Re:it's true - offtopic? hmmmmm maybe not
on
A Profile of Coders
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· Score: 1
i've seen it happen a lot. i mean, A LOT. with myself, if i hadn't enjoyed doing various sports so much (badly, i might add!) i might have also become like the 'social-skill-less' people that are being described. (although i think they're much less prevalent than is generally supposed.)
to me, though, the best thing is that it really doesn't matter what 'the world' thinks about one's level of social skills. sure, it may hurt one's opportunities for advancement in a corporation or academia. but in the end, does that really MATTER? i don't think so. i think there are much more important things to think about in life: love, spiritual things, getting satisfaction out of one's job, family, etc. etc. the list goes on!
as far as i'm concerned, i don't really care where i end up working as long as three conditions are satisfied: 1) i'm working hard at a job that suits my skills 2) i have a family that i love, and that loves me, and 3) i have food on the plate.
my personal advice to the guy or gal who thinks he's/she's socially inept (if anyone cares): don't worry about it. think about people who are mentally retarded. now THEY have a worse time than just about anyone who was born with a 'normal' brain.
That's what contract law is are for. Contracts can't possibly cover all possible contingencies, since predicting the future is impossible and the costs would outweigh the benefits of trying to cover all contingencies. What they can do is provide a way for resolution of disputes. A lot of contracts will specify duties, such as "maintaining the integrity of a computer network" which could EASILY be construed to refer to a y2k evening at work.
The question is, should we insist on different contracts when we sign up for a job? Probably, if we want to avoid this. It is necessary to realize, however, that insisting on different terms will inevitably impose costs on you as well as your employer.
So the incompleteness of contracts is a rational response to the impossibility of future knowledge.
i disagree. most people the government hires have genuine beliefs about the law and what should be done about them. also, many government employees like the fact that they're working as representatives of the people in their jobs.
it seems to me altogether too much to accuse them of bad motives simply because they work for a bloated, oversized government. that's Congress's fault. the other people are just out there trying to do their jobs well. they may not always do it perfectly (i'm sure NO ONE on slashdot has ever written bad code before!) but at least they're trying to earn an honest wage.
that's how i learned how to use linux: by playing (NOT as root!). but i agree that 'book' learning (or HOWTO learning, or manpage learning) does wonderful things for one's overall grasp of the way things work.
for example, when i started with linux i never had any idea (GNU) grep could grep recursively! reading the man page was what told me that. that's about as bookish as i tend to get with computer stuff, but i tend to think that good documentation is just as good as a book on how to do stuff.
It would be interesting to know how many of these things the US government has stashed away. (I mean, since NASA originally developed the thing (Is that correct?) I'm sure other agencies with one less letter in their names were pretty interested.)
In any case, the IRS might think about using AI Beowulf clusters to check tax returns. Ha. That would be the day. (I want my refund!)
What Crypto applications might there be for a Beowulf cluster out there? Genetic algorithms for new ciphers?
There would probably be serious issues with "financing rogue elements" in other countries if US companies were to actually try to finance such work.
Can you imagine the hysterics some people would get into if SGI were to pay someone in the Netherlands to produce non-US-exportable computer hardware for export to China? That could seriously hamper domestic efforts to simply get the restrictions eased/lifted.
In any case, they'd have to get the people writing the code outside access to the strong crypto code, or at least hooks to it. There might be more legal trouble with that than simply exporting the binary-only software.
Amen, my brother. Red Hat has probably done more for GNU and the free software movement (public relations-wise) in the past year than FSF ever did in its history.
Slashdot Mirror
i've seen it happen a lot. i mean, A LOT. with myself, if i hadn't enjoyed doing various sports so much (badly, i might add!) i might have also become like the 'social-skill-less' people that are being described. (although i think they're much less prevalent than is generally supposed.)
to me, though, the best thing is that it really doesn't matter what 'the world' thinks about one's level of social skills. sure, it may hurt one's opportunities for advancement in a corporation or academia. but in the end, does that really MATTER? i don't think so. i think there are much more important things to think about in life: love, spiritual things, getting satisfaction out of one's job, family, etc. etc. the list goes on!
as far as i'm concerned, i don't really care where i end up working as long as three conditions are satisfied:
1) i'm working hard at a job that suits my skills
2) i have a family that i love, and that loves me, and
3) i have food on the plate.
my personal advice to the guy or gal who thinks he's/she's socially inept (if anyone cares):
don't worry about it. think about people who are mentally retarded. now THEY have a worse time than just about anyone who was born with a 'normal' brain.
i'm done now.
jon
That's what contract law is are for. Contracts can't possibly cover all possible contingencies, since predicting the future is impossible and the costs would outweigh the benefits of trying to cover all contingencies. What they can do is provide a way for resolution of disputes. A lot of contracts will specify duties, such as "maintaining the integrity of a computer network" which could EASILY be construed to refer to a y2k evening at work.
The question is, should we insist on different contracts when we sign up for a job? Probably, if we want to avoid this. It is necessary to realize, however, that insisting on different terms will inevitably impose costs on you as well as your employer.
So the incompleteness of contracts is a rational response to the impossibility of future knowledge.
jon
i disagree. most people the government hires have genuine beliefs about the law and what should be done about them. also, many government employees like the fact that they're working as representatives of the people in their jobs.
it seems to me altogether too much to accuse them of bad motives simply because they work for a bloated, oversized government. that's Congress's fault. the other people are just out there trying to do their jobs well. they may not always do it perfectly (i'm sure NO ONE on slashdot has ever written bad code before!) but at least they're trying to earn an honest wage.
jon
that's how i learned how to use linux: by playing (NOT as root!). but i agree that 'book' learning (or HOWTO learning, or manpage learning) does wonderful things for one's overall grasp of the way things work.
for example, when i started with linux i never had any idea (GNU) grep could grep recursively! reading the man page was what told me that. that's about as bookish as i tend to get with computer stuff, but i tend to think that good documentation is just as good as a book on how to do stuff.
jon
It would be interesting to know how many of these things the US government has stashed away. (I mean, since NASA originally developed the thing (Is that correct?) I'm sure other agencies with one less letter in their names were pretty interested.)
In any case, the IRS might think about using AI Beowulf clusters to check tax returns. Ha. That would be the day. (I want my refund!)
What Crypto applications might there be for a Beowulf cluster out there? Genetic algorithms for new ciphers?
Jon
There would probably be serious issues with "financing rogue elements" in other countries if US companies were to actually try to finance such work.
Can you imagine the hysterics some people would get into if SGI were to pay someone in the Netherlands to produce non-US-exportable computer hardware for export to China? That could seriously hamper domestic efforts to simply get the restrictions eased/lifted.
In any case, they'd have to get the people writing the code outside access to the strong crypto code, or at least hooks to it. There might be more legal trouble with that than simply exporting the binary-only software.
Oh well.
Jon
Amen, my brother. Red Hat has probably done more for GNU and the free software movement (public relations-wise) in the past year than FSF ever did in its history.
Keep on preaching it, Red Hat.
jon
interesting post. i wonder if the above poster has much of this elusive thing called 'free time'.
it's a savvy idea: why spend more than necessary to support a group whose gaming numbers are unknown? let's help them make it worthwhile!
jon