I adore /. for its purity of thought, its perfection of moderation that lets me see all the words writ by any who would write, even though most have little useful to say.

The egalitarianism of the moderation system is perfect in its design and execution. It's a beautiful thing. Some seven years I've read and subsumed every comment reading at -1, and learned quite more from the -1's than the +5's. Among other things I have the 2^8 days read in a row achievement, and that was just when I was logged in. You can be assured that if you've writ a comment on /. in the last seven years, it's likely I've read it. If you've been wondering if anybody bothered to read your work, rest easy.

Even though I've posted things when I was a drunk ass and would like to erase them, I appreciate that you can't take /. comments back or edit them once posted, and worked that to my advantage.

Today though, I have a different issue. Once upon a time at /. there was a particularly difficult user: twitter. Twitter's a guy. He's got issues, but he knows his shit and he's tapped into the tech vein that we crave.

/. is a good thing, but it has one thing I cannot in good conscience bear. Somebody on the /. staff has it in for the user "twitter", and unlimited modpoints such that even referencing the name "twitter" is proscribed. I'm not OK with that. twitter was an idiot sometimes, quite open about his sockpuppets, and gaming the /. system. He was also one of the most prolific posters of timely and interesting articles. Whether he was good or bad is irrelevant to me - that some moderator can transparently banish him so thoroughly that I dare not mention him for fear of being modded instantly from +5 to -1 just for mentioning him, is.

I'm an American, and this looks like prior restraint of speech to me.

I love me some /., but this is a game I won't play.

If /. can't bear the mention of twitter, maybe I should try Reddit. I hate the Redditor thing, but maybe it's better than a site that pretends to be purely open except that it can't bear "twitter". Reddit looks to me like a site more open to dissent than one that can't bear a twitter.

Wake up people.

Slashdot: please turn off new registrations. We're being infiltrated by shills.

I'm really getting annoyed by the +5 comments achievement thing. A long time ago I hit 2 to the 7th +5 comments. I'm sure I've had 128 more since then. Why don't I have the 2 to the 8th achievement? Is there a cap?

The new user interface increased the difficulty level considerably, but I think I've earned that 2 to the 8th achievement and I want it NOW.

I'll tell you what... I'm getting pretty tired of people bringing the "color of his skin" issue up with this guy Cain. Tired of it because it's so oversimplifying the issue as to make it become a fiction... a construct.

Of COURSE there are people who just see the color of someones skin or their race, and attribute certain things to them. Those people are in the distinct minority (I would say 3 to 5% of the population), and could be objectively classified as mentally deficient.

It's not that simple as "race".

It's about CLASS. Why people are unable to make that leap in logic is beyond me. This fixation with "race"... I don't know what's up with that, and why people are stuck on that, when it's obvious it's all about class for 95% of people.

Do people REALLY believe that their opponents are racist? Do they not really understand that they are actually classist? I honestly don't know.

Dear Valued Customer, en español

Your privacy is an important priority at Verizon. We want to let you know that Verizon will soon participate in a program that will improve the ability of advertisers to reach our Verizon Online customers based on your physical address. The goal is to provide online ads that may be more relevant to you.

This program uses your address to determine whether you reside in a local area an advertiser is trying to reach. However, Verizon wonâ(TM)t share your address with advertisers as part of this process. Advertisers wonâ(TM)t know itâ(TM)s you specifically or where you actually live. If you do not want us to allow advertisers to send you ads based on your geographic area you can let us know by selecting here.

What does this mean for you?

Certain ads youâ(TM)ll see while browsing the Internet may be directed to you and other Verizon Online customers in your area, so these ads may be of more interest to you. For example, a pizza chain may want to deliver their ad to give a special offer to people living in a particular area. Using this program, national brands and local businesses can tailor their offers, coupons, and incentives to your local area.

Protection of Your Personal Information

Verizon protects your personal information as described in our privacy policy. You can learn about Verizonâ(TM)s ad practices or let us know that you do not want to participate by selecting here. If you donâ(TM)t want to participate, you will need your User ID and Password to access the opt-out page. Please note that declining to participate wonâ(TM)t impact the number of ads you see, just their potential relevance to you.

For answers to your frequently asked questions, select here.

Sincerely,

Verizon

Hemos, a co-founder of slashdot.org started his new job on 8/15 as a program manager at Google. This according to his Twitter

Should you oust shills?

Even if they'll only come back under a different name.

Today at the close of the market Apple became the largest publicly held corporation by market capitalization. At $337.17 billion Apple's market value came to more than the prior number 1, Exxon which closed the day valued at $330.7 billion. Apple has had an amazing run up in the last few years, growing over 320% in the last 32 months. Most attribute this to the strengths of new products the iPhone and iPad, which between them account for two thirds of the company's revenues.

Foredecker, a longtime slashdot user passed away on July 23rd of Melanoma. We had many a rollicking argument, he and I - and it was a lot of fun. I'll miss him.

I would really rather not use my real name on Google+.

I am happy to use a middle name and my surname, do you think Google would consider this a violation?

Is it possible to have more than one account? Perhaps one for inanity and one for being professional?

I still don't want to register (I deleted Facebook) but college life is very different without it.

It is hateful and bad to dislike someone for what they are (e.g. their skin color).
It is NOT hateful NOR wrong to dislike someone for what they think or believe in.

It's as simple as that!

I think this picture captures what is truly evil:

http://badpeopleproject.org/index.php?showimage=38

Children are perhaps the most unbiased and neutral force for judgement. They might be naive but they are neutral.

I started a controversial thread in the article Earth's Population To Hit 7 Billion This Year.

I strongly believe people should be having less children and taking responsibility for their actions.

I honestly do not understand how people can regard me selfish for this opinion.

Population control is not necessarily an extreme measure that others have assumed. In the UK we have tons of teenage prenancies. I mean tons. There's a page on Wikipedia dedicated to it. Some areas in Britain are full of single mothers which live off the state. I find this a disgusting waste of resources.

What if they taxed young children who have children young more? These kids should be in school - not getting pregnant. There is a really good post about sending girls to school, as that really does work.

Some jackass modded me overrated because they disagreed. Humanity has a long way to go!

Have these vigilantes done any physical damage? No.
Have they killed anybody? No.
Have they seriously hurt people? No.
Are they an organized crime cartel? No.
Are they for profit? No.

Do they have motivations that are good for the rest of the population? Yes.

If you ask me, the authorities should be going after all the malicious software, the scareware and crapware that is written INSIDE the United States. Why go after some kids who are making a point?

Society these days! SNAFU!

In the last two weeks, I have read the following books:

  - Anthem (Ayn Rand)
  - Old Man's War (Joe Scalzi)
  - The Forever War (Joe Haldeman)
  - Gateway (Frederik Pohl)

I enjoyed all four books.
  - Anthem is a very familiar story since it's concept is used in lots of other fiction. It was nice to have book that encapsulates the idea of collectivism in one short story. I can't think of any similar stories right now but I will soon.
  - The Forever War is probably not as funny as Old Man's War but it's got some very cool battle scenes. The portrayal of Earth is believable. I love the time dilation effects. The ending reminds me of Gaia in Foundation. The English is less complex than OMW but some of the ideas are perhaps cooler. (Like the fields, trauma suppression system, Marygay). Very happy ending. Likable main character. The best way for me to summarise this book is essentially 'AVATAR done properly'.
  - Old Man's War reminds me like Avatar but done properly. I like how there is a moral background to the whole thing. The universe is portrayed as a very dangerous place which I like. The part about the humans being surrounded reminds me of the Rendezvous with Rama book in the species simulator room, how many species expand and die out or there is conflict between them. Well written. Likable main character.
  - Gateway is a tough one. I really enjoyed the science and all the concepts. Earth was believable here too. I liked some of the characters but I hated the main character. He was a big asshole. I did like the robot psychologist to a degree but the ending was ambiguous, the first time I read the last paragraph I thought the robot was becoming self-aware. I did not like the whole psychological tirade about his sexuality, his mother and Dane, it kind of came out of nowhere to me.

Four good books that I highly recommend you read. Perhaps in the following order: OMW, TFW, Gateway, Anthem. OMW and TFW are very similar, military science fiction.