ACK for funny.

In that book I mentioned, the definition of "algorithm" was given as an example of an algorithm of how to read the book. I can't recall any other jokes in the book, but if he'd included "recursion" in the glossary (and the topic was definitely discussed in the book) then the corresponding definition would have been "see recursion".

These days anything I read might be an AI. Worse than that, an AI just telling me what it "knows" I want to hear.

Pretty sure I have a DEC stock certificate around here. What's it worth as a collector's item?

But from a more historical perspective I regard the DEC saga as another example of how good guys finish last in America. Which makes me think of Sun and the old H-P and Palm and... (I even asked an AI for more examples, but it failed to understand the question and couldn't even guess what kind of answer I wanted to hear. But still long and verbose.)

But it still makes me laugh when the bad guys "over-invest" in politics and get burned as badly as just happened. Such a shame about Florida, but the rest of it created near-terminal schadenfreude.

Just saw this hilarious joke from ol' Vardi: https://cacm.acm.org/opinion/t... We are so... How many guesses do you want for the missing word?

Oh yeah. About the actual story rather than the funny icon track... I told you crypto was intrinsically worthless. But y'all didn't believe me.

Gimme FUNNY! Funny mod points on Slashdot have more intrinsic value than cryptocurrency.

And I wouldn't have if y'all hadn't propagated the Subject and tricked me into looking at an AC context. But I only saw a few words from AC and they were void and without form or meaning.

Or fix the bug in the History menu for recovering recent tabs. (But perhaps that was a transient failure overlooked in the regression testing?)

Glad to see the story got so many Funny comments, but I think yours was an overlooked candidate in the race for best joke. I only found it on the search for "blame" because I'm waiting to see who the YOB blames for this. Heads will roll, and the YOB's own punkin' head can't possibly be among them.

But all of the options seem so pleasant. Hegseth has been worth firing since his first day on the job, but how can the YOB spin his own war as Hegseth's fault without mentioning those pesky Iranians? Actually lots of cabinet members with heads worth rolling, but what lies could persuade anyone, even the YOB himself, that they are at blame for this pesky election fiasco? Or I could dream big? Maybe the YOB will try to blame Vance and that could finally trigger them thar' cowards to invoke the 25th Amendment? (I still think that one of Biden's mistakes was not taking the 25th for a test spin and thus setting the stage for Harris to run as the incumbent. What if Biden had arranged for special periodic cabinet meetings without the president where the consideration of the 25th could be added to the agenda?)

Oh well. Mostly just glad to see what happened and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the YOB suddenly announces a bunch of pardons and his retirement, flying away in his YUGE jet. Or even if the YOB goes away via implosion.

Also I'd like to see the accounting on how much money Musk wasted, especially in Texas. Not a genius by any stretch, but a better gambler on average. (And I still laugh whenever I notice a Tesla with the hood logo removed.)

Closing joke based on the famous Churchill quote? Americans will eventually do the right thing after trying everything else. Sometimes even trying it twice.

Hmm... I just added an attempted joke about North Korean one-way taikonauts... But the story is pretty much expired on Slashdot Savings Time.

Pretty good, though I thought Yu and Mi (which you didn't use) are Korean names. Wiggle room for using North Korean taikonauts as more expendable. With one-way tickets?

For sarcastic values of Funny? Better of the two jokes the story "earned" and I lack the motivation to peruse the discussion in search of deeper thoughts.

Also no major thoughts of my own that I want to clarify through the effort of writing. I suppose I should look for something substantive about how the google went from a pretty good thing to such a major part of all the problems? Or even worse, how about a citation of the book Algorithms that spent an entire chapter on a rather interesting analysis of how the original Pagerank algorithm worked? Though gawd knows what sort of garbage the google is using now to justify the AI slop, especially the stuff coming from Google Maps where I would argue they have some of the best data to work with. Maps is maps and the human reviews are practically aching to be purified and distilled.

Funny is about timing and I'm way too late for the laugh. Story is at the bottom and expires RSN.

Or maybe it's Funny that I did start thinking of this angle soon after I saw the story, but I wasn't motivated enough to "try to contribute"? Maybe there's a joke lurking around vis a vis distracting political events and all those contributions they were begging me for?

But not funny is that the story discussion "matured" and is now about to go away without broaching the topic of comparing what they did to brain surgery. 'Nuff said. At least enough as far as Slashdot motivates the effort to say anything.

Oh yeah. About the FP. Pretty weak and I can barely imagine why it was modded Funny. The timing was willing but the spirit was weak.

You say that like you think it's a bad thing. That has already happened.

Okay, but I'm skeptical that America is orderly enough to qualify as a province. Probably need to start out as a territory and work its way upward.

At least the story generated some funny and I would vote yours the funniest if I ever had a mod point to bestow. However too many sites for each of them to have a team. They should have a football team for each company, the way the corporations own the baseball teams in Japan.

I don't follow any sports these years, so I had to check to find out that Softbank (mostly a phone company?) defeated the Nintendo team in the Japan Series. (It's like the World series, but limited to Japan.) Computer games lose again? (Like my recent Slashdot submission?)

You seem to think that "monopoly" still has some meaning after the Borking. Most evil legal genius of my lifetime who didn't manage to get onto the Supreme Court. But now we've reached the point where you can't tell the geniuses from the idiots even if you have the score card. (Or convince me you have a better solution than "A nonpartisan Justice may compel two junior partisan Justices to recuse"?)

I actually submitted an idea for an AskSlashdot that used the famous game of Monopoly in relation to educational software. The Slashdot editors apparently think there is no interest in constructive usages of computers around here, and I'm inclined to go along. That the cesspool formerly known as Twitter continues to exist is additional evidence that is the correct position. (Maybe I should have suggested a computer-based version of Twister as a better example?)

Pretty weak FP thread but the general lack of response shows that the Slashdot editor was right to dismiss the idea of a "constructive" AskSlashdot submission for "educational" computer software...

Of course Snap was smart to avoid a potentially binding judicial ruling. But if the Supreme Court is relevant, I think we should start by fixing the Court, and I even have a twisted solution approach in the form of a simple procedural rule:

It addresses the root of the problem by making nonpartisan Justices much more valuable so that all presidents would be strongly motivated to nominate them and even the Senators would be motivated to confirm them.

Perhaps two definitions should be clarified? Nonpartisan would mean confirmed by a major of the Senators from both parties, which used to be the norm, though in my lifetime we have gone from all nonpartisan to all partisan Justices. Junior would have at least two options, time on the Court and birthday.

And yes, I have heard about LOTS of suggestions to fix the Court and if you're interested I can explain in detail what is wrong with each of them if the political motivations are left untouched. However I think a threat to pack the Court might be the best way to get the current minority party of that time to provide some candidates that both parties can (finally) agree upon.