Technically the benefits were already loosed. Now we're losing them.

How old does one have to be to use the phrase? Back in the day, one had to be talking about the Great War, or prohibition to use the expression. But since the dawn of internet time, when discussing "back in the day," I take it to mean about 20 years ago.

Not that anyone cares, but this marks 20 years since I wrote an op-ed piece for Computerworld, titled "Ban Business Use of the Internet." It was on the eve of commercial interests being allowed onto the internet, and just after Canter & Siegel inundated Usenet with their Green Card Spam (look it up, kids). While I don't agree with every word I wrote, I think there were certain points I made which have come true. I wrote about corporate interests sponsoring university net feeds, and the speech restrictions that would come with it. Parallel that with the witchhunt of Aaron Swartz and his subsequent suicide.

I was going to scan in the entire text, since it's not available on the web anywhere (that I can find), just to see what others thought about how I was right and how I was wrong about the corporate "invasion" to academia.

This wouldn't even be an issue if the damn local news didn't report on it. 3 cars?! A night of drunken stupidity. Now it's going to be trending.

Both you and AC articulated what I was starting to *feel* regarding beta. I have so many users who rebel against upgrades just because they're different; I just wanted some good reasons why the beta sucks.

As I use it just a little bit, the UI was obviously designed by blind monkeys, or perhaps just committee. I have to scroll and scroll and scroll, and yet there is so much wasted space around comments. Add to that the fact that replies don't load automatically, and I have to populate the reply subject. I see nothing good about this "upgrade."

Now I see the problem. My 7 digit UID doesn't show up! How else can I prove my old-timer cred?!

Perhaps I don't visit Slashdot as much as I used to, but I just looked at the site through beta to see what the fuss is about. Perhaps my eyes don't move in the right way, but is it the additional ads that I ignore on the right-hand side? I'm not defending beta, I'm just asking for additional education about what makes it so bad other than being different.

I actually own a Windows phone, and it sucks that Google's acting like jerks. But really, what goes around, comes around.

I would say joining the board of an anti-gay marriage group would qualify as "actively campaigning." I have many opinions to which I do not contribute my time or money.

I always think of PETA as having the same extreme mindset as the NRA.

I've been using Pale Moon (a Firefox derivative) for about a year now as my primary browser, and I'm very happy with it. It has some stuff stripped out of it that seems to make it more stable, and there's a 64-bit version. http://www.palemoon.org/ for more info.

This is Amercia, so there are additional steps.

Step 8: ???
Step 9: Profit!