My claim is that the current (disturbing) legislative trend is curtailing civil liberties in the name of security. The Patriot Act is a civil rights mess. You refuse to accept it as evidence because you want it to say something like "the 5th amendment has now been suspended" or something. That's not the only qualifying evidence, and also it's not going to happen. You have to read between the lines (not read what's not there in case you were going to use that argument) and realize that what I and others are claiming is going on.
You have mired my claim from "we have lots all our rights allready" to "some people are trying to infringe on our rights" (with the implication that those people have no shot at succeeding). Both are wrong and both are not my position. Read the facts. The legislators are in the process of defenestrating civil liberties. They have had some success, though not as a direct disarmament, in passing legislature that paves the way for more alarming stuff in the future. Things go in strides. The trend going on (proven by the wealth of evidence allready brought forth) is a bold plan to "secure" America via a large government police with the power to infiltrate the previously protected American Citizen.
Please stop the "only a written confession from OJ or a video tape of the murder itself will satisfy my admission of his guilt" crap. If you don't accept the evidence because it's not clear cut enough for you, that's fine. No one can convince you--but that doesn't make you right.
In the long run, the same stuff will go on (or not go on) regardless of our rhetorical argument's outcome--I am alarmed, you are not. I'm sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but on the other hand I am sorry that you got modded down as troll.
There has allready been a proponderance of evidence in support. Again, our liberties are under attack not destroyed. The evidence supports my claim, and others have posted evidence in support of the latter claim. However, you are dissatisfied with that evidence (if you read some there are concrete examples). That's not my problem. My claim has been supported. Your incorrect interpretation of it is irrelevant.
Did you read the articles? They are all full of congressmen saying how we should give up liberty for security. I never tried to pin the ID card thing on him. The EFF report on the Patriot Act talks all about problems and rights violations. The first amendment article also is extremely relevant. Another poster also linked to a good document.
Here's my interpretation of what you're saying to me: present me with a broad piece of legislation that directly encroaches upon rights, and nothing less. The Patriot Act is imho a good example of this, and my other links are good examples of how legislators, political figures, and powerful third parties are going about civil liberty encroachment. I made the claim that our rights are being eroded and attacked in order to "combat terrorism". I cited evidence that the Patriot Act has done so (the eff article enumerates violations and problems), and how many key figures are going about attacking average citizens.
The point is that this is a disturbing trend to me. I have cited evidence for my claim, which is that the way things are going, the values and freedoms we enjoy will be taken under the visage of government protection. My claim is not that our rights have allready been swept out from underneath (that would certainly be FUD). Your dismissal of my supporting evidence indicates this is what your assesment of my argument is.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you may have been reading the articles with the sole purpose in mind of shooting me down. I admit I should have been clearer with my argument and not so dramatic (though I am quite passionate about this), but will you not agree that my evidence is sufficient to validate my concerns with the goverment's response to 9/11?
The Patriot Act. The national ID cards are being pushed with 9/11 rhetoric. They will most likely become law. A story on Fox news should also have some good information for you.
The 1st amendment has also been under attack. Read about it here
There's a wealth of more information I could gather, but it's best to find this stuff out for yourself. And of course, there's community legislation. In my community, lots of ridiculous garbage has passed that attacks all kinds of rights, mostly privacy. The article here is a great example.
Yeah this seems to be a disturbing trend since 911. Our borders are wide open for people to come in (I'm not saying that's good or bad) and goverment control of everyday citizens is all that they can come up with.
The Patriot Act is one of the most stifling pieces of legislation I've ever seen. From a conservative standpoint, I feel the Republican party has completely 180'ed in the last year. Government control will not help. Mr. Bush, who I am not happy to say I voted for, has either kept or enlarged pretty much every fluffy program Clinton created. I'm not saying that they're all bad (they're irrelevant to my point), but the bicameral support promised after 9/11 has turned into the entire government encroaching on civil liberties. In fact, I hope that some Democrats may even agree with me here.
We have to learn that there are people in this world that will do some pretty destructive things, and that we're never wholly secure. The EU, Canada, and the US are all providing security at the cost of our freedom. Don't do it--it's a bad deal. And when and if the next attack comes, their solution will be even more tempting. Don't accept their FUD. People in other parts of the world live in much more hostile environments.
Sorry if this is somewhat of a rant, or possibly sounding a bit too much like FUD, but I'm hearing what's in store for computers and DRM, coupled with what's in store for our rights and privacy (namely the elimination therein), and I'm not liking the world that the next generation will grow up in.
1) Windows *is* insecure, as many here point out. Those who know what they are talking about are not bitching but discussing. Those who don't have a clue are trolling. They are hardly the majority. 2) *Nix can also be insecure, depending on the software, and more importantly the skills of the person running the show. However (next point), 3) The article is *not* an OS comparison. 4) The article is *about* security flaws. 5) Most anti-"M$" security complaints here are regarding how Outlook automatically allows binary attachments to run unauthorized (and there are no priveleges to prevent anything). 6) The parent posted as an AC.
Even the broadcast-flag technology failed to address an infinitely harder problem: how to stop people from using the Internet to spread movies from sources other than digital television. Disney used that limitation as an opportunity to reframe the debate.
I'm sure this point has been made before on some other similar article somewhere else, but I enjoy ranting and most posts do this too, so I'll speak my mind anyway:)
If one looks back in history 50 years, one will recall the 50's as a decade where Hollywood studios were in trouble, feared the television media for similar reasons as they fear the 'net today, and were reluctant to enter the new technology. The studios faced monopolistic charges (I'm recalling a John Lithgow PBS segment) and almost went bankrupt. They bit the bullet, embraced television, and Hollywood fared quite well.
Now, movie making and television have virtually merged thanks to Time Warner, Turner, etc (well for our purposes they have). They are not starving for cash these days, but they certainly are not embracing this new technology. They are rather attempting to control it and resist it, like in the 50's. What they must realize is that more people "pirating" means more people viewing their content. These then could be customers if the RIAA would embrace (I'm sick of that word too; homonyms?) the 'net, they could provide content from third party sites that they could control just like television. They would need some ad system which I am not going to try and pull out of my arse to gain the sites revenue, but I think it could work. Either that or a pay system, but because of who we're dealing with, it would have to be good.
My point (ah yes, there it is) is that if the big guns spent some of their budget for fighting the 'scourge' that is 'piracy,' they could at the very least have a better argument in court, if not a peaceable solution for everyone. All of you out there downloading m0vI3Z will have to give it up if anything but more rights being lost is to be acheived. They will win if you don't, and honest hackers and their rights will get screwed.
Me too--I found this to be one of the best interviews on/. in a while. Thanks, guys!
Also, because he was such a ground-breaking pioneer, at a time when a guy with a soldering iron & his brain could come up with something really innovative. The way that he squeezed every last bit of functionality from the circuits that he had to work with at the time is truly an example of Edison's "99% perspiration".
I agree. I found how he made the floppy disk work without knowing how floppies themselves interfaced (beyond the most general level) a particularly good example of his genius--he actually cut out over 20 chips! Imagine all the mind numbing trial-and-error.
I think the big issue is the color contrast moreso than the size, right? Since eyes track the movement and that movement is most easily by one color moving through a starkly different one. Though the size might be a big deal...well I'd imagine their r&d funds came up with a good reason for it, and they know more than I do:)
Large cursor support, for cursors up to 64 by 64 pixels, has been added to the QuickDraw APIs. (r. 2827587).
Are cursors that big really that necessary?
True Type font files with the extension '.ttf' are now recognized in Mac OS X. (r. 2823850).
Funny--I never thought they were needed. Fonts have always looked better on Macs...nothing wrong with support I suppose.
CUPS has been integrated into Mac OS X. (r. 2849589).
This is nice...ought to make life easier for those of us with Macs on the *nix-based LAN. Looks like Apple is headed for more interpolation. Especially with all the rumors of an Intel port of OSX flying about:)
In my exeriences in China many have their own opinion contrary to the government--it is simply hard to find any information that is not biased. Even in colleges, which should have that, information is scarce. The internet threatens the current powers that be in just this way: hence the firewall.
i found a great copy of led zeppelin, van halen, the rolling stones, kid rock, pearl jam, nirvana, and aerosmith doing 'little wing' on gnutella the other day.
I'm glad it makes sense--I'm switching to dvorak and I end up avoiding needed typing at times.
These are certainly times where more information is given to us than we care to handle, and various interests attempt to use that against us. That is why we must avoid the common temptation to switch our minds to 'autopilot.'
Moderators: I realize that this is offtopic--I'm going off into a tangent, not trolling.
Actually, you're less-than-half right (well in the eyes of/. you have more karma). What I'm about to say was certainly more true with the USSR, but applies to PRN. As an American who has lived in China, I do have *some* authority in the matter.
Both censorship *and* propaganda have the same problem, but censorship has it worse. The Soviets rewrote WWII to a noble East-West battle for example.
China certainly hasn't gotten to this extent, but the idea that censorship forces you to form your own opinion is *ridiculous* since censorship, like propaganda, is a gov't tool to stop those opinions and control the masses. Opinions need facts; censorship stifles facts; hence, censorship (moreso than prop.) stops opinions.
Your argument seems to hold water on/. but I think anyone with any knowledge would disagree. Doubting whether the PRC censors beyond the web? Ask a Chinese about Tibet.
Finally, yes prop is rampant here in the US--it merely pales in comparison to the PRC.
You're misunderstanding--I've been trying to post different various types of posts that I see get different scores. When I actually post, modding seldom matters to me (and I seldom get modded up or down) because when I want to actually discuss something I don't bother to format the post in a way that looks nice or anything.
I began thinking you were some troll, and you turned out having a well thought out argument. I'm still not swayed by the whole geek-control thing, but I do agree there are a lot of trolls. I've been doing alot of experimentation of posting and what sort of messages get modded up and in "funny" posts I make fun of blind anti-M$ sentiment and I get modded down and flamed for exactly what I'm mocking...oh well
But the idea isn't to be informative to one person, it's to be informative to the public. BTW my recent funny post got modded up then modded down 'cause I was accused of M$ bashing when I was really poking fun at it--I guess people don't really like funny posts then....
It got modded up for the song--I spent 10 minutes thinking that thing up!! (The Office joke is poking fun at the typical Anti-M$ mod-me-up-cause-I-think-M$-sux-and-I-am-l33t, but I guess people see it so much around he they assume people are actually espousing that view).
Message to moderators: I think this guy was going for "Funny", not "Informative." In fact that was abundantly clead, as the message references "liquid quicksilver" and "don't try this at home."
That's incredible--however they're using Windows, so I bet MS Office still takes hours to load;)
Oh give me a board, that I can afford
That can OC a P4 no prob.
Where liquid N 2, cools that hot CPU
And keeps you from doing your job;)
Oh they took a 2-8, to almost 4-G that's great,
Bun can this new speed get me laid?
The answer of course, one that I don't endorse,
is visit this link everyday!
Ok, since you're first post you're comments have evolved from distasteful ranting and goatse.cx links to strongly disagreeing and giving reasons for it--such disagreements contribute to the community as a whole and if you post such comments in a well-thought out intelligent manner, as I said before you will get modded up. I simply disagree with you because I can't fathom anyone actually enjoying the power trip of slashdot moderation and controlling people on a news for nerds site. It doesn't fundamentally make sense--you're premises therefore don't convince me enough to even conceptualize your conclusion.
Girl I know there's times, when we walk along.
That pain is at our feet--a pain so strong.
Maybe the greatest crime, if it all comes caving in.
Is forgetting 'bout the heat, when a metorite comes along.
[Girl singing]
Yeah believe me it hurts, but is it news worthy?
News for nerds and geeks, does this stuff really matter?
It hit me in the foot, but don't buy me a trophy.
I'm here 'cause for the last few weeks, they couldn't find anything better....
[Both together]
You know it hurts so bad, when no one really cares.
The story is quite sad, but to make everything fair,
Let news for masses do their job, and us get stories for nerds,
Us hackers who look kinda odd, and first-posts that end up third.
Who cares if you get modded down? It's not like you're freedom goes away--quit whining. It's not the end of the world--until your Karma gets below neutral of course (your posts then get ignored because they start at "0"). I always see posts that criticize (without slandering) articles/staff that get 5's. And well-formatted posts make them easier to read. IF you see someone with a "5" and well-formatted garbage, reply and show them how thier argument is bad. If you're ideas are good, well presented, and reflect thought, you're guaranteed at least a "3". Believe it or not, there is a correlation between the time taken to write a post and the thought put into it and therefore the merit of the post. The moderation system is not for people to exert power, supress critizism, or control people (you seem to liken/. to an opressive government). It's to make it easy for users to weed out the unformatted garbage/trolls from the more intelligible and thoughtful posts.
Dude....its a freaking news site. It doesn't even usually come up with its own articles. It gathers them from the net, and people discuss it. The "Gays" that run it put moderation in the hands of the people that use the site. Their power here is little. You however seem to only want to discuss gay sex and anuses being pryed open and how the management of this site enjoys that in thier spare time. I frankly don't give a shit...I say some ascii art, decided to look, and say an exposed anus. You talk abou how "meritocracy" isn't a word, concept or a dream and yet you post unfounded slander and links to exposed assholes. I think "common decency" is simply unheard of to you.
Slashdot Mirror
My claim is that the current (disturbing) legislative trend is curtailing civil liberties in the name of security. The Patriot Act is a civil rights mess. You refuse to accept it as evidence because you want it to say something like "the 5th amendment has now been suspended" or something. That's not the only qualifying evidence, and also it's not going to happen. You have to read between the lines (not read what's not there in case you were going to use that argument) and realize that what I and others are claiming is going on.
You have mired my claim from "we have lots all our rights allready" to "some people are trying to infringe on our rights" (with the implication that those people have no shot at succeeding). Both are wrong and both are not my position. Read the facts. The legislators are in the process of defenestrating civil liberties. They have had some success, though not as a direct disarmament, in passing legislature that paves the way for more alarming stuff in the future. Things go in strides. The trend going on (proven by the wealth of evidence allready brought forth) is a bold plan to "secure" America via a large government police with the power to infiltrate the previously protected American Citizen.
Please stop the "only a written confession from OJ or a video tape of the murder itself will satisfy my admission of his guilt" crap. If you don't accept the evidence because it's not clear cut enough for you, that's fine. No one can convince you--but that doesn't make you right.
In the long run, the same stuff will go on (or not go on) regardless of our rhetorical argument's outcome--I am alarmed, you are not. I'm sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but on the other hand I am sorry that you got modded down as troll.
There has allready been a proponderance of evidence in support. Again, our liberties are under attack not destroyed. The evidence supports my claim, and others have posted evidence in support of the latter claim. However, you are dissatisfied with that evidence (if you read some there are concrete examples). That's not my problem. My claim has been supported. Your incorrect interpretation of it is irrelevant.
Did you read the articles? They are all full of congressmen saying how we should give up liberty for security. I never tried to pin the ID card thing on him. The EFF report on the Patriot Act talks all about problems and rights violations. The first amendment article also is extremely relevant. Another poster also linked to a good document.
Here's my interpretation of what you're saying to me: present me with a broad piece of legislation that directly encroaches upon rights, and nothing less. The Patriot Act is imho a good example of this, and my other links are good examples of how legislators, political figures, and powerful third parties are going about civil liberty encroachment. I made the claim that our rights are being eroded and attacked in order to "combat terrorism". I cited evidence that the Patriot Act has done so (the eff article enumerates violations and problems), and how many key figures are going about attacking average citizens.
The point is that this is a disturbing trend to me. I have cited evidence for my claim, which is that the way things are going, the values and freedoms we enjoy will be taken under the visage of government protection. My claim is not that our rights have allready been swept out from underneath (that would certainly be FUD). Your dismissal of my supporting evidence indicates this is what your assesment of my argument is.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you may have been reading the articles with the sole purpose in mind of shooting me down. I admit I should have been clearer with my argument and not so dramatic (though I am quite passionate about this), but will you not agree that my evidence is sufficient to validate my concerns with the goverment's response to 9/11?
The Patriot Act.
The national ID cards are being pushed with 9/11 rhetoric. They will most likely become law.
A story on Fox news should also have some good information for you.
The 1st amendment has also been under attack. Read about it here
There's a wealth of more information I could gather, but it's best to find this stuff out for yourself. And of course, there's community legislation. In my community, lots of ridiculous garbage has passed that attacks all kinds of rights, mostly privacy. The article here is a great example.
Yeah this seems to be a disturbing trend since 911. Our borders are wide open for people to come in (I'm not saying that's good or bad) and goverment control of everyday citizens is all that they can come up with.
The Patriot Act is one of the most stifling pieces of legislation I've ever seen. From a conservative standpoint, I feel the Republican party has completely 180'ed in the last year. Government control will not help. Mr. Bush, who I am not happy to say I voted for, has either kept or enlarged pretty much every fluffy program Clinton created. I'm not saying that they're all bad (they're irrelevant to my point), but the bicameral support promised after 9/11 has turned into the entire government encroaching on civil liberties. In fact, I hope that some Democrats may even agree with me here.
We have to learn that there are people in this world that will do some pretty destructive things, and that we're never wholly secure. The EU, Canada, and the US are all providing security at the cost of our freedom. Don't do it--it's a bad deal. And when and if the next attack comes, their solution will be even more tempting. Don't accept their FUD. People in other parts of the world live in much more hostile environments.
Sorry if this is somewhat of a rant, or possibly sounding a bit too much like FUD, but I'm hearing what's in store for computers and DRM, coupled with what's in store for our rights and privacy (namely the elimination therein), and I'm not liking the world that the next generation will grow up in.
1) Windows *is* insecure, as many here point out. Those who know what they are talking about are not bitching but discussing. Those who don't have a clue are trolling. They are hardly the majority.
2) *Nix can also be insecure, depending on the software, and more importantly the skills of the person running the show. However (next point),
3) The article is *not* an OS comparison.
4) The article is *about* security flaws.
5) Most anti-"M$" security complaints here are regarding how Outlook automatically allows binary attachments to run unauthorized (and there are no priveleges to prevent anything).
6) The parent posted as an AC.
Even the broadcast-flag technology failed to address an infinitely harder problem: how to stop people from using the Internet to spread movies from sources other than digital television. Disney used that limitation as an opportunity to reframe the debate.
I'm sure this point has been made before on some other similar article somewhere else, but I enjoy ranting and most posts do this too, so I'll speak my mind anyway :)
If one looks back in history 50 years, one will recall the 50's as a decade where Hollywood studios were in trouble, feared the television media for similar reasons as they fear the 'net today, and were reluctant to enter the new technology. The studios faced monopolistic charges (I'm recalling a John Lithgow PBS segment) and almost went bankrupt. They bit the bullet, embraced television, and Hollywood fared quite well.
Now, movie making and television have virtually merged thanks to Time Warner, Turner, etc (well for our purposes they have). They are not starving for cash these days, but they certainly are not embracing this new technology. They are rather attempting to control it and resist it, like in the 50's. What they must realize is that more people "pirating" means more people viewing their content. These then could be customers if the RIAA would embrace (I'm sick of that word too; homonyms?) the 'net, they could provide content from third party sites that they could control just like television. They would need some ad system which I am not going to try and pull out of my arse to gain the sites revenue, but I think it could work. Either that or a pay system, but because of who we're dealing with, it would have to be good.
My point (ah yes, there it is) is that if the big guns spent some of their budget for fighting the 'scourge' that is 'piracy,' they could at the very least have a better argument in court, if not a peaceable solution for everyone. All of you out there downloading m0vI3Z will have to give it up if anything but more rights being lost is to be acheived. They will win if you don't, and honest hackers and their rights will get screwed.
That's why I love to read these interviews.
Me too--I found this to be one of the best interviews on /. in a while. Thanks, guys!
Also, because he was such a ground-breaking pioneer, at a time when a guy with a soldering iron & his brain could come up with something really innovative. The way that he squeezed every last bit of functionality from the circuits that he had to work with at the time is truly an example of Edison's "99% perspiration".
I agree. I found how he made the floppy disk work without knowing how floppies themselves interfaced (beyond the most general level) a particularly good example of his genius--he actually cut out over 20 chips! Imagine all the mind numbing trial-and-error.
I think the big issue is the color contrast moreso than the size, right? Since eyes track the movement and that movement is most easily by one color moving through a starkly different one. Though the size might be a big deal...well I'd imagine their r&d funds came up with a good reason for it, and they know more than I do :)
Straight from the beast:
Large cursor support, for cursors up to 64 by 64 pixels, has been added to the QuickDraw APIs. (r. 2827587).
Are cursors that big really that necessary?
True Type font files with the extension '.ttf' are now recognized in Mac OS X. (r. 2823850).
Funny--I never thought they were needed. Fonts have always looked better on Macs...nothing wrong with support I suppose.
CUPS has been integrated into Mac OS X. (r. 2849589).
This is nice...ought to make life easier for those of us with Macs on the *nix-based LAN. Looks like Apple is headed for more interpolation. Especially with all the rumors of an Intel port of OSX flying about :)
In my exeriences in China many have their own opinion contrary to the government--it is simply hard to find any information that is not biased. Even in colleges, which should have that, information is scarce. The internet threatens the current powers that be in just this way: hence the firewall.
Does the xbox have a video card with DRI support? That'd make the frame rate more reasonable...
i found a great copy of led zeppelin, van halen, the rolling stones, kid rock, pearl jam, nirvana, and aerosmith doing 'little wing' on gnutella the other day.
I'm glad it makes sense--I'm switching to dvorak and I end up avoiding needed typing at times.
These are certainly times where more information is given to us than we care to handle, and various interests attempt to use that against us. That is why we must avoid the common temptation to switch our minds to 'autopilot.'
Moderators: I realize that this is offtopic--I'm going off into a tangent, not trolling.
Actually, you're less-than-half right (well in the eyes of /. you have more karma). What I'm about to say was certainly more true with the USSR, but applies to PRN. As an American who has lived in China, I do have *some* authority in the matter.
/. but I think anyone with any knowledge would disagree. Doubting whether the PRC censors beyond the web? Ask a Chinese about Tibet.
Both censorship *and* propaganda have the same problem, but censorship has it worse. The Soviets rewrote WWII to a noble East-West battle for example.
China certainly hasn't gotten to this extent, but the idea that censorship forces you to form your own opinion is *ridiculous* since censorship, like propaganda, is a gov't tool to stop those opinions and control the masses. Opinions need facts; censorship stifles facts; hence, censorship (moreso than prop.) stops opinions.
Your argument seems to hold water on
Finally, yes prop is rampant here in the US--it merely pales in comparison to the PRC.
You're misunderstanding--I've been trying to post different various types of posts that I see get different scores. When I actually post, modding seldom matters to me (and I seldom get modded up or down) because when I want to actually discuss something I don't bother to format the post in a way that looks nice or anything.
I began thinking you were some troll, and you turned out having a well thought out argument. I'm still not swayed by the whole geek-control thing, but I do agree there are a lot of trolls. I've been doing alot of experimentation of posting and what sort of messages get modded up and in "funny" posts I make fun of blind anti-M$ sentiment and I get modded down and flamed for exactly what I'm mocking...oh well
But the idea isn't to be informative to one person, it's to be informative to the public. BTW my recent funny post got modded up then modded down 'cause I was accused of M$ bashing when I was really poking fun at it--I guess people don't really like funny posts then....
It got modded up for the song--I spent 10 minutes thinking that thing up!! (The Office joke is poking fun at the typical Anti-M$ mod-me-up-cause-I-think-M$-sux-and-I-am-l33t, but I guess people see it so much around he they assume people are actually espousing that view).
Message to moderators: I think this guy was going for "Funny", not "Informative." In fact that was abundantly clead, as the message references "liquid quicksilver" and "don't try this at home."
That's incredible--however they're using Windows, so I bet MS Office still takes hours to load ;)
Oh give me a board, that I can afford ;)
That can OC a P4 no prob.
Where liquid N 2, cools that hot CPU
And keeps you from doing your job
Oh they took a 2-8, to almost 4-G that's great,
Bun can this new speed get me laid?
The answer of course, one that I don't endorse,
is visit this link everyday!
BTW "oppressive" was not spelt incorrectly :)
*sung to an 80's monster ballad type melody*
[guy singing, resembling a slashdot poster]
Girl I know there's times, when we walk along.
That pain is at our feet--a pain so strong.
Maybe the greatest crime, if it all comes caving in.
Is forgetting 'bout the heat, when a metorite comes along.
[Girl singing]
Yeah believe me it hurts, but is it news worthy?
News for nerds and geeks, does this stuff really matter?
It hit me in the foot, but don't buy me a trophy.
I'm here 'cause for the last few weeks, they couldn't find anything better....
[Both together]
You know it hurts so bad, when no one really cares.
The story is quite sad, but to make everything fair,
Let news for masses do their job, and us get stories for nerds,
Us hackers who look kinda odd, and first-posts that end up third.
Who cares if you get modded down? It's not like you're freedom goes away--quit whining. It's not the end of the world--until your Karma gets below neutral of course (your posts then get ignored because they start at "0"). I always see posts that criticize (without slandering) articles/staff that get 5's. And well-formatted posts make them easier to read. IF you see someone with a "5" and well-formatted garbage, reply and show them how thier argument is bad. If you're ideas are good, well presented, and reflect thought, you're guaranteed at least a "3". Believe it or not, there is a correlation between the time taken to write a post and the thought put into it and therefore the merit of the post. The moderation system is not for people to exert power, supress critizism, or control people (you seem to liken /. to an opressive government). It's to make it easy for users to weed out the unformatted garbage/trolls from the more intelligible and thoughtful posts.
Dude....its a freaking news site. It doesn't even usually come up with its own articles. It gathers them from the net, and people discuss it. The "Gays" that run it put moderation in the hands of the people that use the site. Their power here is little. You however seem to only want to discuss gay sex and anuses being pryed open and how the management of this site enjoys that in thier spare time. I frankly don't give a shit...I say some ascii art, decided to look, and say an exposed anus. You talk abou how "meritocracy" isn't a word, concept or a dream and yet you post unfounded slander and links to exposed assholes. I think "common decency" is simply unheard of to you.