Gamergate was originally about ethics in video game journalism. The moment female developers were targeted ended that conversation with those people. After all, you can't have a movement about ethics while utterly lacking them.

Citation needed.

Sadly, I have to agree. I've been a frequent visitor to the site since 1999, and in that time, I've seen lots of ups and downs. I think things really culminated in a fever during the iOS vs. Android arguments three or four years ago when every article was clickbait to get the masses to chew each other up. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the "old guard" packed up and left during that time.

Since things have calmed down, Slashdot seems to be slowly sinking into irrelevance. I'm seeing a lot more conversation that almost mimics the comments of any CNN political article. I'm also seeing some terrible moderation -- flamebait being labeled as insightful and so forth.

From 2000-2010, I probably only modded down five posts. In the past couple years, I feel like I'm moddng down all the time. It's sad but this place used to feature high quality discussion. It just doesn't anymore. It's running on pure inertia. The only thing that keeps me coming back is habit, but I rarely read stories anymore. I just skim the frontpage like it were a news aggregator, then move on.

I'll keep doing so because of habit, but once the beta becomes the defacto version, I'll bow out. It was a great site with some good memories, but all good things must come to an end.

If it works when you bought it, then it's your fault if you change the OS and it no longer works. You should have thought about that before changing your OS. On the other hand, if a manufacturer doesn't provide you with all the drivers that you want, then don't keep buying from that manufacturer.
----
This message was brought to you by the invisible hand of the free market, except in this case, it wasn't so much a hand but more of a finger.

me: Hi Jibo
It spins and spins.
me: Over here. Over here. I'm standing here. Jibo. Stop spinning.
jibo: would you like take out.
me: no.
jibo: how about sushi. Your favorite food.
me:That's Lizzie's favorite.
jibo: Ordering. Unable to comply. Please check your network settings.
me: Cancel
jibo: Please say that again. I did not understand.
me: Reset. Stop.
jibo: Want me to take a picture.
me: No.
jibo: Cheese. Hard drive full. Please delete some of your pictures.
me: Stop taking pictures.
jibo: taking picture. Cheese. Hard drive full. Please delete some of your pictures.
me: Why did I buy this friggin thing?

Seriously, compare the Kinnect promo videos to how it actually turned out. That's Jibo, except from an extremely well funded company. This is just snake-oil.

I like Conan the Barbarian's answer (minus the hint of racism):

"Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

- Queen of the Black Coast, Robert E. Howard

It solves a problem ... not your problem, but Apple's problem. I think Apple created Swift to be a common language throughout all their frameworks. I believe Python was originally filling this role, but Apple doesn't control Python. I believe they intend to use this in the server as well, that way, you have one language used throughout the entire stack - app, server, and even in the debugger.

Considering Grassley investigated NASA last year about some viking photo, my guess this has little to do with governmental accounting, and more about someone in NASA pissing in his Cheerios.

China holds a huge amount of our debt.

Our debt is around 17 trillion dollars. Of that 17 trillion, China owns around 1.2 trillion. A large number for sure, but not something I'd say is a rather small percentage of the total debt. The debt owned by the public equates to 12 trillion which is something I'd call huge.

National debt of the United States

If we are going to be even more honest, Olympia Snowe, a republican senator from Maine, voted for the bill to leave committee. And of course, Republican Anh Cao voted for a competing bill in the House of Representatives. Neither voted on the bill's final passage.

I actually have a few fond memories of Blockbuster. My first memory was when my mom drove us thirty minutes to a Blockbuster and I remember being blown away but the sheer amount of movies. All of our local mom and pop stores had pretty poor selections. They also charged a yearly membership fee while Blockbuster was free.

Years later, I would visit this Blockbuster in college where I bought Night of the Living Dead for five bucks which completely rocked my world. This same Blockbuster had a section called "Le Bad Cinema". It was a collection of the worst movies ever made. There were movies that made Plan 9 from Outer Space look like an art house flick. Do a google search for "Moron Movies". Classic stuff. My friends and I watched all of the movies in that section.

That said, Blockbuster was a pretty nasty company. I believe they required objectionable movies to be edited and I don't think they rented unrated movies for a long period time. (MInd you, not porn but movies that were not submitted to the MPAA for a rating). Ultimately, they started focusing purely on new releases so it was downright impossible to rent a quality flick that was over five years old. Once I discovered Netflix, there was no going back. (And this was before the streaming service started).

Fun story ... I used to work at Mom and Pop vide store in college in the mid-ninties. I grew to be good friends with the owner and he confided with me that he knew the industry was a dead end. He predicted that the internet would ultimately dominate. So, in 2002, he sold all his video stores to West Coast video for a killing. People called him crazy since his stores were pretty popular but a few years later, West Coast Video went out of business.

So no ... I don't miss Blockbuster but I will miss the video store.

It's a unique problem combined with poor assumptions on the part administration. Had the majority of states agreed to run their own exchanges, this problem wouldn't be so exaggerated. Instead, thirty five states opted to let the federal government run the show. The administration did not plan for this.

So in essence, the federal government had to build a site that not only takes federal guideline but individual state guidelines into consideration while building a high traffic infrastructure that is essentially accessing systems not designed for such load. Mind you, last year states were given a November 15th deadline to setup their exchange with some states given an extension. That's less than a year to build this system, overseen by some legislators who are doing everything possible to prevent the law from moving forward.

I'm frankly surprised it launched at all.

Now ... I think the jury's out if they can fix this in a month, but good to luck to them on that front. I think the administration is being optimistic that all will be fixed by the end of next month, but regardless, these issues will be forgotten in time.

So, you are happy to pass on the cost of your irresponsibility which made it possible for you to be obese to the rest of us who take better care of ourselves ?

This is actually an interesting statement. Previous to Obmacare, this overweight fella was a "profit danger" thus he was uninsurable.

Now that he will have insurance, it is in the insurance companies benefit to get his weight down because it will cost less in the long run. Whatever you think of the law, it's a real positive thing now that the insurance companies goals are somewhat aligned with our own.

That actually used to be the case and but a law was passed that basically said all hospitals cannot turn away patients. Believe it or not, Regan of all people, was the president who signed it into law. You can read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act

I'm a young healthy guy. What I need is accident insurance. And it gave me that.

You had a junk policy. It might may have made you feel better to be "covered", but it would provide nothing in terms of coverage in case, god forbid, you did come down with anything serious (which, you know, happens all the time).

My niece required over a million dollars of care when she came down with cancer. Would your junk policy have done the same? No. You would have been bankrupted, and I would have to pay for all your additional trips to the emergency room plus any additional social services. Yes, your "freedom" has a cost and I'm tired of footing the bill for it.

I get that you think you are immortal and that there's nothing in the wings that has your name on it, but once you've been around the block a couple of times, you get know that bad things happen to good people. That's why we have insurance.

And yeah... for that, I hate you. You hurt me. You hurt my family. You hurt this country. And you're too dumb to realize it.

Growing up can be painful and your entire discourse shows that you have a lot growing up to do. If you hate me for rationally arguing the facts of the law, actually listening to your arguments, and not returning any of your personal barbs, then you do have a long road to walk, indeed.