Slashdot Mirror
Quickielanche
Joy! Cleaning out the submissions box:
Praxxus sent us a link to
an article you'll swear is a joke... a new use for old computers:
filling potholes.
HerbieTMac
wrote in to say that Ice-T has joined the fray
by releasing a new MP3 single.
sanpitch sent us an
interesting article about
facial
expression recognition.
polar_bear`
wrote in to say that
Linux Mall has an
Associates Program just like CD-Now. Or Amazon, speaking
of which
Sevn gave me the heads up
on their entry for Bill "Family Circus" Keane- check out the reader
reviews of Daddy's Hat is on Backwards.
Trust me. Read it. Someone had to much spare time, and I'm
glad they did.
[null] hooked us up with the definitive
Mr. T vs. site
and east sent us an
offensive dilbert parody site.
gseidman
wrote in to tell us about an important
translation project
underway to decipher the alien language used on Futurama.
Assorted Slashdot notes from the world:
An anonymous reader linked us to a
cute comment
on Neal Stephenson's server about the Slashdot effect.
suprax
noted that
Slashdot and Freshmeat have
a cameo in the current dead tree edition of PC Computing.
adamv sent us a link
to an interview with the creator of IMDB
where he says he wishes he designed Slashdot. Funny, I wish
I had designed IMDB.
And Lastly,
Jesse Shrieve, my
favorite BSD pusher and dedicated Slashdot Server whipping boy
noticed that Slashdot is up to 28 on hot100.com.
We're neat.
I'd say this is parody, all right, just incredibly lame. The fact that it's nothing but pathetic crap doesn't change the fact that it's still parody :) :)
Surely there's room for _bad_ parody that sucks and makes you think the 'authors' are idiot losers? I would hope so!
Of course, I hardly expect to see this person given the slashdot recognition of genuinely bizarre and funny exploits like Stick Figure Death Theatre
Don't even bother. This is the real DFC: The Dysfunctional Family Circus :)
Inferior imitations can just stay wher they are!
The dilbert parody is just the most boring waste of time. This is probably the first time that something has made an appearance on /. that I think truly doesn't deserve it.
-Peter
== Just my opinion(s)
Because the guy has a good skill not only for imitating the Dilbert drawing style, but also the comic timing that Adams goes in for. If only he had some joke ideas it could really go somewhere.
--
Xenu loves you!
After Bill and some other dignitaries spoke for a few minutes (including Frank Gehry, the architect of the new LCS and AI complex), everyone crowded around Mr. Gates. After a few minutes, I got closer to him and noticed that he looked really old, or weary. His skin was parched, his pores were really big, and his hair was graying; this is certainly not what I expected of the world's richest man in his early-40's.
When I finally got to speak to him, I said exactly one thing: "I disagree with your stance on proprietary software, but we appreciate the donation of a new building." He rolled his eyes and gave no verbal response. That certainly made my night. =) I managed to tell him exactly what I thought of his empire without embarrassing myself, the LCS, or MIT in the process.
Incidentally, I was wearing a suit and not an Obi-wan Kenobi costume.
If anyone has any questions, I might be able to tell you more; it was an interesting experience, considering how I expected him to be very impressive and very professional. I was quite surprised.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
[ home ]
Well, I'm not interested in spreading rumors. As much as I disagree with his stance on various issues and his general ideology, I don't hate the man -- I don't know him personally, and therefore cannot come to that conclusion. For all I know, he could be a great guy outside the office.
I did not therefore imply to imply an ad hominem attack by describing my impression of his appearance. I was simply providing the facts and letting people draw their own conclusions. However, since you asked, I will offer my own conclusions.
I think the man is under a lot of pressure: the DOJ trial, trying to raise a family, competitors -- including free software -- nipping at his heels, etc. I think it has taken its toll on him physically. Not being facetious at all, I would recommend that he take a couple of billion dollars, transfer control of the company completely to someone else, and go retire somewhere peaceful. Not doing so might literally kill him.
In the end, it just doesn't matter -- he is one man, where computer users make up a community of hundreds of millions. While I wish him no personal ill, I do hope that Microsoft either starts producing better (read: more reliable, with less feature-creep) software, or gets out of the way and lets free software do what it eventually will.
Yet -- and yes, this is turing into a bit of a diatribe -- I am in somewhat of a quandry with that last statement. There will always be those of us to whom freedom and openness are important. I, for one, will never again run a closed operating system. (My system is certified Microsoft-free!) But I don't really care what the guy down the street runs. It just doesn't matter to me. Sure, I want any computer that I interact with to respond properly, and I want any services I use on the internet to work well, so I don't want Microsoft operating systems running bank services, or the military, or so forth. But Joe Sixpack can keep upgrading to the newest service pack of Windows, for all I care.
So, I guess choice is the most important thing I care about. The choice to run proprietary software, or to run free software. I do think that free software will eventually win out in most markets just on technical merits, but I don't think that all software should be forced to be free.
Okay, diatribe off. I'll try to make this a bit more lucid tomorrow. I'm off to bed -- rise and shine at 6:30 EDT tomorrow. (Ugh...)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
[ home ]
Family Circus was washed up long ago. Hopefully the Slashdot crowd was spared the agony of enduring that oh-so-tame attempt at humour. Some of us poor bastards who still bear the psychic scars. That strip deserved to be soundly skewered. And it was.
Let's put that slashdot to good use and get a decent president in office!
-Dan
When I moderate, I only use "-1, Overrated". That way, I never get meta-moderated!