Slashback: Stapler, Interface, Gaming

Slashback tonight (read on below) has updates on next-generation aircraft, KDE user-interface improvements and suggestions, a special warning for those obsessed with Milton's stapler from Office Space, SmartFilter's attitude toward SourceForge, and more.

You've got to admit it's getting better all the time. Gentu writes: "In parallel to the KDE 3.1-alpha release today, OSNews published an interesting article discussing a number of User Interface issues found on KDE 3. The article suggests a number of changes, some small, some pretty drastic. Towards the end of the two-part article, the author discusses the 'integration' problem found in today's X11 desktop environments, and how fixing this issue would bring Unix closer to average Joe's desktop."

Yes, you're allowed to have more than one friend. A NuKeFaN writes: "Following the article titled Are you a Friend of GNOME I wanted to point you out that the most used GPL'd software for the Web, PHP-Nuke, also has a similar page/system for their friends. It's a Club (MandrakeClub like) where you can be a member for a little monthly fee and you can get some extra benefits. You can access the Club area to know more about it. This can be, maybe, another example of how to get some money to fund a free software project, the matter is if we, as users, will support those project's developers this way? I think we can."

Wait, the scam was to take just a few pennies from everyone! MrBlue VT writes "In reference to the previous Slashdot article about the red Swingline Staplers, I click on the add to cart button on the Swingline website, and it pops open an ordering window with a 4 staplers added to the shopping cart. Ok, I think it's a little strange, but change the quantity back to 1, and hit continue to checkout. Next thing I know, I'm looking at an order form with all the text boxes filled out with somebody else's personal information. He's from Bellvue, WA apparently (I'm in Virginia). It also has his credit card number and expiration date!

This has to be the worst security I've ever seen in an online shopping site. The company who apparently provides the online shopping service for Swingline appears to be an outfit called SureSource.

I just wanted to let anyone who happened to order from them know about this. Your credit card info could very well be compromised."

Please fasten your belts. hondo77 submitted this follow-up to this article about next-generation aircraft, writing "Boeing says that their blended-wing aircraft will be ready for test flights in 2006. The article also has a picture of a 3% scale model. See, it doesn't look like the B-2 at all."

But thanks anyhow. flonker writes "Smartfilter no longer lists sourceforge.net! Link for those who want to see for themselves."

Great at stealing them, too. MrDingusMcGee writes "After the recent posting about a study suggesting that video games decrease brain activity, I thought it would be interesting to read the results of another study which has shown that video game players score better on a range of attention tasks (mirror here)done by Shawn Green at the University of Rochester Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and that this could possibly rate video game players as better drivers. Worth seeing the other side of the argument and having some validation for those hours of gaming."

fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 ?

[cperciva]

Can someone explain where the fax-something-unique-to-8889771577 bit comes in? I can't see any connection to any of the stories.

Re:PHP-Nuke Club

[MoThugz]

Yeah, maybe that is too bold a statement to make... but not entirely without basis IMHO. With this statement, I mean that it could possibly be the most used GPL'd software for Web portals.

A quick search on Google for php portal returns PHP-Nuke as the top site. [google.com]

It also ranks quite high on the result list for GPL Web Portal Software [google.com] on google.

Suprisingly PHP-Nuke is also listed as the #1 site for Google's result for the search of God [google.com] :)

Video Games

[devnull17]

I think it's only fair to note that a comparison of the two articles on video games isn't really fair--while Green claims that video games improve attention-based tasks, Mori states that excessive exposure leads subjects to "get angry easily" and "have trouble relating to friends." These two claims certainly don't contradict each other, and can easily coexist. It doesn't surprise me that video games improve attention spans, but it also seems a foregone conclusion that playing hours upon hours each day tends to cause social problems.

And if you need another reason not to compare the two studies, remember that they were conducted on test groups in different countries. Japan is (at least culturally speaking) dramatically different from the United States in many, many ways that could easily influence observations.

Re:Staplers

[Kallahar]

One thing about those big sites is that they rarely link to another site. I can't tell you how many times I've read a CNN story that had ZERO links or domain names. They often will link internally to their own stories, but they try hard to not send people off their site. Slashdot, on the other hand, exists solely on links, with just minor blurbs to get people to go to the site.

But you do bring up many good points :)

Travis