You have aged (as we all are). I ran a BBS on phone lines in the 1980's up until 1990 when my work over took my hobby. It was fun. It was somewhat personal. It was a great hobby!

You have to accept a certain amount of "change". I pine for the "good old days" when I was in my 20's and 30's and had a dick as hard as a rock (and the gals always "approved" of the size {length *and* width}). In fact, my current GF of almost 8 years now is a gal whose husband died. She and I screwed around so many years ago. When her husband died she got in touch with me and I was unattached and she fucked me the first night she "stopped over to say hi". A couple years later she admitted she liked fucking me so much years ago that if only to "satisfy her desires" she made sure I fucked her that night. We've been "fuck buddies" for almost 8 years now. She stays here from Friday evening to Sunday morning every week, and she still comments on how "big" I am. I know she's lying (it was back then, but it isn't these days - And I refuse to take "boner" pills). But those days are long gone. I'm 62, over weight, and understand I can't pick up late teens and early 20's gals in bars any more, if only because I'm not "rich" which significantly changes things... Life is a bitch. The internet is no different, except it's happening faster and faster every year.

As to politics - Yeah. It has always been bad but these days - Well, I just keep out of expressing political views for the most part. I'm getting too old to care.

As to Salon, I gave it up years ago although I generally stop by every month or so as is the case with many web sites I used to visit regularly (You should see my bookmarks - Many go back to the mid and late 1990's). I look at politics this way - There days it's theatrics and greed to the max. It always has been to some extent, but the internet has definitely changed things for the worse *and* for the better, just as cell phones with video and cameras have. . I'm old enough to know one can not win political or religious discussions so I stay out of them. On the other hand, I don't give a rats ass if I do post something and I'm ripped up. That's the way open public forums are.

Now if you want to want to read about science and tech stories, the internet is one hell of a lot bigger than it was even 5 years ago. Search and ye shall find. From Scientific American to PBS - From the TED talks to Ars. There is so much online these days that it's hard not to be able to find sites that fit your expectations.

I don't mind what I see as the eventual demise of /. - And I can say the same about some other sites. It's simply move on. No one can stop what is essentially the evolution of the internet. Just as the Gutenberg press totally fucked the dark ages, and how Faux news changed real, unbiased new programs (Cronkite, Murrow, et al) to "Infotainment", the internet is an information distribution system which has changed the world so dramatically that many things will never be the same.

As a last thought - Now and again there are some excellent discussions here on /. Yes, it's harder to weed out the crap from the good stuff, but it's there. You just have to work harder to weed out the crap. Allowing anonymous posts doesn't help things. If I owned /. the first thing I would do would be to eliminate anonymous posts. If a person can't "own up" to what they post they shouldn't be allowed to post.

The whole internet is changing (for the worse in my opinion). Even Google - Once an excellent Search Engine, now not so much. Even places like Webmasterworld aren't what they used to be. Facebook idiots and corporations are taking over. Get used to it. As to politics, yeah - The "interwebs" have changed that, too. Remember it wasn't so many years ago home computers were not particularly common so discussions on boards like /. were more "professional" (for lack of a better word off hand). These days every idiot has at least one computer. I run forums and these days even a lot of old timers who stayed around and monitored, and participated in, the forums are spending much of their time on Facebook or LinkedIn or Google+ rather than hanging around the forums. Slashdot is still one of my "daily check-in" sites. Admittedly these days I usually just scan the headlines, but now and again I drop into a thread (like this one) and read it or some of it. As to commenting in threads, I'm not typically into it posting and never have been even though I keep some forums online. --> My 2 cents

Totally wrong. You *assume* that because it becomes cheaper to manufacture something a company is going to lower its selling price. That is basic business school rhetoric that doesn't reflect reality. I used to manufacture a low volume product as a side business. I found that I could automate and reduce expenses 70% (this was in the late 1990's). I didn't reduce my price to consumers. I increased prices 15% within a year because my product was better made (in part no human errors in build), was more reliable (lower returns and warranty costs), and in part I found many people buy on price (higher price means better). Unit sales went down less than 10%. It did help me retire in 2003 at the age of 53. I do not deny that in *some* fields prices may come down, but almost all price reductions are due to competition, to some degree volume, and to some degree obsolescence.

In my case, when Jelsoft allowed "Owned" licenses and a "Brand Free" license some years back, I paid for them and I can't say I'm even looking to upgrade in the near future. My forums are so highly modified that it will be a while before I *have* to move on.

I haven't tried 4 or 5 but I have read enough about them to know not to waste money on them. I can't say I felt screwed when they changed their licensing changes - Nothing is forever and as with all software, when a major revision comes out I pay for an upgrade or, if they don't give update discounts, I just buy it and get on with life.

This is a case of where there were a few very talented people who turned out very good software, charged for and licensed in a way I thought was fair, but was bought out by a big company which killed it which is the norm - Big company buys small, but innovative company and destroys it through greed and incompetence. vBulletin today stands only on its reputation from years ago.

I would suggest that you really think about vBulletin and read about the history. It was great when Jelsoft owned it, but it was bought out by Internet Brands and is now a mess. The last "good" version was 3.8.7. Version 4 was a disaster. Version 5 is being sold and is in beta but it really sucks. vBulletin is no longer a "best choice". It was some years ago but these days it isn't. I've been running vBulletin forums since 2001 but stopped "upgrading" at 3.8.7. To make it worse, the Internet Brands people have terrible technical support and - Well, vBulletin used to be the "gold standard". Today, not by a long shot.

Brand recognition among other things.

Ah! Rudeness due to Lack of Accountability. "And your point is? And this is important why?"

I guess I've been around so long I have seen the differences in the interactions of people whether face to face, whether an audience is present, whether on the telephone (especially back before cell phones), whether on CB radio, whether on "ham" radio, whether by telegram, whether by the old BBS system, whether by internet forums and - Well, I did read the article and it was all stuff that was neither surprising or new or unexpected to me. So - When I see someone write up some Captain Obvious article like this one, to me it's a "No Shit Sherlock" moment. When it gets down to stuff like "...Another study found that people who browsed Facebook for five minutes and had strong network ties were more likely to choose a chocolate-chip cookie than a granola bar as a snack...." I say "And your point is? And this is important why?" This is nothing more than an article about some over priced "studies". I just love the title: "Why We Are So Rude Online". The same stuff was going on in the old POTS line BBS's. Online rudeness isn't new, and the reasons for it are, I'm sorry to say, pretty obvious without expensive studies.

I'm betting it started with the telephone so many years ago ("multiple personalities": face to face vs. via an intermediate such as a telephone), it's just that we were a small group of "nerds" in the 1980's BBS days whereas today you have Facebook which is full of millions of people (that's one big herd, pardner!).

But then again, now that I think about it, it probably goes back to when humans developed speech. It was one things to speak to someone face to face (accountability), but to yell down the hill "Hey, asshat" was much safer if they wanted to insult someone (less accountability unless the guy down the hill is faster than you).

Anyway, I thought article was useless. My opinion. Basic stuff I learned in psychology classes in college many, many moons ago. As always, YMMV As far as I'm concerned, the WSJ had some space to fill with some stupid "Oh My!" fluff.

Can't edit, so.... Actually, the more I think about it this was true in the BBS days, so I correct myself having been involved "way back when" - Not 15 years late - More like 30 years. Wow! And an MIT professor just figured this out!

Leave it to the WSJ to be 15+ years behind the times in figuring this out.

Gas filled triple panes made a *very* big difference for me. Several friends of mine did their windows and say the same thing. The difference is night and day. No doubt about it.

I did the same about 5 years ago. Triple pane, xenon(?) gas filled, with UV glass on the outside pane. Luckily I live on a relatively quiet road so noise isn't much of a problem to begin with, but times like now when the temperature is about 70F and I have all the doors and windows open reminds me of how it was before. With doors and windows closed I can rarely hear any outside noise. I did it for insulation reasons, but after it was done I was amazed at how much it eliminated outside noise.

I have to agree. I have one of each. The Neato XV-11 is "smart" and 2 years later I'm still on my first battery. I don't remember the XV-21 from when I bought my XV-11. If I was buying one now I'd get the XV-21. I use it for all the rooms (1 floor) except the master bedroom in which some of the furniture is too low for the Neato to get under.

The Roomba I now only use in my master bedroom. Gone through 2 batteries in 2 years, and *every* time it finishes I have to remove the "brushes" and cut (with small surgical scissors) the hair, carpet fibers and such that collect on the ends. It is *really* a PITA. The only advantage is it's a bit shorter than the Neato so it can get under a few things the Neato can't.

Of course - The government is so in cahoots with corporations and corporate welfare they want competition killed. The voters of any state who allow such a law to be passed deserve exactly what they get. They voted for their lawmakers. Let them live with the laws the lawmakers make. These days the corporations are important, not the "people". Oh, wait! Corporations ARE people (NOT). Yet, people vote against their own interests all the time. That's just the way it is.

This isn't the days of early telephone communications. These days people who live so far out that they need government assistance for broadband internet should get together with others in their area, form a cooperative and do it without asking me for money (through federal taxes) so that they can get broadband. This is not to mention the billions the telecoms have already been given to provide solutions. These days they slap on a tax and then end up using it for something entirely different, anyway. Should *we* be paying for Dick Cheney's "cabin" in the wilds of Wyoming to get broadband access?

My girlfriend likes mine, or so she says... ;)