Rob Malda (CmdrTaco) Joins the Washington Post 232
kodiaktau writes "Slashdot founder and long time cat herder Rob Malda joins the Washington Post per an announcement today. According to the press release, he will be the Chief Strategist and Editor-at-Large working for WaPo Labs."
Rob has a more detailed description of the job on his blog: "Don Graham is trying to accomplish something that is a bit of a cliche these days: A startup inside an established corporation. A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale. ... They are actively iterating and experimenting in many directions, with strong support from the top of the organization. ... Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli assures me that I'll also be working with the newsroom where I can contribute words, ideas, and tools that will improve the experience of the journalists doing work that I personally believe transcends the bottom line."
He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Taco, we understand that you know a lot about this Twitter/Internet/Facebooks stuff. We would like to be hip with that vibe. You'll be in charge of helping our geriatric writing staff learn to do the twitters. You'll also be in charge of producing press releases with lots of hip jargon for the kids. But mostly you'll be in charge of bailing water out of the lower decks. It's starting to get pretty deep down there.
If you think you can handle that, please report to your new office and write up some press release about how you're going to change the face of the tired old Washington Post into something the kids will want to read--something with a cool new name like "WoPo" with a bunch of exclamation points after it, maybe some asterisks in there too--you be the judge on that. And more importantly, try to get the kids to give us their money and twits too. "Twits," that's what they're called right? Use a lot of that net jargon we're told you're down with. Then fax it over to Wired. We want to get this out before they run the presses.
Oh, and hire my grandson. He's lazy as dirt, but he knows a bunch of strange words and phrases that I think will help us still appear relevant.
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
I was just going to say good luck.
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I don't know if that's funny, interesting or insightful.
Oh, it's all three.
CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Informative)
Didn't he rather famously pan the iPod?
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes.
http://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-ipod
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Interesting)
If we judge the majority of slashdotters by the content in that thread, then sadly most of us probably shouldn't be commenting on technology news:
A charming example:
by (Sanitized to predict the innocent) Alter Relationship on Tuesday October 23 2001, @01:52PM ...
Raise your hand if you have iTunes
Raise your hand if you have a FireWire port ...
Raise your hand if you have both ...
Raise your hand if you have $400 to spend on a cute Apple device ...
There is Apple's market. Pretty slim, eh? I don't see many sales in the future of iPod.
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Insightful)
(1) The later versions didn't require Firewire (which still isn't standard on all machines, and was far less so ten years ago)
(2) The first version didn't support Windows and hence required a Mac (in fact, iTunes wasn't available for Windows for another couple of years after the iPod's launch)
(3) Most importantly, by the time it *had* became a mass market success, entry-level models were available for significantly below $400.
In short, he/she wasn't entirely wrong at the time.
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Oof. Now I know what it feels like to be an archaeologist, and I was alive in 2000.
"5 GB still is more than my whole mp3 collection" (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22940&cid=2467187 [slashdot.org])
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Insightful)
A quarter of an inch is 6.35 mm.
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Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Informative)
Five years ago:
>> Apple releases iPod
>> Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday October 23 2001, @01:20PM
>> from the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept.
>> The BrownFury writes "At an invitation only event Apple has released their new MP3 player called the iPod. iPod is the size of a deck of cards. 2.4" wide by 4" tall by .78" thick 6.5 ounces. 5 GB HDD, 10 hr battery life, charged via FireWire. Works as a firewire drive as well. Works in conjunctions with iTunes 2. Here are Live updates".
>> No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
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BTW: I didn't mean to cut and paste the "Five years ago". Please don't flame my math.
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Every smug Slashdotter thought exactly the same about the iPod and still smugly thinks so now.
FTFY. Slashdot, where nerds strut around being smug and hip by blaming the users of Apple products of being smug and hip.
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:4, Insightful)
And right he was. He can't help it that people care more about what's hip and well marketed.
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget the "hip" scroll wheel and user interface then. Was there a competitor at the time the iPod was launched that at least had USB2, so transferring 5GB of music wouldn't take an hour at USB1.1's 12 Mbps? And how big (physically) were those Nomads again?
But sure, it's all marketing. Give at least some credit where it's due.
Still with the 'marketing' crap? (Score:4, Informative)
The original iPod could fit in your pocket, the Nomad couldn't. The iPod had a slicker UI and a higher speed link. And a couple years later they integrated it with a slick online music store. That was game over.
But by all means, please continue to believe it was all just 'marketing' while I purchase some more Apple stock.
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:5, Informative)
Your point? The iPod didn't become popular until the 3rd or 4th Generation models. The first generation was also mac only, and second generation windows support was awful.
A the time, the Creative Nomad Jukebox was selling more units than the iPod, it took several years and several generations before the iPod caught on.
Re:CmdrTaco is a hip arbiter of tech trends? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah it took all of two years to go from nothing to holding 90% of the market share. What total failure on Apple's part.
Visionaries see into the future, not the present. (Score:5, Insightful)
...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple saw. There was a massive untapped market for user-friendly consumer electronic & computing products. While the smug technoratti were still obsessed with stats & features, Apple saw what people wanted before they did and gave it to them. CmdrTaco's "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." will go down in history (like "Let them eat cake") as emblematic of a group of 'elites' detached from reality.
BTW: In case you haven't noticed, Apple tapped that market and now they have a $500B market cap.
Re:Visionaries see into the future, not the presen (Score:4, Insightful)
...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple saw. There was a massive untapped market for user-friendly consumer electronic & computing products. While the smug technoratti were still obsessed with stats & features, Apple saw what people wanted before they did and gave it to them. CmdrTaco's "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." will go down in history (like "Let them eat cake") as emblematic of a group of 'elites' detached from reality.
BTW: In case you haven't noticed, Apple tapped that market and now they have a $500B market cap.
Which is why he is now working at a desperate old media low budget boiler room instead of in a plush corner office.
Re:Visionaries see into the future, not the presen (Score:5, Insightful)
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The iPod took off with the Windows-release, which was well before the iTunes Music Store.
Wrong. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg [wikimedia.org]
Windows release was in late 2002. You can see here that iPod didn't really start to take off until 2004.
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Wrong. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg [wikimedia.org]
Windows release was in late 2002. You can see here that iPod didn't really start to take off until 2004.
Well, it's relative. Of course you can't see it in this chart, because the later numbers are overwhelming. The Windows release was the point when the device was well-known in non-geek circles. You can't measure that in sales numbers.
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Sorry, but the numbers back the other guy up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ipod_sales_per_quarter.svg [wikipedia.org]
The iPod was averaging about 100,000 units per quarter until mid 2003. That's not so impressive, honestly. It didn't break 1,000,000 units per quarter until late 2004. So yeah, it was really the iTunes music store launch in April 2003 that made people interested in the iPod.
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the ipod was the main apple success. it was the first thing they put out that took market share.
The iPod didn't take off until the iTunes Store was released. It took market share after the iTunes Store was released. That was 2 years after 2001, when CmdrTaco posted about the iPod. During 2001, the iPod was not very popular, and the NOMAD was the MP3 player to beat. When iTunes came out, the iPod crushed the NOMAD.
There is a strong correlation between iPod sales and the iTunes Store being released. Either it's a coincidence, or the iTunes store had something to do with it. I'm going to wager it's
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...what CmdrTaco missed was exactly what Apple eventually saw.
FTFY. When Taco panned the iPod, it still had a lot of growing to do, and Jobs could have as easily mandated the next iPod to be the next Newton or the next NeXT (right products, at the wrong time.) Jobs hit the contemporarily correct spot between price, cool and performance and now he is a saint to all who worship monetary success. Doesn't mean that CmdrTaco was wrong in his evaluation of that generation of iPod at that time.
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CmdrTaco missed what was important about a portable music device, portability. He was focused on the capacity, while Apple knew that having a device you could fit in your pocket while having enough capacity to have a good collection of music was important. The Nomad was around the size of a CD player, something you'd end up carrying in a bag or backpack.
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Toast. Buttery, scrumy toast.
That's what the public wants!
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
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No paywall is lame? In my opinion, the opposite is true.
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Insightful)
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Look for an anime column (under a pseudonym, of course) in the upcoming weeks.
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Look for an anime column (under a pseudonym, of course) in the upcoming weeks.
It would be a hoot to see the old editorial cartoons done in anime style, but it would likely be over the head of 90% of the readers.
Olympia, I fail to fathom this reference to your not running for re-election, is it Cowboy Bebob or Bubblegum Crisis?
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, he's going to bring down the WaPo to the likes of the /. crowd. You know, the poor editing, poor grammar, incorrect summaries, that sort of thing. And lets's not forget about repeating yesterday's stories again (hey, it makes it look thicker!)
Oh yeah, and the April 1 edition of this year's WaPo will be in Klingon. Or feature ponies. Or have dupes.
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
He'll bring lame Natalie Portman memes to the masses!
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
um haven't you read the Washington Post. He will probably be an improvement in editing, grammar, and summaries.
Besides all newspapers repeat yesterdays stories by default. they are always a day behind. Now he has an excuse.
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He'll teach the Washington Post readers to imagine a Beowulf cluster of everything, and tell them that in Soviet Russia, the Washington Post reads you.
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...try to get the kids to give us their money and twits too.
OMG! Unicorns!!! should get the job done.
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[...] something with a cool new name like "WoPo" with a bunch of exclamation points after it, maybe some asterisks in there too--[...]
Surely a slash and some dots would be helpful?
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Taco, we understand that you know a lot about this Twitter/Internet/Facebooks stuff. We would like to be hip with that vibe.
"Sorry, just one more question: Who is this Cowboy Neal character? He seems to be out-performing the entire Republican field in the latest polls...."
Re:He's going to be chief youth jargonist (Score:5, Insightful)
Could be worse. They could have hired kdawson.
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That's who Taco is replacing.
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Mom, I've asked you to stop harassing me on the internet.
inmates/asylum, etc. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to make a quip about how he'd be in charge of dupe-checking and ensuring all WaPo blog blurbs are high quality and accurate, but more seriously, this sounds like a cool job, so congrats!
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he'd be in charge of dupe-checking and ensuring all WaPo blog blurbs are high quality and accurate
So, the quality of the WaPo is going to go up a lot...
Mr. Taco (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know if any of the above is true but it sounded funny.
Congrats! (Score:2)
welp, (Score:5, Funny)
Profit! (Score:5, Funny)
Step 2 == "Infiltrate Washington Post"
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Massive Cache of Underpants Found in Washington Post Newsroom; New Hire CmdrTaco: "No Comment"
Database Error (Score:2)
I don't know if Cmdrtaco's site is slashdotted or just broken, but it's currently returning "Error establishing a database connection" when you try visit it.
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Maybe he can get WaPo Labs to fix it.
Re:Database Error (Score:5, Funny)
The creator of /. has been slashdotted? Oh the Irony.
Uhhh...meaning? (Score:5, Insightful)
A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale...They are actively iterating and experimenting in many directions...
Nexus, iterating, big picture...my head is spinning.
Re:Uhhh...meaning? (Score:5, Funny)
He's building synergy. It's a paradigm shift.
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connecting the different departments at WaPo using Moster Cables for the best spin effects.
Re:Uhhh...meaning? (Score:5, Funny)
He's building synergy. It's a paradigm shift.
The law of conservation of synergy: synergy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred to a different paradigm.
Hahahhahahahahahha (Score:2, Informative)
HAHAHAHAHHAHAH ahahahahhahahha ha hahahahahhahahahahhahaah
HAHAHAHHAhahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahaha
So What We're Saying Here is... (Score:5, Funny)
...that a famous buggy whip factory has hired one of the first combustion engine mechanics to help them figure out how to put six cylinders inside a horse without killing it.
Not sure if I feel more sympathy for the mechanic or the horse...
Still and all, Malda is a good and talented guy, slashdot has noticeably deteriorated in his absence, and I wish him all the best.
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...that a famous buggy whip factory has hired one of the first combustion engine mechanics to help them figure out how to put six cylinders inside a horse without killing it.
CmdrTaco's familiarity with the exhaust system of a horse makes him an expert in this field. After all, look at all those years he's dealt with us.
Re:So What We're Saying Here is... (Score:4, Funny)
Creating a cyborg horse sounds like a cool job.
Awesome (Score:2)
This is a joke right? (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, April is not here yet. WTF. This has to be a joke right?
The Washington Post hiring Rob is sorta like Apple hiring Gil Amelio..and we know how that ended.
Re:This is a joke right? (Score:5, Funny)
Some prick in a turtleneck will swoop and and steal all the credit?
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You are joking right? Gil didn't do shit to help Apple, and the only thing that saved Apple was them buying NeXT which also came with Steve. So.....I can see CmdrTaco continuing to sink the company that is the Washington Post....but he isn't going to save it.
Congratulations Rob! (Score:2)
It is an interesting step for you (and The Post).
myke
Please Make It a Journalism Startup (Score:5, Insightful)
Congratulations on your influential new job. I hope you guide this startup into delivering journalism from the Washington Post. Not just some "new media" buzz factory like most media startups that might even claim to be "journalism", like and the Washington Post online and in print have degenerated into along with their industry.
Journalism is when people tell a true story accurate to the facts and meaning of the events. Just whipping up "a conversation", or featuring "trending memes" isn't journalism.
I hope you've seen enough on Slashdot to recognize what this new venture shouldn't waste it's time on. I hope the Washington Post has brought you on to do better reporting on "stuff that matters", especially interactively.
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Journalism
You must be new here.
Re:Please Make It a Journalism Startup (Score:5, Insightful)
Under CmdrTaco's watch, a grand total of 1 Slashdot post was ever deleted AFAIK (and they made a big shitstorm over it). Despite the often hilarious lack of quality in editing and occasional sensationalism, I think Slashdot has been pretty good on the whole journalistic integrity thing (at least compared to its peers).
Re:Please Make It a Journalism Startup (Score:4)
Yes, this exactly. This post is perhaps one of ten actually congratulating CmdrTaco and pointing out some of the many positive features of Slashdot. Honestly, for how long can people continue to complain about Taco's iPod comment. Geeze.
The truth is that /. is still useful, has never been as bad as a lot of the haters would like everybody to think, and still attracts plenty of visitors. If people weren't coming, reading, and posting then there wouldn't be anybody around to whine...
Dupe!! (Score:2, Interesting)
So when Slashdot dupes this story, the Post will have a dupe to link to!
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So when Slashdot dupes this story, the Post will have a dupe to link to!
I put a dupe in your dupe so you can...
Ugh. I can't. I just hate that meme.
WaPo... Gah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Are we talking about the *same* Washington Post that continually loses my ID so I have to re-register over and over again so I can post comments on their politics articles?
The same WaPo that employs Jennifer Rubin who writes hateful articles, and when we try and correct her, those posts are deleted?
The same WaPo that won't load the page at all if the ad server is a little slow to respond? Instead you're staring at a blank white page, which is just as well, since the article will likely be filled with factual errors as well as spelling mistakes?
Taco, if you're going to start anyplace, fix their online presence first, as right now, I'm hesitant to even load the site on my browser.
Re:WaPo... Gah! (Score:5, Funny)
fix their online presence first
Do you realize how many lines of Cobol they would have to fix, man?!?
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Purging old accounts (Score:2)
#39253333
Congrats on quads :-)
Are we talking about the *same* Washington Post that continually loses my ID so I have to re-register over and over again so I can post comments on their politics articles?
How often is "continually"? Some forums are known to purge accounts that haven't logged in for months.
Re:WaPo... Gah! (Score:5, Funny)
Are we talking about the *same* Washington Post that continually loses my ID so I have to re-register over and over again so I can post comments on their politics articles?
Can't take a hint? ;)
Yeah, but (Score:5, Funny)
Congratulations! (Score:2)
Just wanted to say Congrats to you!
Best of luck!
Too easy (Score:2)
Insert editor joke here.
Congrats, Taco! (Score:2)
Best of luck with this new endeavor! =)
Good move by the Post (Score:5, Insightful)
They are losing relevance, not to say their ass:
February 11, 2012
(NYT) The newsroom, once with more than 1,000 employees, now stands at less than 640 people....Bureaus in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are gone. There were so many Friday afternoon cake-cutting send-offs for departing employees last summer that editors had to coordinate them so they didn’t overlap.
February 24, 2012
(AP) — The Washington Post Company reported on Friday a 22 percent drop in fourth-quarter net income.
CmdrTaco helped build something worthwhile at Slashdot. He's the kind of talent the Post needs more of if they are not to circle the drain with the rest of the sorry-assed newspaper industry, which the Web is destroying without replacing it with something better.
Re:Good move by the Post (Score:5, Funny)
640 employees should be enough for anyone.
So you are him.... (Score:2)
I was wondering who they hired. All the newspapers are scrambling as if his internet "thingy" sprung up overnight to do this. all the media groups are doing this right now in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.
Sadly it's too late. A lot of people getting their news online already found the news sources that get the scoop on the traditional news outlets hours and even days before. I get a kick watching a news item hit the net and then slowly spread across all the sites during the day. Or hearing fro a
An Ode To The Commander (Score:3)
r05e @r3 r3d
\/i0137 @r3 b1u3
@11 r p057
r c0mmen73d by u
We're slowly infiltrating (Score:2)
First Ars http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/fare-well-kuuuuuuuccccchhheeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaa.ars [arstechnica.com]
Now /.
Nice to see long time "friends" moving up in the world.
Bitcoin (Score:5, Funny)
Finally- I'll be able to buy Washington Post subscriptions using my bitcoins.
Oh dear God, what have they done? (Score:2, Funny)
Warshington Post: Now with the Quality Edting Werk of Slashdot! ... Breaking news: Dewey defeats Truman!
One thing is positive for his readers (Score:2)
They might actually have a good spell checker at the Washington Post!
Timely! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is really cool, because I just finished reading how badly Washington Post screwed up [washingtonpost.com] with the "Inventor of Email" story. In fact, if you look at the comments you can see that former OSDN CEO Robin Miller (aka roblimo [slashdot.org]) suggested that they hire someone from the slashdot crowd to work on IT reporting. Maybe they took it to heart.
Traitor! (Score:2)
Good luck, CmdrTaco! (Score:3)
Seriously, Rob, break a leg! If anyone can bring a dinosaur like WaPo into the modern age, it's you. You built a vibrant community here on Slashdot, no matter what the naysayers and nitpickers might say, and a large part of that is because you get what a community needs and how to build a system architecture to deliver it.
The moderation system we enjoy here is still unsurpassed online. It has allowed the best, funniest, and most insightful comments to rise to the top in such a way that I always know more about our world and feel better about it, too, for having read the posts of our excellent fellow Slashdotters. And I therefore value being part of the community and rue to this day the 4-digit userID I lost when I exchanged living on the West coast for the East back in the day.
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I'm pretty sure there is no competition there.
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What is conservative? (Score:3)
Slashdot, conservative! Hahhahaha
What makes you laugh is the connotations associated with U.S. use of "conservative", which refers to less government control over economic issues but more government control over social issues. This comes from a long-standing alliance between free market advocates and the religious right wing. If anything, Slashdot has tended to lean libertarian, which is fiscally conservative but socially liberal.
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