Mommy, please, I can not listen to those words they are to disturbing. Please don't let that bad man say them. I am to pathetic to deal with anything. Please make him stop.
At the job that pays me I work about 40hrs a week. 4 ten hour days. Which is nice but I am working on myself and things I like that involve technology and advancing my skills far more than that. I am on a computer about 12 to 14 hours a day. Some of it is play but most of it is related to some form of knowledge enhancement. From reading about the games I am playing to researching components for the next system I am going to build to reading/. for the news of the world. (My world that is.) So I easily spend 60plus hours a week "working" on something. Be it what I get paid for in cold hard cash or what I get paid for in a deeper and braoder understnding of what interests me.
I understand the need to have some type of blocking for kids in public libraries but to block every user because children use the system is too drastic. Would not it be simpler to have the blocking ability enabled for accounts that are used by minors and those adults who are too sensitive when accidentally accessing a site that they find too offensive. Even though the software blocks some sites improperly the adults who wish the blocking for themselves will probably not miss the content since they already so censor their own lives it will not matter. As for the children, it does not seem to matter to the adults whether or not the children are over blocked or not. The adults are being so reactionary that the children might see something offensive that blocking decent content to the kids is a small price to pay for making the world that our children live in as antiseptic as possible. Hey, why not take these kids and put them in bubbles until they are 18 then let them out to try and cope. Granted kids should not be exposed to hardcore material but to block any content that might be misconstrued as offensive is certainly censorship. Hey, I know, let's have a book burning party at the local library after this is passed as law. Lets bring back the good old days of censorship and just do away with anything that might be considered bad. Realize that this country started because the thoughts and beliefs of our forefathers were censored and they were outcaste to purify society. Instead of putting up bars and locks, ones that kids could probably very easily crack compared to the adults, why not educate our children and teach them a proper moral code that befits a citizen who can add to the society as a whole. Oh, I am so sorry. I forgot. That would be much more work than any normal parent could handle. That would actually require them to spend time with their children instead of sending them to their room to do the mounds of homework that they have these days. Using the blocking is so much easier than actually raising your child. If we do set up these optional blocking routines for accounts I also think that a kid should be allowed an unblocked account if their parents say it is ok. Some parents actually do think that children have the intelligence and ability to make decisions for themselves. If people had actually read the article instead of reacting to it they would have realized that there were "six instances where someone had to be removed for violating library usage rules". But this is not conclusive for all cases since the collecting and analyzing of the logs is such a daunting task. I would like to see the option of filtering for those who think they need it and for those parents who do not trust their kids to make the right decisions. To block content from those responsible enough to not get worked up when something does not fit what they are actually looking for (e.g. Accidentally hitting a porn site when searching for info on breast cancer). Universal blocking takes away their right to go to sites that may be accidentally blocked by these filters because filters are not perfect. Granted people should not be allowed to d/l gigs of porn at the local library but other people should not be penalized because others can not make the right decisions or are too sensitive when their world is not perfect and clean. What would have happened if free speech never existed and it was deemed that the invention of the computer was bad?
I like this idea but if idiots do not work for the government they will be out of work and increase the homeless population a great deal. Although, there are still management positions in some large corporations they could move into.
When this technology began there was not much available for the curious and hungry. As young who did not fit in with the jocks, the preps, druggies or any of the popular groups in school we gravitated towards the sciences. We were considered outsiders and ostracised by the general populace. Back then the word geek had an extremely negative connotation as opposed to the current favorable light that is now cast on being a nerd. When computers came to us from the mists of time and presented a way for us to express our views and feeling without being beaten up for our words we flocked to it in droves. We hid ourselves away in our rooms, closets or grouped together with our friends to share a computer. BBS's grew out of our need to express ourselves and give resources to others in the community that needed them. Those that needed the resources already had the computers and the knowledge to use the resources. They just needed a certain few of us to be a repository of the newest software, patches and FAQs. It was not easy for us, the young, to glean information and develop our BBS communities. The biggest barrier was the money required to amass the necessary components to run the boards. We fought and scraped for what we had. We furiously protected our knowledge and only allowed those that we deemed worthy to share in the inner circle of knowledge. Those who we considered from outside were viscously thwarted and ostracised as we had been from the cliques that existed in our material worlds at school and the world at large. The cyber world was ours, and we defended it. Being young and not having mature, patient mentors to guide us in our pursuits we ended up like the kids from the island in "Lord of the Flies". The timid and meek ones hung in the background while the energetic ones blazed ahead to forge new innovations. The energy, seen as hostile, is the energy of those who have a strong belief in themselves and have become tired of being contradicted by those who do not understand. Not only did our peers not accept us but our families and the older community as a whole was completely clueless to what we were and what we did. They tried to label us so that we could fit into their sense of reality. We were reshaping the reality that they had known through computer technology. Without patient mentoring from mature computer users (who were mostly professors or scientest far from our reach) and being pushed, labeled and ostracised from all sides we developed into extremely hostile individuals on the playing field which allowed us to express our superiority. Newbies were fresh meat. Some lived through the fire to become one of those within the inner circle. Many did not. I agree that the time has come to calm down and quell the hostility on the net as a whole. It is not only making the newsgroups, and discusion forums unbearable for outsiders but also any place that people can congregate via the net. I used to play MUDS. Then I moved to the graphical games that game along (Ultima Online, EverQuest and Asherons Call). I finally quit because the community as a whole in these games was far too popluated by insensitve, hostile and immature individuals without any moral fibre represented by their actions. I joined those games looking to share and experience a virtual world of myth and magic but was greeted by aggressive, greedy, expoitive, power playing A**HOLES! People most definitely need to take custody of their behaviour and actions. Not only in the cyber world but the real world. The mature need to nurture and empower the young with positive virtues not abandon them to fight for themselves and become hostile, wounded jerks. This problem is not only in the discussion groups that you illustrate but is much more broad than that. It pervades our society as a whole. Nobody wants to listen to anybody else or teach others what they know. It is not cool to be a mentor or a teacher. It is cool to be a jerk and retire early.
So I guess the people who created this profile are those who have lots of ordinary friends, play sedate card games, accept all they are told, have a perfect family life and under normal intelligence.
Slashdot Mirror
Mommy, please, I can not listen to those words they are to disturbing. Please don't let that bad man say them. I am to pathetic to deal with anything. Please make him stop.
At the job that pays me I work about 40hrs a week. 4 ten hour days. Which is nice but I am working on myself and things I like that involve technology and advancing my skills far more than that. I am on a computer about 12 to 14 hours a day. Some of it is play but most of it is related to some form of knowledge enhancement. From reading about the games I am playing to researching components for the next system I am going to build to reading /. for the news of the world. (My world that is.) So I easily spend 60plus hours a week "working" on something. Be it what I get paid for in cold hard cash or what I get paid for in a deeper and braoder understnding of what interests me.
I understand the need to have some type of blocking for kids in public libraries but to block every user because children use the system is too drastic. Would not it be simpler to have the blocking ability enabled for accounts that are used by minors and those adults who are too sensitive when accidentally accessing a site that they find too offensive. Even though the software blocks some sites improperly the adults who wish the blocking for themselves will probably not miss the content since they already so censor their own lives it will not matter. As for the children, it does not seem to matter to the adults whether or not the children are over blocked or not. The adults are being so reactionary that the children might see something offensive that blocking decent content to the kids is a small price to pay for making the world that our children live in as antiseptic as possible. Hey, why not take these kids and put them in bubbles until they are 18 then let them out to try and cope. Granted kids should not be exposed to hardcore material but to block any content that might be misconstrued as offensive is certainly censorship. Hey, I know, let's have a book burning party at the local library after this is passed as law. Lets bring back the good old days of censorship and just do away with anything that might be considered bad. Realize that this country started because the thoughts and beliefs of our forefathers were censored and they were outcaste to purify society. Instead of putting up bars and locks, ones that kids could probably very easily crack compared to the adults, why not educate our children and teach them a proper moral code that befits a citizen who can add to the society as a whole. Oh, I am so sorry. I forgot. That would be much more work than any normal parent could handle. That would actually require them to spend time with their children instead of sending them to their room to do the mounds of homework that they have these days. Using the blocking is so much easier than actually raising your child. If we do set up these optional blocking routines for accounts I also think that a kid should be allowed an unblocked account if their parents say it is ok. Some parents actually do think that children have the intelligence and ability to make decisions for themselves. If people had actually read the article instead of reacting to it they would have realized that there were "six instances where someone had to be removed for violating library usage rules". But this is not conclusive for all cases since the collecting and analyzing of the logs is such a daunting task. I would like to see the option of filtering for those who think they need it and for those parents who do not trust their kids to make the right decisions. To block content from those responsible enough to not get worked up when something does not fit what they are actually looking for (e.g. Accidentally hitting a porn site when searching for info on breast cancer). Universal blocking takes away their right to go to sites that may be accidentally blocked by these filters because filters are not perfect. Granted people should not be allowed to d/l gigs of porn at the local library but other people should not be penalized because others can not make the right decisions or are too sensitive when their world is not perfect and clean. What would have happened if free speech never existed and it was deemed that the invention of the computer was bad?
I like this idea but if idiots do not work for the government they will be out of work and increase the homeless population a great deal. Although, there are still management positions in some large corporations they could move into.
When this technology began there was not much available for the curious and hungry. As young who did not fit in with the jocks, the preps, druggies or any of the popular groups in school we gravitated towards the sciences. We were considered outsiders and ostracised by the general populace. Back then the word geek had an extremely negative connotation as opposed to the current favorable light that is now cast on being a nerd. When computers came to us from the mists of time and presented a way for us to express our views and feeling without being beaten up for our words we flocked to it in droves. We hid ourselves away in our rooms, closets or grouped together with our friends to share a computer. BBS's grew out of our need to express ourselves and give resources to others in the community that needed them. Those that needed the resources already had the computers and the knowledge to use the resources. They just needed a certain few of us to be a repository of the newest software, patches and FAQs. It was not easy for us, the young, to glean information and develop our BBS communities. The biggest barrier was the money required to amass the necessary components to run the boards. We fought and scraped for what we had. We furiously protected our knowledge and only allowed those that we deemed worthy to share in the inner circle of knowledge. Those who we considered from outside were viscously thwarted and ostracised as we had been from the cliques that existed in our material worlds at school and the world at large. The cyber world was ours, and we defended it. Being young and not having mature, patient mentors to guide us in our pursuits we ended up like the kids from the island in "Lord of the Flies". The timid and meek ones hung in the background while the energetic ones blazed ahead to forge new innovations. The energy, seen as hostile, is the energy of those who have a strong belief in themselves and have become tired of being contradicted by those who do not understand. Not only did our peers not accept us but our families and the older community as a whole was completely clueless to what we were and what we did. They tried to label us so that we could fit into their sense of reality. We were reshaping the reality that they had known through computer technology. Without patient mentoring from mature computer users (who were mostly professors or scientest far from our reach) and being pushed, labeled and ostracised from all sides we developed into extremely hostile individuals on the playing field which allowed us to express our superiority. Newbies were fresh meat. Some lived through the fire to become one of those within the inner circle. Many did not. I agree that the time has come to calm down and quell the hostility on the net as a whole. It is not only making the newsgroups, and discusion forums unbearable for outsiders but also any place that people can congregate via the net. I used to play MUDS. Then I moved to the graphical games that game along (Ultima Online, EverQuest and Asherons Call). I finally quit because the community as a whole in these games was far too popluated by insensitve, hostile and immature individuals without any moral fibre represented by their actions. I joined those games looking to share and experience a virtual world of myth and magic but was greeted by aggressive, greedy, expoitive, power playing A**HOLES! People most definitely need to take custody of their behaviour and actions. Not only in the cyber world but the real world. The mature need to nurture and empower the young with positive virtues not abandon them to fight for themselves and become hostile, wounded jerks. This problem is not only in the discussion groups that you illustrate but is much more broad than that. It pervades our society as a whole. Nobody wants to listen to anybody else or teach others what they know. It is not cool to be a mentor or a teacher. It is cool to be a jerk and retire early.
So I guess the people who created this profile are those who have lots of ordinary friends, play sedate card games, accept all they are told, have a perfect family life and under normal intelligence.