Slashdot Mirror

Gotta watch out for Linyos Torovoltos and his evil Soviet operating system.

For some reason that reminds me of this

http://www.adequacy.org/public...

Here is my first comment of substance on the subject of Linux, which is certainly applicable to the so-called "newbie distro" produced by Mandrake, but which, I think, has more general application.

They broke my fucking computer.

Perhaps it is because they are French, and perhaps the words have a different connotation in that magical language, but I venture to say that when Mandrake use the word "resize", as in

"Would you like to resize your Windows partition?
(best said with a subtly sardonic Parisian accent)

... they do not perhaps realise that most people are going to assume that they mean "resize" in the sense of "make bigger or smaller by stretching or squashing, perhaps affecting the internal bits somewhat in the process, but basically retaining the structural integrity of the thing". When you use the word "resize" to a normal English speaker, he does not assume that the word means "delete a chunk of, irrevocably, without first checking whether something vital is on it, then render yourself unable to find that deleted block ever again".

This is the basic problem with the much-vaunted "newbie-friendly" Mandrake Installer; five times out of the six I tried it, its two main functions appeared to be to

* Seek out and render inoperable any copies of Windows hanging around and
* Itself fail to install properly.

This is no big deal! Apple can still do no wrong! The astronomical prices I paid for their gear is still justified!

The thing that irritated me about people like this is they're convincing Apple that it's OK to fuck up Macs.

E.g. I've got a 2012 Macbook Pro. When it got slow I added more Ram and an SSD and it was fast again. Now all Macbook Pros have soldered Ram and SSD which means I need to max out both when I buy them and Apple charge way over the odds for that. So I'm probably going back to Windows.

However if Apple listens to the fanboy chorus on the Verge and BGR they'll conclude that doing this is fine, and Macbook sales will continue to flatline.

You have to be doing something really bad to have not picked up market share from Microsoft during the Windows 8.x period because Windows 8.x was horrible for the average non technical Windows user.

In fact Chris Pirillo made a memorable video about how his Dad - a long term Windows user - found macOS less unfamiliar than Windows 8. Then again Microsoft had a bunch of fanboys telling them that getting rid of the start menu in Windows 8 was OK too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Windows 10 doesn't seem as bad from the copy I've got in a Parallels VM, and if I get a Windows notebook I can get any combination of CPU/GPU with Ram/SSD upgradeability and probably a lot cheaper than a Mac.

So Apple make bad decisions and their horrid fanboys make excuses. Which drives people like me away from the platform they're trying to protect. I.e. ironically they're killing the platform in trying to protect it.

Adequacy.org memorably remarked that Windows and MacOS have "advocates"; Linux has "apologists". Well the problem with Apple fanboys is that they're apologists not advocates.

T Reginald Gibbons tried to clarify the difference in this memorable article

http://adequacy.org/stories/20...

Best thing about it is the comments from l33t h@x0rz who couldn't spot the whole thing was designed to troll them. Good times, man. Good times.

...and here's the proof.

What do you expect?

Slashdot is an open source advocacy site.

An oldie but a goodie

A post from a long long time ago.

When men were real men. Women were real women and Trolls were real trolls!

Next thing you know these so-called gamers will be using Lunix.

Because Microsoft is good.
Linyos Torovoltos is the evil.
Proof: http://www.adequacy.org/public...

Is Your Son a Computer Hacker?

I'm not a moderator here (obviously, since I'm posting), but speaking for myself, I want you to remember what happened on 9/11, and forget what most of the talking heads with a barrow to push have said about it.

Facts, not spin.

That right there is a link well worth following. Wish I had mod points atm.

I'm not a moderator here (obviously, since I'm posting), but speaking for myself, I want you to remember what happened on 9/11, and forget what most of the talking heads with a barrow to push have said about it.

Facts, not spin.

I rate this troll as Adequate.

I still think these are all classics

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2002.1.28.153048.268.html

They're all wonderfully effective wind ups of the sort of people who still infest tech sites to this day. I just wish people were doing this sort of tormenting of the wankers on reddit who make the 2001-era slashdotter actually seem like a well rounded human being.

I still think these are all classics

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2002.1.28.153048.268.html

They're all wonderfully effective wind ups of the sort of people who still infest tech sites to this day. I just wish people were doing this sort of tormenting of the wankers on reddit who make the 2001-era slashdotter actually seem like a well rounded human being.

I still think these are all classics

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

http://adequacy.org/stories/2002.1.28.153048.268.html

They're all wonderfully effective wind ups of the sort of people who still infest tech sites to this day. I just wish people were doing this sort of tormenting of the wankers on reddit who make the 2001-era slashdotter actually seem like a well rounded human being.

Putting the effort into being a real person with a well-rounded life is lot more effort than either a) blaming it on Aspergers, b) whining that INTJ makes it impossible, or c) becoming a libertarian so you can justify being a selfish loner as a rational choice. Or all three.

Adequacy was a lot of fun when we were running it... it was a good idea to end though IMO, there's nothing worse than something great slowly devolving to the point where you end up hating it. I've not seen anything quite like it around in terms of the range and style of stuff. Going through the headcheese archive on the site brings back memories - it's basically every post by every troll account we had on /. during 2001, I'd forgotten half the accounts I had, and some of my personal favourites :)

Putting the effort into being a real person with a well-rounded life is lot more effort than either a) blaming it on Aspergers, b) whining that INTJ makes it impossible, or c) becoming a libertarian so you can justify being a selfish loner as a rational choice. Or all three.

Adequacy was a lot of fun when we were running it... it was a good idea to end though IMO, there's nothing worse than something great slowly devolving to the point where you end up hating it. I've not seen anything quite like it around in terms of the range and style of stuff. Going through the headcheese archive on the site brings back memories - it's basically every post by every troll account we had on /. during 2001, I'd forgotten half the accounts I had, and some of my personal favourites :)

I see the Linux Fault Threshold is just as powerful today as it was in 2001.

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2002.1.28.153048.268.html

Maybe they read this story

This cartoon explains his reasoning better

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.21.195051.13.html

Open source versus closed source is not an indication of a trust in a persons professional capacity or ethics. To try to say that this man's mental state is any way indicative of all mental states of open source developers is just offensive and stupid.

Yeah, but Open Source is all based on the idea of the Cathedral (bad) and the Bizarre(good). I don't know about you, but as a good Christian mom I rather like cathedrals and I filter out the bizarre using AOL Family Filter Pro.

This preference for "the bizarre" shows the twisted mentality of these software Communists. Read this article here and enlighten yourself

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

Most American families use trusted and responsible Internet Service Providers, such as AOL. These providers have a strict "No Hacking" policy, and take careful measures to ensure that your internet experience is enjoyable, educational and above all legal. If your child is becoming a hacker, one of his first steps will be to request a change to a more hacker friendly provider.

I would advise all parents to refuse this request. One of the reasons your son is interested in switching providers is to get away from AOL's child safety filter. This filter is vital to any parent who wants his son to enjoy the internet without the endangering him through exposure to "adult" content. It is best to stick with the protection AOL provides, rather than using a home-based solution. If your son is becoming a hacker, he will be able to circumvent any home-based measures with surprising ease, using information gleaned from various hacker sites.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some hacker software. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under "Install/Remove Programs" in your control panel. Popular hacker software includes "Comet Cursor", "Bonzi Buddy" and "Flash".

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to "download" one of the hacker applications. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer's manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

4. Does your child read hacking manuals?

If you pay close attention to your son's reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up

This seems relevant to me even if it dates from the dawn of computer time:
http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

I am surprised it hasn't been linked to yet.

This is You.

http://adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

The Linux Fault Threshold is the point in any conversation about Linux at which your interlocutor stops talking about how your problem might be solved under Linux and starts talking about how it isn't Linux's fault that your problem cannot be solved under Linux. Half the time, the LFT is reached because there is genuinely no solution (or no solution has been developed yet), while half the time, the LFT is reached because your apologist has floundered way out of his depth in offering to help you and is bullshitting far beyond his actual knowledge base. In either case, a conversation which has reached the LFT has precisely zero chance of ever generating useful advice for you; it is safe at this point to start calling the person offering the advice a fucking moron, and basically take it from there. Here's an example taken from IRC logs to help you understand the concept.

<jsm> Why won't my fucking Linux computer print?
<linuxbabe> what printer r u using?
<jsm> I don't know. It's a Hewlett Packard desktop inkjet number
<linuxbabe> hewlett r lamers. they dont open source drivers <------LFT closely approached!
<linuxbabe> but we reverse engineered them lol. check the web. or ask hewlett for linux suuport??<------ but avoided, he's still talking about the problem
<jsm> Thanks. I already did that. But I can't install the drivers on my fucking computer. I've got a floppy disk from HP, but my floppy drive is a USB drive and Linux doesn't have fucking USB support.
<linuxbabe> linux DOES have USB support!!!!!!
<jsm> yeh for fucking infrared mice, and for about a thousand makes of webcam it does. Get real here. For my fucking floppy disk drive, I am telling you through bitter experience it does not. Even if someone has written the drivers in the last week
<jsm> which I sincerely doubt, how the hell am I going to install them given that my floppy drive doesnt work?????
<jsm> this ought to be in the kernel. what good is a fucking operating system that doesnt operate?
<linuxbabe> Imacs dont have floppy drives at all <----- useless point, but not LFT. All apologists make pointless jabs at other OSs
<linuxbabe> so you ought to be greateful that Linux does. drivers like that shouldn't be bundled in the kernel
<linuxbabe> makes it into fucking M$ bloatware. bleh
<linuxbabe> download drivers from the web!!!! apt-get is your friend
<jsm> So everyone keeps telling me. Unfortunately the fucking modem doesn't work under Linux either, and since the Linux installation destroyed Windows, that leaves me kind of fucked.
<linuxbabe> Linux doesnt destroy windows
<jsm>mandrake installer does. It "resized" my Windows partition and now the fucker won't work
<linuxbabe> you shuold have defragmented. windows scatters data all over your hard drive so the installer cant just find a clean chunk to install into. it isn't linux fault <---- distinct signs of LFT being approached
<linuxbabe> that windoze disk management blows
<jsm> so why doesn't my fucking modem work?
<linuxbabe> what computer hav u got
<jsm> A Sony Vaio PCG
<linuxbabe> that doesn't have a modem
<jsm> I assure you it fucking does. I used to use it to check my email back in the days when Windows worked.
<linuxbabe> its got a winmodem. thats not a modem <----- nitpicking over technical terms is a sign of impending LFT
<jsm> what do you mean?
<linuxbabe> a winmodem isnt a proper modem. it just uses proprietary windoze apis. doesnt do the work of a modem at all.

It's ironic you call it 'Windoze' at the same time you're making it clear that it actually works better than Lunix.

Looks like he's trolled about 620 thousand people. I think the best way to socially engineer a geek is to make them feel superior to you, because they cannot resist loudly correcting you and assuming you're an idiot from that point on.

Well, yeah...

No. The reason for that is that nVidia won't just free their fucking video driver.

First, you sailed past the Linux Fault Threshold with consummate ease.

Secondly, Nvidia wouldn't have to free their driver (which they don't want to do, for various reasons such as keeping their business going) if Linux had such a stable ABI. Your link merely says "binaries might be incompatible between versions because we might change shit", avoiding which is the whole goddamn point of a stable ABI and a stable platform!

You can't make it as hard as possible for companies to write a driver that doesn't require constant updates and maintenance based on the whims of the kernel devs and then also want high performance drivers and games and such ported over. It doesn't work that way.

It's a matter of who your audience is.

"Is your son a computer hacker?" which trolled a certain techie site hard...

Probably a man though ; ).

ObAdequacy.org

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

<jsm> So in other words, my fucking modem is never going to work with Linux at all?

<linuxbabe> no no no. in the first place you never had a modem you had a winmodem. in the second place its M$ fault that the drivers are closed and you can go to jail for trying to reverse engineer them like this guy dimitri skylab and the DMCA. its nothing to do with linux that M$ fills the world with its proprietary crap

<jsm> But in terms of actually getting my computer to work with Linux, I get the impression that it won't?

<linuxbabe> M$ should have to open up the drivers have you read CatB? and vaio sucks because they won't open up their standards either.

<jsm> Congratulations on wasting half an hour of my life, you fucking loser. And stop pretending to be a fucking woman. Your advice is useless. You, and the other hundred members of the so called fucking Linux community for which you stand, have broken my computer, wasted my time, patronised me senseless, revealed your lack of real knowledge, patronised me again and you *still* can't get something as simple as a fucking laptop computer to fucking work. Your so called free fucking software, like your

<jsm> so called fucking free advice, is still too fucking expensive. I cannot believe that you have so little fucking self-respect that in order to find the attention you clearly crave, you have to spend your life lying about the usability of a fucking computer operating system, purely for the joy of creating problems which you can then pretend to solve. You are worse than a fucking fireman who sets buildings on fire. I have had enough of your fucking Munchausen-by-proxy version of tech support. Now get off

<jsm> this fucking channel, hunt down someone who knows what they're fucking doing and bring them here or I will never, repeat never, use your fucking system ag ....

Good times. Good times.

Kid, you're growing up waaaaaaaaaaaay too fast.

Yes. Parents need to be pro-active in defending their children from online threats.

Btw, what is C programming language? Is it an obsolete computer language like Visual Basic 6 or machine code?

It's actually a tool created by communist conspirators to enable the creation of the infamous Lunix operating system intended to subvert our free society. That is why you're well advised to stay away from it if you ever see it, stick to God-blessed, corporate-backed tools such as Java and .NET, and report any sightings of C programmers in the wild (generally identified by the beard) to BSA and NSA.

Well either you can figure out how to fix it or you can start to ad lib about 'DRM, dimitry skylab, convicted monopolists'. The best thing about the second option is that you most likely won't get invited next time. Actually the best thing about this argument is that it can be used to explain why you can't fix Linux as well as Windows, even though everyone knows you 'work with computers'.

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

Totally not a biased, money-hatted site. Totally. Trust us.

Hi! You must be new to the internet as well as Slashdot, let me give you some tips.

        1. Always use the word "lunix" in place of "linux" in slashdot's discussion forums.
        2. You can steal mod points by copying someone else's insightful comment and pasting it as a reply to an earlier one.
        3. Mac users are a bunch of fucking queers.
        4. When there's something you need to do that can't be done with Windows but can be done with Lunix, keep in mind that you can do an even better job with Mac OS X. Some argue that BSD can do it better but no one makes software for BSD since no one gives a flying fuck.
        5. Adequacy.org was one of the best sites on the internet. Want to know if your sons a computer hacker? Click here! http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.12.2.42056.2147.html

Good luck, friend!

More like +1 Adequate

For those of you not getting the reference, a link to the original posting of the GP from way back in 2002. It's even more hilarious with the links, even if most of them no longer exists, the name of the URLs adds to the humor of the satire.

Enjoy!

Milosevic Goes Free, Thanks to Godwin's Law!

Counsel for the tribunal: ... were rounded up and placed in concentration camps.

Slobodan Milosevic: Objecting! What is it you are saying by meaning these "camps of concentration"? Eh huh? Are you taking me for wet ass pussy? I kill you!

CFTT: "Concentration camps" is a phrase in common usage, referring to inhumane mass civilian imprisonment environments, Mr Milosevic. The term dates back to the second World War and the camps instituted by the Nazi party.

SM: GODWIN'S LAW! YOU LOSE FAGGOT! HAHAHAHA! You mention Nazis! You lose! Bye bye fucksucker!

In a state of some distress, the board of international judges were forced to rule that, on the technical merits of the case, counsel for the tribunal had indeed mentioned the Nazis, and thus that Milosevic was correct to invoke Godwin's Law.

"Something must be done", commented one onlooker.

The situation above was perhaps fictitious, but its online equivalent happens every day of our lives. Someone is caught in possession of an indefensible view, but manages to get out jail free by provoking his interrogator to make reference to the Nazis and then invoking Godwin's Law. Well, not on this site. The official policy on adequacy.org is that we call a rose a rose, a spade a spade and a Nazi a Nazi. Or sometimes a "fucking Nazi", if we're in the appropriate mood. We encourage the posters to our discussion boards to do likewise.

this substantiates allegations made here which were widely mocked at the time.

This book review is for you.

Folks who have been around for a while may remember the site adequacy.org, whose members were amazingly effective at constructing believable trolling posts. So much so that there's even a dedicated name for this - the "Adequacy Style Troll" (AST).

From my view this was the high point for trolling - carefully-crafted posts that seemed so logical that most of the way through you thought it was for real, and even by the end of a post and its outrageous conclusion you weren't always sure the poster was kidding.

Typically these posts weren't targeted at a specific person, but a general hot-button issue (Christianity, Linux, etc) and would elicit a lot of amusing responses from people who didn't get the joke.

The archive is still on line at www.adequacy.org, and the Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the approach.

Anyone have any favorite Adequacy posts they'd like to share?

1. Posting AC with a comment like that displays very poor judgement.

2. Why are you using a printer manufacturer that refuses to make available either a driver of their own creation or the documentation to write one?

DING! DING! DING! Linux Fault Threshold reached

http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.10.2.33542.4010.html

3. Don't be cheap. Buy a new (or used office-class) HP and enjoy!

Hmm, wouldn't an OEM copy of Windows be cheaper?

You are of course aware of the fact that open sourcers are notorious racists

LFT breached!

But people aren't paying for something they could get 'for free'. Windows is a very different thing to Linux. Go read The Old New Thing for why in detail. Raymond Chen describes a mindset - that new releases of the OS should support old software even if it is buggy, that software interfaces are contracts that should not be broken, and that software designers should make choices for their users rather that presenting them with a load of questions they cannot possibly answer. That's completely missing in the 'free software' world. I've installed Linux a couple of times, fiddled around for a couple of weeks until all the bits of my PC more or less work. But they never work as well as they did in Windows. Eventually I end up nuking it and reinstalling Windows because the Linux 'equivalent' of some Windows applications I use all the time is completely amateurish and user hostile.

And they are not paying very much. Suppose I buy a laptop for $1500. It comes with a copy of Windows which costs say $50 to the PC vendor (I read an article somewhere that estimated the cost of Windows to Dell was $50). But the PC vendor will install a load of trialware on it that I need to uninstall. My guess is that they get paid a kickback for doing that because a percentage of people will buy it at the end of the trial. So the effective cost of Windows is probably less. Under $50 every time I buy a new PC every three years is not a lot of money. Hell I'd pay a lot more to avoid the dreaded Linux fault threshold if I had to.

it wasn't original: http://adequacy.org/stories/2002.5.10.153857.142.html

One further wonders if this is an attempt to create FUD about P2P as a whole, and which organisations which are quite snug with the government might be interested in promoting this. But I'm probably just being too cynical now.