Slashdot 10-Year Anniversary Charity Auction for the EFF

As part of our 10-Year anniversary, we've decided to have a little charity auction, with the cash going to the EFF. The items currently up for bidding are 'Triton' (the big old tower case from the first x86 used to host Slashdot from Feb 11 1998 through much of 1999... picture is attached to the story if you're curious). A low numbered UID (3 or maybe 2 digits!) so you can win those stupid low UID pissing match threads. Your URL plugged in the story where we announce the auction winners. Oh the fame! The Slashdot Grab Bag: We're putting stuff around the office in a box- random t-shirts, hats, even an old Nokia NGage. The mystery box could contain anything that we stuff in the box before the contest ends... there's a picture of what we have so far attached. A copy of the watchmen trade paperback singed in Hemos's 1999 house fire. An @slashdot.org email alias (tasteful names only ;) The auctions will be running for like 10 days, and we'll post the results when they come up.

Triton currently has a couple of P2s in it that may or may not work, as well as a number of SCSI controllers that may or may not work. It also has a 300W power supply that may or may not work. Remember, you are donating to charity here... but these guts have been sitting in a closet for probably 5 years now. We don't have any idea what works.... the machine was originally hosted in our Holland office, but eventually was shipped to California for colocation. While there it got its guts replaced from dual P133s to dual P2s. After that, it flew back to Holland where it was a file server for a few years until we retired it

The grab box will at least contain some shirts. We have a crate of shirts- some given to us by random companies, others are mis-prints of various corporate things... I think we have some static stickers and hats... but there's no promises here... again... you're making a donation to a worthy charity here! The picture shows you some things that will probably be in the box including Nate's Nokia ngage, a collection of hats... we'll throw in a few of the 10-year anniversary t-shirts as well...

We're willing to sign the things if you think that makes it worth donating more. Or more likely not, if you think it's worth more without our childish scribblings on it. And bid high folks! This is for the EFF after all...

Only one question

Why is there a framed picture of Vegita in the grab box?

Re:Only one question

His UID is OVER 9000.

Re:

9000? I thought the cut off was 5000.

Re:

No, no, no - the cut off is at 4000.

Re:

NO! Kakarot has a UID of 122829!!! I'm no match with a UID of 106593! I have to train and get my UID to at LEAST 144322 to crush him!

Paying for slashvertisements?

Your URL plugged in the story where we announce the auction winners.

Why not save your money and just do what others do - post a pure slashvertisement or an article that uses your blog (or similar website) that's filled with adverts and a link to the real n

Re:

The case looks like a Supermicro SC750
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/1298/sc750a.html [arstechnica.com]

It's a nice case. Mine recently got its guts replaced for the umpteenth time in the past decade; it still houses my primary workstation. At (currently) $41 with free shi

Wrong season for Spring cleaning, no?

Good thinking, Slashdot, you can get rid of some of the clutter AND help out EFF at the same time!

Just one question

Have the shirts in the grab box been worn?

If a sports celebrity gives a worn jersey to a fan, that's cool. But an old sweaty shirt from a Slashdot admin isn't quite the same thing.

Re:Just one question

Hey, it's original CowboyNealSweat(tm).

Just be glad he didn't have the idea to bottle it and add it to the aucti... NO! Don't! I was joking!

Re:Just one question

Hah, you make a good point.

To the best of our knowledge none of these shirts have been worn and are clean and free of debris. Barring any errant burglars who broke in to wear our t-shirts of course.

Re:

(..) burglars who broke in to wear our t-shirts of course.

... and I've been bragging about it ever since...

Re:

(Grampa and Bart pay a visit to Herman's Military Antiques.)
Herman: What's the password?
Grampa: Let me in, you idiot!
Herman: Right you are!
(Herman lets them in the store.)
Grampa: So, Herman, has the large-type edition of this month's Solider Of Fortun

ah well

the low uid is already more than I can afford - but since it's going to a good cause I can live with that. I wonder what one would go for without a charity involved.

Me too

Suddenly I find myself asking that exact same question.

Low UID?

Actually now that provides a comeback for those flaunting low UIDs.

Oh yeah? Well you *bought* yours!

Re:

I'm sure that's why they're making it secret. There's already been at least one slashdot UID auctioned on eBay, and the buyer was mocked mercilessly for it for quite a while as I recall.

Of course, even if this one is secret, given that very few 2 and 3 di

Re:Low UID?

That's just nice. Now seniority doesn't matter. Only the rich can have a low uid. We need to do something about this. Damn CmdrTaco! VIVA LA REVOLUCION!

Re:Low UID?

As poor as I am, I'll just have to hope I can live long enough to be able to brag about having a six figure UID.

Re:Low UID?

I'm with ya. We should form some sort of 6 digit UID group. Then actively ridicule anyone who posts with either less than or more than 6 digits. If you do something long enough, people will actually start to think there is something to it.

vi or emacs? Who cares, are you a 6 digiter? That's the question.

Re:Low UID?

I mean, when was the last time you've seen an ID with less than 5 digits?

Fairly often. :)

Re:Low UID?

I agree. I see one all the time.

Actually, I'm wondering if there's a way to get a list of Slashdot users by UID.

Re:Low UID?

I believe I waited three whole days to make an account. Now I am shamed with 3088.

Re:Low UID?

Yeah I remember thinking "I don't need no stinking login, I can be anonymous!". :-)

Re:

I tried to ask this on the CmdrTaco hometown party thread... i was actually wondering how many of the low UIDs (<100, ha!) were still active? (logged-in in the last year let's say...)

Re:

Holy shit! I usually don't see anyone posting below mine!

My hat goes off to you sir. And further, sort of back on topic...

Currently the auction for the "low UID" is about $3k. I'm wondering if the auctioned UID is going to be low enough that I should bid t

Re:Low UID?

http://slashdot.org/zoo.pl?op=check&uid=666 [slashdot.org] The Anonymous Coward is Satan in disguise!!

Re:Low UID?

I mean, when was the last time you've seen an ID with less than 5 digits?,

Now :)

Re:

I swear I'm only doing this once in this discussion. Booya!

You and Mr. 16 up there are the only two 2-digit-club members I've seen thus far.

Swag box

First bid! That was a lot easier than getting a first post!

If I win...

..and I promise to pay extra, will you keep the N-gage?

triton

I have that same casee, was a pain to carry to lan games... anyone want to bid on an almost exact replica?

The Mystery Box

The Mystery Box could contain anything that we stuff in the box before the contest ends...

A boat's a boat but the mystery box could be anything... even a boat! You know how much we've always wanted one of those.

We'll take the box.

How 'bout selling the 10-year t-shirts?

How about selling 10-year t-shirts for $15-$20 each, with $10-$15 to EFF? I know I'd buy one, and I'm sure the demand would result in a much larger contribution to EFF than a single grab box, etc. -- Paul

Shipping

Will you ship outside the US?

Re:Shipping

Yes, we will ship outside the US with some obvious exceptions.

If deeppenguin asks us to ship the Triton case to the South Pole we might not be able to get corporate to cover the bill. :)

With any specific questions feel free to contact us at anniversary@slashdot dot org.

Low ID's

Well, then. That gives me like a coin-flip chance of saying "You, mister over #532! You young wipper-snapper! You had to buy that low-id! I got mine the ol' fashoned way, when the 'net was young, dialup was king, and AOL came on floppies!"

Can I put something in?

I'll donate my "Sounds of Slashdot" CD (which include Debian 2.0) to the auction. I got it in a boxed set at Linux World in '99 or 2000.

For those of you who haven't heard it, it's some dance mix Rob put together (or something).

Re:Can I put something in?

Rip the CD man, rip the CD!

Low uid..

I am amused at the thought that low UIDs are valuable.. It's not like one can buy being an old-timer...

Whats so special in low uids?

Really, i don't get it. I was reading slashdot someday in the morning when user registration was announced. I created an account and now i have a fairly low uid. So, wow, but still, whats so special about it? It does not make me any wiser or more important than any other user of slashdot. While, yes, it feels cool to have been with something like slashdot for such a long time, but past is past. Buying in on a low uid is just faking oneselfs identity.

Re:

Like anything in the world ever, it's only "worth" what someone somewhere is willing to trade for it.

Re:

So, wow, but still, whats so special about it?

To sum up basic economics: Anything that people can't have has value to the people who can't have it.

Primeness?

Ah, but will the 2/3 digit UID be prime? That'd add a bit more value to it for me. I suppose a UID like 380 would be nice enough, but I'd probably prefer one like 389(even with its *slightly* lower "stupid low UID pissing match thread" winning potential)

Really, with incomplete information about the number I can't make an informed decision on how much money to try and waste.

Funny

Triton is apparently worth less than a /. Swag package.

As of this writing, the scores are as follows:
2000 Low /. UID
760 Yourname @ /. dot org
457 Plug your url
305 /. Swag Package
252 Triton
51 The Watchmen

Re:One other question

e-Bay - all the items in the article are links to the e-Bay auction for that item. Low UID is already over $350(US). Wow.

Re:

I think Microsoft should put in a bid - just to see the spontanious outbidding by nerds who don't want to see slashdot plugging Microsoft on their anniversary day. Hell, you could probably get a buck each from half of slashdot for that.

Re:E-mail address

Nah, I want "[e-mail]"

Try telling that one to your friends over the phone!

Re:

Your URL plugged in the story...

Well, if anyone needs something "plugged in", it's him.

Re:

Several bidders have written to ask about the charitable donation credit thing.

Unfortunately, the way that MissionFish.org (eBay's charitable works branch) handles the tax credit is all done auto-magically. So, when I asked if we could pass the tax cre