I think we oughta have a Taco eating contest. :) Well, maybe a Taco crushing contest.

Taco's at it again. The Slashdot T-Shirt contest, while kinda cool, is exactly what I thought. A ploy to get the users to do the work that the VA Linux employees that make up the Slashdot editorial team should have been doing all along.

At the end of Taco's latest journal entry, which is filled with the same-old same old condescending attitude, this time towards those that sent in entries for the T-shirt contest, we find some musings that perhaps the next contest will be the "Redesign Slashdot's HTML Contest".

Now this is a bit ridiculous. Who's job is it to maintain Slashdot's look and feel? The USERS??? Um, no. That's why they hired you guys. Not that I wouldn't participate in the contest if the prize is great enough, but sheesh, aside from the sidebar, which everyone loves to hate, they haven't touched Slashdot's HTML in *years*.

Have you *LOOKED* at the code? It's awful. It's quite possibly the worst HTML code I have EVER seen. Ok, pot calling the kettle black here, I've written some pretty horrific code in the past too, but at least mine is somewhat maintainable. Sheesh.

I gotta give Taco credit though. At least it works well across different browsers. Then again, is that because people who write browsers tune their rendering engines based on Slashdot, or is that because Taco wrote (barely) passable code? :)

She used those three magic (or magick, depending on how you look at it ;) words ... "I love you."

I have no cares in the world today. The sun in shining, the trees are whistling in the breeze, birds are chirping.

Yet, who knows what tomorrow has in store? And -- yet -- isn't that the point? :-)

I know you ALL LOOK CONFUSED NOW. That's okay, though. :)

Weekly Recap(tm) Because Enquiring Geeks Wanna Know!

EXTRA: Surak's torrid love life! This weekend turned into Jerry Springerfest at Surak's LJBF-copping sorta-pregnant, sorta-married, sorta-cousin, sorta-ex-sorta-girlfriend's place (confused yet?). It all ended with Surak using the last line of Garth Brook's "mysterious third verse" from the long version of Friends in Low Places (which Surak legitimately owns a copy of [and legimitately MP3-ized] from his legitimate Double Live CD purchased from the Wal*Mart in Sandusky, Ohio of all places). More details to come in a day or so. (Unless y'all tell me you've had enough. :-P). Blame it all my roots, indeeed!

Xerithane broke his ankle and then used it as an excuse to geek out over the weekend instead enjoying the wonderful weather we've been having in most of the country.

Perhaps brought out of the woodwork by reports of bethanie and Surak having public sex last week, Bethanie's husband, BethaniesHubby created an account on Slashdot on Wednesday, who according to bethanie "got in on the action". Surak categorically denies that he was involved in any public sex, claiming instead it was the "other" Surak. Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda, principal author of the Slashcode, was quoted as saying, "Ummm, no. Account names on the system are checked for uniqueness." In addition, Bethanie is pornificating her journal as of late. Check it out!

The Cydonian has apparently been partying a bit too much lately, while still trying to work long hours, because he totally deleted a VS.net DataGrid object he had spent two days "working" on. Sources close to The Cydonian have told Weekly Recap that, "If he didn't spend so much time partying, maybe he could concentrate on his work."

Ceejayoz was caught trying to bug Democrats in the California Assembly, instead to have his microphone "accidentally" broadcasting the closed session around the entire Capitol building. Charges are still pending in that case. Earlier this week, word came out that ceejayoz had apparently fooled U.S. intelligence about uranium in Iraq with some form of the classic Nigerian E-mail Scam. Quite the trickster, indeed.

Em Emalb, having spent US $2500 on a plastic motorcycle part, decided to ask everyone if they were as done as he was. The overwhelming response? Motorcycle parts suck.

Servo has taken sharp criticism for his theory on what he calls "the global UNESCO conspiracy." Sources close to Servo and Weekly Recap have pointed out, however, that une is after all, French feminine for '1', hence UNESCO == '1 SCO'. Darl McBride, who is decidedly not French, could not be reached for comment and a spokesperson for SCO would only say, "IBM sux0rz! Neener, Neener! :-P"

When we last left sql*kitten, he was detained by the INS. After being deported back to the U.K., he was, however not arraigned for any of the crimes he committed here, because he apparently apologized to the INS for calling them inept. sql*kitten has been quoted as saying "Meow, I'm sorry."

SlashChick has reportedly been pestering the man she is currently shacked up with to purchase a digital camera, although she refuses to buy one herself. According to SlashChick, he "can totally afford one." Sources close to SlashChick have told Weekly Recap that their current living situation is "all about the money."

FortKnox was very late for work on Monday, so he cooked up this story to try to explain it to his supervisor. No word yet on whether FK's supervisor actually believed him, but Weekly Recap suspects that the real reason is that he keeps "two women [with] razors" and "a buncha toys" in his brand new "pitch black" bathroom. [ed. note: That'd make ME late for work, too. ;)]

SolemnDragon is having a chip implanted in her body so that she can be found after being kidnapped. No word on yet as to why she's suddenly worried about being kidnapped, but Weekly Recap feels that this probably has something to do with last week's cow flinging episode. Stay tuned to Weekly Recap for further updates.

UPDATE: Fixed a broken link or two. If anyone finds any more, post here. :)

Little techno-side bar from the usual gossip today. I promise, the gossip returns tomorrow. ;)

Given the recent way that the RIAA is going after filesharers with a vegence,
I gotta say that filesharing using Kazaa or the Gnutella network these days is just an increasingly stupid idea. There's no protection for anonymity anymore, given the fact that the courts have set the precedence that ISPs *must* disclose subscriber information for anyone caught sharing copyrighted material via P2P filesharing networks.

That being said, one can still share files and not face the wrath of RIAA, MPAA, or anyone else. Unlike other filesharing networks, Freenet really does protect anonymity from all but advanced traffic analysis or compromising of a majority of nodes. Basically, to identify you **AA would have to h4x0r the network (violating numerous laws involving breaking into secured networks), and even then it is difficult to prove that a request that came from your node wasn't just proxying someone else's request. Also, since the data is decentralized, encrypted and scattered across multiple nodes, it's still hard to tell exactly *what* data you have retrieved.

I've started to use Freenet. I haven't looked for music yet, but I can imagine that since there are no search engines at this point, finding music is difficult. That said, I have found some other content like movies and such. Downloading is slow, sometimes painfully slow even over my 2Mbps cablemodem connection. As I type this, I'm getting ~115kbps on a ~250MB download. I have, in the past, gotten as high as 1 megabit, but I suspect that I just got lucky. You often have to restart downloads because once it reaches a certain number of retries for the remaining blocks, it gives up.

I suspect that command line stuff like FUQID would make splitfile downloads somewhat less painful, and I'll be giving one of those a try as soon as I'm finished with this file. Of course, FUQID only works on Windows, so I'm going to need to find something that works on Linux. Any suggestions?

Freenet is way clunky and slow. Even as of the 0.52 upgrade. But I suspect that it would get there if people would just use it more and donate more bandwidth and drive space and if more people would run permanent (as opposed to transient) nodes. I think one day it'll get there, but as of right now, it's still not totally useable by your average user, who's gonna get frusted the first time he tries to download anything over a few meg or so.

Maybe I just need to tweak my configs somewhat, I dunno. I'll keep you guys posted as to my progress with Freenet 0.52

Favorite pickup spot. Or for married/committed people where you met your sweetie:

A. Work/School
B. Laundromat
C. Grocery store
D. Bookstore
E. non-work convention (sci fi or similiar)
F. Bar
G. Neighborhood/apt. building
H. pr0n palace
I. under a rock
J. At Em's house
K. At a party
L. Not sure, but I *think* it involved interdimensional teleportation. And drugs.
M. Online. (and I'm INSANE)
N. Dating service (online or otherwise)
O. Other
P. STOP DOING POLLS OR I'LL KILL YOU (Em Emalb option)

This is gonna be fun. I hope. In Weekly Recap, I'm going to highlight some of my favorite journal entries from the past week, and put them in the format of -- GOSSIP! Yay! Note that the gossip spread here may or may not be completely true, it is an exercise for the READER to pick out what is real and what is not! Hehe. This oughta be good!

Salimma is trying to be kept in the dark about the British round of the Forumla 1 championship and thinks that Americans don't pay attention to Formula 1. Not sure why he wants to be kept in the dark anyway, I mean, he *is* a psychic having predicted the release of the next Red Hat beta.

Bethanie has a new fascination with public sex, no doubt brought on by her hot stripping and screwing experience. Surak also noted his fascination with public sex. No word about whether bethanie's husband is into public sex, but public speculation is ramapant about Surak and bethanie.

sql*kitten has been detained by the inept US Department of Immigration and Naturalization. No word on yet on his release.

SolemnDragon has been caught flinging cows. The cows are reported to be in stable condition at this time.

Servo has a yummy black bean and corn soup reciepe that he says he made up, but undoubtedly he stole it from bethanie, who was notably silent on the issue, but Servo's truck is still damaged. According to one source, Servo could very well be a lawyer. Watch out, bethanie!

Some Woman is enjoying Cuban cigars and cognac in front of her luxurious fireplace. A spokesperson for former president William Jefferson Clinton refused to comment. In SW's own words, "I'm a wuss."

Em Emalb is 5'11" and wants to know how tall you are. No, he doesn't know what that is in stones.

FortKnox was in a car wreck, apparently struck by a a fantasy football.

M.C. Hampster, apparently upset and frustrated with his recent computer woes, has decided to take it out on naked women using a paintball gun. No word yet on casualities from that one.

This is all in fun, so no hurt feelings, 'k guys? :) If I left your JE out, it's not because I didn't like it, it's 'cause I'm scatterbrained and can't keep anything straight.

I'll try to do this every Monday. I can't promise anything, but we'll see how it works next week.

Take care of each other! :)

Okay, she's not playing games. She's really not ready for a relationship. I talked to her about it, and she really is not ready for any kind of relationship at this point with anyone. Her LJBF move was not a rejection of me, just a rejection of any sort of relationship at this point.

I've found that she's really matured in the last year and a half, and that she's really at a place in her life that right now, she knows what she needs to be concentrating on.

She needs to get her life in order so that she can provide for this baby she's having. She doesn't want to have to rely on anyone to take care of her or the baby.

I think it's a very mature, and responsible attitude, and one that really surprises me given how immature she was about relationships a year and a half ago. She's changing into a new person, and I respect her for that.

She recognizes that there may be a relationship in store for us in the future, but who knows? Neither she or I are going to wait one second for it. I'm moving on while she figures out the rest of her life. IF that includes me, so be it, if not, oh well. She takes the chance that I could be with someone else by the time that she comes around, and she respects that.

Yeah, yeah, go on and raz me. I don't care. I know what I know and that's what I know. ;)

Oh yeah, thanks for everyone's input. And special thanks to Bethanie, SolemnDragon, MC Hampster, and the imaginary bunny man, Elwood, FortKnox, and anyone else I may have missed. :) (This is like an Oscar speech or soemthing ;) You all had special insights and I appreciate them all!

This isn't a Cosmopolitan poll, but it should be. ;)

You copped an LJBF ("Let's just be friends") move. What you really mean is:
1) I'm not attracted to you or I don't see any relationship possibilities --
        ever and I'm offering this as a 'consolation prize' because I don't want
        to hurt your feelings.
2) We're not dating now, but I expect you to hold on with romantic longing...
        a) to boost my ego (for whatever reason)
        b) because I want to go date other men, but I want someone to fall
                      back on if it doesn't work out.
        c) while I figure out what I really want (and NONE OF THE OTHER ANSWERS APPLY -- be honest)
3) I hate you and I'm sadisitic enough to want to keep you around long
          enough with no fear of actually having sex while I describe to you in
          intimate detail all the other men I'm dating.
4) Other

One source has noted that CmdrTaco IS in fact having an affair -- with a "$$$$$exyGirl"! Now, CmdrTaco has not at this time, re-added $$$$$exyGal to his friends list, so we are not altogether certain if this rumour is true or not. But we're going to publish it anyway, because this is Slashdot Tabloid Journalism at it's finest. :-P

Neither CmdrTaco nor his wife Sarcasta could be reached for comment at this time. Sources close to the Slashdot couple said "Fsck off, asshat!" Whatever that means. :)

Ok. Now I particularly would like to hear from the LADIES out there, because women are so wise in these matters. Seriously.

Okay, it's 11:00p.m. and I can't sleep. I'd ask people I know IRL, but I called them all and they said they all said "ROB, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP. GOODNIGHT!" or some such similiar thing. Since Slashdot NEVER sleeps, ummm...here's my poll. But I can't believe I'm asking this on Slashdot. But I need to get this off my chest.

Can you fall in love with someone you don't want to fall in love with? Someone you'd never want to fall in love with? Are these even different questions?

A) Yes.

B) Yes, But I have NO IDEA WTF you're talking about.

C) No, you can only fall in love with someone you want to fall in love with.

D) WTF??? Are you CRAZY? Why are you asking for relationship advice on Slashdot?

E) Surak must be on acid if he thinks Slashdot users can give good relationship advice.

F) Surak is in LOVE? Huh? How did this happen! Dammit all, I was hoping I could have his sexy Vulcan body all to myself!

That trolls have now decided that my journal is a playground for their little scavenger hunt. I have nothing against this, but *please* note that the last few JEs (including this one) have been 'Friends and Friends of Friends only'. This is to reduce troll posts. Therefore, if you can't post in one of those, try the earlier JEs, which are open to anyone. Also note that FaFoF only JEs do NOT allow anonymous posting, so you're not likely to get your #2 by posting in a *recent* JE. Just thought I'd help you guys out a bit in the name of sportsmanship and all that.

Anyone notice the new sidebar yet? Notice what it does *not* contain? There is no longer a link to Taco's homepage.

I wonder if the lack of this link and/or the redesign of the sidebar has anything to do with recent criticism from various users including myself that Taco & Co. still views Slashdot as their own personal blog? And is this an indication of more changes to come? Speculation and responses from Slashdot editors are both welcome. :)

UPDATE: Taco speaks about the new sidebar! Notice that he doesn't answer my question, though, except for some snide remark about ACs pissing all over the new guys work calling it gay and stuff. I personally like the new sidebar and don't think its gay at all. I think the changes are important and Taco's entry supports some of my reasoning as to why I think that the changes are importnat. But I still wanna know what about the removal of Taco's homepage from the sidebar, and he deliberately left that out of his journal entry.

I'm rather bored with feeding the trolls. Not bored, actually, just sick of it. They can post whatever they want, whatever, I'm just going to ignore them. I don't care anymore. Whatever. Some people have better things to do with their time on this system and would rather engage in useful, constructive conversation than play childish games. The last thing I'm gonna say to the morons who keep trolling me: grow the fuck up and get a life.

I saw a guy who looked a LOT like CmdrTaco last night at a local Ram's Horn restaurant. First off, I should say that I'm from Royal Oak, Michigan (but this Ram's Horn is in another Detroit suburb called Livonia), and if you read Taco's journal you'll see that he makes occasional trips to the Detroit area to go to conferences or to do stuff see Star Wars prequels at the Star Southfield (which was the only theatre in Michigan carrying the digital version of Episodes I and II), so this is *entirely* possible.

There were these three guys sitting at the table discussing Star Trek warp field theory, and the conversation drifted between that and Star Wars and religion and Web sites and whatever it was they were reading (I can't seem to recall the words on the front but it was a bright green book with yellow letters in one of the so-called "Celtic" fonts which looked vaguely like the little book that comes with a PC game, so maybe that's what it was). I'm thinking: These guys MUST be Slashdotters.

I noticed them because I was sitting at the booth doing tarot card readings, and one of the guys who was vaguely Asian or Pacific Islander looking started telling the other two what I was doing.

I tried to say something to them about the warp discussion they were having, but they seemed to be ignoring me. The Pacific Islander-looking guy looked really familiar to me for some reason. Maybe I saw him at a con once. I dunno.

Anyway, one of the guys looked a LOT like CmdrTaco. I thought he might be kinda tallish for Taco, but Taco is kinda tallish anyway isn't he? Anyhow, I compared recent pictures I found from doing a google image search and this guy had more hair than Taco, so I knew it couldn't be him.

Anyhow, if anyone knows these guys or is these guys, Hi! I'm the guy with tarot cards. :)

Still working on that op-ed piece, but I'm struggling with it now. Maybe I should just break it up or something.

I just got interviewed by Ted Bridis, staff writer for the Associated Press! He said he saw my post on /.. I think he was probably referring to this one (which was +5 Interesting, but got modded all the way down to 1, mostly due to overrated mods. Ahem.) Here's his e-mail:

RE: Saw ur post to /. re RIAA

From:
"Ted Bridis" (email deleted) (The Associated Press)

To:
"'Surak" (email deleted)

Date:
Today 18:15:01

Well, we could do this e-mail.

Is (deleted) your name or an alias? (Sorry, we have to ask).

Will the RIAA's announcement today affect your use, in any way, of any of
the p2p networks? Do you offer any copyright material for uploading? Will
you, b/c of this, disable uploading or uninstall your software?

Any other thoughts on the RIAA's strategy?

Ted Bridis, staff writer
The Associated Press
2021 K St., NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20006
(phone numbers deleted)
http://bridis.net/contact

I deleted his e-mail and mine so we don't get spammed. :)

Anyway, here's my response to his questions:

On Wednesday 25 June 2003 18:15, you wrote:
> Well, we could do this e-mail.
>
> Is (deleted) your name or an alias? (Sorry, we have to ask).

Real name. I would prefer if you not use my real name in the story as it
would be detrimental to my employment situation.

> Will the RIAA's announcement today affect your use, in any way, of any of
> the p2p networks? Do you offer any copyright material for uploading? Will
> you, b/c of this, disable uploading or uninstall your software?

> Any other thoughts on the RIAA's strategy?

No, it's not likely that I'll change my use of P2P networks. For me, it's an
act of civil disobedience. Let's face it. Large distributed networks like
the Internet have changed the face of intellectual property. Music and
movies will continue to be shared whether or not they sue a few people. It's
like speeding. You can't catch everyone. The media companies should focus
on changing their business model.

Look at Apple's new iTunes service. Despite being minimally DRM-enabled, it's
still possible to share the music on P2P services. I think Apple knew that.
Sell songs for $0.99 instead of making me buy the whole album, especially if
your'e going to market a bunch of one-hit wonders to me. You know that 80s
song, "Come on Eilieen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners. How many people even
KNOW who Dexy's Midnight Runners are? How many people know what other work
they've done? Virtually no one. But the tune was remade in 1997 and it's
success as a top hit proves that the song had popularity, but the band
didn't. That's one of the biggest reasons why P2P networks exist. People
want what they want. Give it to them instead force-feeding stuff down their
throats.

And that's another thing. The RIAA is monopoly. It's a trust. They know
that people will buy the music *they* want to promote from a profitability
standpoint (one-hit wonders and boy bands that naively gave away all their
rights). But peer-to-peer networks change the game. It puts the listener in
control. They can pick what they like and what they don't and they don't
have to have it shoved down their throats.

Most people I know who use P2P use it to try music out, and then they do, as
in my case, go out and buy it. What we don't buy is due to the RIAA's price
gouging and poor marketing tactics. I don't know anyone who has a Dexy's
Midnight Runners album. But I know lots of people who have "Come on Eileen"
in their MP3 collection. These people wouldn't have bought the album for
$10, $15, or $20, because the rest of their stuff sucks. No revenue lost
really.

Let's see if it makes it to a "real" news story. :)
Did I sound like a babbling idiot? Do you think he'll use it? Does it even matter? :) C'mon be honest!

UPDATE: I think that this is the story. It looks like I didn't make it in guys. I suppose the guy thought I was real whack job or something. Either that or he just ran out of space. :) I dunno. He never e-mailed me back or anything...