Slashdot Mirror
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've written a short explanation of all this in my user information page (above).
So long, Slashdot, and thanks for all the fish.
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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.