The 10 Tech People Who Don't Matter

TopShelf writes "Business 2.0 recently ran a feature on the Top 50 People Who Matter in the business world, but perhaps more interesting is their list of the 10 People Who Don't Matter. Leading off the list is a Slashdot favorite, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer..." Given, Rob's in there as well, but I'd say his company in the list is pretty decent.

The list

[Anonymous Coward]

Real list:
http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/peoplewhodon tmatter/frameset.exclude.html [cnn.com]

Leading?

[TheNetAvenger]

Leading off the list is a Slashdot favorite, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer..."

Even though the list says "In NO particular order"

But hey, I think Ballmer is a tool even though I'm not a big MS hater...

Re:/. on the list!

[paedobear]

They use Alexa data to show that Digg is more popular. That's barely 1 step beyond getting the data from AOL's proxy server logs!

Re:1 article that doesn't matter

[Cyphertube]

I had the same issue... That is, until I turned of Adblock.

If you have it on, you will see nothing in any of the money.cnn.com galleries. So turn it off, temporarily, and hit reload. The one banner is gonna kill you. Then, when you're done, turn it back on. CNN has the worst Java-based ads.

Slashdot is one of the few site for which I allow all the ads to come through.

Re:Linus on the List

[MoxFulder]

Even if Linus's place on the list was meant as a compliment, I still think it's incorrect. Linus definitely DOES matter. He may NOT be writing all the code these days, he may not be the one coming up with all the innovations, but he *IS* still the one putting the Linux kernel together into a coherent whole.

Just read the Linux kernel mailing list and you'll see that Linus has an amazing grasp of all the major kernel subsystems, a clear sense of goals and direction for the kernel, as well as things to avoid, and a good ability to delegate tasks to the other kernel developers.

Basically, Linus remains "benevolent dictator" for the Linux kernel, and I'd say he's doing a highly effective job in that role. I'd put him in a top 10 list of tech people who do matter.

Re:Leading?

[MSFanBoi2]

Not only did the OP of the thread claim that Ballmer lead the list he also failed to mention that both Linus and our Slashdot overlord made the list as well...

Go figure...

Digg multitudes?

[OSS_ilation]

"Today, the buzz has moved elsewhere. Slashdot's editor-driven story selection model is being supplanted by user-generated systems such as Digg. According to recent Alexa data, Digg already has more daily reach and generates more page views than Slashdot. Malda knows his subject, and he's a good editor, but in the end, he's just no match for the power of the multitudes." Wait, you mean 'multitudes' like the dozen or so Diggers who have hijacked the system and are responsible for 100% of the front page content?

Here's the List (as text)

[Kadin2048]

The List:

(Because CNN's site sucks worse than anything else I've seen lately; if you want to read the little blurbs on each, you'll have to suffer through their shit, because I can't be bothered to copy/paste it all...)

Allegedly in "no particular order:"

1. Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft
2. Jeffrey Citron, Chairman and chief strategist, Vonage
3. Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix
4. Ken Kutaragi, President, Sony Computer Entertainment
5. Warren Lieberfarb, Senior Consultant, HD-DVD Promotion Group
6. Rob Malda, Slashdot.org
7. Arun Sarin, CEO, Vodafone
8. Jonathan Schwartz, CEO, Sun Microsystems
9. Linus Torvalds, Creator, Linux
10. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder, Facebook

Here's the blurb about Malda:

Remember the days when "getting Slashdotted" was every sysadmin's worst nightmare? Referrals from the "News for Nerds" website would send so much traffic to websites that many crashed. But for those that survived the flood, it was the online equivalent of a papal benediction. Today, the buzz has moved elsewhere. Slashdot's editor-driven story selection model is being supplanted by user-generated systems such as Digg. According to recent Alexa data, Digg already has more daily reach and generates more page views than Slashdot. Malda knows his subject, and he's a good editor, but in the end, he's just no match for the power of the multitudes.

And just because I thought it was interesting, here's the blurb about Linus Torvalds:

It's a testament to the success of Torvalds's open-source ideas that he's on this list at all. His Linux operating system is fast, cheap, and out of control - and that's entirely by design. While Torvalds still oversees any changes made to the innermost core of Linux, most of the innovation is now done by others, and commercial businesses like Red Hat and Novell increasingly steer its future. Although he can claim credit for popularizing one of the most powerful ideas ever to sweep through the software industry, Torvalds's project has matured to such an extent that it's largely outgrown its illustrious creator.

Re:What is worse that a first post?

[billybob]

Easier way is to use the "issue" feature, which is just the date in YYYYMMDD format.

http://slashdot.org/index.pl?issue=19971231 [slashdot.org]

is the earliest one that comes up with any results. But there werent comments back then I guess. I started visiting in early 99 and there were comments then. I dont have enough time to find the original first post evar :)

Re:What is worse that a first post?

[bheer]

> What else is there?

Ars Technica.

High quality discussions most of the time. Obviously it's not as busy as Slashdot, but hey -- most people come to /. to vent, not have high-quality discussions ;-)

Alexa stat is bad

[dkarney]

Whenever people proclaim that Slashdot is being beat by Digg, they drag out the Alexa pageview stats. However, people forget that Alexa's software only runs on IE. Considering that a large number of Slashdot visitors use browsers other than IE, the Alexa stats don't accurately reflect the number of pageviews that Slashdot gets.

Re: "no match for the power of the multitudes"

[jackDuhRipper]

Rob and Slashdot matter still.

I do like Digg's community-driven aspect that tends to surface many interesting articles very rapidly. Slashdot could "easily" offer a community-driven story pipeline if they wanted to (we've talked about it [slashdot.org] for years [slashdot.org] here ...)

That said, the signal-to-noise ratio in Digg's discussions is way too crappy. When I go to digg, I wind up following offsite links to original stories; when I come here, it's to participate in the discussions.

And Top / Bottom Ten lists are generall self-serving horse-crap, anyway. (and the audio ad that starts automaticaally when reading this Biz 2.0 is downright offensive)

Steve [meanbusiness.com]

Re:Here's the List (as text)

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's a testament to the success of Torvalds's open-source ideas..."

Er, his ideas? Seems more like GNU's and OSI's ideas to me.

"While Torvalds still oversees any changes made to the innermost core of Linux..."

Or in other words 'the kernel'? Their claim that linus is less important to linux then before depends on equivocation.

One problem with Digg.

[LWATCDR]

I know it is hard to believe but it looks as if Digg has a less friendly and or mature community than even Slashdot!
Frankly Digg makes Slashdot look like a downright friendly place in comparison to Digg.
Things I would like to see improve on Slashdot are.
I would love to see Slashdot back off on some of the "yellow" journalism that I see in some of the headlines.
Yes the Editors really need to check for dupes better.
An interface that works well on my cell phone would be nice.
More Ajax goodness like a spelling checker would also be nice.
And yes the green is so not Web2.0. Get a clue people everything must look like Google!. Just kidding about that last part.
I hope that Slashdot will be around for a long time. Maybe the real nutcases will all move over to Digg and leave Slashdot a bastion of good manners and civility.
BTW Windows Sucks! Linux Rulez! In Soviet Russia the dot slashes you. And of course imagine a Beowulf cluster of Slashdots!
Does anyone remember if the article on the uCsimm was the one that started the whole Beowulf cluster thing?

digg actually HAD deep nesting - but turned it off

[chocolatetrumpet]

When the new comment system came out on digg they had comments nested 3 deep. As a user interested in digg's possibilities, that was pretty exciting!

Within an hour or so the nesting was restricted down to 1 deep - that was such a horribly frustrating moment for me and digg.

I agree that messaging and replies are such an important part of the web experience. In order to read my replies on digg or fark, I need to go back through the stories I commented on, and text match my username to see if anyone gave me a shoutout. It's a slow and tedious process. This is one of those things that slashdot gets right. Flickr has a pretty interested system where I can go back and see my comments pretty easily, but with no nesting you are again doing the text-matching username thing.

It's really frustrating being on "the other side of the fence" on the internet. I guess I better start brushing up on my coding skills so I can make the ultimate news website - basically:

1. user submitted stories like digg
2. deep nested comments like slashdot
3. comment headers/titles like slashdot
4. comment messaging system like slashdot - read who replied to your comments, etc.
5. ability to post pictures like fark

It would be a digg/fark/slashdot hybrid, with a superset of features.

The biggest thing I haven't decided on is the moderation system.

Anyway, if someone wants to do this for me, be my guest!