Slashback: Drivers, Bodycomputing, Farscape

Slashback with news on ATI drivers for non-ATI branded cards, the viewer-led movement to save Farscape, wearable computing from MIT, text-to-facial-expression software, and more. Read on for the details

Maybe customer service isn't dead. On November 28th, we posted a report that OEM cards using ATI chips had trouble with the official drivers from ATI. Terry Makedon (Senior Product Manager, Software for ATI Technologies) writes "Last week we posted a set of unified Linux drivers. These drivers were only loading up on 'Built by ATI' cards. Through our various feedback mechanisms we have determined that there is a large community of 'Powered by ATI' Linux users that did not benefit from our Linux drivers. At this point we are happy to announce an update to our Linux driver (ver. 2.5.1) which will work on both 'Powered by' and 'Built by.' ATI's driver and software strategy is firmly based on responsiveness and we greatly appreciate the feedback our Linux users have provided. Please use http://apps.ati.com/linuxDfeedback/ for a direct feedback line to ATI.

Thanks again for the feedback."

But what if we put the show into this Interdimensional Fungubulon, and then jumped through this here "wormhole"? xagon7 writes "David Kemper, the producer/writer of Farscape, mentioned that it would be theoretically and legally possible for a group to set up a non-profit organization for fans to donate money to, in order to finance an episode and make Farscape all that much tastier to Sci-Fi for the 5th season. They have done just that. They have $200,000 worth of pledges and only need $800,000 total....I hope this gets Slashdotted. Read the story here and you can pledge here."

You're getting less happy to see me? man_of_mr_e writes "Check out MIThril, the next generation research platform for context aware wearable computing. It's been about 18 months since this was last talked about here on Slashdot, and it's kind of cool to see how far the technology has come since then. For those that aren't aware of what it is, it's essentially a project to prototype human wearable computers, complete with schematics, pictures, and a cvs repository for software. Now you too can be like that guy in the IBM commercials trading stock while feeding the pigeons."

Flattening the slope to entry. Catskul writes "You don't need the libwine hack, mentioned in the previous news entry. Just follow the New QT Howto, download the codecs and start MPlayer."

Don't look at me in that tone of voice! 1010011010 writes "On Nov. 26, you ran a story on SpeechView, 'software that translates the voice on the other side of the line into a three dimensional animated face on the computer.' The North Carolina State University Department of Computer Science's 'Voice IO Group' is also working on that problem. Their software looks like it might be better. Read about it here. Includes quicktime movies of the results."

Victory, or a reprieve? A non moose cow writes "Just noticed that a couple of my favorite "Killed by the RIAA" webcast stations are back... like Soma-FM and Monkey Radio (get the streams at Shoutcast). The saving grace came via the recent passage of HR5469 [PDF] by the US Legislature. Thank you to all that sent letters and/or money to fix this problem. If you have been yearning for the resurrection of your favorite stream, go check, it might be back. If you would like to trace the chronology of this mess, check out the Soma-FM news page."

Comments

Egg Troll has $800,000

[egg troll]

And Egg Troll will pledge it only if they promise to never make another episode of that shitty TV show again. The acting on that made Space: Above and Beyond look like Masterpiece Theatre.

You'd think that Sci-fi fans were braindead

[Anonymous Coward]

What is with all this whining about TV shows being pulled?

The obvious solution to the problem of the mainstream rejection of sci-fi is to create your own. By writing your own science fiction, you can have a chance to let your own creative energies flow instead of passively swallowing every load of Rick Berman's shit every week then crying about it when he stops shitting.

The problem that I see here is not that Sci-fi fans necessarily find Sci-fi to be all that fulfilling, but that the fans long to be part of a social structure that accepts them. In the Sci-fi society, even the dirtiest, mangiest nerd can find solace that he is participating in indirect socializing with other nerds. Human contact has long been one of the staples of mental health, and nerds (who are typically shunned by normal people) are no exception. Yes, nerds need love too.

Through Sci-fi they can get this human contact, they can have something in common with others to talk about and feel the "togetherness" that normal people feel by doing things like throwing a frisbee or walking a dog or making love to a woman. Since nerds obviously can't or won't participate in these things, they reach out to Sci-fi to give them some sort of common ground with other nerds to eventually converse with.

So my solution above is hardly a solution. The problem isn't that Sci-fi fans are losing a replaceable show and they are unable to replace it. It is that they are losing the common ground that they share with other nerds and are desperate to protect their little haven, as unpopular in popular culture as it is.

Saving Farscape is probably the best thing Sci-fi could do. It's a shame that they don't play to their fanbase and rather to popular culture. :-(

I hate niggers

[Anonymous Coward]

Niggers are the source of this terrible problem. The only way to eliminate it is to eliminate the problem -- the nigger.

Killing all the niggers will not just clean up our streets! No, it will also cleanse our filthy schools into perfect, white bastions of pure aryan learning!

Get rid of all the niggers today!

Re:that's pathetic

[El]

So, how many homeless people have you invited to move in with you?

Re:Public broadcasting

[Anonymous Coward]

If CPB / NPR / PBS etc would put compelling programs on instead of liberal crap no one gives a shit about maybe they wouldn't have to beg or be supported by the gov't.

Yeah, there are some good shows though ... long live teletubbies!!!!! I would pay for them but I don't want to support all the other shit on the network.

The only solution is totall pay per view or pay per direct download would be my preference i.e. have a screen on my replay that I can set preference on and it would send me an email when it finishes downloading or something like that and just take the cash out of my account.