Calling them names is a damn sight kinder than what they deserve.
What then do they deserve? Fines, banishment, prison, gulag?
Seriously calling them names it the most deniers should face. In the US they have free speech rights. They get to say what their opinion is. Opinion is heavily protected speech.
You of course have the same rights which makes the name calling, while not nice, something you are fully allowed to do.
I so much want the concept of "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it" to actually mean something in this country again.
Lately, the political left, instead of debating, has been strenuously trying to remove the right of their political opponents to speak and I find that absolutely terrifying.
Imagine you're a NASA worker with a nice (albeit old) Macbook computer to do your work on.
Some schmuck walks up to you with a brand new hp laptop with Windows 8 on it to replace your Mac.
I fail to see the scenario where the NASA worker _shouldn't_ enthusiastically shun the "helper" from hp.
When the choice is between something nice and functioning and a crappy os on a crappy piece of hardware, the choice is easy.
The problem with these "one size fits all" contracts is that one size does not fit all situations ever.
If hp wants to make this contract successful they should be forced to offer multiple options through multiple vendors where they take a cut to manage the maintenance and configuration of any of the possible selected systems.
I think the key point to what we want from the beta is that we don't want the comments section of the beta to be just like the comments section of every other website that has comments.
There are features and capabilities that exist in the classic website that MUST exist in any future modification of the website.
Just like system updates in the software used by companies, if you upgrade the system and take away the functionality the users rely on day in and day out, expect a horrendous backlash.
The old style of the site may not be pretty, but we've grown accustomed to how it works and what it can do. The new site is pretty and doesn't appear to have given two shits about how the site should really work or has worked in the past.
Its not about not displaying the userid its about the craptacular posting and commenting system in the beta.
The lack of displaying the user id is a symptom of the developers paying no attention to how the current system works and operates well.
Another strike against them is that in the beta following your or other users past comments is incredibly cumbersome and unwieldily.
In the interest of cleanness they provide so little information on the users' comments pages as to make tracking and following comments and moving through comment threads extremely clunky.
Thats a great idea. They should take the/. beta site and run it somewhere else. Have the same stories and then see how it does against the classic site.
Over the history of/. UI changes have been minimal an planned out/deployed over a long time period. Flashy shit was generally avoided with more of an eye toward functionality.
The forced march to beta speaks directly against the "News for Nerds" ethos. It all flash and eye candy and gaudy mass market type of website crap.
What is needed is not a reestablishment of the "rules" the FCC set up for what they called "net neutrality", what we need is for the FCC to declare the internet common carrier and to make all ISP's honor that.
This bill not that. When these policies were in place at the FCC before being struck down, there were huge loopholes that companies (especially wireless) could drive giant trucks full of money through.
We need the internet classified common carrier now!
Yep, its definitely the damned Republicans that have fucked everything up.
Obama wil be our savior and restore the government doing things for the common good. He'll stop the wars, he'll close the secret prisons, he'll stop the surveillance on everyone, he'll apply the law fairly and justly to all, he'll pick only the best people to work for him and lie about what his administration does to congress.
Yeah, libertarians are the problem here, yep. All that personal freedom shit is just a ruse to let businesses screw employees. Its to bad all the libertarians have to get in line behind all the Democrats and all the Republicans that are using government to screw everyone over AND helping businesses do it.
The Libertarian party has almost no power at the Federal level, why the fuck are the powers that be so damned scared of it?
This is why we're failing. Money as a concept is designed to be an engine that runs the economy.
But to run that economy we need bankers and traders that help us run the mechanisms that promote business and commerce. These people, who are supposed to be making the system work for all of us and taking a profit on the providing of their services, have used their proximity to the money to, well, steal and skim money off the system to make themselves rich. They make themselves rich beyond reason. The system is no longer about the economy at large and about promoting business, its about banking and about the market.
The market starts prompting companies to do make bad and destructive decisions in order to make the banks and markets more money. Eventually they create perverse "instruments" for making money. When I first heard credit default swaps being defined, I couldn't believe that the people who created them weren't in jail for perpetrating fraud, it was so fucking blatant.
So our economic system will fall apart and burn to the ground because it no longer serves the purpose it was created for, it is corrupted beyond repair.
Your final thought there made me think of something. Imagine if all the spare cycles on EC2 were devoted to mining bitcoin any time they were idle. Amazon probably does have the capacity to corner the market on crypto currency, Google could as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Nature does not pollute itself.
WTF? I mean seriously WTF?
Have you ever seen a volcano? Nature - polluting.
We have evidence of asteroid strikes that caused massive extinctions by - massively polluting the atmosphere. - Nature
Nature doesn't pollute. Bzzzt, wrong.
People have been selling the idea that our civilization is doomed for centuries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
No, you're not doing your merger math right.
0 + 1 = -1
Paul is saying that there are parts he doesn't like, he's not saying that they should be violated.
I don't like the income tax myself, that doesn't mean that I don't pay it since its the law.
But the government is violating our fourth amendment rights right now.
So not liking the 16th or 17th amendments means that you have to sit idly by while the government erases the 4th???
Your post is confusing we.
And also on those blogs we need a comments system that is functional and usable.
FUCK BETA!
Calling them names is a damn sight kinder than what they deserve.
What then do they deserve? Fines, banishment, prison, gulag?
Seriously calling them names it the most deniers should face. In the US they have free speech rights. They get to say what their opinion is. Opinion is heavily protected speech.
You of course have the same rights which makes the name calling, while not nice, something you are fully allowed to do.
I so much want the concept of "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it" to actually mean something in this country again.
Lately, the political left, instead of debating, has been strenuously trying to remove the right of their political opponents to speak and I find that absolutely terrifying.
Also, fuck beta. I have no way to tell if someone responded to me other than looking at that specific thread.
I know. That is the worst feature of the beta by far. Lacking direct navigation to comment threads from users' comments pages is a egregious omission.
Imagine you're a NASA worker with a nice (albeit old) Macbook computer to do your work on.
Some schmuck walks up to you with a brand new hp laptop with Windows 8 on it to replace your Mac.
I fail to see the scenario where the NASA worker _shouldn't_ enthusiastically shun the "helper" from hp.
When the choice is between something nice and functioning and a crappy os on a crappy piece of hardware, the choice is easy.
The problem with these "one size fits all" contracts is that one size does not fit all situations ever.
If hp wants to make this contract successful they should be forced to offer multiple options through multiple vendors where they take a cut to manage the maintenance and configuration of any of the possible selected systems.
Somewhat authoritarian?
Isn't that a lot like a little bit pregnant?
I think the key point to what we want from the beta is that we don't want the comments section of the beta to be just like the comments section of every other website that has comments.
There are features and capabilities that exist in the classic website that MUST exist in any future modification of the website.
Just like system updates in the software used by companies, if you upgrade the system and take away the functionality the users rely on day in and day out, expect a horrendous backlash.
The old style of the site may not be pretty, but we've grown accustomed to how it works and what it can do. The new site is pretty and doesn't appear to have given two shits about how the site should really work or has worked in the past.
Its not about not displaying the userid its about the craptacular posting and commenting system in the beta.
The lack of displaying the user id is a symptom of the developers paying no attention to how the current system works and operates well.
Another strike against them is that in the beta following your or other users past comments is incredibly cumbersome and unwieldily.
In the interest of cleanness they provide so little information on the users' comments pages as to make tracking and following comments and moving through comment threads extremely clunky.
Keep classic /.
oh and does anyone else hear the crickets??
Parent comment is so meta.
If /. dies, for me, it will mark the end of an era.
I don't participate massively in comments here, but there is no other site where the level of my commenting even comes close to here.
Also, there is IMHO no other site where the comments aren't immensely crappy in comparison to this site.
If the beta goes through, its the end of an era. Youtube style web commenting will have won.
Repurposed as what, worthless crap?
The people who care about the brand are revolting against changes to this site.
People who have frequented this site for over a DECADE are talking about walking away.
Sure they could try to forge a new brand â¦. for the pittance of users they'd have left.
Thats a great idea. They should take the /. beta site and run it somewhere else. Have the same stories and then see how it does against the classic site.
Over the history of /. UI changes have been minimal an planned out/deployed over a long time period. Flashy shit was generally avoided with more of an eye toward functionality.
The forced march to beta speaks directly against the "News for Nerds" ethos. It all flash and eye candy and gaudy mass market type of website crap.
You know, I wouldn't fuss if they removed the disable ads checkbox in my classic mode. I'd live with it.
But the beta site is garbage.
I have been reading/commenting at /. since 1998.
I have a 5 digit userid (of course the beta won't display that anymore).
I'm gone if the beta is forced on me.
Yep. When digg fucked up their upgrade I left and never looked back.
What is needed is not a reestablishment of the "rules" the FCC set up for what they called "net neutrality", what we need is for the FCC to declare the internet common carrier and to make all ISP's honor that.
This bill not that. When these policies were in place at the FCC before being struck down, there were huge loopholes that companies (especially wireless) could drive giant trucks full of money through.
We need the internet classified common carrier now!
Yep, its definitely the damned Republicans that have fucked everything up.
Obama wil be our savior and restore the government doing things for the common good. He'll stop the wars, he'll close the secret prisons, he'll stop the surveillance on everyone, he'll apply the law fairly and justly to all, he'll pick only the best people to work for him and lie about what his administration does to congress.
Yeah, libertarians are the problem here, yep. All that personal freedom shit is just a ruse to let businesses screw employees. Its to bad all the libertarians have to get in line behind all the Democrats and all the Republicans that are using government to screw everyone over AND helping businesses do it.
The Libertarian party has almost no power at the Federal level, why the fuck are the powers that be so damned scared of it?
This is why we're failing. Money as a concept is designed to be an engine that runs the economy.
But to run that economy we need bankers and traders that help us run the mechanisms that promote business and commerce. These people, who are supposed to be making the system work for all of us and taking a profit on the providing of their services, have used their proximity to the money to, well, steal and skim money off the system to make themselves rich. They make themselves rich beyond reason. The system is no longer about the economy at large and about promoting business, its about banking and about the market.
The market starts prompting companies to do make bad and destructive decisions in order to make the banks and markets more money. Eventually they create perverse "instruments" for making money. When I first heard credit default swaps being defined, I couldn't believe that the people who created them weren't in jail for perpetrating fraud, it was so fucking blatant.
So our economic system will fall apart and burn to the ground because it no longer serves the purpose it was created for, it is corrupted beyond repair.
Your final thought there made me think of something. Imagine if all the spare cycles on EC2 were devoted to mining bitcoin any time they were idle. Amazon probably does have the capacity to corner the market on crypto currency, Google could as well.