May your Slash code be bug-free, May your bandwidth be plentiful, May your stories be good, May your future be geekful, May your time be valued, May your your efforts be valued, May Anonymous Cowards become understanding and wise, May Slashdot become a beacon in the world, May Rob and Jeff never wear suits, May future geeks with a really cool idea hold you up as role models.
Best wishes for Slashdot as its business end grows more and more successful.
Thanks to CmdrTaco and Hemos for what they've done. Keep up the good work.
I attended a magnet school for a while in Florida. There were kids who were there because they had applied and were accepted, and those who were there because it happened to be their school district. The kids in the magnet program and the kids in the district were segregated like blacks and whites in the old south-- territories clearly marked, students kept in separate lines-- it was disgusting.
The worst part was that nerds and geeks never got in trouble for what they did. I was part of the geek group, and I saw more injustice than I cared to see.
I remember a geek and a "local" getting into a verbal battle. The local kid was rational, the geek wasn't. Needless to say, the geek took an intellectual whipping. He, however, didn't like losing to somebody "dumber" than him, so he landed a punch right across the non-geek kid's jaw. The non-geek, not wanting a fight, simply pushed the geek to the ground. The geek was at school the next day. The other kid wasn't at school for another two weeks.
There are more stories I could tell. But why? Obviously, people seem to think that we can recitify the situation by reversing it.
I hate to say it, but being a geek is ALWAYS going to be hard. "Geek" might not be the word the tormentors use, and the kids may just as easily be "greasers", but tormentors and tormentees will always exist in the hellish battle that is high school. The best we can do is to offer support to those who feel like there are little demons running around poking them in the ass with pitchforks. Whether these kids are jocks or nerds or goths or greasers doesn't matter-- we need to be supportive and let them know that it gets better.
It's getting to the point where Slashdotters are intent on making schools into geek Utopias instead helping kids get through the hell that, sadly, high school will always be.
In my sixth grade year, I attended a magnet school in Florida. During that year, there were a lot of fights, mostly between geeks and jocks (frighteningly, the two WERE almost mutually exclusive!). However, very few of the geeks received so much as detention, even though there were occasions in which the geeks had instigated the fights. Every school has a social group that administrators allow to be treated like s***. It's not always geeks, and it's not always jocks. The problem is that high school faculty members condone the action towards a certain group. Mainly because they were also geeks, jocks, thespians, or greasers, so they're blind to their own biases. They totally miss them. We need to teach high schools a little bit of objectivity if we want to stop the violence.
Just my $0.02 ----
I have come to a conclusion about life... I am more
mentally stable than any of these activists or
Think about it: Now non-conformist students are getting hell not only from their peers, but from administration as well. Pressure from students has already made enough emotionally disturbed kids snap, so what is pressure from officials going to do? Right. More of the kids who were borderline to begin with are going to be pushed just a *tad* too far. The results? Littleton all over again. ------------
On a personal note, I only spent a year in high school-- I was fortunate enough to go to college early. But one year is more than anybody should be forced to endure, and I fantasized often about reaching into a tormentor's chest and ripping out his beating heart. Life isn't just better in the real world, it's FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!
The war is not going to be fought on the internet. But there are a few reasons that the internet can be a positive thing for those in Kosovo. First of all, it gives a fortunate few a chance to get their minds off the war. Secondly, it removes the feeling of total isolation from the rest of the world. Finally, it acts as a source of information when information may be somewhat hard to come by. Think about it: Hell's breaking loose in the nearby towns and cities, and you're starting to feel not only scared, but alone. You wonder if there is any news about the chance of a cease-fire. You log on and start looking up information on your hobby (say, car repair). You check out a few sites and begin to relax a bit. Then you go on the #autorepair channel on IRC and talk a little. Finally, feeling slightly relaxed, you head over to a news site (perhaps CNN.com, in spite of yourself). No ceasefire, and good ol' Milo is still being an ass. Damn. But it doesn't seem as discomforting as it might have before. I dunno... I'm not going to give in to the clichè of calling the internet a refuge. But it can be a comfort. And with all that's going on right now, I'm sure those in Kosovo will take any comfort they can get. Just my $0.02
Does it bother anybody else that while Clinton has been in office we have bombed the hell out of all sorts of countries and carried out all sorts of "police actions" in which young men and women WERE sent out to hostile territory, yet Clinton dodged the draft when he was younger? I'm sorry, but I don't think it would be right for him to send so many people out into hostile areas when he's never been in the military. Just my $0.02
Nice to know he isn't retiring. He made some good points in both articles. Honestly, I've always thought he was kinda cool, never realized there were so many people that didn't agree with him (or just didn't like him). I guess that's part of the point of his essays-- we sometimes see things from only one perspective.
Old or new, it's pretty cool. The site says the keying is based on chords. I dunno. I played the cello for a while-- will that give me an advantage in using a left-handed version? I don't know how excited traffic cops would be, but how about using this in conjunction with an Empeg system? Type while you drive. Sorta like talking on a cell phone.
Slashdot Mirror
May your Slash code be bug-free,
May your bandwidth be plentiful,
May your stories be good,
May your future be geekful,
May your time be valued,
May your your efforts be valued,
May Anonymous Cowards become understanding and wise,
May Slashdot become a beacon in the world,
May Rob and Jeff never wear suits,
May future geeks with a really cool idea hold you up as role models.
Best wishes for Slashdot as its business end grows more and more successful.
Thanks to CmdrTaco and Hemos for what they've done. Keep up the good work.
I can't say as I agree.
I attended a magnet school for a while in Florida. There were kids who were there because they had applied and were accepted, and those who were there because it happened to be their school district. The kids in the magnet program and the kids in the district were segregated like blacks and whites in the old south-- territories clearly marked, students kept in separate lines-- it was disgusting.
The worst part was that nerds and geeks never got in trouble for what they did. I was part of the geek group, and I saw more injustice than I cared to see.
I remember a geek and a "local" getting into a verbal battle. The local kid was rational, the geek wasn't. Needless to say, the geek took an intellectual whipping. He, however, didn't like losing to somebody "dumber" than him, so he landed a punch right across the non-geek kid's jaw. The non-geek, not wanting a fight, simply pushed the geek to the ground.
The geek was at school the next day. The other kid wasn't at school for another two weeks.
There are more stories I could tell. But why? Obviously, people seem to think that we can recitify the situation by reversing it.
I hate to say it, but being a geek is ALWAYS going to be hard. "Geek" might not be the word the tormentors use, and the kids may just as easily be "greasers", but tormentors and tormentees will always exist in the hellish battle that is high school. The best we can do is to offer support to those who feel like there are little demons running around poking them in the ass with pitchforks. Whether these kids are jocks or nerds or goths or greasers doesn't matter-- we need to be supportive and let them know that it gets better.
It's getting to the point where Slashdotters are intent on making schools into geek Utopias instead helping kids get through the hell that, sadly, high school will always be.
In my sixth grade year, I attended a magnet school in Florida. During that year, there were a lot of fights, mostly between geeks and jocks (frighteningly, the two WERE almost mutually exclusive!). However, very few of the geeks received so much as detention, even though there were occasions in which the geeks had instigated the fights.
Every school has a social group that administrators allow to be treated like s***. It's not always geeks, and it's not always jocks.
The problem is that high school faculty members condone the action towards a certain group. Mainly because they were also geeks, jocks, thespians, or greasers, so they're blind to their own biases. They totally miss them. We need to teach high schools a little bit of objectivity if we want to stop the violence.
Just my $0.02
----
I have come to a conclusion about life... I am more
mentally stable than any of these activists or
Think about it:
Now non-conformist students are getting hell not only from their peers, but from administration as well. Pressure from students has already made enough emotionally disturbed kids snap, so what is pressure from officials going to do?
Right. More of the kids who were borderline to begin with are going to be pushed just a *tad* too far. The results? Littleton all over again.
------------
On a personal note, I only spent a year in high school-- I was fortunate enough to go to college early. But one year is more than anybody should be forced to endure, and I fantasized often about reaching into a tormentor's chest and ripping out his beating heart.
Life isn't just better in the real world, it's FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!
The war is not going to be fought on the internet. But there are a few reasons that the internet can be a positive thing for those in Kosovo. First of all, it gives a fortunate few a chance to get their minds off the war. Secondly, it removes the feeling of total isolation from the rest of the world. Finally, it acts as a source of information when information may be somewhat hard to come by.
Think about it: Hell's breaking loose in the nearby towns and cities, and you're starting to feel not only scared, but alone. You wonder if there is any news about the chance of a cease-fire. You log on and start looking up information on your hobby (say, car repair). You check out a few sites and begin to relax a bit. Then you go on the #autorepair channel on IRC and talk a little. Finally, feeling slightly relaxed, you head over to a news site (perhaps CNN.com, in spite of yourself). No ceasefire, and good ol' Milo is still being an ass. Damn. But it doesn't seem as discomforting as it might have before.
I dunno... I'm not going to give in to the clichè of calling the internet a refuge. But it can be a comfort. And with all that's going on right now, I'm sure those in Kosovo will take any comfort they can get.
Just my $0.02
Does it bother anybody else that while Clinton has been in office we have bombed the hell out of all sorts of countries and carried out all sorts of "police actions" in which young men and women WERE sent out to hostile territory, yet Clinton dodged the draft when he was younger? I'm sorry, but I don't think it would be right for him to send so many people out into hostile areas when he's never been in the military. Just my $0.02
Nice to know he isn't retiring. He made some good points in both articles.
Honestly, I've always thought he was kinda cool, never realized there were so many people that didn't agree with him (or just didn't like him). I guess that's part of the point of his essays-- we sometimes see things from only one perspective.
Old or new, it's pretty cool.
The site says the keying is based on chords. I dunno. I played the cello for a while-- will that give me an advantage in using a left-handed version?
I don't know how excited traffic cops would be, but how about using this in conjunction with an Empeg system? Type while you drive. Sorta like talking on a cell phone.