Bah! The only thing I'm interested in is if Warner Bros. would put up their entire library of classic cartoon in all of their *unedited* pureness. Oh, Warner music...
"The bank's customers should pass a spelling and grammar test before their account is opened. Then they wouldn't get spoofed by people using words like "unsuccessfull" and "att empt" and "Ip address".:-P"
Why would the banks want to exclude Slashdot editors as their customers?
"...there's some extremely bright people on here amongst the crap."
Yes, without slashdot posts I never would have learned about Natalie Portman - petrified, Hot Grits and the utter abject horror of an accidental goatse.cx click. Could we please bring back Tuesday Trolls as a moderation-free weekly event?
"This could be a potential weapon of the future..."
Ah! Now that's the way to get your research funded. Forget about applying for NSF grants. Could my research potentially kill someone? If so, let the DOD fund it. No worries.
"...As employees create more output they are worth more to the company and will get more compensation. Then each of us can determine where our income is that will let us take more time off of work each year."
In many situations, the more work you get done... um, gets you... nothing. The management may look at the increase in productivity and wonder what is causing it so that they can maintain the output without increasing costs, NOT so they can reward you. You've increased the shareholders' profits! Yay! Now pressure will be on your manager to keep those personnel and benefits costs down.
The lack of reward is what keeps people mediocre and indifferent about their work. I've worked for employers who realized this and it was a real pleasure to go into work every day. I've also worked for places that seemed to view their employees as an expense to be minimized. In that case, you're just an expensive resource.
"If OS X users want to see the "blue screen of death," just *try* and use an OS that has to be built for an infinite combination of hardware setups..."
If that were true then the Linux machines I've worked with over the past 11 years would be just as unstable as XP, 2000 etc. No, there are other reasons why OS X is more stable than windows. Hardware support appears to be a very small factor.
"Kevin Mitnick (turned security consultant) has come out to say that he'd prefer to 'hack' open source code vs proprietary closed code. "
You may now start the never ending "hacker vs. cracker" terminology debate......and as long as we're at it: Linux is better than windows KDE is better than gnome emacs is better than vi
"He believes the genes which make someone analytical may also impair their social and communication skills."
I've heard this before and I still question why this would be anything other than obvious. I personally find situations that require what is typically considered "social skills" to be almost completely void of reason. It has taken quite a bit of effort on my part to adjust to socializing with other people and I don't believe that I have any form of autism/Asperger's. When I was young (highschool) I just didn't get it. I still don't, but I can play the game by the rules pretty well for the most part. Is it really that surprising to find that someone who is significantly more hard-wired for analytical thinking than most to have trouble adapting to such an illogical system?
Why doesn't microsoft make common use of the use of the administrator account a thing of the past? All of the pieces have been there since NT for Windows to use a strict separation of user versus Administrator accounts like we see with OS X and all of the Unix based operating systems? Having just recently setup an XP system for family, I noticed that the default install encourages, for all practical purposes, the user to run with Administrator privileges. Having worked as a Windows Administrator in a corporate environment I found that there are many things that were difficult for the end user to do without having Admin. rights. By comparison, I rarely get requests for things that require root access from users on a Unix/Linux desktops who do similar functions because the applications and system are setup assuming that root/admin. access will not be available to the user. In addition, it would seem that the default permissions for user files could be tightened up without creating a difficult work environment. As it is, the addition of security features in windows looks it has been treated as an afterthought, not an integral part of the operating system configuration - particularly for home users who are likely not to change from the defaults their system came with.
At least part of the problem, as I see it, is that the lack of editing on the part of the editors leads to the impression that these "problem" submitters just get their stories posted with little question and that other submissions are getting ignored. I'm not going to name any specific editors but there is a serious problem here. There are spelling and grammar errors in the article summaries that wouldn't pass 5th grade English and these occur with amazing consistency. On top of the lack of basic English, there is the problem that duplicates have become quite commonplace on the site. An editor is supposed to actually do something, not just copy/paste an article from a favored submitter and then add an additional poorly structured statement or question to enhance the posting controversey. These editing problems create the feeling that the actual article review and posting process is performed in a shoddy manner. This leaves a wide open opportunity for people to question the motives behind the posted stories.
Personally, I couldn't care less if Roland or whoever gets an article posted every day, as long as the quality of the site and stories remains high. You've had a great thing going here for several years now, I hope you continue the good work and improve the site where appropriate.
"But please understand that doing so is tremendously time consuming- this article will generate hundreds of pieces of mail and forum posts that I want to read and reply to. But there are only so many hours in the day."
Do what the rest of us do, read and post from work.
"The problem is nobody's likely to stay hunt-and-peck forever."
You obviously haven't worked with some of my co-workers. I know a programmer/sysadmin who has been hunt & peck for about 20 years (maybe more). Never underestimate the average human's resistance to change.
After using OS X extensively, I found myself constantly lost in the dizzying array of options. That's why I switched to a Linux distribution running Gnome. The elegant simplicity and elimination of all those confusing options.
There is some point to it. If it were possible to get a significant number of people to boycott its use, web developers might be forced to move away from the lazy practice of making IE only pages. It will not impact MS directly but it would loosen one (of many) strangleholds it keeps on the web and user's data.
Slashdot Mirror
Bah! The only thing I'm interested in is if Warner Bros. would put up their entire library of classic cartoon in all of their *unedited* pureness. Oh, Warner music...
"The bank's customers should pass a spelling and grammar test before their account is opened. Then they wouldn't get spoofed by people using words like "unsuccessfull" and "att empt" and "Ip address". :-P"
Why would the banks want to exclude Slashdot editors as their customers?
Wow, Stuff like this makes me so glad that I'm an American where we aren't subject to this kind of wholesale violation of our privacy.
"...there's some extremely bright people on here amongst the crap."
Yes, without slashdot posts I never would have learned about Natalie Portman - petrified, Hot Grits and the utter abject horror of an accidental goatse.cx click. Could we please bring back Tuesday Trolls as a moderation-free weekly event?
"I've been posting a long time (This UID shows it)..."
Cue the UID comparison thread.
BTW, I can't disagree with the OP.
"This could be a potential weapon of the future..."
Ah! Now that's the way to get your research funded. Forget about applying for NSF grants. Could my research potentially kill someone? If so, let the DOD fund it. No worries.
"...As employees create more output they are worth more to the company and will get more compensation. Then each of us can determine where our income is that will let us take more time off of work each year."
In many situations, the more work you get done... um, gets you... nothing. The management may look at the increase in productivity and wonder what is causing it so that they can maintain the output without increasing costs, NOT so they can reward you. You've increased the shareholders' profits! Yay! Now pressure will be on your manager to keep those personnel and benefits costs down.
The lack of reward is what keeps people mediocre and indifferent about their work. I've worked for employers who realized this and it was a real pleasure to go into work every day. I've also worked for places that seemed to view their employees as an expense to be minimized. In that case, you're just an expensive resource.
I am so surprised that I don't know what to say.
You don't know about complementary metal-oxide semiconductors. I do.
"If OS X users want to see the "blue screen of death," just *try* and use an OS that has to be built for an infinite combination of hardware setups..."
If that were true then the Linux machines I've worked with over the past 11 years would be just as unstable as XP, 2000 etc. No, there are other reasons why OS X is more stable than windows. Hardware support appears to be a very small factor.
Funny, emacs is my preferred tool for managing and playing my mp3 collection too:
http://emacsmp3player.sourceforge.net/
"Kevin Mitnick (turned security consultant) has come out to say that he'd prefer to 'hack' open source code vs proprietary closed code. "
...and as long as we're at it:
You may now start the never ending "hacker vs. cracker" terminology debate...
Linux is better than windows
KDE is better than gnome
emacs is better than vi
"He believes the genes which make someone analytical may also impair their social and communication skills."
I've heard this before and I still question why this would be anything other than obvious. I personally find situations that require what is typically considered "social skills" to be almost completely void of reason. It has taken quite a bit of effort on my part to adjust to socializing with other people and I don't believe that I have any form of autism/Asperger's. When I was young (highschool) I just didn't get it. I still don't, but I can play the game by the rules pretty well for the most part. Is it really that surprising to find that someone who is significantly more hard-wired for analytical thinking than most to have trouble adapting to such an illogical system?
I'd like to build on this thought a bit:
Why doesn't microsoft make common use of the use of the administrator account a thing of the past? All of the pieces have been there since NT for Windows to use a strict separation of user versus Administrator accounts like we see with OS X and all of the Unix based operating systems? Having just recently setup an XP system for family, I noticed that the default install encourages, for all practical purposes, the user to run with Administrator privileges. Having worked as a Windows Administrator in a corporate environment I found that there are many things that were difficult for the end user to do without having Admin. rights. By comparison, I rarely get requests for things that require root access from users on a Unix/Linux desktops who do similar functions because the applications and system are setup assuming that root/admin. access will not be available to the user. In addition, it would seem that the default permissions for user files could be tightened up without creating a difficult work environment. As it is, the addition of security features in windows looks it has been treated as an afterthought, not an integral part of the operating system configuration - particularly for home users who are likely not to change from the defaults their system came with.
"most of the people who work behind the scenes are in fact human
What do you mean by MOST??!! Not ALL of your editors are human? What creatures are being employed here?"
Well, I believe that they still keep Cowboy Neil on staff.
At least part of the problem, as I see it, is that the lack of editing on the part of the editors leads to the impression that these "problem" submitters just get their stories posted with little question and that other submissions are getting ignored. I'm not going to name any specific editors but there is a serious problem here. There are spelling and grammar errors in the article summaries that wouldn't pass 5th grade English and these occur with amazing consistency. On top of the lack of basic English, there is the problem that duplicates have become quite commonplace on the site. An editor is supposed to actually do something, not just copy/paste an article from a favored submitter and then add an additional poorly structured statement or question to enhance the posting controversey. These editing problems create the feeling that the actual article review and posting process is performed in a shoddy manner. This leaves a wide open opportunity for people to question the motives behind the posted stories.
Personally, I couldn't care less if Roland or whoever gets an article posted every day, as long as the quality of the site and stories remains high. You've had a great thing going here for several years now, I hope you continue the good work and improve the site where appropriate.
Anyways, that's just my opionion.
"But please understand that doing so is tremendously time consuming- this article will generate hundreds of pieces of mail and forum posts that I want to read and reply to. But there are only so many hours in the day."
Do what the rest of us do, read and post from work.
"The problem is nobody's likely to stay hunt-and-peck forever."
You obviously haven't worked with some of my co-workers. I know a programmer/sysadmin who has been hunt & peck for about 20 years (maybe more).
Never underestimate the average human's resistance to change.
Why is the formatting of your post so weird?
because I could stop anytime.
Was I the only one who saw this subject line and though goatse.... ?? I must admit, it made me flinch.
After using OS X extensively, I found myself constantly lost in the dizzying array of options. That's why I switched to a Linux distribution running Gnome. The elegant simplicity and elimination of all those confusing options.
So you're saying it might not be a good buy? Please, tell me what you really think.
There is some point to it. If it were possible to get a significant number of people to boycott its use, web developers might be forced to move away from the lazy practice of making IE only pages. It will not impact MS directly but it would loosen one (of many) strangleholds it keeps on the web and user's data.
" there are suddenly 16,209 fewer files in the privilege log"
That's awfully close to 16,384 missing files. I wonder if SCO is using MS Excel to keep track of their privilege log.