Wow. This is ridiculous. I can post at work, but at home, I am apparently banned for life. I'm just kinda curious how long I will be banned, otherwise, I'd e-mail and see if I could get it lifted. Funny part is, it has to be related to two posts that got modded both "funny" and "troll" pretty much equally.

Sounds like next time I make a risky joke, I will also have to post something pseudo intellectual to get the slashbots to mod it up and balance it out.

I understand Slashdot has to ward off the trolls, but they have some work to do on the algorithms.

Still banned from posting from home. Not sure how this happened. I had two comments that got modded funny and troll. After this, I was unable to post. Considering my lengthy posting history, and excellent karma, I have to wonder if Slashdot doesn't have an issue with its algorithms.

Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner . If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down

Still banned. Wow!

Here is my current backup strategy (data only): Use Winrar to create a series of CD sized compressed archives. Burn each to CD.

Not fun. Ten CDs now, and growing. I can move up to DVD (and will soon).

I am concerned, though, about corruption. If one file goes corrupt, I understand I can bypass an individual file. I am also doing incremental backups quarterly (a single CD usually) with the full backup annually. I figure this way I have redundancy built in. CDs are stored in my safety deposit box.

My most valuable data is the pictures of my kids. I could never reproduce (obviously). I've even considered using GMail as a secondary backup source, but feel this is a bit unethical.

Anyone have any other advice to ensure that I keep my stuff safe? Any advice would be appreciated. Specifically, making sure I can get to the stuff on my CD-R's. But also, a fast, easy way to do incremental backups.

TIA

I really respect the BBC. It does not mean I always agree with everything they write. My respect is not dependent on the degree to which I agree with someone. In fact, some folks that I don't respect much tend to have very similar views as me. Sometimes it is the way one arives at one's choices in life.

The BBC has a really good IT staff. They use technology in a way to make news more understandable. A recent example was their illustrating the hard choices the U.K. would have to make in order to meet demand and meet environmental regulations. You were allowed to make some basic choices, and see the results. try to be to "green", and you blow the price of energy thorugh the roof. Try to go the other direction, and you got to see what the result would be in envronmental terms. It hink it made it very easy to understand the hard choices we all have to make.

Now, look at MSNBC. They are trying to show the immigration issue in the U.S. They were showing how many immigrants live in each state. Yet the way they did it was horrendous (see for yourself here. Not only can you only see one state at a time, but it is virtually impossible to jusp to the state you want without numerous clicks. Is this a good way to present information.

The big difference between MSNBC and BBC. The tech crew at MSNBC uses Flash for the sake of using Flash. Not that it is called for. Usually, it detracts from information presentation instead of adding to it. The BBC uses technology in an intelligent way. It is clear the "information presentation" group and the "web guys" work closely, and have a good understanding of each other.

Here is my next project. I want to have wireless speakers for my computer. They must be able to operate outdoors, and be resistant to weather.

Will operate within 50-75 feet of PC.

I've done some googling, have a couple ideas, but hate to buy equipment without hearing from a couple of folks who have tried this. Anyone have any advice?

Never used Linux before.

Here is what I want to do:
I have a guest bedroom with PC that I use for business purposes. I want to have a separate partion (or live CD) that will allow guests to boot and play DVD's and/or CD's.

I want boot times to be as quick as possible, and I want the interface to be very simple. Ideally, it would be as easy as "put DVD in drive, turn on PC, wait 15 seconds, movie starts".

Any thoughts on where to begin?

How do I lookup a user by user id? For example the URL for me is: http://slashdot.org/~MyLongNickName. How can I change the URL to look up by my number, 822545?

I got my first two meta-mod's today. I was very surprised and excited. Slashdot has a great business model... lots of us willing to work for free, and are very excited about it. Kinda sad in a way...

Anyhow, the first set, I modded 4 as fair, 2 as unfair, and left the rest alone. The second set I got, I modded 9 as fair, 1 I left alone (decided not to mod funnies, as I guess anything is funny to the right person...)

Kinda curious to see how others choose to moderate...