Slashdot Mirror
World's Most Annoying IE Toolbar
nautical9 writes "Following the same devious footsteps of the infamous Bonzi Buddy, Gator, and Comet Cursor "enhancements", Xupiter now has their own self-installing toolbar for IE. There are many claims that if you leave your security preferences at their default level, it will install itself without your express permission. And once on your system, it's gracious enough to reset your homepage to xupiter.com, forward all your searches to their search engine, download and automatically launch applications (like gambling applets), and blocks all attempts to set these back to normal. Removing it isn't trivial either - it automatically checks for updates upon reboot, where it constantly changes the registry settings it uses, making the jobs of spyware removal programs like AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy much harder. No word yet if it collects and forwards personal data."
I got another story submitted. I'm really surprised I got this one, since I'm sure the stupid Lunix fanboys submitted this 500 times. Of course, the discussion that followed was purely anti-Microsoft, even though there are a billion LUnix systems out there that are vulnerable to other exploits, and can be just as big a pain to patch. Fucking hypocrites.
I'm improving in my ability to karma whore, as you can see. As I type this, I've got "Positive" karma, and I ping-pong pretty freely between Positive, Bad and Neutral. Not bad. Hell, I've even posted a blatant anti-michael post logged in and not been any worse for wear.
With positive karma, I'm metamodding several times a day now, pretty much marking everything as "unfair" (unless it's a troll, who's karma whoring and has been modded up. Then I either stay neutral or metamod "Fair" or "Funny"). $20 says I spend more time meta-moderating than most -- and I'm doing it for the sole purpose of getting the signal/noise ratio as low as possible. I wish my other accounts were able to metamod.
On to the subject of this little Journal: Predators improve the breed. It's occurred to me that my work, and the work of the many trolls (most of which are far more competent than I) might actually make Slashdot better if Taco were to begin listening to them. He's mentioned in his journal that he's heard all the grousing about moderation, which means grousing is not going unheard.
Don't get me wrong -- CmdrTaco is still an idiot, totally out of his league running a site like this. But the fact that he puts oil on the squeaky wheels means he has ears and can be annoyed. Unfortunatly the "oil" is an even more fucked-up moderation system, hamfistedly added to allow editors to put the "squeaky wheels" (trolls) into more-and-more-soundproof rooms instead of solving the problem. You know why divorces happen? Because the people in the relationship don't address their problems. Instead they push them aside and try their hardest to ignore them until they can't any longer, spending more energy ignoring them than they do dealing with them.
Why not just meet the issues head-on?
1) Ditch the irrational, unprofessional condescending LUnix fanboyism from the editors. As FortKnox says, "Lunix isn't always the answer. Microsoft isn't always the problem."
2) Before publishing articles, have the common sense to spellcheck and fact-check them. Is it a dupe? If you want to preserve the stupidity of the submitter, just put some "[sic]" marks in the article.
3) Don't pull a michael and add unnecessary snide remarks. It's unprofessional.
4) If you won't do #1, #2 and #3, please drop any pretense of being objective or even rational. It's insulting.
5) For fuck's sake, stop pretending you're not censoring. Stop insulting your readers' intelligence and just admit that the mod system is there so editors can ensure Slashdot reflects THEIR opinions, not those of the readers. Then you can do what you really want to do: delete comments and users that you don't like.
6) The only redeeming quality of michael is that he seems to post fewer (if any) duplicate articles. Fire him. If that's not enough, please fire him because he's the only editor with the sense to check for dupes, which probably makes the other editors jealous. Does he have rich parents or something? Is he paying Slashdot to keep him occupied so he can research his petty conspiracy lunacy?
7) I'm fully capable of reading Wired, The Register, CNN and The New York Times all by myself, and I won't get Slashdot's editorial bias or mind-numbingly stupid interpretations by Slashdot editors and article submitters. Sooner or later, even the stupidest of your drooling LUnix fanboys will realize this and leave. How about stopping Slashdot from becoming the unofficial comment board for these sites?
See, Taco, that's what a lot of the grousing seems to be about. If you were to truly embrace your Liberal sensibilities, you'd see that your Predators -- your trolls -- are trying to improve their Prey -- Slashdot. It's Darwinian, you stupid twat, but you're too dense to see it.
YHBT. HAND.
EDIT:
Hahhahahaha. CmdrTaco is predictable as drool from a retard. I posted the text of this journal entry in a CmdrTaco story, and I've been bitchslapped AGAIN! Here's some cut&paste HTML from my messages:
See how the first moderation of my thread post occurred less than a minute after I posted it? Then all those other mods occurred at the same time.
I've been bitchslapped again! Taco REALLY doesn't like it when you criticise. Such a fragile ego!
Your buddy,
MondoMor
P.s. It's a shame you've chosen to censor me as now I've had to resort to using one of the billion free proxies out there. Tsk, tsk.
Read the fucken article. And you would have stopped yourself from making an ass of your lack of intelligence.
when i eat my own dick, i swallow. Other times I spit. It depends ont he saltiness and the redness of my hard cock
What? You can't read GIF or JPEG files? Loser.
I won't take the time to include the links, but the term "GNU/Linux" strictly speaking means only the Kernel. Some interpret it to mean the Kernel plus any GPL software. In any case, I used the term "GNU/Linux Kernel" because I wanted to include the "GNU/" while still referring specifically to the kernel.
Amazing magic tricks
Forward, retransmit, or republish anything I say here. Just don't misquote me.