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Groklaw Putting Comes v. Microsoft Docs Online
An anonymous reader writes "PJ of Groklaw is working on putting the documents from Comes v. Microsoft online, to make them searchable and accessible to everyone. If you don't remember their history, the plaintiffs got these documents from Microsoft during discovery after fighting the lawyers tooth and nail. After realizing how embarrassing the documents were to Microsoft, they put them online and later got a very large settlement from Microsoft by agreeing to take their website down. The web being what it is, these documents had already been mirrored and were later (legally) made available on the Pirate Bay. Now Groklaw has put them online and is looking for people to help transcribe them, so that documents like the infamous Evangelism is War presentation will not be forgotten."
Dear Friends,
Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. In an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer 6 remains the most widely used browser, Microsoft is running an Shill beta test.
For the first favorable posting you make to Slashdot, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every second posting, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third posting, you will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.
I'm sorry - are you being ironic or taking the piss?
You're joking, right?
If I didn't read your Slashdot User# I would think you were new to Slashdot
In the technical sense, I can think of several reasons for it that are all plausible explanations. None of them speak favorably of that moderator. Since there are multiple possible explanations, I can accurately say I don't know which was the motivation. That's not the same thing as being unable to understand how such things happen. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because people assume that anything they don't like must be trolling or an instance of flamebait, but that's just a guess. I don't claim to know the mind of that moderator and people don't always have rational reasons for their behavior that are so easy to explain.
So, I brought it up without trying to explain it. The point of that was to write from the perspective that understands why it's silly and absurd. It would not occur to that perspective that he was trolling. I think that's what the moderation system could use a little more of.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
It would also cost money, so you don't really need a conspiracy. That is why there was the "ebonics" scandal under Reagan (not enough money to teach english so it was pretended that some sort of pidgin was good enough) and that is why the US education all the way to the undergraduate level has slipped behind most of the rest of the world.
You got your low tax states y'all so now you've got an education level to match it. There's still the high achievers from Texas but they'll get as rare as high achievers from Nigeria. I've met people from both places that look like they are on the road to a Nobel prize, but because both places don't fund education well the average students are handicapped when dealing with modern society.