I’ll be on “Ask Slashdot” tomorrow, answering questions about “The Cloud” and security. This is not exactly my area of expertise, which hardly means that I am without opinions. Being ignorant gives me free rein to have opinions.

I’m reminded, of course, of the last time I was on Slashdot. You’ll note, if you actually subject yourself to the comments, that practically every comment is either about my choice of Comic Sans font (it actually wasn’t Comic Sans, but another one that looks sort of like it), the fact that the presentation was written in Powerpoint (it wasn’t, actually, it was in Apple Keynote) or the fact that the file is a PDF (guilty).

Now, bear in mind that this was a JOKE presentation, given as a lightning talk at ApacheCon. It was intended to be humorous. It got a standing ovation. People still talk about that presentation at every ApacheCon since then.

Note also, that the PDF file in question is 666k.

You’re not supposed to take this seriously.

But the Slashdot crowd saw it as an opportunity to be superior and cruel, without actually reading what they were commenting about.

My career has wandered many places since then. I’ve changed what I do a number of times, none so large a change as joining Sourceforge. But the ability of commenters, on Slashdot and elsewhere, to be superior and cruel has only grown since then. So, I’m a little trepidatious. (Yes, it’s a word.)