16659516
submission
alexo writes:
CNN reports that an Iranian court has sentenced Hossein Derakhshan, the so-called "blogfather" of Iran, to 19.5 years in prison.
Derakhshan, a 35-year-old Canadian-Iranian blogger and activist, was "convicted of cooperating with enemy states, making propaganda against the Islamic system of government, promoting small anti-revolutionary groups, managing obscene web sites and insulting Islamic sanctities".
Slashdot mentioned Derakhshan in an article about Iranian bloggers back in 2006.
13600688
submission
alexo writes:
Soluto, an Israeli start-up, aims to solve one of the problems that plagues all computer users: poor computer performance. As its first service, the company is offering a free (as in beer) program that analyzes the boot process and identifies applications and processes that may be removed or delayed to speed up Windows' start-up. To find the source of the slowdowns, Soluto uses a statistical approach, "The PC Genome", which they describe as "a huge knowledgebase of PC frustration data, built automatically through the usage of Soluto software. Its objective and statistical information, gathered and analyzed by Soluto, is also editable by the community."
See writeups by the New York Times, ZDNet and Geeks are sexy.
441094
submission
alexo writes:
Some readers may disagree but to me, the user signatures are an integral part of Slashdot discussions, often providing additional perspective about the posters' opinions.
However, sigs are not normally considered a part of the discussion and commenting on them is liable to get you moderated "off topic". Likewise, sig moderation is not provided.
Maybe it's time to acknowledge and celebrate the lowly sig.
Please nominate the best (and worst) Slashdot sigs of 2007.
Which ones did you find the funniest? The most insightful? Trollish?
Let the quoting begin.
20305
submission
alexo writes:
President Bush will sign the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (a.k.a bill S.3930) into law today.
Among its provisions, the bill supports the formerly secret CIA interrogation program, authorizes the permanent detention and torture (as defined by the Geneva Conventions) of anyone based solely on the decision of the President and suspends the writ of habeas corpus for detainees.
According to CBC news, the UK has already demanded and received an exemption for its citizens. Canada has not.
