Yes, fresh from the carnage that is Thanksgiving, it's another mind-blowing episode (14 if you're counting) of GIS. Download, listen and enjoy.

This week Bruce Perens ^[?] learned the hard way that Open Source development has become a popular spectator sport. Or, as I described it a few days earlier, a performing art. Like it or not, things are changing with Open Source development, with the Internet, with the way online news is gathered and spread, and with Slashdot. More ->

C|Net recently made waves with its "Top 10 Hacks" story which seemed to say that Hack==Website Defacement. Derek Glidden found that wrong. And I'm glad he did because he's proposed that we do our own top 10 hacks. He's written a fabulous article, and challanges us to come up with a real list of hacks: The good stuff. Not the script kiddie stuff that the media likes to use to generate extreme headlines. Read this story. Its a good one.

mochaone asks "I've always admired the Slashdot crew for putting together a great site that has vastly contributed to the internet experience. I have an idea for a website that I think has great potential also. I would like to know how slashdot (or any other webcompanies) got started and what tips they might offer? Should I use webhosting services or provide content on my own computers? What's a typical server setup -- separate boxes for web servers, database, banners, etc? T1 line or T3? How often should I backup data if providing content on my own computers and should I store backups offsite? Any other tips are welcome. More interested in the high-level, architectural issues rather than the "Use Debian over Redhat" or "Use Python over Perl" issues. I think those have been covered in other Ask Slashdot features. "

So as many of you know, COMDEX is in vegas next week, and for the first time, I'm actually going. Andover.Net will have a booth in the Linux Pavilion, and Hemos, CowboyNeal, Scoop, and myself will be consuming oxygen there for most of next week. So if you're going, stop in and say hi. We're going to be having a little contest (a Linux install race) and the winners will get fabulous prizes. Its going to be BYOD (Bring your own distribution) so we'll see who comes out on top. We'll have machines for people to get their news fix. We're gonna try to broadcast Geeks in Space segments live. And if any open source developers want to run BOF sessions or something about their projects, contact Josh and try to schedule some time (this is gonna be real informal). Also, if any of the distributions wanna have a rep play in the install contest, let him know too (I've already got a Sucke- I mean Vict- I mean Volunteer from Debian: Hi Shaleh..)

In this week's episode, we talk about tanning, the Microsoft trial, and many things we probably shouldn't. Many thanks to TheSync for hosting this for us. Also, if everything goes well, we should be broadcasting next week from COMDEX, which should be interesting, to say the least.

Its happened before, but with the recent MS happenings, MacWeek, MSNBC and to a certain extent Wired have written stories based largely on Slashdot comments: Specifically those that appeared on Microsoft Addresses World, Instant Legal Analysis and Microsoft==Monopoly. The mainstream media now thinks that picking a few comments from a thread on Slashdot is a story (of course they often don't properly credit or link them). More interesting is that by picking a few extreme comments, or poking fun of "Anonymous Coward" that they somehow have the pulse of Slashdot as a whole. Regardless, they are watching, its fascinating to see what they think we think.

Kitsune Sushi submitted this hot potato: "There have been a few discussions the past few weeks on Slashdot regarding female geeks (probably set into motion at least in part by that Linux Chix article), most of which have been cluttered by a number of "interesting" comments by various males. :) One post that struck me in particular suggested that many male geeks have a hard time finding a romantic interest because their female counterparts are often found in the same place they are: behind their computer monitors. This sort of begs the question: where do most geeks (male or female) most often find their potential partner(s)? Online? Off? Chat rooms? Matchmaker services? University? LUGs? Hmm.. Slashdot..?" What are your experiences with online romances?

Back again with a new episode, we talk about Matrix sequels, cellphone experiments, Echelon, and plenty other subjects. There are plenty of radio shows on the internet, but no one else would record this stuff. This amazing feat of bandwidth consumption can be had at TheSync.

We made several changes today. Most of them are "Under the Hood" and you shouldn't see any difference since we tested the changes out pretty heavily on a devel box. Several odd little bugs have popped up tho, and we're squashing them as quickly as we can. Send your bug reports to pater@slashdot.org. The only noticable change you should see is some structural changes to the user settings pages: it was getting pretty unwieldly so we split it apart to make it easier to deal with.

Back on the scene with a new installment, we talk about the Atlanta Linux Showcase, the horrific loss of Hemos' and Nate's house, and the various addictions that plague our productivity. This agonizingly special episode can be downloaded from TheSync.

So just as proof that life doens't stop when you go to a conference, Hemos got email this morning from nate informing him that his house burned down ^[?] last night. Now some rooms are missing and there is extensive smoke and water damage. Now the geek compound is 25% smaller. On the plus side, both Nate and hemos are safe and insured. Update: 10/16 11:05 by H : And to make matters worse, Chris DiBona threw my cell phone in a bucket of water. On accident. But it's pretty ironic.

As with YRO, Apache and BSD are areas that we get many submissions for, but have to choose carefully from for stories that might appear on the homepage. When you have to pick a dozen, that Apache story (while totally relevant) may not make the grade against something of more general interest. Thats why we're happy to announce the new Apache Section manned by Jim Jagielski. As a core member of the Apache Group, I think he's more than qualified. The BSD Section (which actually started on monday 'cuz we had some timely stories that needed to up) is manned by Nik Clayton is a BSD developer and coordinator for the FreeBSD Documentation Project. If you have stories relevant to these new subjects, feel free to submit them to The submissions Form and flag them for the appropriate section.

After a hiatus, the geeks have returned with yet another installment. Topics covered include NASA'a Maglev technology, made-to-order children, and the geeks' undying love and affection for yours truly. It's a good one, and you can pick it up at The Sync.

cjs writes "In Robert Cringley's latest Pulpit he talks about the news media's inability to deal well with technology stories, and in particular states that he feels the approach that Jane's took is `an interesting idea, but ultimately flawed'." Update from RM: Salon also had something to say about Jane's & Slashdot.

Well, we're back in action, this time from an Iron Lung. Special guest Chris DiBona sits in with us, and we discuss everything from Corel's Linux Distribution to Cyberwar. This excruciatingly special episode can be found at The Sync.

Well, we usually shy away from projects like this, but the concept that the BBC has is both intelligent and interesting. They are doing a series about electronic communities called Digitribes and would like to do a show (1 of 6) about Slashdot. Click below for more information about the documentary and how you can help. They are looking especially for readers from the United Kingdom, but would like to hear from people worldwide as well.

Now that the new hardware is in place, I'm happy to announce the first new section on Slashdot: Your Rights Online [YRO] is a place where we can go into greater depth on the issues surrounding freedoms and liberties on the Net, and really in the world at large. So much happens in this area that the Slashdot Homepage just doesn't have enough room to host it all, so while YRO will appear on Slashdot when I think its relevant to everyone, it will largely stand alone. Read on to learn more about the section.

saurus asks: "A fellow *nix person says I probably get scanned everyday. I say, "No way -- I'd know!" Uhm, actually, if I sat on my box all day running sniffit+netstat+iptraf I might. Could you share a low maintenance monitoring [Open Source] solution ? How would it fare against stealth probes? "

As the dust is settling around my recent coding frenzy, here is a bunch of updates to the system:I've added a field for users to store their Public Keys on their User Info page. The M2 page is now linked into the system (if you have access anyway). The Comments on the M2 page also link the story that the comment is attached to (and please read the notes on the page: duplicate comments are not a bug!). I removed the sig from Logged in AC previews (it only affected previews, but it was scaring people). Both the FAQ and the Moderation Guidelines have been updated. And the grand Slashbox Poo-Bah CowboyNeal reports that AuctionBeagle, Security Focus, TheNextLevel, Gnotices, and WomenGamers are the latest additions to the SlashBoxes. Enjoy.