My web server (and specifically my site) is presently in a state of getting cleaned up. I obviously haven't updated anything but the main page and resume for quite a while. Anyway, you could at least thank me for converting the screenshots over to reasonably small, compressed pngs instead of the giant uncompressed gifs and bmps that were there before.;)
I think you may have gotten the wrong impression - I wasn't defending installing a new OS without asking. Though, I've done that on family machines, I've only done that after a backup, and given it to them with full discolsure (and a promise to install Win32 if they still want it) - not like the OP. Just installing Linux and KDE without telling the user, and pretending it's Windows, well, that's not quite right.
To address the other point of confusion, yes, I was saying that lots of new software won't work on old versions of Windows. That garden program, for example, probably involves some kind of mixed media presentation. It's reasonable to develop that using media player / DirectX as a target, and it's reasonable to take advantage of the features in the newest version. You can't install the newest DirectX on '98, nor can you install the newest media player (IIRC). Sure, there are lots of new Win32 programs that will still work on '98 - but those programs will almost universally work with properly configured wine, too. Wine can be configured to open Win32 executables in most popular desktop environments. So, in the case of someone who came in with a '98 machine and went home with a Linux install, they probably aren't going to have any more problems than they would have before - and they'll probably *not* have to come back for another spyware-induced problem. Again, not that I'm condoning the deceptive use of that solution - I'm merely pointing out that it wouldn't *neccesarily* cause the massive problems that you made to sound unavoidable in the original reply. That was/is my point.:)
Doh - I suppose I should have RTFA. Blocking web sites like that is stupid and evil. Blocking spam-friendly domains, well, it's a little more grey. There are arguments for either side that I find to be equally valid.
If you lived in Hong Kong and needed to email me, though, you would have simply needed to use yahoo, hotmail, or one of those kinds of things. I don't block domains like that (though I do verify address validity with those that won't block me for that verification) - so you weren't excluded. Not that you or anyone else in Hong Kong had any reason to email me...:)
So, you're saying that your computer boots up faster than Firefox can start? You might not know this, but IE is running from the time Windows loads. It's there, taking up some memory, regardless of whether you're using it or not. Firefox does not do this - look into Mozilla's "quick launch" option if you like keeping programs in memory when you're not using them - or just put a shortcut to firefox in your startup group, set to "start minimized", and don't ever exit it. Magically, you've got super-fast startup - and a reasonably recent version of Firefox will render faster, too.
I'd like to point out that most users, when asked if they'd like to try another operating system that's more secure and more stable, would either say "what's an operating system" or "ok, that sounds great" - having no idea what they're agreeing to, but hearing "security" or "stabiilty" and not wanting to sound stupid. And then they'd still buy that gardening software, possibly the mac version.
Choopping one's leg off isn't a good analogy, either, since that's pretty irreversible. Changing operating systems is rather minor, though.
I don't particularly think it's a good idea to just randomly change OSs, but that also applies to changing versions of windows - if someone came in with Win 98, it'd be a good idea to bump them to Win 2K or XP for security update availability reasons. Reinstalling '98 would also result in that new peice of software not working, and would be just as likely to result in some kind of lawsuit (which leads to another ant about why people are such assholes recently, and think that the proper way to resolve most any dispute is to bring it into a court, but that's another topic)...
It's pretty reasonable from several other points of view - like that of the people who have to listen to the constant stream of complaints from users who get spam - often virus-infected - bounced off of open relays in China. "Maybe" lose a couple of valid messages that will result in phone calls and complaints if they're really important, or definitely lose hours per day dealing with infected user machines / scammed users. Hmm, which is preferable...:)
I don't block China, but I certainly block Korea. I gave the country as a whoel about a year, reporting most of the spam I got (through our corporate mail server, and my home mai lserver) to the appropriate ISP. Do you have any idea how much time that takes? If I had more clueless users who opened every stupid email they got, I would've blocked Korea (and probably china) sooner - as is, though, I never got a single response, but I did get more spam from the same IPs that I had previously complained about. So I blocked Korea. Though, I also asked everyone that uses the server if they ever expected to get legitimite mail from anyone in Korea, and they all said no - so this isn't totally the same thing.
I do as a rule block foreign ISPs (at the ISP level) that allow forged spam through. Open relays are universally bad. There is not a single valid reason for running one. Laziness or ignorance are reasons, but I'll only let that slide if the lazy/ignorant mail server admin happens to be working for a company that's actually paying me / my employer. 85% of the mail that my mail server sees is identified as spam, with about 15% of the remainder being missed by various spam checkers. I'm not willling to be any more leniant with spam relays, because it would increase the mail reading workload of my users (and me) a *lot*. In a touch of irony, allowing mail from those countries in would *increase* the odds that a valid message would be missed, because it'd be buried under a bunch of spam.:)
Reread the post, and see if you comprehend better next time. Here are some hints: I didn't say anything about the competence of people who take mass transit or that ride a child's toy to work. I did say that people who can't ride a bike safely should probably not ride a bike. I have no desire to work in or even visit NY, LA, or anywhere else where people apparently are forced to pay outrageous parking fees but are too stupid to take that into account when determining whether they can afford to take a specific job or not.
I guess I'll also point out that having a vehicle that's useful for commuting *and* getting groceries is generally more handy that having something that you can only take to work. If you save a few bucks on parking at work, but have to spend more to do everything else in your life, you're not really saving anything.
Actually, it does cost a lot more to build a 500HP engine than a 140HP engine and make it reliable without making it absolutely huge (try it sometime - it gets real expensive real quick even if you go with large displacement). And your Volvo was not an inexpensive car when it was new.:) That's part of why it lasted - high build quality. Ferarris are expensive because there aren't as many of them made, they're high quality, and their reputation for quality has made them a name, kinda like Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, etc. Honda makes a solid car, but they also make a metric assload of them, and they're really just good "for the money".
None the less, you sound like a "it's just a car" person. That's fine. There are lots of people out there like that. There are also lots of people who think that amassing neat-looking toys will somehow improve their social standing, or something. However, to me, driving is a pastime, a hobby, a sport. It's not just something I do to get from one place to another, though sometimes that happens. The car to me is like a hunter's gun or a baseball player's bat (for lack of time to create a better analogy). It's a critical component of my pastime, and can make or break my enjoyment. Some of the attributes that are required for performance are asthetically pleasing as well, but when I built the Chevelle - for example - I built up the suspension and brakes first. I replaced the interior next (good seats and gauges are important). I then replaced the drivetrain. All the while, the body was in spray paint, and the wheels and tires were the cheapies that came with the car. Making it "pretty" is the last concern.
I'll admit, I would like other people to like the way my car looks. I feel good when someone says "I like that car" or points something out that I've done. It's nice to see people agreeing with you, and appreciating your hard work - talk to an artist of any kind for that point, and yes, I consider programming to be an art. But I've heard negative comments as well, and I don't really care. I built the cars for me (yeah, I built them. "Stock" is like "close enough" - I'm not settling). They are functional first, and appealing second. The reaction of others is just icing, and I'm not a big fan of too much icing anyway.
None of this is to say that I'm without problems - I'm probably not perfect. I'll throw in that I wear a size 14 wide shoe, and that the link between shoe size and other areas isn't without merit, though, since it's on-topic. Either way, my performance cars have nothing to do with any issues I may have, and everything to do with my love of driving and all things mechanical. I'm sure there's people out there who feel differently about their cars, and really are compensating. That's sure not all of us, though.
Funny, I ride a real scooter on my 140 mile, 3+ hour round trip commute every day. I think that qualifies as long distance. It involves riding over bridges, riding on rural highways, and riding on semi-busy freeways (as well as riding in town). If you're not competent enough to ride over a bridge (where did that come from?), then you shouldn't be riding in town, either. You probably shouldn't even be on a two-wheeled vehicle. I sure wouldn't recommend taking a foot-powered scooter onto a highway, freeway, or on a long-distance commute, though.
BTW, my real scooter averages 68 MPG cruising at 70-80 MPH (top speed is over 95 - I haven't had opportunity and inclination to push it farther yet). Beats the pants off of one of those stupid half-electric cars in mileage, acceleration, and cost of purchase, insurance, and upkeep. It's also actually fun to ride, as opposed to "just transportation".
Anyone paying the same price to park a motorcycle as a car pays is being screwed - find another parking area that recognizes the size difference between a truck and a motorcycle. If nothing else, split the cost with another biker and share the spot.
"But, what about the rain and snow?" I have a car for the worst of those days (though a little rain's fine - I have a rain suit for that). The mileage gain more than offsets the cost of the scooter, even driving a car a few months out of the year - and I get lower insurance rates because my car's not driven as often as typical cars. "What about groceries?" I can fit 4-5 bags of groceries in the under-seat storage area, and there are saddle bags / trunks / racks that can be added for more capacity.
Have fun dealing with inclement weather / shopping / long trips on your foot-powered scooter. I'll bet those tiny, smooth tires are great on wet pavement, and that you move real well scooting into the wind. Traveling must be great fun, too.
I use the vanilla kernels under Gentoo ever since I spent a week trying to get multiple targets on a firewire to ATA adaptor to work (on PPC), and finally found that it works perfectly under the vanilla kernel(s) of the same versions. I don't know how many times I rebooted, rebuilt kernels + modules, and patched various sources that week, but I'm still pretty pissed at the Gentoo kernel patching idiots for stealing that time from me.
All that volcanic rock surrounding the mountain you just built your house on - well, it's a clue. Though 10K years of dormancy is a good indicator that my anticipated 75 year lifespan won't see another.:)
Nevertheless, it's not true. Sex is used in advertisements for darn near everything - not just cars for men. Or are you gonna tell me that men who drink alcohol are compensating for their tiny cocks, and that women who drink it have the envy? Anyone with a webcam, according to X10.com, is compensating, as is anyone who went to see Swimfan or Spiderman2 (ads with wet t-shirt women off the top of my head).
Maybe my wife likes her Chevelle because she wishes she had a dick, not because it looks cooller than a modern cookie-cutter and can merge/pass safely in more situations than some tiny golf cart? Maybe I have three cars that make over 300 HP because I give a shit what some ass on the street thinks about part of my anatomy that they're never going to see, not because I actually enjoy *driving*. Maybe I have a big truck because I need to make up for something, not because I used to live on a farm and I still get more usefulness out of being able to haul things + drive down dirt roads than I'd get out of the couple thousand bucks and 40 square feet of garage space I'd get from selling it.
Or maybe people who don't have the money to buy a big/fast car and don't have the ability to build one are jealous of those who can, and come up with some asinine claim that 1) is unlikely to be proven and 2) will hit a guy where it hurts. It's just as true that people with tiny "economical" cars are poor, stupid, jealous sheep who always make pathetic baseless claims to draw the attention away from others. Which is to say, neither generalization is totally true.
Well, one can pretty easily tell where volcanoes are - they're hiding underneath the big mountain of rock. So, I don't think the government should be required to help me live next to a friggin' volcano. Similarly, it's obvious where floods are likely to occur. If your house is right next to a stinkin' river, or 17 feet below sea level in a swamp at the end of a major river, well, you can expect to be involved in a flood at some time. New Orleansians knew damned well that they were moving to a place that's very likely to flood - even the primitive French and Native people could tell that there was a whole lot of water around when they built their first house out of crawfish exoskeletons. I feel bad that the flood happened, but if some boob values spicy burned catfish over living out of obvious harm's way, well, there's not much I can do to help... I'd love to run naked and drunk in crowded streets more often, but thanks to my sacrifice in that area, my house is well above water at this time.
Then again, I don't think moving to a place where there are lots of "minor" earthquakes makes a whole lot of sense either. The sun comes out most everywhere, and I'll take "has had one really big earthquake in the last 250 years" over "has a fairly substantial quake every 6 months" any time.
I've never seen Fog-X, though maybe you're just making up a stupid but believable name for Rain-X Anti-Fog... That antifog stuff would be great if it lasted through more than a few showers (on a bathroom mirror), or more than a week of driving in the fall (on the inside glass of a car without an effective defogger).
They make an anti-fog product sold under the Rain-X brand (in a black bottle, generally). It doesn't work very well on glass, and is just as safe on plastic as steel wool.:)
FWIW, my full-face helmet has a little vent on the front below the mask, and a shield over my nose that keeps me from breathing right on it. The combination seems to work fairly well as long as I'm moving. It's a Bell Sprint, and I'm fairly happy with it (in combination with a mirrored face shield, for occasionally riding off into the sunset). Their website sucks - as you can't link directly to a product, it uses Flash, and they don't even list that they have different face shields - but most any non-Harley "powersports" shop I've been in carries their stuff.
Well, I was referring to computer skills certifications, since this *is* Slashdot and those are the kind of jobs I'd be applying for. And I'm basing my "empty certifications" statement on the certifications that I hold as well as those that I've read study guides / practice exams for - in order to determine if they were worthwhile for me, and if I should care that someone I'm interviewing holds those. Outside of the Cisco stuff, I'm not aware of any that I would consider a thorough reference for any job.
Much like typical testing is only a halfway valid means of assessing classroom learning, certification "tests" are almost always just fact memorization - there's no practical application of skills. Compare this to typical jobs, which consist almost entirely of practical application.
I passed an entomology course in college, and did reasonably well. The only things I can tell you are that "bugs" are just one class of insect, and that flys have small knob-like structures called "halteres" in place of the rear wings that most all other flying insects have. But I'm certified as having much more entomology knowledge than that...
I hope you never have to interview for a job when you're young.
Anyway, it doesn't mean they *won't* get along, just like a degree doesn't mean that the person got anything out of their education, and just like experience doesn't mean much if it was in something that's "just a job". It's one of several semi-reasonable filters, though it happens to be illegal.
People get along better with others that are similar. Boo hoo, that's not fair. Let's make another law that requires everyone to get along.
I have had brakes fail a couple of times, and I can assure you that I am not posting from beyond the grave (though I can't guarantee I'll have anything better to do,/. probably won't be one of my afterlife hobbies).
If someone's a lot older, or from a long ways away, they probably won't fit in as well as a "local". This may sound strange, but some people prefer to work with people that they can actually get along with. It makes more sense than determining who has the most money to throw away on arbitrary tests...
As asenine as that attitude is, I'm glad some people have it. It helps me to decide who I don't want to work for without the hassle of showing up for an interview. A company who uses empty certifications as a significant step in determining interview candidates is a company that probably values other empty pursuits, and won't provide fulfilling work. I prefer to enjoy my job, rather than performing empty tasks that were arbitrarily decided on by someone too lazy to care about their job anymore.
There are still supermarkets kinda like that in more rural areas - bar code scanners and all that fancy cash register equipment aren't free, and groceries aren't exactly a high-margin product (for the grocery store, anyway).:)
I've got a small block Chevy sitting in the corner of my garage just waiting for a project like that. Get ahold of me when you get that ginormous grinder, and a blower (or possibly one of the Banks twin turbo kits).:)
Slashdot Mirror
Ahhh! Now you're stalking me! :)
;)
My web server (and specifically my site) is presently in a state of getting cleaned up. I obviously haven't updated anything but the main page and resume for quite a while. Anyway, you could at least thank me for converting the screenshots over to reasonably small, compressed pngs instead of the giant uncompressed gifs and bmps that were there before.
And yes, I agree that webmail's a pain.
I think you may have gotten the wrong impression - I wasn't defending installing a new OS without asking. Though, I've done that on family machines, I've only done that after a backup, and given it to them with full discolsure (and a promise to install Win32 if they still want it) - not like the OP. Just installing Linux and KDE without telling the user, and pretending it's Windows, well, that's not quite right.
:)
To address the other point of confusion, yes, I was saying that lots of new software won't work on old versions of Windows. That garden program, for example, probably involves some kind of mixed media presentation. It's reasonable to develop that using media player / DirectX as a target, and it's reasonable to take advantage of the features in the newest version. You can't install the newest DirectX on '98, nor can you install the newest media player (IIRC). Sure, there are lots of new Win32 programs that will still work on '98 - but those programs will almost universally work with properly configured wine, too. Wine can be configured to open Win32 executables in most popular desktop environments. So, in the case of someone who came in with a '98 machine and went home with a Linux install, they probably aren't going to have any more problems than they would have before - and they'll probably *not* have to come back for another spyware-induced problem. Again, not that I'm condoning the deceptive use of that solution - I'm merely pointing out that it wouldn't *neccesarily* cause the massive problems that you made to sound unavoidable in the original reply. That was/is my point.
Doh - I suppose I should have RTFA. Blocking web sites like that is stupid and evil. Blocking spam-friendly domains, well, it's a little more grey. There are arguments for either side that I find to be equally valid.
:)
If you lived in Hong Kong and needed to email me, though, you would have simply needed to use yahoo, hotmail, or one of those kinds of things. I don't block domains like that (though I do verify address validity with those that won't block me for that verification) - so you weren't excluded. Not that you or anyone else in Hong Kong had any reason to email me...
So, you're saying that your computer boots up faster than Firefox can start? You might not know this, but IE is running from the time Windows loads. It's there, taking up some memory, regardless of whether you're using it or not. Firefox does not do this - look into Mozilla's "quick launch" option if you like keeping programs in memory when you're not using them - or just put a shortcut to firefox in your startup group, set to "start minimized", and don't ever exit it. Magically, you've got super-fast startup - and a reasonably recent version of Firefox will render faster, too.
I'd like to point out that most users, when asked if they'd like to try another operating system that's more secure and more stable, would either say "what's an operating system" or "ok, that sounds great" - having no idea what they're agreeing to, but hearing "security" or "stabiilty" and not wanting to sound stupid. And then they'd still buy that gardening software, possibly the mac version.
Choopping one's leg off isn't a good analogy, either, since that's pretty irreversible. Changing operating systems is rather minor, though.
I don't particularly think it's a good idea to just randomly change OSs, but that also applies to changing versions of windows - if someone came in with Win 98, it'd be a good idea to bump them to Win 2K or XP for security update availability reasons. Reinstalling '98 would also result in that new peice of software not working, and would be just as likely to result in some kind of lawsuit (which leads to another ant about why people are such assholes recently, and think that the proper way to resolve most any dispute is to bring it into a court, but that's another topic)...
It's pretty reasonable from several other points of view - like that of the people who have to listen to the constant stream of complaints from users who get spam - often virus-infected - bounced off of open relays in China. "Maybe" lose a couple of valid messages that will result in phone calls and complaints if they're really important, or definitely lose hours per day dealing with infected user machines / scammed users. Hmm, which is preferable... :)
/ignorant mail server admin happens to be working for a company that's actually paying me / my employer. 85% of the mail that my mail server sees is identified as spam, with about 15% of the remainder being missed by various spam checkers. I'm not willling to be any more leniant with spam relays, because it would increase the mail reading workload of my users (and me) a *lot*. In a touch of irony, allowing mail from those countries in would *increase* the odds that a valid message would be missed, because it'd be buried under a bunch of spam. :)
I don't block China, but I certainly block Korea. I gave the country as a whoel about a year, reporting most of the spam I got (through our corporate mail server, and my home mai lserver) to the appropriate ISP. Do you have any idea how much time that takes? If I had more clueless users who opened every stupid email they got, I would've blocked Korea (and probably china) sooner - as is, though, I never got a single response, but I did get more spam from the same IPs that I had previously complained about. So I blocked Korea. Though, I also asked everyone that uses the server if they ever expected to get legitimite mail from anyone in Korea, and they all said no - so this isn't totally the same thing.
I do as a rule block foreign ISPs (at the ISP level) that allow forged spam through. Open relays are universally bad. There is not a single valid reason for running one. Laziness or ignorance are reasons, but I'll only let that slide if the lazy
Reread the post, and see if you comprehend better next time. Here are some hints: I didn't say anything about the competence of people who take mass transit or that ride a child's toy to work. I did say that people who can't ride a bike safely should probably not ride a bike. I have no desire to work in or even visit NY, LA, or anywhere else where people apparently are forced to pay outrageous parking fees but are too stupid to take that into account when determining whether they can afford to take a specific job or not.
I guess I'll also point out that having a vehicle that's useful for commuting *and* getting groceries is generally more handy that having something that you can only take to work. If you save a few bucks on parking at work, but have to spend more to do everything else in your life, you're not really saving anything.
Actually, it does cost a lot more to build a 500HP engine than a 140HP engine and make it reliable without making it absolutely huge (try it sometime - it gets real expensive real quick even if you go with large displacement). And your Volvo was not an inexpensive car when it was new. :) That's part of why it lasted - high build quality. Ferarris are expensive because there aren't as many of them made, they're high quality, and their reputation for quality has made them a name, kinda like Jaguar, BMW, Mercedes, etc. Honda makes a solid car, but they also make a metric assload of them, and they're really just good "for the money".
None the less, you sound like a "it's just a car" person. That's fine. There are lots of people out there like that. There are also lots of people who think that amassing neat-looking toys will somehow improve their social standing, or something. However, to me, driving is a pastime, a hobby, a sport. It's not just something I do to get from one place to another, though sometimes that happens. The car to me is like a hunter's gun or a baseball player's bat (for lack of time to create a better analogy). It's a critical component of my pastime, and can make or break my enjoyment. Some of the attributes that are required for performance are asthetically pleasing as well, but when I built the Chevelle - for example - I built up the suspension and brakes first. I replaced the interior next (good seats and gauges are important). I then replaced the drivetrain. All the while, the body was in spray paint, and the wheels and tires were the cheapies that came with the car. Making it "pretty" is the last concern.
I'll admit, I would like other people to like the way my car looks. I feel good when someone says "I like that car" or points something out that I've done. It's nice to see people agreeing with you, and appreciating your hard work - talk to an artist of any kind for that point, and yes, I consider programming to be an art. But I've heard negative comments as well, and I don't really care. I built the cars for me (yeah, I built them. "Stock" is like "close enough" - I'm not settling). They are functional first, and appealing second. The reaction of others is just icing, and I'm not a big fan of too much icing anyway.
None of this is to say that I'm without problems - I'm probably not perfect. I'll throw in that I wear a size 14 wide shoe, and that the link between shoe size and other areas isn't without merit, though, since it's on-topic. Either way, my performance cars have nothing to do with any issues I may have, and everything to do with my love of driving and all things mechanical. I'm sure there's people out there who feel differently about their cars, and really are compensating. That's sure not all of us, though.
Funny, I ride a real scooter on my 140 mile, 3+ hour round trip commute every day. I think that qualifies as long distance. It involves riding over bridges, riding on rural highways, and riding on semi-busy freeways (as well as riding in town). If you're not competent enough to ride over a bridge (where did that come from?), then you shouldn't be riding in town, either. You probably shouldn't even be on a two-wheeled vehicle. I sure wouldn't recommend taking a foot-powered scooter onto a highway, freeway, or on a long-distance commute, though.
BTW, my real scooter averages 68 MPG cruising at 70-80 MPH (top speed is over 95 - I haven't had opportunity and inclination to push it farther yet). Beats the pants off of one of those stupid half-electric cars in mileage, acceleration, and cost of purchase, insurance, and upkeep. It's also actually fun to ride, as opposed to "just transportation".
Anyone paying the same price to park a motorcycle as a car pays is being screwed - find another parking area that recognizes the size difference between a truck and a motorcycle. If nothing else, split the cost with another biker and share the spot.
"But, what about the rain and snow?" I have a car for the worst of those days (though a little rain's fine - I have a rain suit for that). The mileage gain more than offsets the cost of the scooter, even driving a car a few months out of the year - and I get lower insurance rates because my car's not driven as often as typical cars. "What about groceries?" I can fit 4-5 bags of groceries in the under-seat storage area, and there are saddle bags / trunks / racks that can be added for more capacity.
Have fun dealing with inclement weather / shopping / long trips on your foot-powered scooter. I'll bet those tiny, smooth tires are great on wet pavement, and that you move real well scooting into the wind. Traveling must be great fun, too.
I use the vanilla kernels under Gentoo ever since I spent a week trying to get multiple targets on a firewire to ATA adaptor to work (on PPC), and finally found that it works perfectly under the vanilla kernel(s) of the same versions. I don't know how many times I rebooted, rebuilt kernels + modules, and patched various sources that week, but I'm still pretty pissed at the Gentoo kernel patching idiots for stealing that time from me.
I've got a bike whose engine displaces 400cc and a truck with a 7.4L engine, so I'm covered either way. :)
According to Slashdot, which is also the result of one user posting to the Internet, this did drive them out of business. So who do I believe? :)
All that volcanic rock surrounding the mountain you just built your house on - well, it's a clue. Though 10K years of dormancy is a good indicator that my anticipated 75 year lifespan won't see another. :)
Nevertheless, it's not true. Sex is used in advertisements for darn near everything - not just cars for men. Or are you gonna tell me that men who drink alcohol are compensating for their tiny cocks, and that women who drink it have the envy? Anyone with a webcam, according to X10.com, is compensating, as is anyone who went to see Swimfan or Spiderman2 (ads with wet t-shirt women off the top of my head).
Maybe my wife likes her Chevelle because she wishes she had a dick, not because it looks cooller than a modern cookie-cutter and can merge/pass safely in more situations than some tiny golf cart? Maybe I have three cars that make over 300 HP because I give a shit what some ass on the street thinks about part of my anatomy that they're never going to see, not because I actually enjoy *driving*. Maybe I have a big truck because I need to make up for something, not because I used to live on a farm and I still get more usefulness out of being able to haul things + drive down dirt roads than I'd get out of the couple thousand bucks and 40 square feet of garage space I'd get from selling it.
Or maybe people who don't have the money to buy a big/fast car and don't have the ability to build one are jealous of those who can, and come up with some asinine claim that 1) is unlikely to be proven and 2) will hit a guy where it hurts. It's just as true that people with tiny "economical" cars are poor, stupid, jealous sheep who always make pathetic baseless claims to draw the attention away from others. Which is to say, neither generalization is totally true.
Well, one can pretty easily tell where volcanoes are - they're hiding underneath the big mountain of rock. So, I don't think the government should be required to help me live next to a friggin' volcano. Similarly, it's obvious where floods are likely to occur. If your house is right next to a stinkin' river, or 17 feet below sea level in a swamp at the end of a major river, well, you can expect to be involved in a flood at some time. New Orleansians knew damned well that they were moving to a place that's very likely to flood - even the primitive French and Native people could tell that there was a whole lot of water around when they built their first house out of crawfish exoskeletons. I feel bad that the flood happened, but if some boob values spicy burned catfish over living out of obvious harm's way, well, there's not much I can do to help... I'd love to run naked and drunk in crowded streets more often, but thanks to my sacrifice in that area, my house is well above water at this time.
Then again, I don't think moving to a place where there are lots of "minor" earthquakes makes a whole lot of sense either. The sun comes out most everywhere, and I'll take "has had one really big earthquake in the last 250 years" over "has a fairly substantial quake every 6 months" any time.
I've never seen Fog-X, though maybe you're just making up a stupid but believable name for Rain-X Anti-Fog... That antifog stuff would be great if it lasted through more than a few showers (on a bathroom mirror), or more than a week of driving in the fall (on the inside glass of a car without an effective defogger).
They make an anti-fog product sold under the Rain-X brand (in a black bottle, generally). It doesn't work very well on glass, and is just as safe on plastic as steel wool. :)
FWIW, my full-face helmet has a little vent on the front below the mask, and a shield over my nose that keeps me from breathing right on it. The combination seems to work fairly well as long as I'm moving. It's a Bell Sprint, and I'm fairly happy with it (in combination with a mirrored face shield, for occasionally riding off into the sunset). Their website sucks - as you can't link directly to a product, it uses Flash, and they don't even list that they have different face shields - but most any non-Harley "powersports" shop I've been in carries their stuff.
Well, I was referring to computer skills certifications, since this *is* Slashdot and those are the kind of jobs I'd be applying for. And I'm basing my "empty certifications" statement on the certifications that I hold as well as those that I've read study guides / practice exams for - in order to determine if they were worthwhile for me, and if I should care that someone I'm interviewing holds those. Outside of the Cisco stuff, I'm not aware of any that I would consider a thorough reference for any job.
Much like typical testing is only a halfway valid means of assessing classroom learning, certification "tests" are almost always just fact memorization - there's no practical application of skills. Compare this to typical jobs, which consist almost entirely of practical application.
I passed an entomology course in college, and did reasonably well. The only things I can tell you are that "bugs" are just one class of insect, and that flys have small knob-like structures called "halteres" in place of the rear wings that most all other flying insects have. But I'm certified as having much more entomology knowledge than that...
I hope you never have to interview for a job when you're young.
Anyway, it doesn't mean they *won't* get along, just like a degree doesn't mean that the person got anything out of their education, and just like experience doesn't mean much if it was in something that's "just a job". It's one of several semi-reasonable filters, though it happens to be illegal.
People get along better with others that are similar. Boo hoo, that's not fair. Let's make another law that requires everyone to get along.
I have had brakes fail a couple of times, and I can assure you that I am not posting from beyond the grave (though I can't guarantee I'll have anything better to do, /. probably won't be one of my afterlife hobbies).
Well, it does say "possibly effected". Maybe the author wasn't sure how the devices came to be?
If someone's a lot older, or from a long ways away, they probably won't fit in as well as a "local". This may sound strange, but some people prefer to work with people that they can actually get along with. It makes more sense than determining who has the most money to throw away on arbitrary tests...
As asenine as that attitude is, I'm glad some people have it. It helps me to decide who I don't want to work for without the hassle of showing up for an interview. A company who uses empty certifications as a significant step in determining interview candidates is a company that probably values other empty pursuits, and won't provide fulfilling work. I prefer to enjoy my job, rather than performing empty tasks that were arbitrarily decided on by someone too lazy to care about their job anymore.
There are still supermarkets kinda like that in more rural areas - bar code scanners and all that fancy cash register equipment aren't free, and groceries aren't exactly a high-margin product (for the grocery store, anyway). :)
I've got a small block Chevy sitting in the corner of my garage just waiting for a project like that. Get ahold of me when you get that ginormous grinder, and a blower (or possibly one of the Banks twin turbo kits). :)