Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Brilliance, Delay, Simputer
It's all fun and games until you end up in Bankruptcy. Born Game writes: "Loki was supposed to be declared dead today by the bankruptcy trustee. Dennis Powell has followed their story closely, and he has written a wrapup that will break your heart and make you mad."
I hope he's making it longer than Cryptonomicon. We reported that Neal Stephenson's new book Quicksilver was due last month. An anonymous reader pointed to this page at Amazon UK, writing "the book is due out March 6th next year, not this year. Meh."
Maybe calling it Brilliant wasn't such a bright idea. asv108 writes: "According to this article from MP3 Newswire, Cnet's Download.com has removed KaZaA media desktop due to concerns over Brilliant Digital Entertainment's hidden software."
It's still available elsewhere though; if you or someone you love wants to use such software regardless, TDScott writes: "In case anyone is having trouble convincing their friends that there's a problem with the b3d spyware installed with KaZaA, I've put together a quick summary page on what the problem is and how to remove it (use AdAware with caution) - pointing people to it might save you hours of explanation."
I hope these are available stateside, too. Pankaj writes "Simputer is All set to hit the market in India. The Open Source Computer (Both Hardware/Software) Has found its first makers in Encore Solutions who will start selling it within the next one month. {sources internal}. This will give the iPaq and Palms a run for their money, as the simputer is loaded with features like internal modem, smartcard reader and usb port. There are plans to add a gsm phone into it too -- watch out, Nokia! And one third the price; it's supposed to be 10,000 Indian Rupees. Thats around $210 try comparing it to the ipaq.
Did you ask what it is based on? It's Linux 2.4, man, with gtk and its developer kit it's as free as the hardware itself. This looks like hot stuff to go for.
bollocks.
I like pot.
Right now, the /.'s competitor news site Kuro5Hin is down.
Bin Laden safe, planning new terror attack: says Islamic group
Tues Apr 9 2002 18:00:52 ET
CAIRO, April 9 (Kyodo) _ Osama bin Laden is alive and well and planning a new terror attack, according to an extremist Islamic group likely linked to the terrorist network al-Qaida, the Arabic newspaper Al Hayat said Tuesday according to ANSA news agency.
Al Hayat said it received a letter dated March 26 and making such claims from the group calling itself Qai'dat al-Jihad on Monday.
The letter, addressed ''to our Islamic state and to the heroic Palestinian people'' said ''God has given permission to resume activities.''
''Al-Qaida's leader has gone abroad safely. Bin Laden is safe and well. He is preparing to work with his brothers,'' the letter was quoted by the paper as saying.
Al Hayat, based in Lebanon and printed in London, has been circulated in throughout the Middle East region.
END
While trolling takes on many forms, many of them merely being nuisances (crapflooding, goat links, page widening, etc) you'll find the vast majority of trolling occurring in posts similar to posts such as your original. On Slashdot, well-thought out and reasoned posts have become indistinguishable from trolls. This is made all the more obvious by the dimness of the moderators who would mod you down -1 in a heartbeat if not for the length of your post (as if that were the measure of an argument).
I too am a troll, much along the lines as you (though perhaps you don't realize yourself as such yet). I used to post, IMO, well argued posts and was consistently modded down by the Slashdot groupthink moderators. This is not to say that I didn't eventually hit the karma cap, but that along the way it was painfully obvious that my pro-Windows, anti-GPL opinion was not tolerated here.
Upon the realization of that I had my epiphany that pearls are not to be given to swine (this seems to be the same satori experience you are having now). Pigs deserve slop, and now that is all they get from me.
In any case, I'm not one of the nuisance trolls as I listed above, but one of the provocative trolls such as yourself (please do not take offense, this is not an insult as it may first appear). The Slashdot feeding frenzy that follows any post that attempts to support Microsoft or attack Linux or posit Creationism is a wondrous thing to watch, much like a thunderstorm or a supernova. The one difference is that you, the troll, have total control over the experience, much like a god who views his masterpiece from another dimension.
This is not to say that Slashdot is void of intellectual content. On the contrary, you'll find quite a bit of interesting information in the Science and Developer sections. You will find *no* intellectual content in the YRO section.
It's a travesty that a good idea like Slashdot, allowing users to create their own content, has succumbed to the mindless pursuit of mental masturbation of FSF zealots.
So while this may be the end of your Slashdot infancy, I think you will find your maturation into a Slashdot provocateur quite fulfilling and fun. Isn't that why you joined the technology revolution in the first place?
That Loki guy's norwegian ....
I submitted the story about the Simputer on August 21 of last year! How about some belated karma points? :)
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
6. You're at a party and you get a machine to peg everyone in the head with bricks, with a note wrapped around them saying, "I'M FANTASTIC IN BED!!!". - That's spamming
Why the hell do these people persist in pissing in the public square that is slashdot?
I mean, it's fair to say "Isreal is acting like a bunch of assholes" in regards to the Palestinian issue (because it's true), but just to come out and say, basically, "all Jews are bad" is just stupid.
Go fuck yourself, pal.
I don't mind the size of the ad, or that its in the middle of everything. I do find the fact that its on top of the text and preventing me from reading it quite annoying though.
I love Kimmy!
sigh
please mod down parent
*ahem* SLASHBACK
-ie the subject in which followups are ginen to OLD storys.
Heroes of M&M's? Like the Red guy and the Blue guy?
Terribly sorry, I just couldn't resist.
Not that this wasn't entirely predictable.
The real news is that Monolinux is reporting that Mozilla 1.0RC1 is close at hand, with the branching of the 1.0 branch!