Ask Rob Malda

We last interviewed CmdrTaco, along with Hemos, in January 2000. Slashdot's 10th anniversary seems like a good time to put Rob back on the hot seat. He's older now and married, his former hobby site now has well over one million registered user IDs, and Linux has gone from "upstart" operating system to a normal part of the IT landscape. So ask away, one question per post. Expect to see answers to at least 10 of the highest-moderated questions next week. And if you miss your chance to participate in this interview, don't worry. We'll probably do another one with CmdrTaco sometime between 2014 and 2017. CT: Also the clock is ticking if you want to sign up for a Slashdot 10-Year Anniversary party if you want a T-Shirt or a shot at the $1k ThinkGeek gift certificate.

OMG!

[Jello B.]

In the recent Wired interview [wired.com], it was said that the interview was conducted over the phone, so my question is...

Does saying "OMG!" out loud make you as much of a dork as I think it does?

My Question for Rob Malda

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you look like such a psycho?

Seriously, Rob looks like he escaped from the nearest infirmary.

Time for a better hair cut, Rob.
(posted anonymously for obvious reasons)

Sincerely,
Kevin Rose

Re:The question everyone wants to ask

[debilo]

Why does Zonk still have a job?

He doesn't. He's a Slashdot editor.

Oh, so much karma to burn..

[Anonymous Meoward]

If you were in Soviet Russia, would a Beowulf cluster of Natalie Portmans and other insensitive clods as our 1337 new goatse overlords (confirmed by Netcraft as dying) have you naked and petrified with hot grits poured down Cowboy Neal's pants (profit!!!) ?

Q&A

[Capt James McCarthy]

Do you find it ironic when cmdrtaco.net gets /.'ed?

Or

What are your thoughts on the so-called 'slashdot effect?'

What's your wife like in bed?

[MeditationSensation]

That's my question. Please include pics.

Where's Junis?

[isaac]

Would you publish a follow-up story on Junis?

I found Jon Katz's Message from Kabul [slashdot.org] truly mesmerizing.

Junis surely must have some interesting thoughts on the state of Afghanistan and his feelings towards the USA today. I'm also interested to know if he ever upgraded from that Commodore he was using to download movies - the one he hid from the Taliban in his chicken coop.

-Isaac

How much...

[Trails]

How much do you love tacos?

Re:What's your wife like in bed?

[Mikkeles]

If she's like most women I know, breakfast.

MOD PARENT UP

[Captain Splendid]

There's a lot of us want an answer to that question.

Re:Over/under

[jollyreaper]

Along those lines, "When will long time users, such as myself, who have not had mod points in *years* be given an explanation as to why they haven't seen them?"

I've only ever gotten mod points once. I figured they were just stingy with them. How often do they come up for most people?

Re:What is this crazy tags thing?

[Luyseyal]

By 'failure', I mean that the tags we see are generally ridiculously useless (like a "science" tag on a story in the Science section) or otherwise simply degenerate ("haha" seems to be the most common tag). It's hard to imagine what purpose the system would serve even if people were honest with it. Further, the idea of tagging comments as a future moderation system now seems completely horrible.

You mean like this very article being tagged "slashdot", possibly the most pointless tag ever?

-l

Re:Okay, I'll bite

[jeffmeden]

Where is the link to his followup: "Surprised that a software company that doesn't sell software ended up with $2/share stock"...

Oh. Right.

Re:Do you like Slashdot discussions?

[east coast]

My guess is that they don't like having him read Slashdot while he's at work. A lot of companies have this kind of policy.

Re:OMG!

[UncleTogie]

Does saying "OMG!" out loud make you as much of a dork as I think it does?

...only if you say ..."PONIES!" afterward...

Re:Over/under

[Anonymous Coward]

Once? Count yourself lucky. I've *never* gotten mod points, even when I see my postings get them! Something must be broken.

Re:Infrastructure

[GPL Apostate]

Slashdot runs on a 386SX/16 clone with 4 megs of RAM and an 80MB hard drive. It runs under Minix 3.0. [minix3.org]

Re:Yeah, mutual geeking out is awesome

[smellsofbikes]

That's a wonderful account, and it's also awesome that you post on slashdot.

My story isn't as cool, because A: I'm not famous and B: I was a dork, of sorts. But hey, it's my story.

I was at a sci-fi con, had some art in the art show. Since I grew up without a TV I really didn't know much about what was going on, but my friend was helping organize the con and talked me into going and watching the art auction. We were wandering around, talking about this and that, and walked into a room. There was a strikingly pretty woman sitting in a chair, looking *very* bored, and on the other side of the room, a strikingly handsome man, surrounded by people, talking.

I've never suffered from either shyness or lack of confidence. So I went over, introduced myself to the pretty blonde lady, and we started talking about art, as it happens. I noticed a couple people look my way, frown, but I didn't think anything of it, until my friend sidled up and said, sotto voice, "dude, you're hitting on Starbuck's girlfriend."

I said, "who?"

Some may argue that not knowing who Starbuck was makes me not a dork. But in the land of dorks, well, the clueless man is even more dorky.

pt cruiser?

[larry bagina]

Ok, what's the real story behind the Slashdot PT Cruiser?

Commander Taco Restaurants

[TaoPhoenix]

You borrowed your Net Handle from the old management article's throwaway suggestion.

If someone was so inclined, would you like to be involved in relations with a Commander Taco restaurant?

(Taco Bell meets Slashdot with Linux Terminals and cheap food...)

What WOW Server do you play on

[cindysthongs]

We're dying to know - what WOW server are you on?