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Submission + - SF Says AdWare Bundled with Gimp Is Intentional (google.com) 5

Submitted by tresf
tresf writes: In response to a Google+ post from the Gimp project claiming that "[Sourceforge] is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP", Sourceforge had this response:

In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.

Editor's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software. In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service.

Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page.

Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

Submission + - Russian rocket now garden furniture in England

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: A British businessman has purchased a discarded Russian rocket and installed it in his garden as decoration.

Almost 40ft long and weighing five tonne, the rocket was first flown in 1991 after being built by the Russians in collaboration with NASA at a cost $10 million. For ten years it held the record for the fastest ever made-made machine before it was jettisoned as archaic.

Somehow it ended up at a car auction at South Marston where it was spotted by Mr Sweet while checking out vintage motors. Mr Sweet, who runs the Cirencester-based computer company Zycko, said: "I saw it for sale at a car auction and decided to buy it, not really knowing what I was going to do with it."

I am curious how the rocket had ended up being owned and offered for sale by a UK company that "specializes in car restorations." I also wonder if this might be a major new profit center for the struggling Russian rocket industry.

Submission + - SourceForge wraps open source software in adware

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "SourceForge, the code repository site owned by Slashdot Media, has apparently seized control of the account hosting GIMP for Windows on the service, according to e-mails and discussions amongst members of the GIMP community—locking out GIMP's lead Windows developer. And now anyone downloading the Windows version of the open source image editing tool from SourceForge gets the software wrapped in an installer replete with advertisements."

Submission + - Sourceforge re-packaging old software with adware

Submitted by Koyaanisqatsi
Koyaanisqatsi writes: As previously reported here, the Windows installer for the popular GIMP image editing software has been bundled with additional commercial software. What seems most disturbing is that apparently Sourceforge is making these changes to a number of other less-active packages in their site, according to reporting by Ars.

Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

Submission + - Journalist fools media into publishing chocolate weight loss story (io9.com)

Submitted by dinfinity
dinfinity writes: "“Slim by Chocolate!” the headlines blared. A team of German researchers had found that people on a low-carb diet lost weight 10 percent faster if they ate a chocolate bar every day. [...] It was discussed on television news shows. [...] My colleagues and I recruited actual human subjects in Germany. We ran an actual clinical trial, with subjects randomly assigned to different diet regimes. And the statistically significant benefits of chocolate that we reported are based on the actual data. It was, in fact, a fairly typical study for the field of diet research. Which is to say: It was terrible science. The results are meaningless, and the health claims that the media blasted out to millions of people around the world are utterly unfounded."

Submission + - Billboard advertising banned products in Russia hides if it recognizes cops

Submitted by m.alessandrini
m.alessandrini writes: In response to a ban of food imported from the European Union, an Italian grocery in Russia hired an ad agency to create a billboard with a camera and facial recognition software, that's able to change to a different ad when it recognizes the uniform of Russian cops. Link: http://gizmodo.com/this-ad-for...

Submission + - Secret Service tries to steal $115K from a business couple

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Secret Service seized a business couple's bank account with no warning merely because they had withdrawn just under $10,000 several times.

After months of litigation against the United States government, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen West moved to dismiss the case earlier this month, meaning the Bednars will get their money back. However, the government refused to cover the Bednar's $25,000 in legal fees, which the couple is entitled to under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act. Though the fight to get their $115,000 back is now over, the family is continuing to push to have their expenses covered.

First the government tries to steal their money. Now, it is trying to ignore the law by not paying their legal fees, even though the law requires it to.

Comment Re:Where's Waldo? (Score 2) 100

by OzPeter (#49786709) Attached to: Making the World's Largest Panoramic Photo

The article forgot to mention that the team has hidden a life-size Waldo in the photo. Can you find him?

Of course you can't. Waldo only lives in the US and Canada. Everywhere else in the world you're looking for where Wally is.

And this being a picture of Mont Blanc, in Europe no less, no self respecting freedom loving Waldo would be seen anywhere any cheese eating surrender monkeys*.

Now if you want to know where Wally is .. well I'm sure he is there somewhere. Just keep on looking, or perhaps fling a few $$ at googles mechanical turk, and rent out a real turk for a day or so to do your work for you.

* Not that I consider the French to be cheese eating surrender monkeys. I am just pandering to the Americans who seem to have totally forgotten why there is a 93m copper woman sitting in New Jersey**

** Yeah .. look it up. Its technically in New jersey and not NYC

Submission + - SourceForge (owned by Slashdot Media) installs ads with GIMP (arstechnica.com) 5

Submitted by careysb
careysb writes: SourceForge, the code repository site owned by Slashdot Media, has apparently seized control of the account hosting GIMP for Windows on the service, according to e-mails and discussions amongst members of the GIMP community—locking out GIMP's lead Windows developer. And now anyone downloading the Windows version of the open source image editing tool from SourceForge gets the software wrapped in an installer replete with advertisements.

Comment Re:Websites are slowly catching on (Score 1) 321

by OzPeter (#49785423) Attached to: Adblock Plus Victorious Again In Court

Over the last few weeks I have started to notice messages from various websites along the line of "It looks like you are using ad blocking software.

I also see those messages, but I don't use any ad blocking software. Java is disabled, plug-ins are disabled, javascript is enabled and cookies are limited to the same domain. Whoever wrote those "ad blocking detection" functions is an idiot.

Or are very smart .. because I assumed that they actually worked.

Comment Re:Out of curiosity (Score 4, Insightful) 321

by OzPeter (#49785387) Attached to: Adblock Plus Victorious Again In Court

Those of you who block ads but still consume the services of sites that run them without paying into any subscription fee, why do you freeload?

Leaving aside the technical issues for blocking ads (EG taking up *my* bandwidth for things I have no interest in, nefarious tracking schemes and their ilk, etc), your argument seems to be predicated on an RIAA lost revenue model.

If I "freeload" now in order to view content a website, I severely doubt that I would buy a subscription to view content on that website if it became closed. Therefore if the website can't survive without monetizing all 100% of their viewers, why do you think it can survive with monetizing 100% of a smaller pool of viewers? IE I am not a "lost" sale - I was never a potential "sale" in the first place.

Comment Websites are slowly catching on (Score 1) 321

by OzPeter (#49785273) Attached to: Adblock Plus Victorious Again In Court

Over the last few weeks I have started to notice messages from various websites along the line of "It looks like you are using ad blocking software. Do you want to contribute to this site in another way?" Meaning do I want to give cash directly to the site.

At the moment I am a bit divided over this issue. I understand their desire to collect revenue to fund a site. But I do need to balance that against the opening up of my system to all sorts of tracking. And at the moment my privacy trumps the websites revenue.

And then you get sites like Slashdot, which have this wonderful checkbox that says because I am such a good user, that they will disable advertising for me if I want. Which even if I do, I still get ads served up to me - hence another reason for ad blocking software.

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