Slashback: Princeton, Terror, Farscape

Slashback tonight with more on whether Princeton really hates open source (hint: No.), the outcome of Australia's mp3s4free.net case, the Farscape-to-return saga, and other updates to recent and semi-recent Slashdot stories. Read on for the details.

"Frankly, sometimes the guy just ... says things." An anonymous reader writes "In a recent Slashdot article, it was reported that Howard Strauss, manager of technology and outreach at Princeton University, wrote a paper bashing the open source community. Princeton has now publicly denounced this article and stated its official policy towards open source."

(I don't know that it's fair to call Princeton's response a denunciation, but the school makes clear that a) Strauss was speaking on his own, not on behalf of the university and b) that Princeton uses, likes, supports, and develops plenty of open source software.)

Oh, they're only votes! tklancer writes "Remember the voting machine failures earlier this month? Well, now Fairfax County is going to investigate the failures in (hopefully) a bit more depth. Now if they'd only start talking about adding a paper trail ..."

Lik-Sang and Microsoft, back on merely uneasy terms. D4rkUnderlord writes "For those who forgot, Lik-Sang was taken down last year by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo for selling "Modification devices" (see CNN.com December 16, 2002). Lee sent us this article coming from a HK newspaper: [QUOTE] Have Found this tuesday in the South China Morning Post. Microsoft always get what it want Lee [/QUOTE] Read it here (scan of newspaper article). Note that lik-sang.com has been sold and put under new management last year, so nothing of these trials can or will affect lik-sang.com"

I wish people'd been this worked up about Northern Exposure. calethix writes "There's a news post over at Save Farscape regarding the return of Farscape as a 4 hour mini-series. There aren't a lot of details yet but it's supposed to air next year and has been confirmed by a solid source."

Much as I loathe and mock online petitions ... Hey, if it worked for Farscape, a television show with Alf at the wheel ... Dagrush writes "As you know, there was a slashdot story about how Saruman wa being cut from LotR:RotK. Now there is a petition to put the 7 minutes of Saruman back in the film. You can go here to add your name to the petition, as well as you comments. There are over 17000 signatures right now."

Follow the money, just don't say "terror." Best ID Ever! writes "CNN is reporting that the Policy Analysis Market is set to return, albeit without futures on 'violent events,' and without DARPA or other government involvement. As you may remember, the former DARPA project, under retired admiral John Poindexter's office, was shut down after being roundly condemned by politicians on both sides, leading to Poindexter's resignation. There seems to be a lot of interest in such 'information markets' lately, from the recently announced MIT Market to the long running Iowa Electronic Markets."

Next time they get tied to dingos. An anonymous reader writes "Australian University students Peter Tran, Charles Kok Hau Ng, and Tommy Le avoided jail when they were sentenced today. Charged with Internet piracy for running a file trade site the three copped a plea to reduced charges. Tran gets an 18-month suspended sentence and a $5,000 (Australian) fine. Ng got an 18-month suspended sentence and 200 hours community service. Le was only given community service. Needless to say the Australian record industry is complaining the three should do time, which could have meant five years behind bars. The judge ruled prison was not called for."

Comments

Re:Petition?

[wo1verin3]

No it isn't.

a) The footage is already complete and edited, as they were likely going to use it for the DVD

b) I worked in a movie theatre about 5-6 years back as a kid, movies would be updates in several cases AFTER it has already opened. We would recieve a new reel with additional/removed footage to replace the original reel with.

Petitions Are Pointless

[Mukaikubo]

Guys, you're missing the point. Farscape wasn't saved because of an empty list of signatures, although we had one that broke 100k.

Farscape was saved because thousands of fans went out and DID THINGS. Things which required time, effort, and yes, money. Seeing so many invest so much in so many ways finally convinced *someone* out there that bringing back the show was a financially worthy decision.

Re:Petitions Are Pointless

[Anthony Boyd]

"DID THINGS".. YES. Elaberate plz

Well, you can visit savefarscape.com and go into their forums to see all the things that the group has done. But I'll give you a short list from memory, some of which I chipped in to pay for (and many others made FAR more impressive donations than I did):

• sent flowers to sci-fi headquarters
• sent boatloads of letters to sci-fi headquarters, too
• purchased TV ads after the last show to promote savefarscape.com
• purchased other TV ads over the course of the last 10 months or so
• purchased ad space on the FRONT COVER of Variety magazine
• networked at sci-fi conventions to help generate new fans of the show
• sent chocolates & gifts (repeatedly) to the show creators & actors
• started an advertiser list, and began emailing any company that ran ads during Farscape, thanking them and making sure to purchase their products
• policing our own, trying to limit the hatemail and rants that typify other hardcore fan movements (you catch more flies with honey and all that)
• a few thousand people actually offered to pitch in about $1,000 US dollars each to finance a movie, but that went nowhere (I think they only accumulated about 3 or 4 million dollars, not enough for a movie, but a really good showing)

Re:Petition?

[JayBlalock]

Once again, if the people reading that petition would just read Jackson's letter to AICN talking about it, it would be a non-issue. He sounds regretful as anyone that it has to be taken out, but as he described it, the scene just did not work within the context of the theatrical cut of the film. If that's his decision as an experienced filmmaker, the "opinions" of tens of thousands who have never seen the scene at all, much less in context of an edited copy of the film, aren't going to sway him.

And besides that, he has stated it is most definately going in the Expanded Edition.

So this is really a whole hell of a lot of adieu about nothing.

A joking quote, that's all :)

[timothy]

No one linked to the Strauss story said this; I wrote that headline in the mode of a baffled friend of coworker of his explaining this seemingly random vitriol, seeming ignorance of the Princeton computer community, etc. Sorta like "... it's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"

Sorry for any confusion.

timothy

Please God don't do this

[Anthony Boyd]

Now there is a petition to put the 7 minutes of Saruman back in the film.

I'm afraid this will likely offend some of the hardcore LOTR fans, and they probably have mod points. But I have to put this as clearly and bluntly as possible: Peter Jackson is a better fucking director than you are. You'll get your 7 minutes on the DVD. The theatrical release will already be long. PJ has seen the footage, and you have not. For all of these reasons, leave him alone.