Slashdot Mirror
Rob Malda (CmdrTaco) Joins the Washington Post
kodiaktau writes "Slashdot founder and long time cat herder Rob Malda joins the Washington Post per an announcement today. According to the press release, he will be the Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large working for WaPo Labs."
Rob has a more detailed description of the job on his blog: "Don Graham is trying to accomplish something that is a bit of a cliche these days: A startup inside an established corporation. A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale. ... They are actively iterating and experimenting in many directions, with strong support from the top of the organization. ... Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli assures me that I'll also be working with the newsroom where I can contribute words, ideas, and tools that will improve the experience of the journalists doing work that I personally believe transcends the bottom line."
Mr. Taco, we understand that you know a lot about this Twitter/Internet/Facebooks stuff. We would like to be hip with that vibe. You'll be in charge of helping our geriatric writing staff learn to do the twitters. You'll also be in charge of producing press releases with lots of hip jargon for the kids. But mostly you'll be in charge of bailing water out of the lower decks. It's starting to get pretty deep down there.
If you think you can handle that, please report to your new office and write up some press release about how you're going to change the face of the tired old Washington Post into something the kids will want to read--something with a cool new name like "WoPo" with a bunch of exclamation points after it, maybe some asterisks in there too--you be the judge on that. And more importantly, try to get the kids to give us their money and twits too. "Twits," that's what they're called right? Use a lot of that net jargon we're told you're down with. Then fax it over to Wired. We want to get this out before they run the presses.
Oh, and hire my grandson. He's lazy as dirt, but he knows a bunch of strange words and phrases that I think will help us still appear relevant.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Didn't he rather famously pan the iPod?
I was going to make a quip about how he'd be in charge of dupe-checking and ensuring all WaPo blog blurbs are high quality and accurate, but more seriously, this sounds like a cool job, so congrats!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
We realize that you have been involved with 'journalism' on the interwebs for quite some time, and understand it better than us old rich farts. Consequently we would like to pay you to help us figure out how to co-opt it into our greedy corporate hands.
I don't know if any of the above is true but it sounded funny.
Silence is a state of mime.
Best of luck!
Julie Moult is an idiot.
What's a newspaper?
I came to the page expecting to see "First Washington Post" in the comments, and was disappointed.
-2B
Step 2 == "Infiltrate Washington Post"
[-- Trust the Monkey --]
I don't know if Cmdrtaco's site is slashdotted or just broken, but it's currently returning "Error establishing a database connection" when you try visit it.
Save money on your cell phone bill: Republic Wireless
You're almost a month early...
A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale...They are actively iterating and experimenting in many directions...
Nexus, iterating, big picture...my head is spinning.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH ahahahahhahahha ha hahahahahhahahahahhahaah
HAHAHAHHAhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahaha
We can expect to see the same news story every day for three days? (Then a correction entitled Dupe?)
Don Graham is trying to accomplish something that is a bit of a cliche these days: A startup inside an established sinking ship. A group that can exist at a nexus between first class and the lifeboats, and think about the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating under the pretenses it is successful.
Ftfy.
...that a famous buggy whip factory has hired one of the first combustion engine mechanics to help them figure out how to put six cylinders inside a horse without killing it.
Not sure if I feel more sympathy for the mechanic or the horse...
Still and all, Malda is a good and talented guy, slashdot has noticeably deteriorated in his absence, and I wish him all the best.
Who, true to style, doesn't know a fucking thing about tech. Sounds like Washington Post to me!
Please tell me more about the scary hackers and cyberwarriors and why the iPod is so lame.
Good luck in your future endeavours.
Emotions! In your brain!
Wait, April is not here yet. WTF. This has to be a joke right?
The Washington Post hiring Rob is sorta like Apple hiring Gil Amelio..and we know how that ended.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
CmdrTaco,
If you can get the news anchors to start referring to mass twitter users as TWATS, your purpose on this Earth will be accomplished!
Sincerely,
AC
It is an interesting step for you (and The Post).
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
Congratulations on your influential new job. I hope you guide this startup into delivering journalism from the Washington Post. Not just some "new media" buzz factory like most media startups that might even claim to be "journalism", like and the Washington Post online and in print have degenerated into along with their industry.
Journalism is when people tell a true story accurate to the facts and meaning of the events. Just whipping up "a conversation", or featuring "trending memes" isn't journalism.
I hope you've seen enough on Slashdot to recognize what this new venture shouldn't waste it's time on. I hope the Washington Post has brought you on to do better reporting on "stuff that matters", especially interactively.
--
make install -not war
So when Slashdot dupes this story, the Post will have a dupe to link to!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
In soviet russia, wased up neocon rag hires you!..
err wait, I think I got that meme wrong.
"...work that I personally believe transcends the bottom line."
The obligatory sop to /. lefties.
Am I the only one that double checked the date and was thinking this was an April 1st story posted early?
Are we talking about the *same* Washington Post that continually loses my ID so I have to re-register over and over again so I can post comments on their politics articles?
The same WaPo that employs Jennifer Rubin who writes hateful articles, and when we try and correct her, those posts are deleted?
The same WaPo that won't load the page at all if the ad server is a little slow to respond? Instead you're staring at a blank white page, which is just as well, since the article will likely be filled with factual errors as well as spelling mistakes?
Taco, if you're going to start anyplace, fix their online presence first, as right now, I'm hesitant to even load the site on my browser.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
What's his WaPo user number?
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I can't wait to read the same story I just read on the same page a couple times a week.. but now on paper!
Just wanted to say Congrats to you!
Best of luck!
"I think you know what I'm talkin' about, Mr. President; We're gonna kill us a mummy!" - Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley
Interesting how Rob mentions it's been 6 months since he walked away from Slashdot. There was probably a 6 month "do not compete" clause that prevented him from taking this job (or similar jobs) any sooner.
Insert editor joke here.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Best of luck with this new endeavor! =)
So a newspaper known for liberal leanings in its editorial staff has hired the guy who started a tech site that has obvious conservative leanings in its front page? This should be interesting...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
They are losing relevance, not to say their ass:
February 11, 2012
(NYT) The newsroom, once with more than 1,000 employees, now stands at less than 640 people....Bureaus in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are gone. There were so many Friday afternoon cake-cutting send-offs for departing employees last summer that editors had to coordinate them so they didn’t overlap.
February 24, 2012
(AP) — The Washington Post Company reported on Friday a 22 percent drop in fourth-quarter net income.
CmdrTaco helped build something worthwhile at Slashdot. He's the kind of talent the Post needs more of if they are not to circle the drain with the rest of the sorry-assed newspaper industry, which the Web is destroying without replacing it with something better.
By Bob Woodward, June 21, 2012 11:30 PM
Engineers and managers at several IT companies have secretly co-opted massive processing power and bandwidth at data centers to organize massive multiplayer video games, the Washington Post has learned.
One source, a senior technology employee in one of the affected organizations, confirmed the workings...
did a /. founder actually either approve someone else writing these words - which is lame, or did they actually *write them ? * really ?
I for one welcome our new Washington Post Overlords!
Hari hari chrisna, hari hari chrisna.
HEY CHRIS!
I was wondering who they hired. All the newspapers are scrambling as if his internet "thingy" sprung up overnight to do this. all the media groups are doing this right now in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.
Sadly it's too late. A lot of people getting their news online already found the news sources that get the scoop on the traditional news outlets hours and even days before. I get a kick watching a news item hit the net and then slowly spread across all the sites during the day. Or hearing fro a Co-worker that X just happened! and I reply, no it happened this morning, and I read about it while I was ditching the boss for the 8am meeting.
Hope you milk them for all you can Taco! Because you just joined a sinking ship as the head bucket manager of the bailing team.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"tools that will improve the experience of the journalists " Don't they already have an iPad App?
Paul: Father... father, the sleeper has awakened! - Dune
r05e @r3 r3d
\/i0137 @r3 b1u3
@11 r p057
r c0mmen73d by u
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Here's to hoping one person can make a difference! :-)
First Ars http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/fare-well-kuuuuuuuccccchhheeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaa.ars
Now /.
Nice to see long time "friends" moving up in the world.
Finally- I'll be able to buy Washington Post subscriptions using my bitcoins.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Warshington Post: Now with the Quality Edting Werk of Slashdot! ... Breaking news: Dewey defeats Truman!
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple saw. There was a massive untapped market for user-friendly consumer electronic & computing products. While the smug technoratti were still obsessed with stats & features, Apple saw what people wanted before they did and gave it to them. CmdrTaco's "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." will go down in history (like "Let them eat cake") as emblematic of a group of 'elites' detached from reality.
BTW: In case you haven't noticed, Apple tapped that market and now they have a $500B market cap.
...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple saw. There was a massive untapped market for user-friendly consumer electronic & computing products. While the smug technoratti were still obsessed with stats & features, Apple saw what people wanted before they did and gave it to them. CmdrTaco's "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." will go down in history (like "Let them eat cake") as emblematic of a group of 'elites' detached from reality.
BTW: In case you haven't noticed, Apple tapped that market and now they have a $500B market cap.
Which is why he is now working at a desperate old media low budget boiler room instead of in a plush corner office.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
They might actually have a good spell checker at the Washington Post!
#39253333
Congrats on quads :-)
Are we talking about the *same* Washington Post that continually loses my ID so I have to re-register over and over again so I can post comments on their politics articles?
How often is "continually"? Some forums are known to purge accounts that haven't logged in for months.
Please explain to me what Apple saw back in 2001. iTunes store opened in 2003, two years after the original iPod. Apples success came from iTunes, not the iPod. People bought the iPod because they wanted iTunes. Are you suggesting because CmdrTaco in 2001 didn't guess that Apple was building an iTunes store 2 years into the future, somehow that makes him smug?
Watch the Washington Post for dupes!
Slashdot, conservative! Hahhahaha
What makes you laugh is the connotations associated with U.S. use of "conservative", which refers to less government control over economic issues but more government control over social issues. This comes from a long-standing alliance between free market advocates and the religious right wing. If anything, Slashdot has tended to lean libertarian, which is fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
"Life is to short to watch it go by"
"to" short? really?
WaPo?
Come on... having read the paper for 'umpteen' years, it's a politically motivated paper--paid by the highest bidder.
Then again, if you want exposure to the power that be, good choice 'taco.
Please explain to me what Apple saw back in 2001. iTunes store opened in 2003, two years after the original iPod. Apples success came from iTunes, not the iPod.
The iPod took off with the Windows-release, which was well before the iTunes Music Store.
I personally bought the iPod (the very first one) before it was cool :P
The iPod took off with the Windows-release, which was well before the iTunes Music Store.
Wrong. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg
Windows release was in late 2002. You can see here that iPod didn't really start to take off until 2004.
Wrong. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg
Windows release was in late 2002. You can see here that iPod didn't really start to take off until 2004.
Well, it's relative. Of course you can't see it in this chart, because the later numbers are overwhelming. The Windows release was the point when the device was well-known in non-geek circles. You can't measure that in sales numbers.
the ipod was the main apple success. it was the first thing they put out that took market share. i got my first ipod (80G 5th gen) not for itunes -- in fact i was eagerly looking at other programs like copypod to manage the content on it right off the bat. i got it because it was an mp3 player with video, and relatively small, and it was in my face way more than other products (they call that market share). almost got a zune, but... idk it just never reached me. it wasn't itunes, and no fucking way was it the itunes store of 2003. more people were stealing music in 2003, and few of them wanted to deal with the mess of itunes, itunes store, or the limitations itunes placed on your ipod content.
and no, they are implying he was smug because techies who don't consider what the average person of moronic intelligence wants are simply smug. techies mustn't ever have perspectives of their own hovering above the average moronic intelligence because that's just rude (like harrison bergeron rude, wtf). also, when they put out reviews, it must be dumbed down for the average moronic intelligence, even if the audience for the review is a techie one. apple never claimed their products were for people who prefer thinking. it's quite obvious they depend on people who prefer to feel their way through a logical problem. one look at their mouse designs is all you need to figure that one out.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
I think that's a bit harsh of an assessment. The ipod was more about being shiny than easy to use, and it had a massive marketing budget behind it. I believe the real key was that it was marketed front to back as a music player, not a computery gadget sold next to laptops.
I had a nomad back then. It was considerably cheaper and was not, in my opinion, hard to use. It was a bit uglier and bigger. The reality distortion field made people grow to like the wheel better- I personally far preferred to have external skip and volume buttons. The RDF can't hide what a piece of crap itunes is though. It does a better job of finding your music and sync'ing it if you are completely clueless, which many users are, but it really sucks.
Still, those completely clueless folks were and are an enormous market that Apple broke into when its competitors couldn't, and history is still in the making. I don't think its fair to say that Taco was some sort of disconnected elite though. Ipod sales didn't take off until the Itunes store opened, and even then it took until 2005 for before the Ipod really dominated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg)
Or that the windows release didn't increase the popularity that much. The 2G sold about double the units, while the 3G sold easily 8 times the units of the 2G. So you could attribute windows to doubling the sales, and iTunes to 8x the sales, and it just skyrocketed from there.
the ipod was the main apple success. it was the first thing they put out that took market share.
The iPod didn't take off until the iTunes Store was released. It took market share after the iTunes Store was released. That was 2 years after 2001, when CmdrTaco posted about the iPod. During 2001, the iPod was not very popular, and the NOMAD was the MP3 player to beat. When iTunes came out, the iPod crushed the NOMAD.
There is a strong correlation between iPod sales and the iTunes Store being released. Either it's a coincidence, or the iTunes store had something to do with it. I'm going to wager it's the ladder.
What else CmdrTaco missed was a over zeaolos fandom/fetish. That is why Brannon has to keep taking his idols back to the Apple store to have them cleaned of 'spilled liquids' in all the ports.
This is really cool, because I just finished reading how badly Washington Post screwed up with the "Inventor of Email" story. In fact, if you look at the comments you can see that former OSDN CEO Robin Miller (aka roblimo) suggested that they hire someone from the slashdot crowd to work on IT reporting. Maybe they took it to heart.
Maybe, but he was preaching to his audience. Most slashdotters at that time were almost as anti-Apple as they were anti-Microsoft. Even if he privately saw benefits in the iPod, he wouldn't have said that publicly. Or maybe he believed what he said. Either way, he would've gotten his head chopped off (to continue your metaphor) if he'd come out in defense of it.
Et tu, CmdrTaco? Then fall Slashdot!
right, i'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that in 2002, 3 things happened: ipod became compatible with windows (the reigning market share of computers) without clunky workarounds, the prices were dropped by $100, and newer versions came out with dramatically bigger storage. in 2004, the sale of digital music put onto ipods was dominated by real's harmony platform. that's why apple made that ipod update to block their music files -- so it wouldn't be able to compete with itunes.
but someone else seems to think it was the marketers, and their magical mastery of the cult of cool: http://www.besttechie.net/2008/03/01/the-ipod-success-thank-the-marketing-department/
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Sorry, but the numbers back the other guy up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg
The iPod was averaging about 100,000 units per quarter until mid 2003. That's not so impressive, honestly. It didn't break 1,000,000 units per quarter until late 2004. So yeah, it was really the iTunes music store launch in April 2003 that made people interested in the iPod.
...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple eventually saw.
FTFY. When Taco panned the iPod, it still had a lot of growing to do, and Jobs could have as easily mandated the next iPod to be the next Newton or the next NeXT (right products, at the wrong time.) Jobs hit the contemporarily correct spot between price, cool and performance and now he is a saint to all who worship monetary success. Doesn't mean that CmdrTaco was wrong in his evaluation of that generation of iPod at that time.
Hey, congrats man. You deserve every bit of success that comes your way. You've started something great here at Slashdot and I wish you the best in all your future endeavors.
keep pioneering into the future!
Did Rob move to DC ???????
How will Holland survive without him?????
...Slashdot Posts YOU!
Seriously, Rob, break a leg! If anyone can bring a dinosaur like WaPo into the modern age, it's you. You built a vibrant community here on Slashdot, no matter what the naysayers and nitpickers might say, and a large part of that is because you get what a community needs and how to build a system architecture to deliver it.
The moderation system we enjoy here is still unsurpassed online. It has allowed the best, funniest, and most insightful comments to rise to the top in such a way that I always know more about our world and feel better about it, too, for having read the posts of our excellent fellow Slashdotters. And I therefore value being part of the community and rue to this day the 4-digit userID I lost when I exchanged living on the West coast for the East back in the day.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
CmdrTaco missed what was important about a portable music device, portability. He was focused on the capacity, while Apple knew that having a device you could fit in your pocket while having enough capacity to have a good collection of music was important. The Nomad was around the size of a CD player, something you'd end up carrying in a bag or backpack.
You gotta be careful about that ladder. If you walk underneath it you'll have bad luck and six more weeks of winter, or something like that.
Good luck with the job, Taco.
See if you can circumvent their reality bypass on pollution....
With PONIES of course!
You need both (portability and capacity) - I had a Diamond Rio, pretty small, light and portable, but the storage capacity was dismal, shrink it to the size of a fingernail and it's still useless if it only holds 2 hours of music - especially if it's a pain to get the music on it (which was the case for ALL music players in 2001).
This is just so utterly wrong, it's sad. Rob's "sin" was that he evaluated the product as a user, judging it on the merits of how well it could practically do a job relative to its contemporaries. WTF is so "elite" about that?
He didn't make any claims about how successful it might be or how well it would sell; there's no failed prediction here. Instead, he implied you would have to be (here, have your own words back, because so so egregiously used them in exactly the wrong situation) detached from reality to buy one.
I thought this was hilarious until I went back to the summary and saw that CmdrTaco actually will be working at the "trendy"-named "WaPo" Labs. ...Now I'm a sad panda....
I thought you were an eternal Doctor Who...
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
Don't let 'em tell you how to do things... they're hiring YOU to tell THEM how to do things!
The original iPod could fit in your pocket, the Nomad couldn't. The iPod had a slicker UI and a higher speed link. And a couple years later they integrated it with a slick online music store. That was game over.
But by all means, please continue to believe it was all just 'marketing' while I purchase some more Apple stock.
gratzs for getting a real job. 8)
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Long time Slashdot user here. Congratulations Taco. Slashdot is still one of the best sites for tech news. You have managed to build an extraordinary community here where even the top nerds regularly post. I am sure you will do a wonderful job at WaPo. Best of luck.
- from a grateful user
Sounds like a cool job, have fun tacoman!
Slashington Dotst
Grats to Taco!
He will always be one of us, one of us, one of us...
"Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
CmdrTaco has a mainstream job, The End Is Near ... and you all are raving on about Apples and iPods! Focus, people, focus!
I think the above comment is most appropriate:
"I for one welcome our new Washington Post Overlords!"
Oh wait, so a device that ONLY worked on a mac, and then JUST releases a version that works on Windows is already "well-known" in "non-geek" circles?
So is CmdrTaco a moonie then? I knew he went to one of those weird american religious universities, but I didn't know it was a Unification Church controlled one.