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Slashback: Nods, Lamentations, Nudity
"Heck, gentleman, what right have we got to approve anyhow?" WPL510 writes: "Just saw this article on Yahoo! about the AOL-TW merger. Apparently all the begging and pleading did something because the EU is about to approve their mega-merger. One concession they didn't mention was opening up AIM, of course. Great -- all we need is a bigger monopoly."
This too shall pass. Lord_Macblaster writes "The GameFan Network is no longer hosting sites. Many sites, including VoodooExtreme and my own site, Monolithic Illusions are nothing but dead links now. It's a real shame. Plenty of top notch sites were shut down. Not major news yet, but info is available here on PlanetCrap, and here on Lum The Mad."
This is the kind of thing that could get me into gaming.
nomadic writes: "
Electronic News reports that the PS2 shortage (mentioned before on Slashdot) may actually be DVD-related. Some analysts point to a shortage in DVD drive parts that has been affecting the notebook industry as well, but others suggest that it might be their lax CSS security.
Guess the MPAA leaning on them wouldn't be too implausible, but it's interesting if you consider that Sony's a member of that august body. Wonder how much flak they got from their brethren over the DVD copy protection workaround that Japanese gamers found earlier this year."
Another thing that could get me into gaming -- TheMyth writes: "It appears the Vivid Entertainment Group, is trying to release interactive adult movies for the Playstation 2. Read the article here that tells it all. -- I can't wait to see the field day that our government reps are gonna have with this one. Is this another "targeting adult content to kids case" or is it "targeting adult content to adults that play video games"? Censorship here we come ..."
Giving competition a good name again. An unnamed correspondent points to the results of the century's last ICFP programming contest. ICFP stands for a real mouthful: "International Conference on Functional Programming." "This year, functional languages take all the prizes; OCAML gets 1st and 2nd place, Haskell 3rd, Mercury 4th, and the judges' prize (for best image) goes to a SML/NJ team."
Battling giants has its rewards. GoldSkin writes: "The Digital Divas have reached an out-of-court settlement against Microsoft and their Digital Diva site. You may recall this article from way back in May." From their site: "In the simplest terms, Microsoft's Stacy Elliot will no longer be known as the 'Digital Diva' and Microsoft will no longer use digitaldiva.com in connection with content like that formerly available at that site. Also, in accordance with our settlement agreement, Microsoft has posted a notice at digitaldiva.com. Please visit and see for yourself."
I find it rather disturbing that microsoft lost, or perhaps the correct term would be forfeited. Digital divas seems to be an group dedicated to the strengthening of intellectual property, at all cost. Somehow it doesn't seem that trademarks were meant to be used as a bludgeon stick against anyone that gets within reach, using the legal costs associated with fighting such a suit as the deterent instead of Justice(tm)(patent pending). Trademarks were created to prevent confusion between brand names such as Coca-Cola(tm) from imposters. I do not believe that Microsoft(tm) was attempting to fool web users that they were digitaldivas.com. I for one was not confused. I had not even heard of digitaldivas until they "won" against "goliath".
Looking at their site, their "grey day" that they are prompting has some lofty goals, but among them is hyperlinking (i.e. bandwidth robbery). It sickens me that being "morally right" is based on size, since everyone wants david to win against goliath. I am not sure about all the details of the case but sometimes even the Devil(tm) is not always wrong.
Another Anonymous Coward
Does anybody know if the Playstation 2 will feature VGA output, and if so, will I be able to watch DVDs at higher resolutions/refresh rates than NTSC ? Any links are appreciated.
Where's the nudity?
Juan, you burrito munching kike wetback. How the fuck have you been? It's been what, 7 or 8 years? What do you mean you don't remember me. It's good ole' Tom. You know, Tinkletoes Tom? Tommy The Trashbasket? You used to shit in my mouth and I'd happily eat it. Hows the wife? Yeah I know what you mean, man.. Kids? No, not here. The wife can't have 'em. The doc said I kicked her in the stomach one too many times. Yeah I know, pain in the ass. Hey I gotta get going, you know how it is.. The jew boss doens't let me have 61 minutes for lunch. 60 minutes on the dot. Gimmie a call some day and we can do drinks after work, OK? Yeah nice talking to you too. Bye.
How about this:
5. SONY releases the PS2. It is awesome, and gamers buy lots of PS2 games. The Game Cube is ignored, because everybody tied up too much money in sony.
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100% pure freak
The computer that IBM used to sell was the PS/2.
They seem to have a fascination with dividing there products in half...
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The Hotmail addres is my decoy account. I read it approximately once per year.
Even if Microsoft's digital diva was useful for some reason, it doesn't mean they have a right to the name. I can't go out and start another software company and call it Microsoft just because it produces "useful" software, can I?. I'm sure Microsoft can think up another cutesy name.
Yes, but that analogy dosen't fit the situation. The microsoft digital diva and the digital divas were/are online personalities, therefore there's a potential to confuse the two and hence the reason to put a stop to it. Just because they discuss subject matter doesn't mean there's enough differentiation to prevent possible confusion, and that's the key in these issues.
Oh, I know where you went, and why. Lurking you guys is one of the best parts of the circus here, you know.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Aw, c'mon Siggy! Don't go away mad....
Somehow, I think you're taking this way too seriously. Slashdot is full of trolls and idiots, true, and it looks like it's gonna get worse before it gets better (if it does...), but hell, it's just a web site. Don't blow a gasket.
Personally, I'll miss you. I find that you have the proper sarcastic/insightful "voice" for this forum, a nice counterpoint to the wails and babbles of the "usual suspects". Plus, you're often funny, no small thing in this madhouse.
So go if you must. You'll be missed.
"...they may harpoon us, but they ain't gonna pick us up on no radar screen!"
Actually, the Playstation 2 Machine does have a PS2 on one of the sides, so there you go.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
Does that mean that I can't modify said future hardware purchase without being in violation of the DMCA even if it was for a "legit" purpose??
It looks like the real hackers have to leave for the Land of the Free: i.e. out of the USofA.
I don't see for example Europe installing laws similar to the corporate greed driven DMCA.
And then Europe should claim the Great American Freedom of Trade as a reason to be able to export it to the US.....
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
and will provide the incentive for a few morons to publicly wish your death in graphic details.
But that is good, right? You don't want these morons to publicly agree with you -- this could be embarassing...
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
What we need is representative moderation, not widespread moderation.
Representative of whom? If the majority of people on Slashdot are tight-assed screeching Linux weenies, then "representative" mean representative of these weenies, right?
I don't think it's a representation problem. If you don't like the majority or believe they are assholes, no democratic methods will help you.
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
What? Microsoft actually 'lost' a legal action? I don't count the anti-trade issues as 'lost' yet simply because it's not over and everything is going as MS wishes, anyway. This DigitalDiva issue definately a loss for MS, even if it is a minor one...
What's next? Hell freezing over? Pigs flying?
MoTec
Think about creative uses for Force-Feedback joysticks...
dare i say.......
a beowulf cluster of force-feedback "joysticks"
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
DOH!!!! sorry, i be preview impaired. Think about creative uses for Force-Feedback joysticks... dare i say....... a beowulf cluster of force-feedback "joysticks"
.sig wanted: Must be concise, funny, and display my cleverness.
A friend of mine claimed his father had an adult game when he was a kid. I thought he said atari but it may have actually been Apple ][ now that I think about it. Heh he said it was two (highly pixelated) people in bed and you could lift up the covers and make them do stuff... What fun eh?
- tred
Don't any of you remember AstroTit? (Think Space Invaders, only the invaders were pendulous and squirted milk, and the defender was, well, erm, ah, a spurting penis - there, I've said it.)
Ran on MS-DOS -- every bulletin board on the planet had a copy...
--- question = 0xFF;
OK -- here's my thoughts on moderation (please hear this out)
... (I'd guess slashdot did initially, and I think Technocrat did until recently.) Let's call this "cathedral" style moderation.
/kinda/ works. However, many potentially good "AC" posts may be overlooked, and many posts later saying the same thing (or saying it less well) from higher karma ppl may "float up".
Traditional media's handling of feedback (such as a newspaper's "Letters" page) has been "moderated" by the editors. People reading the publication have provided some level of trust to the publisher. I'd assume most small weblogs run like this
A key problem with this is accusations of bias on the part of the moderator. (E.g.: Rob Malda moderating down or deleting a post that says "Rob/Slashdot/Andover/VA sucks" because he has Evil Self-Interest at heart and silences the anonymous whistleblower's voice.)
To escape from accusations of bias, we create a new moderation system -- randomly give moderation power out to the readers! This relieves the burden from the operator's shoulders of being called 'evil censors'. Call this "Bazaar style" moderation.
But the tyranny of the majority is still tyranny. So -- we have a system, "bazaar-style", that
Proposed solution: Reader-chosen trusted editors. Give the readers choice by leveraging the database-nature of the discussion sites. Keep a policy like slashdot -- no censorship, no matter what. But give me 3 (or 4?) choices when reading the comments on a story instead of 2. Currently I get to choose 1) read the comments that are at or above my chosen 'score'. 2) Read them all at -1. Add a 3rd choice -- read the comments scored up by editors I trust. (In slashdot's case, have some ppl on staff at VA/Andover/Slashdot, with good knowledge of journalism ethics, whose jobs it is to read and score EVERY comment.) Give me the choice to place my trust in those editors, so I can see the good AC-posted followups, without the fifty trolls.
The bazaar-style moderation may save the operators from censorship accusations, but the random public are not necessarily the most qualified moderators.
-jon "karma whore in training"
o/~ Join us now and share the software
No, but you could create a company called microsoftt that makes little tiny pillows for mice and for purex commercials. . . . I have seen numerous examples of very simularly named - non related products. You would likely get into trouble with a microsoft like name if you were selling anything computer related. But anything non-computer related and you should be fine.
are you on crack?
p
the site redirects to:
http://www.microsoft.com/digitaldiva/default.as
try again with a browser that supports redirection . . .
I thought there was some mad keyboard connector shortage or summat.
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
A voice of sanity.
How we know is more important than what we know.
I quoted the anti-porn zealot, and then I made fun of them, I don't see a problem. The reason why I can be biased and Fox News cannot is because I am not a journalist.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Porn is a healthy part of lots of relationships. I have friends in the porn industry, thus my disgust with the public opinion over it. Addiction of any form is detremental.
How we know is more important than what we know.
1 player, 2 joysticks.. hmm...
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
But in the etoy case, the performance art group had a web site up before the toy seller even came into existence. Yet they were being pressured to give up their name.
In the digitaldiva case the evil empire infringed on an existing trademark.
I don't think this is a problem unique to online only content type businesses. I've heard numbers that like 90% of small businesses fail within 5 years. I don't know if those numbers are accurate, but the failure rate is high. The same thing is probably true for these small online businesses. It's not that providing online content for profit is a risky business...it is that business itself is risky. I am sure you could point to some successful online content only businesses if you looked around a bit.
Fascinating - you attack major news carriers for being derogative towards the adult industry, and then turn around and do the same thing.
Why can they not be derogative, and you can?
Or is "standing in the middle of a shopping center shouting stuff like this with a megaphone (probably whilst waving a bible with the other hand)" not derogative, but merely what you (falsely) believe is representative of anti-porn, vocal, or Christian peoples?
Yes, porn exists - like anything else - because there is a demand for it. But Freedom of Speech is a double edged sword; we're allowed to look at porn, and we're also allowed to speak out against it - specifically, said journalist is allowed to say "smut merchant", and explain why they feel this way. That's Free Speech, too.
Good post until you fell back to another insulting sterotype.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Bugger his nick, can I have his user number (ooohhh, sub 10,000)
"I'll take the red pill. No! Blue! AAAaaaahhhhhhhhh"
- Monty Python meets the Matrix
Vivid will have to be careful about designing a sound UI for this interactive 'media', since the user will only have at most one hand available for the contoller.
A shortage of ps/2???? Those evil USB bastards must be the cause of it! When will their evil machinations be stoped? And just as I was getting used to them little plugs.
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
Ninja Scroll (yes, Scroll) was not Hentai. Thus, relating it to "console porn" is inaccurate.
Now, Legends (yes, Legends) of the Overfiend...now I don't want to sound queer or nothin', but there is something really beautiful about anything that involves fifty flaming phalli.
--
If there is a God, you are an authorized representative. - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
If there is a God, you are an authorized representative. - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Gorkman
I don't know you personally, so I don't know what kind of person you really are. But this is so Katz-esque. Like a suicide note, begging and begging for sympathy! Spare me!
Some time tomorrow post as usual to something. I give the highest probability that has ever existed (more than my toast landing butter-side down) that it will get trolled several times with "I thought you said . . ."
But for a slash shouldn't IBM's legal department be investigating this name
Maybe - Sony uses the full name (PlayStation2), we're the ones who use the shorthand. I've heard of Sony kicking games out of their approval process for using the term "PSX" in the game.
Before I get flamed, yes I realize there's bright blue PS2 written on the top of the machine. That could protentially be a problem, anybody know what IBM has for a PS/2 trademark? I suspect they are substantially different and could never be confused... the whole point of a trademark.
sig fault
Ok, today I've encountered the PS2 acronym for the keyboard/mouse controller, the IBM PC brand, and now the Sony Playstation product. I'm not one to gripe about alphabet soup, but could you guys standardize on a separate acronym, please? I thought PSX2 was rather nice.
Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.
In this case, I was eating a Pogo, when my group was attacked. Now, for those of you who don't know, the opening of a combat sequence in LoL causes force-feedback joysticks to shake like a rat in a terrier's jaws. Of course, I've got the Pogo in my mouth, and the Dual Shock controller leaps out of my hand... directly into my lap. The sensation was quite different than what I had come to expect from using a Playstation. Luckily (or not), I haven't had a similar experience with a Dual-Shock controller since.
Five tons of flax.
I found my old copy a while ago, but I'm afraid that it doesn't run very well on a Celery 466...
That reminds me-- a friend of mine was e-mailing copies of Sextris (Tetris, only the bricks are people in odd positions-- you get the idea) to friends and relatives. Nothing unusual about that of course, crudity being one of e-mail's primary purposes. The funny thing in this case, was that the damn thing had been infected by a virus (Green Caterpillar, I think-- he's had recurring problems with that one for close to ten years now); we're still trying to decide if it was sexually transmitted or not. Of course, now he surfs for pr0n with a condom pulled over his cable modem, just in case.
Five tons of flax.
Since I reported the same story he did much earlier in the day, but this is what I got:
2000-10-02 16:03:33 DVD territorial movie protection the real reason f (articles,games) (rejected)
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
If the only reason for posting a "meaningful" response is to increase the number of some counter on a machine somewhere, are you sure that you really have anything meaningful to say?
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
The karma rating may give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but it's no substitute for engaging in real discussion and reading replies to your posts (obviously you do, so don't take this as a criticism!). If you have something to say that is meaningful/relevant/insightful/whatever then the opinion of some random moderator doesn't change the merit of the comment. I'm surprised that you feel the need to have your opinions backed up (anonymously) because you are obviously well able to express yourself. Signal 11 has amply demonstrated that emotive arguments get higher moderation than rational arguments; why are you so concerned about karma? If your comment is meaningful/funny/... to you then it is a valuable addition to the community. If you are trolling, then it isn't. You don't need moderators to tell you how useful it is. Anyone can increase their karma by posting Microsoft/MPAA/RIAA SUX comments - the really insightful stuff doesn't tend to get moderated up as much, but if we all had exactly the same views, /. would be a very boring place. If you are bored of /. then stop reading/posting, but trolling isn't great entertainment.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Unfortunately, the quantity of troll posts far exceeds the quality.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
Any species that denigrates its own kind is pretty pathetic.
.88 magnum -- it goes through schools.
--
It's a
--
It's a
-- Danny Vermin
Microsoft Digital Lifestyle Advisor
i cant begin to make the jokes: ms speak for digitaldiva? lifestyle? MDLA? can i get certified? roflmao.
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now this is sorta interesting, because a few months ago the provincal government gave the computer game soldier of fortune the adult material for its very graphic depiction of violence and eath. Which put SOF into the field of porno and other adult material. Now imagine whats going on in the office when they here this news. "yaa theres pornos for the PS2" "Can we ban them?" "Nope, there already rated for adults", "Have to pick it up; junior just got that PS2 and my wife and I have been looking for something to spice up the old bedroom.
Theres one problem with reflecting your reality, sometimes your reality starts to reflect you.
Come on, most of the discussion to the gnutella won't scale stories, and the various Microsoft in court and :CueCat is evil stories has been done. Slashdot would be less boring if every editor didn't feel the need to post a :cuecat and gnutella story...
Sorry, I'll be good now.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
how is that different from what i said?
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
I may be a little weird, but, I just like to read the stories and comments.
Nowadays, Karma has changed from a being a user's "average rating" to a "sum of all posts", because folks are using anonymity as a Negative Moderation Shield, instead of what it was really meant for (to keep The Man from trackin' you down).
I can offer a couple of remedies:
- Remove the "post anon" checkbox, thereby forcing users to logoff in order to post anon. This would reduce anonymity abuse.
- Continue to conceal the identity of users who use the "post anon" checkbox, but let moderation to their anon posts affect their account's karma.
Any other ideas?
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
Beyond Slashdot, who cares? Signal 11 could be a god in here and nobody cares anywhere else. and yet, everybody is getting all emotional about this. He got tired of what was pissing him off and quit. whether he *really* quit or not doesn't matter. and on another note: what good is having 17,000 karma points anywhere but here? Karma is only good for moderating, bragging and bitching about the cap.
-----------------------------------------
"No e-mail, only hotdog" -Sony commercial
- I'm full of tinier men!
Fox news needs to stop this kind of thing. It's just plain wrong to bias every story like this and then try to present it as completely secular.
I'd like to see how the Yanks feel about this.
/* Linus is The One
/. is a commercial entity. goto slashdot.com
Like someone else pointed out, trolls didn't break moderation. They merely took advantage of it when it was demonstrated the system was screwed up. And meanwhile, a slashback post that has nothing to do with fucked up moderation yields a huge thread about two whining kharma whores, in which this nonsense gets modded up to +3 insightful, instead of -1 offtopic. What I don't like is tight-assed zealots. Nobody does. Life's tough, deal with it. But it's a sad testimony on the state of affairs when the most intelligent and open-minded discussions are found on the trolling forums, and the most playful and innovative people on Slashdot are the trolls themselves. First, nobody's forcing you to be here. I'm sure if you email rob, he'll gladly refund your membership dues, and you can walk away without losing a thing. Secondly, dont be ridiculous. If this thread is what you consider the most intelligent thread on today's front page, you're on crack. (I, however, am not the type of person to say that's a good thing. So dont be fooled, that's not a compliment.) In conclusion, stop your whining. If you dont like the way slashdot has evolved, stop reading/posting here. Let it continue its devolution in peace.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
This Just In:
On the day that Microsoft reached an out of Court Settlement with Digital Divas, Microsoft's Stacy Elliot has her position announced as Digital Lifestyle Advisor. DLA Solicitors (http://www.dla.com/), knowing their intellectual property was in jeapordy, filed suit to restrain Elliot's title of Digital Lifestyle Advisor.
Microsoft has, as of yet, made no official comment, but sources close to Bill Gates were quoted as saying "What The Heck??"
Well, I don't find the shortage of the ps2 that sad, I am perfectly happy with my dreamcast :) Ok, that was shameless (sorry!)
:)
On a more serious note, I don't see how they can get upset over adult video games. Well, ok nothing they do surprises me anymore. But they shouldn't get that upset cause there have been adult video games for many different platforms in the past. These games are quite popular in Japan (where they aren't so uptight about these sorts of things.)
I believe there were adult games in the US for the 3d0 and Saturn -- probably also for the ps1. I even seem to recall hearing about some adult 2600 roms (can't confirm that since I read about that many moons ago.) Of course you can go into any adult book store and get adult video games for windows. Not that IO have ever set foot in an adult book store
So it is obviously to Sony's advantage to delay the PSX2, at least until after Nintendo's release. This way they'll be the latest and the greatest and the thing to have.
Maybe, but there's possibility 5, which I went with. I was waiting for a PS2, but then I read about all the bugs in the first versions, the high price tag it would have, the head-slappingly foolish things (no anti-aliasing in early games), and the long wait, and I just said "to hell with it, I'm getting a Dreamcast."
It may not be as advanced, but it's here now, it works, and you can get one for pretty cheap. 3 big factors.
All the great anime titles like 'Legend of the Overfiend' and 'Ninja Scrolls' to come in their grand, unadulterated game form.
"-1 per post" is interesting, but what about the people who are new to /.? They would lose karma before they even have a good chance to gain it.
ok if I get what ur saying is that there would be options like (-1, no cap) or (no penalty, 50 karma cap)?
1. Integrate all Time Warner sites into AOL network. 2. Convert Time Warner sites to exclusive AOL sites. IE: you must belong to AOL to access and Time Warner site. 3. Increase monthly dial up rates to $30 to pay for all these new exclusive sites. 4. Lower monthly AOL/Time Warner cable modem rates to $35. Results, massive migration from dial up accounts, to AOL owned cable modem accounts, effectively cutting out the phone companies. 5. Release exclusive AOL cable modem computers. IE: you must own an AOL computer to connect to AOL. Note: AOL recently acquired a computer company on the QT. End result, an AOL owned internet, a monopoly the Bill Gates only dreams of. On the plus side for your religious right, no more porn sites. And of course, since AOL will own the media, there will be no negative press to push congress into reacting to it.
yeah i had that idea a while back to use the force feedback to control the settings for various sex toys that would go along with dvd porn and possibly 3d rendered sex games. it sure would make a lot of money, maybe a patent is in order.
I saw a video of Ice T at a pimping convention one year and he said "Yeah, I sang 'Cop Killer,' and if the police don't like eat they can eat a bowl of dicks." That was the day that Ice T became the coolest guy in the universe.
-in a fast german car im amazed that i survived... an airbag saved my life!-
Starship troopers? Loved that. Made a hell of a lot of sense, too. Pity the folks making the movie weren't capable of realizing it wasn't a war story.
;) Hmm, maybe it couldn't be under the present situation. There is, after all, a limit to how much can be accomplished under any specific government without revolution.
;) Oh, and btw... [newbie] I still don't know what YMMV means, anyone help me out? Plus, I can't get it to stop interpreting anything in angled brackets as HTML even when it's not formatting in HTML, what the heck?? [/newbie]
Americentric is fine, I think we should wait on helping other nations out until we've got our domestic messes in order. But that's IMHO only.
Of course, the elimination of the oversized power of corporate interests in the government is a good idea - but don't go too far. After all, a properly constituted lobbying group does have a legitimate purpose, that of making heard the voice of people unified in a cause. The system breaks down when people who don't really care about that specific issue come to power in that lobbying group.
The legislative term limit is also a good idea ('twould get rid of horrors like Strom Thurmond), but how would you get it passed?
[opinion]
I believe the problems with America are corruption and apathy, corruption starting at or near the top and moving down, apathy starting at the bottom and moving up. And personally, I get a bit upset when I hear how few people vote in the general elections - clearly a lot less than the number of people who apparently live to bitch about how things are. I think, if you don't care to exercise your franchise, to take your part in the government, then you have no right to complain even if the government takes everything you have and treats you like dirt.
Apathy is as bad as corruption, that "I don't care, let the other guy fix it" attitude. Even if I don't think he has a chance, I'll vote for the man I want in office and damn the consequences. If more people would do the same, it could break the strangleholds of political parties and corporate groups whose popularity has ossified into tradition.
Just like with any other social problem, it can be fixed by first understanding it, then educating the people differently. And yes, this can be used to bring about even worse conditions (can you say "Brave New World"?). But, if we aren't deciding how our children are to be educated, then SOMEONE ELSE WILL.
[opinion]
Any comments or suggestions or rebuttals replied to, flames as well if they're interesting and well done.
Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
PS2.ign.com had an article about the shortage. Apparently Sony is denying that the problem is DVD related:
The official reason, according to SCEA executives, is due to a shortage of various components that are crucial to the completion of each unit. Sony would not list the exact components, but Vice President of Marketing Andrew House stated that it had nothing to do with the DVD aspect of the machine.
Sony did modify the DVD hardware after the problems they had in Japan with the software DVD drivers, which are now fully implemented in hardware. They could be lying to save face, or some other component is having shortages. Rambus anyone?
Shit adds up at the bottom...
If you read carefully, it's not a delay, but they are halving the amount of ps2's available for launch.
Shit adds up at the bottom...
Well, I'm not that old, but IBM probably does have a case against them, if they desired to do such a thing. Maybe thats the shortage, they needed to make new logos that didnt say PS2. See, it's all a big conspiracy!!
Shit adds up at the bottom...
Sony would never liscense porn on their console. Besides, the dev kit costs $18,000 last I heard, and thats just to be able to program on the PS2. The liscensing fees are probably much too steep (If sony, by some odd chance, decides to actually liscense it to the porno companies.) for any porn company to be interested in. PC adult games are much more profitable anyway(per unit sold), as there are no liscensing fees or outrageously expensive dev kits.
Shit adds up at the bottom...
Some of the most sought after games for collectors are "Bubble Bath Babes", "Hot Slots", and some other one that I can't remember. They were unlicensed and produced by a Taiwanese company named Panesian. Do a search and you can find many ROMs. When these games go up on eBay, they go for hundreds of dollars.
The last thing we women need on the internet is a company like Microsoft defining what it is to be a tech-savvy woman. The Digital Divas are a group founded in democratic notions of participation, and their motley but well-rooted group will go much further than a single handed-down-from-on-high vision from Microsoft will or would ever do. And, it's good to see the trademark laws rendering a judgment in favor of the little-guy for a change.
-- Anne Marie
Even the venerable SNES had its share of porn. A google search on "adult manga snes roms" gives at least two relevent Japanese roms. It's pathetic there's a market for these things, but our species is a pathetic one.
-- Anne Marie
If so, then that's a really sorry reason for leaving. It just fulfills the prophecy that the karma cap would take the fun out of your karmawhoring. Slashdot was and still is a lively environment for contributing one's opinions, and it's sad to see you have to come to this.
-- Anne Marie
Didn't you say that this comment would be your "last post"? And yet you've posted again. So which one is correct?
-- Anne Marie
--
--
Just lurking, thanks!
The problem isn't only the people in general - it includes the operators of the site. When they set somebody's karma at -50 to make their default posting score -1 and then lie about it in the FAQ saying that this never happens and then lie about it in email saying that it's a "bug being worked out" I no longer trust the site operators. Especially when some of the people this "bitchslapping" was done to posted on-topic (albeit satirical) comments (anyone still remember "MEEPT!!!"?).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I'll sell you my #597 cheap =P
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Bye, bye, Bojay.
:)
I read the rant on your user page, and I'm sorry you feel this way; I just have one question for you, so feel free to reply by e-mail if necessary.
How did you manage to take this site seriously for so long?
I started trolling with a fake account somewhere around UID# 140,000; all the posts from that account wouldn't easily pass the lameness filter now, but some of them were really quite funny.
OOG THE CAVEMAN is a more successful example of a smart caveman that would be censored by modern-day slashdot, but I'm certainly not taking credit for that one; he's a genius!
More recently, I created another troll account that was quite successful, but also rather unfairly moderated down.
Somewhere in between, since Rev told me how well I was doing in 'Fantasy Karma Whore', (I wasn't really keeping track until then, but I was so proud...) I've tried my hand at Karma Whoring lately, just for the love of the game. There's nothing wrong with posting something that's moderately insightful or informative, but you're right, with slashdot it has much more to do with being in the right place at the right time, and getting your opinions seen and making them seem catchy; this is all just social engineering.
However, I've been here since before we had moderation, and I loved the quality of both the news and the discussion; that has done nothing but degrade since I got here, and I don't see it getting better in the foreseeable future. The admins have refused to tackle both the simple problems (eliminating duplicate links, checking their spelling, finding and fixing dead links -- this could *easily* be automated) and the hard ones; (the incredibly broken moderation system, the incredibly broken karma system, and don't even get me started about metamod) slashdot needs to admit it has a problem and ask for help.
So although it's still fun to post here, and every once in a while I'll see a glimmer of intelligent discussion, other sites like kuro5hin and half-empty will definitely be looking up in the future unless slashdot's admins wake up and see what their site has become. And with people like Signal 11 posting to the other sites, well, maybe we'll have some more intelligent conversations and honest opinions for a while, since these are often not welcome here at slashdot anymore.
Mob rule != Intelligent conversation.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
What will you give me for my nick?
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Ever play a PSX fighting game called "Dead Or Alive"? It must be seen to be believed. *grin* The sequel, creatively called "Dead Or Alive 2" is available on Dreamcast, and DOA2: Hardcore Edition (No, I am not making these up) will be on the PS2. I think you'll be rather pleased by the... umm... impressive polygons and attention to detail.
:)
Thank god for the Japanese video game industry.
Aw, nuts!!!Having read Signal 11's rant, I guess we're going to miss some intelligent commentary, but the trade-off is that we won't have to endure any more of his obsessing about moderation.If he really cared about quality of content, couldn't he just ignore trolls and flames? Getting all hung up over moderation seems grossly irrelevant to me. I hope he reconsiders and comes back (even if under another name), though.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
The soap opera drama that is Slashdot is what keeps people here. And the beauty of Slashdot is that, by setting your threshold to 2, you can ignore the soap opera and get on to the thoughtful stuff.
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
Slashdot isn't dying, but there comes a time when people move on.
There's more to it than that. I used to believe it was possible to have rational conversations on slashdot, and learn something by talking to people with other experiences and ideas, and have them learn by talking to me; that together we would, by interacting, come out ahead.
I no longer believe that's possible; the culture of slashdot has evolved in different directions than that. I think there's a growing belief that that is true; and what scares me is that the people who flee slashdot because of that may overwhelm the refuges and cause the same sort of problems there that they have here. I hope i'm simply paranoid.
sheer arrogance of these people [Linux-weenies (who tend to cluster around the ages of ~14-20) ] sickens me.
Why? That is as it should be. People who are not arrogant about their ideas in late teens are generally stupid, boring, square, and future corporate fodder. When you are 18 you *should* be arrogant, you should believe your idea will change the world. This does not necessarily mean this idea should get implemented, of course.
Is Linux dying? Yes. Linux as we knew it in 1993-1995 is dead.
Read some Hindu cosmology. You cannot have new things without old things dying. Building something necessarily involves destruction. Yes, Linux of the mid-90s is dead, but this is good -- otherwise we would be looking at an ossified monster. The world changes and evolves -- nobody can stop that. Don't pine for gooden olden days -- the future is always more interesting.
It's time to grow up, people.
Growing up happens naturally. Don't try to turn full of energy and arrogance youngsters into old men before their time. They'll become old men eventually.
This just gives the corporate suits more ammo to not play by the counterculture rules.
Heh. Corporate suits are *never* going to play by counterculture rules. It's not a question of more ammo or less ammo. Counterculture should not try to become accepted into mainstream -- it only happens when the counterculture dies. And it should not be in a hurry to die.
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
It could be optional... like "willing to moderate"
Somehow, I doubt that the PS2 controllers will be as easy to clean as a keyboard is :P
Colin Winters
I've been around a while myself, but not as long. What I miss is the relevance of the main stories when I started reasding. It used to baffle me- I thought I was a unique bird, but I learned that someone had me pegged, since I found nearly every story posted to /. then interesting and relevant to me.
/. began to become associated with an identity, a lifestyle, an outlook. I think this has filtered into the culture of the editors, the story selectors. The site has evolved from simply those things which fascinated a group of run-of-the-mill geeks with the creativity to put it up on a web page to the "voice of the geek community".
/. I know it's not coming back (just like Usenet), and I guess I'll have to find my a substitute somewhere else. Sigh. Why must all good things come to an end?
Unfortunately, that era has past. I don't think I've changed, but whatever fleeting phenomena lead to such a high story "hit rate" for me personally has slipped away, at about the same rate that the intelligence of the dialogue has sunken.
Although the site's appeal was an enigma to me at the beginning, I've got my suspicions about the decline, and I blame it on Jon Katz. Not for the usual reasons- his stuff doesn't annoy me like it does others. What happened with the "hellmouth" was that
What is posted now may still be those things that fascinate Rob & co, but they have been changed by the position they hold: wealthy creators of a financially valuable media property with a voice that reaches 100's of 1000's of people. Their experience has gone far beyond that of the average geek, and it's reflected in their stories.
I miss the old
The cardinal problem with term limits is that they are likely to increase the corporate influence, especially in a world where campaign spending is reformed.
Think about it, a lage part of the problem with the current system is that advisors and elected officials will serve in government, retire to the public sector on staff at some huge company and then eventually return to office. Even if they never returned to office the problem would exist. Vote this way for such and such legislation and x years down the road serve in a cushy position on the board of directors for some large wealthy corporation.
Personally, I think anyone that wants to serve as an elected public official ought to disqualified. And add a 'none of the above' option along with legislation that if 'none of the above' wins the election, an individual is selected at random from the pool of registered voters to serve.
have a day,
-l
have a day,
-l
Sony Releases the PS2, people rush to the stores to drop dead at the outlandish price tag. Nintendo cleans up by selling their cube at a reasonable price.
(I checked at Sony store yesterday. PS2 is $575CDN. That's crazy.)
I'm not sure I grep your use of the word 'lurk', but hey... If I'm providing you with a modicum of entertainment as part of this freakshow, then all the better.
If you want an explanation, check my recent comments.
I have heard from two seperate electronics stores that Sony is short on DVD parts for the PSX2. The consensus seems to be that the lens is most scarce. Sony's production levels of component DVD players is down to effectively zero, leading a degree of credibility to this theory, since supposedly the scarce parts are all being put into PSX2s, and none into stand alone DVD players.
Bloody hell, you just described what Heinlein described as a problem in Starship Troopers. No, I'm not advocating the transmigration of our society to that outlined in his novel, but I think several reforms are in order (this will be Americentric, as I have no fucking clue as how the other systems work).
First, eliminate the ability of non-individuals to contribute monetarily to campaigns. When corporations and lobbyist groups contribute, we then essentially have built an opportunity for a particular, wealthy, segment of the population to contribute twice for the same fucking person.
Second, impose term limits on the legislative branch. Then, we may see lusers there voting their conscience rather than voting their reelection funding.
Finally, make a judicial review of laws not passed by a certain (i.e. two-thirds) majority of the Congress, or have been "signed" into law via the "do-nothing" method of the President mandatory. That way, in theory, anything "questionable" should get a review for the constitutionality. Assuming again, of course, that the Judges are clued and that they're voting their conscience.
Of course, I just pulled this out of my ass in much less time than it took Heinlein to write his dissertation, or for the current system to develop, or even some reformists to think up of strategies, so YMMV greatly.
--
First, some definitions:
<rant> <-- indicates a beginning of my rants.
</rant> <-- similarly, indicates the end of my rants.
YMMV == "Your Mileage May Vary"
Having gotten through that:
I agree wholeheartedly with what you've just written, actually. Perhaps the lobbying groups need to be accredited? Give them a very firm spending limit on what they can contribute to the politicians' campaigns, and have them be audited every year, that kinda stuff (yes, auditing will become expensive--not a perfect solution, I know).
Having said that, your view on apathy and corruption, I think, is right-on. Perhaps we need to institute something similar to what the Russian election process uses, and require that the politicians being elected be elected by the majority of their consitituents, not the majority of votes. This may/may not cut down on some of the apathy, and with the voting turnouts being so low, it does make for an interesting reform.
Also, I know that this may be a Bad Idea, but what about making not voting a crime or something akin to a traffic violation? Yeah, it'll put some stresses on our beleagured court systems, so this needs to be throughly investigated, and possibly thrown out as a solution.
Lockean philosophy on government states that if the government is unjust, then it is the peoples' duty to overthrow the government. Well, currently, it is unjust, and our Constitution has placed methods for changing the government (i.e. voting!), so quit-cher-whining, and get out there, vote if you can, and use that Right to Assembly!
--
...of the upcoming PS/2 Crisis...
I am very concerned about the upcoming PS/2 crisis. What if the next computer I buy only has USB ports? That means I can't use my favorite mouse! I'll have to buy an adapter or soemthing! Nooo!
[/facetiousness]
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
- SONY releases the PSX2 soon. It sucks. Nintendo releases their cube and it kicks booty. Game over.
- SONY releases the PSX2 later. It sucks, but there's the new-fangled-ness of it (assuming it's out after Nintendo's) that causes it to garner significant sales.
- SONY releases the PSX2 soon. It is awesome. Nintendo releases their cube, and the fact that it's the "latest and greatest" (whether or not it really is) causes it to sell, perhaps close to the PSX2's sales.
- SONY delays the PSX2, and when it finally gets here, it r0x0rs! People will forget about Nintendo's cube and gobble up the PSX2.
So it is obviously to Sony's advantage to delay the PSX2, at least until after Nintendo's release. This way they'll be the latest and the greatest and the thing to have.And about the DVD drive thing, I doubt it...I just purchased a DVD drive for my brand new desktop system, and my father got one in his laptop about a month ago.
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
I don't think you can call this crowd 'geeks' anymore. And yes, they are the most opinionated, narrow minded whiny children anywhere.
Slashdot has become a popularity contest. I read it, but I'm tired of not being able to check it every 1/2 hour, because I work. And if I don't check it that often, and I might have some insight that I think would be of use, if it doesn't make it in the first 150 - 200 posts, it won't get read. So why bother?
Sad to see Sig go, but I can relate. I don't always agree, but I've never mod'd on that basis. Hope to see you on # or K5 soon.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
What do you mean by this? I'm fascinated. Isn't our generation more intelligent (or, at least, better educated) than any generation before us? What do you count as a "significant advance" and why do you say we can't make them any more?
.88 magnum -- it goes through schools.
--
It's a
--
It's a
-- Danny Vermin
But when you can only watch karma go down, that gives the impression that you are no longer actually doing anything useful. (Plus it's possible to actually lose karma on a score 4 post!) It takes away the measure of how well you've been contributing.
(To lose karma on a score 4 post, get modded up to 5, then modded down. The +3/4 (depending on the starting score) will be dropped, but that last -1 will strike you!)
Keep in mind that without the karma cap, I tried to actually be meaningful because I could get feedback via moderation. Now the only feedback I get is from watching each post and reading and responding to replies. This is more work, and it means that in order to guage how well I'm doing on Slashdot, I have to go through my user history list and check on all my comments: not fun.
Besides, all karma really does is turn Slashdot into a game. In some Geeks in Space episode, CmdrTaco (I think) was talking about the (then) new experience point/level system in Everything2, and how it turned it basically into a game. Same thing with karma. Cap the max score, and then it becomes pointless to try and be useful. The bottom line is the karma cap has at best pissed a lot of the karma whores off. It has at worst turned some people into trolls .
So yeah, whenever I have something useful to say, I'll say it, but I won't try and be as nice. If you look through my recent comments, I'm starting to become more of a troll simply due to boredom. (And, probably, due to the fact I really don't have anything to say.)
I really don't think the karma gap has done anything useful. What Rob should really do is consider how to make moderating actually worth while for a moderator. The novelty wares off quickly. Honestly, it really isn't worth the hour it would take me to be a Good Moderator. So maybe that's why moderators seem to suck - they really don't have the time to go over every little thing and figure out how best to moderate. That's how things like the DAEHTIHS protocol get moderated up as "insightful" until someone suggests reading DAEHTIHS backwards.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Think about it this way: What insentive do I have to post meaningful posts? Both in the responses I get, but also in the moderation. If what I say is good, I'll get moderated up. If it's meaningless, down. (Well, not really. Signal 11 did a good job proving that moderation didn't work.)
However, now, I'm at 50 karma. Every once and a while, it'll go down, but sooner or later, I'll hit the cap anymore. Theres no incentive for me to attempt to post anything meaningful anymore. I'm stuck at 50. In fact, I've actually tried to troll a few times just to take a karma hit so that I could watch it go up again! It's just not worth it to attempt to be meaningful, because there's really no reward.
On this topic, there's also no reward for moderating. In fact, there's a penalty! So moderators, thanks to M2, have to remain "goodthinkful," and can't moderate correctly. M2 was probably one of the biggest assets to Siggy's karma whoring.
Maybe Kuro5hin can come up with a working moderation system, complete with karma. The system on Slashdot is broken. The karma barrier made it worse.
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
http://www.explusalpha.com
So, this is a "the website of idiots", the people who reply to you are either "stupid" or "full of preconceptions", but yet you view Slashdot as some sort of vital experiment in democratic communication. On top of that you hold Signal 11, an admitted manipulator, up as "voice of reason". Ok...
Sounds more like you are arguing for a system of rule by the elite and the articulate over any form of participative form of governance, which is exactly what karma whoring, trolling, meta-trolling, and pompous posturing is in this little game of "world domination", and none of which will matter when the AOL Barbarians really come throught the gate here. (If they haven't already. It's hard to manipulate a bunch of ACs calling each other niggers.)
That would be OK if you were halfway elite and articulate yourself. Instead, your posting history seems to be a series of high noise/low signal outbursts of smugness and arrogance at best, and blubbering pseudotrolling at the worst ("X Sucks - It needs to be in the Kernel" indeed, at least the "philosophically flawed 19th century spirit of scientific determinism" has a nice ring to it). You don't seem to be accomplishing anything except letting your movtivation show through your posts (it feels good when an AC tells you to fuck off, doesn't it?), so enjoy your slashdot power wank, and don't let it really go to your head like Signal 11 did.
Anyway, I'm biting at your post only because I've reading Signal 11's posts for three years now, and despite all the redigested shit he's posted and his self-righteous crucified-for-karma attitude (which he is dead serious about BTW), I generally think he's an intelligent guy who for a while mastered the game theory of this place, but fell flat on his ass when the rules changed. The experiment abandoned him, he didn't abandon the experiment. If you want to troll by play Sig11's trollee, that's fine, the suit of a self-righteous 'slashbot' fits you well. Only problem, I'm not so sure if it fits slashdot well anymore. Good luck in the karma games.
When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
I found I was using our Linux box at home the way I play guitar: I've memorized a bunch of chords and can transpose a bit, but I don't know music theory. Similarly I can get around the computer and do what I want, but should in no way be trusted with root.
So what the hell does that have to do with Signal 11? /. doesn't teach me how to use Linux effectively, but it does help teach me what I don't know and where to learn it. It does what I wanted a forum like this to do. I liked the lively minds and learned quickly how to filter the noise. (It takes more work here than flipping a 10 kHz setting on my electrophysiology rig, because not all posts of interest to me are >=2.) Eventually it dawned on me that there were people who seemed to live in a Slashdot universe. There were people whose self-worth seemed related to their karma points. Clearly, there were people who needed a life.
This doesn't bother me. As a phenomenon it interests me because I'm an armchair internet anthropologist. The admissions of Signal 11, Enoch Root, et al that they purposefully Karma whore with inflammatory posts reminds me (in substance, though not style) of sociological experiments I've carried out on other lists. My armchair studies show me that /. seems to have followed the usual pattern laid out in a "life cycle of mailing lists" I saw long ago. Most of you have seen it, the description of the cycle from not enough posters, to good informative posts, to lots of noise and the old timers complaining that we've had discussion X before, to (sometimes) the eventual dissolution of the list. What do you know? You can change the interface style, but the human pattern stays the same.
I have a karma of 1 (woo-hoo!). I have posted fewer than a dozen times. I have a life. I will continue to check in with /. on a regular basis. I laugh, I cry, I learn a lot about myself.
I think a -1 bonus to posts would be a great thing. A lot of times I'll reply to someone in an offtopic thread, and know that noone other than who I'm replying to will wish to see it, or that what I'm posting may be relevent, yet not worthy of archiving. I'm not talking about a -1 o the karma however, just an option, like my +1 bonus, to be seen at a lower threshold only.
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
-Jaron Lanier
At least the digitaldiva! story. Here is another case just like etoy vs. etoys, where two parties are doing an entirely different thing, and one of them can't stand it and sues over trademark.
Of course it was an evil frivolous lawsuit back when a "performance art" group was being threatened but if it's someone in the employ of the evil empire I guess it's a different story, regardless of how usefulupset that Stacy doesn't present herself as a know-it all and that's what this really is all about.
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
-Jaron Lanier
The best method is just to leave. Permanently. Forget your password.
But members of a comparably stupid generation. No matter how bright we are, our culture has reached the point (ala Foundation's Empire) where we can't make any significant advances anymore.
Y'know, it didn't use to be like that. Before Linux became the Breakfast of Trolls, there were actually a lot of people who were in it because they were interested in technology in general, not because they're zealots. I'm interested in technology in general. I have six operating systems on my primary computer, and I'm not zealous about any one. Most of the time, I'm in Be. Other times, I'm in Linux. I even use NT and like it.
To be honest, this whole "Open Source" movement has degraded in the exact same way that Slashdot has. That might be why I'm in Be mostly these days. It's dying. Have you watched what's been going on recently as compared to the past couple of years before that? Mozilla has stagnated. Projects that were once hotbeds of development have slowed to an arctic freeze (enlightenment, anyone? efm is nice, but what happened to the earlier rapid development? And why has sawfish development died, or GNOME?)
Where am I? I forgot where this was going to go. Anyway, that's my take on it.
Just look at most of the PlayStation games. There's an alarming number of them which feature scantily clad, toothpick-thin women with guns and nonesuch. There are even total Japanese 2D games which have gameplay similar to this. Personally, I think that Sony has one foot in the porn business already. Hell, they're already at least 50% responsible for building the video devices used to capture it on tape, so they're more than accountable for its promotion: they're responsible for its fruition.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Isn't it fun typing in those HTML tags now? It livens up otherwise dull text.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
I've even upgraded it with a 2 gig drive, keyboard, mouse and 10baseT ethernet. Runs Debian Linux just swell.
If you buy today, I'll throw in a second PS/2!
That's right! Two PS/2's for the price of one!
I'm only asking $300, which is more than fair seeing as how you'll be getting my PS/2 a month before Sony releases their PS/2.
--
Yes, imagine how great it would be to be able to moderate George Bush and Pat Buchanan down as (-1, Flamebait).
- Joe
-Joe
At one time there was there was once a righteous sense of "we're changing the world" here and "we DO know what the fuck we are talking about". Slashdot was interesting because of this. But like all good things that's been so sufficiently buried by capitalism and schmaltz and a tide of intentional and unintentional garbage, it inevitably become a parody of itself. Half the time I don't know who's trolling, who's whoring, and who's just an moron. Karma, hidden sids, and that tempting "Post Anonymously" box are just all part of the bacchanalia in the decline of the slashdot/linux-jihad empire. Entertaining. but perhaps the party is winding down.
Anyway, you nailed it full on. Wish I could have said it as well as you.
(And Siggy, sorry to see you go. Effugus and the original Enoch Root passed with out a peep, somehow I don't think it will be same with you. At least let us know your maximum karma if you really are gone. Or would that destroy the legend?)
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Good reply. Take the +1 Bonus out of Petty Karma and the rest of the day off - you've earned it. ;)
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Why is it that no major news carrier can make a report about pornography without villifying the adult product industry with words like "smut merchants"? Last time I checked the stereotype of a journalist was a person who pushes the boundaries of social bias and values free speech above all.
"The level of interactivity enhances fantasy, so you can customize it to fit your fantasy," he said. "It's incredibly destructive.... What you have is an effort by the industry to turn sexual exploitation into a game."
That cracked me up. Can you imagine an anti-porn advocate standing in the middle of a shopping center shouting stuff like this with a megaphone? (probably whilst waving a bible with the other hand). These people need to grow up and understand that people like porn and their childhood snickering only leads to discredit them.
How we know is more important than what we know.
You're right, Slashdot isn't dying. Rather, it's the people who have changed and moved on, and then looked back and found that Slashdot wasn't the same for them anymore. Let me explain:
I started reading Slashdot several years back, when I was still in college. I posted fairly regularly, tried to get moderated up. The issues on Slashdot seemed vivid and important.
In the words of Kafka:
"I was still quite a puppy, everything pleased me, everything was my concern. I believed that great things were going on around me of which I was the leader and to which I must lend my voice, things which must be wretchedly thrown aside if I did not run for them and wag my tail for them."
I left college, moved on in life. Life is hard and fraught with difficulties. Suddenly, whether Windows was better than Linux, or whether KDE was better than Gnome didn't seem that important after all. The discussions on Slashdot? Silly and inane.
Signal 11 and other long time regular Slashdot posters are probably experiencing the same jadedness. Slashdot isn't dying, but there comes a time when people move on.
:wq
If you took the time to read and understand my post you'll find no allusions to "slashdotting politics" - instead, I'm talking about the fact that the same problems are inherent in any group debating system, whether that system be the government or Slashdot.
If we're going to move to a more parcipitative form of governance, we're going to need to solve group debating issues on a much larger scale than just the few hundred people who debate laws today. My point is simply that if we can't solve these problems in an imaginary scenario such as Slashdot, how can we solve them in a real scenario like the government.
If holding that view makes me part of the "wide-eyed groupthink" majority then so be it, but believe me, this is not because I am following the herd. These are my own opinions. I didn't just read them out of a Wired issue.
If you think Signal 11's experiments give you insight into the herd mentality then please share these insights, so we may all be enriched by them. It might help solve the very real problems that we face as a civilisation. That's why I responded to Signal 11's message. It seems a shame that someone with such insight would abandon such an experiment.
Unfortunately, it seems, you're more interested in acting smug and arrogant than in actually solving anything. In fact, your attitude is worse than that - you seem to want to make the problem itself a taboo subject. Well, that's a somewhat Victorian attitude and I think that even the Slashdot herd, who you despise, are at least embodying the spirit of the current age, rather than the 19th century spirit of scientific determinism, which every college student knows is philosophically flawed and just plain inaccurate.
Incidentally, unless you know Signal 11 personally, why are you calling him Siggy? Is his first name even Signal? And why are you using ELTAs when you don't know the meaning of the word "troll"? Now, I don't want to accuse you of acting up to the herd, but when you're pretending to be on first name terms with someone "famous" and using abbreviations without knowing their meaning, it might look to an outsider as if you're playing herd power games, trying to boost your own herd acceptance by using power symbols.
But, hey, you're the sociologist, so I'm sure you're well aware of what game you're playing here.
.88 magnum -- it goes through schools.
--
It's a
--
It's a
-- Danny Vermin
(Personally I think this needs far more coverage than just a slashback, guys)
Apache has started that Voodoo Extreme (the link probably won't work :P) would return in full force in the coming days. They had already started to move before the plug was pulled. The VE staff are taking a few days vacation before they go back with their new host, who though unmentioned is receiving high praises.
By all accounts it sounds like GameFan was collapsing rapidly and it's amazing they lasted as long as they did. Something shady was going on with advertising revenue. Many people have stated that since moving to new hosts they've gotten almost 50% more click-through/hit revenue than what Gamefan was showing them.
What concerns me is that this is not going to be the last network to fall by any means. UGO and IGN BOTH sound like they're in for a very tough year, and to me this is going really raise questions about the profitability of internet-only content. Wired, CNN, WSJ, NYT, and hell even /., are all able to stay very much alive because of real world counterparts in other media (or just plain ol' big bucks hoping to diversify). Do the online portions, despite the large readership, actually provide profit at all? Would you pay for Blue's? sCary's?
Someone is going to have to come up with a better answer for online-only content distribution, and this year is going to prove it.
- Spiff
Ah, but you said it yourself, "reasonable person". These people are fighting a crusade against pornography in spite of there not being any hard (ha ha) evidence whatsoever that it actually causes any harm. In fact, way back in 1969 the Nixon Administration (okay, not the most august name to be throwing around) championed a study which ended up decided that pornography has no effect whatsoever on increasing or decreasing the likelihood of sex crime. (I did a report on this back in seventh grade or so.)
Consider the following quote from the article on Fox News:
This is paranoia, plain and simple; Besides which, there are already interactive pornographic video games. For example, Virtual Valerie (One through... Three?) and the even older applications for the Mac Plus and such which featured the same sorts of things; You penetrate a virtual "woman" with virtual "sex toys" and make her make noises. Big deal. This is supposed to be realistic?
These games should not be sold to children. As the article reads, "Non-PlayStation porn DVDs already offer multiple camera angles, story lines and zoom buttons." My DVD player actually has a nice zoom feature (up to 4x, at which point they look like the average graphics in the computer porn games - impossibly pixellated. It's like watching skinimax through the haze of analog protection... I see a cock! I definitely see a cock!) You can pan the zoom area around, and everything.
I have nearly every console videogame system with interchangable games. I need to get a Vectrex, atari's 5200 and 7800 (or was that 5800 and 7200? I always forget) and a Dreamcast, and then a PS2 when it comes out, and then about the only thing I won't have is an Odyssey I. I'm not really collecting the handhelds, though I do have a virtual boy and a couple game boy systems. I also have a few porn titles, including one DVD which I intend to play on my upcoming Playstation 2, just to sneer at Sony.
I'm also 23 years old. I'm sure telling you this violates some sort of intelligence standard, just one more piece of data to drop into the bucket - But I digress. I like videogames, and I like porn. Why shouldn't I be able to buy porn videogames? Mind you, I'm not likely to until they make some that don't suck ass - Er, wait, that didn't come out right.
And finally; These companies should sell a Dragon's Lair/Space Ace/etc-style game on DVD first. It's arguably a videogame, you could easily have the actors' wabbly bits flash (ala Space Ace, except that didn't show any genitalia) when you're supposed to hit a button, and it would be playable on any DVD player with a good menu speed -- Like my Apex AD600A, or the Playstation 2. That paves the way for above-board porn games. The only trick now is whether or not Sony will sell them a development system and license. Personally, I want to see how accurately an Emotion Engine, coupled with Sony's spiffy GPU, can handle the physics of a cumshot.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
digitaldiva.com still redirects to someplace on Microsoft's site, and I would say the URL is definitely a source of possible confusion. Who cares if Microsoft's person keeps calling themselves a "diva" or not (okay, we all care, but still)? As long as MICROS~1 has the domain, they will still be getting tons of hits from it.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
The future of Slashdot seems intricately bound up to the future of politics
You know, this is the exact attitude that Signal 11 was exploiting during his karma whore experiment. Wide-eyed folks like you who were always promoting "Slashdotting politics the way we Slashdot webservers" were/are easily exploited in a groupthink/popularity manipulation contest that Siggy played so well.
I'm not trying to be rude, but unless you yourself are playing that game right now, YHBT.
When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
Looks like he's already found a new home.
Browser? I barely know her!
from the article;
One studio executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that new ideas on copy protection for that analog interface are under discussion among PC, consumer electronics and movie makers. Companies such as Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita Sony and Toshiba -- all with a big stake in the issue -- have been working to find a solution, the executive said. He indicated that an answer might emerge in the next few weeks. (bold mine)
So this is what Sony VP Hecler meant when he said;
We will develop technology that transcends the individual user. We will firewall Napster at source -- we will block it at your cable company, we will block it at your phone company, we will block it at your [Internet-service provider]. We will firewall it at your PC.
So why do I get this 'gut feeling' that we are going to have to buy infallible copy protection for the studios with our future PC purchase???. Does that mean that I can't modify said future hardware purchase without being in violation of the DMCA even if it was for a "legit" purpose??
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I've written a short explanation of all this in my user information page (above).
So long, Slashdot, and thanks for all the fish.
--
We read about this, didn't we kids?
/. go downhill ever since. Why? Simple - the human need for acceptance. This, faithful Slashdot Readers, Friends, Moderators, Karma Whores and Trolls, is the itch that /. scratches.
"1. Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer's personal itch." Far fetched? Hear me out.
Slashdot, Vanguard (according to Katz, anyway) of the Geek Culture, is a victim of it's own success. I started here not long after Linux hit the mainstream, just as I got curious about the "new OS in town". Seemed like a nice spot. I think a search engine link brought me here. My first post was some drivel about how Linux zealots were being hipocrytes - they wanted users, but only the smart ones, and that wasn't how to complete the "World Domination" they craved. My little diatribe seemed well recieved, and caused a good discussion to happen - so I created my account and have stuck around. (Actually, IIRC, my response was to a someone slagging Kats when he was trying to install Linux on his laptop - and Taco helped him with it. Ironic, eh?) It seems I've watched
The one thing that always strikes one full in the face about the "geek culture" is that it's real currency is Intellect, and the display thereof. CmdrTaco, in his infinite wisdom, put a real, monetary value to the intellegence displayed by we people who post - Karma points - instead of measuring them by the quality of the thread created. Now, intead of soliciting replies in order to get lively debate, discussion and possibly New Clues, we solicit Karma. Karma, so we don't look like idiots to our peers. Or, if we figure that we don't rate, and haven't got the chance to, we troll or pop in as an AC - to hopefully deflect some of the moderators away from putting other people's "Inellect" ahead of our own. Signal 11 is right - it's now a contest to see who can win the title of "Most Intellegent Geek", not "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters" - we all seem to want scratch our itch to be viewed as "Intelligent" to our peers.
No Slashdot account with a cool nic? You're just not in the game anymore, man. Don't run Linux? Further damage to your credibility. Only 3 Karma points? HAHAHHAH, you're either a moron or a Micr$oft shill, dude!
Personally, it's getting to the point that I don't give a flying fuck about my Karma anymore. +1 Bonus? Who cares. It'll just be drowned out in the rush to be first with some sort of incredibly pendantic navel gazing that we've all heard before. "Preaching to the Chior" indeed.
At least I don't have to sort through C/Net, ZDNet,Kiro5hin or the BBC to get to the importatnt stuff anymore - just the repeat stories here. VA - you've been HAD.
"Thank you for your post. That'll be 5.95 in Karma, buddy"
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
So, the only purpose of posting meaningful stuff on Slashdot is getting a higher karma? Is Slashdot some kind of huge interactive video game to everyone else?
I try to contribute when I have something meaningful to say. Usually that results in me getting moderated up and increasing my karma. So the system works, right?
Maybe Rob should introduce a "-1 per post" option where you can optionally loose one karma point per post. Would that increase the "challenge"?
Greg
Now, if you left Slashdot, it'd be, like, a part of Slashdot dying off... That being said, I understand; I'm pretty much fed up of it too, and trolling has provided temporary haven from boredom only. It's also a testimony to the fact that whatever effort you make for months on to have a clean rep on Slashdot, a few choice trolls will ruin that, and will provide the incentive for a few morons to publicly wish your death in graphic details.
To tell you the truth, the so-called 'geek' community, as it is showcased on Slashdot, comes across as one of the most close-minded, hypocritical bunch whose sole interest is looking out for their own narrow-minded view of their dysfunctional world. I don't blame you for wanting out of that.
What I don't like is tight-assed zealots. Nowadays, I'm busy creating and inventing new and cool ways to promote/use WAP and broadband. I'm past my coding years, but I still managed to stay fairly open-minded, creative, and capable of hearing somebody out and changing my opinion.
Perhaps it's the sheer popularity of Linux. Perhaps the old-timers are still around and lurking.
But it's a sad testimony on the state of affairs when the most intelligent and open-minded discussions are found on the trolling forums, and the most playful and innovative people on Slashdot are the trolls themselves.
Like someone else pointed out, trolls didn't break moderation. They merely took advantage of it when it was demonstrated the system was screwed up.
<rant>
From the parent post to the one I'm replying to: "Mozilla is dead".
What I don't like is tight-assed zealots.
Perhaps the old-timers are still around and lurking
We old-timers would call many of the current cap of zealots Linux-weenies, after the similar UNIX-weenies of the bygone era. It's sad, really, when the spirit of the old-school UNIX hackers died at the same time as the popularisation of Linux, many of us left the geek scene.
I made a comment the other day to a coworker, when asked what I thought of Linux as an OS. I replied, "It sucks less than most of them out there" (note: this was being asked by a guy with at least an MS in CS, with a solid grounding in OS theory, and has read about 40-50% of the Linux source, and analised its strengths and weaknesses as a solution. How many of us have actually done so lately?). Yeah, it's more stable than Win9x, but that's like saying my car's faster than a tricycle. Compared even to NT, Linux suddenly seems less stellar.
What I really get annoyed by is the Linux-weenies (who tend to cluster around the ages of ~14-20) who get some half-baked idea in their heads, and try to ram it down everybody elses' throats. Yeah, some of them are downright brilliant (both ideas and the youngun's), but the sheer arrogance of these people sickens me. It kind of reminds me of the MacOS zealotry of the early 90's, actually, when Mac started to die.
Is Linux dying? Yes. Linux as we knew it in 1993-1995 is dead. Try ramming something like the a.out -> ELF format change down the Linux zealots' throats now. Actually, I would love to see this. It's time to grow up, people. Open is great, but Open isn't the only way to play.
Mozilla-as-Netscape, btw, is dead in many peoples' eyes. It died when Netscape released NS 4.5. It continued to rot as NS, and AOL-NS, released 4.6 and the nauseatingly large patch levels 4.7. Meanwhile, "Public Beta"'s come out every six months, look ugly as sin, and is still not 100% standards-compliant (the best one still out there, imo, is IE 5.0 for the Macintosh). Lovely. This just gives the corporate suits more ammo to not play by the counterculture rules. Sorry, kids, but they/we (I now work for a large multinational as a member of the management now...yeah, I used to be a geek) write the rules. It's time to wake and grow up.
</rant>
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It's my belief that my big balls should be held every night.
I don't see how any reasonable person could possibly be upset about this. Afterall, do you see anyone attacking VCRs or DVD players because they can be used to show pornography? What's the big deal about the fact that the PS2 could be used for pornography? I'm sure that any such blatantly pornographic materials will be regulated just the same as any other pornographic materials. I'll leave the debate of whether this is good or not for another time, but my point in this post is the simple fact that I don't see what makes this case in any way unique.
I am not an idiot. Please use my name to email me.
"That's right, I'm quoting myself."
-Upsilon
As a karma whore turned troll, let me chime in.
Why is Slashdot a circus of karma whores and trolls at the moment? Slashdot moderation is failing because of exactly the Delphi effect that Signal 11 tries to promote: the more you spread the ability to vote, the more rating the comment becomes a popularity contest.
Trolls know this well, and so do karma whores, to an extent: it's a simple matter of politics. Democracy was cracked by power-hungry lobbyists pretty much the same way Slashdot was cracked by the trolls. If you want enlightened comments and worthwhile discussions, then placing the debate in the hands of the silent majority is just going to create a mess.
Take Big Brother as an example: are you surprised the pretty face with the missing leg won? This shows you how pathetic it was to let the whole Internet vote. If you compare with Survivor, where the people involved in the action did the voting, there's a modicum of sense that arises. The winner was not the prettiest or the most popular, but the one who worked the hardest and made the most sense.
In Slashdot terms, the problem comes from the fact that those who moderate are necessarely uninvolved in the debate at hand. This allows trolls and karma whores to manipulate the popular opinion, while ACs sink karma faster than an omniscient Battleship player.
What you want is closer to peer review that you find in scientific papers. You want moderators who know what the hell is going on, and have proved they are unbiased.
Democracy works when everyone votes. But it doesn't work insofar as empowering everyone with the ability to run the show. Slashdot needs to realize that if they ever hope to run a decent discussion site.
I'd like to see either Signal 11 or myself get moderated up in a story we don't know shit about, when the moderators are authorities on the subject.
And by the way, if you moderated this down because of the goatsex link, you're probably part of the problem I just described.
I'm glad to see Gamefan die. If Lowtax @ Something Awful is telling the truth, they screwed him out of thousands of $$$ in banner ad revenue. Its nice to see a big corporate sleaze hole get screwed in return.
Jeff K. Rluez!!!
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---- I made the Kessel Run in under 11 parsecs.
When Vivid Entertainment was asked to comment on the current situation, the CEO had this to say:
"I am outraged that consumers are even THINKING that we are targeting children. Every CD bought comes with a EULA that requires them to return the merchandise if they are not at least 21 years old."
When asked why Vivid Entertainment Group gives 5 packs of Pokemon Trading Cards with each purchase, he had no comment.