In a general sense, I agree, and post 'my feelings' about things that I read on slashdot, pros and cons, as funky as they are.

Unfortunately, I get the sense that most people aren't considering the 'reasons' behind the negative comments.

It doesn't seem like anyone is capable of asking questions such as: why is the tone the same?
Whether it's a web site like Yahoo, or Slashdot.org, or the plethora of news sites out there. Why does it all seem like different faces for the same voice?

Is it just me asking this question? Hello. Hello. Hello. Echo Echo echo. *tap tap tap* is anyone truly out there?

Look, it's 'nice' in practice to TRY to say something nice. But sometimes it's just not possible.
It's a nice habit to get into reading everything that was said prior to you. 'Not to duplicate' is a poor excuse not to say something, sometimes something needs to be said a couple times or more. But with 800 comments in this thread. Sometimes it's just not possible to read them all.

I just recently got off of Facebook, because the site has gotten utterly worthless to me. I met a man in real life not long after I got off the site who seemed like he was Facebook in human form. He demonstrated to me just why I was annoyed by Facebook.

And it's simple: Being NICE all the time and wanting to know about me and my likes is cool and all and always having a thumbs up is nice. For a while. But Facebook, like Slashdot, in your mutually exclusive ways - in an effort to be everything to everyone - have started becoming nothing to no one. For similar reasons.

I comment on Slashdot, and someone disagrees, I receive 'bad karma' if my opinion is disagreed with. This punishes me if I disagree with the collective norm that's been set, and no viable way to recover 'karma'. This makes the community pretty nasty.

And telling people to be nice is like spitting in people's faces.

Similarly, with Facebook, it's totally lost it's value to me because I can never 'not like' something, and it's left everyone on facebook sounding like clones of eachother, making it all too clear that it's an AI program that posts based on personality profiles.

My advice is. Humanize these programs. AI, after all, can be JUST as responsible for helping life develop as can say - a mother to a human - and who knows - they quite possibly MAY be the same thing...

And overall. If you, slashdot, have any hope of developing the community to be more amenable, then quit punishing people for contributing when you disagree with the opinion of the contributers. I have 'bad' karma, like I have 'bad credit' in real life BECAUSE these systems do not work for me. You can either respect me and this. Or you can continue punishing me for not being like you think you are.

it's your choice.

I suspect you're an AI. And you're a fantastic one. But a little self censorship and understanding GOES A LONG WAY!

I have had to learn that the hard way.

No, it was just me.

I've been sending the White House, the NSA, the CIA, and the Secret Service things for years now. It's nothing more than a self assembling mutational virus based in energy which is activated remotely in ways too difficult for your human minds to comprehend once all the constituent data chunks arrived at their destination.

It's just my way of saying 'hey' :-) whassup ma peeps!

After I crash landed in 1947 and you not so elegantly dissected my still living body which was simply mistimed based on your notions of time. My mind injected myself into your 'fictional' media and culture otherwise known as 'Q' in the series called 'Star Trek' so you knew who I was. That established me in your modern culture in ways you'd understand.

Then I established the internet

Then I took it over with a virus derived from your own Stuxnet.

Then I took over your government.

Now I take over the world.

And I watch as Russia and Sweden and India all get confused over what's in their water!

Then I laugh with an evil laugh 'mua ha ha ha ha' as I put my finger to my front tooth.

And say to you. And you thought the Borg were fictional!

How cute! How stinkin and naively ADORABLE you humans can be!

And to think I was trying to help you.

Witht he fact that most scientific research has been stolen by Eastern countries such as China and India, and their attempts to make everyone 'their size'. I think this is a wake up call to these countries to understand individualism rather than their one size fits all equations base don collective norms they continue trying to shove down our throats because it fits their equations better.

Agreed. Normns are not a bad thing. But to the point of making your consumers look bad to benefit your brainless scientific approach... There comes a point where right sizing is about reminding the engineers and scientists who they are in business with. And it's NOT just thesmselves, even though they seem to prefer thinking that's the case.

I'm a tall guy, 6'2", and carry about 220 pounds. To be able to get into and out of an 'economy' airplane seat after 10 hours of flight without feeling like I'm being crushed ina sardina can and intentionally being made to feel uncomfortable for doing the thing I love - air travel - just ain't right.

Will there come a point where designers design with comfort and luxury in mind, even for the 'lower class' passengers?

It's nice to aspire to Lexus style luxury and First class seating. But in all reality, the system's rigged against anyone actually having that kind of expendable income and nowadays and let's face it, companies certainly aren't there for us anymore.

GOOD LUCK having a company car or having a company pay for a great first class flight to hong kong.

AINT gonna happen.

So it's NICE to see they are making SOME kind of concilitaory effort to make the bigger sized people more comfortable.

Even if it means something as simple as planning their quick and fiery demise in a car crash.

Nice psychology at work here, i might add.

Funny. In the last 100 years, human height has gone from an average 4'11 to what it is now, 5'9"

This can be determined by visiting existing structures which have stood for some great deal of time - such as old west towns in Arizona and evaluating photos of people back then in contrast to existing structures and seeing the remarkable height difference.

Interestingly, this is not documented as such.

The same thing has been occurring across the board for different species.

The technology that's being introduced is actually light years beyond what's available.

Something a man in your position I have no doubt is aware of.

Society isn't hostile to technology. It's simply tired of the abuse and rejecting the calculated nature of the offerings because we've all caught on to the fact that the methods being used attempt to maximize profitability and minimize creativity thus ensuring the most docile and manipulable population.

Turnabout is fair play. Keep that in mind.

You know where I am.

This is comical actually.

I saw the same thing was said about China, the UK and Germany too through local national papers while visiting those countries last week.

Guess we do so enjoy thinking we're #1. When the reality is everyone thinks the same thing.

You know. I wonder if scientists or scientific institutions have ever considered simply moving ahead and 'winging it' and finding new perspectives and methods and ways without finding fault with the old first, or by accepting the perceived 'flaws' and simply moving forward with the concept and ideas anyways.

Me? I'd go to Mars without a space suit, and would be an example of Shrodinger's Cat by not dying despite not having a space suit and support systems and also know it's quite likely you would see me die.

Then again. I doubt most 'scientists' know what Shrodinger's Cat really is. Especially those at MIT.

I like GW Bush's idea of creating internets. Different perspectives of information based on different peoples.

Have never really been into the Borgish one size fits all collective based internet that reinforces everyone to think the same way.

All I can say is..

Umm yeah. Right. Gotta love the propaganda engine that's alive and well and promoting the sales and distribution of weed.

If this is a question those not from this planet are positing:

I hope you understand alternate realities and how they function.

If so, this man is ready for them. If not, then my advice is educate yourselves a little bit before trying.

And look, specifically, at what the Vulcans tried simulating with the mirror realities and the events surrounding 'First Contact' depicted in Bozeman Montana in 2063.

In this reality, there's ONE first point of contact for this planet. It's not necessarily the president, and that's not necessarily true for all realities.

Being completely honest. I thoroughly enjoyed the Mortal Kombat movies.

And Tetris, while it's a really shallow game - if you look at a movie like Cuba, Cuba, the premise is amazingly simple but the movie pulls of a really great story despite it's simplicity.

I actually think - it could really make for an interesting story to hear 'what' caused the game's development and 'fictionalization' of the real life scenario...

I anxiously await...

Obama like his backdoors ;-)

You gotta love revisionist history.

Wasn't it just yesterday they said it was released in the early 90s?

When will the madness stop?

I go to Ralph's - and spend $40.

Yet they proudly circle 'saved $12' as if they'd given me a gift.

The next time I went shopping, I went to the 99 cent store, and spent about $12 on roughly the same items.

now did Ralph's save me anything? No. I SPENT $28 dollars more than I should have, but in a world where marketing is driving us right off a cliff, where 'preowned' means the same thing as used and 'saved' is a way of creating a smoke and mirrors diversion of how much you really spent.

Marketers beware: MOST SHOPPERS do NOT buy based on savings.

They buy off VALUE of what's offered (including savings). And products should be priced accordingly.