Slashdot Mirror
Playboy And...Linux?
The article's been up for only a little bit, but a huge number people have e-mailed that Playboy's Gillan has done a column on Linux. It's a typical media piece, explaining Linux but being featured in Playboy, I think, means that we've conquered the media. And I have, of course, no comment on what the sheer number of submissions must mean about our readers. *grin*
So I'm sitting here at work, and I reload Slashdot. Ooh! New article! Playboy article on Linux! I temporarily forget where I am and click through: BLOCKED BY SURFWATCH. I wonder if my supervisor's going to believe me when I say I was just trying to look at an article. :P
I personally would like to see the slashdot crew add the playboy bunny icon to the list of news icons, so slashdot readers can be informed more quickly of linux-related playboy news as it breaks.
Man lookit the size of that laptop Torvalds is holding...
What, you mean there's naked wimmin in here too?
Finding God in a Dog
I was quite surprised to see your article posted here. Having never read Playboy (yes, honestly!) I thought it was all pictures and no words. I was even pleasantly surprised to discover that the article was well researched and well written. (I'll leave out my personal bias towards Debian).
;-)
What did get me thinking is why a magazine full of tits'n'ass would want to waste valuable picture space on a nerdy topic like Linux (I maintain it's "Lie-nucks" though - ask Linus;-)). Then I realised it's all tied in with the telecommuting revolution. Many years ago, no self-respecting programmer would contemplate coding before growing an uneven beard, and donning a cardigan and sandals before mumbling incoherently should any annoying coworkers interrupt. As Time has advanced, we have started working from home. As very few people actually code in COBOL anymore, the requirement for uneven beards and sandals has disappeared, but also this has drawn us towards Playboy.
Coding from home isn't like work anymore, all you need is a cold cup of coffee and sit down at your workstation and get on with it. Usually it's not until the first time the doorbell goes that I realise I'm actually sat naked at my desk - by the time I pull some pants on and answer the door the caller has gone. (This is the telecommuting equivilant of all those annoying co-workers) Obviously someone at Playboy has made the perfectly reasonable assumption that there are an army of naked men sitting naked at their desks doing work nobody seems to understand. After further research, Playboy discovered that the vast majority of these naked men were chanting about some kind of god called "Torvalds" Undeterred by the god-like status of our idol, the enterprising magazine decided to book Linus as their centrefold. Imagine the editors horror when a Scandinavian male software engineer turns up for the shoot. Realising that the average reader of Playboy might be somewhat shocked at the site of a full frontal Linus Torvals on the centre pages, they hastily changed their plan and asked the great Open Source Master what alternative article they could possible post.
That, my friends, is the honest truth on how Playboy come to be writing articles on Linux
When a felon's not engaged in his employment, or maturing his felonious little plans, his capacity for innocent enjoyment is just the same as any honest mans - Gilbert and Sullivan
Philosopher (n) - a wise person who is calm and rational; someone who lives a life of reason with equanimity
[Make your own joke about Linux in Playboy]
"I know we all go on about only reading the articles, but did you see that [insert unattractive Linux celeb here] centerfold!? Oh my god, check out the [disk array/mouse pad/beowulf cluster] on that one!"
There ya go, now you don't need to read the rest of the posts.
Hotnutz.com
TO BE RELEASED IMMEDIATELY
HOLLAND, MI - Slashdot (www.slashdot.org), a popular web site focusing on IT-related news, has announced it was awarded a patent on "One-click porn" by the United States Patent Office. The technology, which allows world wide web surfers to access porn with a single mouse click was invented by Slashdot founder Rob Malda. Malda said the innovation was inspired by Amazon's one-click shopping technology. "When I saw how easy it was to patent an obvious technique that everyone uses, and then start suing everyone left and right, I couldn't resist," said Malda. "I am going to start by suing every site that links to porn. Soon I will be the king of the porn industry," he said, "I already rule the nerds, the intellect of the world, so this was the next logical step in my quest for World Domination(tm)."
He continued, "And besides, what better way could there be to make SHITLOADS of money than having banner ads for porn sites on a site that millions of horny, teenaged, sex-starved nerds visit EVERY DAY!" Asked if the pro-open-source Slashdot community would accept the idea of Slashdot owning patents, Malda responded "You don't think I've thought of that already? What people really don't know is that RMS is a recovering porn addict. I will soon own him and then I can tell him to tell everyone patents are good. Everyone will listen to RMS. I also plan to form a porn division within Slashdot called 'GNU/pr0n' which RMS will head. That should keep him happy and ensure I have control over him. I'm no fool."
Officials from Andover.net (Nasdaq: ANDN), which recently acquired Slashdot were mum about the technology. When asked how one-click porn fit into their future plans, the company released a statement only saying "our patented one-click porn technology is Linux-based, and as you can tell from the success Linux has had in the past year, it is clearly the Next Big Thing(tm). Therefore, you should all invest in lots and lots of Andover stock."
Slashdot also has patents pending on the technology in 18 other countries.