I would expect that all the "Fuck Beta" posts would be modded down into oblivion pretty fast by the majority with mod points. I would find it hard to believe that a minority of Slashdot users, no matter how vocal they are, would be able to on their own keep a good amount of the "Fuck Beta" posts at +5 when a majority of moderators who don't think the beta is a problem should be modding it down to -1 Off Topic.

Please post this to new articles if it hasn't been posted yet. (Copy-paste the html from here so links don't get mangled!)

On February 5, 2014, Slashdot announced through a javascript popup that they are starting to "move in to" the new Slashdot Beta design. Slashdot Beta is a trend-following attempt to give Slashdot a fresh look, an approach that has led to less space for text and an abandonment of the traditional Slashdot look. Much worse than that, Slashdot Beta fundamentally breaks the classic Slashdot discussion and moderation system.

If you haven't seen Slashdot Beta already, open this in a new tab. After seeing that, click here to return to classic Slashdot.

We should boycott stories and only discuss the abomination that is Slashdot Beta until Dice abandons the project.
We should boycott slashdot entirely during the week of Feb 10 to Feb 17 as part of the wider slashcott

Moderators - only spend mod points on comments that discuss Beta
Commentors - only discuss Beta
http://slashdot.org/recent - Vote up the Fuck Beta stories

Keep this up for a few days and we may finally get the PHBs attention.

-----=====##### LINKS #####=====-----

Discussion of Beta: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=56395415
Discussion of where to go if Beta goes live: http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=3321441
Alternative Slashdot: http://altslashdot.org (thanks Okian Warrior (537106))

Mod parent up.

There is a strong back room agenda behind this beta thing. I don't want to find the link and quote right now, but basically Dice Holdings has decided that Slashdot is unprofitable. Now they are either desperately doing stupid stuff in an attempt to draw in new users to make it profitable or they are trying to kill it with this beta so no one is left to mourn Slashdot's passing when they announce they are shutting it down. Honestly, nothing we can do can change this. Just like with other websites like YouTube where stupid redesigns happen, these "betas" rarely if ever will seriously consider feedback to dump the whole thing or allow using the old design. They are set on the general paradigm behind the beta. Dice is really only interested in this point at hearing about minor annoyances that won't affect too much overall and bug reports we have for it.

If I recall correctly, the main thing that got Google in trouble was that they were actually intercepting information sent through unsecured access points in addition to mapping out access points in general.

Not going to say anything about the other two, but I think that most people who have a license do at least know the rules/laws related to driving. Willingness to follow them at the expense of getting somewhere a couple minutes later or being unable to stay connected to their friends for the duration of the trip is another thing entirely.

Even if they are not taking a risk engineering wise, just looking at the comments section of TFA, there are people out there who think that an aluminum truck is going crumple up in an collision like a beer can and crush them, as well as general "I don't like change" people. Ford is taking a chance on their marketing being able to prove to the public that the aluminum is just as good and safe as the steel, and that they don't have to fear the change.

You can be arrested and charged with DUI (in some areas at least) for sitting in your warm car after the bar closes piss drunk without even shifting it out of park or disengaging the parking brake. If cops want to, they will probably still be able to justify a DUI against you in an autonomous vehicle on the virtue that you could put it in manual mode at any time and start to actually drive drunk.

According to TFA, these people have in fact been getting declined on loans and similar stuff because of this.

Actually, LAX has a separate police department (the Los Angeles Airport Police) that I believe is the one that handled this. So it actually isn't the same department that shot at a random unrelated pickup truck looking for Dorner.

On most news sites where this argument pops up, one of the more common arguments is sadly enough "Why should my tax dollars be used to keep this guy alive in prison for decades with a life without parole sentence when we can just kill him now for far cheaper?"

Could this be useful for stuff like allowing the blind to use tablets (since I imagine that being able to make bumps could lead to usable braille)?