90778
submission
schwaang writes:
The recent announcement by Linux Kernel Developer Greg Kroah-Hartman that "the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development" seems to have stirred up some interest as well as some questions (see the Slashdot discussion about the announcement here).
Greg K-H addresses some of the Slashdotters' questions and maybe even raises a few more in a new Free Linux Driver Development FAQ on his blog. An excerpt:
Q: Are companies really going to do this?
A: Yes, already we have received a number of serious queries from companies about producing Linux drivers for their devices. More information will be available later when details are firmed up.
89920
submission
schwaang writes:
While the US continues to hash out concerns over the Real ID Act, which aims to create a national ID by standardizing state driver's licenses, China Digital Times points out a story from
Xinhua Daily News describing China's massive online ID database, which they sell will help prevent fraud.
From the article:
Anyone can now send a text message or visit the country's population information center's website, to check if the name and the ID number of a person's identity card match. If they do match the ID cardholder's picture also appears, said the Ministry, adding that no other information is available to ensure a citizen's privacy is protected.
Completed at the end of 2006, China's population information database, the world's largest, contains personal information on 1.3 billion citizens.
Giving public accessing to the database is also designed to correct mistakes if an individual discovers that their name, number and picture don't match.
85500
submission
schwaang writes:
Advertising is an integral part of the Web, and its revenues make the likes of Google possible for all of us. But when PR firms promote products by pretending to be real bloggers, some think it crosses the line into unethical "astroturf". The Consumerist held a contest for best "Flog" of 2006. And the winner is... Sony for it's fake all-I-want-for-Xmas PSP blog (which Slashdot readers will no doubt remember). Runners up included
Walmart and McDonald's.
And the award itself? Well, it's something you might find on on a fake lawn.
82786
submission
schwaang writes:
The UK Green Party says that Vista's DRM requirements will force many unnecessary hardware upgrades.
From the article:
"Future archaeologists will be able to identify a 'Vista Upgrade Layer' when they go through our landfill sites."
"There will be thousands of tonnes of dumped monitors, video cards and whole computers that are perfectly capable of running Vista — except for the fact they lack the paranoid lock down mechanisms Vista forces you to use. That's an offensive cost to the environment.
[from the riding-the-hype dept.?]
82206
submission
schwaang writes:
Linux Kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman, author of Linux Kernel in a Nutshell has posted an epic announcement on his blog:
"the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. [...] All that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your device works, or the email address of an engineer that is willing to answer questions every once in a while."
"If your company is worried about NDA issues surrounding your device's specifications, we have arranged a program [...] in order to properly assure that all needed NDA requirements are fulfilled."
"Now your developers will have more time to work on drivers for all of the other operating systems out there, and you can add "supported on Linux" to your product's marketing material."
This could portend increased device compatibility for Linux users, higher-quality drivers, and fewer non-free binary blobs.
P.S. nvidia this means you!
