"the damage that has become visible over the past few months means that we need to start planning for a computing world with minimal trust"

Oh, come on. I mean I don't know about most people, but there has been no day during my life around computers during which I would've ever thought that computers, the networks, the internet, and/or services were more secure or more trustworthy than that 'minimal' the poster talks about. And I'd expect everyone with enough experince and insight to feel the same. So this 'waking up' one day and being dumbstruck of evaporating trust and security just feels weird and even funny. They were actually never there, just the illusion of some, mostly for the average non-caring crowds, but that's really easy to lose. Also, current generation 'westerners' are the worst in such matters, since they have no more memories of times not-so-long-past when survaillance - covert or open - was the norm. Thinking you live in freedom and liberty can be blinding. Take care, people.

So, few things:
- the beta site looks like every mom&pop noob blog, the furthest away from anything professional;
- commenting is CRAP - the power of Slashdot is the comments, a standard blog-style commenting section will not do, it is stupid and useless, width is too low, fonts are too big, nobody will be able to handle even a few hundred comments in the current beta style layout;
- the site will not look more 'modern' or 'professional' by new headline styles with large space-eating images; on Slashdot, content is king; and most content that we care about is TEXT.

If you really want to copy a layout, then copy ArsTechnica's single column layout. That is nice. This new beta is not. It's childish and amateurish.

"Google's 'derisorily ineffective' efforts to battle online piracy"

It's an indexing&search engine for cryin' out loud, not a censoring body (thankfully). Censorship falls into government territory, they should censor and block sites if they can, not force the censorship tasks onto a company. I do not want to understand why these - and other similar - people can't fathom what they're dealing with. Derisorily ineffective my a**. They are pretty effective in what they do, which is provide results for your queries. They might want to actually regulate search engines though laws, but they wouldn't like the backlash from the people, so they seem to try to force the task onto the companies (especially Google, go figure).

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." The second, let's deal with all the idiot politicians.

So, it was a good run where Elop managed to change the "embrace, extend, extinguish" mantra into "embrace, f*ck it up, s*ck it up".

Good job. Well done. Nokia shareholders are probably the most happy about it.

"I can hack your server just by sending a email? Cool!
Seriously though, please find a single case of that occurring with any major mail program."

People, wake up, this is not some "cloud utopia". If it runs an email server, it can be hacked, it made lots of us learn our sh*t the hard way. And even it is the only thing running in the VM, it can still give someone usable data.

The only thing this whole shebang is good for is that it makes it virtually - hehh - impossible to get to one service by exploiting the weaknesses of another one running on the same server (which in this case shouldn't happen). That's it, nothing more. No silver bullet, just a different way of trying to solve the issue.

"Why would you run all these on a single VM?"

Because you live in the real world?

What I'd like to know, why the hell can't they make SSDs that have a life in the ballpark of a ram module. Yeah, you wouldn't buy new ones so often, but come on, crap is crap. Oh, now I can hear all the tablet and ultrabook fans (I also use ultrabooks with SSDs for quite a while) that they are good and nice. But it's not just those devices that SSDs are used in. E.g. we have an application that needs lots of ram and also needs lots of disk space with quick access so we use SSDs for caching important parts. And we've seen SSDs die in weeks (!), while we have 1-2 failed ram modules per year. Yes, different tech, still: make higher quality crap, that's all.

Well, the authors says: "I also love writing documentation.". So, there you have it. If you like doing that, then please do the kind of docs that you'd like to see from others. Me, not so much a fan of writing lengthy blabber, and in documentations I prefer conciseness, easy searchability (i.e. use the proper terms and wording), and quick & to the point examples. Put the rest in a book that I'll buy, put in on my shelf, and never use.

Most docs are written by people who didn't do it by choice, and it shows, but if they were put together by someone who knew their stuff, then they are still usable to the generally knowledgeable in the area. If you want to write for rookies, go ahead, but most of those texts cause me exceptional headaches.

Propaganda isn't necessarily "false information". It's more like (m-w.com): "ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect". Can be false information, or truth presented/filtered in a way to make one party or agenda look better and the other worse. As always, it depends on the intention.

"If your local school stinks and you send your child there, Benedikt explains, 'I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.'"

No. If I know the local school stinks, I will do everything in my power to avoid it, at all costs, no matter what. I think I can't put it any more clear than that :) As a parent, your kid is - or should be - the most important in your life, and if it so, then why the hell would you make him/her suffer during one of his/her most important period in life? School lays the foundations of what your kid will grow to be, does anyone think the quality of the school is not important? If so, then you'd better shut up and bury yourself 'cause we're not interested in your idiocy.

"Melia Robinson's trick [described for Chrome] works in Firefox and Internet Explorer, too"

I think I'll make a feature request for the next Firefox, to rename the Recently Closed Tabs menu to Melia Robinson's Trick Parlor.

Some people are just idiots. And the Sun is shining again today.

...when I ran into this: "that it doesnâ(TM)t impose on its own platform or Appleâ(TM)s (both of which use Google as the default search engine, of course).". So, they complain about an app being blocked, but they start by pointing fingers - again - about search engine use. FairSearch anyone? So after that line, I couldn't care less. MS wants a Youtube app on WP? Then do that Google wants, s*ck it up - remember (funny they'd need to be reminded so often) your users should have the priority, not your corporate ego.

Forgot to add that the only channel that's having it on air here, is running season 3...

"Breaking Bad's final season was aired globally"

Yeah, right. Just went on their page, there's only ep9 from s5, when clicking I got: "The video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from your current country or location". Global release my a**.

"I must say, having lived in Europe, Turkey and in spent some time in other countries, the US is still the country where I feel most "free" - that doesn't mean it is free, but it is to show how "unfree" you can feel in other places on this planet. Let's just make the US again the "Country of Ms Liberty""

Well, some places you must've lived... I've been in almost all European countries (yes, including the UK, since some - including the British - still think of it as something attached to Europe, not really part of it, anyway...), been living in some for shorter-longer periods, and I'm also spending quite some time in the U.S., plus, I'm planning to move there next year for a longer period. Yet, in light of all that, I still have to say that there are a number of European countries which are much better to live in, then the U.S. It's not a question of freedom or democracy, they all have that - although the interpretation sometimes diverges a bit -, it's about everyday stuff, living, getting around, dealing with legalities&paperwork, people, and so on and so forth. But wait, I'm not saying the U.S. can't be nice, why would I be there so much if it weren't, I'm only trying to point out that the "freedom" reason you gave above is a major load of crap.