Pretty much what everyone else has said. I didn't find Slashdot until probably '99 or so, but since then I've turned to it for news almost daily. It has certainly helped shaped my worldview, while also helping me know I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do. The Internet HAS changed, and the reason you give for leaving makes sense, but still... definitely the end of an era. Thanks for all the insight, laughs and frustration when you haven't met my high expectations:-)
Best wishes Taco.
Let's face it, we weren't going to get slam dunks on every appointment. There are so many ex-Clinton people everywhere that it was foolish to think Hiilary Rosen and her crew weren't going to get into the new Executive. But the silver lining is this: RIAA types are allowed into the discussion, but they don't CONTROL the debate or its terms. Allowing all sides at the table is a very different thing from deciding policy and ideology from on high and mandating that ideology all down the chain of command. The new Administration seems willing to include both progressives and moderates at the table. That means that we aren't going to get purely progressive solutions, but it does bode well for getting solutions. Obama seems intent on stopping the gridlock, and if that means allowing in points of view I vehemently disagree with, that 's fine as long as solid, scientifically-backed reasons and evidence are necessary criteria for policy decisions, not blind adherence to dogma.
I got this from the DIY Network: get a pretty rectangular cardboard box (like from Ikea or The Container Store) and cut small holes, evenly spaced, on the two longer sides, and one hole on one of the shorter sides. Screw small metal decorative plates (something to make the openings look neat, like light-switch covers but for a hole) over the holes, and stuff a power strip inside the box, with the cord coming out the one shorter side. Plug all the chargers into the strip, and bring their cords out the little holes you made. Put the cover on the box. Now you have a neat charging station that doesn't look like ass. I think this tip was brought to you by Quaker Oats chewy protein bars or something.
A Retrospect server will look for laptops when they connect to the network and back them up. The laptop just runs a little client app. I thought this is what everyone did...
People need to get over this. It's now inevitable. America is no longer either a democracy or a republic. America is an oligarchy, our next President will be a Clinton, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Your votes don't count, the Executive Branch has absolute unchecked power, and citizens have whatever rights their government decides they're allowed to have. Just accept it. You can't beat them, the battle is already over. Humans lost, corporations won. Stop whining about civil liberties, habeus corpus and freedom. You'll take the freedoms that they give you and like it, or you'll be sent to Guantanimo Bay with the rest of the terrorists. Live with it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Go start your own business, make your own money and forget about Wa$hington. The Constitution is a fairy tail you can tell your children. It has no meaning and no place in today's America. American is democracy is dead.
if you think ppl going gaga for a cell phone are a little off you might enjoy this. if you're a fan who can take a step back and laugh at yourself you might like it too.
The iPhone Song!
A few ppl have already mentioned it, but I actually use it and it works wonderfully. I have a set of speakers upstairs, in the living room, on the patio, and in the downstairs den. I can run iTunes from any machine in the house and send the stream to any of these Airport Express-connected speakers. It's a fantastic solution that really works. Of course, you need to consider your network layout, but these small basestations are able to extend existing networks, and can do B and/or G. They also do printer sharing. The audio output can be either stereo analog or digital mini. Given the small footprint/multiple uses/low cost of these units, I wouldn't consider anything else.
I know I feel guilty buying CDs-- all that plastic and paper when I'm just going to rip the CD and keep it on my computer anyway.
you know things are screwed up, though, when it costs less to buy a physical CD and have it shipped than it does to download the thing from iTunes. i comparison shop for everything i get between Amazon and iTunes, and sometimes having Amazon ship me the CD is cheaper. How the hell does that make sense (this is using Super Saving Shipping btw)?!?! Studios are greedy effin' bastards, i know that for DAMN sure.
Apart from the obvious "This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard" knee-jerk reaction, my second thought is, "why don't they just outlaw these people from using the sites to begin with?" It's hard to imagine a legitimate need for a sex offender to have access to a site filled with nubile flesh. Registering people's IM screennames seems ludicrous.
i've noticed that in the last 3~4 months amazon's prices have become more competitive with the iTS. i always compare prices, and there have been several times i've ended up ordering a handful of cds from amazon rather than downloading them because it's just cheaper.
on the other hand, i can see derek's point above about indies. there have been more than a few times that i've wiped the lotion off my hands after watching the latest suicidegirls podcast and gone to the iTS to look for the artist featured in the vid.
exactly my thoughts. this is the stupidest ploy to draw hits i've seen in a while. get the fanboys whipped into a bigger frenzy by the possibility of yet another mega-corporation entering the gaming market. how dumb do you have to be to buy into this delusion?
apple is hiring game developers to make sure their new iPods with bigger screens have a couple of decent launch titles. they might invest in making a few more downloadable games for the new models, with perhaps one or two built on entirely new IP. that's the extent of Apple's involvement in gaming. you'd have to be a moron to think Apple could compete in the console market. they can barely get decent OpenGL performance out of their current hardware (compare running WoW native and then under XP in bootcamp on a MacBook. it's pathetic). gamers would just laugh at any Apple-branded gaming device. this is coming from a diehard Mac user, btw. you can't change reality. for the record, though, Macs and 360s go great together (as long as you have access to a PC to run QTFairUse on, and share your music and photos with Connect360):-P
It's obvious what's going on. M$ has their wallet out and is handing ppl free money to favorably cover their mp3 player. They're trying to buy mindshare, to make it look like they're a competitor. It might work, who knows? I think ppl should be awful suspicious, though, before putting their money down on this thing. Buy a 360 and an iPod, and wait a year on the Zune/PS3.
Agreed. I don't see ANY intersection between the Wii and the other two consoles. They all play "video games" I guess, but after that, the differences multiply exponentially. I can't comment on the PS3, but I assume all the robustness M$ has built into their system will eventually find its way over to Sony's machine. There's a media store, downloadable HD movie rentals, downloadable old-school arcade AND new IP titles, a hard drive, and an unparalleled online experience allowing voice chat along with a universal messaging system. Add to that photorealistic games and the ability to stream music and photos from your computer, and you have a complete 21st century home entertainment system. Add a hi-def disc player if you get off on buying overpriced restrictive licenses to brainless entertainment that allow zero fair use rights.
The Wii requires separate cables just to get to 480p. It's useless for viewing photos over the composite connection. It does four things: plays innovative "party" games, plays children's titles, plays older Nintendo titles, and can surf the internet. There should be no question that the Wii is for children and "non-gamers." It's like the modern equivalent of board games. It's not a next-gen gaming console. It has no place in a competition with the other two.
There is no better example of this than Nintendo's insistence on using a "console code" system for online play. This is the perfect system to allow classmates to play with each other while keeping them safe from online predators, but has no place in an adult's gaming vocabulary. The titles we've seen so far bear this principle out. No online play for COD3, Marvel UA, Madden, Red Steel... it's just not what this thing is about. XBox Live is practically half of the XBox 360 experience. The two are inseparable.
Zonk can keep bashing the PS3 and plugging the Wii, there's nothing wrong with that, it's his site. However, as a Wii60 owner, I think this whole comparison/console war thing is a complete misnomer, as least as far as the Wii is concerned. The Wii cannot compete with what the other guys are offering. It's a system for casual gamers and children PRIMARILY. If it gains traction among the hardcore crowd, then perhaps we'll see the next iteration take the hardcore crowd more seriously. As it stands, no one's gonna choose the Wii version of a game over the 360 one unless there is a compelling retooling of the controls AND the online component is inconsequential (Madden). The exception, of course, is parents of tweens. They may not feel bad about their kid killing nazis in COD3, but they don't want me screaming obscenities at them as they do. They'll grab the Wii version.
In reality, we could have a frank discussion about why the other consoles have NO BUSINESS being in the hands of youngsters. Ever been sawdomized in GOW by a 6 y.o.? I'm pretty sure I have, going by the sounds of some kid's voices on XBL. I'm also pretty sure that kid isn't gonna make it outta middle school. Nintendo is definitely tapping into a completely different market than the other guys. As far as "next-gen console wars" go, they've left the ring. I think that's exactly what they're saying in TFA that I didn't read.
Does anyone else gag when they see that commercial touting the beauty of burning coal, using a little girl to sell the premise? Our country is run by energy companies. To deny it is tantamount to denying Iraq is in a civil war. Until people start voting, expect more of the same.
you know, things in election day preparation and execution are changing. i volunteered to be an election judge Tuesday in Maryland's infamous Montgomery County, and in the one precinct i was in we had myself and a guy who does IT security for NASA as judges. yes, there were also some elderly folks, but the thing is, there's nothing stopping us geeks from getting involved. the county made a real effort to implement procedures that helped bridge the gaps in security that the machines introduced, and the result was a pretty successful election. it's true that elderly poll workers perhaps aren't the best choice for staffing a country-wide rollout of new technology, so that's why people who give a shit need to get involved. if all geeks are willing to do is submit sensationalist stories to/. making outrageous claims that the sky is falling, then you are only pawns implementing the powerful's plans of voter suppression and intimidation. the fact is, people came out to vote, and their votes were counted. all the hype only served to keep people from coming to the polls, fearing it was a lost cause. it wasn't. these machines are not perfect, but if people with know-how are unwilling to help, and only willing to bitch from the sidelines, they're just as much of the problem as Diebold is.
So I'm going to be an election judge here in Montgomery County this election day. Lots of people have been asking "how can a state government allow closed-source machines to be used?" The answer, unfortunately, is simple and disgusting. Readers of the daily paper should be familiar with Representative Bob Ney, he's pleaded guilty to illegal dealings with Jack Abramoff. Congressman Ney's committee was in charge of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). This was a thoroughly modern piece of legislation (and by modern I mean written entirely by the industry it funnels taxpayer money to). Congressman Ney actively blocked attempts to mandate a paper trail. He was doing the bidding of his corporate constituents (I don't mean to imply that there is any other kind) who had paid a few disability groups to endorse mandating zero paper voting due to supposed "privacy" concerns. In summary, it has been the voting companies who have pushed us in this direction, and their reasoning is HIGHLY suspect. Let me be clear: I cannot fathom any reason other than a desire to manipulate elections for the resistance to paper trails. Laws mandating paper use would only funnel more money into these firm's pockets. Their resistance to making the process more transparent seems to stem from not wanting to sever a more lucrative revenue stream they want to keep under wraps.
So the deal is, concerned citizens now have to come and babysit elections. We train on all the fine points of who can access the machines and are basically there to watch the Diebold personnel to ensure they don't "patch" the machines at the last minute. It's fucking insane. As you can probably tell, I'm highly suspect of America's status as a democracy anymore, but I'm doing my best to help us recover. I'll give it a few more years, but the state of affairs is pathetic. We seem set to turn our elections over to the corporations that are running our country (and, as a consequence, our foreign and domestic policy). If Americans don't start giving a shit, this country is over.
why should these two products be priced equivalently? The retailers are looking for preferential treatment, not equal treatment. Download services are selling gimped products, not full multi-disc DVD collections. the two things are entirely different, and if anyone is being short-changed on price it's the download services. Why buy only the movie when for $2-4 more you can get all the extra content at higher quality?
Can't wait to see this. It's been a while since I've felt any of Cartman's jokes were aimed at me...
The trailer on Comedy Central has them all in front of computers weighing about 2 bills a piece. Is weight gain common for WoWers? When I play, I tend not to eat much...
So I'm just wondering... we all had a discussion a few weeks ago about how Greenpeace released a report that was critical of Apple. In our discussion it came to light that the report was unfair, and that in fact, Apple's record seems to be at least as good as the companies on the top of the list. We determined that the criteria Greenpeace used to rank the companies was unscientific and arbitrary.
Now, several weeks later, an article is posted referencing some guy's blog who has just now discovered the Greenpeace report and wants to pontificate on why Steve Jobs mentioned environmental concerns in his keynote. Why is this on Slashdot? It's old news, and it's been proven FUD.
Something that might be interesting, though, is whether or not Steve added the environmental bit to the speech because he was miffed at the obviously biased greenpeace report. He probably wanted to get Apple's concern for the environment into the press releases, which he succeeded at doing. This helped overwhelm any bad press Apple may have gotten earlier. Jobs knows his shit, and his small blurb about packaging achieved just the result he was looking for.
Slashdot Mirror
Pretty much what everyone else has said. I didn't find Slashdot until probably '99 or so, but since then I've turned to it for news almost daily. It has certainly helped shaped my worldview, while also helping me know I'm not the only one who thinks the way I do. The Internet HAS changed, and the reason you give for leaving makes sense, but still... definitely the end of an era. Thanks for all the insight, laughs and frustration when you haven't met my high expectations :-)
Best wishes Taco.
Let's face it, we weren't going to get slam dunks on every appointment. There are so many ex-Clinton people everywhere that it was foolish to think Hiilary Rosen and her crew weren't going to get into the new Executive. But the silver lining is this: RIAA types are allowed into the discussion, but they don't CONTROL the debate or its terms. Allowing all sides at the table is a very different thing from deciding policy and ideology from on high and mandating that ideology all down the chain of command. The new Administration seems willing to include both progressives and moderates at the table. That means that we aren't going to get purely progressive solutions, but it does bode well for getting solutions. Obama seems intent on stopping the gridlock, and if that means allowing in points of view I vehemently disagree with, that 's fine as long as solid, scientifically-backed reasons and evidence are necessary criteria for policy decisions, not blind adherence to dogma.
I got this from the DIY Network: get a pretty rectangular cardboard box (like from Ikea or The Container Store) and cut small holes, evenly spaced, on the two longer sides, and one hole on one of the shorter sides. Screw small metal decorative plates (something to make the openings look neat, like light-switch covers but for a hole) over the holes, and stuff a power strip inside the box, with the cord coming out the one shorter side. Plug all the chargers into the strip, and bring their cords out the little holes you made. Put the cover on the box. Now you have a neat charging station that doesn't look like ass. I think this tip was brought to you by Quaker Oats chewy protein bars or something.
A Retrospect server will look for laptops when they connect to the network and back them up. The laptop just runs a little client app. I thought this is what everyone did...
People need to get over this. It's now inevitable. America is no longer either a democracy or a republic. America is an oligarchy, our next President will be a Clinton, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Your votes don't count, the Executive Branch has absolute unchecked power, and citizens have whatever rights their government decides they're allowed to have. Just accept it. You can't beat them, the battle is already over. Humans lost, corporations won. Stop whining about civil liberties, habeus corpus and freedom. You'll take the freedoms that they give you and like it, or you'll be sent to Guantanimo Bay with the rest of the terrorists. Live with it. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Go start your own business, make your own money and forget about Wa$hington. The Constitution is a fairy tail you can tell your children. It has no meaning and no place in today's America. American is democracy is dead.
if you think ppl going gaga for a cell phone are a little off you might enjoy this. if you're a fan who can take a step back and laugh at yourself you might like it too. The iPhone Song!
just to clarify, I said "any" speaker, and should've said any/all. You can use as many speaker as you have hooked up, at the same time, in-sync.
A few ppl have already mentioned it, but I actually use it and it works wonderfully. I have a set of speakers upstairs, in the living room, on the patio, and in the downstairs den. I can run iTunes from any machine in the house and send the stream to any of these Airport Express-connected speakers. It's a fantastic solution that really works. Of course, you need to consider your network layout, but these small basestations are able to extend existing networks, and can do B and/or G. They also do printer sharing. The audio output can be either stereo analog or digital mini. Given the small footprint/multiple uses/low cost of these units, I wouldn't consider anything else.
i was just getting relatives to give Borders gift cards instead of B&N ones so that I could use them on Amazon. that was extremely useful. rats!
I know I feel guilty buying CDs-- all that plastic and paper when I'm just going to rip the CD and keep it on my computer anyway.
you know things are screwed up, though, when it costs less to buy a physical CD and have it shipped than it does to download the thing from iTunes. i comparison shop for everything i get between Amazon and iTunes, and sometimes having Amazon ship me the CD is cheaper. How the hell does that make sense (this is using Super Saving Shipping btw)?!?! Studios are greedy effin' bastards, i know that for DAMN sure.
Colbert brought this up, and explained that since people in Gitmo aren't enjoying it, they therefore don't qualify for this protection.
??? source? surely you're not referring to the small settlement made a little less than 10 years ago...
if Apple and M$ had teemed up, wouldn't that just loose the lawyers en mass?
Apart from the obvious "This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard" knee-jerk reaction, my second thought is, "why don't they just outlaw these people from using the sites to begin with?" It's hard to imagine a legitimate need for a sex offender to have access to a site filled with nubile flesh. Registering people's IM screennames seems ludicrous.
i've noticed that in the last 3~4 months amazon's prices have become more competitive with the iTS. i always compare prices, and there have been several times i've ended up ordering a handful of cds from amazon rather than downloading them because it's just cheaper. on the other hand, i can see derek's point above about indies. there have been more than a few times that i've wiped the lotion off my hands after watching the latest suicidegirls podcast and gone to the iTS to look for the artist featured in the vid.
apple is hiring game developers to make sure their new iPods with bigger screens have a couple of decent launch titles. they might invest in making a few more downloadable games for the new models, with perhaps one or two built on entirely new IP. that's the extent of Apple's involvement in gaming. you'd have to be a moron to think Apple could compete in the console market. they can barely get decent OpenGL performance out of their current hardware (compare running WoW native and then under XP in bootcamp on a MacBook. it's pathetic). gamers would just laugh at any Apple-branded gaming device. this is coming from a diehard Mac user, btw. you can't change reality. for the record, though, Macs and 360s go great together (as long as you have access to a PC to run QTFairUse on, and share your music and photos with Connect360) :-P
It's obvious what's going on. M$ has their wallet out and is handing ppl free money to favorably cover their mp3 player. They're trying to buy mindshare, to make it look like they're a competitor. It might work, who knows? I think ppl should be awful suspicious, though, before putting their money down on this thing. Buy a 360 and an iPod, and wait a year on the Zune/PS3.
The Wii requires separate cables just to get to 480p. It's useless for viewing photos over the composite connection. It does four things: plays innovative "party" games, plays children's titles, plays older Nintendo titles, and can surf the internet. There should be no question that the Wii is for children and "non-gamers." It's like the modern equivalent of board games. It's not a next-gen gaming console. It has no place in a competition with the other two.
There is no better example of this than Nintendo's insistence on using a "console code" system for online play. This is the perfect system to allow classmates to play with each other while keeping them safe from online predators, but has no place in an adult's gaming vocabulary. The titles we've seen so far bear this principle out. No online play for COD3, Marvel UA, Madden, Red Steel... it's just not what this thing is about. XBox Live is practically half of the XBox 360 experience. The two are inseparable.
Zonk can keep bashing the PS3 and plugging the Wii, there's nothing wrong with that, it's his site. However, as a Wii60 owner, I think this whole comparison/console war thing is a complete misnomer, as least as far as the Wii is concerned. The Wii cannot compete with what the other guys are offering. It's a system for casual gamers and children PRIMARILY. If it gains traction among the hardcore crowd, then perhaps we'll see the next iteration take the hardcore crowd more seriously. As it stands, no one's gonna choose the Wii version of a game over the 360 one unless there is a compelling retooling of the controls AND the online component is inconsequential (Madden). The exception, of course, is parents of tweens. They may not feel bad about their kid killing nazis in COD3, but they don't want me screaming obscenities at them as they do. They'll grab the Wii version.
In reality, we could have a frank discussion about why the other consoles have NO BUSINESS being in the hands of youngsters. Ever been sawdomized in GOW by a 6 y.o.? I'm pretty sure I have, going by the sounds of some kid's voices on XBL. I'm also pretty sure that kid isn't gonna make it outta middle school. Nintendo is definitely tapping into a completely different market than the other guys. As far as "next-gen console wars" go, they've left the ring. I think that's exactly what they're saying in TFA that I didn't read.
Does anyone else gag when they see that commercial touting the beauty of burning coal, using a little girl to sell the premise? Our country is run by energy companies. To deny it is tantamount to denying Iraq is in a civil war. Until people start voting, expect more of the same.
you know, things in election day preparation and execution are changing. i volunteered to be an election judge Tuesday in Maryland's infamous Montgomery County, and in the one precinct i was in we had myself and a guy who does IT security for NASA as judges. yes, there were also some elderly folks, but the thing is, there's nothing stopping us geeks from getting involved. the county made a real effort to implement procedures that helped bridge the gaps in security that the machines introduced, and the result was a pretty successful election. it's true that elderly poll workers perhaps aren't the best choice for staffing a country-wide rollout of new technology, so that's why people who give a shit need to get involved. if all geeks are willing to do is submit sensationalist stories to /. making outrageous claims that the sky is falling, then you are only pawns implementing the powerful's plans of voter suppression and intimidation. the fact is, people came out to vote, and their votes were counted. all the hype only served to keep people from coming to the polls, fearing it was a lost cause. it wasn't. these machines are not perfect, but if people with know-how are unwilling to help, and only willing to bitch from the sidelines, they're just as much of the problem as Diebold is.
So the deal is, concerned citizens now have to come and babysit elections. We train on all the fine points of who can access the machines and are basically there to watch the Diebold personnel to ensure they don't "patch" the machines at the last minute. It's fucking insane. As you can probably tell, I'm highly suspect of America's status as a democracy anymore, but I'm doing my best to help us recover. I'll give it a few more years, but the state of affairs is pathetic. We seem set to turn our elections over to the corporations that are running our country (and, as a consequence, our foreign and domestic policy). If Americans don't start giving a shit, this country is over.
why should these two products be priced equivalently? The retailers are looking for preferential treatment, not equal treatment. Download services are selling gimped products, not full multi-disc DVD collections. the two things are entirely different, and if anyone is being short-changed on price it's the download services. Why buy only the movie when for $2-4 more you can get all the extra content at higher quality?
Can't wait to see this. It's been a while since I've felt any of Cartman's jokes were aimed at me... The trailer on Comedy Central has them all in front of computers weighing about 2 bills a piece. Is weight gain common for WoWers? When I play, I tend not to eat much...
Now, several weeks later, an article is posted referencing some guy's blog who has just now discovered the Greenpeace report and wants to pontificate on why Steve Jobs mentioned environmental concerns in his keynote. Why is this on Slashdot? It's old news, and it's been proven FUD.
Something that might be interesting, though, is whether or not Steve added the environmental bit to the speech because he was miffed at the obviously biased greenpeace report. He probably wanted to get Apple's concern for the environment into the press releases, which he succeeded at doing. This helped overwhelm any bad press Apple may have gotten earlier. Jobs knows his shit, and his small blurb about packaging achieved just the result he was looking for.
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! Thank you George for milking me for my entire net worth!