mjeppsen writes, "Filmmaking experiment A Swarm Of Angels aims to create and distribute the first collaborative film released under a Creative Commons license. The project is using community participation and funding to make a film that would traditionally cost $3–4 million for a mere $1.75 million. The entire filmmaking process will be collaborative, from Wiki-based script creation to community voting on creative and marketing decisions. Is this just a scheme by the filmmakers to get funding for a pet project, or is it Hollywood's worst nightmare? More importantly, can 'open-source films' develop into a sustainable financial model?"

surgicaltubing writes to spotlight the progress towards vesion 2.0 for Gaim, the open source, multi-protocol IM client. "The Gaim 2.0 release is nearing its home stretch. The Gaim team released beta 4 last week, with a number of new features and UI improvements." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.

Wellington Grey asks: "Often during our heated political discussions on slashdot, several people will mention their desire to leave the country. As an American living in England, which sees much the same problems as the US, I often wonder where these Americans would go. So, I pose two questions for the restless: 1) Where would you live, if not in America and 2) What's stopping you from going?"

RFID! writes, "The Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee published a draft report that poured cold water on using RFID in government-mandated identity cards and documents (PDF link). But this met with some consternation among the DHS bureaus that plan to use RFID in this way and the businesses eager to sell the technology to the government, and now a vote on the report has been delayed until December."

newtley writes, "The music, movie, and software cartels claim 'piracy' is a Number One problem not only for themselves, but for the world as a whole and so successful are their continuing dis- and misinformation propaganda campaigns that they've been able to dragoon entire governments and police forces into acting as industry enforcers. But, says p2pnet, far from being at the top of the pile, movie and music piracy rank 16th and 20th, respectively, on a global index of illicit markets. (Software piracy ranks 7th.) And even those positions are subject to considerable doubt."

Elitegroup launched its new AM2-based integrated graphics motherboard, targeting lower- and mid-range home theater system builders today. The board - microATX GeForce 6100SM-M , built around the nVidia nForce 405 chipset, marks the inaugural appearance of an integrated graphics motherboard for AMD Athlon 64 AM2 processors.

According to Top Tech News, the new AMD/Dell partnership , with Dell using AMD's Opteron processors, could make a big winner out of AMD, from both a financial and a PR standpoint. Dell's two AMD-powered PowerEdge servers could spell trouble for Intel. "The new partnership between Dell and AMD, announced at the Oracle OpenWorld Conference in San Francisco, will be just one more in a series of headaches for AMD-rival Intel, which has seen AMD come on strong over the past few years. The new partnership could make a big winner out of AMD, from both financial and PR standpoints. The company has been waiting a long time for this day, and now no longer has the stigma of its processors not being available on servers from one of the largest computer companies. AMD expects to sell an additional 14 million processors between now and 2008, and to have 30 percent of the PC and server market by then, largely because of its new relationship with Dell."

An anonymous reader writes, "NewScientistTech has an interesting story about a river sensor network that not only measures water depth and flow, but also forms a wireless computing grid to calculate possible flooding scenarios." From the article: "If the river's behavior starts to change, the network uses the data collected to run models and predict what will happen next. If a flood seems likely — because it is rapidly rising and moving quickly — the network can send a wireless warning containing the details... [A researcher said:] 'One end goal would be that people living in areas that flood can install these themselves. They are simple and robust enough to make that possible.'"

AMD's CEO, Hector Ruiz recently spoke at Oracle's OpenWorld conference. He had a few predictions to report - including a 'seismic shift in the balance of power in both the chip industry and the world of IT as a whole, with influence shifting from vendors to users.' CHOICE seems to be the buzz word. "We're entering a new era in microprocessor technology where the new phenomenon is choice," said Ruiz. "It'll be the single greatest transfer of power the industry has ever seen from vendor to customer." "Of course, increased customer choice comes at a price. Users will have to make more technology decisions and will have "more confusing advertising claims to sort through," Ruiz said. One of his responsibilities as head of AMD will be to ensure that customers have "an honest choice," he added." One of the highlights of his address? "A spoof on the movie "The Matrix," always a favorite of technology companies, Ruiz showed a video clip featuring himself playing the role of the film's teacher Morpheus who educates the Neo character, or in this case, a customer called "ITo" on what's really going on in the world."

ryanskev writes with news from RSA Europe, where a Microsoft VP spoke bluntly about the lock-down that will apply to 64-bit Vista. From the article: "Microsoft will operate 64-bit versions of Windows Vista as a tabernacle, with the kernel as the holy of holies, where only its own high priests of security may venture." While Microsoft has seemed to be making some concessions to the likes of Symantec and McAfee, considerable doubt remains as to their ultimate future.

Hector Ruiz spent this morning at his (AMD's) fab to celebrate 10 years of chip making in Germany. This was after spending the previous day hanging out with Michael Dell at the Oracle bash kicking off the Dell/Opteron server pairing. By the end of 2008 Fab 30 will be a distant memory as Fab 38 makes its debut, and AMD pumps out as many 300mm wafers as it can.

ContractualObligatio asks: "The Register asks the question of whether businesses are at risk of having no budget to develop code, from maintaining too many 'pure play' applications. What has the experience been among Slashdot readers? Are people spending too much time maintaining code and integrations because the business is adopting too many applications? Do IT teams have the time and money to actually improve and innovate the way their companies do business?"

An anonymous reader writes, "According to an article in the New York Times, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives is asking the U.S. government for more detailed guidelines on when and why a laptop gets confiscated at the U.S. border, which, anecdotally, is happening more often. The story includes a report from a business traveler who had her laptop confiscated over a year ago and has yet to have it returned." According to the article, a knowledgeable lawyer said: "[Border guards] don't need probable cause to perform... searches under the current law. They can do it without suspicion or without really revealing their motivations." And an ACTE exective is quoted, "Potentially, this is going to have a real effect on how international business is conducted."

Many readers wrote in to make sure we all knew that Firefox 2.0 has officially been released on Mozilla.com, unlike yesterday's early preview. Here are builds for all languages and Win/Linux/Mac, and the release notes.

Next Generation is carrying an interview with Epic Designer Cliffy Bleszinksi, where he discusses shooters in the next-gen era, what it's like to work with Microsoft, and how it feels to wrap up Gears of War. From the article: "As a designer I don't know if it's ever possible to be fully satisfied but my gut tells me, 'yes'. I sit down and I play the game and I have a blast with it, whether it be single player versus or co-op. I mean, co-op's especially bad. I feel like I'm seeing the whole experience completely new. It's like, if you ever see a cool movie and you bring a friend to see it who hadn't seen the movie yet, right? It's that shared experience, that makes co-op so great."