If I've regularly been drinking coffee and stop for a day, I get a splitting headache that prevents me from accomplishing anything but moaning and hiding from the light. Actually, what usually happens is that I'll wake up with a headache on Saturday morning because I've slept in and missed my "dose."
I choose to avoid caffeine as much as possible because of the above and because it causes me to sleep very poorly. Sometimes it prevents me from easily falling asleep; other times it results in poor sleep, such that I sleep all night but am not rested in the morning. In the short term, caffeine seems like an energy boost, but in the long term, because of the effect it has on my sleep, it actually screws up my ability to concentrate and makes me very moody.
Caffeine *really* messes with my system. I can't speak for anyone else.
I noticed this, too. I've met plenty of scientists who can't get beyond "Hello" in a foreign language, let alone get a PhD. Believing that getting such a PhD would be more within the grasp of most scientists than would getting a PhD in physics for most liberal arts majors is astoundingly condescending and self-congratulatory, not to mention being completely out of place in this essay. (Unless it was perhaps an intentional breach to prove how difficult it is to scrub one's mind of prejudice?)
Re:Two things you can't say
on
What You Can't Say
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Well, implicitly, what you're saying is "[All] black people are better dancers than [all] white people." Easily disproven.
You *might* (and I don't know if you could) be able to prove statistically that "Most black people are better dancers than most white people."
I don't have a problem with you expressing what you believe. The problem is that your words in the example sentence aren't actually an accurate depiction of what you seem to mean, based on the fact that you accept that yes, a given white person might be better than a given black person.
I'm also very much curious about the male/female segregation in sports, as it implies that society views sex as the most fundamental division among humans. It also fascinates me because, well, what about hermaphrodites, or other sex organ abnormalities? Where do they fit? (Maybe there's a document out there that tells me.)
There's a part of me that thinks it would be wonderful to see women competing against men, simply because I believe that it has a good chance of developing much more capable female athletes than if females only had to compete against females. On the other hand, there's another part that fears that women might never become strong enough as competitors to then get visibility as professional athletes. So which is better, to promote better female athletes or to promote the visibility of female athletes? I don't know...
Sometimes I think that simple phrase, "I don't know," is the least accepted in our current society. You say that women are generally inherently physically weaker. I say that I just don't know, and can't know, because we don't have a culture that prizes strength in females as much as it does strength in males. In fact, generally speaking, women with visible muscle are viewed with distaste. So, given that we've received tons of gender acculturation before we ever get a chance to participate in a sport, how can we possibly know the answer to the question of inherent strength?
Oh, and "some genders can't reverse park" is a pretty pathetic addition to an otherwise fairly thoughtful post.
Point 1) Uh, what about adoption? And should couples who can't conceive (whether by choice or by health) have this legal status revoked? After all, they're not popping out sprogs.
Point 2) Um, what reason, other than religious, might there be for calling marriage "special"?
Point 3) Traditions and customs change over time. Traditionally, women (blacks, native americans) couldn't vote. Things change.
I've seen some porn like that, but it's not at all accurate to say that all porn is like that. For a wide variety of porn, some of which falls into your descriptions but much of which does not, check out http://www.blowfish.com/ (Warning: adult content (duh)).
I don't think that "stoking the masturbatorial fantasies of young men" is an inherently negative goal. I'm much more frightened of the (attempted) repression of sexual fantasy. Also, have you ever taken a look at Playgirl? There's a lot more sexual content in those pages (at least there was several years ago). It's aimed at women, but the characters on both sides of the gender line are ready and willing.
When I fantasize or watch porn, the last thing I want to do is sit around watching the characters develop deep, meaningful relationships and establishing a stable relationship. I want to see beautiful people fucking, dammit! Yes, I'd prefer not to see money shots, and I think the anal sex bit is overdone (hi stile project!), but the most obnoxious aspect of most porn is the lack of attractive men.
You have a lot of assumptions and judgements in your post, not all of which I care to chase down. I don't know if you're male or female, but please don't assume that all females have the same sexual interests, nor that their fantasies necessarily have any relationship to what they want in their actual sex lives. Actually, don't assume those things about males, either.
Oh, and, about that "they are much less demanded than they are provided" bit, I'd love to believe that, but the reality is, you don't hear about a whole lot of guys boycotting porn due to money shots and anal sex. They may not be clamoring for it, but it doesn't seem to bother them unduly.
Some company in Hong Kong charged my card for $1700... fortunately, I'm anal, so I noticed it the day it showed up online. Three or four days later, they charged the card for 20 grand!
It was a pain changing to a new credit card, but would have been a major headache to deal with the bounced checks and whatnot that an abused debit card would entail.
Might it not be helpful to have a separate business phone number at home, and only answer that when you *are* on duty? It's a few extra dollars a month, but may help stress levels immensely.
If a 15 year old girl has a nudie pic of a 15 year old boy, I'd probably chalk it up to good clean fun.
Now, if a 30 year old woman has a nudie pic of a 15 year old boy, *then* I'd have issues.
"Stealing" vs. "copyright infringement" aside, I agree that she's probably doing something illegal, but I still think the RIAA are assholes, and I continue to boycott them in the hopes that they and their whole system of music distribution die a nasty, flaming death.
The music machine has so disgusted many of us that we have trouble seeing people who act against their interests, even illegally, as bad... just as (to a different degree) it would be hard to be terribly upset at someone who, say, stole some fancy silverware from Saddam Hussein.
This fixes the problem in the short term, but what happens when you uninstall the app or library on which your package depends? Now you have a system that thinks it has fulfilled dependencies, when in fact it has gaping holes.
Actually, I believe that apt has ways to tell the system that you've fulfilled a dependency in a non-.deb way. I haven't had call to use it, but I believe the capability is there. Don't know how or whether it addresses the above problem.
[quote] Lastly, 10% or 20% improvements in compiler performance are of largely academic interest only these days most software's time is spent waiting on user input, disk IO, or network activity anyway? [/quote]
What about embedded systems? What about the code that controls the disk I/O in the first place?
Out of curiosity, how did you leave the school? Graduate early? Transfer to another school?
I'm just wondering, if you moved to another school, whether the bullying simply stopped.
I stopped getting shit from other students after junior high, but in that time, I ditched my braces and glasses, made some attempt to dress fashionably (only lasted a year or so), worked on my self-esteem, and made friends with some kids who had transferred in from a different junior high than everyone else. So I don't know if any of those items were factors, or if it was something completely different. Remembering that there was a time when I dressed a certain way just to go with the crowd makes me cringe, but it's the truth.
For the record, these girl fights were not pretty. I distinctly remember custodians cleaning blood off of the floor after some girl repeatedly slammed another girl's head into the floor. I don't really want to think about the kind of guy who gets off on teenage girls giving one another brain damage... although I'm sure there are a few of that type on slashdot!
Being female, I took a moment to compare your theory to my high school experiences. The thing is, none of it seemed to apply. My crowd had both male and female members; so did every crowd I can recall. In middle school, I caught some nasty abuse, but in high school, I was unaware of any true bullying. It probably existed, but I wasn't aware of it. There were fights in my high school, but they tended to be between girls fighting over some guy (no, really!).
Just some random thoughts...
Re:I listen to my local independent radio station
on
Who Needs Radio?
·
· Score: 1
The Mountain rules!
I signed up as a member a while ago. They give you the option of answering a bunch of questions, including rating your interest in attending certain concerts. Out of their selection, I chose a little-known artist, Martin Sexton, as my number one pick because a friend of mine was a huge fan.
Anyway, some time later, I got an email telling me I'd won a pair of tickets to the show. Yay! I then realized I wouldn't have a chance to drive into Denver and pick up the tickets, so I told them to go ahead and give the tickets to someone else... shortly thereafter, I found out that another friend of mine was interested in going and would be able to pick up the tickets. I contacted the station and was able to give her a proxy letter so that she could pick up the tickets.
It was a very cool, no-strings-attached deal. I love the fact that The Mountain doesn't have call-in frenzies. I love their variety of music. I love that one female dj. It's just an awesome station.
Yeah, except you have to have windows to use their mp3 serving tool... it "supports" linux by allowing you to use the windows box to view shared drives.
Hrm.
They say linux support is coming, but I've heard that before.
It definitely has its uses, though... last week my fiance accompanied me to a concert, even though his beloved Red Sox were playing and he would much rather have been at home, watching the game. As we waited for the concert to begin, we discovered wap.espn.com , and he was able to check the score now and again. I call that a win.
Okay, I'll admit it -- I don't have a Mac, so I haven't really been paying attention till now.
Is there DRM built into the music that you buy with this system? How does it work? If I copy the mp3s I buy onto my server and try to play them from another machine, will it work transparently, or do I need to use a special app or log in or something?
Does anyone else miss the old days, just a few years ago, when discussions about freedom of speech generally had to do with rap and obscenity, not journalists and researchers?
The grip keeps tightening...
What was that song in Pump Up The Volume? Oh, yeah. Freedom of Speech -- Above the Law.
"I thought this country was based on freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to make your own religion, freedom to make your own decision, but that's balony, cuz if I have to play by your rules I'd be a phony..."
I just transferred from verisign to gkg.net... It was extremely painless. I emailed verisign to get my auth code, and I received it from them within a day. I filled out the forms on gkg.net and within a few days, it was all set up. No loss of service whatsoever.
gkg also gives you the option of letting them obfuscate your email address in whois; it's still a valid address, but gkg filters mail for spam before forwarding it to you.
Oh, and you can do it now. They'll cover the remaining portion of your contract with verislime for no extra charge.
Yes, Virginia, you can transfer your domain without losing your service.
What I have noticed after reading several of his books is that the women may very well be extremely competent, but they always, always, always choose to submit their skills to the leadership of some man.
Inevitably, you have this supernaturally competent woman who for reasons completely inexplicable to me (maybe because I'm from a different generation?) chooses to work for or marry some dude who cannot hold a candle to her in the skills department.
He's not celebrating the differences between the sexes. He's celebrating the fact that he can always make sure that the man is in control./rant off
I still pull out Masters of Magic every now and then and get completely re-addicted for a few weeks or a month. It's like reading a favorite book -- I can always come back and rediscover it, and it's just as much fun as it was the first time. More, maybe, because I understand more than I did then (same as the book).
I can guarantee that I don't play MoM for the outstanding graphics. My fiance is still convinced that dragonturtles are actually sheep, and gryffins are... flying sheep.
Slashdot Mirror
If I've regularly been drinking coffee and stop for a day, I get a splitting headache that prevents me from accomplishing anything but moaning and hiding from the light. Actually, what usually happens is that I'll wake up with a headache on Saturday morning because I've slept in and missed my "dose."
I choose to avoid caffeine as much as possible because of the above and because it causes me to sleep very poorly. Sometimes it prevents me from easily falling asleep; other times it results in poor sleep, such that I sleep all night but am not rested in the morning. In the short term, caffeine seems like an energy boost, but in the long term, because of the effect it has on my sleep, it actually screws up my ability to concentrate and makes me very moody.
Caffeine *really* messes with my system. I can't speak for anyone else.
I noticed this, too. I've met plenty of scientists who can't get beyond "Hello" in a foreign language, let alone get a PhD. Believing that getting such a PhD would be more within the grasp of most scientists than would getting a PhD in physics for most liberal arts majors is astoundingly condescending and self-congratulatory, not to mention being completely out of place in this essay. (Unless it was perhaps an intentional breach to prove how difficult it is to scrub one's mind of prejudice?)
Well, implicitly, what you're saying is "[All] black people are better dancers than [all] white people." Easily disproven.
...
You *might* (and I don't know if you could) be able to prove statistically that "Most black people are better dancers than most white people."
I don't have a problem with you expressing what you believe. The problem is that your words in the example sentence aren't actually an accurate depiction of what you seem to mean, based on the fact that you accept that yes, a given white person might be better than a given black person.
I'm also very much curious about the male/female segregation in sports, as it implies that society views sex as the most fundamental division among humans. It also fascinates me because, well, what about hermaphrodites, or other sex organ abnormalities? Where do they fit? (Maybe there's a document out there that tells me.)
There's a part of me that thinks it would be wonderful to see women competing against men, simply because I believe that it has a good chance of developing much more capable female athletes than if females only had to compete against females. On the other hand, there's another part that fears that women might never become strong enough as competitors to then get visibility as professional athletes. So which is better, to promote better female athletes or to promote the visibility of female athletes? I don't know
Sometimes I think that simple phrase, "I don't know," is the least accepted in our current society. You say that women are generally inherently physically weaker. I say that I just don't know, and can't know, because we don't have a culture that prizes strength in females as much as it does strength in males. In fact, generally speaking, women with visible muscle are viewed with distaste. So, given that we've received tons of gender acculturation before we ever get a chance to participate in a sport, how can we possibly know the answer to the question of inherent strength?
Oh, and "some genders can't reverse park" is a pretty pathetic addition to an otherwise fairly thoughtful post.
Point 1) Uh, what about adoption? And should couples who can't conceive (whether by choice or by health) have this legal status revoked? After all, they're not popping out sprogs.
Point 2) Um, what reason, other than religious, might there be for calling marriage "special"?
Point 3) Traditions and customs change over time. Traditionally, women (blacks, native americans) couldn't vote. Things change.
I've seen some porn like that, but it's not at all accurate to say that all porn is like that. For a wide variety of porn, some of which falls into your descriptions but much of which does not, check out http://www.blowfish.com/ (Warning: adult content (duh)).
I don't think that "stoking the masturbatorial fantasies of young men" is an inherently negative goal. I'm much more frightened of the (attempted) repression of sexual fantasy. Also, have you ever taken a look at Playgirl? There's a lot more sexual content in those pages (at least there was several years ago). It's aimed at women, but the characters on both sides of the gender line are ready and willing.
When I fantasize or watch porn, the last thing I want to do is sit around watching the characters develop deep, meaningful relationships and establishing a stable relationship. I want to see beautiful people fucking, dammit! Yes, I'd prefer not to see money shots, and I think the anal sex bit is overdone (hi stile project!), but the most obnoxious aspect of most porn is the lack of attractive men.
You have a lot of assumptions and judgements in your post, not all of which I care to chase down. I don't know if you're male or female, but please don't assume that all females have the same sexual interests, nor that their fantasies necessarily have any relationship to what they want in their actual sex lives. Actually, don't assume those things about males, either.
Oh, and, about that "they are much less demanded than they are provided" bit, I'd love to believe that, but the reality is, you don't hear about a whole lot of guys boycotting porn due to money shots and anal sex. They may not be clamoring for it, but it doesn't seem to bother them unduly.
This is really important.
... fortunately, I'm anal, so I noticed it the day it showed up online. Three or four days later, they charged the card for 20 grand!
Some company in Hong Kong charged my card for $1700
It was a pain changing to a new credit card, but would have been a major headache to deal with the bounced checks and whatnot that an abused debit card would entail.
Debit cards just aren't worth it.
"Porn by it's very nature invites us to violate those it portrays as objects."
Maybe my definition of porn is different than yours, but I don't think I agree with this. Could you explain?
6.1 what?
Might it not be helpful to have a separate business phone number at home, and only answer that when you *are* on duty? It's a few extra dollars a month, but may help stress levels immensely.
If a 15 year old girl has a nudie pic of a 15 year old boy, I'd probably chalk it up to good clean fun.
... just as (to a different degree) it would be hard to be terribly upset at someone who, say, stole some fancy silverware from Saddam Hussein.
Now, if a 30 year old woman has a nudie pic of a 15 year old boy, *then* I'd have issues.
"Stealing" vs. "copyright infringement" aside, I agree that she's probably doing something illegal, but I still think the RIAA are assholes, and I continue to boycott them in the hopes that they and their whole system of music distribution die a nasty, flaming death.
The music machine has so disgusted many of us that we have trouble seeing people who act against their interests, even illegally, as bad
This fixes the problem in the short term, but what happens when you uninstall the app or library on which your package depends? Now you have a system that thinks it has fulfilled dependencies, when in fact it has gaping holes.
Actually, I believe that apt has ways to tell the system that you've fulfilled a dependency in a non-.deb way. I haven't had call to use it, but I believe the capability is there. Don't know how or whether it addresses the above problem.
[quote]
Lastly, 10% or 20% improvements in compiler performance are of largely academic interest only these days most software's time is spent waiting on user input, disk IO, or network activity anyway?
[/quote]
What about embedded systems? What about the code that controls the disk I/O in the first place?
Out of curiosity, how did you leave the school? Graduate early? Transfer to another school?
I'm just wondering, if you moved to another school, whether the bullying simply stopped.
I stopped getting shit from other students after junior high, but in that time, I ditched my braces and glasses, made some attempt to dress fashionably (only lasted a year or so), worked on my self-esteem, and made friends with some kids who had transferred in from a different junior high than everyone else. So I don't know if any of those items were factors, or if it was something completely different. Remembering that there was a time when I dressed a certain way just to go with the crowd makes me cringe, but it's the truth.
Sorry, I didn't =/
... although I'm sure there are a few of that type on slashdot!
For the record, these girl fights were not pretty. I distinctly remember custodians cleaning blood off of the floor after some girl repeatedly slammed another girl's head into the floor. I don't really want to think about the kind of guy who gets off on teenage girls giving one another brain damage
Being female, I took a moment to compare your theory to my high school experiences. The thing is, none of it seemed to apply. My crowd had both male and female members; so did every crowd I can recall. In middle school, I caught some nasty abuse, but in high school, I was unaware of any true bullying. It probably existed, but I wasn't aware of it. There were fights in my high school, but they tended to be between girls fighting over some guy (no, really!).
...
Just some random thoughts
The Mountain rules!
... shortly thereafter, I found out that another friend of mine was interested in going and would be able to pick up the tickets. I contacted the station and was able to give her a proxy letter so that she could pick up the tickets.
I signed up as a member a while ago. They give you the option of answering a bunch of questions, including rating your interest in attending certain concerts. Out of their selection, I chose a little-known artist, Martin Sexton, as my number one pick because a friend of mine was a huge fan.
Anyway, some time later, I got an email telling me I'd won a pair of tickets to the show. Yay! I then realized I wouldn't have a chance to drive into Denver and pick up the tickets, so I told them to go ahead and give the tickets to someone else
It was a very cool, no-strings-attached deal. I love the fact that The Mountain doesn't have call-in frenzies. I love their variety of music. I love that one female dj. It's just an awesome station.
Yeah, except you have to have windows to use their mp3 serving tool ... it "supports" linux by allowing you to use the windows box to view shared drives.
Hrm.
They say linux support is coming, but I've heard that before.
It definitely has its uses, though ... last week my fiance accompanied me to a concert, even though his beloved Red Sox were playing and he would much rather have been at home, watching the game. As we waited for the concert to begin, we discovered wap.espn.com , and he was able to check the score now and again. I call that a win.
Isn't that "nissen", not "nissan"?
Okay, I'll admit it -- I don't have a Mac, so I haven't really been paying attention till now.
Is there DRM built into the music that you buy with this system? How does it work? If I copy the mp3s I buy onto my server and try to play them from another machine, will it work transparently, or do I need to use a special app or log in or something?
Does anyone else miss the old days, just a few years ago, when discussions about freedom of speech generally had to do with rap and obscenity, not journalists and researchers?
...
..."
The grip keeps tightening
What was that song in Pump Up The Volume? Oh, yeah. Freedom of Speech -- Above the Law.
"I thought this country was based on freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to make your own religion, freedom to make your own decision, but that's balony, cuz if I have to play by your rules I'd be a phony
I just transferred from verisign to gkg.net ... It was extremely painless. I emailed verisign to get my auth code, and I received it from them within a day. I filled out the forms on gkg.net and within a few days, it was all set up. No loss of service whatsoever.
gkg also gives you the option of letting them obfuscate your email address in whois; it's still a valid address, but gkg filters mail for spam before forwarding it to you.
Oh, and you can do it now. They'll cover the remaining portion of your contract with verislime for no extra charge.
Yes, Virginia, you can transfer your domain without losing your service.
I wholeheartedly agree.
/rant off
What I have noticed after reading several of his books is that the women may very well be extremely competent, but they always, always, always choose to submit their skills to the leadership of some man.
Inevitably, you have this supernaturally competent woman who for reasons completely inexplicable to me (maybe because I'm from a different generation?) chooses to work for or marry some dude who cannot hold a candle to her in the skills department.
He's not celebrating the differences between the sexes. He's celebrating the fact that he can always make sure that the man is in control.
Well, it might at least make inroads toward legitimizing Linux in the eyes of PHBs who've heard of it, but just don't trust it.
I still pull out Masters of Magic every now and then and get completely re-addicted for a few weeks or a month. It's like reading a favorite book -- I can always come back and rediscover it, and it's just as much fun as it was the first time. More, maybe, because I understand more than I did then (same as the book).
... flying sheep.
I can guarantee that I don't play MoM for the outstanding graphics. My fiance is still convinced that dragonturtles are actually sheep, and gryffins are