So I just went and did my civic duty and meta-moderated. All was well and good until I recognized one of the signatures in the message, in and of itself not much of a problem. Later, one of the postings had a signature with a link to the user's journal. What that meant was even though Slashdot wouldn't tell me who wrote the message, it was plain as day thanks to the link.

Anyway just something to think about if you want to maintain your annonymity.

Well, maybe new to me, anyway.

Over the last little while I've noticed two new ways to try to sneak spam under my radar. By "radar" I mean spam filters of course. Anyway, the first was kind of interesting and it all but had to be designed to beat Bayesian filtration. The entire message was a commentary on Stanley Kubrick's film-making career, and was a good page and some in length. Then, right at the very end of the message, a single sentence with the actual commercial message. It remind

I've decided against putting FreeBSD on my old laptop for the moment, primarily because it looks as though it wouldn't support my Backpack CD-RW drive through the parallel port. Oh, well, it would've been cool. Since then, I've installed Debian stable on it and it's working great. It's a little more functional than it was under VectorLinux, although at the price of being a little slower.

I'm thinking of putting one of the BSD's on an older laptop currently running Vector Linux 3.2, but the laptop doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. I do have a Micro Solutions Backpack Drive but I don't see on any of the hardware compatibility lists for the various BSD's out there that it's supported.

So, if anyone's got any experience with getting one to work under *BSD, or can definitively say whether or not they're supported, it'd be appreciated.

Appeals Court Lets 'Do Not Call' List Go Forward

DENVER (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission can go forward with its national "do not call" registry while an appeals court considers whether the list violates telemarketers' free speech rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals said on Wednesday.

The decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals makes it easier for the federal government to enforce its popular anti-telemarketing program.

U.S. Court Blocks Anti-Telemarketing List WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. court in Oklahoma has blocked the national "do not call" list that would allow consumers to stop most unwanted telephone sales calls, the Direct Marketing Association said on Wednesday.

The U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City said the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority when it set up the popular anti-telemarketing measure, according to the DMA.

So...am I the only one who still moderates? Here I am with Moderator status again, the third time in less than a week. In fact I only managed to use up the last two mod points yesterday afternoon.

I don't mind moderating, I think it's kind of a duty to make the site better. And so I'd rather not turn it off. But it seems a teensy bit much-I've tried steering clear of meta-moderating but to no avail.

So my original question stands-am I the only moderator out there?

Which leads me to several thoughts. First, I'm really glad it decided to do it at work rather than halfway home in the middle of nowhere. Second, I'm thankful so many people at work tried to help me out-I doubt any of them have ever even heard of Slashdot but thanks to them just the same. Third, I'm glad I finally went and got a cell-I can imagine the fun I'd have had if the car had died halfway home and I had no way to call for help.

Recently came across an update on the FreeDOS site about Dell shipping PCs with Linux or FreeDOS installed in Canada. In case my fellow Canadians are interested, the links are here for the small business desktop and here for the higher education system. I can only get so far as to confirm RedHat and Fr

Finally have a semi-functional site going. Many thanks to FreeBSD, Debian, NEdit, VIM, and their creators and maintainers for making it all possible. Extra-special thanks to PHP for making it fun to tinker again.

"Linux is nowhere near as advanced as Windows"

--A source "close to Microsoft,"
'Lintel Turns Up The Heat'
eWeek December 16, 2002

Let the righteous indignation commence.