First, there's no reason to hunt for a CD to find the diction package -- it, like almost all GNU software is available on-line -- but that is a content criticism not a sentence structure critique. So, running the text of the article through style reveals:
readability grades: Kincaid: 7.0 ARI: 7.3 Coleman-Liau: 11.7 Flesch Index: 68.5 Fog Index: 9.7 Lix: 36.7 = school year 5 SMOG-Grading: 9.6 sentence info: 5260 characters 1127 words, average length 4.67 characters = 1.47 syllables 84 sentences, average length 13.4 words 60% (51) short sentences (at most 8 words) 23% (20) long sentences (at least 23 words) 23 paragraphs, average length 3.7 sentences 4% (4) questions 22% (19) passive sentences longest sent 73 wds at sent 39; shortest sent 1 wds at sent 22 word usage: verb types: to be (25) auxiliary (6) types as % of total: conjunctions 6% (72) pronouns 7% (74) prepositions 11% (124) nominalizations 2% (17) sentence beginnings: pronoun (5) interrogative pronoun (0) article (4) subordinating conjunction (2) conjunction (3) preposition (8)
Hmmm. Slashdot commentors score "higher" and "more intelligently" than does the author. That's not something I'd put on a bio -- "My articles are statistically proven to be slightly less intelligently written than the average reader post on Slashdot" -- unless one was looking for a position at, say, the New York Times, perhaps.
But why stop our analysis there? How about an analysis of the grammar using diction? Here:
article.txt:1: My wife has a Dilbert cartoon on her office door in [which -> (use "that" if clause is restrictive)] [one -> When used as a pronoun, it must be used consistently: One must manage one's money carefully.] of the characters says:
article.txt:1: If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how." She's a Mac user and [they -> (do not use as substitute for "each, each one, everybody, every one, anybody, any one, somebody, some one")] were worse even before [they -> (do not use as substitute for "each, each one, everybody, every one, anybody, any one, somebody, some one")] all became Unix users too.
article.txt:3: But finding out [whether -> (avoid using "or not" after "whether," unless you mean "regardless of whether")] the average Mac user really is smarter [than -> (examine sentences containing "than" to insure that they are not missing words: I love my father more than my mother. I love my father more than my mother loves my father. I love my father more than I love my mother)] the rest of us isn't [so -> (do not use as intensifier)] [easy -> (weak definition)].
article.txt:3: Part of the problem is that even if you matched the admissions test results for a graduate school with individual PC or Mac preferences to discover a strong positive correlation, [people -> Do not use with numbers or as substitute for "public".] [would -> (use "should" if used as conditional statement in the first person or for "shall" in indirect quotation after a verb in past tense. Consider omitting it for repeated actions)] argue that the Mac users are exceptional for other reasons, that the tests don't measure anything relevant, and that [it's -> = "it is" or "its"?] unethical to do this in the first place.
article.txt:5: In [fact -> Restrict use to matters that can be verified.], [it's -> = "it is" or "its"?] pretty clear that this topic is sufficiently emotionally loaded that you'd get shouted down by [one -> When used as a pronoun, it must be used consistently: One must manage one's money carefully.] side or another no matter how you did the research; and that's too bad because a clear answer [one -> When used as a pronoun, it must be used consistently: One must manage one's money carefully.] way or the other [would -
And face it, Windows is still the OS bundled with most computer, and it's a pain in the ass to remove (I don't want screw with mine, since they left out the disk and opt for saving a large portion MY harddrive for the boot up partition that contains Windows... DAMN!)
Spend a couple 10's and get a new hard drive for your laptop. Install Linux on it. Swap as needed. Easy.
Mac OS X should be promoted to businesses and home users looking to run away from Windows (the OS that makes Mozilla look bad) and Infernal Exploder (the browser that makes the Internet look bad). Now would be the perfect time to promote a new line of computers with up-to-date processors...but...wait.
Actually, I've wanted a mark on my hand and forehead so that I can buy and sell since I heard the idea in Dave Hunt and Constance Cumbey ("Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow") religious conspiracy books in the mid-80s. Even as a Christian reviled by the "Mark of the Beast" I could not help but see the advantages of ID that cannot be lost or stolen (without "disarming", I mean). Then I realized that as long as obtaining the Mark without being required to bow down and worship the Beast, it was just a damn mark. Bring it on, baby!
Later I realized that the crooks could just break into the central servers and drain me dry without slicing or dicing and the whole idea seemed less interesting.
Anyway, I still hear people whispering about the "German guy" at the mall who paid for his goods with a scan of his forehead, much to the shock of the salesperson. *Yawn* People who pass these stories along are better suited for bowling than serious discourse...somewhat similar to that other brainless nub of "Bowling for Columbine" fame.
My first thought: great, they'll rip off his arm. That'll be so much better than merely being tossed in a car's trunk and spirited away for a weekend with a blindfold, won't it?
Poor guy; they probably told him, "Jeffe, to combat kidnapping we're going to, uh, ARM you." (And to use a pun like that in English, how rude!)
That the story submitter buys into the "it's insecure because it's popular" myth is one thing; for Slashdot to willy-nilly accept it is another. Very odd.
That the "shell://" hole in Mozilla (thereby Firefox and Thunderbird) exists is true; but it is not truly a Mozilla whole; Mozilla passes the unhandled scheme to Windows and Windows serves the hole. It's a Windows hole. MS Word (among others) also is vulnerable to the "shell://" exploit.
This exploit is specific to Windows. Windows is being targeted, not Mozilla.
So, don't just move to a more secure browser, jump to Mac OS X, Linux, and or *BSD for a better Internet Experience.
We're moving halfway cross country and I decided to take the old laptops, 1/2 ton 17 inch monitor, extra cases, scads of DIMMs, SODIMMs and SIMMs, CPUs, fans, ISA/PCI/??? cards, cables (network, power, serial, parallel, and "huh?"), AB Switch boxes, KVMs, and other items in my "yesterday and someday" collection to Goodwill.
I'm too busy for eBaying it away. Office Depot taking "one" personal electronic device a day would be a huge waste of time for me, for the parent and for most Slashdotters, I'd imagine.
My wife said, "I told you so." And, she did. Your advice is sage.
Microsoft's own "example" email address is "someone@microsoft.com". They could have used the standard, recommended "@example.com" but their corporate identity (brand) MUST BE REINFORCED, so they now undoutedly receive lots of branded spam to that address. Lots.
Had this happen, immediately started job search and left about a month later. Heard from others who didn't escape that about a month after that, the bank stopped honoring the payroll checks altogether and the company had to make payroll IN CASH. Company was sold not much later.
Fully understandable why you jumped -- question, though: ever have a twinge of guilt for leaving and making an unstable situation less stable?
I've worked mainly with small companies in my work life. We've worked for large companies as a team, but my check came from a small company, usually. All companies have "cash flow" problems where money coming is coming slower than bills are due. A large company will have a line of credit to even out the income tide, but a small company may not be able to get a large enough line of credit to avoid cycical pinches. When times are really tough large companies have layoffs, sometimes massive, but the company continues on; a small company often is already running on minimum personell and a layoff is detrimental to the company.
So, what's the threshhold of pain when working for a small company? One measure is, how smart are the actions of the company during a financial crunch? Are they cutting the fat or keeping the owners' extravegances? Do the cuts hurt productivity or just cause inconvenience? And the kicker, as an employee (without ownership in the company) how much pain do I have to bear?
The answer may be that, in a small company, the employees need to bear some pain. But, by including the employees in the pain, the management owes the employees two things:
Forthrightness
Management should layout the real situation to the employees so that they are not misled as to the situation for which they are asked to suffer; if it's hopeless, they need to know.
Reward
When -- if -- the situation turns around the employees who suffered along with the manangement/ownership should likewise share in the rewards.
If forthrightness and reward are not to be given then the employees should be sheilded from any suffering -- that is, paychecks are on time, benefits are maintained and essential services needed to perform job tasks are maintained. Often, however, the management obfuscates the truth until it is too obvious to be ignored. Then trust is broken and feelings are hurt. Not that a company is about feelings but in a small company, especially, it is important that the trust level is high, as well as the level of respect.
Determining what one's own responsibility toward a company is is not easy when the company is hurting.
--
P.S. To the/.'er with the simplistic sig equating capitalism with communism vis-a-vis exploitation of workers, this entire discussion thread is only possible in a free system. Under tyranny deciding how much to suffer and when to bolt are imaginary luxuries left to the insane; in a free society, workers stay with a company willingly, held only by their own willingness to stay or unwillingness to leave (even if they fear homelessness and famine in case of quitting, it is their own unwillingness to leave and take the risk that keeps them at a job).
At my similar experience to yours I was hired to work solo on a project that brought in more than 90% of the small company's revenue. All I wanted was a fair salary and healthcare benes. Twice, in 4 months, the healthcare was cancelled due to a mistake (non-payment with ambiguous excuses)... The first time I found out through the admissions personnel at an emergency clinic when my wife, who was nursing a newborn, needed attention due to dehydration from a nasty flu bug. Never was I so PO'ed. Oh, and I paid $500/mo out of my own pocket for the coverage (company plan, employee paid), which meant the money was, effectively, stolen. After he got the insurance re-instated I told him that if it happened again for any reason I would walk. My wife found out, three months later, that we were cancelled when she called to make sure the policy was in effect prior to a scheduled appointment. I quit that day. It's bad enough to be the revenue source of a company and not get rewarded accordingly; it's worse to then have what is due taken away, too.
Oh, he didn't have a 22 yr old dog-ter like your boss. But he did have a sister-in-law who lived with he and his wife who was a stripper at a cheesy beer joint. Yikes.
Anyway he's trying to make money selling a skin around Quicktime as a "media portal" advertising whammy-jammy. So 1997.
At least one other/.'er worked for this guy. I wonder if they'll comment...
And, don't forget, even if it IS tax deductable you'll ONLY -- AT BEST -- get back 35% of the expense in tax savings, and that much only if you're in the top tax bracket. Spend a dollar to earn $.35 -- whee.
Non-tech example: my wife took the kids and their nanny to an amusement park. Did the nanny have to pay? Of course not. If the nanny needed to rent bowling shoes at the lanes or skates at the rink or skies on the slopes in the course of doing her job, would she need to pay? Of course not.
Why, then, do employers expect us to pay for the things we need to do our jobs?
One possible reason: lack of backbone from so many techie-dweebs just giving in instead of rocking the boat. Hey, if we were good at negotiation and business skills we'd be running the company ourselves. Just ask Paul Graham.
I found the problem. If you look at the picture of the 'tard's arm you'll see it, too.
Yes, he's an overweight hairy Neanderthal.
There is one very useful purpose for this article: it proves that any article posted by a "competing" web site to Slashdot will become a page one story on Slashdot.
You are the fool. As my co-worker, Konstin, will atest, too. He's a former USSR nuclear physicist.
As for me, I haven't listened to econ profs since the early 90's (and barely then, I'm afraid; I read the text books but the profs were old drunks with tenure) and I've not worked for a "corporation" since 1988 (Fidelity Investments; shudder).
No, I've worked for over 15 years in IT. I've seen a lot of crap employers and I've been exploited by employers...to a point. That point was the end of my tolerance of the exploiting -- then, once my tolerance level was reached, I did the one thing a free system allows: I chose to terminate my employment and seek employment elsewhere.
I did this last September. After working for a slave-driver (we use that term but don't understand what it means as would someone truly under slavery) for 2 years I decided I was through and I walked out. Within a couple days I had another job.
I didn't have to clear it with the government. Ashcroft did visit me that night with a "warning" to at least give 2 weeks notice. Nothing was entered on my "permanent record".
My ancedote is but one of millions.
You, sir, with your simplistic captialism-communism equivelency are the fool. And I mean that with all due respect for what a fool is.
Now. Do I believe that captialism is a panacea with no shortcommings? Ha. Only when there is no scaracity of resources will there be true equity for all persons. That Day is coming, I believe, but it won't come through an election - or a revolution. So, in the mean time, I am glad and happy -- moreover thankful -- that I can live in a society that allows me the freedom to make as much or as little of myself as I can.
Don't assume -- I think the omission of a CD-ROM was intentional, unless the poor guy had not heard of a Live CD yet... But it is hard to imagine a PII with a USB but no CD-ROM.
So, assuming the poor guy doesn't have a CD-ROM I'd suggest getting a USB Hard Drive. Don't tell me that speed is an issue; this is a floppy-based PII 266 laptop...Or, at least, a parallel port CD-ROM.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmm. Slashdot commentors score "higher" and "more intelligently" than does the author. That's not something I'd put on a bio -- "My articles are statistically proven to be slightly less intelligently written than the average reader post on Slashdot" -- unless one was looking for a position at, say, the New York Times, perhaps.
But why stop our analysis there? How about an analysis of the grammar using diction? Here:
Spend a couple 10's and get a new hard drive for your laptop. Install Linux on it. Swap as needed. Easy.
Mac OS X should be promoted to businesses and home users looking to run away from Windows (the OS that makes Mozilla look bad) and Infernal Exploder (the browser that makes the Internet look bad). Now would be the perfect time to promote a new line of computers with up-to-date processors...but...wait.
Time for Novell to step up and fill the gap.
[This post written using SUSE 9.1 Professional.]
Actually, I've wanted a mark on my hand and forehead so that I can buy and sell since I heard the idea in Dave Hunt and Constance Cumbey ("Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow") religious conspiracy books in the mid-80s. Even as a Christian reviled by the "Mark of the Beast" I could not help but see the advantages of ID that cannot be lost or stolen (without "disarming", I mean). Then I realized that as long as obtaining the Mark without being required to bow down and worship the Beast, it was just a damn mark. Bring it on, baby!
Later I realized that the crooks could just break into the central servers and drain me dry without slicing or dicing and the whole idea seemed less interesting.
Anyway, I still hear people whispering about the "German guy" at the mall who paid for his goods with a scan of his forehead, much to the shock of the salesperson. *Yawn* People who pass these stories along are better suited for bowling than serious discourse...somewhat similar to that other brainless nub of "Bowling for Columbine" fame.
Exactamente.
My first thought: great, they'll rip off his arm. That'll be so much better than merely being tossed in a car's trunk and spirited away for a weekend with a blindfold, won't it?
Poor guy; they probably told him, "Jeffe, to combat kidnapping we're going to, uh, ARM you." (And to use a pun like that in English, how rude!)
That the story submitter buys into the "it's insecure because it's popular" myth is one thing; for Slashdot to willy-nilly accept it is another. Very odd.
That the "shell://" hole in Mozilla (thereby Firefox and Thunderbird) exists is true; but it is not truly a Mozilla whole; Mozilla passes the unhandled scheme to Windows and Windows serves the hole. It's a Windows hole. MS Word (among others) also is vulnerable to the "shell://" exploit.
This exploit is specific to Windows. Windows is being targeted, not Mozilla.
So, don't just move to a more secure browser, jump to Mac OS X, Linux, and or *BSD for a better Internet Experience.
They went to the Goodwill location in Lake Forest, CA.
We're moving halfway cross country and I decided to take the old laptops, 1/2 ton 17 inch monitor, extra cases, scads of DIMMs, SODIMMs and SIMMs, CPUs, fans, ISA/PCI/??? cards, cables (network, power, serial, parallel, and "huh?"), AB Switch boxes, KVMs, and other items in my "yesterday and someday" collection to Goodwill.
I'm too busy for eBaying it away. Office Depot taking "one" personal electronic device a day would be a huge waste of time for me, for the parent and for most Slashdotters, I'd imagine.
My wife said, "I told you so." And, she did. Your advice is sage.
6th down, O bright one.
- http://www.google.com/search?q=actil+OS
Look at the 6th or so result site.- including 3ActilOS, a multitasking OS, which is not even referenced by Google
True "ActilOS" is not googlable, but "actil OS" is. Common boogle -- not trying alternate spacing for acronyms and product names.Microsoft's own "example" email address is "someone@microsoft.com". They could have used the standard, recommended "@example.com" but their corporate identity (brand) MUST BE REINFORCED, so they now undoutedly receive lots of branded spam to that address. Lots.
I wish more /.ers would just open a box of soap and stand near it for a while. Phew!
What they didn't say was, yes, it was 6 Years without a reboot, but 7 years without a user. /me ducks for cover
- Worse yet: checks on time, but they bounce.
Fully understandable why you jumped -- question, though: ever have a twinge of guilt for leaving and making an unstable situation less stable?Had this happen, immediately started job search and left about a month later. Heard from others who didn't escape that about a month after that, the bank stopped honoring the payroll checks altogether and the company had to make payroll IN CASH. Company was sold not much later.
I've worked mainly with small companies in my work life. We've worked for large companies as a team, but my check came from a small company, usually. All companies have "cash flow" problems where money coming is coming slower than bills are due. A large company will have a line of credit to even out the income tide, but a small company may not be able to get a large enough line of credit to avoid cycical pinches. When times are really tough large companies have layoffs, sometimes massive, but the company continues on; a small company often is already running on minimum personell and a layoff is detrimental to the company.
So, what's the threshhold of pain when working for a small company? One measure is, how smart are the actions of the company during a financial crunch? Are they cutting the fat or keeping the owners' extravegances? Do the cuts hurt productivity or just cause inconvenience? And the kicker, as an employee (without ownership in the company) how much pain do I have to bear?
The answer may be that, in a small company, the employees need to bear some pain. But, by including the employees in the pain, the management owes the employees two things:
- Forthrightness
- Management should layout the real situation to the employees so that they are not misled as to the situation for which they are asked to suffer; if it's hopeless, they need to know.
- Reward
- When -- if -- the situation turns around the employees who suffered along with the manangement/ownership should likewise share in the rewards.
If forthrightness and reward are not to be given then the employees should be sheilded from any suffering -- that is, paychecks are on time, benefits are maintained and essential services needed to perform job tasks are maintained. Often, however, the management obfuscates the truth until it is too obvious to be ignored. Then trust is broken and feelings are hurt. Not that a company is about feelings but in a small company, especially, it is important that the trust level is high, as well as the level of respect.Determining what one's own responsibility toward a company is is not easy when the company is hurting.
--
P.S. To the /.'er with the simplistic sig equating capitalism with communism vis-a-vis exploitation of workers, this entire discussion thread is only possible in a free system. Under tyranny deciding how much to suffer and when to bolt are imaginary luxuries left to the insane; in a free society, workers stay with a company willingly, held only by their own willingness to stay or unwillingness to leave (even if they fear homelessness and famine in case of quitting, it is their own unwillingness to leave and take the risk that keeps them at a job).
Oh, he didn't have a 22 yr old dog-ter like your boss. But he did have a sister-in-law who lived with he and his wife who was a stripper at a cheesy beer joint. Yikes.
Anyway he's trying to make money selling a skin around Quicktime as a "media portal" advertising whammy-jammy. So 1997.
At least one other /.'er worked for this guy. I wonder if they'll comment...
Excellent point. Don't ignore the signs! Other signs:
And, don't forget, even if it IS tax deductable you'll ONLY -- AT BEST -- get back 35% of the expense in tax savings, and that much only if you're in the top tax bracket. Spend a dollar to earn $.35 -- whee.
Amen.
If the job requires it, the boss pays for it.
Non-tech example: my wife took the kids and their nanny to an amusement park. Did the nanny have to pay? Of course not. If the nanny needed to rent bowling shoes at the lanes or skates at the rink or skies on the slopes in the course of doing her job, would she need to pay? Of course not.
Why, then, do employers expect us to pay for the things we need to do our jobs?
One possible reason: lack of backbone from so many techie-dweebs just giving in instead of rocking the boat. Hey, if we were good at negotiation and business skills we'd be running the company ourselves. Just ask Paul Graham.
Yes, he's an overweight hairy Neanderthal.
There is one very useful purpose for this article: it proves that any article posted by a "competing" web site to Slashdot will become a page one story on Slashdot.
Note to those playing along at home: The "insight" mod prob. is due to the sentence "I must have had some luck though." and not the overall posting.
You are the fool. As my co-worker, Konstin, will atest, too. He's a former USSR nuclear physicist.
As for me, I haven't listened to econ profs since the early 90's (and barely then, I'm afraid; I read the text books but the profs were old drunks with tenure) and I've not worked for a "corporation" since 1988 (Fidelity Investments; shudder).
No, I've worked for over 15 years in IT. I've seen a lot of crap employers and I've been exploited by employers...to a point. That point was the end of my tolerance of the exploiting -- then, once my tolerance level was reached, I did the one thing a free system allows: I chose to terminate my employment and seek employment elsewhere.
I did this last September. After working for a slave-driver (we use that term but don't understand what it means as would someone truly under slavery) for 2 years I decided I was through and I walked out. Within a couple days I had another job.
I didn't have to clear it with the government. Ashcroft did visit me that night with a "warning" to at least give 2 weeks notice. Nothing was entered on my "permanent record".
My ancedote is but one of millions.
You, sir, with your simplistic captialism-communism equivelency are the fool. And I mean that with all due respect for what a fool is.
Now. Do I believe that captialism is a panacea with no shortcommings? Ha. Only when there is no scaracity of resources will there be true equity for all persons. That Day is coming, I believe, but it won't come through an election - or a revolution. So, in the mean time, I am glad and happy -- moreover thankful -- that I can live in a society that allows me the freedom to make as much or as little of myself as I can.
You, sir, should reconsider your position.
If Bush decides to back up the UN resolution with force we'll see bombs dropping in ... Michigan.
Don't assume -- I think the omission of a CD-ROM was intentional, unless the poor guy had not heard of a Live CD yet... But it is hard to imagine a PII with a USB but no CD-ROM.
So, assuming the poor guy doesn't have a CD-ROM I'd suggest getting a USB Hard Drive. Don't tell me that speed is an issue; this is a floppy-based PII 266 laptop...Or, at least, a parallel port CD-ROM.
Put the USB key fob in the other USB port.
Under captialism you chose your exploiter.