I've actually worried about that -- someone posting something obnoxious using my name. This is especially worrisome when you meet people who are assholes.
Okay. Here's what I see happening, putting aside the morality and legality of the issue:
Does anyone think my name is really Khaed? It's not.
Do they think the kids are so stupid that they won't post with screen names, like I have here? I have two or three different names I like that I use in various places. I could be talking to some/.ers in AIM and they wouldn't know I was the same person unless they recognized my way of phrasing things, because my name is so much different there. Same for my personal e-mail (which is my real name), and my livejournal account (which is the third screen name I like).
Kids aren't stupid.
The faculty is stupid if they think this will solve anything.
Lesson for the kids, though: Careful what you attach to your name on the internet. I have a rule that goes something like "I don't say anything using my real name I wouldn't want my mom to read." If you post anything you did that was illegal, or brag about it in public then you are stupid and deserve to get caught.
I have since read the article; I still think they're wrong. So does the ACLU, apparently
They didn't call the cops, they didn't feel like it was a serious threat. If they thought he was serious, they would have had the cops arrest him at school. For making a threat. But they didn't, and they told his mother they "didn't have time for this." Sorry, if I think someone is actually threatening to shoot me or people at my place of work, I am calling the cops to deal with it.
What I thought: School wants to punish boy for something he said online, while at home, that they didn't like. What it is: School wants to punish boy for something he said online, while at home, that they don't like. But they don't feel the threat was serious enough for law enforcement.
Sorry, no, I'm not wrong in this case. It is pretty much what I expected. The only thing I'm left wondering is what initially caused him to feel bullied, before the post in question.
If a famous person says something to offend their fans, who turn away in droves, that could be considered a punishment. But are the fans constitutionally obligated to continue buying the CDs/games/movies of said famous person? Of course not. (I don't think you're suggesting this, but I felt it should be said.)
However, this is a government run school. Be it state, federal, or local, the government should not be punishing him for free speech, on his own time, off school property. Unless he is threatening (or libel/slandering, but that's a whole different debate), they are completely out of line. Period.
I didn't read TFA, because, well, this story is nothing new, but I can see this as a time for the ACLU to step in. I know if I were this kid, I would have googled the ACLU immediately. The school already plans to kick him out, or is at least considering it. He basically has nothing to lose by bringing down heat on them.
LS-120 should have replaced the floppy. I loved those things. They were cooler than Zip because you could use floppies in them. Now, though, I'm happy with USB thumb drives as a replacement.
and they love it so much they are prepared to scream and yell at me for pointing out that it just very well might turn out to be something less than a complete "revolution" of the industry.
Eh, but that's not what you're doing. What you're doing is whining about people who are discussing the Wii on Slashdot, and discussing the price differences.
However, I've been around and posting on gaming threads since long before you had your first wet dream of playing Zelda with a motion-sensor.
Fanboy alert. Seriously, that's the kind of fanboy flamebait crap that goes on every time there's a new generation of consoles. I don't know what kind of a weird, weird world you live in, but I don't have wet dreams about Zelda, or motion-sensors, nor do I have regular dreams about Zelda, or motion-sensors, or video games, or computer pereipherals. Note, also, that having longevity as someone who bitches about fanboys isn't really impressive.
Sorry that, you know, I don't spend enough time in Slashdot's gaming section to recognize your name from the N64 vs. PSX days where you bitched and whined about N64 fanboys (both of them).
Just think about how weird it is that, of the thousands of active Slashdot posters, I recognized your name almost instantly as someone who bitches about Nintendo "fanboys" and "astroturfing" and "shills."
every goddamn console thread that ISN'T about the Wii
We're discussing price, so it's relevant. The other thread?
It was about the price of the PS3 as well. Hence, the Wii's low price came up. I could see if, for example, we had a thread discussing the graphics capabilities, or the Cell processor, and suddenly people started talking about the Wii (unless we were comparing processors, at which point, the PS3 would win by a large margin).
I am no more a Nintendo fanboy than you are a paid shill for Sony; I bought the PSX and PS2 and have enjoyed them, and I'll buy a PS3... when the price isn't $600. Which was part of the discussion in both the threads where you went about whining about Nintendo fanboys. I am sorry that I do not have the same loyalty to a Japanese gaming company that you do, and that me expressing it offends your sensibilities.
Actually, no, I'm not. But I am a bit amused by the whole "I've been in gaming threads longer than you!" thing you said.
Oh my God the balls is took to say that on slashdot. I am surprised you have not been flamed to all hell by the horde by now. Even still, I will say a flamewarriors prayer for you. "Yae though I walk through the valley of the shadow of flames... I will fear no trolls... for asbestos is with me."
Actually, if you look at his other posts, he pretty much spends every gaming thread bitching about people shilling for Nintendo. If anything he is a fanboy, or at least a Nintendo hater. I thought "Gee, another guy complaining about people shilling for Nintendo... oh wait... that name is familiar..."
Yeah, the guy thinks we're being paid, too. Just because I think $600 is crazy. If Nintendo was paying me I could afford a PS3.
You must be one of the most ignorant motherfuckers on slashdot.
We give billions in aid, both governmental and private, to Africa. It has nothing to do with race. Dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic there is a major issue. Because, you know, it's really fucking bad. In part because of a lack of education there, in part because of local stubbornness(people refusing to listen to the education and spreading it), and we don't want the virus to mutate enough in humans that all the research for a cure or prevention is thrown out when AIDS II hits.
And I hate having to call you out on this, because so rarely do I see/. posts advocating a conservative viewpoint on anything, but you're just a total asshole through out this post.
We spend more on foreign aid in the US than we do on NASA. And I'm not counting any of the goings on in Iraq or wars as foreign aid, either.
Space travel is a fraction of the budget. The RIAA makes more money every year than the NASA budget for any given year. And they've contributed nothing to man kind like NASA research has. Just, you know, for some perspective: We waste more money on shitty music than the government spends on NASA and research.
There is a world of difference between a text based environment and a GUI that requires 512MB-1GB.
Of course, this same argument was probably had years ago when Windows 98 needed 16MB of RAM. Every new Windows version, people are going to gawk at the requirements. Truth is? This won't even make a dent in how well Windows Vista sells.
I don't think it NEEDS to be so big to be user friendly.
I know that tech will hit a point where it gets ridiculous to improve on, but the average Joe User does not. That was partly what I meant with that -- they'll hold out for the next, or even one after that. Even if there may not be for years. "We just got THIS, and now they want us to change?"
It's a public perception thing, based on the majority of non-techie people I know. People who don't know, for example, the difference between RAM and hard drive, or BluRay and HD-DVD.
I'm not overlooking it. I don't need a BluRay player. I don't want a BluRay player. It hasn't even won the format war yet. Would I buy a PS3 for $300? No. Would I buy a BluRay player for $300? No. I won't buy a TV for $500+, either. At this point, I wouldn't buy a BluRay player, period.
I wouldn't even buy a Wii for $300, and I certainly won't be buyin an X-Box for $300 (or $400, or $200).
Sony has a bad, bad record with their formats (Beta, memory stick, minidisc, hell, UMD). Spending $600 on a console, and a new format is the majority of the cost? Nope. Not going to happen, sorry.
VHS was around for about twenty years or so before people were okay with moving on to a new format. DVD has been huge for about five years. If content makers start to push a new format this soon, a lot of people will be hesitant because, "hell, in five years, what will replace this?"
I mean, how many people still use Windows 98 era computers? Outside of slashdot and the gamer community.
Wii Fan: I'm not being paid buy Nintendo! AstroTurf Accuser: That's exactly what I thought you'd say!
We can't prove we're not paid shills. I could scan my bank records, and you'd just say "well you have another bank account, or you didn't deposit their checks you just cashed them."
No matter what is said, you're going to say we're astroturfing. So: Maybe YOU are astroturfing for Sony. Because right now, they need it a whole hell of a lot more than Nintendo.
It's also an ad hominem attack. Everyone accusing us of being paid by Nintendo is attacking us, not our argument.
Oh, I'd like if it it came with a game, but: If it's $50 more, and a game is $50, you're not really getting anything different than if you buy a game separate.
Uh, the Gamecube shipped with one controller and no games at $200. The N64 shipped with only one controller, and I think one game. For the last ten years, systems have shipped without games, unless you bought a bundle.
The original Playstation did ship with a demo disk, though. Not sure what the Saturn shipped with.
Ditto. And most of my errors are a missed tag or quotation mark that would screw up the page anyway -- that reason alone is a good reason to run it through a validator. You can open the page and tell if a tag is screwed up, but a validator will tell you where.
Oh God. Thank you, Apple. I'm tired of seeing Libby Hoeler and Psycho Girl every other week on usenet... new blood! (only, I hope there is no blood involved...)
You're full of it. I have a seriously hard time believing even a significant minority of those who are pro-Wii here is being paid. I'm not. And hardly any of the UIDs are that high. Maybe you're astroturfing for Sony by making accusations of astroturfing. Read your comments; you sound like a disgruntled Sony fanboy who is upset that the people here on/. think $600 is too much, or that the Wiimote is neat, or whatever.
Oh wait, my check just got here from Nintendo. I guess I didn't see it under the checks from Karl Rove, Steve Jobs, and Santa Claus.
Slashdot Mirror
And the next story...
Humor? Slashdotters need not apply.
I've actually worried about that -- someone posting something obnoxious using my name. This is especially worrisome when you meet people who are assholes.
Omigod.
MOM?!
Okay. Here's what I see happening, putting aside the morality and legality of the issue:
/.ers in AIM and they wouldn't know I was the same person unless they recognized my way of phrasing things, because my name is so much different there. Same for my personal e-mail (which is my real name), and my livejournal account (which is the third screen name I like).
Does anyone think my name is really Khaed? It's not.
Do they think the kids are so stupid that they won't post with screen names, like I have here? I have two or three different names I like that I use in various places. I could be talking to some
Kids aren't stupid.
The faculty is stupid if they think this will solve anything.
Lesson for the kids, though: Careful what you attach to your name on the internet. I have a rule that goes something like "I don't say anything using my real name I wouldn't want my mom to read." If you post anything you did that was illegal, or brag about it in public then you are stupid and deserve to get caught.
I have since read the article; I still think they're wrong. So does the ACLU, apparently
They didn't call the cops, they didn't feel like it was a serious threat. If they thought he was serious, they would have had the cops arrest him at school. For making a threat. But they didn't, and they told his mother they "didn't have time for this." Sorry, if I think someone is actually threatening to shoot me or people at my place of work, I am calling the cops to deal with it.
What I thought: School wants to punish boy for something he said online, while at home, that they didn't like. What it is: School wants to punish boy for something he said online, while at home, that they don't like. But they don't feel the threat was serious enough for law enforcement.
Sorry, no, I'm not wrong in this case. It is pretty much what I expected. The only thing I'm left wondering is what initially caused him to feel bullied, before the post in question.
It depends on what the punishment is.
If a famous person says something to offend their fans, who turn away in droves, that could be considered a punishment. But are the fans constitutionally obligated to continue buying the CDs/games/movies of said famous person? Of course not. (I don't think you're suggesting this, but I felt it should be said.)
However, this is a government run school. Be it state, federal, or local, the government should not be punishing him for free speech, on his own time, off school property. Unless he is threatening (or libel/slandering, but that's a whole different debate), they are completely out of line. Period.
I didn't read TFA, because, well, this story is nothing new, but I can see this as a time for the ACLU to step in. I know if I were this kid, I would have googled the ACLU immediately. The school already plans to kick him out, or is at least considering it. He basically has nothing to lose by bringing down heat on them.
LS-120 should have replaced the floppy. I loved those things. They were cooler than Zip because you could use floppies in them. Now, though, I'm happy with USB thumb drives as a replacement.
and they love it so much they are prepared to scream and yell at me for pointing out that it just very well might turn out to be something less than a complete "revolution" of the industry.
Eh, but that's not what you're doing. What you're doing is whining about people who are discussing the Wii on Slashdot, and discussing the price differences.
However, I've been around and posting on gaming threads since long before you had your first wet dream of playing Zelda with a motion-sensor.
Fanboy alert. Seriously, that's the kind of fanboy flamebait crap that goes on every time there's a new generation of consoles. I don't know what kind of a weird, weird world you live in, but I don't have wet dreams about Zelda, or motion-sensors, nor do I have regular dreams about Zelda, or motion-sensors, or video games, or computer pereipherals. Note, also, that having longevity as someone who bitches about fanboys isn't really impressive.
Sorry that, you know, I don't spend enough time in Slashdot's gaming section to recognize your name from the N64 vs. PSX days where you bitched and whined about N64 fanboys (both of them).
Just think about how weird it is that, of the thousands of active Slashdot posters, I recognized your name almost instantly as someone who bitches about Nintendo "fanboys" and "astroturfing" and "shills."
every goddamn console thread that ISN'T about the Wii
We're discussing price, so it's relevant. The other thread?
It was about the price of the PS3 as well. Hence, the Wii's low price came up. I could see if, for example, we had a thread discussing the graphics capabilities, or the Cell processor, and suddenly people started talking about the Wii (unless we were comparing processors, at which point, the PS3 would win by a large margin).
I am no more a Nintendo fanboy than you are a paid shill for Sony; I bought the PSX and PS2 and have enjoyed them, and I'll buy a PS3... when the price isn't $600. Which was part of the discussion in both the threads where you went about whining about Nintendo fanboys. I am sorry that I do not have the same loyalty to a Japanese gaming company that you do, and that me expressing it offends your sensibilities.
Actually, no, I'm not. But I am a bit amused by the whole "I've been in gaming threads longer than you!" thing you said.
Compare Nintendo fans to Nazi's! That'll be fun!
So he probably runs Windows?
Oh my God the balls is took to say that on slashdot. I am surprised you have not been flamed to all hell by the horde by now. Even still, I will say a flamewarriors prayer for you. "Yae though I walk through the valley of the shadow of flames... I will fear no trolls... for asbestos is with me."
Seriously man. +1 Ballsy.
Actually, if you look at his other posts, he pretty much spends every gaming thread bitching about people shilling for Nintendo. If anything he is a fanboy, or at least a Nintendo hater. I thought "Gee, another guy complaining about people shilling for Nintendo... oh wait... that name is familiar..."
Yeah, the guy thinks we're being paid, too. Just because I think $600 is crazy. If Nintendo was paying me I could afford a PS3.
I was using NASA as an example because that's where a lot of money goes in the US, space research wise.
Thanks for being a racist, asshole.
/. posts advocating a conservative viewpoint on anything, but you're just a total asshole through out this post.
You must be one of the most ignorant motherfuckers on slashdot.
We give billions in aid, both governmental and private, to Africa. It has nothing to do with race. Dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic there is a major issue. Because, you know, it's really fucking bad. In part because of a lack of education there, in part because of local stubbornness(people refusing to listen to the education and spreading it), and we don't want the virus to mutate enough in humans that all the research for a cure or prevention is thrown out when AIDS II hits.
And I hate having to call you out on this, because so rarely do I see
We spend more on foreign aid in the US than we do on NASA. And I'm not counting any of the goings on in Iraq or wars as foreign aid, either.
Space travel is a fraction of the budget. The RIAA makes more money every year than the NASA budget for any given year. And they've contributed nothing to man kind like NASA research has. Just, you know, for some perspective: We waste more money on shitty music than the government spends on NASA and research.
There is a world of difference between a text based environment and a GUI that requires 512MB-1GB.
Of course, this same argument was probably had years ago when Windows 98 needed 16MB of RAM. Every new Windows version, people are going to gawk at the requirements. Truth is? This won't even make a dent in how well Windows Vista sells.
I don't think it NEEDS to be so big to be user friendly.
I know that tech will hit a point where it gets ridiculous to improve on, but the average Joe User does not. That was partly what I meant with that -- they'll hold out for the next, or even one after that. Even if there may not be for years. "We just got THIS, and now they want us to change?"
It's a public perception thing, based on the majority of non-techie people I know. People who don't know, for example, the difference between RAM and hard drive, or BluRay and HD-DVD.
I'm not overlooking it. I don't need a BluRay player. I don't want a BluRay player. It hasn't even won the format war yet. Would I buy a PS3 for $300? No. Would I buy a BluRay player for $300? No. I won't buy a TV for $500+, either. At this point, I wouldn't buy a BluRay player, period.
I wouldn't even buy a Wii for $300, and I certainly won't be buyin an X-Box for $300 (or $400, or $200).
Sony has a bad, bad record with their formats (Beta, memory stick, minidisc, hell, UMD). Spending $600 on a console, and a new format is the majority of the cost? Nope. Not going to happen, sorry.
VHS was around for about twenty years or so before people were okay with moving on to a new format. DVD has been huge for about five years. If content makers start to push a new format this soon, a lot of people will be hesitant because, "hell, in five years, what will replace this?"
I mean, how many people still use Windows 98 era computers? Outside of slashdot and the gamer community.
That's a bullshit trap, and reaks of paranoia.
Wii Fan: I'm not being paid buy Nintendo!
AstroTurf Accuser: That's exactly what I thought you'd say!
We can't prove we're not paid shills. I could scan my bank records, and you'd just say "well you have another bank account, or you didn't deposit their checks you just cashed them."
No matter what is said, you're going to say we're astroturfing. So: Maybe YOU are astroturfing for Sony. Because right now, they need it a whole hell of a lot more than Nintendo.
It's also an ad hominem attack. Everyone accusing us of being paid by Nintendo is attacking us, not our argument.
Oh, I'd like if it it came with a game, but: If it's $50 more, and a game is $50, you're not really getting anything different than if you buy a game separate.
Uh, the Gamecube shipped with one controller and no games at $200. The N64 shipped with only one controller, and I think one game. For the last ten years, systems have shipped without games, unless you bought a bundle.
The original Playstation did ship with a demo disk, though. Not sure what the Saturn shipped with.
Ditto. And most of my errors are a missed tag or quotation mark that would screw up the page anyway -- that reason alone is a good reason to run it through a validator. You can open the page and tell if a tag is screwed up, but a validator will tell you where.
Oh God. Thank you, Apple. I'm tired of seeing Libby Hoeler and Psycho Girl every other week on usenet... new blood! (only, I hope there is no blood involved...)
(any female mods: be gentle.)
I get spam that says that all the time... "Pics of the black one!" Usually it only has nine or ten inches though.
Now I guess I know what it means.
You're full of it. I have a seriously hard time believing even a significant minority of those who are pro-Wii here is being paid. I'm not. And hardly any of the UIDs are that high. Maybe you're astroturfing for Sony by making accusations of astroturfing. Read your comments; you sound like a disgruntled Sony fanboy who is upset that the people here on /. think $600 is too much, or that the Wiimote is neat, or whatever.
Oh wait, my check just got here from Nintendo. I guess I didn't see it under the checks from Karl Rove, Steve Jobs, and Santa Claus.
Vote Bush! Buy Apple! Buy Coca Cola!
You forgot one: Betamax: "Far from the worst flop in history."