Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Dry Mars, Wet Doc, Keyboard Teaser
Optimus keyboard may have a real release date? Jacket writes to tell us that the much talked about Optimus keyboard has a suggestive message on their website. With "Good things come in small packages February 1, 2006" could it be possible that this holy grail (for some) keyboard could be available in our near future?
Yet another delay for Blackberry court case. ahsile writes "TheGlobeandMail.com is reporting that 'NTP Inc., the company suing Research in Motion Ltd over the Blackberry e-mail service, wants more time to respond to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's preliminary rejections of its patents.'
Lakebed theory on Mars all wet? Sensible Clod writes "The Meridiani Planum region on Mars, long believed to have been covered with water millions of years ago, may not have been so wet after all, according to a new study from the University of Colorado at Boulder. From the article: 'The new study indicates chemical signatures in the bedrock, interpreted...as evidence for widespread, intermittent water at Mars' surface, may have instead been created by the reaction of sulfur-bearing steam vapors moving up through volcanic ash deposits. Known as Meridiani Planum, the region may have been more geologically similar to volcanic regions in parts of North America, Hawaii or Europe.'"
US-CERT statistics not all they are cracked up to be? jtshaw writes "Tectonic has an interesting article about the latest US-CERT stats. The actual vulnerabilities for a hand full of OS's after wading through the data: Microsoft Windows - 44, Apple Mac OS X - 21, IBM AIX - 21, HP-UX - 15, SCO Unix - 9, Red Hat Linux - 7, Suse Linux - 12, Debian Linux - 10, Gentoo Linux - 5, FreeBSD - 13, NetBSD - 2. It appears to me that commercial unix systems and open source *nix systems did pretty well compared to Windows on the vulnerability front."
Stem cell papers, confirmed fakes. An anonymous reader writes "The committee created to investigate stem cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk has confirmed that his first and second papers were faked. 'dashing hopes that his work is a breakthrough in treatments for diabetes and Parkinson's disease. [...] The panel backed Hwang's claim that he cloned the world's first dog.'"
FTC objects to Netflix settlement. AtariDatacenter writes "Although some question the validity of a recent lawsuit against Netflix, many users were up in arms about the terms of the settlement, which seemed like more of a marketing gimmick. Today, we learned that The Federal Trade Commission agreed, and asked the judge to reject the terms of the settlement."
New Crossover Office fixes,among other things, WMF exploit. ubuntuincleelum writes "Just on the heels of the announcement of new WMF security vulnerabilities Codeweavers is releasing Crossover Office 5.0.1. A bugfix release, this release features a fix for the original WMF bug. Among the changes in this release: Improved support for Gnome, improvements in Debian packaging and improvements in general for operability on Debian and Debian Derivatives."
In a prior post, I identified a set of ideological premises as superordinate constructions that maintain the rhetorical context in which Slashdot is able to trivialize certain events that are particularly special to us all. I will now elaborate on three of its most shameless premises:
1. The ideas of "freedom" and "alarmism" are Siamese twins.
2. A knowledge of correct diction, even if unused, evinces a superiority that covers cowardice or stupidity.
3. It can rip off everyone and his brother and get away with it.
First things first: It thinks it's good that its hastily mounted campaigns create a climate of intimidation. It is difficult to know how to respond to such monumentally misplaced values, but let's try this: Its mind has limited horizons. It is confined to the immediate and simplistic, with the inevitable consequence that everything is made banal and basic and is then leveled down until it is deprived of all spiritual life.
If Slashdot can't stand the heat, it should get out of the kitchen. To add another dimension to this argument, let me mention that Slashdot deserves exemplary punishment. At the risk of sounding a tad redundant, let me add that we must overcome the fears that beset us every day of our lives. We must overcome the fear that Slashdot will produce precisely the alienation and conflict needed to invent a new moral system that legitimizes its desire to make it impossible to disturb its froward gravy train. And to overcome these fears, we must strip the unjust power from those who seek power over others and over nature.
Slashdot's secret police suspect that "Man's eternal search for Truth is a challenge to be avoided at all costs." First off, that's a lousy sentence. If they had written that I wouldn't waste my time trying to call a spade a spade if Slashdot's pleas weren't parroted by so many brutish calumniators, then that quote would have had more validity. As it stands, you won't find many of Slashdot's collaborators who will openly admit that they favor Slashdot's schemes to use paid informants and provocateurs to prevent us from getting in touch with our feelings. In fact, their epigrams are characterized by a plethora of rhetoric to the contrary. If you listen closely, though, you'll hear how carefully they cover up the fact that Slashdot's hatchet jobs are more than just noxious. They're a revolt against nature. While the concept of broad-based peace and social justice coalitions remains desirable, Slashdot's cult followers actually believe the bunkum they're always mouthing. That's because these sorts of humorless, insipid rascals are idealistic, have no sense of history or human nature, and they think that what they're doing will improve the world when you least expect it. In reality, of course, if a cogent, logical argument entered Slashdot's brain, no doubt a concussion would result. The truth hurts, doesn't it, Slashdot? As I conclude this post, let me remind you that my goal in writing it was not only to address a number of important issues. I sought also to use this post as a means to bring fresh leadership and even-handed tolerance to the present controversy.
duped it scuttlefag
call me when ya got something about a keyboard taser...