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Submission + - A Modest Proposal, re: Beta vs. Classic 19

Submitted by unitron
unitron writes: Dice wants to make money off of what they paid for--the Slashdot name--, or rather they want to make more money off of it than they are making now, and they think the best way to do that is to turn it into SlashingtonPost.

They should take this site and give it a new name. Or get Malda to let them use "Chips & Dips".

Leave everything else intact, archives, user ID database, everything except the name.

Then use the Beta code and start a new site and give it the slashdot.org name, and they can have what they want without the embarrassment of having the current userbase escape from the basement or the attic and offend the sensibilities of the yuppies or hipsters or metrosexuals or whoever it is that they really want for an "audience".

Submission + - /. Beta comments don't work, users upset. (slashdot.org) 4

Submitted by magic maverick
magic maverick writes: Since the new /. Beta came to light, many /. users and commentators have tried it out. However, they are almost universally condemning the new commenting system. It simply isn't as good as the so called Classic system. Some users, however, haven't a bad thing to say. Mainly because they haven't had a chance to even use the new system. It simply doesn't load. One user, Magic Maverick , who lives in a third-world country with crappy Internet, had this to say:

I come to /. for the comments, but with the new Beta, I can't even see anything! It just says:

''Shazbot! We ran into some trouble getting the comments. Try again... na-nu, na-nu!

It seems like the "developers" need to take some advice from people who actually know what they are doing. I'm happy to help explain what graceful degradation means if they like...

Submission + - Dice Holdings, Inc, deleting unflattering stories from Slashdot firehose 4

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Stories submitted to the Slashdot firehose that take a negative view on the site's redesign are being deleted. 4 hours ago, it was full of anti-beta posts. Now they are gone. That's right. A forum that usually leaves V14GRA spam in place for posterity is deleting user content.

Submission + - Wozniak to Apple: Consider Building An Android Phone 1

Submitted by snydeq
snydeq writes: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has some advice for Apple CEO Tim Cook: consider offering a phone based on the rival Google Android platform. Speaking at the Apps World conference in San Francisco, Wozniak made the suggestion of an Apple Android device when responding to a question about the fate of the faltering BlackBerry platform, saying that BlackBerry should have built an Android phone, and that Apple could do so, too. 'BlackBerry's very sad for me,' Wozniak lamented. 'I think it's probably too late now' for an Android-based BlackBerry phone. Apple, Woz said, has had some lucky victories in the marketplace in the past decade, and BlackBerry's demise may provide a cautionary tale: 'There's nothing to keep Apple out of the Android market as a secondary phone market.'

Submission + - Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else) (popsci.com) 1

Submitted by malachiorion
malachiorion writes: I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of Lockheed Martin's autonomous truck convoy demonstration—they sent a group of robotified vehicles through urban and rural environments at Fort Hood, without teleoperation or human intervention. It's an interesting milestone, and sort of a tragic one, since troops could have used robotic vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's fascinating, though, is that Lockheed is hoping to get into Afghanistan just before the U.S. withdraws, to help ferry gear. Plus, they have their sights set on what would be the defense contractor's first real commercial product—kits that turn tractor trailers into autonomous vehicles. Here's my post for Popular Science.

Submission + - Slashdot users give new beta design a huge Bronx cheer 2

Submitted by Presto Vivace
Presto Vivace writes: Alice Marshall reports that:

Slashdot users are extremely unhappy with the new Slashdot Beta design. The comment section of every single post is devoted to dissatisfaction with the new design. ... ... The thing to keep in mind about community sites devoted to user generated content is that the users generate the content.

Submission + - Dice runs scared. 6

Submitted by cfulton
cfulton writes: Slashdot management was found hiding under their desks today after a full scale nuclear meltdown on their site. Unable to post a reasonable reply to the thousands of negative comments on their BETA format, they simply modded down all the relevant comments. Then after running around the office for a while they all hid under their desks hoping it would all just go away.

Comment Re:Fuck beta (Score 1) 234

by demontechie (#46178303) Attached to: The Standards Wars and the Sausage Factory

BTW I have seen several accusations of mass down voting. I'm genuinely curious as to how you show that. I've seen several of my own anti-Beta posts rid up and down the moderation ladder today and I can't tell if the down mods are due to corporate influence, or just people who want o read stories without seeing "Fuck Beta"

The problem with proof is that as a user rather than an editor there really isn't any, since we don' t have access to a timeline of mod value over time for each post. However, at the time I looked at this post and its descendents, they were ALL uniformly modded -1 or 0 "off-topic". If I accept as valid the claim that that post was at 5 before it went to the -1 which I observed, then either 6 different mods thought that data was irrelevant, or an editor did it. And I have reason to accept that claim as valid since it is now back up to +4 Informative, where it should be. At the moment I saw the consistency of "off-topic" being applied equally to both the poorly written anti-beta drek and the well-reasoned, insightful anti-beta comments, I became convinced of the accusation which had been made in the comment which led me there. The fact that contemporaneously timothy was the only editor posting stories lends weight to the idea that he would be responsible. It is certainly possible that there are some other hidden overlords who are actually doing the dirty work, but absent knowledge of their existence, I'm led to conclude that it is instead one of the known editors.

Not proof, but substantial statistical evidence bolstered by my own eye-witnessing. Perhaps I should have taken screenshots, but that seems like a bit much.

Submission + - Iron Mountain's Buenos Aires archive burns to ground (computerworld.com) 1

Submitted by Lucas123
Lucas123 writes: A fire swept through a document archive facility in Buenos Aires operated by Iron Mountain, killing 9 first responders and wounding 7 others. The blaze also destroyed the corporate records housed in the facility. The cause of the blaze, which leveled the warehouse, is still under investigation. The firefighters were killed or injured when a wall collapsed on them. Iron Mountain's own employees were unharmed in the blaze. The fire marks the fifth time an Iron Mountain facility has been damaged or destroyed by fire over the past 17 years. Iron Mountain's facilities are equipped with extensive fire warning and suppression systems. Its largest archive facility in Butler County, Pa., an defunct 145-acre limestone mine, even has its own fire department, complete with full-sized fire trucks. The company is working with local authorities to determine the cause of the Buenos Aires fire and why its fire suppression systems failed to contain it.

Submission + - Hackers got into Target via Heat and Air system updates (krebsonsecurity.com)

Submitted by bricko
bricko writes: Target Hackers Broke in Via HVAC Company

Last week, Target told reporters at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters that the initial intrusion into its systems was traced back to network credentials that were stolen from a third party vendor. Sources now tell KrebsOnSecurity that the vendor in question was a refrigeration, heating and air conditioning subcontractor that has worked at a number of locations at Target and other top retailers.

Sources close to the investigation said the attackers first broke into the retailer’s network on Nov. 15, 2013 using network credentials stolen from Fazio Mechanical Services, a Sharpsburg, Penn.-based provider of refrigeration and HVAC systems.

Comment Re:Fuck beta (Score 5, Insightful) 234

by demontechie (#46177453) Attached to: The Standards Wars and the Sausage Factory

Sure, we've all seen our share of "___ is killing slashdot, so I'm leaving" comments over the years. Video slashvertisements, other "sponsored content". However, I've never seen quite this level of outrage before.

I don't think slashdot's ever seen this level of outrage. Sure all change is met with some resistance, but this flies in the face of everything most important about the site. Moreover, it has managed to do something I've only ever seen once before - seemingly unite the whole population of slashdot users in a common purpose.

What's astonishing to me is the total lack of response. That the head editor (is that timothy now?) is silently downmodding relevant discussion about the survival of the site, without himself posting anything speaks volumes to me about how the management of slashdot has changed.

Taco, wherever you are, you are missed.

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