You could not have put this any better.

Where did the MS Ribbon Control come from? Same thing - someone decided that a simple row of buttons and a menu system is not sufficient anymore. Now the sheep follow - it doesn't "look modern" if it still has small tool buttons and no ribbon." But it really does not buy anything substantial, except a learning curve.

I agree, not all change is bad. Sometimes a small aesthetic change is good, such as flat button bars versus raised. You have not changed functionality or the way things work.

Sadly, you are very right - we're on a roller coaster. Just wait until Windows 8 gets here - it looks like it was based on MS Zune software.

And not ONE topical JE from the remnants of circledom?

I quit journaling here a little while ago, partly from lack of time and partly from frustration. That said, I still come here to read, and occasionally I'll get myself motivated enough to comment.

I still read your stuff. But you're right, there is little incentive to post anymore, and more and more people are getting fed up with the site, the editors, the silly rules and everything else here that slowly put a strangle hold on this site.

I was never a major player in the community. The posts that seemed to say little garnered the most response, where I tried to post meaningful things and often found myself wondering if I was being read at all. It was still fun, though - until the site changed so much that the exodus occurred and the majority left in frustration. What incentive is there to post when those that may have responded have left?

Sadly, I do not think Taco and his minions even care. I quit caring some time ago - I am mainly here for the front page and the occasional JE like this one that catches my attention, but I don't bother posting anymore.

...technolust is coming to Portland tomorrow, finally going to meet him in person with peacefinder...

Never connected with peacefinder and had only brief (and sporadic) contact with TL. Glad the group is not entirely dead, either way. Hope a good time is had by all in Portland tomorrow! (And, the next time I am in WA for more than 2 days I will reach out and hopefully we can do something again.)

There was a time when slashdot was a destination. Now it's just a service station bathroom break on the way to a different destination - on a good day.

Between the updates that render the site unusable, the site moderators fancying themselves as overlords that show favor and disfavor to the users, the availability of better social networking sites and the [resulting] lack of posts here that used to be so plentiful this place is more or less a ghost town anymore. I stay here only for the front page and the occasional JE that grabs my attention, but I find myself less and less interested in staying.

I do fiddle on FB, I prefer G+ (though I am not well connected there yet), but I spend less time here now. There's not much to keep me here anymore.

In addition to the first two, I have the router set up to assign DHCP addresses within a certain range and no more. So, with 5 MAC addresses in the DHCP table, there's no need to even leave the possibility of assigning more than 5 IP addresses. Every MAC in the table gets the same IP address every time and no other machine can ever get an IP address even if I turn off MAC filtering. It means if I want to add another system to the network I have to fiddle with the router a bit more, and in my case it's paranoia but for some it's another layer of lockdown.

And still reading. Good to see you here again.

And congrats on the new job. The commute may be long but, like you said, it can be a good time to unwind when you need it

Now, you know that you and I are on the same side of the fence when it comes to the current administration, but I see a fundamental problem with the source you point to - there is absolutely no tangible source quoted and there is no reference. It's just some pretty graphs and a summary statement at the end, posted on a pundit site.

Where did the numbers come from? Was that *original* source reputable?

I concur that the current administration is doing a LOT of damage, but this source does nothing to demonstrate or annotate that. The numbers very well may be legit, but there's nothing to confirm or refute.

I had a "conversation" with taco about it. He told me "it might be a week, it might be a year".

In the past I understand that he was adamant that there was no such blacklisting. So much for that.

The most humorous part of the whole thing is that I logged in one morning and there was a small box on the front page that allowed me to opt out of seeing all of the advertisements, because I am a "valued contributor" or some such nonsense. So, I can opt out of adverts but I cannot be trusted with mod points. I don't care if I get mod points or not, but it's slightly annoying that this site is treated like a daycare filled with bad children by those that should be encouraging the users to participate (which means revenue) rather than playing behind-the-scenes police games.

It's stupid crap like that going on that explains why so many people left and refuse to come back.

I reverse mod-bombed someone (modded up 5 consecutive posts) in 2005 and I have been in the mod point timeout corner ever since. My level of give-a-damn about this site is near zero so it doesn't upset me so much.

A coworker of mine just returned from a trip to Minnesota - he says coming back here is like moving to Florida.

...and you can already pre-order it. According to Amazon, it will ship this coming May. Amazon's ship date doesn't necessarily mean it's going to ship of course, but it's progress toward taking the title off the vaporware list.