Slashdot Mirror
Still More RIAA News
We just did an article about the RIAA's mendacity with statistics, and here come some more: first, someone has gone to the trouble to deconstruct their income figures over the past few years, showing that the RIAA's lack of investment in new releases is in itself sufficient to explain any dropping sales, and second, this website concerning the music industry settling a price-fixing lawsuit, which I believe is this one, filed two years ago.
...article submission that got shot down, only to be posted 24+ hours later..
I'm beginning to think maybe I should be promoted to an editor. Stories like this would get posted a LOT faster, duplicates would decrease, etc.
Hell, I even put it as my sig after it was rejected.
*Sigh*
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
Well, as most of you already know Slashdot is again, having major "issues". These have been increasingly frequent since the colo move a month or so ago and requests for information are ignored. Indeed, posts such as this one are summarily moderated into oblivion the moment they are posted.
Why does the Slashdot crew avoid this subject at all costs? Surely they see that people DO want to know about it and discuss it. As a very popular technical news site, surely they realize that such outages are news worthy.
So, come on CmdrTaco, or who ever is at the console, for the next story, how about reporting on Slashdot's own issues.
This story wasn't on the front page.... where's slashdot?
Could try brak.slashdot.org....
What, but I thought that Slashcode is GPLd?
Yes, this is true, however that is not what I am talking about. As an aside, it is worth mentioning that when having GPLd Slashcode, Taco is determined to get as much out of it as possible; rather than simply making the code available for all to use and modify for their own gains, Taco uses this solely to get free labour. Anyone who has submitted a valid bug report and received the Taco Response(tm) of "Well code up a patch and we'll include, else fuck off." will know what I mean here.
Well then, what do you mean?
As you may be aware, Slashdot recently included a set of fields that you can fill in with your instant messaging details.
Sounds neat - people can contact me in realtime! I still don't see the GNU tie-in...
Yes, doesn't it? However look again at the list:
- AOL IM
- ICQ UIN
- Yahoo! ID
- Jabber
See anything missing? Hint: it's a very popular messaging system. That's right, MSN Messenger is missing! For some people, such as me, this makes the feature entirely useless as I only use MSNIM. All my friends use MSNIM, so why should I install another client just to receive messages from Slashdot users?Sounds like an oversight to me. The OSS doesn't ban oversights.
Oh, to be young and naive. Such a bug report was submitted by Super Trooper, a diligent Slashdot reader. The text of the bug and Taco's response are included:
Yup, not a bug. This means one obvious thing - it was deliberate.
Cut to the chase. So Taco is a Microsoft hating fuckwit who probably phoned up the few friends he has to boast about how his omission of MSNIM will singlehandedly bring down Micro$$$oft. Will you please tell me how this means Taco goes against the spirit of the OSS movement?
OK, you win. For those of you who have looked at the definition of open source software will be interested to look at clause 5: The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
Now, this is one of the single most sensible, rational parts of the open source and free software philosophies. Were this clause not there, it would be a slippery slope to begin by excluding oppressive regimes, then maybe unethical companies, then maybe companies who make lots of money already...
Hmm. I see what you're getting at.
Yes, exactly. The point is, the overarching principles of free software sensibly include everyone. This makes perfect sense, and guarantees true freedom of software. By deliberately and arguably even actively not supporting MSNIM, Taco has demonstrated that he cares more about childish ya-boo-sucks posturing than he does about the freedom of software; the freedom of choice. I have no choice; Taco has effectively said that I must use a different messaging system if I want to use this software's feature. Taco has removed my freedom of choice.
I think it is fair to say that RMS, despite his hatred of proprietary protocols, would find this abhorrent; one of the biggest sites in support of open source / free software is deliberately restricting the freedom of its users.
Well what can we do about it?
Sadly, nothing. Taco is a stubborn little child. He will get pleasure every day 'knowing' that his actions have caused serious damage to a multinational multi-billion dollar turnover company.
Thank's for taking the moral high ground, Mr Malda.
I like how you post supporting "comments" yourself. Very amusing. I think your ego likes you just as much as you like yourself.
Pot
Kettle
Black
An editor doesn't have to worry about losing mod points. That was his point. Douchebag.
For perspective... a 50-lb bag of organic, hard, winter red wheat (Red Chief brand) will run you about $11 (more, of course, if you need it shipped to you). That's maybe 4 boxes of Wheaties?
My family has a hand-crank grain mill. So that 50-lb bag will give my family of four 4-to-6 months of bread, tortillas, pasta, cereal (nothing liked craked wheat and honey on a cold December morning!), cream of wheat, pancakes, etc (anything you make primarily with flour). Note, we haven't found a way to make flake cereals yet, so no Wheaties for us yet.
Think of the retail prices on all of those products (sold usually in roughly 1-to-2 lb portions). Now think how much cheaper the bulk, wholesale price of wheat goes for (anyone know the commodity price of a bushel of wheat these days?). Scary to think how much money is being made, all for the sake of a little convenience.
Of course the wheat thing doesn't apply to music production, but we consumers always pay an obscene mark-up.
Method of processing duck feet