  We study the dynamics of an elastic chain driven on a disordered substrate
and analyze numerically the statistics of force fluctuations at the depinning
transition. The probability distribution function of the amplitude of the slip
events for small velocities is a power law with an exponent $+AFw-tau$
depending on the driving velocity. This result is in qualitative agreement with
experimental measurements performed on sliding elastic surfaces with
macroscopic asperities. We explore the properties of the depinning transition
as a function of the driving mode (i.e. constant force or constant velocity)
and compute the force-velocity diagram using finite size scaling methods. The
scaling exponents are in excellent agreement with the values expected in
interface models and, contrary to previous studies, we found no difference in
the exponents for periodic and disordered chains.
