back to article 'Open source just means big companies can steal your code.' O RLY?

In a simply shocking turn of events, two of the less popular comments on El Reg this week both came from Anonymous Cowards... The first of our be-masked brethren introduced some welcome levity into the net neutrality bunfight, commenting on someone who filed the entirety of a Lord of the Rings script as part of an FCC …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Awards to ACs

    Why award to ACs? We need names to flame or congratulate on a hard won Twig of Fail (which generally seems to be caused by winding up the AC shills)

    I'm still waiting for the comment that can invite the wrath of the whole lot for a gloriously massive downvote, although saying "I love/hate systemd" on somewhere like Slashdot can easily achieve the same result with little effort.

    Come on you lot: Let's see some real downvote totals - put your backs into it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Awards to ACs

      Sorry, El Reg will only let me downvote you once. So I did.

      1. JassMan
        Mushroom

        Re: Awards to ACs

        Perhaps now is the time to award ACs who get absolutely massive downvotes consistently. I would suggest an upside down black version of the Gold/Silver/Bronze which would show on future ACs form the commentard and it they persist in peddling utter tripe, carries on to their non-AC comments as well.

        Perhaps more than 200 downvotes in 12months makes your ACs show the badge, more than 500 in 12 months transfers to your real posts.

        I am sure many feel the AC system is abused, and if you have something valid to say, you should have the courage of your convictions. However, there are valid reasons for using AC, hence the "warning" award on the AC before transfer to named postings.

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: Awards to ACs

          Nope, unfortunately it can't be based on a fixed number. If so myself and many others would permanently have a reversed badges. It would have to be based on a percentage of positive votes.

          Even then, what would it really achieve. Eadon certainely didn't need a reversed badge and I can think of one or two others that might fall into the same category..

          Reversed badge for 200 negative downvotes in 12 months, laughs to self thinking if I only had 200 a year I would ask for the angel badge....... I am quite sure that most of the silver badges and definately some of the gold badges have far more than 200 downvotes per year, more along the lines of 200 per month for some.. What you have may not have taken into account is that they also have a lot of upvotes..

          1. dan1980

            Re: Awards to ACs

            @Khaptain

            Certainly anyone who has been foolish enough to post comments on climate change articles (on either side) has a barrow load of them.

            1. Khaptain Silver badge

              Re: Awards to ACs

              @Dan

              I concur, and I would hasten to add that there are a lot more than just the climate articles. There are a few others within which it is difficult not to use the AC option, not from fear but simply from the fact that PC crowd can become exceptionally distastefull. They lack argument and prefer to downvote rather than to rationalise or to objectively propose their own personal point's of view.

              El Reg, like so many other forums, suffers from the false-consensus effect and being able to openly and truly express one's opinions is becoming a difficult task even within the world of IT. Although I am glad to say that El Ref still remains one of the few bastions of BOFHerey....

              1. The Indomitable Gall
                Joke

                Re: Awards to ACs

                @Khaptain:

                "the fact that PC crowd can become exceptionally distastefull"

                You must be some kind of Apple fanboi.

                /me ducks, and scuttles off into the bushes chuckling to himself.

                1. Khaptain Silver badge

                  Re: Awards to ACs

                  Sniff, sniff what's that, do I smell a small troll in the vacinity.......

                  Casually lighting up the dry leaves on the bushes as he nonchalantly whistles away down the road......

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Robot wars *flies away*

  3. tfewster
    Pint

    style, control, damage, aggression

    Robot Wars! Wow, I didn't realise it had ended 10 years ago. Presumably the ever-more sophisticated robots rose up against their tormentors and refused to engage in gladiator-style entertainment for the fleshies.

    Thanks for the vPint

  4. photobod

    Robot Wars?

    If ever a programme was misleadingly titled, that was it. I don't ever recall seeing a single actual robot (i.e. autonomous device) among them. They were all, without exception, remotely controlled vehicles. I dread to think how many people grew up thinking radio control and robotics are one and the same.

    1. Flip

      Re: Robot Wars?

      I feel the same way about the use of "drones" to refer to quad-copters and such.

    2. DropBear

      Re: Robot Wars?

      " They were all, without exception, remotely controlled vehicles"

      Indeed, that was one of my pet peeves for quite a while. Must we really water down everything until it becomes meaningless? *Sigh* I guess a bunch of actual bots bonking around inside a maze or somesuch autonomously was not deemed "dramatic" enough for a TV show...

  5. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Used to work with one of the robot wars competitors

    Occasionally he'd bring one into work. It put the floor loading limit at some risk...

    1. Andrew Norton

      Re: Used to work with one of the robot wars competitors

      Really? They're only 220lb (100kg) at most - the weight of a moderately heavy person.

      Unless you were talking about one of the house bots, which were about 400lb (except killalot which ended up around 1600lbs)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    "Blunkett can go fuck himself."

    And why not? He seems to have fucked everything and everyone he came in contact with. It's his turn now.

    1. x 7

      Re: "Blunkett can go fuck himself."

      "He seems to have fucked everything and everyone he came in contact with."

      are you suggesting he's been intimate with his black lab? Where's the RSPCA when you need it??

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: "Blunkett can go fuck himself."

        It's OK, the black lab was just Nick Clegg in a costume.

        An earlier, but less successful, attempt at a coalition

  7. ukgnome

    Ahh robot wars

    jeremy clarksons finest work

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Ahh robot wars

      That was Clarkson having to black-up, wear dreads and do a Liverpool accent?

      That explains a lot of things ...

      1. VinceH

        Re: Ahh robot wars

        "That was Clarkson having to black-up, wear dreads and do a Liverpool accent?"

        He only did that from the second(?) series on. For the first series, he appeared as himself.

    2. NogginTheNog
      Megaphone

      Re: Ahh robot wars

      "jeremy clarksons finest work"

      If your definition of 'finest' is "least pile of self-important gobshiteness'.

  8. Anonymous Dutch Coward
    Pint

    Verity - where art thou?

    "And lo! did many infuriated commentards gather, and repeatedly did they thump the downvote button. Yea, verily unto the Rage of the Internets did the mob's inflamed passions overspill at the Heretic who Sullied the Sacred Name of Open Source."

    Argh, Verity, is that you? Or are you being channeled through the Reg sales^H^H^H editorial team?

    When can we expect another of your heavenly missives? Verily, we are thirsting*) in the desert of Stoblessness (+ a lot of wailing, gnashing of teeth & tearing out of hair...)

    *) Yeah, even unto beer and other beverages do we thirst!

  9. Chad H.

    >>>>>>Your correspondent is surprised and a little alarmed to discover that El Reg is, in fact, a paper.

    Well there was that printed edition that El Reg did once....

    1. e^iπ+1=0

      Paper

      Of course you can just print off your own copy of this rag so it becomes a 'paper'.

  10. Number6

    Cuntville

    If you're sad enough to put 'Cuntville' into Google Maps, it takes you to a place in Australia.

    My excuse is that it was more interesting than de-greasing the cooker, which is what else I've been doing today.

    1. Hans 1
      Facepalm

      Re: Cuntville

      Of course Cuntville is in Australia ... I think Australia is the place where the word "cunt" is used most ... maybe because the place is full of cunts.

      1. Hans 1

        Re: Cuntville

        For the poor cunt who down-voted me, rejoice with this:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yzg5YEQGgE

  11. The Vociferous Time Waster

    Jeremy Clarkson

    robot wars was just another example of something that was made better by the absence of Jeremy Clarkson

    1. Phil W

      Re: Jeremy Clarkson

      That does make me wonder how it might of been with James May presenting though.

      1. Anomalous Cowturd
        Happy

        Re: Jeremy Clarkson @Phil W

        Slower, safer, and explained with enthusiasm?

    2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Re: Jeremy Clarkson

      I didn't see it fitting in with the Clarkson style of needing tyre squealing/smoke whilst shouting "POWER", V8's and requiring something to explode.

  12. jonfr

    About the flash drives

    No wonders flash drivers don't last. They are using quartz for clock/cycle thing. I wonder is there is anything that can be used instead of quartz that last longer and is more stable.

    1. Hans 1
      Facepalm

      Re: About the flash drives

      My Casio wristwatch is still going strong ... after years of use, years of storage ... found it the other week... so not so sure that a quartz only lasts two years.

      1. Number6

        Re: About the flash drives

        A good quartz crystal gets more stable with age and they're surprisingly robust. If I can still find them, I have some in B7G glass holders that probably date back to the 1960s or even earlier. I've got a 1MHz HC6/U crystal from about 1968 (it's datestamped) and that still works.

        Now, if you were talking about dilithium crystals, that's entirely another matter.

  13. Splatcat

    Robot Wars!!! As with many of your articles I thought it was the reference to the children's programme "How".

  14. John Tserkezis

    It's the crystals!

    I keep telling everyone it's the fault of the damned crystals, and no-one believes me.

    I mean, if the Sleestaks couldn't work them out, no-one can.

    Better get rid of them altogether just to be on the safe side, and we can go back to storing information in stone. At least it'll negate the data retention time argument.

    1. The Indomitable Gall

      Re: It's the crystals!

      I'd be careful -- if you focus too much on the crystal, you may well end up locked in, and waiting for Mumsy to come round with a bowl of soup.

  15. Andrew Norton

    I never get downvoted, but that's because all my posts go straight into moderation, and then get 'rejected' it seems (I've even had one approved, then the next day it was rejected)

    BTW, as someone who was on the show in question, i can say that while it was the stated name of the points, in reality it was fantasy. The producers decided the winners (often ahead of time) then edited the matches to suit. There was even once instance where they edited two matches that took place 2 weeks apart into one. And one really amusing and notable instance where they'd made the deals about merchandising&appearance deals about who was going to win, only for it to be COMPLETELY the other way, and so they had to make up a new rule to disqualify the winner and get the one they wanted to win to win.

    There's a reason it was listed as 'childrens entertainment show' rather than 'gameshow',and that was it. Which is why I took my participation to the US events, which were open competitions, and didn't have an arena which quite literally had the structural rigidity and protection of a telephone box.

    1. Someone Else Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      @ Andrew Norton

      NOBODY is allowed to go that long without the ignominy of a downvote...so welcome to the club!

      1. Andrew Norton

        Re: @ Andrew Norton

        Cheers :-)

  16. Graham Triggs

    They've got a point...

    I really should stop buying these New Age flash drives. Bloody crystals.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ACs

    AC is doubtlessly abused. But there are a lot of us who are in responsible positions in firms. That means we know what is going on, but also that we can't speak in a way which our statements can be be ascribed to the firm (such as using a name or displaying a login id for later doxing).

    Maybe the way to go is simply for the moderators to be harsher on AC comments which seek to manipulate the discussion rather than give information,

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon