Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Simpsons, Buyouts, Droid
Shooting down those trial balloons. Glitch Tybalt writes with an update to the report that German ISP T-Online might acquire AOL: "This just in from The Register: apparently the buyout wasn't really going to be a buyout, only 70%, and there haven't been any confirmed reports on this. One spokesman for T-Online said '[Such a deal] is more unlikely than likely,'"
On a similar note, gletham writes "A flurry of reports [like this one] over the past day indicated that Nokia was talking with Psion and was seeking to buy the company. This latest piece from Reuters confirms that the topic was merely a rumor and speculation gone rampant. Mind you, with Psion's stock jumping 10% and discussion on Nokia lists and forums quite brisk, you can't help but speculate that Nokia may in fact consider this in the future. The timing is very good, particularly considering Motorola's recent selloff of Symbian ownership. I can't wait to here an official report from Nokia on this one! If all works out, we may even witness a rebirth of the Psion handheld using Series 90!"
Hey, maybe they just hadn't thought of it yet ... wo1verin3 writes "Previously reported was that Fox News Considered Suing Fox's 'The Simpsons' for using a news ticker spoofing the news service. Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued.
'Nonetheless, "The Simpsons" (the show, not the characters) issued an apology yesterday: "Matt was being satirical and certainly there was never any issue between the show and Fox News. We regret any confusion.'"
At this rate, it'll be #1 by March! An anonymous reader writes "According to the latest round of leaked information to reach The Register, the Virginia Tech Big Mac has reached 10.28 teraflops. A solid #3 win, 'This places it behind the 5,120 processor Earth Simulator system - 35.9 teraflops - and the 8,160 processor ASCI Q system - 13.8 teraflops.'"
Hold tight, though: Elysdir points to a AP article, pointing out that "the Top 500 list will be officially announced Nov. 18, so it's not clear to me whether the #3 ranking is official or not."
A Droid You Can Build From Downloadable Plans. In this article, LinuxDevices checks out OAP, an open source droid. OAP shares the same VIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the VIA-Roboteq "PC-bot" featured in an earlier Slashdot story, but OAP's project goals seem a little more ambitious. According to the FAQ, OAP will eventually be able to 'Read your favourite news web pages or blogs aloud to you.' A personal droid that reads Slashdot aloud to you -- what more could you ask for?"
(A girlfriend?)
Uh, excuse me but ALL these stories have been posted before. (I would look up the links but I'm too lazy). Slashdot editors have hit a new all-time low with this one... and you guys are actually paying for this stuff?? Please.
If you can't handle people poking a little fun at you, you're in the wrong business!
If you're in the public view, you're going to have people that want to poke fun at you. if a show as insanely popular as the Simpsons is making fun of you, I'd say it's a good thing.
Pretty Pictures!
Now I can have the worlds most powerful "Hello World" ever!
Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!
Previously reported was that Fox News Considered Suing Fox's 'The Simpsons' for using a news ticker spoofing the news service. Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued.
I live in the UK, and until I started watching The Simpsons, I had never even heard of Fox. Advertisers would pay good money for this sort of publicity.
Sueing them? Only in America!
All I Want For Christmas Is My Constitutional Rights
I agree but does it help anyone?
Fortress of Insanity
Blogzine
OAP shares the same VIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the VIA-Roboteq "PC-bot" featured in an earlier Slashdot story
/. story required a $500 motor controller. Forget that. Just give me the text to speech components and any important access components (i.e. web parsers, etc) and I forgo the motors. I can actually carry the computer from place to place and let it read me the stories wherever. Or mount the computer on an rc car and drive it around.
But the robot in that
Specific project goals include:[of the robot, from the sourceforge page]
Design a coherent set of modular components (hardware and software) that conform to standards (where possible)
Minimize cost to $1,500 - $2,000, about the cost of a good PC
Develop a low-cost real-time vision system for use as the primary spatial sensor.
Thousand dollars for a robot? No thanks.
Just persuade RealDoll to build a model with an enclosure for a controller, and it can be your robotic project and your girlfriend!
I like The registers take on that...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Karma dogma, mama, tata!!!!
Don't sue, don't threaten, don't make yourself an international farce by responding in a knee-jerk litigous manner.
Perhaps you could even learn from something (it is hard to satire a logical and reasonable issue)...
Q.
Insert Signature Here
I think he was talking about you (us), not the guy doing the project. Anyway, my wife would be pissed if I got a girlfriend.
"Previously reported was that Fox News Considered Suing Fox's 'The Simpsons' for using a news ticker spoofing the news service. Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued.
'Nonetheless, "The Simpsons" (the show, not the characters) issued an apology yesterday: "Matt was being satirical and certainly there was never any issue between the show and Fox News. We regret any confusion.'"
Does anyone really believe that?
I live in a giant bucket.
Wow, talk about hitting a nerve. No question about it, you need a girlfriend.
In Britain + Ireland, anyway, OAP means Old Age Pensioner. Not the image you want to associate with your robot?
Wow, imagine a fat cow like your wife putting the smackdown on you! You better go gay, man... dealing with AIDS is a lot better than waking up every morning and feeling like you've just been rolled over by a steamroller.
(a girlfriend?)
RTFA. this crack was appended as a response to "what more could you ask for?"
study english.
you too, can see that this comment was not addressed to the OAP author(s).
This is like one of those newspaper stories that procliams COMMANDER TACO A MURDERER! on the front page in 48 point type, and then three days later there's a little correction in a box at the bottom of the last column on A-42 that reads "the story about Commander Taco being a murderer on the front page of Tuesdays Daily Slasher was in error. Another man named Commander Taco was convicted of penguin murder in American Samoa in 1969. The Slasher regrets the error."
Or, to bring the point home more closely to the topic at hand, it's like when Homer got slimmed for Sexual Harassment by a TV tabloid, when all he really did was peel the gummy Venus DeMillo off his companion's ass, then when the station issued an apology, they ran it as one of hundreds flashing by on the screen at the end of the program.
I guess Slashdot just isn't willing to admit that their dislike of Fox News lead them to post a false story, and now prevents them from posting a correction anywhere "above the virtual fold" for casual viewers to see without having to click the link...
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
So Fox didn't threaten to sue itself, but is the new rule against fake news crawls real, or was it part of the joke as well?
Lasers Controlled Games!
HAHA - Rupert "Nelson" Murdoch
Homer:
[reading screen] "To Start Press Any Key". Where's the ANY key? I see Esk ["ESC"], Catarl ["CTRL"], and Pig-Up ["PGUP"]. There doesn't seem to be any ANY key. Woo! All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a TAB. [presses TAB key] Awp...no time for that now, the computer's starting.
Blatanly stolen from Simpsons episode 3f05.
Oh, and until then you gotta be really nice to them...or they'll beat you up [they have to lift more than you weigh just to roll over] ...but /.er are already conditioned for that anyway...ha.
70% ownership would be a controlling interest, effectively a buyout.
By being so ridiculous, satire is impossible.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
If they had problems with the simpsons parody imagine the fit they would have over this show
Just wait for the robots that are both!
What? Don't you think that us geeks are capable of using science to solve our problems?
My only question it is patented already, although you have to wonder if the patent examiner who gets the patent for "Device and method for sex robot capable of (insert most of kama sutra here)" will be able to stop giggling long enough to rubber stamp it...
I guess Slashdot just isn't willing to admit that their dislike of Fox News lead them to post a false story, and now prevents them from posting a correction anywhere "above the virtual fold" for casual viewers to see without having to click the link...
Yeah, that's it Mulder. SlashDot and its partners the Freemasons are out to destroy the One True Source of information, namely Fox News.
Alternately, this could just be old news. Remember how there was a correction (another article) on the front page of SlashDot (yes, the front page) one day after the original article? Remember? One day later? Front page?
Nobody's out to get anyone here. It's just that the extended details of the cleanup are less interesting than the original leak.
mitch
This is like one of those newspaper stories that procliams COMMANDER TACO A MURDERER! on the front page in 48 point type, and then three days later there's a little correction in a box at the bottom of the last column on A-42 that reads "the story about Commander Taco being a murderer on the front page of Tuesdays Daily Slasher was in error. Another man named Commander Taco was convicted of penguin murder in American Samoa in 1969. The Slasher regrets the error."
You know, I think a more appropriate comparison would be from the Simpsons:
Homer and Marge are asleep in their darkened bedroom when Lisa opens the door and pulls in Bart, who is laying still on a red wagon.
Lisa: "Mom! Dad! Bart's dead!"
Parents scream. Then Bart sits up.
Bart: "That's right -- dead serious about going to 'Itchy & Scratchy Land.'"
Karma whoring AC, y0!
Give the OAP a '70s bowl haircut, spray it silver and call it Twiggy
*beedeebeedeebeedee* Hey, Buck, I'm open source!
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
...when I picture applications for a personal droid, having it read /. to me is not the first one that springs to mind.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
....reads Slashdot aloud to you -- what more could you ask for?
A girlfriend?
Hahahahaha!
ha ha ha...
[cries]
in the related links section?
Apparently this was only satire and an apology has been issued
Stating the amazingly obvious there about it being satire. What's more likely to have happened:
The bastards at FAUX News have absolutely no sense of humor and wanted somebody from the Simpsons to be fired over this issue. Because disrupting the show would in the long term cost them more money than they make from it (finding a replacement writer or a new helmsman to direct the show, etc), they had the show issue an apology and banned them from making fun of their own news network ever again.
Don't you just love the bland corporate conformity that is seeping into all areas of everything? Satirical programs are no longer allowed to do what they do best for fear of offending their corporate masters.
They should have said "bite my shiny metal ass" and made fun of FAUX more often.
FoxNews must have a giant bug up its butt if it's willing to sue the people that saved it's own sister network over something that (if possible) is even more obviously satire than Al Franken's book title. I guess when you have the name "Fox" attached to the title of your company, you have to fight to the death for every litte bit of credibility you can get your hands on.
Of course I get all my news from A Bare and Balanced News Source.
>I guess Slashdot just isn't willing to admit that their dislike of Fox News lead them to post a false story
Led to post a false story? Every media outlet was reporting the same thing. Nice conspiracy theory you've got there, but fark, metafilter, googlenews, etc were running the same story. The truly say part is after Fox's REAL intimidation lawsuit against Al Franken no one thought Fox suing the Simpsons was at all suspicious.
Normally, Groening's joke would have been as a understood as one, but Fox's well-earned reputation as childish bullies diluted the satirical joke itself. Scary.
Considering Fox's reputation is in the garbage can anyway, complaints regarding 'over the fold' are silly and if people can't be bothered to click on the Read More link then they deserve to wallow in ignorance. It isn't Taco's job to make a flash presentation and embed it on the front page becaus e a news channel you like was subjecedt to a prank.
why? she's got a boyfriend..
I'd vote republican, but they haven't fufilled their campaign promise of starting a forced breeding program!
You should check out Akbar & Jeff's *DIPLOMACY HUT*!
Red Hat Linux 9 was installed using mostly default installation options (you can download the ISO images for this GNU/Linux distribution free of charge from redhat.com). The exceptions to the default installation choices are listed here:
* Custom (as opposed to Personal Desktop) installation type.
* Automatic Partitioning.
* System Clock uses UTC.
* No Firewall.
All your robot are belong to me, baby. Oh, I'm sorry, you didn't want to be woken up at 2am to learn about the new FDA approved, no prescription needed Viagara alternative?
So sorry. Won't happen again. At least not for another hour...
-Adam
Given that this is /., I'd think that the answer would be obvious:
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
Where is Oreilly in that lot.
He is, after all, a gay locker pin-up boy.
The costs have to be kept low to free up capital for the forthcoming case mod .
I haven't seen one of these in ages, but from memory I remember them using an 8088 processor.
I think it would be a neat project to retrofit this old robot with a modern ITX mobo. Has anyone actually tried it?
Just persuade RealDoll to build a model with an enclosure for a controller
I don't know about you, but I don't want my make-believe girlfriend to have a joystick.
Hey, you can help him study as you go for your 'proper use of commas' test.
Anti-abortion people must think we're really fucking stupid.
-- what more could you ask for?" (A girlfriend?) ;)
Nah, governments would ban it straight away as it would negatively influence a population growth
braindumps.info - well, braindumps in
Yeah. It should have read, "A girlfriend...who reads Slashdot aloud to you." Because even those of us who actively deal with the fairer sex can agree, when she's softly trilling the copy to the latest SCO fiasco, we're in Geek Heaven.
Especially if she's in a chainmail brasierre. Mmmm.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
7. I, for one, welcome our new linux robot slashdot reading overlords
Is this another one of those posts that attempts to prove the point that moderators like the old, stale jokes by putting them all together?
I know I've seen a few posts before, all of whom soon have replies from the author that it was an experiment to show that "mods are fools" or something like that.
I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
Matt was being satirical and certainly there was never any issue between the show and Fox News.
Yeah, but it's funny, cuz it's true.
--------
Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
I wish I lived in a free country just now.
Don't worry, you still have the right to own a firearm. I mean, that's freedom enough, right? Thank goodness.
"RMS and FSF are seeking power, not freedom."
-Steve Dimse
That from a guy who can't even spell the name of his alma mater. Either that, or he was suckered into getting a degree from a copy-cat diploma mill in malibu.
Hmmmmm
utter rubbish
HAHAHAHA! It's a boy!
"what more could you ask for?"
(a girlfriend?)
ha, take this.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Sure, as soon as Fox News retracts at least 1% of the lies they put forth.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The reason we run Slashback is to collect corrections and updates, for instance the one here about M. Groenig / Simpsons / Fox News.
If a story is still on the front page, we try to get a correction in there as an update. For stories that have rolled off the front page, though, more people will see the correction here than there, simply because readership for particular stories drops off a very steep cliff once they're in the Older Stories list instead of right there on the homepage.
I don't watch Fox News enough to particularly like or dislike it, though I will admit to liking the Simpsons. It's nearly as good as Futurama.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
the Virginia Tech Big Mac has reached 10.28 teraflops
This is a bit like Formula 1 - great PR for the company. Except Ferrari and the rest pay for their supercars.
Might this not be FOX News' problem for issuing news that might be confused with a satyrical cartoon? Maybe FOX News' content is about as believeable as "Study: 92 per cent of Democrats are gay... JFK posthumously joins Republican Party... Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple... Do Democrats Cause Cancer?" (from the Yahoo! article). Well, if they are anything like CNN, that sounds about right.
All data is speech. All speech is Free.
I'll need to see your girlfriend in a chainmail brasserie to decide. Please send her with a return envelope to my address.
Thanks.
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news.
People THAT confused should stay away from "The Simpsons" in the first place. It might change the way they see their american south.
You've got metal fever boy!
Do you really think that Bugs Bunny's company (CNN parent Time Warner) could buy out Mickey Mouse's company (ABC parent Disney) or vice versa? Not within the next Life Plus 70.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Faux News is the foe of the left.
Will I retire or break 10K?
> I think it has less to do with the right-ward
> slant and more to do with it being more
> entertaining to watch.
Perhaps that's why more people get their news from The Daily Show than the Fox News network. At least they make the line between news and fiction clear, and they're certainly the most entertaining. Anyone who sees it as just a comedy show probably doesn't understand South Park either. Oh sure, Savage is funny for about 15 minutes, but then an overwhelming sense of "AAAARRRGGH!" kicks in.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20030505
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
If Fox News thinks people can't tell the difference between a cartoon and their news broadcast then either they think that their audience is incredibly stupid or they realize that Fox News is no different than a cartoon.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Fox News' concern was that the channel is also called "Fox" and that seeing a news ticker like that of "Fox News" running at the bottom would make people believe there was a real connection.
The normal Fox channel HAS run Fox News' news ticker in the past, particularly during the 9/11 attacks and also during the war with Iraq. So that was the reason behind the issue.
I think if Groening had just run it by Fox News first, there wouldn't have been a problem.
"Sufferin' succotash."
it has a link to pr0n!
If Fox really DID want to sue for things like this, there would be plenty of evidence to be brought to the stand:
Simpsons swipes at Fox
I wouldn't try to get out of jury duty for that case.
how in the world is parent offtopic? he comments on fox and the simpsons. this is exactly ontopic.
i sell illegal drugs
I, for one, well come our new beowulf cluster of natalie portman petrified droids covered in hot grits Overlords. And as an anonymous coward, would like to remind them I could be usefull for reading slashdot out loud to them in soviet russia.
apparently they do make them with joysticks if you change your mind :).
Word.
And your use of and correct spelling of "syphilictic" is an inspriation to us all.
(ok, maybe my tone *was* a little flame-baitish but one wonders if the moderators had read the book before forming their opinion of my opinion... 8-)
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press