Comment Re:How do you pronounce (Score 1) 152
i _am_ a native hindi speaker you insensitive clod!
Submission + - Rob Malda (CmdrTaco) on 10 years of Slashdot (networkperformancedaily.com)
boyko.at.netqos writes: "For many years, Slashdot has been the gold standard of technical news online; the most successful blog that pre-dates the word "blog." It has been a haven for the geeky and the nerdy and a cultural meme over the past decade. We spoke to the creator and editor of Slashdot, Rob Malda, previously as part of our coverage of Slashdot's Firehose. Now, as Slashdot reaches its 10th anniversary, we speak with him again about Slashdot's past and its future.
A quick excerpt:
What will Slashdot look like in 2017?
If I win, hopefully mostly the same, except maybe a little more interactive and comprehensive. I hope that we're talking about the same types of things, but 10 years more advanced. I hope that the same level of conversation is taking place. And I hope that they keep letting me do it.
What do you mean by "win", what happens if you "lose", and if so, do you think you'd just start over again with a new site?
Well, my job is often balancing the economic realities with the desires of the users. There's a lot to that- advertisers want X, sales/marketing wants Y, readers want Z, and I have a certain budget, a certain number of engineer man hours, and only so many clock cycles of DB time.
If I lose, it means Slashdot no longer is able to be an independent voice on the Internet, and it is instead overrun by commercial interests. And at that point I'd probably leave. I don't know if I'd consider starting over again. It's a lot of work, and to have done this at the level I have, it would be anti-climactic personally to start over at zero unless I could find something worth doing it. Like a truckload of cash, or some sort of really interesting challenge to make it mentally worth trying. But quite honestly, Slashdot is interesting and on most days satisfying — starting over again would suuuuck. The first time around was 20-hour days for many years!
How did you keep your sanity?
I was young and didn't know better. And caffeine will get you a long ways."
A quick excerpt:
What will Slashdot look like in 2017?
If I win, hopefully mostly the same, except maybe a little more interactive and comprehensive. I hope that we're talking about the same types of things, but 10 years more advanced. I hope that the same level of conversation is taking place. And I hope that they keep letting me do it.
What do you mean by "win", what happens if you "lose", and if so, do you think you'd just start over again with a new site?
Well, my job is often balancing the economic realities with the desires of the users. There's a lot to that- advertisers want X, sales/marketing wants Y, readers want Z, and I have a certain budget, a certain number of engineer man hours, and only so many clock cycles of DB time.
If I lose, it means Slashdot no longer is able to be an independent voice on the Internet, and it is instead overrun by commercial interests. And at that point I'd probably leave. I don't know if I'd consider starting over again. It's a lot of work, and to have done this at the level I have, it would be anti-climactic personally to start over at zero unless I could find something worth doing it. Like a truckload of cash, or some sort of really interesting challenge to make it mentally worth trying. But quite honestly, Slashdot is interesting and on most days satisfying — starting over again would suuuuck. The first time around was 20-hour days for many years!
How did you keep your sanity?
I was young and didn't know better. And caffeine will get you a long ways."
Submission + - openSUSE 10.3 public release
Shizawana writes: The latest version of openSUSE is being released today. Here is a sneak peak of all the new features and additions, including highly anticipated changes to the YaST package management.
Submission + - Earth's greatest geek hotspots
An anonymous reader writes: Crave is globetrotting with the techie in mind by sourcing the most interesting geek hotspots on the entire planet. The journey is a little similar to a much shorter piece once featured on Wired, but CNet has illustrated the tour with satellite photos and interesting historical commentary. Included is the manor house the Enigma code was cracked in, the Japanese Akihabara district and the school the late Douglas Adams was educated in.
"So, without further ado, fanboys, fangirls, social outcasts, tech hobbyists, IT professionals, iPhone obsessives and Slashdot commenters, please fasten your seat belts for a tour of global proportions as we visit Earth's greatest geek holiday destinations.
"So, without further ado, fanboys, fangirls, social outcasts, tech hobbyists, IT professionals, iPhone obsessives and Slashdot commenters, please fasten your seat belts for a tour of global proportions as we visit Earth's greatest geek holiday destinations.
Submission + - Microsoft to help bring Silverlight to Linux (tirania.org)
David Holm writes: "Microsoft to officially help Novell bring Silverlight to Linux in the form of the open source Mono project Moonlight. Microsoft will provide binary codecs for audio/video with several restrictions."
Submission + - All people in UK should have DNA recorded: Judge (bbc.co.uk) 1
ChiefGeneralManager writes: Lord Justice Sedley, a UK appeal court Judge has proposed that the all people in the UK (inlcuding visitors) should have their DNA recorded on the national database. Sedley's argument is that the current database is 'indefensible' because it contains a hotch-potch mix of people, including children and those who've been in contact with the police. His view is we should make it compulsory for all DNA to be recorded to remove this anomaly. The UK Information Commissioner has expressed some concerns, but not dismissed the idea outright. Yet.
Submission + - How would you refocus linux development?
buddyglass writes: The majority of Slashdot users are no doubt appreciative of linux in the general sense, but I suspect we all have some application or aspect of the platform that we wish was more stable, performant, feature-rich, etc. So my question is a hypothetical one: if you were able to devote a "significant" number of resources (read: high-quality developers) to a particular app or area of the kernel, and were able to set the focus for those resources (stability, performance, new features, etc.), what application or kernel area would you attempt to improve, and what would you focus on improving?
Submission + - New Method to Detect and Prove GPL Violations (uni-sb.de)
qwerty writes: A paper
at the upcoming academic conference
Automated Software Engineering
presents a new method to
detect code theft and could be used to detect GPL violations in
particular. While the co-called birthmarking method is demonstrated for
Java, it is general enough to work for other languages as well. The API
Benchmark observes the interaction between an application and (dynamic)
libraries that are part of the runtime system. This captures the
observable behavior of the program and cannot be easily foiled using
code obfuscation techniques,
as shown in the
paper. Once such a birthmark
is captured, it can be searched for in other programs. By capturing the
birthmarks from popular open-source frameworks, GPL-violating
applications could be identified.
Submission + - DEFCON for Linux Announced
dylan_- writes: UK indie game developer, Introversion, best known for the weirdly retro Darwinia have released the much-awaited Linux version of their latest hit title DEFCON. If you liked the film "Wargames" then maybe this is for you.
As the website says:
"It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe — just maybe — you can lose the least."
As the website says:
"It's Global Thermonuclear War, and nobody wins. But maybe — just maybe — you can lose the least."
