, a nonprofit organization that deals with online issues in higher education, there were 3468 wiretaps ordered by local, state, national, and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts in 2004. The report also stated that the number or wiretaps on campuses is extremely small.

So how is Carnegie Mellon's administration reacting to these new proposed regulations? The school plans "to work through the appropriate channels for the University to make our views known, just as a matter of fact, that it would be very costly for every student in every college," said University Provost Mark Kamlet.

"We are going to review the AAU [Association for American Universities] and ACE actions and perhaps take our own if we feel that we may have something different or more important to say than t

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ITMJ

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dollars to do so. The American Council on Education (ACE) filed an appeal with the circuit court last week against the new rules that Carnegie Mellon Chief Information Officer Joel Smith referred to as "definitely an overkill."

Under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994, telephone companies must pay to maintain their systems so that federal agents can easily obtain wiretaps. The most recent orders under this act, issued by the FCC, asks that institutions providing Internet access also reengineer their systems accordingly within the next 18 months. Carnegie Mellon is one such institution. With a subpoena and the flip of a switch, federal officials could have access to e-mail accounts and online information of any student at compliant universities.

"The Department of Justice wants 24/7 access, whenever they need it, and they want remote access. We find that too extremely burdensome in terms of money, staff, and technology," said Maureen McFalls, Director of Government Relations for Carnegie Mellon and the coordinator of Carnegie Mellon's response to this issue. According to an ACE press release, the cost to universities could be upwards of $7 billion, or at least $450 extra on each student's tuition bill.

"Burdensome is really the best word for the new rules," McFalls added.

"Colleges and universities have a long history of working with law enforcement agencies pursuing criminal investigations and are proud of our working relationship," said Sheldon E. Steinbach, ACE vice-president and general counsel, in the same press release. "When you evaluate efficiency versus the incredible cost of compliance, we just dont think it makes a lot of sense."

According to the new rules set forth under CALEA, federal agencies want to be able to access a private institution's network from almost any location at almost any time. Currently, universities take special precautions to make this kind of remote access very difficult, in order to prevent online crime.

"We do recognize the need to be in compliance and cooperate with law enforcement," said Smith, "but it happens very rarely that they need this kind of access, here or nationally." According to a report from Educause, a nonprofit organization that deals with online issues in higher education, there were 3468 wiretaps ordered by local, state, national, and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts in 2004. The report also stated that the number or wiretaps on campuses is extremely small.

So how is Carnegie Mellon's administration reacting to these new proposed regulations? The school plans "to work through the appropriate channels for the University to make our views known, just as a matter of fact, that it would be very costly for every student in every college," said University Provost Mark Kamlet.

"We are going to review the AAU [Association for American Universities] and ACE actions and perhaps take our own if we feel that we may have something different or more important to say than t

"He could cash the place out, if he wanted. Shut the servers down, tell everyone to go home."

I don't think his employers would appreciate that.

Make sure you read this before posting.

Again from Robert Rozeboom. I actually support slashdot, bought a subscription (yea I know it's only $10) and I can't post from home because someone who uses a Comcast cable modem is a troll?! What the fuck?!

Come on OSDN
they are known as OSTG now

I can't believe you would advacate running a business on stolen sotware. Yeah, software like AutoCAD is expensive, but that is a cost you build into your price. Or are you undercutting a legal business and then letting people Xerox your plans and not pay you for your work?

If you are worried about the cost switch to open source.

http://www.ostg.com/
http://www.fsf.org/

I wish I could think of the link for the Free/Open software donation challenge from about a year ago, posted here.

OSTG user statistics (Including Slashdot).
- 97% of OSTG readers are men
- average age is 29

Arguing about women in games on Slashdot is like a vegan arging about animal rights in a sausage factory.

Oh please, the link is called "terms of service". I suggest you read the second paragraph of section 6: "LICENSING AND OTHER TERMS APPLYING TO CONTENT POSTED ON THE OSTG SITES"

LOL! I agree. Apple is a Site Sponsor for Slashdot. They have editorial discretion here -- meaning, they basically have a direct line to Taco et al. They write up a good tidbit and send it to Taco, who posts it for them. It's just business. Strangely, nearly everybody here thinks the Apple "grassroots" movement is real. Thats why crap news that shouldn't even make apple.slashdot.org makes the front page, four or five articles a day.

If Slashdot separated the real news from the sponsored news, the sponsored news would lose its power -- it's because we believe that it's honest and spontaneous that we give it so much credibility. If we knew Apple was just advertising to us, we would ignore it, and eventually, Apple would stop paying to have their content posted, and OSTG doesn't want to lose Apple or their other content customers. So it'll never happen. Sorry.

OK lets be honest here. Really honest. Most of you USE open source software or are using a system with linux on it or use linux exclusively on the job. Heck, Slashdot is part of the Open Source Technology Group. In fact, above this 'Post Comment' page's title I see a little message saying "Don't Fear the Penguins". Basically, you are all biased.

On the laptop which I am using right now, I am running Fedora alongside Windows 2003 Enterprise. My past computers have used Red Hat (6.2-9), Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, and DOS. I can say without even a glint of doubt that Windows is the best OS for the desktop. Yes, even better than you Mac lover's OSX (for some reasons you see below, though few :D):

1) Installation of Windows is a piece of cake. You pop in the CD, hit setup, follow the VERY easy directions on screen, and it takes care of itself. Come back in a half hour and your computer is ready to go. Today's Linux distributions have gotten better - Fedora for one, was easy to setup thanks to Anaconda. HOWEVER, not all of the distros are like that. For example, Debian's installation process is cruel and unusual, and yes this is mainly cuz it lacks a nice slick GUI.

2) With Windows, everything just works. I have never had a single connectivity issue with windows. With Windows XP, the only device that I use for which I had to actually install drivers was my digital camera. Nothing else at all. In Linux, I struggled forever with ALSA to get my sound to work. Who knows how many countless scripts I edited, or what exactly I even did since I ended up going to one forum after the next getting random tips that I then threw together until the right recipe worked. And this is only ONE example. I have to proceed similarly with everything, trembling at each step about what might go wrong.

3) Almost all of the best software is available for windows (my one complaint about macs, tho they certainly have their niche too). Most people are willing to pay a little to get a proper working piece of software along with technical support. Obviously there is good software for linux - but I'll be damned if you can point out a slicker cpp editor on linux than windows (seriously, don't even point out some random ass text editor like pico or something and say that it r0xx0rs Visual Studio). And there is no alternative to many of the other software I use daily. One major example is AIM. There are no AIM clients for Linux that hold a candle to the windows clients. GAIM can't even handle file transfers properly so you cannot say it is better.

4) Windows is EASY to fix or maintain. If I want to update windows, I go to windows update and just click away. In Linux, the update programs alone fail. In fact, to get up to speed, I had to go install other 'updating' programs such as Apt (+Synaptic) or Yum (+GYUM). Even so, repositories are such an annoying way to install programs. Having individual binaries is the best way - the linux project that aims to provide the same 'Click Setup and Walk Away' approach (can't recall name right now, sorry) is a good start towards this.

5) Perhaps the best thing is that Windows is standardized. Having a large stew of linux distributions each which their own quirks is confusing, annoying, and unproductive. Having more options to choose from can be a bad thing if overdone.

Anyways I am not saying Windows >>> Linux all the time (read: servers). I am just trying to pull those of you who seem so biased back to center.

Slashdot is part of the Open-Source Technology Group, OSTG. This group includes Slashdot, ITManager'sJournal, NewsForge, Linux.com, SourceForge.net, freshmeat.net, DevChannel.org, and even ThinkGeek.

But this isn't much of a revellation. I mean, "OSTG" and all the included sites are listed along that little grey banner-line at the top of slashdot. I also noticed that alot of the April 01 articles referred to ThinkGeek and said "(TG is owned by OSTG, the parent company of Slashdot, so activate all conspiracy theories now)" One example. Another example. I guess the editors were fully disclosing their conflicts of interest for that one day?

Slashdot charges per impression, not per click. Check out http://www.ostg.com/advertising/tech/rates.htm

People are getting paid to hype up Linux on Slashdot?

Yup.

This was 'supposed' to help them clean up dupes, yet we find that they are not only failing to check dupes, tehy are also failing to check the account so that those of us (that are paying, not being paid) can help out...

That's because you're doing it all wrong. The staff doesn't care. But there is a solution; you mention that we're paying for this "service." Gentlemen, I give you the contact information for the Open Source Technology Group, Slashdot's parent company:

46939 Bayside Parkway
Fremont, CA 94538

Toll free: (877) 825-4689
Phone: (510) 687-7000
Fax: (510) 687-7155

E-mail: info@ostg.com [not linkified for spam reasons]

(Source: http://www.ostg.com/contact/index.htm) You want the editors to, erm, edit? Complain to their bosses.

Recently, several large corporations, which (apart from other things) develop commercial software, released a number of projects on sourceforge.net. Among them were: Microsoft (3 projects), Google (4 projects), IBM (30 projects), Adobe (1 project). The reasons they gave for such move are often somewhat "foggy". My personal opinion is that it finally became "cool" to have a project on sourceforge.net, which is great of course.

Maybe they could follow some advice and Retool Slashdot with web standards.

It's Open Source... and they ask people to submit patches. Nice job, VA Software Corporation (NASDAQ: LNUX)... the for-profit company that owns OSTG, which in turn runs Slashdot and several other related open source sites.