Slashdot Mirror

Yeah, it's an oldie. (hence the blatant quoting above).

I didn't smear MythTV, I pointed out how arrogant assholes can ruin someones experience and cause them to leave.

In the pastebin link you cited as being "less one-sided", you are barking orders to people and citing your credentials. What you say about arrogance turning potentially contributing members of a community away is sometimes true, commonly enough as to have become cliche, and quite unfortunate. However, you appear to have had a deep expectation that this is how you would be met. When you're convinced that you have good reason to "hate linux people", as you put it, you will tend to see what you believe. Especially after you have (admirably!) spent two frustrating days trying to find a solution.

It puts my teeth on edge to read the tone of your post here, and also of your linked IRC log. It came off -- and I say this not as an insult but as a barometer -- in a similar way to this guy. I'm not saying you're like that guy; but the heaviness with which you tried to control the conversation could have been perceived as a sense of entitlement. I certainly would have perceived it that way had I been present, and I likely would have reacted in a way that reinforced your dislike of the denizens of help channels.

It's only on multiple readings that I can see that you didn't actually have a chip on your shoulder, and did not actually possess the sense of entitlement that I attributed to you. Rather, you were venting frustration. Maybe you dreaded the trip you would have to make to #mythtv-users because you expected that you'd missed something obvious and would feel stupid when it was pointed out. If you are anything like me, this expectation will always render you very sensitive to being rubbed the wrong way by a rough sense of humor or an assumption that you are a noob (which, a priori, is the most likely hypothesis). If you're sensitive to it, then it doesn't matter how gently or politely they express this assumption; it will get your hackles up. And if the noob assumption is expressed less-than-gently because you opened with a statement that you intended to be humbly self-deprecating but which contained no mythtv-related query, you are likely to perceive it as a full-blown assault on your legitimacy.

If there is any personal advice I can offer, it is to maintain a sense of humor when entering any situation like this. You'll be encountering a lot of strong personalities. Maybe you expect them to respect your frustration, your intelligence, and the time you put into a solution so far (they may assume you're a noob). Maybe they expect you to ask your question first thing, all on one line (you didn't). Your sense of humor is a sort of shock-absorber to ride out the first few missed expectations and maintain your cool. It smooths over the beginning of the conversation. Small matters of etiquette can be allowed to slide on both sides. Thereafter, if someone's legitimatly an asshole, they're easy to spot and ignore.

As far as the nature of the community... hell, even if IRC were the most wretched hive of scum and villainy I'd still dread that support experience less than, say, Dell's.

yeah, i was thinking of that one as well...

http://bash.org/?104383

I prefer to "ensure" rather than "make sure".

There are times when I want a character to speak in a certain manner. Or have a narrative to sound a certain way. To replace the words I chose with their synonyms could effectively change what I wrote.

Byron's words, "She walks in beauty, like the night," do not sound as good when it comes out, "She strolls in beauty, like the night."

The chances that their system has read one of my novels, understood the nuances between the characters and their manners of expressing themselves and comprehended the scenery and feeling that I was trying to convey before inserting 'a combination of words' is highly unlikely. Unless, the programmers at Amazon have effectively created an artificial intelligence on par with human sentience.

To reduce writing to a mere combination of words would be on par to saying that a trained chimpanzee can manage a video network by pressing certain buttons when they light up. Or that any high school kid could create a corporate web site using a drag-and-drop interface. Can you write a program by copying and pasting code from other people's programs?

Try reading any of the Harry Potter books and if Harry suddenly raised his baton instead of a wand, you would notice. Of course, it could be worse!

Magic Mouse functions as a two-button mouse when you enable Secondary Click in System Preferences. Left-handed users can reassign left and right click, as well.

...oh, and Ob. Bash.

Should we let all the n00bs in on it?

"At least you can't send anthrax over teh intertubes."

Not to worry, I'm working on that.

No sense in over-engineering the problem; a simpler solution has already been posed.

Harry Potter is some of the dirtiest literature ever written.

Citation

Come on, one of the most notoriously funny quotes on bash.org is about someone caught cybering on a Scrabble website.

NSFW

SCRABBLE: Rated AO for sexual content! And that's not even counting a triple word score for "epididymis".

Most distributions still include binary blobs in their corresponding source code that can bring the kinds of problems for which Microsoft Windows is advocated against in the article.

You won't find the word "proprietary", "open source", or "source code" in the article. The reason Windows is advocated against is simple: Malware is written to target Windows. Malware could as easily be written to target any operating system which is vulnerable.

Thankfully at this point, you can get machines that run a free bios, support wireless, and run 100% free software.

And 100% proprietary hardware, unless you've got schematics for all of it.

Never mind that you're connecting to a webserver running the bank's proprietary software...

Thankfully at this point, you can get machines that run a free bios, support wireless, and run 100% free software.

Which you've of course scrutinized every single line for security vulnerabilities... ...what's that? You haven't?

Why is it that you think free software is inherently more trustworthy than proprietary software, in that way? Or that the binary blobs in question are inherently compromising your security?

And, conversely, if you're a valuable enough target that you can afford to (and should) scrutinize every line, wouldn't you also have a budget to enroll in Microsoft's "Shared Source" program, and gain full access to the Windows source code, also?

No, you're right, there's nothing special about a "Linux LiveCD". But the magic word here isn't Linux, or even the implied "Free Software", but "LiveCD". From the point of view of the article, it could be a Windows PE disc, it's just that Linux CDs are free (as in beer), and Windows offers no real advantage in an environment which will only run a web browser.

I agree with many of the goals of software freedom, and I agree a solid open source process can yield more robust software than a closed one. But not every article with the word "Linux" is an appropriate place to bring it up. You sound kind of like this guy.

"It is garden-variety cloud, hardly worth mentionning actually."

- I'd say the same about meteorologists: http://www.bash.org/?803904

Reminds me of a quote on bash.

That the subsequent government had no interest in rebuilding them is easily explained.
The early systems that controlled those systems were coded in COBOL

It's like... like... a telephone!

Like a telephone? LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! Phone can LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! be nice, but they have LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! a huge and very annoyLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! annoying habit of breaking LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! your train of LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! thought.
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!
People LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! ask me why my cellphone is LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! always set to silent LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! with a vibrate opLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! option. It's LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! very simple. I hate thoLOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! those interruptions.

People just don't seem to understand what it means to be polite any more. Just the other day I was talking to a sales assistant when his phone rings. He then proceeds to answer the phone and starts talking to what is clearly another customer.

Instead of just doign like people usually do in those situations, which is to grumble quietly, I decided to act like a telephone. So while he was trying to talk with this customer, I kept saying this at a very loud voice: LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!.

When he finally said "just a moment" to the guy on the phone and gave me a look as if I was being insanely rude for no apparent reason I told him: "What makes the customer who's calling you, more important than the guy who is in the fucking store, cash in hand, looking to buy something? If you can't manage to handle a phone properly, and merely tell the guy on the phone to please hold, you need to go tell your boss that you're an idiot who shouldn't be trusted to have a phone on him. The guy on the phone is asking you for specs on a 100 dollar item, I'm looking at buying a 2,000 dollar item. And you just lost the sale. Have a nice day."

Yes, phones are interactive - that means you can ignore it. Most people won't. I suppose they're expecting Publisher's Clearing House to call them any minute now, telling them they've just won ten million dollars.

And yes, I hate it when IMs, emails and other communication tools decide that they are the most important thing in the world and need to jump in front of everything else to gain your attention. This goes for programs I'm starting as well - if I switch my attention to something else while waiting for that program to start, stay in the fucking background! I'm not the only one with this particular peeve either:

#4848
  damn
  FUCK
  DAMN
  i was just in an AIM convo with a chick, and my grandmother's window pops up
  FUCK
  i go like this to her
  "i want to suck on your clit"
  FUCK

For the young folk who are scratching their heads...

http://www.bash.org/?244321

http://bash.org/?803011

Nintendo products are quite rugged in general. The only hardware issues that people have sited a lot are the DS lite hinge cracking (which is only cosmetic) and the Wiimote strap.

Googling turns a number between less than 1% to 2.7%.

Sounds like you have asthma

The erotic content was a lot more fun, sort of a voyuer thing, was probably some of the best money I ever made, while also having fun..

You mean fun like this.

In other news, Pong was a hit on its home platform, but now seems to have fallen into obscurity.

I disagree.

No, Harry Potter books are chock full of thinly-veiled homosexual metaphor.

http://www.bash.org/?111338

Nuff said.

No route to host

Yet Linux, even Ubuntu or pre-loaded SLED on a Lenovo laptop are too much work for me. While I like fiddling around with settings and getting things to work to my liking, I do not want to make a second job of it. When I am off work, I do not want a second job getting my home laptop and PCs to work.

As a note, I don't want my primary job to be fiddling in such a manner. Playing with Linux is a hobby, encouraged by the things I can accomplish that I can't with less configurable operating systems. I have computers that are stable and always ready for use, and I elect to have a computer where I can mess around with the newest technologies in Linux.

Purely as constructive criticism, I think you may have presented a few misconceived concepts beyond the idea that a hobby equates to a second job (as I tell any Windows users who ask about other options, if you don't feel urgency to try something else, be content).

When asking why things do not work and how to get them to work, you rarely get a straight answer from the community. Yes, I know humans are very unreliable when seeking answers, and there are 20 ways, at least, to do everything in Linux, but still...

This may be 100% valid critique, but I have never actually asked anyone for help in that manner. I certainly don't struggle with no guide, but google searches and distro wikis provide answers to age-old questions like 5 button mouse support. This is definitely the route to take over asking people in #linux somewhere, even if it takes a few intelligent searches to find it. If someone has solved a problem like that, it's likely to have become a write up.

If you ask the question at people, you can only hope someone has the same concern you do. I don't consider my 12 button mouse something that other Linux users should share their time with helping me, since it's a 12 button mouse (a little ridiculous, even if I have come to rely on it). Of course, if someone has solved the issue of a 5 or 8 button mouse, the solution will likely be the same for a 12 button mouse. Of course, the MX1000 was a major brand leader during it's day, so a Google search easily turns up an approach for basic configuration that works for an any button mouse.

When a user wants to get a 5 button mouse to work, they do not want to be asked why would they want to do that, or told that 3 buttons should be all you need, or be handed twenty links, each of which has a different half-answer they need to piece together.

There's a quote on bash.org:

[glyph] For example - if you came in here asking "how do I use a jackhammer" we might ask "why do you need to use a jackhammer"
[glyph] If the answer to the latter question is "to knock my grandmother's head off to let out the evil spirits that gave her cancer", then maybe the problem is actually unrelated to jackhammers

Asking why is often the most important question when dealing with someone who doesn't know how to seek out information independently. Also, receiving many half-answers is to be expected if you're asking random people in a forum or chat room, rather than looking for the solution directly. Complete solutions are put into write ups in wikis and tutorials. People in chat rooms or forums can only help as much as their knowledge permits.

Yes, I have installed Windows from scratch, both on a laptop I bought with Linux installed, (Lenovo), and desktops I built myself, using copies of Windows bought commercially and installed out of the box.

I suspect you have a lot to learn about installing operating systems. I certainly do. I would say I installed Gentoo Linux "from scratch" because it had no installer and I had to handle everything, from paritioning, to placing core files and creating the proper mounts and "activate system blocks" from a cd-rom's command line (which is the normal way of installing it). Then I compiled everyt

http://www.bash.org/?488793

http://bash.org/?835030

http://www.bash.org/?79862

This is just as apt. :-)

http://www.bash.org/?835030

It's funny, 'cuz it's true. :)

You stole my bits! Give me back my bits!

Well, TFA itself had 46% and 26%.

What was the point of the rounding those to 50% and 25%? FFS, that's rounding two different ways on similar numbers.

It reminds me of a bash.org quote:

<kyourek> There was a 23% drop in temperature.
<nappyjallapy> That's almost 25%!
<kyourek> ... That was one of the most worthless comments I've ever heard.

FYI. http://bash.org/?367896 ... :)

http://bash.org/?146497

...but this reminds me of this, in a way.

http://bash.org/?117002 [bash.org]

I prefer to name my machines after Pokémon.
Seriously, though, I go for something descriptive. My machine here at home is named sheeettin-kubuntu (because it's mine, and it runs kubuntu, and I don't use the hostname that often).
At school, they use a room-ID system, e.g. the first in room 210 is 210-01. (The server I administered in my computer tech class was named "poopserver", both because I needed a name during setup, and the server ended up serving crap like Counter-Strike, Gameboy Advance ROMs, and Dragonball Z episodes.)

http://bash.org/?244321

There, that wasn't too hard was it !

No, seriously. The current version of bash.org strips backslashes, but you can see the original text on qdb.us.
Strangely, searching for "\" on either site finds all quotes containing a percent sign.

I sometimes set my password to ********

Your password is hunter2?

While you're checking, settle something for us.
Any questions about COBOL?

I'd like to introduce to my friend, h|tler:

<h|tler> HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU TELL THAT I'M 13 BY LOOKING AT WHAT I'M WRITEING????????????????

(From http://bash.org/?14207)

The slashdot filter had me remove a bunch of question marks. Yes, there are even more in the original.

Caps lock will be the end of unintended shouting

I would like you to meet my friend, Khassaki:

<Khassaki> HI EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!
<Judge-Mental> try pressing the the Caps Lock key
<Khassaki> O THANKS!!! ITS SO MUCH EASIER TO WRITE NOW!!!!!!!
<Judge-Mental> fuck me

(From http://www.bash.org/?835030)

and, more importantly, reduce calls during your off hours because a user locked out his/her account due to CAPS LOCK being on when entering a password.

IT IS SO MUCH EASIER TO WRITE THIS WAY

Usability expert and columnist Jakob Nielsen

Well, I'm glad they found such an unbiased and informed person to make such a statement about security versus usability. And for a second there I was afraid he was just doing this for attention.

Mr. Nielsen, could you send us screen shots of a working example? Perhaps show us how it looks like when you log into the administrative console now with your password entered in and then a screenshot of the way you think it would be more usable. I'll review them and let you know in a most interesting way what I think.

Perhaps you should read up on our friend Kevin Mitnick and NASA "Hacker" Gary McKinnon both of whom are no strangers to the over-the-shoulder-attack. Really, I'm no security expert or pen tester but I'm going to speculate that these 'soft hacks' are some of the most dangerous vulnerabilities left. Your suggestion just makes them all the more easier. Me personally would like to see the standard bumped up to the level of the input box not even being masked ... no input is recorded in anyway on the screen. Now that's a usability nightmare when you can't even backspace to correct your errors. I don't think I've seen this since my days in a computer lab at college but I think sacrificing a few login attempts worth of time is worth the security.

Typically, masking passwords doesn't even increase security ...

[citation desperately needed]

I think back to the few times when I've entered my password accidentally into the username box because the tab key I hit didn't register or the site didn't support it and I just felt nervous and dirty and needed to change my password. Just knowing that there were photons and radiation everywhere in my cube belying my password to anyone who cared to capture them ... I mean it's bad enough that the sound waves of my keystrokes are floating around telling people my password. Sorry to go all tinfoil hat on you there.

Nielsen is finally getting even for that old prank we pulled on him back in the day ;)

http://bash.org/?244321

http://bash.org/?195969

<TXTerron> wanna know whats geeky?
<Jennifer> hmm?
<TXTerron> I'm driving down the road
<Jennifer> I drove down the road today too...
<Jennifer> Wait, You mean you're on irc in your truck?
<TXTerron> yeah, using my wireless card
<Jennifer> ^___^
<Jennifer> Jason, is that safe?
<TXTerron> na, i just type with one hand while I'm driving and halfway watch the road, its cool, dont worry
<Jennifer> You're good with typing with one hand?
<TXTerron> shaddup :D
<TXTerron> FUCK
<TXTerron> i just rear ended a lady
<TXTerron> brb :(

This one?

Matty: Hmm
Matty: A little bored this afternoon
Matty: Thought i'd do an exercise on leasing versus renting
UG: indeed
Matty: Paul Macartney is my subject
Matty: I note according to reports he paid 49million dollars to heather mills for 5 years or marriage?
Matty: Assuming he got sex every night during their 5 year relationship (which lets be honest, probably didnt happen) it would end up costing him $26,849 per time.
Matty: Heather aint exactly the best looking bird
UG: then he's a dumbfuck :)
Matty: Now i also note, Elliot Spitzers call girl, Kristen, an absolute stunner with a body like no other, charges $4,000 an hour. For anything..
Matty: Had Paul McCartney 'employed' Kristen for 5 years, he would've paid $7.3 million for an hour of sex every night for 5 years (a saving of $41.7 million).
Matty: Value-added benefits are: a 22 year old hot babe, no begging, no coaxing, never a headache, plays all requests, ability to put BOTH legs around you (!!!), no bitching and complaining or 'to do' lists. Best of all, she leaves when you're done, and comes back when you ask her. All at 1/7th the cost, with no legal fees
Matty: Sometimes renting makes far more sense..

Do you have hobbies that don't involve computers, those might be a good place to start. Of course, I do know of people who met women through their non-computing hobbies as well (WOW dating, who would'a though).

A lot of it depends on you. Your age, your interests, your taste in women, and of course your attitude. If you just want to meet people, you could try Plenty of Fish. I've found that since it doesn't charge, there's less interest in nickel-and-diming you and it's easier to meet people. Meeting people, of course, being an important prequisite to dating. Now saying so might sound like an "oh duh" thing, but in reality way too many people hit the scene or the net looking for a partner when they haven't even hit the friendship stage. In that case, you pretty much end up being in the "desperate" category, and meet people who are much the same. It's not always a bad thing, but not always the best place to start either. It's amazing how easy it is to "just meet somebody" when you've got a schedule full of friends (who may have friends who are interested in you). For more of a dating scene than a meeting scene, you could perhaps try Geek to Geek

Moving away from the online scene and back to common interests, how about things like book groups, sci-fi cons, anime cons, or whatever else along those lines may float your boat.

And of course, as a final possibility, there's always an age-old suggestion from IRC. As a good portion of my friends are foreigners, and my SO is from China, I'd say that suggestion works for me. I also have a few friends who have gone to Japan, etc and apparently "white guys" (which is an assumption on my part, but most slashdotters seem to be SWM's) are a pretty hot commodity over there, and body-type isn't even a huge fact in that (if my friends are any basis to go by).

http://www.bash.org/?244321 .

hey, if you type in your pw, it will show as stars
  ********* see!
  hunter2
  doesnt look like stars to me
    *******
  thats what I see
  oh, really?
  Absolutely
  you can go hunter2 my hunter2-ing hunter2
  haha, does that look funny to you?
  lol, yes. See, when YOU type hunter2, it shows to us as *******
  thats neat, I didnt know IRC did that
  yep, no matter how many times you type hunter2, it will show to us as *******
  awesome!
  wait, how do you know my pw?
  er, I just copy pasted YOUR ******'s and it appears to YOU as hunter2 cause its your pw
  oh, ok.

My password is hunter2

http://www.bash.org/?244321

Obligatory bash quote: http://www.bash.org/?244321

Not really

http://bash.org/?514353
Stupid fucking Google
"The" is a common word, and was not included in your search
"Who" is a common word, and was not included in your search