So anyway, why is it that when I click the Xs on the boxes in the right column, they're back next time I come to the homepage? Since the polls aren't there anymore, there's really nothing I need to have in that column at all.

Yeah, I know, off topic, but where else can I ask?

We're doing 9 kidneys.

It's messed up that they arrested some poor working Joe who was just trying to do his job. He was just looking for droids.

Funny. I had a Dell desktop that I put a CD-ROM into. (Pentium 75; didn't come with one.) I forget why I didn't put it in the lower bay, or why I didn't have the right bracket, but anyway, a paperback copy of Stephen King's "It" was the exact right hight to hold it in place. I used it like that for several years.

... not with a bang, but:
_ a whimper
_ a hiss
_ no, wait, it was a bang
_ polls mixed in with stories
_ CowboyNeal

Seriously, this is FUCKING BRAINDEAD. Do you even know how this site works? Polls will get literally 5% of the votes and comments that they currently do. If you're going to take them out of the right column, you may as well just get rid of them. Seriously. Not kidding. Just fucking axe them. It's not like you give a shit about this site or its visitors or its history anyway.

So anyway, I was 17 when The Simpsons came out.* LOVED IT. Loved it for over ten years. Then it started sucking, then I started watching it less, then I quit watching it completely, and I was sad for a while (and watched the first ten seasons on DVD for a while), then I was still sad and wondering how it was doing, but couldn't quite be arsed** to find out, and just this year, I watched a couple episodes... and literally smiled once or twice during each -- nothing more -- and decided "Oh well, it's done, and it's kind of sad, but it sucks now, and I'm older, wiser, and can get by without it, and I won't even bother to watch unless I hear an episode is really great."

Finding a point in that narrative is an exercise left to the site owners.

Remember these stories? Good times.

http://meta.slashdot.org/story...

http://meta.slashdot.org/story...

* I might have been wearing an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time.

** USian here, but I *love* that term.

And that has been Tesla's argument for the last ten years, yet they still lose about $9,000 on each car they make.

"On" each car, or "for" each car?

"On" makes it sound like their marginal costs are negative -- that, literally, producing one more car increases their losses by $9K. Were it "for" each car, then they're losing money only after fixed costs, R&D, etc. are taken into account.

That latter makes considerably more sense -- folks can legitimately decide to back a company investing in itself rather than taking out a profit; indeed, Amazon has done that for years.

Tried Parker Quink, or the Noodler's Bernanke series? Both are quick-drying.

I'm actually a right-handed overwriter (rare thing that is), so I feel at least some subset of your pain.

please enlighten us as to why the fountain pin and/or feathered quill is superior to the free pens I get from the bank?

Y'know, I actually don't mind giving this a serious answer.

You don't need pressure to write with a fountain pen -- at all. (The modern competitor is a rollerball, not a ballpoint; rollerballs don't give you amount of flexibility on nib grind or opportunities for flex and shading effects that you get with a fountain, but at least you're not forced to use tons of pressure). Allows different, more comfortable grips.

Also, they're refillable with water-based inks -- meaning that they're not disposable, and that you have a huge amount of choice in terms of color and properties of your ink. Want an ink that's still viscous in below-freezing weather? I've got a bottle on my desk! Want an ink that changes from yellow to red depending on how much you're putting down on the paper? That too! Want an ink that responds to ultraviolet and is completely waterproof you can mix in with other inks that are water-soluable, so you can see where writing that's been washed away used to be under a blacklight?

Lots of room for geekery. :)

We can make modern flex nibs better than the old ones!

(Good flexible fountain pen nibs are pretty much all circa 1950s or prior right now; it's a sad, sad state of affairs).

In that case, I've banged a lot of chicks, depending on what you mean by "banged", "a lot", and "chicks".

"For those that were hoping for a huge UI overhaul..."

Yeah, because we haven't had one of those in a whole year.

> 6: Secure your servers so we aren't being
> attacked from letting your ads through

Dear advertisers: Start with that. I will absolutely continue to block as many ads as possible until you fix this. If you're going to annoy me, at LEAST don't potentially harm me. It's like walking through a department store and getting sprayed with perfume which might also contain anthrax.

The other motto is "hide everything, because we don't understand the difference between 'actually making something simple to use' and merely hiding complexity."

Dear Mozilla (and everyone else), fuck you. This shit is RETARDED. "Look everyone! We got rid of all those confusing menus! Now there's just one button! ... Which spawns a bunch of menus.

Oh, and the regular menus also all still exist.

Oh, and we have TWO buttons like that, because we are in full-on shithead mode. Why hide everything behind one button, when you can force user to FIRST choose from one of TWO buttons! Mwa ha ha ha ha! One looks like a fox, the other looks like a hamburger. NEITHER has ANYTHING to do with what lies underneath! Hey, "New Private Window" is pretty important... put it in BOTH! But only put "new tab" in one. But make "new tab" a menu, and put "new window" underneath it. Got all that? Good. I need another drink. It's almost 10am!

Seriously -- I couldn't make this shit up. There's a special spot in hell waiting for you douchebags. You are collectively wasting YEARS of people's lives with this monkey shit.

"When was the last time you used a piece of chalk to express yourself? Kids don't express themselves with chalk or in cursive. Kids text."

Yeah, well, kids aren't trying to teach 30 other kids long division, are they? Fucking idiot. Took me 2 whole seconds to tear down your premise.

Kids also push each other to be first in line (no matter WHAT they're lining up for, they want to be first) and call each other "poopyhead." Does that indicate radical new teaching methods? LET'S DO WHAT CHILDREN DO, HERP DERP! Fucking A.

Yeah, it's obviously a mixture of things. But "#1 Happy Street" always made me giggle. :-)