Unfortunately, 127.0.53.53 is a perfectly valid IP address already in use globally - try pinging it on most machines for proof. Remember, the loopback address is not just 127.0.0.1 - it's that whole /8 subnet, all the way up to 127.255.255.255. Indeed, two of my own DNS servers are bound to 127.0.0.53 right now (there's another DNS server bound to the public IP address, which forwards certain queries to this one).

This seems like a really, really stupid hack to me. If they are effectively revoking the domain, why not just return NXDOMAIN instead of bad data? Apart from the "people seeing it for the first time will be curious and go and Google 127.0.53.53 to see why", the rationale just doesn't hold up. Apart from anything else, returning that will cause mail servers to attempt delivery to themselves. Yes, it contains the traffic within the host - but NXDOMAIN would stop the traffic having anywhere to go too, and is the correct response. (One clueless hosting company did something very similar - any departing customer's DNS entries were updated to route mail to 127.0.0.1 - with the result mail bounced until the new delegation propagated fully. 127.0.53.53 would have exactly the same effect.)

I recently revisited some of my old haunts on Usenet. Only a few are still active, the rest are just barren wastes save for the occasional spam rolling by. Ironically, it was Google (thanks to acquiring the old Dejanews archives and turning it into Google Groups) rather than AOL who started the rot. AOL just let the newbies loose - Google turned the volume up to 11.

Now we have a World Wide Web where everyone and their dog is a social media / SEO 'expert', Facebook is becoming a walled garden so overgrown that no-one can see or hear you unless you have wads of cash handy, Google won't show you in search unless you submit yourself to Google+, and trolls run rampant whilst their victims are told to tough it out or get out.

Of course we are in a simulation. But only XKCD seems to care about what language that simulation is programmed in.

Good point. Over at deviantART, they have an official development / Beta-testing group (#devBUG) with bug-tracking database and a line to the development team (Devious Technology). Also, if you're a paying user, you can join the Beta Test program at any time in order to test out new features before they're put into general use.

There can only be one Interrobang. :)

Er... wow.

I think the clue is in the word 'beta'. The whole point of this exercise is for users to help Slashdot iron out the kinks in the new design. As far as I'm aware, they are not forcing people to use the Beta site, and you can still use the 'classic' site in the meantime.

From an aesthetic viewpoint, it certainly doesn't look that bad - if it were faux-MySpace, I might be able to understand the anger. As it is, if you're really *that* opposed to change of Slashdot's look, either pitch ideas for a design that improves on how the site currently works, or help identify the problems with the proposed redesign. Clogging up the site with this neo-Luddite whinging will most likely get you nowhere, and if you decide to go elsewhere I suspect you won't be missed.

I've not yet been forced onto the Beta UI. Still visit occasionally, although my journalling is elsewhere now.

My experience with solid-state batteries differs significantly from yours. Maybe it's just colder here in North Dakota. :)

Also, the Prius's heater uses engine coolant. It apparently has an auxiliary electric heat source and water pump to keep the cabin heated when the gasoline engine is shut off, but if they put the car together in a remotely sane manner that should result in redundancy rather than an additional point of failure. If the batteries or the gas engine fails you in the Prius, you still should not freeze to death.

In a Tesla, though, if the batteries fail you then you will freeze to death. While the same is true for the fuel line and pump on a gasoline car or, much greater risk because of fuel gelling, on a diesel car, I have not personally witnessed a properly maintained gasoline car that started and reached operating temperature fail because of fuel delivery issues, in a climate where -40C happens at least annually and for roughly three consecutive months each year the temperature does not exceed -10C on more than a small handful of days.

And that's what I mean about the Tesla being unproven. We have a century of gasoline and diesel engine experience so we know how to keep them working in extreme cold and the risk of problems is a known quantity. We also have a solid understanding of how to survive in the event of various problems that can arise. (As an example, if you are stuck in the snow but the engine is running, you ensure that the exhaust is clear so it can escape to atmosphere and then you stay in the car for warmth and safety.) For a hybrid like the Prius, the risks should be both similar to those in a gas car and also mitigated by intelligent engineering of redundant systems. They are still uncommon here, but that is likely more because they have low ground clearance than because they are hybrid. For a purely electric car, though, we have no experience keeping them running in extreme cold and the risk of problems is an unknown quantity. We also do not have a good understanding of how to survive if a problem arises. What do you do if you are stranded in cold weather by a dead battery and help will not arrive until morning?

Everything I have identified as a risk of electric cars can surely be quantified and likely be mitigated. But with gas cars we have a century of experience to draw on. It will be a long time before the same can be said for electric cars. And during that time, I will let people in populated areas where help or alternative transportation is within a 5-minute walk at all times learn and fix the problems before I incur the risk of a frozen battery leading to my own freezing to death.

I have found that batteries fare very poorly in general in the cold. That includes the starting battery on my car, the battery in my phone, the battery in my camera, and every other battery of any chemistry that I have exposed to the cold. The difference is that an internal combustion engine warms up as you get farther down the road, reducing the risk of failure due to the cold. In other words, cold-related failure of a gasoline car is most likely to occur in your driveway where you can walk inside and survive. It seems that electric cars increase the risk of failure as you drive away in the cold. People who become stranded in a gasoline powered car with adequate fuel and do the right thing by staying with the car tend to survive. Electric cars that accomplish the same results are certainly possible, but not yet proven.

This has always been my concern with electric cars. Batteries do not work well in the cold. I live in the part of the USA where Norwegians settled because it reminded them of home. Except we were having a heat wave at the time, and now it's colder. A warm gasoline or diesel engine will generally keep running no matter how cold it gets, so by the time you are any distance from the safety of your home, you have the safety of a running car with a working heater until you run out of fuel (assuming you have not filled with #2 diesel, which turns to gel in the cold). An electric car that relies entirely on batteries will get you just far enough from home to be in danger when the batteries have, due to temperature, become unable to move the car or to provide heat for the occupants.

I think an electric car would be great for the summer months. Maybe they should market electric motorcycles. But in the winter, living in a rural area where the ambient daytime temperatures are often -15C and occasionally -45C or worse, electric vehicles have a long battle to prove that they are as safe as their gasoline and diesel powered counterparts.

Haven't owned any Bosch stuff, so can't comment on their reliability. Also, I don't know how tough Hungary's consumer legislation is regarding repairs under warranty. Might be worth brushing up on what the rules are, and finding the address of Bosch's head office in Hungary, as well as their European central office. I'd be writing them an angry letter, and threatening to tell everyone I know how shoddy their service was. Might not achieve anything other than stress relief, but on the other hand it might shock them into sorting this out and working to keep your custom.

To those interested in the implementation of programming languages, it is immediately apparent that this is a fundamental change in the compiler behind the GNU Guile system which implements the Scheme programming language, inasmuch as it now has a virtual machine based on the register model instead of the implied stack model, along with an intermediate language in its compilation path that is based on continuation-passing style.

I think that the lesson here is for everyone: There are many segments of nerd culture, and it is very unlikely that any randomly-selected Slashdot reader understands and appreciates all of those segments. For example, the earlier headline today "Why Transivity Violations Can Be Rational" has no meaning to many readers, even after the title was corrected to spell transitivity correctly. After reading a little about that topic, I see that it is an area of of obvious interest to many nerds.

That being said, there are plenty of topics Slashdot poorly reports on which are not of interest to any segment of nerd culture, at least not beyond the overlap between nerd culture and the mainstream news where we already read the same information three days earlier except through the words of a literate, competent reporter with real editing before it hit the press.

If it's any consolation, I suspect quite a few people (myself included) wondered that when Schemer first launched in 2011. And never bothered to go back.

[Just checked, yes I deleted my Schemer account.]

Thanks for the link!

Most surprising graph on that page (for me, anyway) was the one for desktop browsers - hardly any movement at all. Most depressing one, needless to say, has to be the one for Internet Explorer - looks like IE8 and earlier versions are going to stick around for a while yet.