PxM - Slashdot User

When is it OK to censor code?-> 0

Submitted by Aegis of Athena on Sunday November 08 2009, @11:15PM

Aegis of Athena writes "A month ago, SourceForge.net deleted a project belonging to MikeeUSA from its repository after a complaint was filed by Beth Lynn Eicher. The submitter in question has a history of misogynistic comments (NSFW site: http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Mikeeusa ) and the project had some comments that certain people found offensive, but did not appear to be an unambiguous violation of the SF.net TOS restrictions against obscene or violently treasonous material. MikeeUSA's views would be considered offensive by most people in Western societies, but his views are similar to ultraconservative Christians or Muslims.

In Open Source projects that you have managed, how do you deal with contributions by people with offensive views? If the contribution is not offensive by itself, do you still reject the code because of the writer? While SF.net is within their rights as a private group to censor whatever they choose to host, should they have censored unoffensive contributions by an offensive person? When the offensive views are held by a significant (although a minority) portion of people, is it OK to ban that entire group from contributing?"
Link to Original Source

Lakota Tribe Withdraws from Treaties with U.S.-> 0

Submitted by Democritus the Minor on Friday December 28 2007, @06:23PM

Democritus the Minor writes "The Lakota Native American tribe intends to take back its land and sovereignty from the U.S.
From TFA: "'We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said."
The Nation would provide tax-free living, "provided residents renounce their U.S. citizenship.""
Link to Original Source

Arctic "Doomsday Seed Vault" brought onlin 1

Submitted by Anonymous Cow on Tuesday December 04 2007, @10:04PM

Anonymous Cow writes "A giant refrigerated genetic bank built into the island of Svalbard has been brought online. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is designed to house up to 4.5 million seeds in the case of a catostrophic event. The bank is funded by the Norwegian government, Monsanto Corporation, and the Gates, Rockefeller, and Syngenta Foundations. The Global Crop Diversity Trust has completed construction of the doomsday vault and is getting the facility ready to preserve the genetic heritage of the world's agriculture for future generations. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault's relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring human activity. Spitsbergen was considered ideal due to its lack of tectonic activity and its permafrost, which will aid preservation. Locally mined coal will provide power for refrigeration units which will further cool the seeds to the internationally."

Gates Banking Seeds? 0

Submitted by few2 on Tuesday December 04 2007, @05:58PM

few2 writes ""Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic? Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don't? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529"

Starcraft 2 Officially announced by Blizzard

Submitted by

unity100

on Saturday May 19 2007, @08:09AM

unity100 writes "Blizzard has just officially announced Starcraft 2. From the faq on their site, the game will have the 3 initial races, with some units from Starcraft gone, some new units added. They promise good deal of cinematics, and excellent balance between 3 races again. Storyline will continue where Broow War has left off. Blizzard also promises to preserve qualities that made Starcraft a lasting classic. Read more here : http://www.starcraft2.com/"

Comment: Ripping off MojoPac. (Score 5, Interesting) 233

by PxM on Friday May 11 2007, @04:17PM (#19090373) Attached to: Microsoft & SanDisk To Provide Desktop on Thumb Drive

So, they're pretty much trying to create a copy of MojoPac (wikipedia entry) and call it their own? MojoPac does the same thing for Windows, but it's not tied to a single physical device. The good part about this is that when I upgraded from an iPod to an external HD, I was able to take the entire setup with me without a problem. Unfortunately for MS, they are teaming up with a flash disk manufacturer rather than an HD maker. I found that trying to run any real app such as Office off a flash drive was impossibly slow. The reason I upgraded from my iPod to an custom external 7200rpm drive was for the sake of speed. The iPod was faster than running off a flash disk, but was still too slow for most things. Now, I can run all the important applications (e.g. GIMP, and WoW) without any noticeable performance hit off my external drive via MojoPac. It will be interesting to see how MS/Sandisk compare in terms of performance speed to MojoPac. Given how bad U3 was, I would be surprised if they can get it fast enough to run any games off of the device. Unless they can get enough performance off the flash disk to run Office, I don't see them as being a real competitor to MojoPac.