I posted the Boston Review story Why I Was Maced at the Wall Street Protests by Jeanne Mansfield to my Facebook wall, and it faithfully appeared ("via Links") on my wall. When my friends saw the update, however, they did not get the link. So I posted it again, and the same thing happened. And I posted the URL in a comment, and the comment disappeared. So then I posted the URL with spaces in it in another comment, and the comment did not disappear. Facebook is deliberately filtering comments containing the URL for the story. This is hardly conclusive evidence, of course. They could just be massively incompetent. Sorry, not buying it any more, not since they started releasing their code.

I am never going to allow you to run scripts on my computer from your various domains. If you weren't incompetent you would come up with a way to show me the ads anyway. They're called text ads. I don't need your content. I hope you die in a fire. I would never even notice you and your sophomoric stories if my friends didn't keep posting them to failbook. Please explode. Thank you.

People tell me my Slashdot comments are repetitive. I'd appreciate some hints as to how to be less repetitive.

Sometimes it looks like I'm reminding other users of an unsolved problem, but the problem has in fact been solved. Perhaps the real problem is that the solution hasn't been well publicized. For example, one solution to a lot of problems with home entertainment is to put a PC in the living room, but almost nobody knows about this.

If it looks like I'm reminding other users of an edge case too often, consider that a solution that covers more edge cases will appear better thought out and more robust than a solution that covers only the common cases and leaves the edge cases unnoticed.

And sometimes I get confused as to which is the common case and which is the edge case. For example, h4rr4r has pointed out that whenever someone brings up Netflix as an alternative to cable television, I often bring up the fact that Netflix lacks sports. I try to phrase it like "Netflix is fine for people who aren't into sports", recognizing that both non-sports-fan and sports-fan markets exist but apparently putting undue emphasis on the sports-fan market. This goes back to discussions that I've had with heads of household in my survey sample. They tell me they don't see how Netflix would be worth an extra $7.99 per month on top of what they already pay for TV. So I try to make room for Netflix in their budget by suggesting how much they could save by switching from cable Internet+cable TV or fiber Internet+satellite TV to their current Internet+Netflix, and then they mention sports. I guess the survey sample of households in my extended family with broadband access must be a biased sample with more sports fans than the general population, and thus I have a biased view of the relative size of the sports-fan and non-sports-fan markets.

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You are incompetent douchebags. If your registration form didn't repeatedly submit itself to an invalid URL I might consider trying your game. Idiots.

Why have we been getting all these 503 errors for days? Pretty tired of reloading each page four or five times.

Still think it's hilarious that only slashdot editors may tag stories "slashdot". THOU SHALT NOT DISCUSS SLASHDOT ON SLASHDOT. srsly?

All the usual hype is flowing about Vista 8. This mostly means that Vista 7 was a failure, but I decided to log it for laughs. Vista 7 did not sell as well as Vista did and Vista 8 won't sell any better than Vista 7. Vista failure has really killed Microsoft. The upgrade inevitability myth is six feet underground, traditional desktops are becoming a thing of the past and everyone looks to Google, Apple even IBM for cool and reliable computing. Despite that, Microsoft brings out the same old lines and strategies.

2009

• 05/29 - Steve Ballmer tries to freeze the market by announcing an early release date, only to have Micrsoft quietly rebuff him. In reality, OEM outrage at Microsoft's limitations and power grab pushes Vista 8 release out of 2012.
• 06/02 - A fawning article from business insider. We get all the usual BS, "riskiest OS ever," "biggest step forward in more than 20 years, when it pushed Windows as the replacement for DOS", "underneath that layer is the old Windows that users are accustomed to. It will run old Windows apps", Linux and Apple are too jarring, expensive and suck, and so on and so forth.

Really, Microsoft? You can't remove Windows Live Essentials from Vista for me before updating it? For that matter, you can't manage an upgrade-in-place? Seriously?

the only pgp keyserver I can actually get a key from (http only) is keyserver.linux.it. is my ISP boning me? I tried connection logging (tomato) and there's no indication that I'm doing anything wrong.

Why do I have to right-click a tab to bookmark all tabs? Why is it not in the menu? And more to the point, why am I in the position where I have to find an excuse for this for my lady in the first place? UI FAIL

Names changed to protect the relatively innocent... This was in a discussion about a bug filed and ignored, on a thread on a social networking site.

"Ah, that's a shame! I'm sorry you had one bad experience. There are many people that work at apple and it is hard to know how one person may handle a bug versus another. You should still log bugs, even if they seem to go into a black hole. It really does help with the Quality of the product, and I'm 100% positive every bug is at least looked at and some action is taken on (even if it is to just keep it in a "bit bucket" of things to possibly fix). I have bugs assigned to me from NeXt in the late 1990's. Some of which I have recently fixed. My name is X. I work on Y. Log a bug on Z and it will come to my group."

Or, you know, you could just use some operating system with some kind of openness and accountability and file bugs that will be addressed. Every significant bug I have ever filed against any Ubuntu package has had some kind of activity, acknowledgement, and usually a fix (or marked as a duplicate, of course... and eventually, a fix.)

How many antique bugs known since the NeXTStep days are still in OSX, just getting forwarded through multiple revisions while Apple adds new features?

I share with you the FAA's vision of "Normal Aviation Activity". These trails were laid by large aircraft. My sinuses are going nuts today. I make no other claims.

I'm looking at you, Widelands. What makes you think that a crapload of tiny icons is going to be a good interface?

I just want to thank FreeCiv for having an interface that's actually better than the game it rips off, even though the AI blows ass.

As the Linux Foundation wins new friends and influences people, sharp reporters at PCWorld notice that Windows sales as a fraction of PCs shipped are in a steep and accelerating decline. Woody Leonhard of Infoworld does the math on Microsoft's numbers,

Between launch and June 30, 2010 -- a period of 251 days -- Microsoft sold 0.78 Windows 7 licenses for each PC sold. Between July 1, 2010, and April 22, 2011 -- a period of 275 days -- Microsoft sold 0.67 Windows 7 licenses for each PC sold: 175 million Windows 7 licenses, and 260 million new PCs. To turn the numbers the other way around, in the past nine months, more than one-third of all new PCs sold didn't have Windows 7. ... it's entirely possible that 40 percent of all new PCs in the past nine months shipped without Windows 7. Maybe more.

So, the Windows 7 PC sales "refresh" is over. Business adoption rates are still under 10%. Kanthryn Noyles of Computer World interprets that as a Win for gnu/linux

I think it's fair to assume that a good number of them are running Linux instead. Preloaded options, after all, are increasingly common, and the reasons to switch are more compelling with each passing Patch Tuesday.

Android/Linux, is another reason for the decline. Why sit around mom's basement with a big, noisy PC when you can drop the net in your pocket? PCs are less important and Windows is downright archaic.

Microsoft's bottom line sags with its cash cow. There was good evidence in 2010 and January of this year that Windows 7 was not driving sales. Roughly Drafted now looks at Microsoft's quarterly report and shows that Windows profits are down since 2008 back when they were trying to sell Vista which many people dumped in less than six months.

Florian Mueller has thrust himself into the news a lot over the last couple of years, mostly to the detriment of Microsoft competitors, and has been particularly successful at getting Slashdot to copy his message. Roy Schestowitz, of Techrights, noticed him early because Boycott Novell was on Florian's journalist mass mailing list. So was Groklaw. Both rejected Florian's message and both are now smeared by him. Techrights has this index and PJ has this about bad behavior in 2005, this, this and more. Florian waged a Twitter/Social Media FUD campaign against both "Groklie" and Techrights in retaliation. Even Slashdot submitters have called Florian a "gadfly" and noticed he's behind anti-Google FUD. All of Florian's media manipulation has earned him special mention by actual lawyers who advise those threatened by lawsuits to ignore him and people like him.

The best way to understand what Florian has been doing is to make a list of it. Here then, is a list of what he's been telling Slashdot readers over the last year or so, with context and links to refutations as time allows.

Android/Google Spin.

• Google violated Java patents on purpose (See source article for source of silly opinion. ITWorld should be ashamed.)
• Speculation about why Apple replaced their chief patent lawyer. While Apple is quiet about the change, Florian pretends to be an Apple spokesman and tells us it's all about plans to block Android features.
• Sensationalized Oracle's obnoxious demands for money as something that would "far exceed any money Google has ever earned with Android", Google's no cost, free OS. Groklaw puts things in perspective and lawyers advise people to ignore Florian and people like him.
• Google Loses Bedrock Suit, All Linux May Infringe Florian put his anti-linux spin into CNet, the article source. See refutations, [2 SJVN], [3 PJ].
• A refutation that points to Florian as the source of Android copyright FUD.
• Huffington Post and Florian level copyright charges against Android, call it a "serious problem". Techrights and Groklaw answer these charges and take a careful look at Florian. [2]
• Google and Microsoft are working to make sofware patents livable
• Backs Google's request to invalidate Oracle VM patents.
• Florian charges Google of copyright violation against Oracle, blames ASF.
• Florian claims Android is doomed by Google's small patent portfolio, so Google had better pay fees to Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.
• Android and iPhone charged with violating media patents
• Counts patents involved in Apple's attack on Android.
• Pumps up Paul Allen's sue everyone lawsuit as trouble for Android.

Red Hat FUD

• Red Hat Feeds Patent Trolls.

IBM FUD

• EU investigates IBM for anti-trust in Turbo Hercules debacle. Grocklaw answers this [2].

Novell's Patent Hoard.

• Notices Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and EMC are to receive Novelle's patents and predicts dire results for free software.

Reframes Microsoft's attempt to tax Motorola's use of GNU/Linux and Android.

This issue should not be separated from general anti-Google FUD but Florian does this.

• Compares LG Sony fight to Motorola Microsoft
• Talks about new patent charges by both companies as if they were equals.
• ITC investigates Xbox after Motorola complaint.

That's 16 articles in less than a year and each represents dozens of Microsoft press echos. All of it says something bad about Google, Red Hat, IBM and other free software users. When he's not busy smearing Microsoft competitors, he's telling us that they Love Microsoft and are working with them towards some noble goal.

People speculate that Muelller is fed inside information as part of Microsoft's coordinated campaigns against free software and Microsoft competitors. PJ of Groklaw thinks that Microsoft hoped that a community of deluded coders would form around Florian, but only Novell employees and Mono boosters pal around, while the larger free software community ignores him. His recent praise of the SCO Gang and smears of PJ places him among the most disgusting of Microsoft company.

http://us.test.giga-byte.com

their site has been down for days...