A 2 year old iPhone can usually be sold for $200, which is the same price as a new, on contract, iPhone. I just sell the old one every two years on eBay and get a new "free" one. I'm on a plan at work, so my contract price for unlimited data and talk is $50/month, and I don't pay it anyway.

I think the high resale value is one of the two advantages of an iPhone over an Android phone.
The other advantage is being able to deal with Apple, rather than a carrier, when there's a hardware problem.

If the comment system is broken, there's no reason to be here. If there's no reason to be here, there's no reason to care about mod points.

What separates slashdot from engadget and gizmodo is the readers and commenters.

I used 15 moderator points just the other day to mod up nothing but "beta sucks" posts. Your sig looks familiar, so I assume some of them were yours.
I figure I'll eat shit during meta-moderation, but if the comments are broken, there's no real need to read slashdot anyway.

I've been a reader, moderator and meta-moderator since 1998 or 1997. Last fucking century.

I've read and participated in many of the flare-up (remember John Katz?) and redesigns. All of them have been an issue, but nothing like this one. This one really is different; it's not just old people bitching about "the new thing".

To be brief, the redesign sucks. It took a layout that is simple, clean, easy to read (and more importantly, easy to skim) and turned it into a "modern" mess. UI is hard. Really hard. This time, the UI team just missed the boat. The new design makes it harder to read the site. It looks prettier to some people, but it's harder to read.

Secondly, you shouldn't even consider changing over until the comments works. The comments should be the first thing you get right. When /. was born, there wasn't much else like it, but now there's a million tech blogs. What makes slashdot different is the comments. When the comments are broken, there's not much difference between you and Engadget.

Most of us only have so much time in the day to gather "news". I can scan Google news, Ars, Engadget, Gizmodo and all the rest, but when I want to read good commentary from smart people who have an interest, I come here. Kill that, and you're no longer the innovator you started out as; you're just another copycat.

Bite the bullet, admit defeat, and try again. This time, figure out why people like me have been coming to the same website for 15 years. Slashdot and Ars have been part of my daily reading, since I got on the internet. Two sites. Please don't make it one.

I guess a lot of TV game show fans hate smart people, don't they? I'd have thought it would have been far more entertaining to watch someone do something different, interesting and successful, but what do I know. I'm sure the Idiocracy version will be along any time now.

Fixed that for ya.

Most of the people I know have FB accounts, and probably 50% of them are "fake" by FB's policies. Most of us won't use our real names. In my case, it's because there is exactly 1 person on this planet with my name (yes I've tried to find more; there aren't any). Since I don't trust FB to not do stupid things with my data, I lie about my name. The rest of the data is real.

My friends are in the same boat - they lie about their names, but the rest is real. Does it really matter to FB if John Smith goers by Jimmy Applebottom?

I'd like to "like" this story.

As long as the airline rules can be enforced by the feds. I want to see an arrest, by federal agents after the plane lands, of the first caller who won't hang up.

If we don't give the airlines the teeth enforce their rules, they are pointless.

Damn. I'll miss it.
I do a fair amount of travel for work, and would scope out neighborhoods before choosing a hotel.

My parents live in a small town, and the community college ran a seminar he taught. He and his young son ended up back at my parents house for dinner a few times while he was in town. His son was very happy to eat there, as apparently Mr. Dobson prepared many of his meals in a blender. They called it goop (or something like that).

His kid played with the Legos still in the house from when I was a kid, and there's still a small Lego shrine in my parents' display case that says "John Lowry Dobson".

The speak fondly of the time they spent with him, even though it was 15 to 20 (?) years ago.

I am dealing with a passwrod issue right now. My parents are healthy, in great shape and mentally fit. They are also getting old; my dad is 75 and my mom is almost 70.
They have investment accounts, email accounts and all that; pretty much all their data is online.
For us, the solution is 1Password and Dropbox.
They will run 1Password on their computers, tablets and phones, and use Dropbox to sync the password file. They are going to share the Dropbox folder with me, and give me the master password (or put it in their safe at home). I'm going to do the same thing.

I'm sure this won't work for everybody, but we have a huge amount of trust with each other.

We've been dealing with a death in the family, and we are shoveling cash at a house that was owned by the deceased, just so we don't lose it. It will take 18 months of probate before we own it. It's been a huge wakeup call to make sure that everything is in a trust, and passwords are accessible.

I use an AeroPress twice every day, and it's perfect for my use. However...
I know that I don't want to put 175 degree water in my mouth. Yet, when I brewed at 175, and put the coffee into a pre-heated cup, it wasn't hot enough.

This may be one of those things that on paper, in theory, method A is superior, but actually has flaws.

I know a lot of hunters, and I grew up in a very rural area. In general, the penalties for doing something illegal (like poaching) while hunting are severe, and frequently involve the loss of guns and hunting rights as well as jail. The guys I know hunt in order to feed their families (and because they enjoy it), and are not willing to risk their loss of freedom for something stupid.

I don't think Peta would find much illegal activity going on. On the other hand, if they are probably afraid of getting their asses beaten if they showed up in person. An RC plane/copter would be much safer and easier.

The current F150 weighs in the neighborhood of 5,000 pounds, yet has a towing capacity of 13,000. Dropping the '14 model to 4,500 won't make much difference when your trailer is incorrectly loaded.

Since the towing capacity of a truck is determined by the overall weight, the towing and hauling capacity should increase as the weight of the truck decreases. Currently, a regular cab truck can tow more than a crew cab truck, because it weighs less.

I am assuming that the goal is to make a lighter truck, not a weaker truck.