You got that right. I think Roblox has helped my son (poor social skills, just like me) learn a little bit about conflict resolution. It's almost funny to watch: the first thing any of them do to anyone else new is frag them. Then comes the "you @#$#@ n00b" phase. After awhile they realize there's no winning, so they find some common ground, make up, and invite each other to be friends.
Dealing with my workplace IT staff is just like this, BTW: the first time I deal with someone I don't already know, I get the buzz-saw treatment. Then comes the short word war, and finally we figure out how to deal with each other and can work together after that.
Gotta love that: "If we need a license, everyone that uses Limewire needs a license." Sorry, but the rest of the world isn't hired by the RIAA specifically to start legal proceedings based on the data they are collecting. There is a difference.
Program was suspended in early June in Dallas after the bait (I'll call it entrapment) car struck someone before they disabled the car. Months earlier, I watched a youtube vid of a "successful" bait car incident. They let this guy steal the car and drive away, then started chasing him. It turns out the whole time they could have remotely locked the doors and killed the engine. But they had their fun chasing this guy around for a while, and even shooting at him, before disabling the vehicle. When I saw that earlier video, I knew someone would get hurt eventually. That's definitely abuse: they could have disabled the car and locked the guy in for apprehension before he even left the parking lot. Worst outcome? Maybe a little fender bender. Instead, they had all sorts of fun with high speed chases, shooting at the guy, etc. before they bothered to use it. And some old lady got killed because the cops needed their fun with a rigged high-speed chase. Disgusting.
I've never seen so much consensus in Slashdot comments! And you're all right - the fact that gratuitous violence is more acceptable than sex is sick, sick, sick.
Re:Never attribute to mischief...
on
Terminal Chaos
·
· Score: 1
>"Government is not the solution to our problem; Government *is* the problem" -R. Reagan | http://freestateproject.org/
Then again, I've always worked at smaller organizations and therefore IT work has always had a great deal of variety. I have a very strong creative drive, but can't do graphic arts worth a shit. Database development, web app development, troubleshooting (at least the truly oddball problems), and helping others has been very rewarding for me personally, if no so much financially. I've always been able to provide what my family has needed, but never buy that Porsche. Oh well, I prefer riding my bike anyway.
My problems have always come from the Peter Principle (I'm just not a good supervisor or middle manager) or the inevitable expansion of my dream "one person IT shop" job into being just a cog in the machine.
I think those dream "one person IT shop" jobs are gone now. My definition of IT (support, hardware/infrastructure, DB and Web App development) just isn't done on a personal scale anymore. The small companies just outsource to big churn shops.
Not that anyone will ever read this commment, but...
Ha ha, there are a few who have good reason to mod me flamebait after my last troll comment on another story.
I was very entranced with Mr. Fuller as a kid and young adult. He was very concerned about energy efficiency, back when few others gave a hoot. But today, looking back at his design for a huge, pyramidized donut shaped, concrete city...
Others have pointed out that he was very egotistical. After reading his works, I must agree.
Got to agree - firearms aren't just common on a ranch in the boonies, they're just about necessary. And no mention of whether the firearms were actually being used to threaten anyone, although the mention of "angry" ranchers implies that. TFA (sorry, I did) mentioned shotguns specifically - like 6 times - but no mention of any other kind of gun. Was this proximity and familiarity, or just knee-jerk? There's little difference between shotguns, rifles, and handguns for inappropriate uses, but there's a lot of difference between them for legitimate use on a ranch out in the country.
The math curriculum - at least in Columbia MO US - is horrible. Absolutely horrible. My 4th grade son (who can do most 4 significant digit math computations in his head) is still being drilled on counting. 90% of his actual "work" is drawing diagrams of different ways to break down and re-add up numbers. He was capable of producing an answer to the problems, sans the "how I got the answer" part, years ago. They've never even shown these kids a multiplication table. I'm not a big fan of memorizing the multiplication tables, but at a minimum it is a great visual representation tool to expose kids to. Every school year, my son goes backwards in his math abilities. Every summer, we move him forward again.
Then of course is my daughter's experience in 6th & 7th grades. Math class is 35 minutes a day of pure lecture. All actual figuring and problem solving is given as homework. As a parent, I despise that much homework! It's a huge de-motivator. And, the math curriculum still sucks. Some pompous PhD sucking 6 figures a year out of the school district must have put a lot of effort into finding the worst, most convoluted math books on the market. The math itself hasn't changed, but the terms used to teach it have. I suppose there are down-the-line advantages to using the word "mean" instead of "average", but this and similar term changes since I was in school makes it difficult for me to provide assistance. I have to study the whole book (which is very poorly written and very difficult to find term definitions in) to be able to help at all.
As for the testing? It's all bullshit. Over 10% of a student's time is pretty much devoted to preparing for and taking tests. Another 8% of the entire school's budget is handed over to companies that sell the testing materials and services. All while teacher positions are being cut and non-"core" programs (band, choir, art, drama, the like) are being cut as well. I understand the need for occasional assessment testing. But this much is totally out of control.
At least this is Slashdot - someone should be able to reply and give a good argument for WHY we need this much testing.
The hardware failures I can understand, but needing to rewire the data center after it's been wired once, and the fact that half of them overheat? Those sound like problems that should be addressed in the engineering and installation phases of the datacenter.
I was a teenager in the late70's early 80's. Most of my generous weekly allowance went into pinball machines. I must have spent US$3K-US$5K in pinball machines back then. If only I had invested that money instead, eh?
The physical, tactile nature of the machines is something lost on the last couple of generations. Shaking the table, hearing and feeling the solenoids, getting that syncopated double flipper-tip save! These machines taught a generation of geeky misfit guys about physics. Today's physics-based computer games are so coarse in comparison; they don't even come close to having as many possibilities of actions / reactions as a real pinball table has.
Oh well, everything dies, and pinball is pretty much dead these days. There are just a few poorly maintained tables left in my town. I can still amaze people when I play them. It's a skill that never really goes away once you've spent / wasted your youth learning it.
If just a single table didn't get horribly boring after awhile, I'd probably buy one for my own home. I like the fact that a different, albeit still poorly maintained, table shows up once or twice a year in the places that still have a pinball machine (usually when the current machine breaks beyond field repair).
But, I don't play enough for anyone to make any money off my habit anymore, so, I'm as responsible as anyone for killing pinball.
...and it turns out the White House's emails go missing (gasp! never happened before!). Who gets in trouble? Certainly not anyone in power. The heads of a handful of IT grunts (i.e. you and I) will roll.
Call the Librarians. They've been able to stop the last couple of bills that would have required libraries to retain circulation records. If private ISP's get socked with data retention laws, the libraries aren't far behind.
A friend of mine has dogs. No stranger (without firearms) could ever get into the house, or probably even close to the house. Even with firearms, there are enough dogs I think an intruder might still get mauled.
I must agree - dogs are excellent theft deterrent. I wish my wife didn't hate dogs so much.
There is currently a bill in the Missouri (USA) house, obviously written by Monsanto lobbyists, and brought to the floor by their bought-off legislators. The bill specifically prohibits organic milk producers from being able to label their product as BGH-Free, but fails to force any BGH-based milk from labeling their products as being produced with this substance.
Sorry, but that's evil. As a consumer, regardless of whether I like BGH or hate it, I have a right to know. There are enough people concerned about the possible effects of BGH that they want to steer clear. But if Monsanto gets their way with this bill, how will a Missouri consumer be able to know?
This is just one example of Monsanto's evil-ness. There are similar bills in other states in the US that are written by Monsanto lobbyists as well. It needs to be stopped. Yes, I've written my house representatives and told them I am against the bill.
I think this is a case of a store manager or regional manager not giving corporate the reacharound they insist on. I bet someone is going to get fired for letting this guy speak at an Apple store.
Have you ever checked your library's data retention policy? I have. Librarians are all about privacy and free speech. My library's policy is that they delete all material checkout data - except for incrementing a use count - as soon as the material is checked back in. The librarians don't like the feds poking their nose into other people's business any more than you do. They are your friends in the privacy arena.
Slashdot Mirror
You got that right. I think Roblox has helped my son (poor social skills, just like me) learn a little bit about conflict resolution. It's almost funny to watch: the first thing any of them do to anyone else new is frag them. Then comes the "you @#$#@ n00b" phase. After awhile they realize there's no winning, so they find some common ground, make up, and invite each other to be friends.
Dealing with my workplace IT staff is just like this, BTW: the first time I deal with someone I don't already know, I get the buzz-saw treatment. Then comes the short word war, and finally we figure out how to deal with each other and can work together after that.
Gotta love that: "If we need a license, everyone that uses Limewire needs a license." Sorry, but the rest of the world isn't hired by the RIAA specifically to start legal proceedings based on the data they are collecting. There is a difference.
Go ahead. Try it. No matter how hard you rub, no matter what compounds you use, when you try to polish a turd, the net result is a pile of shit.
If any part of the project is crap, the end result will be the same no matter how much testing and tweaking you do. Good luck.
in the stomach and out the mouth,
the worms crawl in the worms crawl out,
In the Stomach and Out the Mouth!
- crude childhood nursery rhyme
Program was suspended in early June in Dallas after the bait (I'll call it entrapment) car struck someone before they disabled the car. Months earlier, I watched a youtube vid of a "successful" bait car incident. They let this guy steal the car and drive away, then started chasing him. It turns out the whole time they could have remotely locked the doors and killed the engine. But they had their fun chasing this guy around for a while, and even shooting at him, before disabling the vehicle. When I saw that earlier video, I knew someone would get hurt eventually. That's definitely abuse: they could have disabled the car and locked the guy in for apprehension before he even left the parking lot. Worst outcome? Maybe a little fender bender. Instead, they had all sorts of fun with high speed chases, shooting at the guy, etc. before they bothered to use it. And some old lady got killed because the cops needed their fun with a rigged high-speed chase. Disgusting.
I've never seen so much consensus in Slashdot comments! And you're all right - the fact that gratuitous violence is more acceptable than sex is sick, sick, sick.
>"Government is not the solution to our problem; Government *is* the problem" -R. Reagan | http://freestateproject.org/
Then again, I've always worked at smaller organizations and therefore IT work has always had a great deal of variety. I have a very strong creative drive, but can't do graphic arts worth a shit. Database development, web app development, troubleshooting (at least the truly oddball problems), and helping others has been very rewarding for me personally, if no so much financially. I've always been able to provide what my family has needed, but never buy that Porsche. Oh well, I prefer riding my bike anyway.
My problems have always come from the Peter Principle (I'm just not a good supervisor or middle manager) or the inevitable expansion of my dream "one person IT shop" job into being just a cog in the machine.
I think those dream "one person IT shop" jobs are gone now. My definition of IT (support, hardware/infrastructure, DB and Web App development) just isn't done on a personal scale anymore. The small companies just outsource to big churn shops.
>Whoever modded the above "flamebait"
Not that anyone will ever read this commment, but...
Ha ha, there are a few who have good reason to mod me flamebait after my last troll comment on another story.
I was very entranced with Mr. Fuller as a kid and young adult. He was very concerned about energy efficiency, back when few others gave a hoot. But today, looking back at his design for a huge, pyramidized donut shaped, concrete city...
Others have pointed out that he was very egotistical. After reading his works, I must agree.
.fuck, .blow and everything else about sex, you know.
...is the conclusion I came to after trying to read "Critical Path."
Why? Because the system is seriously f'ed up! Why don't we do anything about it? Um... uh... wait - Lost is about to start!
Got to agree - firearms aren't just common on a ranch in the boonies, they're just about necessary. And no mention of whether the firearms were actually being used to threaten anyone, although the mention of "angry" ranchers implies that. TFA (sorry, I did) mentioned shotguns specifically - like 6 times - but no mention of any other kind of gun. Was this proximity and familiarity, or just knee-jerk? There's little difference between shotguns, rifles, and handguns for inappropriate uses, but there's a lot of difference between them for legitimate use on a ranch out in the country.
The math curriculum - at least in Columbia MO US - is horrible. Absolutely horrible. My 4th grade son (who can do most 4 significant digit math computations in his head) is still being drilled on counting. 90% of his actual "work" is drawing diagrams of different ways to break down and re-add up numbers. He was capable of producing an answer to the problems, sans the "how I got the answer" part, years ago. They've never even shown these kids a multiplication table. I'm not a big fan of memorizing the multiplication tables, but at a minimum it is a great visual representation tool to expose kids to. Every school year, my son goes backwards in his math abilities. Every summer, we move him forward again.
Then of course is my daughter's experience in 6th & 7th grades. Math class is 35 minutes a day of pure lecture. All actual figuring and problem solving is given as homework. As a parent, I despise that much homework! It's a huge de-motivator. And, the math curriculum still sucks. Some pompous PhD sucking 6 figures a year out of the school district must have put a lot of effort into finding the worst, most convoluted math books on the market. The math itself hasn't changed, but the terms used to teach it have. I suppose there are down-the-line advantages to using the word "mean" instead of "average", but this and similar term changes since I was in school makes it difficult for me to provide assistance. I have to study the whole book (which is very poorly written and very difficult to find term definitions in) to be able to help at all.
As for the testing? It's all bullshit. Over 10% of a student's time is pretty much devoted to preparing for and taking tests. Another 8% of the entire school's budget is handed over to companies that sell the testing materials and services. All while teacher positions are being cut and non-"core" programs (band, choir, art, drama, the like) are being cut as well. I understand the need for occasional assessment testing. But this much is totally out of control.
At least this is Slashdot - someone should be able to reply and give a good argument for WHY we need this much testing.
Like the Jeffs compound in Texas.
The hardware failures I can understand, but needing to rewire the data center after it's been wired once, and the fact that half of them overheat? Those sound like problems that should be addressed in the engineering and installation phases of the datacenter.
Oh yes, I remember Smut Stack! To this day, I still use the term "Lusty Lube".
I was a teenager in the late70's early 80's. Most of my generous weekly allowance went into pinball machines. I must have spent US$3K-US$5K in pinball machines back then. If only I had invested that money instead, eh?
The physical, tactile nature of the machines is something lost on the last couple of generations. Shaking the table, hearing and feeling the solenoids, getting that syncopated double flipper-tip save! These machines taught a generation of geeky misfit guys about physics. Today's physics-based computer games are so coarse in comparison; they don't even come close to having as many possibilities of actions / reactions as a real pinball table has.
Oh well, everything dies, and pinball is pretty much dead these days. There are just a few poorly maintained tables left in my town. I can still amaze people when I play them. It's a skill that never really goes away once you've spent / wasted your youth learning it.
If just a single table didn't get horribly boring after awhile, I'd probably buy one for my own home. I like the fact that a different, albeit still poorly maintained, table shows up once or twice a year in the places that still have a pinball machine (usually when the current machine breaks beyond field repair).
But, I don't play enough for anyone to make any money off my habit anymore, so, I'm as responsible as anyone for killing pinball.
...and it turns out the White House's emails go missing (gasp! never happened before!). Who gets in trouble? Certainly not anyone in power. The heads of a handful of IT grunts (i.e. you and I) will roll.
Call the Librarians. They've been able to stop the last couple of bills that would have required libraries to retain circulation records. If private ISP's get socked with data retention laws, the libraries aren't far behind.
A friend of mine has dogs. No stranger (without firearms) could ever get into the house, or probably even close to the house. Even with firearms, there are enough dogs I think an intruder might still get mauled.
I must agree - dogs are excellent theft deterrent. I wish my wife didn't hate dogs so much.
There is currently a bill in the Missouri (USA) house, obviously written by Monsanto lobbyists, and brought to the floor by their bought-off legislators. The bill specifically prohibits organic milk producers from being able to label their product as BGH-Free, but fails to force any BGH-based milk from labeling their products as being produced with this substance.
Sorry, but that's evil. As a consumer, regardless of whether I like BGH or hate it, I have a right to know. There are enough people concerned about the possible effects of BGH that they want to steer clear. But if Monsanto gets their way with this bill, how will a Missouri consumer be able to know?
This is just one example of Monsanto's evil-ness. There are similar bills in other states in the US that are written by Monsanto lobbyists as well. It needs to be stopped. Yes, I've written my house representatives and told them I am against the bill.
supercircuits. they have them.
...that senses arousal and gets miss robot ready for action for you.
I think this is a case of a store manager or regional manager not giving corporate the reacharound they insist on. I bet someone is going to get fired for letting this guy speak at an Apple store.
Have you ever checked your library's data retention policy? I have. Librarians are all about privacy and free speech. My library's policy is that they delete all material checkout data - except for incrementing a use count - as soon as the material is checked back in. The librarians don't like the feds poking their nose into other people's business any more than you do. They are your friends in the privacy arena.