Harrumph. Mac this, Mac that...if God had meant us to use Macs, we would have born with...uh...a love of snuggly, colorful case exteriors and a preference for not doing things the hard way!
More sociable? Hardly. Differently sociable, yes! In my experience, females find more common ground in talking about people and feelings...males are more comfortable discussing their skills and possessions. I've yet to meet a fellow girl who liked playing the "my CPU is bigger than your CPU!" game, nor still any who wanted to talk about Quake II ratings, compare operating systems, or salivate over up and coming technological gadgets. I find that a large part of the fun in being a geek comes from just such interchanges. Most of my female friends would find the same activities dull and unrewarding. It isn't that geek life is isolating...it's that geek-type socialization would hold no interest for them.
In other words, it's the "I did such and saw so-and-so" vs. "I bought/downloaded such and fragged so-and-so" divide...
Hmm. You fail to note that teens had *far* easier access to firearms during the first half of the twentieth century than they do now; and yet, school shooting and juvenile crime was nowhere near as great a problem.
Why? Perhaps it was due to the fact that most teens likely to have access to firearms received some modicum of training in their responsible use early in life...perhaps it was because teens during the 1950's were not immersed in a culture of death...perhaps the family structure of the time was more stable...perhaps it was a combination of the above, or none of the above.
In any case, the fact is that in America of yesterday, and in some European countries of today, the youth in the populace had ready access to firearms, and yet did not make use of them to slaughter eachother with any regularity. Guns are not the problem, nor is banning guns (an impractical, if not impossible, proposition) the solution.
From what I can observe, the above replies to and moderation of CraigMcpherson's original post seem to support, rather than negate, his point. The downward moderation is most puzzling, as he does have a valid complaint...JonKatz does indeed appear to be of the opinion that 'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others', and this seems to bother many Slashdot readers not at all as long as they are one of the 'more equal than others'. While I rarely come across Slashdot posts that express hatred of or discrimination against women, I all too frequently read Slashdot posts that are venemous rantings against Christianity and Christians. I've yet to hear anyone on Slashdot state that female geeks are inferior idiots due to their femininity...I've all to frequently heard stated, with varying degrees of spitefulness, that Christian geeks are idiots for being Christian. I find attacks against Christianity or Catholicism far more offputting than Natalie Portman posts...the former is hateful, the latter, silly. In conclusion, I think that CraigMcpherson's original post has merit, and hope that some Slashdot posters will take the opportunity to discuss it in a reasonable manner, rather than merely to compose grandiose, vituperative, and singularly un convincing rants that do not pertain to the subject at hand.
Blarharharhar, I can top that with ease...I can venture with a reasonable confidence that I'm the only patron of the venerable Slashdot who wears a skirt every day.
Slashdot Mirror
"My God. They've elected...Hank the Angry, Drunken Dwarf!"
Harrumph. Mac this, Mac that...if God had meant us to use Macs, we would have born with...uh...a love of snuggly, colorful case exteriors and a preference for not doing things the hard way!
More sociable? Hardly. Differently sociable, yes! In my experience, females find more common ground in talking about people and feelings...males are more comfortable discussing their skills and possessions. I've yet to meet a fellow girl who liked playing the "my CPU is bigger than your CPU!" game, nor still any who wanted to talk about Quake II ratings, compare operating systems, or salivate over up and coming technological gadgets. I find that a large part of the fun in being a geek comes from just such interchanges. Most of my female friends would find the same activities dull and unrewarding. It isn't that geek life is isolating...it's that geek-type socialization would hold no interest for them.
In other words, it's the "I did such and saw so-and-so" vs. "I bought/downloaded such and fragged so-and-so" divide...
Hmm. You fail to note that teens had *far* easier access to firearms during the first half of the twentieth century than they do now; and yet, school shooting and juvenile crime was nowhere near as great a problem.
Why? Perhaps it was due to the fact that most teens likely to have access to firearms received some modicum of training in their responsible use early in life...perhaps it was because teens during the 1950's were not immersed in a culture of death...perhaps the family structure of the time was more stable...perhaps it was a combination of the above, or none of the above.
In any case, the fact is that in America of yesterday, and in some European countries of today, the youth in the populace had ready access to firearms, and yet did not make use of them to slaughter eachother with any regularity. Guns are not the problem, nor is banning guns (an impractical, if not impossible, proposition) the solution.
From what I can observe, the above replies to and moderation of CraigMcpherson's original post seem to support, rather than negate, his point. The downward moderation is most puzzling, as he does have a valid complaint...JonKatz does indeed appear to be of the opinion that 'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others', and this seems to bother many Slashdot readers not at all as long as they are one of the 'more equal than others'. While I rarely come across Slashdot posts that express hatred of or discrimination against women, I all too frequently read Slashdot posts that are venemous rantings against Christianity and Christians. I've yet to hear anyone on Slashdot state that female geeks are inferior idiots due to their femininity...I've all to frequently heard stated, with varying degrees of spitefulness, that Christian geeks are idiots for being Christian. I find attacks against Christianity or Catholicism far more offputting than Natalie Portman posts...the former is hateful, the latter, silly. In conclusion, I think that CraigMcpherson's original post has merit, and hope that some Slashdot posters will take the opportunity to discuss it in a reasonable manner, rather than merely to compose grandiose, vituperative, and singularly un convincing rants that do not pertain to the subject at hand.
Blarharharhar, I can top that with ease...I can venture with a reasonable confidence that I'm the only patron of the venerable Slashdot who wears a skirt every day.