It is possible to have good brainstorming sessions. You need to have two distinct phases, the brainstorming part, and the editing part. No editorializing during the brainstorming part. No saying that an idea is good or bad, just write those suckers down. Saying it's good or bad tends to engage people's internal censors as they try to come up with things that fit what they perceive the group as wanting/not wanting. That kills creativity, so don't do it. When people see that any idea, no matter how good or how zany, is given equal treatment, it encourages them to let go of preconceptions in a way that brainstorming by oneself never can.
Only after a good long session of censor-free brainstorming should you switch modes and start judging what you came up with.
It's not so much that it doesn't work, it's that he is a huckster and tried to drum up business with FUD and pseudo-science. I'll copy and paste the criticism of spinrite here:
POSTED TO comp.dcom.xdsl] ken [or was it Steve Gibson -- do I detect a troll here?] wrote:
>What you don't know is that John Navas used to work for a hard disk >manufacturer twelve years ago... and that he's had a serious personal >hatred for me (due to my SpinRite product) ever since....
Here are the facts:
As I recall my first encounter with Steve Gibson was when I was managing development for a principal disk technology manufacturer and he was promoting an earlier version of SpinRite. At that time I had about 15 years of experience in disk technology. My sincere efforts to help Steve correct some of the more serious errors in what he was saying proved to be a complete waste of time.
His subsequent "hard disks die!" campaign only compounded the problem. He was spreading hysteria then (for his own apparent gain), and he is doing it again now with Shields UP! The assertion that "hard disk die!" was based on a claim that magnetic patterns "weaken" over time, and that SpinRite could somehow "refresh" them.If this were true, then IDE drives, which cannot be "refreshed," would be dying all over the place, not to mention all the old mainframe drives that had already been running steadily for years. Furthermore, the embedded magnetic servo (used in virtually all reasonably current disk drives) can only be written at the factory.
If it "weakened" then the drive would fail permanently -- SpinRite could not possibly help. The fact that IDE disks have not been failing all over the place due to "weakening" and lack of "refreshing" by SpinRite is clear evidence that the claims were false. (Most problems with older MFM/RLL drives that SpinRite claimed to fix were the result of drives not being properly low-level formatted at working temperature on the actual controller in the end user's computer. This problem was easily solved by using the standard low-level format in the actual controller.
That SpinRite could also correct the problem meant nothing, since all it was doing was using the same controller.) Worse, Steve encouraged people to use SpinRite to "recover" areas that had been detected and marked as defective at the factory, a bad idea that leads to more failures in the long run, since end user controllers are not as sensitive as factory test equipment -- they are simply incapable of the kind of thorough testing done at the factory. Then of course SpinRite would be "needed" again to "fix" those failures, a self-fulfilling prophecy. As for the people that swear by SpinRite, there are lots of people that believe in astrology, but that doesn't make it any more valid.
I suggest that those with a technical bent visit the SpinRite website and see they can swallow such things as:
* "prevents mass storage systems from crashing" (nothing can do that)
* "sophisticated magnetodynamic physics models" (pseudo science)
* "weakest possible magnetic signals" (not real)
* "we doubt whether anyone but Steve and a handful of aliens would even know what all this is" (no argument there)
* "Weak Bits" (no such thing)
* "gradual evolution of the drive's storage surfaces through physical and magnetic stresses" (mumbo jumbo)
* "SpinRite is actually able to lower the amplification of the drive's internal read-amplifier" (impossible, and after all this time Steve apparently still does not know that data is recorded on magnetic disks with flux reversals, not "amplitude")
* "mass storage systems need periodic preventive maintenance" (nonsense)
* "yeah, we know, Steve's a magician wit
True. But Spinrite follows the Gibson pattern: do something that everyone else is doing, but because of ego, do not pay attention to what anyone else is doing and reinvent the wheel over and over again. When people point out the stupid mistakes you make because you think everyone else in the world is inferior to you, attack them.
Spinrite isn't bad, per se. It's just not in any way revolutionary or important. There are many better tools out there for doing low level copies.
Let me revise that, then. Some people are born without the ability to develop empathy. Psychological narcissism is far different than an infant's lack of ego boundaries. Psychological narcissism is related to antisocial personality disorder, though.
You anarchist! What's next, advocating human sacrifice and dogs and cats sleeping together? That will only lead to mass hysteria.
Those who oppress us cannot do so unless we help them. Specifically, no one can oppress you unless you first oppress yourself. Do not ever use moral judgement or punishment as a tool to become the person you want to be. It WILL backfire, and it will leave a backdoor in your mind that mental hackers can use to root your head.
Please enlighten us "Oh so socialy smart one". How does the socialy inteligent one's behave?
They don't throw in random apostrophes, for one thing. And they make sure to use the correct verb tense.
BTW, I don't think too many of the fat and lazy americans are praticing christians. Other wise they wouldn't be all that lazy if they got up and went to church.
Going to church doesn't take much effort. From the churches I've seen, most Christians are both fat and lazy.
Is deconstructionism still trendy? In any case, it's not the philosophy profs who tend to be rabidly anti-intellectual, it's the lit-crit types. And the philosophy profs I think you are talking about aren't even American. Derrida is French, isn't he?
I thought algebra was originally from Mesopotamia and Egypt. I never heard the India theory until reading this story today, you are the second person to mention it. Where did you get this idea from?
So, when a rich white man receives rent for doing no more than sitting on his ass and letting someone else use his land, that's a good thing, but when an aboriginal gets paid for letting someone else use his land, that's welfare?
I say, lets annex the land of the rich and end their welfare payments. Force the fucking rich to join the modern world and do a little work. No, engaging in dick waving matches with other CEOs and board members is not work. It's a nasty little hobby.
Spirituality simply means focus on matters of the spirit, not necessarily in the supernatural sense. Call it a focus on human inner life and personal experience if that sounds less hokey to you.
Ah, look, I was trying to answer another poster's question: are some people born bad? Do you think that everyone is born the same? Some people are born withour empathy and an ability to envision the consequences of their actions. That is an empirically observable fact.
Did I say we should lock people up based on their genetics? Did I say you should use this list to self diagnose? No. Hell, there isn't even consensus in the psychological community about ASPD. No one should EVER use a list of psychological criteria to try to diagnose themselves, it takes years of study to learn all the various factors involved in making a correct diagnosis. These lists are tools that psychologists and psychiatrists use to understand and help people. They are not rigid classifications.
Look, discernment of differences and similarities is good. Otherwise, the only thing left to say is "it's all one," which is true in its way but kind of useless.
That's because private enterprise impacts individuals in ways those individuals are not capable of addressing by themselves. Part of governments' job is protecting individuals from powerful entities that would harm them. Those enemies don't always carry guns. Sometimes they carry pens, ledgers, and wads of ill-gotten cash.
Socialists don't always stick their noses in religions' business, I think what you are seeing when you see that in the modern world is more a Scandinavian thing than a socialist thing.
It is bad because it is a half assed solution to the real problem, which is feeling seperate from the universe. This comes from having eaten the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Literally, from our ability to make abstract models in our heads. In order for those models to make sense, we need to make models of ourselves. Those models look seperate. We get confused about what is map and what is territory. We start to believe we ARE those models, and that we are seperate. Feeling seperate from the universe leads to a whole host of problems. We don't know why bad things happen to good people and vice versa. We don't know what happens to us after we die. If you aren't seperate from the universe, these questions never even arise. If you are, you need an answer. The usual answer is to invent the idea of a soul and an afterlife, and either impersonal karma or a personal God who balances things out.
The reason faith in God is bad is because it is unnecessary and keeps people from looking for the real truth. Nothing is or can be out of balance, ever. You are not seperate, you do not posess an eternal soul. That isn't faith, that's a theory. You don't have to accept it if it doesn't makes sense to you.
As another poster has already pointed out, there is a difference between facts and moral judgements. I'm not claiming violence is ever justified. Trying to conflate the two is disengenous at best. People on the right do it all the time, though. Try to point out why something happened and they accuse you of siding with the enemy, as if any explanation beyond "They're EEEVIL and they hate our freedom" is an excuse.
Government is just other people. If you don't want other people up in your business, don't do anything that impacts them. Which is kind of a tall order in a modern, interconnected, interdependent modern society. Which is why we need government up in people's business. Not surprisingly, it's usually the people who least want government up in their business who have the most negative impact on others.
You, sir, are either an idiot or deliberatly trolling. The point is that we were NOT sitting at home leaving them alone on September 10th. We were fucking with them. Learn some history before you embarass yourself again. Who supported the Shah? Who supported Saddam? Who supported and supports the brutal Saudi monarchy? Who sends billions in "aid" to Isreal?
I disagree that there aren't any Christians trying to bring back the Byzantine Empire. In fact, I think that fairly accurately describes what certain Christian groups in the US are trying to do. Our extremists are no better than theirs, so why you might choose to judge a whole religion based on their extremists escapes me.
Thailand has been through so many governments since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1932, including several brutal military dictatorships, that it does not surprise me that Thai muslims might want in on all the action. As for the Philippines, they have been in a similar position. One does not have to be a super power to meddle, and it's not only meddlers that attract insurgencies. You might want to check how many non-muslim insurgencies a country has had before using them as an example of how Muslims are violent.
What a crock. Do you even have any idea what socialism or fascism are? Here's a hint: both are types of government. Both have armed police. Where are the Open Source enforcers? Is someone literally pointing a gun at programmers heads, or is this just a histrionic temper tantrum from someone who uses verbal intimidation to get their way?
In real life, it's pretty easy to tell fascists from socialists. Fascists want private enterprise and religion all up in government's business, socialists don't.
As far as I know, most every state around that time was pretty keen on invading their neighbors. And I'm fairly certain that a long time has passed since then. Do you judge modern Christianity by the actions it took during that period? Thought not.
I love it when people imply things they are too cowardly to state flat out. Are you denying that US actions have any impact on Muslim attitudes towards us? If you mean it, say it.
Cue the vitriolic attacks against this common sense statement by neo-con crazies in 3..2..1..
Because, you know, suggesting that the universe is comprehensible, that actions have consequences and effects have causes beyond "They're EEEEEVIL!!!" is tantamount to treason these days.
Slashdot Mirror
It is possible to have good brainstorming sessions. You need to have two distinct phases, the brainstorming part, and the editing part. No editorializing during the brainstorming part. No saying that an idea is good or bad, just write those suckers down. Saying it's good or bad tends to engage people's internal censors as they try to come up with things that fit what they perceive the group as wanting/not wanting. That kills creativity, so don't do it. When people see that any idea, no matter how good or how zany, is given equal treatment, it encourages them to let go of preconceptions in a way that brainstorming by oneself never can.
Only after a good long session of censor-free brainstorming should you switch modes and start judging what you came up with.
Oh, I'm just trolling. Ignore me. It was mostly an excuse to make a "hack the gibson" joke. It was a dumb joke anyway.
True. But Spinrite follows the Gibson pattern: do something that everyone else is doing, but because of ego, do not pay attention to what anyone else is doing and reinvent the wheel over and over again. When people point out the stupid mistakes you make because you think everyone else in the world is inferior to you, attack them.
Spinrite isn't bad, per se. It's just not in any way revolutionary or important. There are many better tools out there for doing low level copies.
Let me revise that, then. Some people are born without the ability to develop empathy. Psychological narcissism is far different than an infant's lack of ego boundaries. Psychological narcissism is related to antisocial personality disorder, though.
SpinRite is a Steve Gibson product. Steve Gibson is a pompous blowhard with few real skills. There are plenty of other ways to do a low level copy of a disk.
You anarchist! What's next, advocating human sacrifice and dogs and cats sleeping together? That will only lead to mass hysteria.
Those who oppress us cannot do so unless we help them.
Specifically, no one can oppress you unless you first oppress yourself. Do not ever use moral judgement or punishment as a tool to become the person you want to be. It WILL backfire, and it will leave a backdoor in your mind that mental hackers can use to root your head.
Please enlighten us "Oh so socialy smart one". How does the socialy inteligent one's behave?
They don't throw in random apostrophes, for one thing. And they make sure to use the correct verb tense.
BTW, I don't think too many of the fat and lazy americans are praticing christians. Other wise they wouldn't be all that lazy if they got up and went to church.
Going to church doesn't take much effort. From the churches I've seen, most Christians are both fat and lazy.
Is deconstructionism still trendy? In any case, it's not the philosophy profs who tend to be rabidly anti-intellectual, it's the lit-crit types. And the philosophy profs I think you are talking about aren't even American. Derrida is French, isn't he?
I thought algebra was originally from Mesopotamia and Egypt. I never heard the India theory until reading this story today, you are the second person to mention it. Where did you get this idea from?
So, when a rich white man receives rent for doing no more than sitting on his ass and letting someone else use his land, that's a good thing, but when an aboriginal gets paid for letting someone else use his land, that's welfare?
I say, lets annex the land of the rich and end their welfare payments. Force the fucking rich to join the modern world and do a little work. No, engaging in dick waving matches with other CEOs and board members is not work. It's a nasty little hobby.
Spirituality simply means focus on matters of the spirit, not necessarily in the supernatural sense. Call it a focus on human inner life and personal experience if that sounds less hokey to you.
Ah, look, I was trying to answer another poster's question: are some people born bad? Do you think that everyone is born the same? Some people are born withour empathy and an ability to envision the consequences of their actions. That is an empirically observable fact.
Did I say we should lock people up based on their genetics? Did I say you should use this list to self diagnose? No. Hell, there isn't even consensus in the psychological community about ASPD. No one should EVER use a list of psychological criteria to try to diagnose themselves, it takes years of study to learn all the various factors involved in making a correct diagnosis. These lists are tools that psychologists and psychiatrists use to understand and help people. They are not rigid classifications.
Look, discernment of differences and similarities is good. Otherwise, the only thing left to say is "it's all one," which is true in its way but kind of useless.
That's because private enterprise impacts individuals in ways those individuals are not capable of addressing by themselves. Part of governments' job is protecting individuals from powerful entities that would harm them. Those enemies don't always carry guns. Sometimes they carry pens, ledgers, and wads of ill-gotten cash.
Socialists don't always stick their noses in religions' business, I think what you are seeing when you see that in the modern world is more a Scandinavian thing than a socialist thing.
It is bad because it is a half assed solution to the real problem, which is feeling seperate from the universe. This comes from having eaten the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Literally, from our ability to make abstract models in our heads. In order for those models to make sense, we need to make models of ourselves. Those models look seperate. We get confused about what is map and what is territory. We start to believe we ARE those models, and that we are seperate. Feeling seperate from the universe leads to a whole host of problems. We don't know why bad things happen to good people and vice versa. We don't know what happens to us after we die. If you aren't seperate from the universe, these questions never even arise. If you are, you need an answer. The usual answer is to invent the idea of a soul and an afterlife, and either impersonal karma or a personal God who balances things out.
The reason faith in God is bad is because it is unnecessary and keeps people from looking for the real truth. Nothing is or can be out of balance, ever. You are not seperate, you do not posess an eternal soul. That isn't faith, that's a theory. You don't have to accept it if it doesn't makes sense to you.
Step 21 is actually, from what I've seen, "become a politician and/or a CEO of a major corporation."
As another poster has already pointed out, there is a difference between facts and moral judgements. I'm not claiming violence is ever justified. Trying to conflate the two is disengenous at best. People on the right do it all the time, though. Try to point out why something happened and they accuse you of siding with the enemy, as if any explanation beyond "They're EEEVIL and they hate our freedom" is an excuse.
Government is just other people. If you don't want other people up in your business, don't do anything that impacts them. Which is kind of a tall order in a modern, interconnected, interdependent modern society. Which is why we need government up in people's business. Not surprisingly, it's usually the people who least want government up in their business who have the most negative impact on others.
And evidently rightist groupthink is pretty attractive to an authoritarian fuckwit.
War ain't about one man against the next,
It's poor people dying so the rich cash checks.
You, sir, are either an idiot or deliberatly trolling. The point is that we were NOT sitting at home leaving them alone on September 10th. We were fucking with them. Learn some history before you embarass yourself again. Who supported the Shah? Who supported Saddam? Who supported and supports the brutal Saudi monarchy? Who sends billions in "aid" to Isreal?
Are you really that uninformed?
I disagree that there aren't any Christians trying to bring back the Byzantine Empire. In fact, I think that fairly accurately describes what certain Christian groups in the US are trying to do. Our extremists are no better than theirs, so why you might choose to judge a whole religion based on their extremists escapes me.
Thailand has been through so many governments since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1932, including several brutal military dictatorships, that it does not surprise me that Thai muslims might want in on all the action. As for the Philippines, they have been in a similar position. One does not have to be a super power to meddle, and it's not only meddlers that attract insurgencies. You might want to check how many non-muslim insurgencies a country has had before using them as an example of how Muslims are violent.
What a crock. Do you even have any idea what socialism or fascism are? Here's a hint: both are types of government. Both have armed police. Where are the Open Source enforcers? Is someone literally pointing a gun at programmers heads, or is this just a histrionic temper tantrum from someone who uses verbal intimidation to get their way?
In real life, it's pretty easy to tell fascists from socialists. Fascists want private enterprise and religion all up in government's business, socialists don't.
As far as I know, most every state around that time was pretty keen on invading their neighbors. And I'm fairly certain that a long time has passed since then. Do you judge modern Christianity by the actions it took during that period? Thought not.
I love it when people imply things they are too cowardly to state flat out. Are you denying that US actions have any impact on Muslim attitudes towards us? If you mean it, say it.
Cue the vitriolic attacks against this common sense statement by neo-con crazies in 3..2..1..
Because, you know, suggesting that the universe is comprehensible, that actions have consequences and effects have causes beyond "They're EEEEEVIL!!!" is tantamount to treason these days.
They hate use for our FREEDOM. End of discussion.