Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Doctor Who: Russell T Davies returns as programme showrunner (bbc.com)

Submitted by spaceman375
spaceman375 writes: Screenwriter Russell T Davies is to take charge again of Doctor Who, the sci-fi show he helped revive in 2005.
Davies, who was the fantasy drama's showrunner until 2009, will take over when Chris Chibnall departs next year.
Davies revived Doctor Who in its current incarnation with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and remained for David Tennant's time as the Doctor.
Steven Moffatt took over when Matt Smith took on the role, staying to supervise Peter Capaldi's stint as TV's indefatigable Time Lord.

Submission + - Over 1,000 subreddits call on the site to stop COVID misinformation (reddit.com) 1

Submitted by koavf
koavf writes: Starting with subreddit /r/vaxxhappened—a message board that “collect[s] the outrageous and dangerous tales told by antivaxxers on all forms of media”—has “called upon Reddit to take action against the rampant Coronavirus misinformation on their website”, listing multiple examples of posts that spread dangerous medical untruths. The post has been shared across over 1,000 other communities on Reddit, representing over 100million subscribers to the site.

This development comes days after site administration quarantined a subreddit dedicated to anti-mask and anti-vaccine discussion, causing it to be hidden from view of casual visitors and search engine indexes.

Submission + - New Mexico Court Rules Gas Stations Liable for Selling Fuel to Drunk Drivers (thedrive.com) 1

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The court's ruling says, "Providing gasoline to an intoxicated driver is like providing car keys to an intoxicated driver."

In the dissent ..."[U]nder the majority's reasoning, vendors of any item that enables DWI—not only gasoline—could now be liable for a customer's DWI-related torts. Thus auto parts stores, tire shops, mechanics, and others will be left guessing as to whether they are subject to the new duty and, if so, how to behave so as to avoid liability."

But how far does the business have to go to ensure that the customer isn't intoxicated? Would a court consider it overly burdensome to give a breathalyzer test to every patron? Probably. And what about unattended pumps which are found in every state except for New Jersey and Oregon? And as more EVs hit the road, what about public charging infrastructure? Surely this wouldn't extend to holding Tesla accountable for a drunk driver using its supercharger and then abusing Autopilot to drive home.

Submission + - American Airlines orders flyers to put their hands on their heads, in flight (independent.co.uk)

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: American Airlines passengers were filmed with their hands on their heads on a flight from Los Angeles to Miami on Wednesday. All passengers aboard the flight 2289 “were ordered to put their hands on their heads for 45-60 minutes before landing,” according to passenger Chris Nguyen, who filmed part of the bizarre incident

The unusual order also came with the warning for passengers like Nguyen not to film what was occurring on the plane. After landing in Miami, heavily armed law enforcement officers reportedly boarded the plane and appeared to arrest and remove one male passenger.

All remaining passengers were then permitted to deplane without their personal belongings. They were then transported by bus to the terminal, but for some unexplained reason, passengers were not permitted to immediately leave the terminal. This detention caused several passengers to become agitated.

The FBI informed FOX Business that it’s “aware of this situation and is examining the facts with consideration of federal criminal statutes” and will decide whether to seek criminal charges against the passenger.

Submission + - YouTube Censored Videos Uncovering China's Persecution Of Uighur Muslims (reuters.com)

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes: A human rights group that attracted millions of views on YouTube to testimonies from people who say their families have disappeared in China's Xinjiang region is moving its videos to little-known service Odysee after some were taken down by the Google-owned streaming giant, two sources told Reuters.

Submission + - SPAM: Supreme Court sides with high school cheerleader who cursed online

Submitted by schwit1
schwit1 writes: The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former high school cheerleader who argued that she could not be punished by her public school for posting a profanity-laced caption on Snapchat when she was off school grounds.

The case involving a Pennsylvania teenager was closely watched to see how the court would handle the free speech rights of some 50 million public school children and the concerns of schools over off-campus and online speech that could amount to a disruption of the school's mission or rise to the level of bullying or threats.

..., her post appeared "outside of school hours from a location outside of school" and they did not target any member of the school community with "abusive" language. He(Breyer) added that she used her own personal cellphone and her audience consisted of a private circle of Snapchat friends. Breyer said "these features of her speech" diminish the school's interest in punishing her.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - Florida passes law with huge fines for social networks deplatforming Florida can (orlandosentinel.com)

Submitted by zantafio
zantafio writes: SB 7072 imposes fines on five major tech companies â" Google, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon â" if they remove political candidates from their platforms for more than 14 days. The fines range from $100,000 to $250,000 per day for statewide candidates and up to $25,000 per day for other candidates.

And if you had any doubt that Florida is akin to a banana republic, thereâ(TM)s this gem of an amendment: Disney, Universal and any theme park owner that operates a search engine or information service are exempted.

Submission + - Apple's M1 positioning mocks the entire x86 business model (extremetech.com) 1

Submitted by Mr_Silver
Mr_Silver writes: ExtremeTech raises an interesting point on the market positioning of Apple's M1 chip:

According to Apple, the M1 is the right CPU for a $699 computer, and a $999 computer, and a $1,699 computer. It’s the right chip if you want maximum battery life and the right CPU for optimal performance
...
Apple’s willingness to position the M1 across so many markets challenges the narrative that such a vast array of x86 products is helpful or necessary. It puts Intel and AMD in the position of justifying why, exactly, x86 customers are required to make so many tradeoffs between high performance and low power consumption.

I'm sure Slashdot readers like the idea of comparing and buying CPUs based on specifications. However I do suspect that, for 95% of customers, the idea that you don't need to worry about the CPU specification (because you get the best possible at that time, irrespective of the price you paid) will be less daunting and very appealing.

Submission + - Latest Windows preview build adds support for Linux GUI apps (windows.com)

Submitted by jonesy16
jonesy16 writes: While users have long been able to run Linux GUI apps on Windows by installing a separate X Server, this marks the first time that native support is available through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Audio support and hardware acceleration are also provided, seemingly enabling a limitless set of use cases for those wishing to live the dual OS life. The change is identified in the recent preview build release along with a more in-depth discussion of the graphical subsystem now called WSLg.

Submission + - Microsoft enables Linux GUI apps on Windows 10 (Insider build 21364) (theverge.com) 8

Submitted by ami.one
ami.one writes: The first preview of support for Linux GUI applications is available now on Windows Insider build 21364, allowing users to run GUI editors, tools, and applications to build and test Linux apps. It’s a significant extension for Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), after the company added a full Linux kernel to Windows 10 last year.

While it has been possible to run Linux GUI apps within Windows previously using a third-party X server, official support from Microsoft means there’s also GPU hardware acceleration so apps and tools run smoothly. Audio and microphone support is also included out of the box.

This is all enabled without Windows users having to use X11 forwarding and without users having to manually start an X server. Microsoft automatically starts a companion system distro when you attempt to run a Linux GUI app, and it contains a Wayland, X server, pulse audio server, and everything else needed to make this work inside Windows. Once you terminate an app and WSL, then this special distro ends, too. All of these components combine to make it super easy to run Linux GUI apps alongside regular Windows apps.

Kali Linux's Win-Kex was the closest solution to achieve similar functionality till now. Though it still has the wacky advantage of integrating any linux desktop & start menu "into" the windows 10 desktop, with the start button & panel/bars displaying on the top edge Win-kex will also run the linux desktop inside a window or full screen where you can alt-tab between win10 and linux.

Microsoft is also testing a new eco mode for the Windows Task Manager in this latest test build. It’s an experimental feature that lets you throttle process resources inside Task Manager. It’s really designed to rein in apps that suddenly start taking up lots of system resources, and it could be useful if you want to temporarily throttle back an app.

Submission + - Which is better - software RAID or hardware RAID? (wikipedia.org) 4

Submitted by RockDoctor
RockDoctor writes: I am building myself a NAS, unsurprising on this site.

My hardware pool is very shallow.

I eBay'd a desktop chassis, whose mobo claims (I discovered, on arrival) RAID capabilities. There, I have a significant choice — to use the on-board RAID, or do it entirely in software (e.g. OMV)?

I'm domestic — a handful of TB — but I expect the answer to change as one goes through the PB into the EB.

What do the dotters of the slash think?

Now, how does one Slashdot a poll — HW-RAID or SW-RAID?

Slashdot Top Deals

Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.

Close