Special Edition: Top 15 Stories Over the Past 15 Years

Editor's Note: Slashdot is 15! One of the ways we're celebrating is with this special edition of Slashback that lists the editors' pick of the top 15 most memorable moments in Slashdot history, so far. We've also included a list of the top 15 most commented-on stories. Enjoy! And be on the lookout for another special Slashback that will include a round-up of our birthday features, including views on what the next 15 years of tech will bring. Don't miss a single issue of Slashback. Add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your address book.  Wikileaks -- Anonymous Whistle-Blowing CERN Experiment Indicates Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos What Can You Do About SOPA and PIPA? Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft World Trade Towers and Pentagon Attacked Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot What's Keeping You on Windows? MIT Fusion Researchers Answer Your Questions Microsoft Asks Slashdot to Remove Readers' Posts Kathleen Fent Read This Story Vint Cerf Answers Your Questions About IPv6 and More Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize So Long, CmdrTaco, and Thanks For All The Posts CowboyNeal Speaks Wikileaks -- Anonymous Whistle-Blowing This was our first story about WikiLeaks. Little did we know that it would generate hundreds of other stories over the next half-decade, raise questions about government censorship and Internet control, and become a political issue in its own right. Read More>> CERN Experiment Indicates Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos This startling announcement from one of the world's leading physics research organizations rocked the scientific community. The finding was later refuted, and the researchers themselves expected it to be, but they showed great courage in going forward with data that could have shaken the foundation of modern physics. Read More>> What Can You Do About SOPA and PIPA? A good portion of the Internet blacked itself out on January 18th this year in protest of SOPA and PIPA. We participated by freezing the homepage and putting together this document about how to contribute, and sought readers' input on other forms of protest. Read More>> Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft Love him or hate him, Bill Gates created an empire out of Microsoft. There was a lot of speculation about what he would do after he left the company and whether or not Microsoft would stay on top.   Read More>> World Trade Towers and Pentagon Attacked Nobody really knew what was going on at first on 9/11. Telephone networks were down and news reports couldn't tell us much of anything other than what we were seeing on TV. Lots of people used Slashdot that day to make sure loved ones were OK and learn minute by minute what was happening. Read More>> Scientologists Force Comment Off Slashdot In an effort to censor documents that would damage their reputation, Scientologists got a comprehensive lesson on the Streisand Effect. Read More>> What's Keeping You on Windows? Many people who for various reasons (ideological, practical, aesthetic) would prefer free software (or even just "open source") in general nonetheless find that proprietary software is what they end up choosing, or have chosen for them. The question of "What's Keeping You on Windows?" is as interesting now as it was 10 years ago. Read More>> MIT Fusion Researchers Answer Your Questions In this Q&A session, not one, but six experts on fusion research sat down and provided some amazingly detailed answers to readers' questions, and did so with our readership's above-average technical knowledge in mind. Read More>> Microsoft Asks Slashdot to Remove Readers' Posts Microsoft's request that we remove readers' posts illustrated that it's not just Scientologists, governments, or celebrities who attempt to unring the bell, sometimes. Read More>> Kathleen Fent Read This Story We're not sure there was any doubt that when Rob (a.k.a. CmdrTaco) asked Kathleen to marry him, it would be on Slashdot, but it was pretty special nonetheless. Read More>> Vint Cerf Answers Your Questions About IPv6 and More There've been hundreds of interviews over the years, and nearly all of them have a fair dose of amusing, informative, and surprising answers. We were especially impressed with last year's interview with Vint Cerf, though. He answered readers' questions with courtesy and humor, and mated intelligibility with technical depth. Read More>> Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory One our favorite book reviews in the history of the site: Cliff Lampe's take on Leonard F. Wheat's strange and compelling Kubrick's 20101: A Triple Allegory. If you can find a copy of this book, you'll never see the movie the same way. Read More>> SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize Contests and bounties to spur technical innovation aren't new, but the era of private space travel is just getting started, so the X Prize and all of its welcome imitators are putting such incentives in a whole new light. SpaceShipOne stood on the shoulders of plenty of giants, but seeing it complete the X Prize challenge was impressive beyond measure. Read More>> So Long, CmdrTaco, and Thanks For All The Posts Slashdot was Rob Malda's project, passion, and progeny. Moving on was a big decision. Read More>> CowboyNeal Speaks Being a living poll option gave CowboyNeal an almost mythic reputation, and there was a debate about whether or not he was a real person. We finally decided to let our Bigfoot answer some questions. Read More>> Kerry Concedes Election to Bush Strike on Iraq Barack Obama Wins U.S. Presidency Six Bomb Blasts Around Central London Equal Time for Creationism Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design Saddam Hussein Arrested Fahrenheit 9/11 Discussion What's Keeping You On Windows? White House Lied About Iraq Nuclear Programs Intel Plans CPU Naming Change An Unbiased Analysis of Gun Crime vs. Gun Control? Apple Switching to Intel Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4 Source Code Leaks Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.