Two comments of mine have been mod-bombed to glory.

Here they are - one and two.

Just look at the Over-rated mods. Blatant fucking abuse, both were at +4. Kinda smart that they choose the funnies, because funny is an opinion unlike something like interesting or informative. Bleh.

Until Slashdot fixes this, I'm going to mark ALL Over-rated and Under-rated mods on Meta-mod (unless there's a very good reason not to) as Unfair.

I think this offending comment is the cause of it.

And now, Slashdot doesn't let me post anon - why? Apparently because there's a lot of bad posting from my IP. WTF?

FUCK. Karma down the drain.

Update (updating in JE for obvious reasons)

FK tells me that there are no Overrated and Underrated in M2 - great, now that he mentions it he's right. Absolutely brilliant and wonderful.

Yay, why do I feel this seething rage? What the hell were Taco and gang thinking of anyway? Funny, maybe Signal 11 did have a point or two about the moderation system.

F.Grump -- both were modded up to +4, and in a matter of 5-10 minutes, they were modded down to 0 and 1, each.

Well, I do sleep. Not without company though :-p

Hmm, as always, yet another Slashdot story rejection. Reasons unknown.

Anyway, apparently the German auto giant BMW has sued AskJolene.com - an adult search engine. And why? Because searches for the word BMW turns up porn sites with pictures of people, hmmm, doing stuff on BMW cars.

And they've been sued for trademark violations for that.

You can see the actual cease and desist letter.

Strange. And fucked up in a very literal sense.

Wow, I've never trolled this way in a long long time.

So, there's this article on cell-phone jammers being installed in France. I make a comment saying that it would be a bad thing, because I'm in a job where I would need to be available 24/7 - and if there were jammers, I would not be able to go watch movies. I merely said that between not ever receiving calls and putting up with the occasional beep from some stupid user who wouldn't switch his cellphone, I prefer the latter.

Boy, I was flamed to kingdom come.

So here's the Slashdot consensus -

Even if I keep my cellphone in vibrator alert, even if I did not disturb anyone and watched the movie - only to leave when I got an SMS or a call, I'm doing something wrong.

Apparently, I would need to change my job.

Apparently, if I'm a parent who may get a call from the baby-sitter if something goes wrong, I should not ever go to a theater.

Apparently, because of the obnoxious few who let their cellphones beep, even those of us who leave our cellphones in vibrator modes are evil. Because the slight buzzing noise is disturbing. As is the light that comes off a cellphone.

Just so that the whiney crowd here can watch their movies undisturbed.

I'm quite honestly appalled. I mean, I get just as pissed when people have their cellphones ringing in the middle of the movies. But jamming cellphones altogether? That's stupid, because that would really mean I cannot ever visit a movie theater.

Just shows how little of a life of responsibility these guys have. Haven't they ever had any serious professional or personal responsibility or what?

And oh, here's the offending thread.

Hmm, Slashdot keeps rejecting my stories, no matter how important they seem -- maybe it's Michael taking personal vendetta ;-)

Anyway, here's the scoop:

As a part of its shared source initiative, Microsoft will allow governments around the world that use MS-Office to have controlled access to the source-code of Microsoft Office 2003. More details can be found in the PC World article. Details of Microsoft's existing shared source licensing programs can be found here. Is this a sign of Microsoft giving a harder look at adopting some kind of Opensource model within, owing to pressure from the OSS community?

Weird as hell -

The Luminous Toilet Seat

Ever wanted your toilet seat to be lit up while you relieve yourself? How about it blinking away when you close it? Or better yet, how about running lights?

En"lightened" toilet seats.

Am... kinda spellbound.

Right now, it looks like we are going through the equivalent of technological dark-ages. What's worse is that we do not even realize it.

Lately, almost all laws and business practices seem to be leaning towards stiffling innovation and make profit through stagnant business models, rather than innovate. Need examples? They are all around you. Media. Software. Hardware.

Look at one of the latest drafts of WIPO, which I will quote here -

Article 16, Alternative V: ...
2. In particular, effective legal remedies shall be provided against those who: ...
        (iii) participate in the manufacture, importation, sale, or any other act that makes available a device or system capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal.

Nice, eh? See Prof. Felten's blog for more.

Why has innovation stopped? Sure, it happens a little, but when was the last time something ground-breaking happened? The golden age of science is drawing to an end. All that we do today is use existing technologies and make them better -- but there are no new technologies. When laws and economics tend to put down technologies and new ideas, they might actually be killing a lot of ideas that could potentially change the world. I particularly like Prof. Felten's argument in this regard.

Between tinkering and innovation, I vote innovation. Tinkering is nothing but imitation, making an existing technology better. But you do not have any new technologies. You just work on what's already been built.

We have stopped having technologies that change the world, radically. Rather, we have reached a phase of calm acceptance that big businesses and governments do what they please. And in the process, real science is being killed.

Who the HELL cares about the ethical problem of cloning or stem cell research? It saves lives, for crying out loud. It's a new science, and something that will open new frontiers. And it will help bring progress, in some sense or the other. Technology is always double edged -- it depends on the people using it. Banning a technology because of what people might do is stupid -- raise better children, do not stifle technology.

When was the last time we went into space? For all the millions being spent on dumb movies and celebrity worship, if only a *fraction* of that amount was spent on science, we would make serious progress. How often do you hear kids say that being a scientist was cool? Or being a physicist was cool? We have the wrong idols. The people who make it big, the people who earn the society's attention and the people who get all the cool things in life are not the genuine contributors, but those that stifle science. Those that make people sit in their couches and while away their times, rather than inspire them to go out there and make a difference.

My dear friends, welcome to the Dark Ages.

Here's an interesting piece -

Word count in the national conventions.

It shows the count of the various words that the democrats and republicans have used against one another. Quite interesting, and shows the priorities too.

My personal favourite is the fact that "girlie men" gets its own little bubble ;-)

This was inspired by the_mad_poster's rant on Eye for an Eye.

I have just one bone to pick with same-sex marriages -- nature would definitely not allow so many same sex couples to exist. It seems to go against evolution, since if there were indeed so many homosexuals, those genes would die out.

Either those are dormant genetic attributes that are being brought out now, or they are nature's way of rebuttal against the current social setting.

No matter what, although I do not have anything personal against gay and lesbian marriages, it just seems out of place simply for this reason - how will you procreate?

I had read a book a while ago, which portrays a highly developed society where a particular state is entirely Christian - they have the ability to look at the attributes of a child before s/he is born, and determine such things as if the child is homosexual, physical and mental attributes and the like. And in the whole of the state, the only community that has homosexuals is Catholic - because while all the other communities abort their babies the moment they realize they are gay, Catholics do not, because the Pope has stated that abortion is one of the highest sins.

The reason I state this is because, in several societies (especially conservative Asian and European ones), there are almost no gays - because the society forces them to marry, and the tendencies abate (mind you, I'm not saying this is right or wrong, merely observing a fact). I believe that over generations, it slowly becomes dormant, upon dilution in the genetic pool. Now given a sufficient opportunity, these dormant genes may just resurface, bringing out so many homosexuals.

However, the consequence of that would be that we would notice a sharp rise in the number of homosexuals, followed by a sharp fall, because there can only be so many dormant manifestations of such a gene -- if it was a lot higher, evolution as we know could not have happened.

A puzzle to ponder :)

Saw this on BoingBoing. A bunch of Swedish folks who operate a BitTorrent site got a lawyer's notice from Dreamworks. Priceless reply!

As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States of America. Sweden is a country in northern Europe. Unless you figured it out by now, US law does not apply here. For your information, no Swedish law is being violated.

Please be assured that any further contact with us, regardless of medium, will result in
        a) a suit being filed for harassment
        b) a formal complaint lodged with the bar of your legal counsel, for sending frivolous legal threats.

It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are fucking morons, and that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.

You can find the article here.

No, this has nothing to do with DaytonCIM's journal entry on religious dilemma.

The Southern Baptist Convention decides not to ask Christian parents to pull their children out of public schools in favour of religious education.

Whew, what a relief. Good to know that things aren't going the fundamentalist way. However, the SBC does want a constitutional amendment against gay and lesbian marriages, and has over 16 million members supporting it's motion.

Read the article here.

Hmmm, if this is the case in one of the world's most developed countries, I do not see why we should not allow fundamentalism to flourish in other nations.

Hey, pot - kettle - black. You know?

Cygnusx brought this to my attention.

Read http://prudentpolitics.com/content/view/61/2/

Here is a particularly interesting quote -

"Well, I'm sure someone will argue in favor of "getting the rich," but the numbers speak for themselves. Our economy is blowing away Europe's, and North America is turning out more millionaires than the rest of the world combined."

How very true. The only unfortunate outcome is that the it still seperates the haves and the have nots and brings about a wider chasm, however that in no way brings down the fact that the economy as a whole is doing better than the rest of the world.

Take other countries - say India for instance. What India is experiencing now is just a temporary boom of outsourcing, and this is bound to stop sooner or later. At which point, it will affect the economy as a whole. The current ruling political part is a little leftist, so that will only hinder the previous administration's plans of making all public-sector enterprises privately owned. A large chunk of Europe is a little too security minded in the sense that they are averse to taking risks. I think one of the only reasons why US is so successful is because it not only encourages risks, but also rewards it much better than other parts of the world.

And in the long run, given a world economy that's turning from bad to worse, the US may not be as economically healthy as it used to be, but it sure as hell is healthier than the rest of the world.

Today, I'd gone cliff jumping with a bunch of friends. For those that do not know, it's jumping off cliffs into the water below, usually around waterfalls. Think bungee jumping without the rope :)

There was a particularly dangerous cliff, that was about a 100 feet high, and I took a leap. Unfortunately, my hands were spread out and I landed badly, with severe cramps in my arms and legs.

I tried coming out, hoping I'd see the air and the light, but I did not. I could not move my arms or paddle, and I was suffocating. For a while, my friend Sabrina thought I was just trying to pretend, and my friends were just laughing out there.

Just one guy, Rob, felt that something was wrong, and swam to me. He pulled me away to the land, and I was so damn sure I'd die before that. I probably spent 20 seconds under 40 feet of water. It was so amazing to see the sun and the land :)

Thanks a lot Rob, I owe you one! If you hadn't come for me, I probably would have drowned.

For those brief moments, I saw my life flash before me. It was... unbelievable.

Ironically, a quote from Good Will Hunting came to mind at that moment (possibly because I was watching it a few days ago) --

Real loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.

Well, how true.

One thing that stuck me was, a lot of people claim to be your friends and make void promises, but the real ones come through at the unlikeliest of times.

Those that held on, thank you.

I guess this entry has been inspired by the mad_poster.

So I was at this fast food the other day, and I noticed a bunch of people come by, and order extra-large burgers with generous amounts of cheese. They'd take a large pack of fries, and a cheese dip.

And then, they'd order diet coke.

Whoa!? What's the *bloody* point!?

And this is not the first time that I've noticed this. It's so ridiculous!

On a related note, we had gone rock-climbing to a well known place around Los Alamos called White Rocks. A friend of mine was like, you know this is good exercise, it'll keep us all thin and nice. I still wonder how people are obese.

Well, the problem is, the people who NEED to do this kind of stuff do not. They're sitting at home eating McD large fries with coke and watching the millionth re-run of a reality show comfortably lazed on their couch.

Go ahead, flame me. But obesity is a problem only because of really bad habits -- not just food habits but even ones related to lifestyle.

Kids these days play videogames, how many go out and play a good game of soccer? Or how many are taught good martial arts? Oh no! My kid is wearing glasses, he will get hurt. Bullshit. I wore glasses as a kid, I was weak, I was a nerd. But that did not stop my parents from making sure I got out and played everyday. And guess what? It's done me a lot of good.

And to make it worse, those that live in the cities hardly ever get out to go and play. Atlanta hardly has any places where you can really go out and play outdoor sports a lot. On the other hand, I look at Los Alamos -- it's a small nice little town, with so much of open-space. And it's nice, because I do not see cooped up 12 year olds playing video games and getting drunk. Instead, I see them going out and playing soccer and baseball.

What's wrong with people? Obesity is not that big a problem if you understand it. But if you did understand it and did nothing about it, it's bloody criminal.

Ahh, I have come to a part of the US that most people do not even know belongs to this country.

I'm in the beautiful state of New Mexico, and boy, am I in love with this place or what!

I'm here for my summer internship at the Los Alamos National Labs, and so far it's simply been wonderful. Great outdoors, and as an avid rock-climber, I've simply been having the time of my life in here! :)

The last couple of weeks were really hectic, had to move some of my stuff, get an apartment and did not even have net access.

I shalt get back to my badass posting habits in just a while, my friends.

Cheers!

I saw this on Orkut. And this is the *most* insightful post I've ever read in my life.

--- --- --- --- --- ---

"It's amazing that assholes can get girls. Actually, now that I think of it, it's not that amazing. They are assholes at heart, but to meet girls they lavish their undying love. IT'S A CHARADE. They act nice, friendly, and they listen... until they get into what they're after. Their prey thinks they are in love with them, however when they realize what assholes their predators really are, they pretend like the asshole is really nice inside. The girl tries to change the asshole into a nice guy, but assholes will always be assholes. She gets upset and goes to the nice guy to complain about the asshole. But she claims to love the asshole... now this is where the theory begins. She doesn't want to look like she is easy so she wont dump the asshole right away, instead she will stay with the asshole. Girls are idiots. They don't realize that the nice guy has been there all along. He never had to pretend to be a good guy to get girls because he is naturally like that. However, girls don't see it for some reason or another. They look at the nice guy as a friend, a trusted companion to whom they can tell their sad story to about their asshole boyfriend.

But the nice guy isn't THAT naïve. He was trying to score with the girl he listens to all along. The problem is that since he is a nice guy he keeps listening. Since girls get attached to things that pay attention to them, they think of the nice guy as a friend. A FRIEND. They don't say, "Oh he's hot" or "I want to have his children" about the nice guy, they just want the emotional support. When they get the emotional support from the nice guy, they don't need it from the asshole. The nice guy gets the shit end of the stick while the asshole gets all the action. I am starting to wonder if being a nice guy is really the route to take to get action... I have been down this path for all of my post-pubescent life and it has gotten me NOWHERE... at least not in the women department.

Perhaps another reason why girls fall for the asshole is because assholes ignore the girl they are with. The women wonder, "Why isn't he paying attention to me?" so they explore why. They poke and prod and get closer to the asshole. They start to get easier with each attempt to get closer. The asshole finally says, "I've let this beauty dangle long enough, time to boat this bass". It is then he puts on his charade and the girl feels like she has won him... even thought all she has won is an asshole.

Once you have gone down the path as a nice guy or a "listener" you can't turn back. The girl will always go after the assholes because there are always nice guys there to listen. Once you realize that you are a "listener" you cant do anything about it... just pack up and close shop. There is no way you will get into her pants... ever. There is and never will be a situation where the nice guy will get the girl he has a crush on. It just doesn't work like that. The girl wont "come to her senses" and realize what an asshole her boyfriend is like in the movies... instead she will just go after another asshole, and unless you stop being a nice guy, she will never go after you. Women complain that there are no nice guys in the world. Right. They are obviously not looking hard enough because there are nice guys EVERYWHERE!!!! Girls aren't looking for nice guys... they say they are but they're not. They are looking for the perfect asshole, but there is NO SUCH THING as the perfect asshole.

All in all, the nice guy gets the shaft. To all the girls out there with boyfriends that don't treat you with respect, that don't listen to you, and that don't care about you I say this; look next to you. The guy that has been standing next to you the whole time is the guy you have been looking for. He is what you want your asshole to be like. He knows more about you than you know about yourself... because he has listened to it all."

--- --- --- --- --- ---

That, my friends, is SO true. And that is the reason why almost all guys end up being jerks. Because sooner or later, they realize that being a nice guy does not work. Ever.

It sucks, girls just want to use the nice guy, and they never really care for you otherwise. If you are a jerk, they say that atleast the guy is being being honest.

All the good deeds the nice guy does goes into oblivion the moment they even think you are not nice -- mind you, you may still be nice -- all it takes is *SOME* jerk to tell them that you are a jerk. And you are moot.

There is an old quote -- a man remembers his first kiss long after a woman has forgotten her last.

Remember, a girl will move on without caring for you, your feelings or anything else -- all she would care about is her freedom, her happiness, her priorities -- all that you did in the past is simply irrelevant once she finds happiness elsewhere.

If you do not want to be a victim of this, become a jerk. And you shall find happiness :)

Welcome to reality!