Slashdot Mirror
Simple Emergency Generators and Radio Receivers (Video)
Eton Corp. makes well-reviewed emergency radios and hand-cranked generators for emergency use. Timothy Lord talked with them at CES and made this video of how the devices work. Alternate video link @ tv.Slashdot.org.
Fuck Beta
And posting on Slashdot BETA makes it even better!
Nobody buys Playboy for the articles. They do it for the hot, nude women (sadly, sans grits). It just so happens that /. is exactly the same. No one reads /. for the articles. The articles were news two days ago. And no one reads /. for the summaries. The summaries are almost always wrong.
Everyone reads /. for the comments. The comments are the /. equivalent of Playboy's naked chicks, with one crucial difference. Without the gentlemen at Playboy, there will be no naked chicks to look at. The service they provide is, for the most part, finding women that will agree to pose nude for pictures, which they most graciously distribute to their readers.
But as for Slashdot -- the good people at Dice and their "editorial" team do diddly squat around here to generate content. The articles, old as they may be, are submitted by the users. The summaries, mistaken as they may be, are provided by the users, not by Timothy, Soulskill, et al. The comments, trollish as they may be, are written by the users.
/. is of the users, by the users, for the users. The only people at Dice who deserve their paycheck are the IT people. The rest of you -- what is it that you do for our benefit? Why the hell do we need you clowns? Your music's bad and you should feel bad!
Beta delenda est!
Unlike beta. Fuck beta.
"It is the stillest words which bring the storm. Thoughts that come with doves' footsteps guide the world."
beta blows n u kno it
I mean it. Go away - shoo!
how'd this get through my adblock...
Mr. Moderator, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can’t believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don’t want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is “The Slashdot Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?” or "What Next?” In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the pitchfork or the codefork.
Although I’m still a Slashdotter, I’m not here tonight to improve my karma. I’m not here to try and change your karma. I’m not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it’s time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether you’re a Troll, or a Shill, or a First Time Submitter or a Karma Whore. Whether you’re educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you’re going to catch hell just like I am. We’re all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a work at Dice.
Now in speaking like this, it doesn’t mean that we’re anti-Dice, but it does mean we’re anti-Beta, we’re anti-SlashBI, we’re anti-Slashcloud. And if Dice doesn’t want us to be anti-it, let it stop forcing Beta on us. Whether we are Trolls or Shills or Karma Whores, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with Dice. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Portman and exchange some grits, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Portman had with each other.
If we don’t do something real soon, I think you’ll have to agree that we’re going to be forced either to use the pitchfork or the codefork. It’s one or the other in 2014. It isn’t that time is running out — time has run out!
(And a thank you to arth1)
You idiots think that this "news for nerds" is actually going to take the spotlight off of the Brain Dead Beta design?
Really?
BOYCOTT SLASHDOT 10-17 FEB
Just file it under C for crap. Let it die for once and for all.
And fire the moron who thought it was a good idea in the first place.
Will soon be hosted at AltSlashdot.org or a site linked through that domain.
It will be for the commenters, by the commenters.
It will be like the old days when Slashdot at least spell-checked the summaries and made sure the links actually worked.
I wonder if we'll have to use emergency generators and radio receivers to recover from Dicepocalypse...
This is an emergency public service announcement... a zombie infection has broken out and it eats the brains of those affected. So far, only about two dozen people, all middle and senior managers of content aggregation websites, have been infected. If you see one of these husks, contact authorities immediately and do not approach them... This is an emergency...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Down with beta. Fuck Alice Hill and slashpoop media. Fuck you malda for dumping the site off to a bunch of soulless MBAs
I had the volume all the way up on the video player and my headphones on as usual and couldn't hear chit besides timothy asking the questions. So much background noise or whatever the hell else was going on..
It seems wider to me. Now, put in the green bar for higher contrast between comments. One step at a time and lets see if they can make it good.
A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.
The underground could use these... to build a new Slashdot. To escape from tyranny. To communicate in secret. To plan our escape. To fight for freedom. Resist! And BUCK THE FETA.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I think with this whole Beta flap we can all agree on two things.
First, SlashDot Beta sucks. OK - whatever, who gives a shit.
Second, Slashdot is infested with the most annoying, entitled, childish fucking little neckbeard cumstain dweebs on the Internet. Most of you fucking dolts make 4chan users look like Rhodes Scholars.
Technically most of you are stuck in 1978, just completely fucking clueless. You post the same repetitive, boring as _fuck_ "memes" (what a stupid fucking word). Your personal hygiene is atrocious and women don't like you because you're ugly as shit and your personality is terrible. It's not that she's shallow and won't love you because she doesn't know you, it's that you are a sub-par human being. I promise.
I think all the repetitive, boring posts being spammed by you fuckers concerning the beta seals the case. Shut the fuck up already, no serious person gives that much of a fuck. But that's the thing, I guess. None of you are serious people, just caricatures - cardboard cutouts of a stereotype regarding socially inept misfit losers.
Speaking of emergencies....
Is it safe to assume, in light of the recent pseudo-responses from Timothy and Soulskill, that the boycott for next week is still on?
It gave me herpes. Thanks, Slashdot.
Posted by SGT CAPSLOCK on Friday February 07, 2014 @03:59PM
from the straight-to-release dept.
Dice Holdings makes beta websites and awkward poll questions. SGT CAPSLOCK talked with them at slashdot.org and made this video of how their thought process works. Alternate video link @ void.org.
[video link: NULL]
So, the dice CEO is Michael P. Durney and according to his linkein profile he lives in the greater NYC area. And the whitepages only have one Michael P. Durney there. So....
Michael P. Durney
44 Dorchester Rd.
Rockville Centre, NY 11570-2022
516-766-5346.
Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here so links don't get mangled!)
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.
-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----
Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org (thanks Okian Warrior (537106))
Seriously, fuck this.
If you're going to take this shit and even put it into beta without noticing the entire website userbase loathes it, I'm done.
You evidently don't want readers any more.
Happy to oblige you on that one.
screw beta
1) Announce the immediate cancellation of Slashdot Beta
2) Take the Beta site offline
3) Stop directing users to the (former) location of the Beta site
4) Create a list of enhancements you think the site could use.
5) Let the users vote on these enhancements. If a majority of the users say yes, THEN you can implement them.
good
to download free book go
http://kataby.blogspot.com
You know that Slashdot is fucked when the "editors" are crapflooding the front page.
Because Bruce has shown he is an unreliable host for a tech site.
He has twice started that site and twice deleted it without warning, taking all the content and comments offline with no way to recover them.
Bruce has done great things for the Libre Software community, but hosting a tech site is not one of his brighter moments.
Posting broken again by the Beta?
I just noticed the spike in people downloading the /. code from sf.net:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/slashcode/files/Bundle-Slash/stats/timeline
I guess a significant number of people, like myself, are sick of comments not working. Let's see if this one actually works...
US5722418
+
US5644363
+
GoogleGlass
+
Acceptance
=
????
If history is any sort of an indicator, any rights we sell today, our children must buy back with blood tomorrow
"It is not well to be thought of as one who meekly submits to insolence and intimidation."
The intent expressed about "fixing the beta" is fud. It can't be fixed. It is fundamentally flawed. Keeping the current interface and comment system by majority is the consensus wish. strike while the iron is hot. Boycott commencing feb 10.
Before I get slammed, let me correct myself: He did shut it down due to slow traffic first time around, though he blamed his own lack of tine and also refused to allow others to carry it forward. https://web.archive.org/web/20... Second time he blamed low traffic and "Certain elements of the community that developed here, unfortunately, creep me out". https://web.archive.org/web/20... Still, I don't think he can be trusted a third time to not just shut it down when he feels like it.
I have one of their emergency hand crank radios. It does have all the right features and they all work but it isn't built to any higher ruggedness than a regular consumer product. If/when the SHTF, it just feels as if it would break fairly quickly.
If I had to pick up another one, I'd probably go with something from Freeplay Energy. They used to make some very rugged products for use in third world countries; they turned more consumer focused in the last few years but still make some solid looking products.
http://www.reddit.com/r/notslashdot
you'll like it http://www.reddit.com/r/notslashdot
So, theres no more text on here .. really
wow this is so cool, fuck beta
FUCK BETA
Amazing is it 3 days later (across the weekend) that I am reading here and there are no on topic posts to be seen. So I will start...
My review of Eton's products:
The one which I purchased had terrible workmanship. Unfortunately, I purchased it as part of a fundraiser, so I couldn't return it.
The model I had was a combination solar, wall-power, hand-generator powered unit, with a radio and an emergency (LED) light for output. My complaints all center on one item; however, as that item was the main power switch, its lack of performance (or poor design) made the whole unit inoperative. The switch was a rotary switch which ( IIRC ) had four settings indicated on the housing. I don't recall exactly how the settings were divided, but they were something along the lines of off/charge, on/solar, on/battery, light-on (less sure of this one). Whatever they were exactly, the actual switch only had three positions. In none of the on positions would anything work. I could however get the radio to work by holding the switch between two of the positions, and that only when plugged into the wall wart. The solar cell would not charge the battery at all (as far as I could tell). I could get the crank-generator to dimly light the LED lantern, but only briefly, and I was never able to get the radio to work off the generator, nor charge the battery that way.
As I could not return the unit, I decided to see if I could fix it. I thought I might remove the defective switch and replace it with one (or several) of my own. Unfortunately, the construction was extremely cheap, meaning that the switch mechanism was actually part of the circuit board. I might still have tried to solder to the traces, but decided that I had invested enough time already, and instead just junked it, after removing the solar cell, the LEDs, and a few other potentially useful bits.
I can only say that as a result of this experience, I have avoided buying any more Eton radios, even if the feature set of the advertised products sounded tempting.
McFly777
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"What do people mean when they say the computer went down on them?" -Marilyn Pittman