"Let me be the first to call "Antitrust. Thanks for playing Microsoft! Please give the EU another 600 million euros."
Microsoft didn't use.PDF on their site! Anti-Trust!! Anti-Trust!! Fasten all seat belts! Seal all entrances and exits! Close all the shops in the mall! Cancel the 3-ring circus! Secure all animals in the zoo...
"C) Why the hell does this software need to be running all the time? It's taking resources doing nothing but asking MS if it should be shut off?! Why can't it be started up and shut off only when needed?"
From what I gathered it's meant to be a feature that disables the "You are a pirate" warning if there's a bug in the software (or malware...) that falsely accuses too many people. If too many false-hits are reported, they can disable it right away and not annoy millions of people. Assuming I interpreted that correctly, and assuming (tee hee) that they're telling the unvarnished truth here, I'd say the daily checks are a Good Thing TM.
That said, I share your concerns and am not terribly interested in defending this 'feature'. They do not have a good track record.
What sucks is that 'light' really isn't 'light' anymore. I can understand the changes to the site, but I wish they had retained the spirit of light mode. I hate to think what people viewing this on portable machines is seeing.
"The Inq does seem to have a somewhat poor reputation on this site and elsewhere; any chance anyone could tell me why? Are there documented cases of the Inq lying, or being deceitful? Of overly shoddy journalism?"
I can share with you why I don't go to their site anymore. Check out this page:
This is back in 2003, not long after the Blaster worm hit. The Inquirer requested people send in photos of Windows not working in places such as airports. As a result, they took this photo and told the little story like this:
WE'RE GRATEFUL to reader Ralph G, who snapped the shot below at Calgary (Alberta) International Airport, and shows that using Internet Explorer on big arrival and departure screens sometimes has its perils.
My beef with this? It's quite clear from this image that IE is reporting that it cannot find the page. This isn't an IE problem. This is a problem with either the network connection on that computer or the server feeding the page. In other words, niether Mozilla, Netscape, or Opera would have rectified this difficulty. I sent them an email about it, but it went unresponded. (That wouldn't have surprised me except they had responded rather quickly to another enquiry I made that didn't point out their journalistic silliness...)
I don't know if this is a problem most people would care about. The way I understood it, they were trying to give Microsoft a hard time over serious quality issues of Microsoft's software. That, in and of itself, I don't have a problem with. But this little story basically told me that they weren't serious about being correct about the news they were reporting as long as it fit their agenda. It was then that I stopped bothering to visit their site.
In the interests of being fair, though, I should point out that this story is three years old, and a lot can happen in that time. It is not my intention to convince you that they are currently behaving this way. Rather I'm just answering your question about their negative rep.
I know this is OT, but I do have a beef with the new CSS style. Now the comment score is de-coupled from the post. Though I do understand how that's advantageous in some ways, it's a problem in others. It's certainly made my Slashdot reading habits harder. Maybe over time I'll get used to it, but I run at 1600 by 1200 so I have to run to the edge of the screen to read the comment.
No hard feelings if modded off-topic, but man, I hope the dudes in charge consider this.
Yeah, I know man. At least it's not as bad as it used to be. Go back to 2000 or so, and if you made a polite remark saying Linux could use a little improvement, you were likely to be modded down. But if you said Windows was probably programmed to send all personal data to Bill Gates' private email address on 06-06-2006, you'd likely to have been modded up. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating much.
Still, though, I'd warn you not to speak ill of Apple. I'm actually using a different nickname now because I made a point about iTunes that earned me so many bad moderations I was actually banned from using Slashdot (on one computer, anyway) for several weeks. Lame.
"In other news, a Best Buy in Hoboken, NY had a clogged toilet. Two employees attempted to unclog it before professional help was called in. Bob's Plumbing was rushed to the scene."
Tee hee. But what made this front page news was the over-hype of the original story. "Whoop-ee. Apple created a 24 hour store and it's a bfd for some reason. Tee hee, the elevator broke shortly after launch, that's funny."
Ugh. That level of camp HAD to be intentional. There's some blurb floating around the net that people made fun of Baywatch and Knight Rider, then kept making fun of it, which kept generating him more money.. or something like that. Heh.
"By "snake" do you mean the light cycle eating the dots on a flat field (snakes on a plane), or do you mean Metal Gear Solid?"
The former. Sadly.
"If I'm planning on developing an independent game that could be the next Mario, which platform do you suggest?"
You're going to laugh at me for suggesting this, but probably the N-Gage. The buttons tend to be a little too utilitarian on most phones. On the flip side, though, you'd have more cycles to play with. One thing I did like about that system was that it was actually capable of 3D graphics. I don't imagine you're thinking in terms of 3D, but it means that they definitely had some power to play with there.
"I don't get it why people are complaining about ads so much. These web sites cost money to run, you know?"
Though I agree with the general gist of your post, the sound in the ads is the complaint here. Those of us that use multi-tabbed browsing to a ridiculous extreme would much rather NOT have a bunch of idiotic sound sources flying around. MySpace.com has a feature where you can have your favorite song played right from the page. I opened a few friends pages and heard a strange noise from my headphones. I put them on and... yeesh... 4 different songs playing at once. I can tolerate ads, but audible noise is the line they should not cross.
"Come on.. calm down. The price will be down to $400 after a few months"
More like after a year. I predict they'll sell it at this price, they'll run out of stock, and we'll have a several month 'shortage' on PS3s. Then, when things settle down and Sony realizes that MS and Nintendo are eating into their market, THEN they'll drop the price a little.
I'm actually a Nintendo fan boy with little to no interest in the 360, but I've been around enough to answer a few of these. Here we go:
"The PS3 not having as innovative a controller as the Wii. Neither does the 360. You don't hear people about that."
This debate didn't really flare up until Sony band-aided in the motion controls fo the PS3 controller.
"Geez, you might as well point out that 600 dollars would buy you 1/4th of a quad sli setup."
Apples vs. Oranges. The purchase price of the hardware is considered an investment with the intent on purchasing games. If the games are expensive, even a $200 system would be suspect.
"The cell is actually a really powefull piece of tech so you can't make claims that it is underpowered or something."
Actually, this claim is running around, but not because of the theoretical benchmarks of the machine. The games we've seen, so far, don't seem much different between the 360 and the PS3. Maybe over time the difference between the two will stand out, but right now, 'underpowered' is flying around because it costs more but doesn't seem to deliver the bang.
"So far nothing is showing up that impresses me but then none of the consoles impress me."
Bingo. $200 extra to not impress you.
"Oh just give me a PS3 with linux and an open spec to the hardware."
"Seriously, how massive a fit of laughter did hearing of Hasselhoff called a 'mega-star' send you into?"
He bought the rights to Knight Rider and Baywatch. That was smart. Damn smart. Those two alone are likely to return enormous royalty checks for the rest of his life. I chuckle at the idea of him starring in some big dramatic role, but mega-star? Nah. Dude did a few years of a couple of cheesy shows, became a household name, and has enough money to shut either of us up permenantly.
Slashdot Mirror
"Let me be the first to call "Antitrust. Thanks for playing Microsoft! Please give the EU another 600 million euros."
.PDF on their site! Anti-Trust!! Anti-Trust!! Fasten all seat belts! Seal all entrances and exits! Close all the shops in the mall! Cancel the 3-ring circus! Secure all animals in the zoo...
Microsoft didn't use
"C) Why the hell does this software need to be running all the time? It's taking resources doing nothing but asking MS if it should be shut off?! Why can't it be started up and shut off only when needed?"
From what I gathered it's meant to be a feature that disables the "You are a pirate" warning if there's a bug in the software (or malware...) that falsely accuses too many people. If too many false-hits are reported, they can disable it right away and not annoy millions of people. Assuming I interpreted that correctly, and assuming (tee hee) that they're telling the unvarnished truth here, I'd say the daily checks are a Good Thing TM.
That said, I share your concerns and am not terribly interested in defending this 'feature'. They do not have a good track record.
"You can't remove spyware from a computer by throwing a chair at it."
If there's an article about Steve Balmer and I use the word chair in a post, is Slashdot automatically set up to add a Funny moderation to it?
"this new /. design makes me dizzy"
What sucks is that 'light' really isn't 'light' anymore. I can understand the changes to the site, but I wish they had retained the spirit of light mode. I hate to think what people viewing this on portable machines is seeing.
I can share with you why I don't go to their site anymore. Check out this page:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11159
This is back in 2003, not long after the Blaster worm hit. The Inquirer requested people send in photos of Windows not working in places such as airports. As a result, they took this photo and told the little story like this:
My beef with this? It's quite clear from this image that IE is reporting that it cannot find the page. This isn't an IE problem. This is a problem with either the network connection on that computer or the server feeding the page. In other words, niether Mozilla, Netscape, or Opera would have rectified this difficulty. I sent them an email about it, but it went unresponded. (That wouldn't have surprised me except they had responded rather quickly to another enquiry I made that didn't point out their journalistic silliness...)
I don't know if this is a problem most people would care about. The way I understood it, they were trying to give Microsoft a hard time over serious quality issues of Microsoft's software. That, in and of itself, I don't have a problem with. But this little story basically told me that they weren't serious about being correct about the news they were reporting as long as it fit their agenda. It was then that I stopped bothering to visit their site.
In the interests of being fair, though, I should point out that this story is three years old, and a lot can happen in that time. It is not my intention to convince you that they are currently behaving this way. Rather I'm just answering your question about their negative rep.
I know this is OT, but I do have a beef with the new CSS style. Now the comment score is de-coupled from the post. Though I do understand how that's advantageous in some ways, it's a problem in others. It's certainly made my Slashdot reading habits harder. Maybe over time I'll get used to it, but I run at 1600 by 1200 so I have to run to the edge of the screen to read the comment.
No hard feelings if modded off-topic, but man, I hope the dudes in charge consider this.
"I have not ... held the new controller..."
You've had 11 years! What's the hold up?
"Submit a story to Slashdot and other news sites about the release. Someone was bound to follow the instructions."
Ah, so this is a Slashvertisment.
Yeah, I know man. At least it's not as bad as it used to be. Go back to 2000 or so, and if you made a polite remark saying Linux could use a little improvement, you were likely to be modded down. But if you said Windows was probably programmed to send all personal data to Bill Gates' private email address on 06-06-2006, you'd likely to have been modded up. Sadly, I'm not exaggerating much.
Still, though, I'd warn you not to speak ill of Apple. I'm actually using a different nickname now because I made a point about iTunes that earned me so many bad moderations I was actually banned from using Slashdot (on one computer, anyway) for several weeks. Lame.
It was originally assembled badly. The fix was not going to require $450 of work.
".. and his site has google ads. I'm sure he now has enough money to buy ten laptops, new!"
Google ads don't pay that much. He's probably doing a little better than breaking even with his hosting.
"This looks like a job for Captain Copyright!"
You'd think Captain Copyright would be the last person to lift the Cybrus Industries logo.
"No it was assembled the same way every other one is assembled, and of all the problems the iBooks had, HDDs were not a big one."
Doesn't matter if the problem was a big one or not. He was having the problem. They should have fixed it.
"If you don't have the time or patience to do something, you should expect to pay someone to do it for you."
Because it was shittily assembled in the first place? Did you read his entire post?
" Slashdot is where the Linux geeks hang out."
Slashdot is a self-proclaimed news site. Spare us the "if you don't like it" crap, parent poster was right.
"In other news, a Best Buy in Hoboken, NY had a clogged toilet. Two employees attempted to unclog it before professional help was called in. Bob's Plumbing was rushed to the scene."
Tee hee. But what made this front page news was the over-hype of the original story. "Whoop-ee. Apple created a 24 hour store and it's a bfd for some reason. Tee hee, the elevator broke shortly after launch, that's funny."
"Throw in an industry-leading five year warranty..."
Wow, thought those days were gone.
Provided you're on an Intel Mac, sure.
"It's NASA . NASA is an acronym not a proper name. All letters in NASA must be upper case."
Stfu.
Ugh. That level of camp HAD to be intentional. There's some blurb floating around the net that people made fun of Baywatch and Knight Rider, then kept making fun of it, which kept generating him more money.. or something like that. Heh.
"By "snake" do you mean the light cycle eating the dots on a flat field (snakes on a plane), or do you mean Metal Gear Solid?"
The former. Sadly.
"If I'm planning on developing an independent game that could be the next Mario, which platform do you suggest?"
You're going to laugh at me for suggesting this, but probably the N-Gage. The buttons tend to be a little too utilitarian on most phones. On the flip side, though, you'd have more cycles to play with. One thing I did like about that system was that it was actually capable of 3D graphics. I don't imagine you're thinking in terms of 3D, but it means that they definitely had some power to play with there.
"I don't get it why people are complaining about ads so much. These web sites cost money to run, you know?"
... yeesh ... 4 different songs playing at once. I can tolerate ads, but audible noise is the line they should not cross.
Though I agree with the general gist of your post, the sound in the ads is the complaint here. Those of us that use multi-tabbed browsing to a ridiculous extreme would much rather NOT have a bunch of idiotic sound sources flying around. MySpace.com has a feature where you can have your favorite song played right from the page. I opened a few friends pages and heard a strange noise from my headphones. I put them on and
Slashdot's lucky I haven't heard this ad yet.
"Come on.. calm down. The price will be down to $400 after a few months"
More like after a year. I predict they'll sell it at this price, they'll run out of stock, and we'll have a several month 'shortage' on PS3s. Then, when things settle down and Sony realizes that MS and Nintendo are eating into their market, THEN they'll drop the price a little.
I'm actually a Nintendo fan boy with little to no interest in the 360, but I've been around enough to answer a few of these. Here we go:
"The PS3 not having as innovative a controller as the Wii. Neither does the 360. You don't hear people about that."
This debate didn't really flare up until Sony band-aided in the motion controls fo the PS3 controller.
"Geez, you might as well point out that 600 dollars would buy you 1/4th of a quad sli setup."
Apples vs. Oranges. The purchase price of the hardware is considered an investment with the intent on purchasing games. If the games are expensive, even a $200 system would be suspect.
"The cell is actually a really powefull piece of tech so you can't make claims that it is underpowered or something."
Actually, this claim is running around, but not because of the theoretical benchmarks of the machine. The games we've seen, so far, don't seem much different between the 360 and the PS3. Maybe over time the difference between the two will stand out, but right now, 'underpowered' is flying around because it costs more but doesn't seem to deliver the bang.
"So far nothing is showing up that impresses me but then none of the consoles impress me."
Bingo. $200 extra to not impress you.
"Oh just give me a PS3 with linux and an open spec to the hardware."
Hahahahahaa.
"Seriously, how massive a fit of laughter did hearing of Hasselhoff called a 'mega-star' send you into?"
He bought the rights to Knight Rider and Baywatch. That was smart. Damn smart. Those two alone are likely to return enormous royalty checks for the rest of his life. I chuckle at the idea of him starring in some big dramatic role, but mega-star? Nah. Dude did a few years of a couple of cheesy shows, became a household name, and has enough money to shut either of us up permenantly.