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Slashback: Railing, Blocking, Scoffing

Posted by timothy on from the in-seattle-it-never-rains dept.

Slashback tonight brings you more information on homemade railguns, the future history of SCO (seen from the past), one website's response to alleged RIAA mendacity, a legal victory for famous web jerk Tucker Max, and more -- read on for the details.

Please don't point that thing at me. BoomZilla writes "If you thought that the recent Gauss Gun article on Slashdot was spiffy, check out Jengel & Fatro's Rail Gun Page. Everything you need to know about the physics behind building your very own rail gun. Ever used the Quake rail gun and lusted after the real thing? Here's your opportunity."

Telepathic telegrams work as well as ever, though. markgo2k writes "After the web site experienced 'an unusually high number of visitors,' the White House modified the contact page and added a prominent link to president@whitehouse.gov. Here's the latest NYT story (once again, reprinted here in the non-subscription Seattle PI). Of course, the White House is still confused on the difference between the New York Times effect and the Slashdot effect. It's not mentioned in the story, but there is also now a feedback link to submit comments to the 'White House Web Development Team,' if you want to drop them a line..."

It's half-Greek to me. In response to the recent story on perpendicular data storage in next-generation hard drives, Anonymous Coward writes "Here is a better overview of Perpendicular HDD technology. Here is a real detailed scientific article that seems to be written in Greek."

They're off my Christmas card list, too. Techfocus ran an interview with Fred von Lohmann earlier this year. Now, an anonymous reader points to an update on their site: "Effective immediately, the RIAA and MPAA will need to find another way to get to Techfocus. In response to their legal targeting of individual file-swappers, access from their known networks to this site has now been blocked. While it may still be possible for them to access Techfocus via address ranges which we're not aware of, they'll otherwise have to use non-RIAA and non-MPAA networks to view the site."

Techfocus cites three reasons for the denial, the top one being that the RIAA took advantage of the interview with von Lohmann, "quoting him out of context in a manner which could lead readers of their materials to believe that we supported their efforts. This could not be further from the truth."

The secret is to predict enough things. An anonymous reader points out this article from early 2000 citing Gartner analyst Al Hilwa's prediction that Linux is "probably going to kill SCO UnixWare," writing "As you can read, SCO's end was predicted near perfectly." I think "hinted at" is more accurate, since SCO is still alive and at least making a good show of kicking, but it's interesting to revisit a story about SCO which mentions that "industry observers thought that the company would be Linux's first victim," back when Project Monterey was a going concern.

A victory for discourteous boors everywhere. aeaas writes "The beauty queen Katy Johnson dropped her suit against Tucker Max over the posting of stories from their relationship on his website. This story was first brought up in the context that he was forced to take down stories relating to her without holding a hearing or notifying Max prior to it. This is unusual in American law."

A quarter mil is a lot of suffering, even in Canadian money. Skippy321 writes "Justified or not, Ghyslain Raza--better known as the Star Wars Kid--is suing the four students who posted his homemade video of himself doing acrobatic "sword-fighting stunts" on the Internet for $250,000. He claims that he has suffered harassment and persecution. It's also interesting how the article states that he quit high school due to this video, at only 15 years of age. Although things aren't so bad for him -- here's a petition for him to get a role in Episode III."

8 of 324 comments (clear)

  1. wow, cool by Trelane,+the+Squire · · Score: 3, Interesting
    3. The RIAA is choosing to devote their resources to target individuals, rather than devoting their resources to creating a feasible distribution method (see iTunes).
    It's nice to see this presented somewhere other than slashdot.

    but then, I don't get out much, so I don't know how prevalent this viewpont is ;)

  2. The real question by pcgamez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is if Slashdot has the balls to ban the RIAA.

  3. Re:Now... what we really need to figure out how to by Trelane,+the+Squire · · Score: 3, Interesting
    That is actually what the website supports...
    In a perfect world this wouldn't be an act we'd want to take - but we've had it with the RIAA and MPAA. Their contribution to the internet is stifling programming creativity (see the DMCA, etc), and they are acting in bad faith. As such, they can find their opposition information elsewhere. While we are sure that these actions are not going to stop the RIAA and MPAA from acting against individuals, we hope that other sites take a similar approach. If you are a website owner or content creator, drop us a note and we'll provide you with the file - it would be a powerful statement if webmasters around the net just shut them out.
  4. Re:$250,000 is a lot of $ for kids to pay by Hnidan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    At least it isn't $250,000,000 like it would be in one of your American courts.

    Here in Canada they're going to have a hard time triing to get any money for Psychological damages. Our judges like to see receipts.

  5. Re:Pay him! by benjamindees · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Look, I just downloaded the video and I don't think he looks stupid at all. It's obvious that he spent a little time working out the choreography of his performance and that's commendable considering it's something he just did for fun.

    The people who spent the time to add sound and video effects obviously felt his work was worth adding to, otherwise they wouldn't have done it.

    I'll admit, it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, but that shouldn't make it embarrassing for him. Lots of people make a good living doing seemingly foolish things. Lots of people did nerdy stuff like this in highschool just for the experience and that has turned out to benefit them later in life.

    I feel like an ass whenever I'm on camera mostly because I don't have the ability to entertain people. This kid seems to have attracted a large audience and a lot of attention. He should take that as a sign that he's doing something right.

    --
    "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
  6. Re:He forgot to say thank you by Tyler+Eaves · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well considering he's currently in a mental hospital I think he got the short end of the stick personally.

    --
    TODO: Something witty here...
  7. Re:The Star Wars Kids Videos by secolactico · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeesh... ok, so he's acting like a doofus, but it's not like he did a Libby whatever... (you know... the girl whose "private" strip act for her boyfriend is all over the internet now).

    Kids do things far more embarrasing to their "friends" and usually don't even end in detention... such as pulling your pants down in public... or shave *one* eyebrow when you are passed out drunk... (must... repress... memory...).

    It's a pretty funny video, and cool in a geeky sort of way. He shouldn't feel demeaned for it. Plus he's fifteen, for god's sake. At that age, that is a way of making an ass out of yourself in a socially aceptable way.

    --
    No sig
  8. here is mine, but 66.252.129 is still missing by nyet · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is it a typo? their htaccess lists 66.252.128

    # Generated by iptables-save v1.2.8 on Thu Jul 24 18:52:32 2003
    *filter :INPUT ACCEPT [251238:18127669] :FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0] :OUTPUT ACCEPT [147443:28849496]
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 12.29.112.0/255.255.255.240 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 63.199.57.120/255.255.255.248 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 198.70.114.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.49.164.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.50.66.224/255.255.255.224 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 64.166.187.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 64.241.31.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 65.244.101.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 66.252.128.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 67.112.252.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 67.125.49.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 81.4.78.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 146.82.174.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.192.0.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.209.2.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.225.90.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.229.253.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 208.49.164.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 212.241.48.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    [0:0] -A INPUT -s 217.228.123.0/255.255.255.0 -j DROP
    COMMIT
    # Completed on Thu Jul 24 18:52:32 2003