Slashdot, a good read

http://slashdot.org/

Slashdot is an open source web site that calls itself, “News for nerds. Stuff that matters.� The site allows users to post information on anything technical and related to computers. However articles on science and law can also be found that are relevant to technology. Since readers post large quantities of good information to Slashdot from other web sites, it has become a credible source for technology news. On Thursday, October 6, 2005, two students discussed the Linux program. I found several news entries regarding Linux on October 6 and 7, 2005. On Thursday October 06, at 06:26PM, “CowboyNeal� wrote, "Today, Novell released SuSE 10.0 OSS for download.� On Friday October 07, at 05:57PM, “Zonk� posted a message about IBM creation of a .NET C# Applications for Linux.

Other interesting posts can be found on subjects from anonymous bloggers’ rights to corporate patents and to China’s development of its own DVD format that could put a twist in the battle between different formats of DVD. Today, “CowboyNeal� posted a comment and a reference to an article about the Delaware Supreme Court’s reversal of a lower court decision. The lower court had ruled that an Internet provider must reveal the identity of a blogger who criticized a local elected official. The Delaware Supreme court’s ruling that reversed the lower court’s decision means that citizen rights are still upheld in Delaware. On October 6, 2005, Chief Justice Steele was quoted in a linked article linked to Slashdot, saying, “"The possibility of losing anonymity in a future lawsuit could intimidate anonymous posters into self-censoring their comments or simply not commenting at all." (Emphasis, mine)
In the same article, Paul Allen Levy, an attorney for Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, said, “The court's determination to require sufficient evidence before a critic is outed will go a long way toward reassuring citizens that they remain free to anonymously criticize public officials." This decision will have a huge impact on the future of citizen’s rights with the media. (Article: Chase, Randall, Breitbart.com, “Court Rules in Favor of Anonymous Blogger,�

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/10/06/D8D2LHF06.html

Since I can find news on everything from court rulings to astronomy, I would not say that Slashdot is for nerds, only. It seems to be a good source for technological information.