Slashdot Mirror
How Edward Snowden's Actions Have Impacted Defense Contractors
An anonymous reader writes "A new study sheds light on the attitudes of a very exclusive group of IT and security managers — those employed by U.S. defense contractors — at a time when national cybersecurity is under scrutiny. Most indicated that the Edward Snowden incident has changed their companies' cybersecurity practices: their employees now receive more cybersecurity awareness training, some have re-evaluated employee data access privileges, others have implemented stricter hiring practices. While defense contractors seem to have better security practices in place and are more transparent than many companies in the private sector, they are finding the current cyber threat onslaught just as difficult to deal with."
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet.
On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design.
Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.
If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.
We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott
Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories
Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.
Captcha: fuckbeta
http://developers.slashdot.org...
http://developers.slashdot.org...
http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...
http://science.slashdot.org/co...
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
Scrap it and go back to the drawing board!!!!!
I will not give in to the powers-that-be-Dice and put up with a terrible design with no functional gains.
Boycott the Beta!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: Slashdot is dying.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Slashdot community when IDC confirmed that Slashdot page views has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all websites. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Slashdot has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Slashdot is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by the stupid fucking beta website and the wholesale discard of user feedback.
You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict Slashdot's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Slashdot faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Slashdot because Slashdot is dying. Things are looking very bad for Slashdot. As many of us are already aware, Slashdot continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Slashdot Beta is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core users. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time Slashdot users Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Slashdot is dying.
All major surveys show that Slashdot has steadily declined in market share. Slashdot is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Slashdot is to survive at all it will be among S&M enthusiasts. Slashdot continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Slashdot is dead.
That crippling bombshell sent Slashdot fans into a tailspin of mourning and denial. However, bad news poured in like a river of water.
Fuck the beta.
..All sense of time has deceived me as the day has started out with thick clouds overhead. It is difficult to tell if morning or early afternoon. I've struck my head on something earlier as I collapsed, shortly after waking, and have no idea how long I've been out. An odd fog has rolled in from the north; cold and dank, reeking of stale piss. I wonder if there are others out there.. Afraid and confused.. Shackled to the same fate as I. This godforsaken Beta UI.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
The best part about Slashdot for me was really the people who visit it. This site has had one of the most intelligent communities around. This is how the site is successful IMO. Really good people massing together behind it. Finding and promoting articles is one thing but the commentary is where it really takes off. Almost every time I view a story what I find more interesting is the story that develops below it. I really don't know of another site where I can attempt to follow a debate about nuclear fusion, and find a debate about Apple only a page apart. This is about to be taken away as the best and brightest around here are going to leave as they are fed up with these beta changes, and Slashdot as a quality site will die. The new site takes away from the comments and the user driven atmosphere and plasters it with pictures and wasted space. This protest may seem futile at first to the bigwigs at the top here, but like I said the best part about this site is the comments. Therefore, if the only comments left are ones complaining about beta, its going to be a very accurate view of the future of Slashdot from here onward if the beta continues.
Feb 10 - feb 17.
Rare that you see a genuine, bona-fide traitor these days.
Glad that people are starting to come around to this conclusions, and away from the hero that the self-centered libertarian narcissist precious snowflake that infests Slashdot thinks of him as.
Sorry you idiots, but in the real world, you're not the center of the universe. Your life doesn't revolve around you and your "me! me! me!" views. You actually have limits on your power in life, and the best you can do with your limits in life is to live for others, not for yourself.
You actually have to pay to play in life. Life isn't free, regardless of what you were incorrectly taught by your mistaken idealist parents.
The reason you have to pay to play in life is because there is no power interested in allowing you to live for free. You need to do stuff for others, all the time, to get by in life. This is the minimum.
The Snowdens of the world think of life as being about them, mistakenly thinking you can do "whatever you want" since it's a "free country". We adults know this is an incorrect view, which is why we are strong socialists and work to improve on the power of a central governmental authority.
we should know http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=citizens%20police%20state&sm=3
Does it auto-play videos for everyone?
Can we safely assume if you must log in during the boycott next week everyone will post simple polite Fcku Beta messages?
Complaining in the comments is not enough! This is the person responsible for beta. Contact her directly to lodge your complaints.
Since beta appears not to support links, here is the URL: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alicehill
And they'll be back to the lowest common denominator level of security.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Snowden's demosntration of the insider threat is just as dangerous to the credibility of the IT community as the arrogance shown by the Beta. Both demonstrate a level of arrogance disconnected from the customer base, which leaves our community a target. Why should you empower the IT department when they do things to you like this?
It's funny, but since yesterday and the javascript popup, I find myself unable to type any comment that isn't directly about the beta.
Javascript dancing baloney and giant pretty pictures belong on USA Today, not Slashdot.
The meat of Slashdot, the substance that draws viewers here instead of the alternatives, is the comments. Lose those comments and you will lose the eyeballs. Lose the eyeballs and you will lose the ad revenue.
Alternatively, you can accept that you made a mistake, keep Slashdot classic, and keep the steady flow of cash. Make the right business decision, here, Dice. Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
No legitimate discussion until Slashdot classic is restored. Sacrifice a few days of discussion now to save all the days in the future. The Spirit of Mohdri Dragon Lives! (feel free to get drunk and naked while posting)
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Fuck beta
Me: Beta can't be that bad, right? *clicks link to see beta version of article* Me: Wow. That's terrible. It's like Digg and Reddit had a baby. Whoever thinks it's a good design should go back to working on the latest internet startup that ends in "er" without the "e".
If you move me to the beta slashdot abortion i'll add this place to the block list and never visit again.
Too many other news sites regurgitate the exact same storys i see here. And all of them don't look as shitty as the beta slashdot.
Stop being stupid.
Edward Snowden is not half the hero that any Slashdotter will be if he opposes Slashdot Beta!
Slashdotters of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
Ya pissed off the nerds, and lords knows no ones got time to post up about how dumb a move you are making than a bunch of pissed off nerds.
It's Obamadot.
so that I can start reading comments about interesting topics again.
I've been lurking on Slashdot since its inception but haven't felt the need to create an account until now. I will be joining the boycott on February 10-17th. Beta is absolutely terrible, I gave them that feedback when they introduced it and apparently so had everyone else but they chose not to listen. This site is something special, please don't let them destroy it.
NO BETA - Save our community. Boycott Slashdot Feb. 10-17th
Slashdot Beta..poster child of the new VP in charge of Slashdot at Dice. Budget has been eaten up, Beta is finally ready. VP has to either launch the Beta or quit. I pity the VP! Extremely ugly options, both.
Says "nope"
I think you mean "How their own actions have impacted defense contractors". If they didn't have dirty secrets, there would have been no motive for Snowden's policing, and nothing for him to publish.
The beta is bad. It's so bad. The comments are reduced in screen width about 50%. Subject lines are deemphasized, scores are minimized, etc.
The discussions are the reason to come to Slashdot, and the beta trivializes them entirely. It looks like the comment section on a generic news site.
The comments now look like an afterthought, whereas they used to be the primary focus of the site.
Comments and commentors don't generate revenues.
There's a reason why Digg revamped.
The Slashdot that you knew and loved is going to disappear. Slashdot doesn't make money. And things will change to make this company worthwhile, otherwise, you'll see the domain name sold off or turned into an online retailer for computer equipment or something.
Why is Slashdot not making money? Ad based revenue or lack thereof - and all of us with AdBlock. Making money off of ads only works for those selling ads - Facebook and Google for example. And Slashdot doesn't have the user information that Facebook has so pimping user info isn't an option.
That's just my MBA guess - and it's a guess because I have nothing to do with Slashdot, Dice, VA systems and any other company that has every owned or managed Slashdot; just experience with websites that try to pay the bills with advertisements and partner agreements. Although, there are exceptions: Fark.com.
tl;dr Bend over and take it because things are gonna change because the way things are don't cut it.
Perhaps Anonymous could help with this Beta problem. They love to "fix" things
... for stackoverflow coders
Does anyone know who designed Beta? Was it done in house or did they use some 3rd party? I really want to know, so I would never ever have to deal with these people.
"It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad."
beta is crappy.
It will be better to purchase from an owner who is a good farmer and a good builder.
This most recent redesign is just unusable. I will leave 100% if this is the new Slashdot.
In an earlier Snowden story, it was revealed that:
"British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) reportedly used spoofed LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to compromise the computers of network engineers working for global roaming exchange providers based in Europe."
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?...
Is it possible that all of us, right now, are logged into a spoofed page that has replaced the real Slashdot for reasons known only to GCHQ and the NSA? 'Beta' is probably the final stage in whatever sinister plot they have planned for us. Incredible, I know, but is it any less likely than the alternative, that a job search site none of us had ever heard of would buy Geeknet for $20 million, and then proceed to trash its properties by a series of bizarre decisions like setting up SlashBI (beware the tumbleweed!) and inflicting Beta on its loyal readers? Just how far does this conspiracy go?
Beta Sucks.
Fuck Beta... I've been on this site for over 16 years I thought you guys were on something until I went and viewed it. It is an unholy abomination. I even took the time to dig up my Slashdot account instead of lurking because of how horrendous the new site is to use.
P.S. Do I get bonus points for hating Beta with a 4 digit UID or does that just make me old? Of course you can't see that if you are using beta. ;)
Not just the time to make posts ourselves, I've got a capcha beating script set to post a vicious anti-beta diatribe onto every new story that pops up on the main page.
Although, now I'm spending all my time tweaking the script...
The question is, where would we go? I suppose I'll at least be a bit more productive at work, if less informed.
That's it really... where would we go? Slashdot isn't the site it's the community. There has been OSS work on federated search, and federated social networking, but a federated discussion site with a decent moderation system would be nice right about now. Is it even a solvable problem?
Where can I get the stable release?
If this keeps up, at least Slashdot will die in a fashion faithful to the old days.
If only you knew how bad beta is.
I've with Beta for months on the mobile platform. I hate it there too and even worse there are several defects.
The comments don't load automatically. REALLY... I don't come to slashdot for the articles, but rather for the community. Interesting discussion over relevant articles is really what slashdot sales. Good job destroying that.
At least with the non-mobile version it is possible to click the comment number indicator as a link to the full post. On the mobile edition this does not work.
Anyhow, I support this boycott.
Keep your eyes open. Boycott Slashdot for a week. If that doesn't work, there are other alternatives materializing. Dice screwed up big time.
-- Common Joe
Valentines Day Slashcott: Boycott Slashdot because "Fuck Beta!": February 10 - 17
And Support Okian Warrior's alternate slashdot idea! A note from Okian can be found here: http://www.altslashdot.org/wiki/index.php?title=AltSlashdot. And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
Just another complaint that Slashdot beta minimises THE most valuable and useful part of the site, namely the comments. I'll be joining the boycott. Fuck beta.
http://www.slashcode.com/www.slashcode.com/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/slashcode/
food for thought: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SlashDot
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Fuck beta. Fuck it to infinity and beyond.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
No beta for me: http://slashdot.org/?nobeta=1
That plus noscript means I never see the beta mess.
Is it the ubiquitous "Enhanced for Mobile!" infinite vertical scrolling style that the web "design" community came up with by looking at a roll of toilet paper?
U.S. defense contractors .. aka .. privatised war ...
Pardon the caps.
I got a response from her over linkedin that she no longer works there:
"[AC], I'm not sure what is going on today, but I have not been with Slashdot Media for some time.( Guess I need to update my LinkedIn profile.) I gather the beta is causing some negative responses. I can tell you that the site feedback is taken very seriously and no one wants to drive away a loyal community. Please use the submission forms or whatever process is in place because the data is being compiled and that will drive a lot of the changes made.
My apologies for any negativity - I have been a /. user since the 90s myself.
--Alice "
Don't email her - it does no good and affects an innocent person.
And where is the training on ethics, and legal responsibilities, and how to get hold of an inspector general, and how one is allowed to blow the whistle when your PHB dreams up some utterly unConstitutional scheme?
Not gonna happen.
And, off-topic, with all the screaming and yelling about the "new" version (which I didn't even bother looking at - I'm still on "classic", and don't know why it needs to change), maybe it'll piss off enough of the brain-dead dorks and trolls who have nothing to say about an actual story.
mark "will we *ever* get past the endless September?"
...snip...And be patient. It looks like the site and his email has been slashdotted.
WHAT?!?!?! You mean someone from Dice redesigned his site and email too and called it Beta?!?!
My God, man! They're like the Borg! Will they stop at nothing?!?! Oh the humanity!
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
...for those who know how to use IRC.
wtfbeta
Replying using Beta, just for the thrill of it all.
See, you wouldn't have to explain your UID if everyone was using Beta, 'cause your UID doesn't show up in Beta.
I would have quoted your first paragraph, but Beta doesn't seem to have a "Quote parent" link.
Hmm, no "Parent" link, either. Crap. And the whitespace. And the low-contrast grey text, who thought that was a good idea? And holy crap, the Preview looks really, really awful!
Starting to feel disoriented and queasy now. Gotta go.
The beta... It's snowden's fault.
I would rather they would use the horizontal real estate to display better post indentation
go fuck yourself. I learned more about nuclear theory and physics reading and thinking with my own fucking mind and reading the works of legends.You fucking nitwits dont realize the whole god damn thing is a fucking illusion due to the holographic principal, but carry on thinking your small IT site makes any difference at all to things that matter
I don't really see too much of a difference between new and old functionally. It's just looks more trendy.
Cybersecurity is a joke as long as NSA and other government agencies are poking access, surveillance and disruption holes in everything that they can. There will be much hype about cybersecurity to "protect" us as a guise to control, subvert and shutdown at will as much actual "computer power to the people" as possible. Be aware and do not play into this.
Funny enough, I consider readability an important aspects of getting news online. It's not like slashdot is lacking in visitors. The slashdot effect is one of the most powerful forces on the internet.
But I really need to work at a place like this. Where's my doctor's note....? http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk...
Spend twice the manpower checking over your admins if you think it will help. If someone wants to do something or steal something with the right access, they're going to do it. How about we make everyone get Security + training so the gov't will pay for a shitty cert with so many different types of training for obscure objectives that it's ridiculous.
Except, you know, the need to understand and obey the constitution. The pre-eminent law of the land. The constitution that cannot be overturned by executive order, cannot be contradicted by ordinary legislation, and cannot be defied without harsh sanction.
Well, except by the senior members of the three letter agency Star Chamber.
Why so can I, or so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?
I'll bet she won't feel ten feet tall if Slashdot ends up like Digg.
I think usenet is the way to go.
Please address people's concerns about the new web site look or put it off for a long time. I am trying to read very important stories on this web site and it's drowned in protesting (annoying but I understand why). So would the peeps running slashdot please ADRESS THE CONCERNS of people so we can have comments RELATED TO THE STORY. Thanks.
There used to be a time when shlashdots source was available... Or am I mixing something up?