LinuxParanoid's Journal: User-moderated story queue, late-August 2003

If you have a story submission that has been neglected in the second half of August 2003, then reply to this post. Submitting stories both here and elsewhere at the same time is fine and encouraged.

Instant messaging blamed for summer movie flops

[usurper_ii]

Submitted to Slashdot and already rejected:

London Independent writes, "executives are not blaming such bombs as The Hulk, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle or Gigli on poor quality, lack of originality, or general failure to entertain. There's absolutely nothing new about that." What they are blaming it on is instant text messaging, sometimes done in real time right from the movie theater. It seems that hand-held text-message devices has drastically cut down the time it takes for movie-goers to tell their fr

Not having trouble with submissions, myself

[RobertB-DC]

I saw your journal reference before and I was looking for it again... glad I found it!

I wanted to report -- not bragging, mind you, just reporting -- that I'm not having any trouble getting stories accepted. I've got more details of 2 early failed attempts in my own journal, but I've had 4 successes since then, including this current Science story [slashdot.org]:

Pants Were Optional, 100,000 Years Ago

Posted by timothy on 09:48 PM -- Tuesday August 19 2003
from the lousy-research-methods dept.
RobertB-DC writes "German s

Re:Not having trouble with submissions, myself

[RobertB-DC]

You're right -- the subject was mine, and I meant to play off the CmdrTaco reference. I've noticed that the editors don't generally modify the story titles -- even when they're screwed up (witness: "An Universe").

So a catchy headline is another way to get your story considered -- it's your first impression, and you know what they say about first impressions. They really p*** off the guy pouring the concrete.

Rejected stories and open story queues

[LinuxParanoid]

I'm glad you're having some success and you bring up some good advice.

I'm really advertising for postings here because A) I'm curious how well/poorly an open story queue would work, and B) a haven for good-but-rejected stories seems like fairly open Slashdot niche that could provide submissions to start the ball rolling.

Other suggestions of course welcome.

--LP

Gwynne Dyer, worth reading

[LinuxParanoid]

Thanks to the journals of MonTemplar [slashdot.org] and Blackhat [slashdot.org] which I ran across today but are overall are too much for me to follow, I also ran across a columnist from a publication across the globe (the New Zealand Herald) that I really like, who has a nice combination of thoughtfulness and tidbits of info I don't find elsewhere. Gwynne Dyer. Worth reading.

Some of his recent editorials:

• Ice-cold reality behind big meltdown [nzherald.co.nz] (global temperature dynamics, packs a lot of science into a small article without attemptin

Tampa Eliminates Face-Recognition System

[LinuxParanoid]

ABC News reports [go.com] that "Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security camera system that scanned city streets for criminals, citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone wanted by authorities"... anyone other than a few drug dealers as the article later points out. I dunno if Big Brother-like "security" will win out over liberty/privacy in the US, but if it's Big Brother versus pragmatism, I'm actually pretty optimistic. A hopeful sign. Much more left to see however (no pun intended).