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Submission + - Is Wikipedia "accurate"? Not necessarily..... 1

Submitted by metasonix
metasonix writes: A new post on the Wikipediocracy website discusses the notorious, albeit now badly-dated, 2005 study published in Nature magazine claiming that Wikipedia content was almost as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica in science topics. Despite not being a ringing endorsement of Wikipedia, the news media of 2005 tended to report it as such. This new article includes a long list of examples of Wikipedia content failures, including major paid-content abuses and some outright, highly-successful hoaxes. All were subsequent to the 2005 study, the bulk of them having occurred in the past year. And all occurred while Wikipedians continued to claim that Wikipedia just keeps "getting better and better". Perhaps Klee Irwin might have a different take on that?
User Journal

Journal Journal: evidently

Journal by metasonix

Slashdot has been hijacked by Wikipedia insiders. Stories that are in any way negative about Wikipedia never make it to the front page.
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook PR Firm Edited Its Own Wikipedia Page (shitplanet.org)

Submitted by metasonix
metasonix writes: In the midst of all this week's flap about Facebook hiring notorious PR firm Burson-Marsteller to defame Google, I discovered something else: a Burson-Marsteller employee completely rewrote the firm's Wikipedia article to remove all the negative information. He did it openly, he violated a number of Wikipedia internal policies, another Wikipedia editor helped him, and no one was the wiser.

Comment This is pathetic. (Score 1) 827

by metasonix (#33361484) Attached to: Calling Shenanigans On Super SATA's Claimed Audio Qualities
You should see the kind of psychotic letters the major high-end magazines get routinely. Sometimes they have to take out orders of protection against certain readers.

High-end audio is a form of mental illness that only afflicts men over the age of 40. They are massively insecure, and usually affluent--but they comprise a VERY small group.

If Slashdotters had some actual brains, they'd sit on their hands. Because the more they squawk about "double-blind tests", the more attention (and sales) high-end gear makers and high-end publications get.

Because nobody loves a troll, right or wrong.

PS: Mr. Steward got death threats. Nice going.

Submission + - New Handheld Computer is 100% Open-Source (linux.com)

Submitted by metasonix
metasonix writes: While the rest of the industry has been blubbering about the iPad and imitations thereof, Qi Hardware is actually shipping a product that is completely open-source and copyleft. The Ben NanoNote is a handheld computer that apparently contains no proprietary technology. It uses a 366 MHz MIPS processor, 32MB RAM, 2 GB flash, a 320x240 pixel color display, and a Qwerty keyboard. No network built in, though it is claimed to accept SD-card WiFi or USB-Ethernet adapters. Included is a very simple Linux OS based on the OpenWrt distro installed in Linksys routers, with Busybox GUI. It's apparently intended primarily for hardware and software hackers, not as a general-audience handheld. The price is right, though: $99.

Submission + - Jimmy Wales: the porn on Commons must go (wikimedia.org) 1

Submitted by Larry Sanger
Larry Sanger writes: Jimmy Wales recently took a bold position against pornography on Wikimedia Commons: "Wikimedia Commons admins who wish to remove from the project all images that are of little or no educational value but which appeal solely to prurient interests have my full support." Wales also restarted the "Commons:Sexual content" policy page. His basic complaint is that Wikimedia Commons hosts too much unnecessary porn, and he wants to get rid of it. He underscored his seriousness this way, stating that we can expect "a strong statement" from the WMF soon: "if the Wikimedia Foundation wants to declare that it is ok for Commons to be a porn host, they can do that, and I'll not be able to continue. That isn't going to happen, though, and in fact you should expect a strong statement from the Board and/or Sue in the next few days." This comes about a month after I originally posted my report about depictions-of-child-sexual-molestation on Wikimedia Foundation servers to the FBI, which Slashdot duly ripped to shreds (as only Slashdot can), and a little over a week after the FoxNews.com story. The latter coverage reported that one of my senators, and my representative to Congress, had forwarded the matter to the FBI's Assistant Director of Congressional Affairs. I'm happy to be able to congratulate Jimmy Wales for his good judgment on this, and I look forward to the larger Wikimedia community approaching these issues with a little more sanity.

Comment this will help (Score 1) 372

by metasonix (#32117662) Attached to: Canonical Explains Decision to License H.264 For Ubuntu
....all those unsophisticated Ubuntu users who just want their multimedia playback to work, without messing with "multiverse", and sources.list edits, and .deb packages, and dire warnings about violating copyright laws in the US. Everyone installs that stuff anyway, so Canonical might as well pay the fees.

And BTW, can we please be free of Flash now?.....

Comment stupid question (Score 1) 621

by metasonix (#29150873) Attached to: Nokia Leaks Phone With Full GNU/Linux Distribution
If Nokia wanted Maemo to be an ongoing, living OSS project, they'd let other manufacturers make hardware to run it. In fact, they'd actively ENCOURAGE other manufacturers. With more platforms, there would be more impetus for developers to produce Maemo apps.

I have yet to see a low-power consumption "general purpose PC" using an OMAP3 or 4 processor. Seems to me that would be a great machine for commercial thin-client or embedded/kiosk uses, or netbooks, or other handhelds. AFAICS, there is no such hardware on the market--just the Nokia 700/800 series. (The few OMAP3 small computers I've seen have been like the Glacier E2000--they stick you with miserable old Windows CE, take it or leave it. Or you get Android. Or you get a Palm Pre, and you're stuck with whatever that thing runs, and a devel community that only cares about porting old Palm OS apps to that new OS.....That's your choice. Want to install a more general-purpose OS? Sorry.)

This is likely to be a great little machine, and I'm probably going to buy one. Say what you will about the older Nokia tablets, they are valid handheld computers, the web browser is better than any on other handhelds, and their screens make the iPhone's display look pathetic. However, it would be nice to see Maemo enjoy a more diverse future, than running on a single Nokia handheld.
The Internet

Submission + - Senior Wikipedia Figure Quits, Forged Bogus Edits 5

Submitted by
nandemoari
nandemoari writes: "One of the most powerful figures at Wikipedia has resigned after it was discovered he'd been editing entries under bogus names. David Boothroyd, who is also a British politician, had even used the fake account to edit the pages of political opponents. In the British tabloids the issue has been a political one, since Boothroyd is an elected member of the Labour party. However, the issue at Wikipedia is a procedural one. Using multiple accounts (also known as 'sock puppetry'), is highly frowned upon as it can be used to artificially boost the support for a particular position or belief."

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