Slashdot Mirror
Australia Gets 8Mbit/s Broadband now, 20Mbit Soon
danwarne writes "Whirlpool is reporting the 'bad old days' of slow, expensive broadband in Australia might be over, with the large ISP iiNet unveiling broadband internet up to 8Mbit/s, from $29/mth. It has been installing its own DSLAMs into the exchanges of Australia's incumbent telco, Telstra, which limits internet access speeds to a maximum of 1.5MBit/s. iiNet boss Michael Malone says as soon as the ADSL2+ standard is approved for use in Australia (which should be in a month or two), he intends to switch the DSLAMs over to offering 20Mbit/s speeds. It looks like Telstra and Optus, the two incumbent telcos in Australia might have their duopoly on high speed broadband (10Mbit/s cable internet) challenged, with potentially great ramifications for price competition in Australia. The only downside noted by Whirlpool readers is that iiNet is forcing customers to take their long distance phone service as well to get access to the 8Mbit/s speeds, a move which is ironically reminiscent of the tactics used by Telstra and Optus."
Free Teekid! Equeal rights!
Probably a troll, but just in case anyone else was paying attention:
Australia seems to have weather very similar to North America, but better. I'm moving to Melbourne in a few days (holycrapholycrapholycrap) and according to the weather websites I read, their summers peak around 27C and winters drop to 7C. I doubt this takes humidity and windchill into effect.
Anyone is welcome to correct me on this, but please provide a link.
Look at the lack of moderation in this story so far. Getting close to an hour in the story and hardly a modding at all. Just a smattering of points.
I think Michael was secretly modding all the comments in every story, modding up the tinfoilers and nutters in an effort to try and spread his transparent propaganda to the thousands of readers of every story. Simple bots scripted to find and mod up simple patterns were employed using the mod's backdoor to editing stories and comments.
And he was a twat.
I think Slashdot must have been bought by Rupert Murdoch or Grover Norquist or somebody like that.
It's more likely that he took the mod-point distribution system with him.
I'm just thankful he's gone; good riddance
I hope CmdrTaco or someone makes an official announcement, 'till then, you never know if he's coming back...
yeah. under another name. But we'll recognize him for posting shit anyway.
test... do not reply
If Michael indeed had a hand in at least partly co-opting the moderation system, who knew about it? I'd love to see the results of a Slashdot free of Michael.
It's a pitty that it's not Michael Malone the iiNET CEO is got the sack.
He's the Edward Kennedy of the Slashdot editors. Waayyyy too far left even for the general /. populace.
Thanks, I'm glad that you enjoyed it.
Hey .. Michael was good .. what the fuck is yalls problems???
.. quit being fucking assholes living off other people's hardships. Do you guys have it so rotten that the only way for you to enjoy something is for someone else to be in pain?
I hope he wasnt fired. Jeeze
People hated him because /. has a very large contingent of immature young kids who love to jump on the groupthink bandwagon, and a very large group of gun-loving Red-Blooded 'Merkans who love their Country.
Basically, even though Michael was pretty much politically normal for the rest of the world, he was too socialist for the Americans to stomach - even the Left in America is far right of most of the world...
Here's what some AC wrote about michael a while ago. Note that this comment was originally going up as "Insightful". Hmmmm?
Give me a break. That comment that was supposedly "the last straw" was a perfectly acceptable comment to make.
:)
You might be confused so let me help you out a little. Slashdot is an Open Source-oriented geek site. That means the majority of readers share his opinions, and it certainly was not out of line to write it - that was pretty mild compared to some of the comments by others such as Cmdr Taco.
Secondly, he is/was an EDITOR. That means he gets to EDITORIALISE stories as well as choose them. Please look up the job description of editor for various forms of media, and learn a little.
Lastly, if you're the sort of person that gets his panties in a bunch from a perfectly acceptable story submission from Michael as above, or creams himself over the pathetic little "accounts" that you presented, you should probably put down your keyboard and get outside into the real world. Really - there's more to life.
(Yes, I realise I may HBT. I will HAND. Thanks very much
Michael Sims Fired, Joins GNAA to Troll Slashdot Full Time
FREMONT, CA (TECHNEWS) - After a heated debate at Slashdot executive offices, editor Michael Sims was locked out of the building and departed in a tirade of lisping insults, vowing revenge immediately. This morning, industry sources revealed that Sims has joined the infamous trolling organization Gay Nigger Association of America with the intent of trolling Slashdot fulltime.
In a short phone interview with Technews, Sims asserted that he was calm but resolved on his course of action. "The Slashdot editors and I had a disagreement," he explained. "I did it all for the users, but they..." he drew the syllable out painfully, resting on a case full of Little League trophies and certificates of participation from transgendered dating services, "They just couldn't take my truth. They were -- babies, just babies, oh, the horror, the abomination," he said, before being led away by three white-clad male nurses.
According to Harvard Psychology Professor Arnold Rothstahlberg, "trolling" is an internet phenomenon where dissenting users disrupt a site by flooding it with absurd or paradoxical information. "It satisfies the primal id," he said, chewing on a large, bulbous, phallic black cigar. "To justify themselves by forcing their enemies into hysterics. It's a compensatory mechanism much like getting back at the kids who beat you up in high school by installing Linux and using it to pingflood their XP boxes and Macs."
Slashdot editor CmdrTaco was reticent to comment. At an interview conducted in the crap-filled Ann Arbor bungalow he shares with his wife, to whom he proposed over Slashdot, he said, "Well, you know, Slashdot is just a web site. Michael should calm down about this. But if he doesn't, our corporate sponsors will sue him until he's giving $4 blowjobs on Haight Street."
From the GNAA corporate headquarters, a mysterious floating island off the coast of Newfoundland that few reporters have seen and even fewer have returned from with their sexual identities intact, GNAA "Head Programmer" timecop said he was glad to have Sims on hand. "From what I've seen of his postings on Slashdot," said timecop, "he's a total fag. Which is convenient as all our halfops need anal, and I can't handle the drama. That's what's worst about the net: the drama."
Sims has been involved in previous internet firefights, most notably the controversy over the censorware.org website in 2001. While Sims alleges that the site was his creation that was sabotaged by others, his coworkers disagree. Bennett Haselton, security consultant for the "Anarchy Anal" and "Chaos Cumshot" websites, said of Sims, "We set up this website, and left him the password. We have a disagreement, bam, the website goes down and someone raped my two-week-old Labrador puppy with an iPod."
Slashdot Editor CowboyNeal, who was entangled in a whale net after attempting to swim the English channel, spoke fondly of his former coworker. "Michael always brought a certain passion to the work, a passion that was easily ignited and led to many sweaty sessions in the corporate washroom," he said. "I'm not at all surprised he joined an organization of gay niggers. He always like something different and unique in his pasta salads."
Programmer Seth Finkelstein alleges that Sims is "totally unstable" and agreed readily to this interview. "Of course, I'm a disinterested observer," he said. "But anytime I see that closet psychopath and monkey nut-muncher stealing the spotlight from hardworking programmers like myself, I have to speak up, for the benefit of the people, of course," he said. Technews reporters were permitted to leave the premises only after making a PayPal donation to Finkelstein.
Mike Godwin of the EFF, who balances a career as privacy advocate with his hobby of making videos of teen swingers blowing goats, agreed. "I've never met another editor like Michael," he sai
even the Left in America is far right of most of the world...
Hi, I'm Earth, have we met?
People hated him because /. has a very large contingent of immature young kids who love to jump on the groupthink bandwagon, and a very large group of gun-loving Red-Blooded 'Merkans who love their Country.
Basically, even though Michael was pretty much politically normal for the rest of the world, he was too socialist for the Americans to stomach - even the Left in America is far right of most of the world...
I'm not trying to quote you, I'm doing my michael impersonation and duping your post.
People hated him because /. has a very large contingent of immature young kids who love to jump on the groupthink bandwagon, and a very large group of gun-loving Red-Blooded 'Merkans who love their Country.
/. and posting dupes everywhere, and making fringe leftie comments. Slashdotters are getting flustered.
Basically, even though Michael was pretty much politically normal for the rest of the world, he was too socialist for the Americans to stomach - even the Left in America is far right of most of the world...
I'm not trying to quote you, I'm doing my michael impersonation and duping your post.
Michael's ghost is apparently still haunting
This needs to be rated "Funny" as well for the unnoticed Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference.
Maturity will come when it's good and ready.
Maybe he's the one that retroactively modded down all of my previous posts after I had one post modded flamebait.
The Truth About Slashdot
... he's back on the mod list. wonder what he did to get back on, now that there's been ample evidence provided as to why he'd been sacked.
was when he was called out for lying by another editor.
Seriously...how could they keep someone that asinine unethical around this long?
It did warm my heart after Katz vanished after the whole "Junis in Afghanistan" thing though - that was fricking brilliant. It's sad that he had to screw up that badly to get canned though.
Hey, mister, your bigotry is showing.. might wanna tuck it back in.
Could somebody please mod this up? While the fact that Speakeasy are advertisers for the site make it worse, the fact that he did it at all is a *huge* lapse of professionalism, even for Slashdot.
All his other failings aside, if this is the reason he got canned, good riddance. Talk about complete abuse of your position.
I know.. even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to slashdot subculture. Truly an American icon.
Does this mean I'll be un-blacklisted from moderating now?
I've been posting here almost every weekday for three or four years. My karma has been consistently "Excellent". My "Willing to Moderate" box is checked, and I Meta-Moderate every time the chance is offered to me.
And yet, I haven't been given any mod points to spend in at least a year, probably more. The odds are against this being mere coincidence.
The best part about this troll is the idea that, upon hearing the news of michael's tragic demise, Cmdr Taco's first priority is to bring the Slashdot Editors page up-to-date.
Try logging in less than you do already and less often. You just need to place yourself more in the middle of the bell curve of active accounts i.e. try logging in only on weekends for a couple months and see how that works out.