I would like to update it to "energizing the atmosphere." That makes the eventual transition to "immanetizing the eschaton" that much easier, because of the similar rhythms and letter usage.
I'm going to suggest a lot of this is backwards. A young person learns to think like an old person by actually living and getting there. In the meantime, a lot of other stuff happens.
1. Plans and dreams and wants disappear, because you either successfully get them, or you learn after decades that you're not going to get them, and give up. This includes the belief that you can still do better than you've already done. Letting go of that lets off a lot of pressure.
2. You have more actual accomplishments and memories to fall back on as you age. These don't exist when you're young.
3. Don't have a job they don't like? How many of them are retired? That's the "job" I want most. Of course I'd be happier doing that. Or, by the time I'm old enough, unless I'm in really dire straits, whatever else I'm doing is probably more out of a sense of fun than for the money.
4. Decreasing sex drive. It may sound sad to the young, but I bed it a ton of ways it's a relief (or at least removes a source of dissatisfaction) from those who are older.
5. Do other appetites decrease? I'm not sure. Certainly the range of possible activities does decrease as you get older. You've learned stuff you don't like, or have ruled out because it's dangerous or no longer interesting. When I was 20, I stayed up late nights wishing I had the money to try skydiving, and being sad that I didn't. At 40, I'm already past the temptation.
There's probably more, but that's what came to mind just reading the summary.
Just because you can't bring yourself to learn a language, it doesn't mean there isn't value in doing so.
Hey, now, I never said that at all. My point was more toward what the state of the world would be if we had only a few hundred or a few thousand major ones, as opposed to the roughly 7,000 languages that exist now.
To go with your analogy, I recognize the value of having several dozen or hundreds of different models of car and truck, but if we had 7,000 different models at a dealership, I'd readily argue that many of them could disappear without the world being worse off in a significant way. Languages obviously bring more nuance and insight to the world than a model of car, but I wonder if the top 1,000 or do don't adequately cover most of the variety that you would find in the remaining 6,000.
In most states, the exit numbers are based on the mile marker. I know there are a couple of exceptions (Massachusetts is the only one I know for sure) but nearly all the others are distance. Where do you live that you've never observed this?
If all the highway signs were only labeled in terms of km, people would get used to using them.
I'm all for the change, but this isn't just signs. All exit numbers would have to change, too. Plus all the signs and maps that reference exit numbers.
But does iambic pentameter become half an iambic decameter, or 5 iambic meters? And instead of pounding sand, should one half kilogram sand, or just gram it a bunch of times? How many liters go into a Spanish galleon? Getting thrashed within a centimeter of your life sounds way too close for comfort, but is being thrashed within a meter close enough to get the point across? And don't get me started on the kiloseconds.
Okay, so I'll leave the house. But do I have to actually talk to anyone while I'm out? The summary points to "social factors." Does sitting by myself at the park not cut it?
If you can make it a week or two, you'll probably be in the clear. You're breaking yourself of a habit. Long-repeated behavior has trained you that the game is what you did, or what you turned to when nothing else was going on. Now you're training yourself that the game isn't something for you to go to. Probably the best suggestion is to intentionally come up with a list of other projects and activities for you to do, so that you're actively putting your mind and body to use. If you can give it enough time and counter-training, the reflex will fade naturally.
If you're interested in more detail, look into decision-making theory, particularly System 1 and System 2. System 1 is largely unconscious, but can be trained by System 2, to generate your urges and impulses, the things that become habits, addictions, and automatic reactions. System 2 is conscious, but takes more energy and effort, so it often cedes the floor to System 1. You spent years having your System 2 tell your System 1 to default to "the game" and now you're retraining it. Every "I feel like I should be doing something that's missing" moment is just System 1 squawking about its old training, and System 2 is still teaching it "I'm tired of the game." It just takes a while to learn.
There's more, like the fact that there's sort of a pool of energy that System 2 has for being able to resist System 1, and it can be depleted by making too many tough decisions. Which I take to mean, if you're trying to quit the game (or ditch any other habit) it's probably best to do one at a time. If you're trying to kick cigarettes, go on a diet, and improve your posture all at the same time, you're asking for a breakdown or relapse somewhere. Let the rest of your life run on habit or even give in to minor impulses in other areas while you tackle this one thing.
I could have some of this wrong. I'm just coincidentally listening to an audio lecture on the subject (How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making from The Great Courses) and have been analyzing and trying to tackle some of my own habits and addictions. Learning to recognize a compulsive itch as System 1 just repeating its training really helped me understand that I didn't have to listen to it, even though it felt like I "wanted" something. It wasn't a want, it was just a habit.
The same thing applies to a lot of the other comments about smart phone addiction scattered around this article. The audio lecture mentioned something there, that most of us create a "what do I do when I'm not really doing anything?" reflex. For some, that might be reading a book, or singing a song, or tidying up, or turning to the nearest person and talking, but a lot of people have trained themselves so that "if I'm not doing anything, pull out the phone and see what's on it." And then of course you're "doing something" and stay engrossed in it.
Are the full changes out and in some place where I can look them up? I've heard about the details in little dribs and drabs. Where can I plug in my numbers and find out how the final bill will affect me?
I'll admit I don't feel much twinge about losing a language. Now, cultures dying out, maybe, and associated stories and traditions, definitely, I can see how there's some value being lost. But at some level I feel like more languages just leads to more confusion, and the fewer of them we have, the more likely it is we'll understand each other.
I'm not following the link, but I assume that's Go the F*ck to Sleep. Someone gave us a copy, and it's an amusing book. Then my kids found it, and begged me to read it to them. I made it a challenge to try to insert kid-friendly language on the fly while reading, just to keep it interesting.
I fell in love with reading before school had pushed too many books at me, so I kept at it on my own, even as classwork did ruin a few. Luckily for me Vonnegut was never assigned, so he landed on my fun list young. I'm just in the process of re-trying Hemingway now. Shakespeare I sort of intellectually appreciate but don't go out in search of, and on the rare occasions when I do pursue something of his, it's on stage or screen, and not by reading.
Civil holiday is an oxymoron. Only religions can have holidays because only religions consider anything holy or sacred, i.e. a rule so important they would murder you for violating it.
You're letting your semantics override your common sense. "Holiday" may come from "holy day" but it definitely has a broader definition than that. Just imagine all the Brits who "go on holiday" every time they have a vacation. Then again, I personally count almost all time off as holy, but that's a matter of personal faith, I guess.
Especially on sites where your user name is your email address. Verifying the account is verifying an address to spam. If you're after a mailing list, you don't need to crack a single account to get valuable information. Then, if you're a smart phisher, you can email all the addresses with an email spoofed from the company, and use it to more easily get into the accounts, and probably a good number of other things.
The only thing that can solve this problem is ensuring that the people in congress are not horrible. That's it. That's the only thing.
Unfortunately, I think you've replaced a difficult problem with an impossible one. It's probably easier to fix NN now and pass another bill later than it is to fix congress. Among other things:
- Congress starts with a very small pool of self-selected applicants, so you're picking from at best a dozen volunteers. - Applicants who want any chance of winning have to be affiliated with things that bring them money or visibility, so they're already aligned with some kind of big money. - It's a mostly two-party system, so the candidate has to align with a party and play games to stay in its good graces. - Regardless of the candidate, the party behind them is mostly made up of the same people and only slowly changes. - There are thousands of critical issues, and the odds that you'll find a candidate who's not terrible about even three of your top four is unlikely. More likely your choice is between mostly undifferentiated party lines, and you have to pick The One Issue and give up dozens of lesser ones. - Congress is limited by location, so even if you're really motivated, and you can get everyone you know really motivated, or even a whole town really motivated, at best that affects a small handful of races, but that spirit by definition can't leave the state. The other 520-odd members (98%+) are out of your control. - The two-party system basically guarantees that your definition of "not terrible" is at odds with roughly 50% of the population. Allowing for other parties and difference of opinion, it's more likely that you can't even get 25% of a group to agree on what "not terrible" means.
So, all told I'd rather that they pass something useful now than they wait for an impossible perfection later.
There is some logic behind the idea that the people who are all about productivity are probably more likely to be doing things like writing articles. You'd expect maybe a 5:1 or even 10:1 ratio between articles about productivity and articles about taking it easy and enjoying yourself.
I suspect the ratio isn't that high, because some of those compulsively productive people are probably writing articles about enjoyment (which they're either also feeling guilty about, or have planned out like a champ).
But there's a lot of truth in the fact that you need to take responsibility and self-select what goes into your feed. Opt in, drop out; whatever works for you.
A. Those who like to enumerate with letters, and 2. Those who prefer numbers.
Okay, that's not even really a computer joke. But I used to work with a guy who literally always said "A" and then "2" as he listed off his reasons for things, something he did quite often.
At least people mostly know how to spell the real planet names. At a former job the server admin liked to name things after obscure proper nouns from Star Wars. I'd have to spell some of the server names three times to get it across.
Back in the day I ran across a site that had a huge list of purportedly real-life IT stories, like the cup holder, the floppy magnet, the foot-pedal mouse, and others. For whatever crazy reason the host had titled it with some non-intuitive word (spam, I think?) that the host insisted was valid usage, but makes it probably un-searchable these days.
So, here's a few of my favorite real-life IT moments.
Them: It's not working. Me: Is it plugged in? Them: Yes. I walk over, check the power cord, and it's unplugged. Them: Oooh, I didn't check that end of the cord.
Them: I can't play this DVD. Me: Um, you only have a CD drive.
The user's password is on a post-it on their monitor. It was their initials and their date of birth. I still don't know why they needed the reminder.
Email from customer: Help Me, in email: How can I help? Them, in second email: I can't send email. Me: It looks like you just did.
Them: Can you give me a copy of my predecessor's files? Me: Sure. There's a lot, though. Which ones do you need? Them: You do it. It's too unsecure for me to tell you which ones. Me: I'm just worried about file space. You can have any or all of them if you want. Them: That doesn't sound very safe. You tell me. Me: I can't really tell you what files you need.
Them: My mouse is jumping around. Me: Oh, it's just got a little dirt inside. It's easy to clean. Them: Can't you just buy me a new one instead?
Director: I got a new computer. Can you drive out to my house to set up email for me? Me: Okay. I drive out and find the new computer is a laptop.
Me, on phone with ISP: We can't receive email. ISP: We'll look into it and get back to you. Me, four hours later: Can I get an update? ISP: We found the problem and emailed you a fix hours ago.
Them: I'm trying to use Greg's computer but it won't come on. I troubleshoot and discover user is pressing the monitor button. Me: Look for the box, and press that button instead. Them: Box? I don't see one. Greg took his laptop with him. Does that mean I can't use it?
Me: do you have a desktop or a laptop? Him: I've got both. Me: which are we using? Him: well, it's a desktop right now. Me: Huh? Desktop right now? Him: Sometimes it's a laptop but right now it's a desktop. Me: You mean your laptop is plugged into a dock? Him: yeah. Me: Okay, that still counts as a laptop.
Them: The printer is working, but it's not printing Me: what does working but not printing mean? Them: Well, I don't know, but it's.... it's... it's not printing, but it's working? Me: Well, in what ways is it working if it's not printing? Them: I don't know. Can't you just come over here and fix it? I come over. The printer is not plugged in.
Them: My computer won't play sound. I adjust the volume slider. The computer beeps. Them: Well, I thought it was the sound, but, it won't play this voice mail. I double-click the file, and it runs for one second and ends. Me: I think it's just a hang-up. Them: Oh, nevermind then.
Her: I'm trying to opposite-click X, but it's not working. Me: Uh, most people call it right click. Her: Yeah, but it's the opposite button, so I call it opposite click. Me: You know, if you use a term that nobody else understands, they probably won't understand you. Her: So anyway, I'm trying to opposite-click this file, and...
Him: I'm getting spam from myself! Help! Me: Addresses can be faked. Him: Ah.
Her: I used to be able to use my work computer at home, but the wireless stopped working. Me: Hm, it seems to work here in the office. Her: Yeah, it's fine here, just not at home. It use to work but now it wants a password. Me: Uh, let's back up. Do you have wireless installed at home? Her: No. I just grab something from the list of wireless networks. But now they have passwords. Me: Oh, you've been stealing w
I was asked once in an interview, "What would you do if the user asked where the any key was?"
I kind of chuckled, but then went ahead and gave a gentle hand-holding explanation. Later, after I got the job, one of my co-workers remarked, "You were the only one who showed any sign of humor at that question." I had thought they were testing my ability to handle user craziness, but they were looking for the ability to laugh.
Atheism is a belief based on an unsubstantiated claim and as such is no different than religion.
Aw, come on. This is a total straw man, and if you've seen even a single discussion on Slashdot before you should know that. Very few atheists are hard atheists who insist they know there is not. Almost all are soft atheists who say they do not believe. Lack of belief then tends to lead toward thinking and behavior which occurs as if God doesn't exist, because that's only logical. The only reason I've seen anyone insist on using the hard definition of atheism is so they can lump in all the soft atheists and use it as an excuse to call them all foolish and illogical. It's not constructive.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by belief in a higher power.
Nothing to lose? Most religious systems come with restrictions. Depending on your religion, you could be losing bacon, caffeine, or alcohol, and that's just starting with the consumables.
Slashdot Mirror
Does voter registration not indicate who is casting votes? Isn't that the point of the registry?
I would like to update it to "energizing the atmosphere." That makes the eventual transition to "immanetizing the eschaton" that much easier, because of the similar rhythms and letter usage.
I'm going to suggest a lot of this is backwards. A young person learns to think like an old person by actually living and getting there. In the meantime, a lot of other stuff happens.
1. Plans and dreams and wants disappear, because you either successfully get them, or you learn after decades that you're not going to get them, and give up. This includes the belief that you can still do better than you've already done. Letting go of that lets off a lot of pressure.
2. You have more actual accomplishments and memories to fall back on as you age. These don't exist when you're young.
3. Don't have a job they don't like? How many of them are retired? That's the "job" I want most. Of course I'd be happier doing that. Or, by the time I'm old enough, unless I'm in really dire straits, whatever else I'm doing is probably more out of a sense of fun than for the money.
4. Decreasing sex drive. It may sound sad to the young, but I bed it a ton of ways it's a relief (or at least removes a source of dissatisfaction) from those who are older.
5. Do other appetites decrease? I'm not sure. Certainly the range of possible activities does decrease as you get older. You've learned stuff you don't like, or have ruled out because it's dangerous or no longer interesting. When I was 20, I stayed up late nights wishing I had the money to try skydiving, and being sad that I didn't. At 40, I'm already past the temptation.
There's probably more, but that's what came to mind just reading the summary.
Just because you can't bring yourself to learn a language, it doesn't mean there isn't value in doing so.
Hey, now, I never said that at all. My point was more toward what the state of the world would be if we had only a few hundred or a few thousand major ones, as opposed to the roughly 7,000 languages that exist now.
To go with your analogy, I recognize the value of having several dozen or hundreds of different models of car and truck, but if we had 7,000 different models at a dealership, I'd readily argue that many of them could disappear without the world being worse off in a significant way. Languages obviously bring more nuance and insight to the world than a model of car, but I wonder if the top 1,000 or do don't adequately cover most of the variety that you would find in the remaining 6,000.
Looks like it's mostly the northeast where sequential order is used instead of mileage. Interesting.
In most states, the exit numbers are based on the mile marker. I know there are a couple of exceptions (Massachusetts is the only one I know for sure) but nearly all the others are distance. Where do you live that you've never observed this?
If all the highway signs were only labeled in terms of km, people would get used to using them.
I'm all for the change, but this isn't just signs. All exit numbers would have to change, too. Plus all the signs and maps that reference exit numbers.
But does iambic pentameter become half an iambic decameter, or 5 iambic meters? And instead of pounding sand, should one half kilogram sand, or just gram it a bunch of times? How many liters go into a Spanish galleon? Getting thrashed within a centimeter of your life sounds way too close for comfort, but is being thrashed within a meter close enough to get the point across? And don't get me started on the kiloseconds.
Okay, so I'll leave the house. But do I have to actually talk to anyone while I'm out? The summary points to "social factors." Does sitting by myself at the park not cut it?
I'm sorry, but I don't really understand your question, or how it's tied to what you quoted.
If you can make it a week or two, you'll probably be in the clear. You're breaking yourself of a habit. Long-repeated behavior has trained you that the game is what you did, or what you turned to when nothing else was going on. Now you're training yourself that the game isn't something for you to go to. Probably the best suggestion is to intentionally come up with a list of other projects and activities for you to do, so that you're actively putting your mind and body to use. If you can give it enough time and counter-training, the reflex will fade naturally.
If you're interested in more detail, look into decision-making theory, particularly System 1 and System 2. System 1 is largely unconscious, but can be trained by System 2, to generate your urges and impulses, the things that become habits, addictions, and automatic reactions. System 2 is conscious, but takes more energy and effort, so it often cedes the floor to System 1. You spent years having your System 2 tell your System 1 to default to "the game" and now you're retraining it. Every "I feel like I should be doing something that's missing" moment is just System 1 squawking about its old training, and System 2 is still teaching it "I'm tired of the game." It just takes a while to learn.
There's more, like the fact that there's sort of a pool of energy that System 2 has for being able to resist System 1, and it can be depleted by making too many tough decisions. Which I take to mean, if you're trying to quit the game (or ditch any other habit) it's probably best to do one at a time. If you're trying to kick cigarettes, go on a diet, and improve your posture all at the same time, you're asking for a breakdown or relapse somewhere. Let the rest of your life run on habit or even give in to minor impulses in other areas while you tackle this one thing.
I could have some of this wrong. I'm just coincidentally listening to an audio lecture on the subject (How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making from The Great Courses) and have been analyzing and trying to tackle some of my own habits and addictions. Learning to recognize a compulsive itch as System 1 just repeating its training really helped me understand that I didn't have to listen to it, even though it felt like I "wanted" something. It wasn't a want, it was just a habit.
The same thing applies to a lot of the other comments about smart phone addiction scattered around this article. The audio lecture mentioned something there, that most of us create a "what do I do when I'm not really doing anything?" reflex. For some, that might be reading a book, or singing a song, or tidying up, or turning to the nearest person and talking, but a lot of people have trained themselves so that "if I'm not doing anything, pull out the phone and see what's on it." And then of course you're "doing something" and stay engrossed in it.
Are the full changes out and in some place where I can look them up? I've heard about the details in little dribs and drabs. Where can I plug in my numbers and find out how the final bill will affect me?
I'll admit I don't feel much twinge about losing a language. Now, cultures dying out, maybe, and associated stories and traditions, definitely, I can see how there's some value being lost. But at some level I feel like more languages just leads to more confusion, and the fewer of them we have, the more likely it is we'll understand each other.
I'm not following the link, but I assume that's Go the F*ck to Sleep. Someone gave us a copy, and it's an amusing book. Then my kids found it, and begged me to read it to them. I made it a challenge to try to insert kid-friendly language on the fly while reading, just to keep it interesting.
I fell in love with reading before school had pushed too many books at me, so I kept at it on my own, even as classwork did ruin a few. Luckily for me Vonnegut was never assigned, so he landed on my fun list young. I'm just in the process of re-trying Hemingway now. Shakespeare I sort of intellectually appreciate but don't go out in search of, and on the rare occasions when I do pursue something of his, it's on stage or screen, and not by reading.
Civil holiday is an oxymoron. Only religions can have holidays because only religions consider anything holy or sacred, i.e. a rule so important they would murder you for violating it.
You're letting your semantics override your common sense. "Holiday" may come from "holy day" but it definitely has a broader definition than that. Just imagine all the Brits who "go on holiday" every time they have a vacation. Then again, I personally count almost all time off as holy, but that's a matter of personal faith, I guess.
Especially on sites where your user name is your email address. Verifying the account is verifying an address to spam. If you're after a mailing list, you don't need to crack a single account to get valuable information. Then, if you're a smart phisher, you can email all the addresses with an email spoofed from the company, and use it to more easily get into the accounts, and probably a good number of other things.
The only thing that can solve this problem is ensuring that the people in congress are not horrible. That's it. That's the only thing.
Unfortunately, I think you've replaced a difficult problem with an impossible one. It's probably easier to fix NN now and pass another bill later than it is to fix congress. Among other things:
- Congress starts with a very small pool of self-selected applicants, so you're picking from at best a dozen volunteers.
- Applicants who want any chance of winning have to be affiliated with things that bring them money or visibility, so they're already aligned with some kind of big money.
- It's a mostly two-party system, so the candidate has to align with a party and play games to stay in its good graces.
- Regardless of the candidate, the party behind them is mostly made up of the same people and only slowly changes.
- There are thousands of critical issues, and the odds that you'll find a candidate who's not terrible about even three of your top four is unlikely. More likely your choice is between mostly undifferentiated party lines, and you have to pick The One Issue and give up dozens of lesser ones.
- Congress is limited by location, so even if you're really motivated, and you can get everyone you know really motivated, or even a whole town really motivated, at best that affects a small handful of races, but that spirit by definition can't leave the state. The other 520-odd members (98%+) are out of your control.
- The two-party system basically guarantees that your definition of "not terrible" is at odds with roughly 50% of the population. Allowing for other parties and difference of opinion, it's more likely that you can't even get 25% of a group to agree on what "not terrible" means.
So, all told I'd rather that they pass something useful now than they wait for an impossible perfection later.
There is some logic behind the idea that the people who are all about productivity are probably more likely to be doing things like writing articles. You'd expect maybe a 5:1 or even 10:1 ratio between articles about productivity and articles about taking it easy and enjoying yourself.
I suspect the ratio isn't that high, because some of those compulsively productive people are probably writing articles about enjoyment (which they're either also feeling guilty about, or have planned out like a champ).
But there's a lot of truth in the fact that you need to take responsibility and self-select what goes into your feed. Opt in, drop out; whatever works for you.
There are two types of people in the world:
A. Those who like to enumerate with letters, and
2. Those who prefer numbers.
Okay, that's not even really a computer joke. But I used to work with a guy who literally always said "A" and then "2" as he listed off his reasons for things, something he did quite often.
At least people mostly know how to spell the real planet names. At a former job the server admin liked to name things after obscure proper nouns from Star Wars. I'd have to spell some of the server names three times to get it across.
Back in the day I ran across a site that had a huge list of purportedly real-life IT stories, like the cup holder, the floppy magnet, the foot-pedal mouse, and others. For whatever crazy reason the host had titled it with some non-intuitive word (spam, I think?) that the host insisted was valid usage, but makes it probably un-searchable these days.
So, here's a few of my favorite real-life IT moments.
Them: It's not working.
Me: Is it plugged in?
Them: Yes.
I walk over, check the power cord, and it's unplugged.
Them: Oooh, I didn't check that end of the cord.
Them: I can't play this DVD.
Me: Um, you only have a CD drive.
The user's password is on a post-it on their monitor. It was their initials and their date of birth. I still don't know why they needed the reminder.
Email from customer: Help
Me, in email: How can I help?
Them, in second email: I can't send email.
Me: It looks like you just did.
Them: Can you give me a copy of my predecessor's files?
Me: Sure. There's a lot, though. Which ones do you need?
Them: You do it. It's too unsecure for me to tell you which ones.
Me: I'm just worried about file space. You can have any or all of them if you want.
Them: That doesn't sound very safe. You tell me.
Me: I can't really tell you what files you need.
Them: My mouse is jumping around.
Me: Oh, it's just got a little dirt inside. It's easy to clean.
Them: Can't you just buy me a new one instead?
Director: I got a new computer. Can you drive out to my house to set up email for me?
Me: Okay.
I drive out and find the new computer is a laptop.
Me, on phone with ISP: We can't receive email.
ISP: We'll look into it and get back to you.
Me, four hours later: Can I get an update?
ISP: We found the problem and emailed you a fix hours ago.
Them: I'm trying to use Greg's computer but it won't come on.
I troubleshoot and discover user is pressing the monitor button.
Me: Look for the box, and press that button instead.
Them: Box? I don't see one. Greg took his laptop with him. Does that mean I can't use it?
Me: do you have a desktop or a laptop?
Him: I've got both.
Me: which are we using?
Him: well, it's a desktop right now.
Me: Huh? Desktop right now?
Him: Sometimes it's a laptop but right now it's a desktop.
Me: You mean your laptop is plugged into a dock?
Him: yeah.
Me: Okay, that still counts as a laptop.
Them: The printer is working, but it's not printing .... it's ... it's not printing, but it's working?
Me: what does working but not printing mean?
Them: Well, I don't know, but it's
Me: Well, in what ways is it working if it's not printing?
Them: I don't know. Can't you just come over here and fix it?
I come over. The printer is not plugged in.
Them: My computer won't play sound.
I adjust the volume slider. The computer beeps.
Them: Well, I thought it was the sound, but, it won't play this voice mail.
I double-click the file, and it runs for one second and ends.
Me: I think it's just a hang-up.
Them: Oh, nevermind then.
Her: I'm trying to opposite-click X, but it's not working. ...
Me: Uh, most people call it right click.
Her: Yeah, but it's the opposite button, so I call it opposite click.
Me: You know, if you use a term that nobody else understands, they probably won't understand you.
Her: So anyway, I'm trying to opposite-click this file, and
Him: I'm getting spam from myself! Help!
Me: Addresses can be faked.
Him: Ah.
Her: I used to be able to use my work computer at home, but the wireless stopped working.
Me: Hm, it seems to work here in the office.
Her: Yeah, it's fine here, just not at home. It use to work but now it wants a password.
Me: Uh, let's back up. Do you have wireless installed at home?
Her: No. I just grab something from the list of wireless networks. But now they have passwords.
Me: Oh, you've been stealing w
I was asked once in an interview, "What would you do if the user asked where the any key was?"
I kind of chuckled, but then went ahead and gave a gentle hand-holding explanation. Later, after I got the job, one of my co-workers remarked, "You were the only one who showed any sign of humor at that question." I had thought they were testing my ability to handle user craziness, but they were looking for the ability to laugh.
Atheism is a belief based on an unsubstantiated claim and as such is no different than religion.
Aw, come on. This is a total straw man, and if you've seen even a single discussion on Slashdot before you should know that. Very few atheists are hard atheists who insist they know there is not. Almost all are soft atheists who say they do not believe. Lack of belief then tends to lead toward thinking and behavior which occurs as if God doesn't exist, because that's only logical. The only reason I've seen anyone insist on using the hard definition of atheism is so they can lump in all the soft atheists and use it as an excuse to call them all foolish and illogical. It's not constructive.
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by belief in a higher power.
Nothing to lose? Most religious systems come with restrictions. Depending on your religion, you could be losing bacon, caffeine, or alcohol, and that's just starting with the consumables.