Slashdot Mirror
2 Scoops of Quickies
Kris Kersey wrote in to mention that
CompHardware.Com and running the Linux Hardware Database.
Roast Beef wrote in to comment that AntiOnline's new AntiCode looks Strangely Familiar.
Richard Finney sent us a nice picture of IO Transitioning Jupiter that has officially met Rob's First Law of Art (all art is better once it becomes my background image).
Next up, a trio of Star Wars related stories:
PhoneMonkey wrote in with proof that everyone has Star Wars fever over at The Onion.
Danse writes wrote in to send us The Phantom Menace Revealed from the Brunching Shuttlecocks.
Lars Westergren sent us Mr Cranky's top 10 reasons why you should be worried about the new "Star Wars" movie.
[null] created the terribly flawed Slashdot Quota (he gives more points to quickee submittors than feature & book review writers, plus
failed to give a million bonus points to anyone named CmdrTaco).
An anonymous reader linked us to a suspended Linux server.
Link wrote in to send us a little web slideshow that I can't explain, but its so odd that I had to share it.
The Dude wrote in to tell us about the ideal use for that VAX 11/780 that you lying around.
And finally for the paranoid, Cabby sent us a website which (I kid you not) is Everything Women need to know about Y2k. Sit in slack jawed amazement.
Back in the days when the phones were owned by the phone company and it was bad news if you messed with the insides (still had to use acoustic couplers in 1974), my college roommates and I rented our first apartment and got our first phone of our own. We then proceeded to dismantle the thing completely. We traced the wires out, then mounted all the hardware on a board and rewired it. (Wall art.) It worked, but for one problem: the hook buttons on an original model 500 phone operated switch contacts via a lever mechanism that was pressed and released by the buttons, and the "wall phone" didn't have the levers. So, we got ahold of an obnoxiously large power supply and a multi-contact relay, and wired the relay into the circuitry. To answer the phone, we had to turn on the power supply. (And for those times of power failure, we had a toothpick on stand-by to jamb into the relay to make it pick up the phone.) When the lease was up and we had to give the phone back to the telco, we put the thing back together with pop-rivets and the phone clerks never knew the difference.
That was tough. Motherboards today are just a handful of ribbon cables. (And we had to walk uphill both ways!)
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Yet another fear-mongerer. And insulting too, especially to a female geek. As if I'm this clueless.
"Computers are all interconnected on a worldwide network." *All*? This computer is only connected when I choose it to be. My computer at work isn't connectable at all.
"The grocery store may not have the diapers or formula your baby needs." I have two things to say to this. Cloth diapers, and breastfeed.
Putting the soapbox away now...
Les the Book
I can get you an ETA 10 supercomputer (as fast as they came in 1989). Now that would make a great bar, big enough for a casino.
It's at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. We won it years ago, but it hasn't worked since my freshman year (I graduated last year). It's a bit big (it's got its own room), so if you want it you'll have to move it yourself...
Well, that was certainly painful to read. Alot of the tips in there were things that are just good tips for life in general, and not Y2k specific. For instance, she said that if the power goes out, the kids can't play N64, so you should have some books and board games around. With all the recent talk on /. about people needing to be good parents, don't you think it makes sense that a good parent would have books and board games around for the kids anyway? There's nothing wrong with playing video games, of course.
Many of the tips were useful in *ANY* disaster situation. Some of them were even totally irrelevant to Y2k. Some computers decide they can't understand what year it is, and so suddenly you need a hammer and screwdriver? What the heck?!
What really bothered me is all the examples about "if there was an earthquake", or "if there was a flood". Yeah, ok, that involves actual physical things happening, like machines and buildings being destroyed, and nothing CAN work, even if it knows the correct year. People writing these things need to look at reality, do some research, and instead of pointing out all the worst things that could ever happen, look at *why* these things might happen, and what would happen as a result of them. Clueless FUDmeisters have this idea that the whole world will just stop at the stroke of midnight. The truth is that many Y2k problems have already been happening, with things like credit card expiration dates, and many things will not go wrong until well after January 1. But I us slashdotters already know all of this stuff.
So, what's my point here. Well, I'm sick of the media blowing this stuff out of proportion. They all talk about stocking up on everything so you can survive the week or two when things might not work (if even that long). They claim everything in the stores will magically disappear. They may be right, but it won't be because of the y2k problem. It will be because of them telling everybody that everything will be gone. So the media is causing the very problem they are predicting.
Well, I'm babbling now. Time to shut up.
Um. All I can really say is that I am insulted by this website. I am female and an IT professional, but that is not the point. Any person of reasonable intelligence is capable of understanding the Y2K implications. They do not need to be talked down to or their inteligence insulted. This is in effect the same as cutting someone food up into peices and chewing it for them.
I think that this website does a great disservice to women by perpetuating the stereotype of the helpless female. There is enough sexism still within our society without someone adding to it. I can understand if this site was done as a joke by someone making light of these kidns of issues, but the fact that it was created by a woman for women is insulting to say the least.
This is exactly the kind of think I would have expected were I alive in the fifties. First off, a page like this should NOT exist and second off, women who want equal worth for equal pay should not expect to be treated like this.
Isn't this kind of things why we burned our bras in the first place?
-Kit
Visit the chat and try to reason with them... they only want to hear about all the lights going out.....
When you go to the page, be sure to look at the source code. The meta keywords tag contains such gems as "The Martha Stewart of Y2K".