Although I am tempted to agree with you I cannot. There are some topics where insider information is invaluable but identifiable posts would likely cause repercussions for the poster. We still need that. Anonymous Cowards on this topic are just that, cowards, but I don't see how we can get rid of them without getting rid of the more useful aspects of that role.

BTW, "OFF TOPIC" ... which fuckwit moderated that?

I was getting kind of bored with the old looking slashdot. Been using it for what ... crap, has it been 15 years? IT people should like new environments, as long as they are functional and don't remove options. I welcome the new beta, though being beta I will constructively criticise it. If it is a dead dog then I will reluctantly go back to Classic. But let's see what happens.

Dan Ariely. He talked about this at one point. What people want is not what management thinks.

I think slashdot must be one of the few places where Poe's Law does not apply, or as much. Funny, but accurate.

The distro that can be named by Man

Is not the Fedora 21 distro.

-- with apologies to Lao Tzu.

... of it happening in the next few hundred years: very slim. Prospects of stopping it if it was going to happen: zero. Though I wouldn't recommend underground nuclear tests at Yellowstone.

It used to be that feminists also were concerned with "male liberation" as well. I see none of that now. And there are indeed a selection of strange extremist types that tend to poison the well. If you want to see some of the disturbing ideas out there just google "piv feminism". These people are so far from the goals of feminism that it should be regarded as deviant. But it isn't. I've experienced a little bit of it myself, but I tend to regard people who have this attitude as a waste of space, so not worth thinking about. But it can bite in situations that matter ... but then that is people, people are not always reasonable or rational.

Don't forget it is easy for idiots to ask questions that the smartest person cannot answer. He will have to be careful of such tactics.

Nice SF list. Such a list could go on and on and on. Here are some I would recommend, just at random. I'll probably miss quite a few that I really like.

• Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, this book just defies words
• Chthon, the novel that was edged out by Ender's Game, had a big effect on me.
• Cryptonomicon
• In the Ocean of Night
• Dune
• Songs of Earth and Power, fantasy by Greg Bear
• The War of the Worlds

Agree with Consider Phlebas. I just gave up on the list there are too many even before you get to non SF stuff.

... we are fucked!

All hail the New World Order and our masters at NSA. I was not a true believer in the NSA NWO but then I watched the 30c3 vid mentioned in the summary. Holy crap. No wonder Charlie Stross gave up on his next novel. I am now beyond horrified and simply in awe of our new Overlords.

I actually read the article. You know what it is? It is a simplified tutorial on white box testing for people who don't know, that is, amateur programmers. Yeah, that would have once been new and interesting to me, when I was learning to program. Not when I was doing it for a living though. Bad title and summary.

Teenagers want and need to find a place of their own, to form their own subculture. A new technology comes along, they jump on board because they are highly adaptable, their parents less, often much less, so. But after five years the teenagers are getting out of their teens and those entering the teens once again need to find their own space. Therefore, there can be no permanent place for teens unless it puts off older people joining or staying. Anyway, someone needs to beta test the new communications paradigms.

Probably fresh from their success with the Queensland Health system.

Frist Ploe!

Non-canonical. No karma for you!

Well it was a joke, considering I have an even lower UID and am over 60. And yeah I feel your pain. Hmm, modded down because somebody is humour deficient. Ah well, that is so slashdot.