I'm an atheist without any love for Scientology. I don't see Scientology as any different from the "legitimate religions" that people have grown up in.
- all have done unethical acts ( read your history )
- all have beliefs people not brought in the religion would call
superstition ( and less respectful terms )
- all what people not brought in the religion would call myths.
- all, from my viewpoint, are man-made (apologies to the women in the audience for the term )
The only thing I can think of that separates Scientology from any of the "legitimate religions" is that Scientology is so new that there are people outside of the religion old enough to remember seeing it be created by a person.
My guess is that "being created in murky distance" past as well as being brought up in a certain way gives other religions an aura of credibility that Scientology lacks.
However, when you look at they claim, how they act and what they do, it all seems the same, from an atheists point of view.
I can't agree with your post ( I do like the poem by the way ). There are some things which have been clinically proven to help most people and the few that it does not, does no harm. Cognitive therapy, vigourous exercise, better nutrition, meditation, socializing more, etc
I agree with you that the United States has incredible air superiority over North Korea. However, I have read that North Korea has an incredible amount of ground defense. Highly motivated troops, traps and even factories underground that could keep operating during a bombing. That is one reason why there still is a North Korea.
I worked my way through school at at a food collective ( co-op ) on campus. Many of my coworkers were regular activists. In the years since I've also interacted with activists for issues I care about.
It is true, many of them have problems, some of which they aren't aware of and that they are using the cause as source of catharsis.
To be fair, MOST people have problems and many other people get into things because of their problems, rather than thing itself. No disrespect to anyone, but look at some of the gun advocates in the news fighting against an assault weapon ban.
There are many healthy, reasonable people who own guns for self protection and who want the right to keep those kind of guns.
When I first read this post I thought " yes, but what can be done?". I've been a programmer for 13 years. Socially maladjusted people are all over the industry. You can't force people to take a look at themselves and go get help.
However, there is the power of the example. Look how many IT types went from being obese to slim with John Walkers "The Hacker's Diet".
What is needed for high profile ubergeeks to publish their own accounts cleaning up their mental health and perhaps providing a geeky way, a "Hacker's Diet" for mental health and social skills ( beyond the ground covered by the PUA community ).
I'm sure there are at least a few ubergeeks who had mental health issues, social adjustment issues and who overcame them. It is time to publish.
Ubuntu is still *one* of the best distros. As someone who has been using it since it came out I am surprised Cox chose to runaway from Fedora to Ubuntu. Ubuntu used to be the most "least hassle" and user friendly distro. I would say with the default desktop of Unity that title now belongs to MINT linux and that is what I am putting on the new home PC I am buying in March.
I do not want to see that software open sourced, possibly giving Republicans an advantage and one they did not pay for. I am one of the people who contributed a non-trivial amount to President Obama's campaign. I'm sure other contributors do not like the idea of liberal donated funds going to help a Republican downstream.
If you want open source political software, make something new, make something that will be fair to all candidates and make something that will serve the public good.
How about an open source "get out the vote" software for local elections? Due to years of intense gerrymandering Republicans still won the House, despite more people from their areas voting for other people. Gerrymandering happened in part due to not every liberal who could have voted in local elections doing so.
Help reverse that trend with open source software to inform the ordinary voter of that situation and to get them out to vote when the battle to reverse that gerrymandering begins.
That will give all candidates, from every party a level, fair, playing field. More importantly it will give people fair representation.
It only matters who legally owns the code. It is their decision to open source it or not. I hope they do not. I do not want the Republicans gaining advantage they did not pay for.
I remember reading that Romney campaign workers found their expense cards shut off between the time Romney finished his confession speech and the cabs they took to arrive home. If somebody like that is too cheap to take care of people who were fighting for him he shouldn't get a freebie to help him win.
I'm not an instagram user. If I was and I signed up under the original TOS, I would have been offended at their proposed change, with no one telling me.
Nobody needs to be told, nor are they cheap, for someone trying to take their property away from them.
I'm guessing the final decision maker at Instagram either had to be a socially out of touch person who had no idea that change would upset their users or s/he had to be a ballsy semi-sociopathic Gordon Geko corporate raider type seeing what s/he could get away with.
Another possibility could be that the person who made that decision had both qualities.
Either way, it is for the best as Instagram's example will likely slow down similar abuses by social media in the future.
I imagine a lot of people will not like this. At some point they will buy an alternative after a manufacturer sees a market for it. In the interim, some people selling used laptops might make a little more money they would have before
If you are talking about weight control, it takes zero time to NOT eat something you don't need.
Make sure get 3 square meals in, even if you need to make them yourself and bring them in.
Find a low calorie caffeniated drink. I recommend tea. A higher quality tea will be tasty, less than a tall bottle of soda from a soda machine, will calm you while it stimulates you helping you think better and it has anti-oxidants.
If you want to eat out of boredom, promise yourself you will, IF YOU STILL WANT to after doing something else for 15 minutes like reading something.
Fill up a 2qt bottle with water at the start of your shift and make it game to finish it by the end. Poor hydration often makes people eat when their really only wants water.
I have a pop reminder come up every day about 2pm reminding me to do 5 stretching exercises I can do standing up, in my work clothes and take only about 5 min to do.
It isn't enough to keep me fit, I don't think anything in the slow moments of a job can be and not compromise your job.
However, I have noticed that when I stretch to work out in the evening, those measley 5 minutes make me feel a lot looser at the end of the day.
I hear you. During the dot com boom they were short on everything so I was sitting between two markerters. Then later on at the bigger place I was around the corner from some millionaire programmers who were working for the fun of it. Arrested adolescents literally playing with toys.
I had always taken quiet as a god given workplace right endorsed and understood by everyone.............not so.
Many of the causes of premature deaths for Americans are life style related. Watch a copy of "Forks Over Knives" ( the heart surgeon who helped make President Clinton's diet is in this documentary ). If you smoke, quit. If you drink, limit yourself to one a day.
A lot of things still may cut your life short, but you will take out about 2/3 of the top 10 causes of early death for Americans.
I program better when I am in a quiet environment.
I have been amazed how hard it is to get work done in cube farms, especially when there are people nearby whose job it is to talk on the phone often.
A few gigs like that made me invest in these. They work as well as ear plugs but without the inconvenience of roll and stuff them: http://tinyurl.com/cw33u3x
If an org will not pay for real offices they should consider separating people with noisy jobs ( phone use ) from others and make some rules about noise levels
You are right, if I went through the hassle of getting an appointment with a doctor I would likely still have a copay, in addition to the loss of time of getting to a doctor.
Since I am working it was worth it to the get the shot, get it now and get that item off of my schedule.
The possibility you didn't mention is that insurance companies simply do not want to pay for anything that they do not have to pay for and will not if there are no consequences for them.
I am healthy. If I catch the flu I will get over it with the only damage being lost time at work and feeling badly for about two weeks. That doesn't cost the insurance company anything, yet the flu shot could still work and the medical advisors to an insurance company can still believe that flu shots work.
I don't know what tests you're alluding to, but man, if you can't do fizzbuzz-style exercise without breaking a sweat, you're useless, okay?
I mentioned 3 examples in the post your replied to. If your reading comprehension is that bad,you're useless, okay? Geeze, what a horrible thing to say to a person. Untrue too.
I also wrote in the post you read that I have done well in the field for 14 years despite losing out in interviews where I was asked to take odd tests that I was unprepared for because my daily work has nothing to do with solving the tower of hanoi problem.
FWIW, I googled on "fizz buzz" and I would have had no problem with the first example of such a test that came up.
So I guess am I not "useless" by your standards.
Please don't lecture me about needing a thick skin in this field. I've met as well as worked with many callous, cynical or socially maladjusted people. I can handle it. I'm just honest about having feelings and since this isn't a work environment I gave you a piece of my mind in return.
I've been programming for about 14 years. I have seen this conversation come up plenty of times. Many people come up with good reasons why such programming tests and other programming job interview techniques unfairly weed people out. I've been a victim of it myself at some interviews and have gone on to do STELLAR work at OTHER places. The bottom line is that employers feel that they need SOMETHING, even something crappy, so... these interview tests are a fact of life.
However misguided, if you are a programmer and you want a new job, you have to deal with this reality.
Fortunately, in 2013 there are a plethora of programming interview prep books out there so at least you have a chance if somebody throws a pop quiz at you about the tower of hanoi, asks you to write a script to print out only prime numbers or asks you to write a script to reverse a string using no speciality functions though you have not thought about such mishigas in years.
I read this article at the end of my day. I got my flu snot at a supermarket on the way home. I live in the NE so it is only a matter of time before that flu "epidemic" comes to my town. I never get get sick, but I caught a lingering cold twice last month. It is worth $30 ( shame on you CareFirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield for not covering it ) to make sure that I am done with that kind of crap for the winter. Just do it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm an atheist without any love for Scientology. I don't see Scientology as any different from the "legitimate religions" that people have grown up in.
- all have done unethical acts ( read your history )
- all have beliefs people not brought in the religion would call
superstition ( and less respectful terms )
- all what people not brought in the religion would call myths.
- all, from my viewpoint, are man-made (apologies to the women in the audience for the term )
The only thing I can think of that separates Scientology from any of the "legitimate religions" is that Scientology is so new that there are people outside of the religion old enough to remember seeing it be created by a person.
My guess is that "being created in murky distance" past as well as being brought up in a certain way gives other religions an aura of credibility that Scientology lacks.
However, when you look at they claim, how they act and what they do, it all seems the same, from an atheists point of view.
No disrespect meant to anyone.
I can't agree with your post ( I do like the poem by the way ). There are some things which have been clinically proven to help most people and the few that it does not, does no harm. Cognitive therapy, vigourous exercise, better nutrition, meditation, socializing more, etc
I agree with you that the United States has incredible air superiority over North Korea. However, I have read that North Korea has an incredible amount of ground defense. Highly motivated troops, traps and even factories underground that could keep operating during a bombing. That is one reason why there still is a North Korea.
I will second that.
I worked my way through school at at a food collective ( co-op ) on campus. Many of my coworkers were regular activists. In the years since I've also interacted with activists for issues I care about.
It is true, many of them have problems, some of which they aren't aware of and that they are using the cause as source of catharsis.
To be fair, MOST people have problems and many other people get into things because of their problems, rather than thing itself. No disrespect to anyone, but look at some of the gun advocates in the news fighting against an assault weapon ban.
There are many healthy, reasonable people who own guns for self protection and who want the right to keep those kind of guns.
When I first read this post I thought " yes, but what can be done?". I've been a programmer for 13 years. Socially maladjusted people are all over the industry. You can't force people to take a look at themselves and go get help.
However, there is the power of the example. Look how many IT types went from being obese to slim with John Walkers "The Hacker's Diet".
What is needed for high profile ubergeeks to publish their own accounts cleaning up their mental health and perhaps providing a geeky way, a "Hacker's Diet" for mental health and social skills ( beyond the ground covered by the PUA community ).
I'm sure there are at least a few ubergeeks who had mental health issues, social adjustment issues and who overcame them. It is time to publish.
Ubuntu is still *one* of the best distros. As someone who has been using it since it came out I am surprised Cox chose to runaway from Fedora to Ubuntu. Ubuntu used to be the most "least hassle" and user friendly distro. I would say with the default desktop of Unity that title now belongs to MINT linux and that is what I am putting on the new home PC I am buying in March.
To the developers of that software,
I do not want to see that software open sourced, possibly giving Republicans an advantage and one they did not pay for. I am one of the people who contributed a non-trivial amount to President Obama's campaign. I'm sure other contributors do not like the idea of liberal donated funds going to help a Republican downstream.
If you want open source political software, make something new, make something that will be fair to all candidates and make something that will serve the public good.
How about an open source "get out the vote" software for local elections? Due to years of intense gerrymandering Republicans still won the House, despite more people from their areas voting for other people. Gerrymandering happened in part due to not every liberal who could have voted in local elections doing so.
Help reverse that trend with open source software to inform the ordinary voter of that situation and to get them out to vote when the battle to reverse that gerrymandering begins.
That will give all candidates, from every party a level, fair, playing field. More importantly it will give people fair representation.
It only matters who legally owns the code. It is their decision to open source it or not. I hope they do not. I do not want the Republicans gaining advantage they did not pay for.
I remember reading that Romney campaign workers found their expense cards shut off between the time Romney finished his confession speech and the cabs they took to arrive home. If somebody like that is too cheap to take care of people who were fighting for him he shouldn't get a freebie to help him win.
I'm not an instagram user. If I was and I signed up under the original TOS, I would have been offended at their proposed change, with no one telling me.
Nobody needs to be told, nor are they cheap, for someone trying to take their property away from them.
I'm guessing the final decision maker at Instagram either had to be a socially out of touch person who had no idea that change would upset their users or s/he had to be a ballsy semi-sociopathic Gordon Geko corporate raider type seeing what s/he could get away with.
Another possibility could be that the person who made that decision had both qualities.
Either way, it is for the best as Instagram's example will likely slow down similar abuses by social media in the future.
I imagine a lot of people will not like this. At some point they will buy an alternative after a manufacturer sees a market for it. In the interim, some people selling used laptops might make a little more money they would have before
If you are talking about weight control, it takes zero time to NOT eat something you don't need.
Make sure get 3 square meals in, even if you need to make them yourself and bring them in.
Find a low calorie caffeniated drink. I recommend tea. A higher quality tea will be tasty, less than a tall bottle of soda from a soda machine, will calm you while it stimulates you helping you think better and it has anti-oxidants.
If you want to eat out of boredom, promise yourself you will, IF YOU STILL WANT to after doing something else for 15 minutes like reading something.
Fill up a 2qt bottle with water at the start of your shift and make it game to finish it by the end. Poor hydration often makes people eat when their really only wants water.
I have a pop reminder come up every day about 2pm reminding me to do 5 stretching exercises I can do standing up, in my work clothes and take only about 5 min to do.
It isn't enough to keep me fit, I don't think anything in the slow moments of a job can be and not compromise your job.
However, I have noticed that when I stretch to work out in the evening, those measley 5 minutes make me feel a lot looser at the end of the day.
Money.
Cube farms are cheaper than offices,
Open office layouts are cheaper than cubes.
I hear you. During the dot com boom they were short on everything so I was sitting between two markerters. Then later on at the bigger place I was around the corner from some millionaire programmers who were working for the fun of it. Arrested adolescents literally playing with toys.
I had always taken quiet as a god given workplace right endorsed and understood by everyone.............not so.
Many of the causes of premature deaths for Americans are life style related. Watch a copy of "Forks Over Knives" ( the heart surgeon who helped make President Clinton's diet is in this documentary ). If you smoke, quit. If you drink, limit yourself to one a day.
A lot of things still may cut your life short, but you will take out about 2/3 of the top 10 causes of early death for Americans.
I program better when I am in a quiet environment.
I have been amazed how hard it is to get work done in cube farms, especially when there are people nearby whose job it is to talk on the phone often.
A few gigs like that made me invest in these. They work as well as ear plugs but without the inconvenience of roll and stuff them:
http://tinyurl.com/cw33u3x
There is this popular article about research that shows that quiet and solitude boosts productivity, including for developers
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
If an org will not pay for real offices they should consider separating people with noisy jobs ( phone use ) from others and make some rules about noise levels
Thanks for the interesting reply.
You are right, if I went through the hassle of getting an appointment with a doctor I would likely still have a copay, in addition to the loss of time of getting to a doctor.
Since I am working it was worth it to the get the shot, get it now and get that item off of my schedule.
The possibility you didn't mention is that insurance companies simply do not want to pay for anything that they do not have to pay for and will not if there are no consequences for them.
I am healthy. If I catch the flu I will get over it with the only damage being lost time at work and feeling badly for about two weeks. That doesn't cost the insurance company anything, yet the flu shot could still work and the medical advisors to an insurance company can still believe that flu shots work.
I mentioned 3 examples in the post your replied to. If your reading comprehension is that bad, you're useless, okay ? Geeze, what a horrible thing to say to a person. Untrue too.
I also wrote in the post you read that I have done well in the field for 14 years despite losing out in interviews where I was asked to take odd tests that I was unprepared for because my daily work has nothing to do with solving the tower of hanoi problem.
FWIW, I googled on "fizz buzz" and I would have had no problem with the first example of such a test that came up.
So I guess am I not "useless" by your standards.
Please don't lecture me about needing a thick skin in this field. I've met as well as worked with many callous, cynical or socially maladjusted people. I can handle it. I'm just honest about having feelings and since this isn't a work environment I gave you a piece of my mind in return.
Have a good weekend.
I've been programming for about 14 years. I have seen this conversation come up plenty of times. Many people come up with good reasons why such programming tests and other programming job interview techniques unfairly weed people out. I've been a victim of it myself at some interviews and have gone on to do STELLAR work at OTHER places. The bottom line is that employers feel that they need SOMETHING, even something crappy, so... these interview tests are a fact of life.
However misguided, if you are a programmer and you want a new job, you have to deal with this reality.
Fortunately, in 2013 there are a plethora of programming interview prep books out there so at least you have a chance if somebody throws a pop quiz at you about the tower of hanoi, asks you to write a script to print out only prime numbers or asks you to write a script to reverse a string using no speciality functions though you have not thought about such mishigas in years.
LOL
Do you have any hard information ( not anti-vac or alternative healthy copy ) to base that on?
I read this article at the end of my day. I got my flu snot at a supermarket on the way home. I live in the NE so it is only a matter of time before that flu "epidemic" comes to my town. I never get get sick, but I caught a lingering cold twice last month. It is worth $30 ( shame on you CareFirst Blue Cross/Blue Shield for not covering it ) to make sure that I am done with that kind of crap for the winter. Just do it.
In the United States many people have jobs without paid sick leave or very SMALL alotments of sick leave that are quickly used up.
You don't show up for work, you get paid less and you may not have enough money to cover everything you hoped to cover.
That is why.