I think I may have to take a break from Slashdot.

Why? Is is because it's eating into my work? Nah - I have plenty of long compiles that allow me to waste a few minutes here and there. Is it because I'm actually building a "Freaks" list? No way! The fact that some people find my honest opinions too insulting to bear is kind of amusing.

No, it's because I've started Acting My Age and becoming way, way too serious.

I am not at all like my Slashdot persona. I mean, my opinions and beliefs are the same - I've never once misrepresented those - but my personality is completely different. I'm a nice guy who likes to laugh, enjoy life, and have fun. I'm almost never this intense or serious in day-to-day life, but put me in front of a comment box and I go uber-professional and detail-oriented. Those are OK traits, sure, and it's nice to know that I'm capable of logical and serious discussion, but that's still not who I am.

I even get along brilliantly with people I disagree with. Although I'm a very staunch conservative, one of my long-time good friends is a deliberately homeless tree-hugger (I mean it - literally!) who's typically into paganism, environmentalism, socialism, and a lot of other isms that I don't really want any part of. We get along great, though, and although we disagree on pretty much everything we always have a fun time in the process. Not here, though. Oh, no. For some reason, I seem to lose the ability to parse gentle sarcasm when I come here and just have to respond in a pedantically exact manner.

So, why is that? I kind of blame Slashdot itself, and its "coverage" of the 2004 elections in particular. Despite our differences, we used to all pretty much get along before then. Now our little green corner of the 'net is hyper-politicized and angry, and you can't ask for a recommendation of a nice IDE drive without being lectured about the evils of magnetoresistive manufacturers and their harm to the third-world environment.

I'll make you a promise: if you promise to lighten up and begin enjoying the humor inherent in a population of nearly a million crotchety geeks from across the world, I'll do the same. In fact, as a token of good faith, I'll be the first to try. On the other hand, if I can't pull it off, then I'm out of here. Seriously. I enjoy life too much to be sucked down into a swirling pit of Seriousness and Thoughtful Deliberation.

Let's have fun again, shall we? Wish me luck.

Over on my amazingly boring blog I've posted my case for Why I'm Voting for Kerry. In the interests of keeping it brief and easy to skim it's mostly a bullet list of points.

If you care (and I know you don't), I've now got a blog. You could read it, I suppose, if you were really bored. I do endeavor to avoid being boring; as a result I'm only posting about monthly. No stories about my diet, my health, or how much I hate my job, friends, or family.

I had the opportunity to visit TSR on a business trip in the spring of 1997. The company had just been bought by Wizards of the Coast. Things were in transition. Gamers familiar with TSR might be interested in my rambling story about visiting TSR during it's last days in Lake Geneva.

I use my "Foes" list to manage the people who've established a pattern of saying things far beyond my threshold of tolerable stupidity. It's not that I dislike these people personally but that they detract from intelligent conversation to the point that they make themselves a nuisance. I'm not going to spend mod points to silence them, because that goes against my principals (and because I'd rather reward good conversation than attempt to "punish" the bad), but I personally have no interest in what they have to say and don't want to be bothered with it.

So, I think it's only fair to tell people why I've added them to the list. I'm not going to bother with prior entries, but I will be explaining all new ones.

The first recent addition is killjoe. I've disagreed with some of his postings, but this quote is what pushed him from "people I sometimes disagree with" to "people I don't want to listen to":

As for me I think the days of the peaceful liberals are over. It's time we adopted the republitard tactics. Yes that means dragging them behind cars and crucifiying them alongside the highways.

As far as I'm concerned, people who make comments like that are ineligible for civil conversation.

Okay the other journal post was locked, so that goes out the window. If you want an account then post here. Sorry for the delay to the last few people. I'll be faster in the future. I've currently got 8 but knowing Google they will give me more in the very near future.

Jokes, funny stories etc. all welcome but not vital.

Gamecube icon because of fanboyism

I'm now officially scared of my Slashdot reading. I've been reading most the day and made a few comments (one even got modded up worryingly). So I'm sitting here with several porn links open, theres lesbian porn on TV (channel 4 in the UK) and I'm sitting here writing ajournal entry and downloading a movie... and I don't have a fucking clue why.

I'd rather read geeks comments on the Sasser virus then I would look at two hot girls fingering each other.... I'm starting to wonder if my sexual prefrence has changed to a /. icon rather then a male or female one o.o

Got like 3 spare Gmail invites, if you want one leave a message and I'll hand them out. Give a good reason as to wanting one (or leave a funny joke not taken from Bash.org) and I'll give them to my favourite replies.

If I get any more I will select the next people based on these replies and the next ones, so if you miss out this time you may get it the day after.

Just tesing my sig :)

Posted by michael in The Mysterious Future!
from the better-than-nothing dept.
Garret writes "Though Microsoft is doing their part in protecting Windows users from internet attacks by including a firewall in their latest service pack, one has to wonder just how secure is the Windows Firewall from XP Service Pack 2? Not too good according to Flexbeta. Their recommendation is to turn off Windows Firewall and get an alternative such as ZoneAlarm or Sygate PF. Simply the fact that Windows Firewall can be turned off by another application is enough to tell me Microsoft has goofed again." PCWorld also has a story about the new firewall capability.

See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.

Posted by timothy in The Mysterious Future!
from the not-yet-mandatory-for-your-own-email dept.
Sterling D. Allan writes "A story in the Deseret News cautions governments and corporations from deleting legitimate email. Expensive measures are being called into place to archive the mail for future subpoena purposes. Think Enron on one hand. Think Monicagate on the other. Next they'll ask us to keep recordings of all our phone conversations? Big brother gets bigger -- with good reasons, as always. What about all those business propositions I get from Nigeria. Do I have to keep those too? "Get rich from home" (to pay for the purchase of a new hard drive to contain all your spam). One man's junk is another man's treasure. You never know what an IRS agent might find lucky."

See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor. ============================================
From the Future will return in 4 days.

/TD> Posted by timothy in The Mysterious Future!
from the specific-example-of-a-general-truth dept.
gtoomey writes "Australian Open Source lawyer Brendan Scott is claiming the USA/Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) will damage all Australian software development. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald says that developers have probably built products which 'infringe' on U.S. software patents, while the FTA is forcing Australia to adopt DCMA laws."

See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.

Posted by timothy in The Mysterious Future!
from the multipass dept.
EnergyEfficient writes "Metropolis Magazine has an article about a company that is producing transparent solar panels. The panels 'can generate 3.8 watts of electricity per square foot, an above-average level of efficiency.' They come in a thick version that can be used for glazing buildings. Imagine if all those glass skyscrapers could also produce power! As an interesting aside, they can also be used as screens for projection TV units."

See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.

Posted by michael in The Mysterious Future!
from the bank-shot dept.
o0zi writes "A Canadian scientist has created another game-playing machine, designed for a far simpler purpose than chess: playing pool. The world's first pool-playing robot consists of a slim box that glides along tracks above a pool table, and shoots using a camera-guided cue. Deep Green pots only half the shots it plans for - supposedly the same as a below average player - but this is expected to improve."

See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor.