Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
It's funny. Laugh.

Autopsy Of A Furby 78

Posted by timothy from the the-real-secret-of-Area-51 dept.
Cooper Stevenson writes: "Ever wonder what makes a Furby tick? Well, neither have I but it made for an interesting read." Personally, I'd rather see someone disembowel Teddy Ruxpin, but this is a good start.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Autopsy Of A Furby More

Autopsy Of A Furby

Comments Filter:
  • Hmmm...this is the first post yet it's marked as 'redundant' yet it's informative and other people further down who say 'exactly the same thing' get a score of 1 or more. Things aren't right. The moderators must be on crack.

  • Just curious... (Score:3)

    by Cebert ( 69916 ) on Sunday April 30, 2000 @02:57AM (#1101518) Homepage
    ...is it possible for the powers that be (Taco and Co.) to revoke/delete stories in Slash? When stories like this crop up (third time on the page, or some other 'Homer') it never seems like they try to actually rectify the situation by removing the post. Instead it stays. Very rarely ever updated to reflect an error of any kind.

    While I do find it annoying to see this story grace the page yet again, I'll live. I understand it's probably timothy's first viewing of it, and that's fine, but once the error has been pointed out...how's about retracting it?

    It might help improve reader opinion to at least acknowlege a screw up, rather than ignore it.

    (Was the article updated while writing this? Let's find out. :))
  • This is old news, I saw it late 1998.

    When furbies first came late 1998, I told my two young daughters about it, and they wanted one. We could not get any of them locally first due to non-availability, then due to the exorbitant high price.

    Then, two Made in China clones appeared in the market at one third the price. One called Furbish, and the other called Baby (or similar).

    We bought one for the kids after months of waiting, and to my dismay, they only played for half an hour with it and that was it! They never touched it again! What a disappointment!

    I think I will not do an autopsy, but will kill the darn thing for the frustrating experience!

  • Re:Moderating stories (Score:3)

    by whoop ( 194 ) on Sunday April 30, 2000 @03:21AM (#1101520) Homepage
    What's fun is to submit some really useful stuff and watch it get declined. For instance, I've been trying to get a dual-headed display working in Linux. I search the archives (something most submitters neglect to do) and found a story on this very topic. The thing is, it's about two years old, by my estimate. (Speaking of which, why don't they put a year on all this stuff? Slashdot's been around for many years, it would be useful.) This is easily something that would interest many with the advances since then, XFree86 4, xinerama, G400 dual cards, etc. What happens? It's declined in favor of "How do I make a web page?" "What language should I speak on the Internet?" or other similarly useful questions which come up every three months.

    It used to be that I could spend hours from my workday pouring over interesting news and participating in discussions. Now it's all Furby and Protest redundants. It's denegrated to the point where this is a check-in-once-in-a-while sorta site, just like everything else. I blame it on Columbine. It's like a TV sitcom. It's all well and good until they attempt that "very special" show about awareness for {drugs, teen drinking, cancer, homosexuality, three-toed sloths, etc}. The fame gets to ya and you start to think you're terribly insightful and can make a difference, or something. :)

  • Except for rare exceptions I've given up submitting stories anymore, since I've never had a single one accepted....but, a number of my stories have subsequently been used days later and attributed to someone else.

    This is annoying, but more importantly for /. it means that they are more and more often running OLD "news" stories that are then no longer what I would call "news"!

    It doesn't make any sense that /. relies on it's readers to scour out and submit timely and interesting stories, yet then believes they know better than their readership what that readership will find interesting, or what is actaully a new story and what is old news.

    Slashdot desperately needs to switch from selectign stories manually themselves to having readers themselves moderate the "submission queue", which then simply becomes the days story list, with users as always being able to select their desired browing level. At "Score 5" you'd get the top 10 or so intersting and new stories, and at "Score 0" you'd get the whole submission queue of 3-400 stories.

    If slashdot doesn't change soon, more and more people are going to end up leaving and instead rely on sites such as "The Register" that can be relied on to be among the first to carry technical breaking news.
  • Yeah, they need better articles like the decline in popularity of Pokemon and the impact on our nation's next generation of geeks and how the government used the Pokemon toys/cartoons to subliminally brainwash everyone.
  • Someone is reading every submission, right, right?!

    Well then, just take all the flame garbage and crap; throw it in a new tree of the main page called "Garbage that didn't make it". Now take everything else that didn't make it and put it in a new queue... That way we get to see all the groovy stuff that lost out to yet another post about a new alpha linux driver for furby surgery herf gun... and hey maybe we can even vote for articles in the queue and if they reach a certain positive point total they can be submitted to the main page from "Slashdote Losers(sic)" or something less appropriate.

    ---
    Openstep/NeXTSTEP/Solaris/FreeBSD/Linux/ultrix/OSF /...

  • Seeing the Queue is a Bad Thing (Score:3)

    by deusx ( 8442 ) on Sunday April 30, 2000 @07:36AM (#1101524) Homepage
    This has come up over and over again, and it's not a good idea.

    Say there are about 400 stories in the queue right now. If that queue were made public, you'd see it jump to about 900, I bet, if not more. And the headlines would probably mostly match a search on the words 'hot grits', 'oog', 'portman', 'penis', 'fuck', 'trolls on parade'

    Maybe that could be addressed with another layer of moderation. But I think that kinda misses the point-- the owners of this site are the benevolent dictators and gatekeepers. Slashdot is, ultimately, theirs. If you disagree, visit SlashCode [slashcode.com].

  • The quote in your sig is from shakespeare's "The Merchant Of Venice" (i forgot which character said it), not the X-Files.

    I've heard that Shakespeare stole, err... borrowed some of his material from others, so Chris Carter isn't doing anything unusual or unheard of by ripping off Shakespeare...

    You philistine.

    From Merriam-Websters Online Collegiate Dictionary [m-w.com]: one uninformed in a special area of knowledge.

    Guilty as charged. I haven't read Shakespeare since high school over 20 years ago, and then it was under duress. He's just another DWM (dead white male) to me. Jeez, judging from the atrocious grammar/spelling of your average /. poster, who would have thought that ENGLISH majors hung out here!!!
    --
    You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
  • (Speaking of which, why don't they put a year on all this stuff? Slashdot's been around for many years, it would be useful.)

    The year's in the URL. Look up there, you'll see "sid=00/04/30".....

    --
  • Of course one of the few times I read something worth a higher score than it actually has, I don't have moderation ability. Someone please raise the score on this. It's a good insight. I agree totally, BTW.
  • Tou want moderated stories, I would recomend visiting kuro5hin [kuro5hin.org]. The procedure for stories is slightly different- you submit a story to the submissions queue, and if 5% of the users vote for the story, it gets put on the front page.

    The other benifit of the site is that Rusty will delete the trolls, making things much easier to read. Its liabilities are that voting on the submissions are not good for news stories, it has a much smaller readership (1500 or so ids at last count), and Rusty is still fixing some of the old bugs. Anyway, swings and roundabouts, you don't like /., no one forces you to read it.
    --

  • Are you sure it died ?

    Remember the rules dont't feed it after midnight and never allow it near water
    Ever wondered how a Firby looks unaturally like a Gremlin...
  • Yes, Sheakespeare frequently stole stories. In fact, many of his best works were taken from other sources. His talent, however, was as a storyteller, not a story *writer*. He may not have come up with an original plot, but the words were his. His talent was expression, not creation.
  • ...but I am happy to see you.

    Yup, the FA was mentioned here back in '98. BTW, the Autopsy is not updated anymore because, well... Furbys are lame, and we just don't give a Pokemon's ass about 'em anymore. Plans to combine a Furby with one of those annoying singing plastic Xmas trees and call it "Douglas Furby" were abandoned sometime mid-99. Sigh. Like Wang Chung's popularity, "Party Of Five", and the Cuban Missile Crisis, "it was fun, folks, but it's over."

  • I think the furby would kick your ass first:)


    - Stop praying for someone to save you, and save yourself.-
    KMFDM
  • Or settling the real way to get to the lost "negative" world of Super Mario Brothers

  • Re:Moderating stories (Score:3)

    by cyphunk ( 49992 ) on Sunday April 30, 2000 @12:03AM (#1101534)
    It may be possible to moderate stories but I don't think it should/could be done with news stories.

    However, I think moderation depends on what Taco, Hemos, Nate and Potter plan on doing with slashdot. The only reason I wouldn't want moderation of stories would be because the founding purpose of /. is/was to see what the founders were thinking (if you remember, /. was just a site where Taco, Hemos would post whatever they cared to post... what was on their mind). If they continue to *outsource* the news posts to other people (I will not say that this is a good or bad idea) then the purpose of the site will have gone away from being something where Hemos, Nate, etc... post what is on their minds, to a site where hemos, nate, taco, potter, timothy, emmet, clif, etc, etc, etc... where they post what they are thinking. With so many people you would need moderation... there just isn't enough room for so many minds and, yes, you will get overlap of stories.

    Then again, is it really that big of a deal. Do any of us feel really all that violated when we have to see a post on something that we have already seen in the past. My point: Who cares!

  • Re:WTF! (Score:1)

    by whoop ( 194 )
    Can we truely blame poor timmy? He's new 'round these parts. It's just sad that we can recall from memory stories which posters cannot even do a search for. There's what, about 43 official posters now? Sure they have to do a lot of "Update Submissions set flag=declined where now()-date (60*60*24)" queries several times a day. But it is a lot of work to come up with six or seven articles every day. You have quotas to meet, deadlines on deeply philosophical tirades on Columbine and how the government spies on ya and the latest boycott that no one observes. The people 'round here have been taking themselves much to seriously when a "monkies for a nickel" or Natalie Portman post is the highlight of all the messages.
  • ...how the government used the Pokemon toys/cartoons to subliminally brainwash everyone.

    That's old news too. South Park had an episode LAST YEAR that covered that topic...
    --
    You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
  • Then again, is it really that big of a deal. Do any of us feel really all that violated when we have to see a post on something that we have already seen in the past. My point: Who cares!

    The 400+ people with submissions in the queue that didn't see the light of day for that repost care.

    --
  • Of course, you are ASSUMING that a story moderations system would A) eliminate redundant stories (which it wouldn't, anybody who didn't see/doesn't remember the first posting could still vote it up) B) Put only INTERESTING stories up (all of these were found interesting to someone, becuase they were sumbitted) and C) Stuff that they submitted would finally get posted (again, assuming that others would find what they post intersting, thus OF COURSE it would be moderated up. It's an ego thing)

    Moderation isn't a solution to a problem, it's a replacing of a problem with another, uglier problem. And, since Rob/Hemos/Etc RUN the board, they have the power/right to decide how to run it. So, realize that, realize that they don't want story moderation, and quit whining about it over and over and over. Talk about repeatition.

    --knick
  • Yeah, why can't the repeat a useful story, like the Furby prostitutes.
  • Yes, but it is the complacency that Slashdot exhibits which will cause everyone to forget the lessons we learned with that episode. There hasn't been a single Katz or emmett article on this subject. I take this to mean that Slashdot condones such acts by the government. We must fight the tieranny!
  • GUYS! Let's port Linux to the Furby! And make Beowulf Furby!
  • Well, that's it. Clearly, the money they're making hand over (Andover?) fist has affected the posters' memories to the point where they can't remember what's already been posted and what hasn't. I think Slashdot's usefulness as a "news" site is on the wane, and it may not be long until every new /. story is a retread of something else, or else Jon Katz popping up to tell us what we already know.

    Why on earth don't they add a new poster or two--someone who's been reading for a while and knows what's been posted already? Any one of the people complaining that this is an old story, for example. This is just ridiculous.
    --

  • How can the above post be 'Redundant' when its post #2?

    This shows how moderators should not read everything from highlest to lowest, since all that does is provide positive feedback for those submissions that have already been bumped up.

    currently moderating without my head up my ass
    (I think)
  • Perhaps thats why I followed the link to this over a year ago - from Cruel Site of the Day. ;)
  • Sure, I eventually look up there. But doesn't it just make more sense to include it right on the line everywhere else. It's probably some function, as it appears the same on stories, posts, etc. Is it too much to ask?
  • The dog gets quite delighted and will pick up her Furby and try to get it to say 'wheee!' by running around and shaking it but it is pretty screwed up and only make strange noises.

    Wow, I miss my dog. Thanks for the chuckle.

    --
    A host is a host from coast to coast...

  • This was in a quicky about a year ago. Still pretty cool. I like to torture mine by holding him (Du-lou is his name, I think) upside down. He makes the most pathetic crys and shouts "Down! Down! Oh nooooo!".

    Yes, I am easily amused.
    --

  • Re:WTF! (Score:3)

    by telematx ( 17553 ) on Saturday April 29, 2000 @10:50PM (#1101548)
    Furby Autopsies [slashdot.org] by CmdrTaco on Fri December 11, 05:38 PM EST 28 Other furby-related stories here [slashdot.org].

  • furbies and college (Score:3)

    by ^chuck^ ( 131444 ) on Saturday April 29, 2000 @10:52PM (#1101550) Homepage Journal
    we have a furby. never bothered to learn his name, nor replace his batteries after they died. Nonetheless he is part of our special family (college apartment) and makes the ladies swoon. We tend to have a lot of fun during social gatherings by bringing out our once chattery friend, and lighting up a butt for him, handing him a bottle of JD and a shot glass, and whatching him go work! Yeah Furby, there's a reason this thing keeps getting reposted, everyone wants to customize their furby into something special, well we did, with minimum effort, the college way.
  • Yes, we've seen this about a year and a half ago, I think it was. Back when Furby was actually in the news.
  • Yup. I remember seeing this about a year ago. Out of touch, I guess. Next we'll have a story about how to solve the Rubik's Cube.

  • Re:WTF! (Score:4)

    by deltavivis ( 26381 ) on Saturday April 29, 2000 @10:49PM (#1101553)
    It was in december 11, 1998...back when they were popular
    http://slashdot.org/articles/98 /12/11/2338244.shtml [slashdot.org]
  • Though the whole furby trend is sort of passé, a much better resource that keeps up to date on the global furby reverse-engineering project can be found here [homestead.com]. The section devoted to the infared commands they've been able to replicate was what really caught my eye. Have a gander, move along. Careful with the flames that you send tim's way :P
  • I would totally agree that the stories themselves need to be moderated as well. There are some times where I wouldn't mind troll'n for some really off the wall stories, but if a story of earth-shattering news comes along (RedHat buys Microsoft OS Div for $10 Million, ect.) you may only want to see those top headlines.

    Consider this like the Sunday edition of the New York Times. Sure, there are some interesting stories in the back pages of the travel section, but should that be a "headline" story?

    Besides... this is only a natural evolution of the posting moderation. That and the main editors (Rob & Co.) could still have "unlimited" story moderation points to pretty much put things where they want them anyway. It would allow the readers to put a little bit into how they feel about a story as well.

    Anyways.... this story is truly stale news. The page info from the server says:

    Last Modified: Sunday, August 01, 1999 06:33:45 PM Local time

    Or even note that cross reference pages even have a link to /.
  • My one likes to yell "Weee" when it's turned upside down. Laughs a lot too.

  • heh heh.

    Maybe it's old news, but it reminds me of the Marshmallow Bunny Survival Tests. (Not exactly new either, but they might be new to someone.)

    See:

  • along (RedHat buys Microsoft OS Div for $10 Million, ect.) you may only want to see those top headlines

    The other way round is far more likely to happen. Remember its got a lucky dolllar in its name. M$

    Farhat.

  • Like American Gladiators maybe, or Iron Chef.

    It's way too late and I'm not reading right.

  • It's that it's repeated repeatedly (say that three times fast). This is almost a redundant post, but it's a problem that I see more and more I read /.

    There are articles that I've submitted that are far more interesting than this. Like an interesting virus that uses your modem (if you have one) to dial '911.' It's true! Yet this story was repeated for the third time.

    Do any of the individuals that 'accept' stories for Slashdot talk amongst themselves? Or is the Web simply running out of interesting things for Geeks, so we run across them again and again?

    I'm sorry. What I meant to say was 'please excuse me.'
    what came out of my mouth was 'Move or I'll kill you!'
  • It was a mercy killing [Frank N Furter]
    It was a mercy murder [Audence]
    [Rocky Horror Picture show]

    "I knew a guy who really loved his work..
    he did autopsys...
    He found a hobo on a bench and did an autopsy to discover why he did...
    He was honnest.. Death by autopsy"
    [Author forgotten.. anyway I mangled it]

    "He's dead jim"
    "You grab his wallet I'll grab his phaser"
    "Now give me the wallet"

    -Old joke going around...
    The punchline was my own but I did it like 15 years ago...

    "We can rebuild him.. we can make him better stronger faster and less annoying...
    we can make him the first 1 million doller Furbe"

  • Furby (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    My neice got a furby once. She was playing with it, and it said it was thirsty. Naturally. she gave it a drink of water. Furby must have been allergic to water, cause it died. What were those invertors thinking? I laughed so hard......
  • This story would be moderated "Redundant" until it fell down somewhere between "Natalie Portman Pours Hot Grits Down Pants" and "Naked and Petrified First Posts".

    Farther down, I'd rather read about first-posting Natalie Portman's petrified grits than this crap. The furby thing has been posted before; twice! At least the trolls can think of new ways to combine the words "hot grits" "Natalie Portman" "First Post!" and "Naked and Petrified".

  • And... (Score:1)

    by Enahs ( 1606 )
    I bet a relatively new reader who might be mildly interested in this post would have bothered to look for them. :^P

    Damn, don't ya have anything else to do? Are you a student? If so, finals are undoubtedly coming up...if not, how 'bout some laundry, some housecleaning, etc.? Put a little soap and water on those dirty dishes that are piling up since you're too busy hunting down redundant posts? How's the weather where you're living? Where I am, it's beautiful. I skipped out on church to sleep in (I'm bad) and since my home church has low numbers, they don't meet every Sunday, and I'm going to be a bad bad person and mow some grass since It's beautiful and sunshiny. Unlike some of my coding friends, I no longer pass for a vampire; I'm getting a bit brown. While that's not healthy, it *does* prove that I'm not sitting at the computer all day hunting down redundant Slashdot posts.

    Truthfully, I went ahead and looked at the site again...it's funny as hell, funnier than that damn AfroSquad, almost as funny as watching Troops. "All suspects are guilty. Period. Otherwise, they wouldn't be suspects, would they?"
  • A) eliminate redundant stories

    Even if it didn't if the story got moderated up that would mean people either

    1. Didn't see it the first time (so redundancy is meaningless) or

    2.Were interested enough in a story to want ot read more and post more about it. Not bad things in my opinion.

    B) Put only INTERESTING stories up

    Once again moderation could show what the majority community feels is interesting. True it may not help submissions but it may give the editors a feel for the current mood of their audience.

    Just my $.02

    -Marc

    Flame all you want, I'll Post more.

  • We can rebuild him.

    We have the technology.

    We have the capability to make the world's first Biological furby.

    Furby #11252 will be that furby.

    Better than it was before.

    Better . . . cuddlier . . . and ten times more annoying!

    (quickly brings pinky to side of mouth)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • http://www.aimnet.com/~suntzu75/bodycnt .htm [aimnet.com]
    Probably the most prominent name on the Clinton Body Count list is that of White House Staffer Vince Foster, a confidante of President and Mrs. Clinton. Foster's name has been closely linked to the Whitewater scandal and Foster has been mentioned in the latest White House uproar over misuse of FBI files.

    This has information about Bill Clinton's body count, I believe that he is the one actually responsible for this violent practice of killing innocent furbies. Bill is known for starting wars to protect his ass from being fired. I am sure that given enough time, instead of fighting defensless countries somewhere east, he would actually try to divert public's attention from his promiscuous life style to the robotic droids known as furbies. Imagine hearing newscast:
    -The president of the USA has commanded his army to take on the furby factories.
    -My dear fella Americans. Our country can not continue to sit and do nothing while millions of furbies are invading our home nation. For how long, I ask you, for how long will the attrocities continue? Furbies, (http://www.furby.com [furby.com]), these inhumane creatures, they are taking over our lives, they are everywhere. I can't sleep at night, and it is not just because Monica won't let me, it is because of public outcry. The public can not take this anymore. Furbies are disturbing our life style, they take us away from our families and the TV shows that we love. Average american spends more time with his/her Furby then listening to my speaches. I can not take this any more! A la guerre, comme a la guerre! Down with furbies!
  • So old, in fact, that it was posted here over a year ago! [slashdot.org] Tomorrow's news: "Intel introduces the 80486" Enough with comment moderation, how about Article moderation?!?
  • Ah... but can you hack it to be a web device? Or better yet, run Linux?

    Hey, even better... I could wire it to my house's electrical wiring, and run my whole house off the furby!



  • When playing the C64 version of Super Mario Bros (well, ok, Great Giana Sisters) hold down all 5 keys simultaneously to automatically warp to the next level with a hefty time bonus: M A N F R

    :)


    Bowie J. Poag

  • Murderers! (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 29, 2000 @11:03PM (#1101573)
    I am sickened and appalled by your apathy over this cruel and vicious practice. The taking apart of a Furby is nothing less than murder. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for spreading this information about how to kill a Furby. The next time I see you I WILL KICK YOUR ASS!! Thank you.
  • I still want a two Furbies. I wanna teach them all kinds of words that describe fornication. Get them to try to pick each other up. Would be more fun than watching 3 hours straight of headline news.
  • As far as Teddy Ruxpin goes, I totally agree. Mine, however, had a busted eye and was missing part of his mouth, such that he looked demonic. Gave me no end of disturbance when I was little...

    "I am Teddy Ruxpin. I have come for your SOUL!"

  • Re:furbies and college (Score:3)

    by iceburn ( 137875 ) <[moc.liamtoh] [ta] [44rhomj]> on Saturday April 29, 2000 @11:08PM (#1101576) Homepage
    Yeah, but if you'd learn his anatomy, you could repair his lungs and liver.
  • Once again, this underscores the need for a moderation system for stories: this is really old news. [slashdot.org]

    This story would be moderated "Redundant" until it fell down somewhere between "Natalie Portman Pours Hot Grits Down Pants" and "Naked and Petrified First Posts".

    --

  • Hack Furby a good site, too (Score:4)

    by ivan37 ( 149147 ) on Saturday April 29, 2000 @11:20PM (#1101578)
    visit:
    http://www.homestead.com/hackfurby/

    This place is pretty cool, too. They are trying to document the IR protocol. It has software to control the furby with a computer.
  • Dood, furbys don't learn words from you. If you believe that I'll sell you some ocean front property in iowa.

    Do you see massive storage devices on them? Processors strong enough to handle speach processing, let alone figure out context for it? I think not.

    Furbys come knowing a SET number of words, and over time and after playing with them for more time, they "learn" new words be simply loading that word into thier vocaburlary.

    Don't underestimate how utterly stupid computers are.

  • Hey, it's new to timothy, right guys?

    Nothing to see here, guys, just keep on trolling...
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
  • Exactly. What's the point in making the effort to submit stuff that's hot off the press, when it gets declined in favour of reheated leftovers?

    Story-by-story moderation is the way forward: it shouldn't necessarily knock stuff off the front page, but be there in the background to let the editors know when they've posted something truly lame.
  • Yeah, but if Red Hat really did buy out Microsoft, it would be a major news event... probabally the lead story even for the major network news shows.

    My point is that for something to be news, it should be something which is current that most people don't know about. Older web sites would be OK if they've been sitting pretty idle for the most part (and few links to them), but such a site should be an exception.

  • furbies aren't as bad as j/k (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    According to Slashdot, "Comments are owned by the Poster." Jon Katz took our property without asking and is now going to make money from it. Jon Katz used us. He is a thief, but worse than most, because we trusted him. We took an outsider into our group of outsiders, and he defiled us. Jon Katz, I hope you do the right thing, and kill yourself. Using the Littleton shootings to make a quick buck is bad enough, but stealing the intellectual property of your supporters makes it just horrid. You just couldn't stand not getting all the credit for yourself, could you?

    Fellow geeks: listen to your boiling blood and follow your heart. Make illegal copies of Katz's book and post them on the internet, everywhere. After all, we own part of what is contained in that book.

    Jon Katz, I damn you. If you ever find yourself down on your luck, don't expect to receive pity from us again. You used this community to rebuild your pathetic career, and look what you give us in return.

    You soaked up the blood of those bullet riddled corpses with the pages of that book. You stole the cries of all maligned geeks in this world. You'll make your quick buck, and you'll think you're content, but I promise you that those unresting spirits will haunt you for the rest of your days.

    Jon Katz, raper and pillager of the very souls he claims to defend.

    You are a monster.

  • This fascinating talk by the designer of Furby, Dave Hampton of Sounds Amazing!, is available at http://murl.microsoft.com/LectureDetails.asp?231
  • .... Yes, So we may add Furbys to our Armys of the Night!!!!!......

  • Maybe it's old news, but as everyone known, the news moderators are GODS! They must have their reasons. Possibly some large toy corporation gave them a check? Just speculation of course, but seriously, what next? How to convert Barbie's Dreamhouse to work with X10 controls?
  • How lame.

    See, if I were designing the Furby, I would put in an easter egg which, when the Furby were cut open or otherwise mutilated, would cause the Furby to let out blood-curdling screams of pain!

    Just thinking about some kid accidentally maiming his Furby and being terribly traumatized as a result just makes me chuckle.
  • I thought I saw this before. I thought only fresh and new items were posted to /. I am beginning to lose faith.
  • I laughed my ass off the first time I saw that site - it's disappointing that they haven't come up with anything new on it.

    I seem to remember reading in Keyboard or Electronic Musician waaay back in the 80's about two guys that sampled the control track from a Teddy Ruxpin doll, figured out what signals moved his body parts, and completely reprogrammed him into something called "Bob From Hell".

    Can't find any info online about it though :-(

  • It'd be nice to get credit for the story, just for kicks. I already blew my Karma way below +1 bonus level by moderating up a humorous first post, so that's not really an issue! What really pisses me off isn't that I didn't get credit, but rather that one day the story is deemed un-newsworthy, yet days later (when it's no longer news), it is!!!
  • I remember when I first saw this on /.

    I must have spent hours figuring out how to an autopsy,it was eithert that or work on some NT servers :-(

    The up-side is: ever since then I have been using the threat of an autopsy to discourage those people around me from purchasing one of the annoying balls of fur. So far the threats still work.

    P.S. Anyone else notice that an unwillingness to fix NT computers directly causes net surfing?

    P.S.S. Most of the NT servers are gone now, thanks for caring.

    Devil Ducky
  • I know this is way off subject, but I just sprained my ankle and what is slashdot if not a place to vent.

    Begin Venting...

    1. Why would anyone want the Microsoft OS buisness? The code is bloated, excessively buggy, copyrighted out the *$$, the product has bad press, and it's losing it's following (finally).

    2. Nothing could hurt the crusade (Jihad?) of open source more than Windows being owned by one of our own.

    3. $10M would be much better spent on getting GNOME 1.2 finished, or pushing for a stable release of the GIMP this century, or even to buy me a keyboard where the spacebar works on the first try.

    4. Why am I numbering these?

    Venting Complete... [OK]


    Devil Ducky
  • Yanno Bro - you can shell out the heat but can't take it about the dumb POS kiddie toys since you have to hide behind "anonymous" - And another thing, what's fun is to take a furby, physically attach it to the garbage disposal and watch it GRIND! - then there's also the flaming-pop-tart-and-a-furby experiment - I didn't know Furby's could be "in heat". :)
  • Perhaps the icon for for the slashdot reruns isn't ready yet.
    The icon for the followup quickies also wasn't finished in time.

Slashdot Top Deals

Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

Close