You may already be aware of this, but if you're not that interested in reading Funny comments, you can always change the Funny reason modifier on the comment settings page to -1, -2, or even -6 if you're so inclined. There are some of us who enjoy the Funny comments as a break to an otherwise dull day; to each their own.
Use a standard protocol -- BitTorrent or HTTP. Please don't use FTP.
Why not FTP? I personally prefer it over HTTP for downloading files, rather than being confined to how the web server and browser want to handle the directory listing and file transfer. (Don't get me started on web servers that transfer.bz2 or even.gz in text mode...)
That only works if the location bar is visible. Believe it or not, some people hide the location bar. I wouldn't have believed it myself until I went over to my boss' Linux box and tried to call up Google on Firefox--only to discover that the location bar was missing (well, shrunk using that weird thing on the left that turns sideways when you click it). I don't know if he did that deliberately or if it's just the RedHat default, but there you go.
As others have pointed out, it's only a nickname (setting aside the obvious danger of users using the same password on IRC and elsewhere). In fact, when I first added password encryption to IRC Services, I recall having gotten several comments to the effect of "what good is it if admins can't tell users their passwords?" This is, of course, entirely an issue of conditioning (think bots with plaintext datafiles), but what can you do? It's hard enough trying to convince people they don't really want a BotServ...
By telling them straight out, he'd have given them a chance to argue back, and he might have ended up embroiled in their childish arguments as well. Instead, he's told them to go make fools of themselves in front of everybody, and not even show up again until they've decided to start making sense--thus cleverly robbing them of any chance to talk back. I think it's perfect, and I wish I could be there to see it.
Now as a manager, I run into similar problems with my employees. It took a while for one guy to figure out that Xbox Live lets me know exactly how much screwing around he is doing. (Hmm...he had Oblivion running all day, AND got 5 achievements...) Yet of course he claimed to be working all day. He is no longer eligible for telecommuting.
But was he still accomplishing his goals? I assume not, because you don't sound like the kind of person who'd take such a shallow disciplinary action, but it brings up a point:
Too many people assume that--whether at the office or at home--doing nothing but work will always produce the most output for a given period of time. Now, for things like factory assembly lines or monkey coding that don't require thinking, this is more or less true; but for the types of people who most commonly commute--design, R&D and so forth--it doesn't always hold.
In point of fact, when I changed jobs recently I spent my first six months working at the office, then got permission to telecommute. When I looked back over my first year, I'd actually gotten more done at home, despite taking frequent breaks to read a book, play Katamari Damacy, what have you. I suspect it's those relaxation periods that keep my work brain running at full speed, whereas it's awful hard to relax at the office (I don't even have a cubicle, just a desk in a big open room).
One curious thing I've found since starting to telecommute is that work has become almost another hobby for me. Granted I've always found it interesting, but at the office there was always an element of stuffiness, if you will, whereas at home, as long as I make my weekly goals (and I do), it's just one more part of my daily schedule. I guess work really does flow more smoothly when it's fun.
There was a big lawsuit several years ago here in Japan over whether it was legal to sell used games, with the game companies relying on the "movie" part of copyright law (from the Berne convention, so I think it's the same in the US) that prohibits redistribution of movies in particular without the owner's consent. In 2002, the Supreme Court said (in Japanese only, sorry) that the "movie" rule only applies to true movies shown in movie theaters, and that for games, the right to distribute terminates with the initial sale of the game.
It seems like Sony is trying to use the concept of a "license" to get around that, and I don't think either the used game stores--who brought that lawsuit in the first place--or the courts will look favorably on that. (If nothing else, I'd take it up with them, assuming I bothered to get a PS3 in the first place.)
While we're at it, isn't most of Microsoft's software long past mature? I do my finances in Excel 95, and not only is it more than sufficient for the task (graphs included), on a modern processor its response time is literally instant--you hit Tab or Enter and it's immediately waiting for your next input, recalculations and everything done, and this in a ~100k cell file. The 1-second loading time is nice too (hi, OO.o).
Aside from pointing out college texts that would like you to update every few years, many books do in fact contain "bugs", or factual errors
And those are the "cold books" mentioned by the OP, which have a completely different reading context from the "cozy books" I'm talking about. I have no dispute that things like college texts and reference books will need to be updated or corrected every once in a while, but they're also not things you sit down with when you want a nice relaxing evening of reading. (Well, maybe if you're a leading quantum physicist you might find an introductory text on quantum physics relaxing, but in that case you wouldn't be paying close attention to any errors anyway.)
Hmm, I hadn't looked at that angle; this is a good point depending on how you travel. Though I've personally never found myself pressed for bag/suitcase space due to books in the past, I could see myself taking an electronic reader with me on a trip--though I'd still want the "real thing" to read at home (or elsewhere where I can relax).
I wonder how much raw storage you could stick in a little chip embedded in the cover/spine, which would then transmit the book's contents to a reader through RF or some other method that doesn't require independent power--then you could have your cake and eat it too . . .
Paper might have high resolution, but it has poor contrast ratio,
Compared to a direct-light display such as an LED or CRT screen, perhaps, but I'd argue that the contrast is more than adequate. I personally find direct-light displays less comfortable to look at for long periods than reflected-light displays such as paper, but I suppose you can get used to either one; and I'll grant that the lack of a built-in light source can be a problem in dark areas, if you happen to read in such places frequently.
doesn't scroll, is unsearchable, is uncopypasteable,
Why would you need to do any of these? Maybe this is the generation gap, but at 28 and having read hundreds of paper novels, I've never once felt the need for any of those while reading. There have been a few occasions when I've wanted to go back and find a particular quote in a novel I read years ago, but that's a different usage pattern from ordinary reading--and incidentally, I've found that when I do need to search, my brain does a remarkably good job of finding the right place as I flip through the pages.
takes up physical space,
I guess if you've succumbed to the "gotta-get-em-all" Pokemon mindset, this could be an issue. I'm living in a 45m^2 apartment in Japan with two medium-size bookshelves, and already have plenty of books (around 150 at rough count) to occupy what free time I have--when I want more, I just sell some of the ones I already own.
and is a fire risk.
As is that CPU you're overclocking. No, seriously--the chance of a fire actually starting from or due to a book is probably about the same as, if not less than, the chance of a fire starting from your PC or other electronic equipment. If your apartment or house is stacked from floor to ceiling with paper books, maybe you'd have something to worry about if a kitchen fire or the like spread, but in ordinary circumstances it's really not something that merits particular concern.
I'd also add that aside from having resolution that exceeds that of electronic displays, paper books don't need electricty to read, don't suffer from bugs or require updates, and survive ordinary wear and tear much better than electronic readers (I've got a book on Japan dating from 1907--a few photograph pages are no longer glued in they way they should be, but on the whole it's in fine shape).
Diego: To clarify this: our releases are not even beta, they are perfectly stable. But I suppose we will have to give in eventually and change the naming scheme to be more in line with people's expectations.
Alex: The problem is that a version of 1.0 can't be reached as new and new formats come every now and then. But the silly number still matters for users!
I can't tell whether the interviewees are simply trying to sound l33t or really don't comprehend the usefulness of (proper) version numbers to users, but either way I have to wonder: What is this resistance to the version number "1.0"? It's certainly not limited to MPlayer (I've been hacking transcode lately, and all the modules have version numbers of 0.something, or even 0.0.something), but everybody knows software changes--version 1.0 doesn't mean the end of the line; if anything, it gives users confidence that the program works.
Only badly made games would use decrement loops to count time, when you have a steady 60Hz timer already.
Or games that need to wait for an interval less than 1/60 second. On the NES, for example, counting CPU cycles is the only way (on pre-MMC3 cartridges, at least) to know when you've reached a certain screen position, which is necessary for certain visual effects.
As surveillance expands, people become free from danger, free to walk alone at night, free to work in a safe place, and free to buy any legal product or service without the threat of fraud.
I think you (or the author, rather) meant "safe", not "free". And it wouldn't last, of course, because the potential gain from cracking the system would be too great. Should I bring up that old quote from Ben Franklin about essential liberty and temporary safety?
Plus, it would really demoralize the insurgency. They know they can scare us off if they keep killing soldures, but you can never kill enough robots.
That's a nice optimistic thought. Unfortunately, in real life it would probably be more like "it would really delight the insurgency, because they only have to hack one and they have a million killing machines they can send at the US troops". (You can tell how much faith I have in the software industry . ..)
Chinese or Japanese? If it's Japanese (and word-processing), you want Ichitaro. Recent versions admittedly suffer from glitz, but in terms of actually writing Japanese text it beats the pants off MS Word, OO.o, Abiword, and probably any other word processor out there. I picked it up when I couldn't get anything else to do furigana (supralinear comments) on vertical text properly, and I haven't looked back.
Wow, that's really derogatory to call someone out for being "derogatory". Sheesh.
Right back atcha.
Ok, so it sounds "bleak", but we ARE talking about the minds of people who would feel better off dead here, so bear with me for a minute. If you're not willing to consider their position for just a few moments, and think for a minute of WHY they might feel that way, given possible situations, then you're going to be less able to think from their perspective.
I'll grant that from the perspective of such a person, your post probably describes their worldview fairly well. What I took exception to is your implication--and if you didn't mean to imply this, my apologies for misunderstanding you--that people outside of that group also view things that way, that this sort of "harassment" takes place on an everyday basis all over the place. (It doesn't; at least, I've rarely had to deal with it, and have rarely heard friends complain about it either.)
Have YOU ever thought about starting your own company? I figure it would be very easy to do in Japan. You could start your own company, bring in a bunch of unskilled Japanese workers, underpay them for what they do, tell them that they are gaining valuable experience, tell them to ganbare a million times, socially ostracize them for not working hard enough, then just sit back and watch those profits roll in.
The thing is--and this is why I suggested you were unfamiliar with "Japanese culture", to the extent it can be defined--most Japanese would not do this (Horiemon excepted). I don't have any hard data to demonstrate this, just my own experience and hearsay, but a large part of the Japanese kaisha system is based on trust, and--in large part--it works, for both sides.
Out of curiosity, where do you work? I'm in Tokyo, so there may be a regional difference.
Now, one of two things happen at this point. Most employees find out they're being used and try to leave for foreign companies who don't treat them like crap
I have a few (Japanese) friends who have worked for foreign companies. Interestingly, they all say that gaishikei firms pay better, but Japanese firms treat them better.
I propose that the mental pressuring and increased emphasis on private life are linked.
I disagree; since Japanese society traditionally has not placed much value on private life, most Japanese simply did not consider it a strong desire. (Did you ever watch the movie Tasogare Seibei? That illustrates pretty well the traditional balance between soshiki and family.) I would actually argue the reverse: that an increased desire for a private life, perhaps resulting from Western influence, has resulted in greater stress as Japanese are no longer satisfied with simply conforming to the group.
Perfectly normal, but do they like it?
No, probably not--but they probably also accept it as necessary to make a living, else they'd be changing jobs. (If you had a billion dollars in your bank account, would you "like" sitting at a desk from 9 to 5 every day?)
Wow . . . that's an awfully derogatory way to describe cultural differences. Yes, the Japanese dislike physical violence; yes, they can be clever at manipulating others' emotions; and yes, there may even be a cause-and-effect relationship between those two traits. But implying that they use that method to "get what they want" or "defend themselves" in the same way as Westerners do shows a basic misunderstanding of Japanese culture.
Japanese, on the whole, place significant value on helping others rather than fulfilling personal desires; not to an extreme, of course, but enough so that Dilbert has no real-life reference point here, for example. The lifetime employment system you mention is partly due to this, and partly due to the willingness of many Japanese to allow organizations to take care of them rather than taking control of their own lives. The younger generation is certainly beginning to change that, as you mention, but not because of some dislike of this mental pressuring; it's the result of an increased emphasis on private life and personal growth,
which the old system doesn't have much (if any) leeway for.
Interpersonal clashes do happen, of course, and as you suggest, the Japanese prefer causing embarrassment to using physical violence. But if you consider things like "overwork" and "deprivation of sleep" to be personal attacks, then I'd seriously suggest finding another job, or possibly another country to work in, because the vast majority of the Japanese people I know consider that perfectly normal. In fact, working overtime has traditionally been seen as a positive trait, the sign of a hard worker, and if that means you have to cut down on your sleep, so be it.
And describing Japan as a "nation of recluses" is simply wrong. Wikipedia says that the hikikomori population was around 1.2 million in September 2004, or less than 1% of the population; even limiting it to the 10-40 age range, that's still on the order of 3-5%, which matches my own experience. A serious problem, yes, but hardly a "nation of recluses".
Well, tho I've been told that showering while having the flu could kill me
I can't say I've heard that, but I can say from personal experience that showering with the flu is the only time I've ever fainted; only for a few seconds, but the minute or so before that when my vision blacked out was scary as hell.
On the other hand, I've only caught the flu once in 13 years since (compared to once every year or two until then). Cause and effect? Who knows . . .
Slashdot Mirror
Funny comments don't deserve +5
You may already be aware of this, but if you're not that interested in reading Funny comments, you can always change the Funny reason modifier on the comment settings page to -1, -2, or even -6 if you're so inclined. There are some of us who enjoy the Funny comments as a break to an otherwise dull day; to each their own.
Use a standard protocol -- BitTorrent or HTTP. Please don't use FTP.
Why not FTP? I personally prefer it over HTTP for downloading files, rather than being confined to how the web server and browser want to handle the directory listing and file transfer. (Don't get me started on web servers that transfer .bz2 or even .gz in text mode...)
Is this a new Office extension or something? "Share your important confidential presentations with everyone, instantly! Only with PowerPoint ZeroDay!"
That only works if the location bar is visible. Believe it or not, some people hide the location bar. I wouldn't have believed it myself until I went over to my boss' Linux box and tried to call up Google on Firefox--only to discover that the location bar was missing (well, shrunk using that weird thing on the left that turns sideways when you click it). I don't know if he did that deliberately or if it's just the RedHat default, but there you go.
is to glue the mouse to the desk while she's away.
As others have pointed out, it's only a nickname (setting aside the obvious danger of users using the same password on IRC and elsewhere). In fact, when I first added password encryption to IRC Services, I recall having gotten several comments to the effect of "what good is it if admins can't tell users their passwords?" This is, of course, entirely an issue of conditioning (think bots with plaintext datafiles), but what can you do? It's hard enough trying to convince people they don't really want a BotServ...
you have to change your name to something that's pronouncable by those of us with only one mouth.
By telling them straight out, he'd have given them a chance to argue back, and he might have ended up embroiled in their childish arguments as well. Instead, he's told them to go make fools of themselves in front of everybody, and not even show up again until they've decided to start making sense--thus cleverly robbing them of any chance to talk back. I think it's perfect, and I wish I could be there to see it.
But was he still accomplishing his goals? I assume not, because you don't sound like the kind of person who'd take such a shallow disciplinary action, but it brings up a point:
Too many people assume that--whether at the office or at home--doing nothing but work will always produce the most output for a given period of time. Now, for things like factory assembly lines or monkey coding that don't require thinking, this is more or less true; but for the types of people who most commonly commute--design, R&D and so forth--it doesn't always hold.
In point of fact, when I changed jobs recently I spent my first six months working at the office, then got permission to telecommute. When I looked back over my first year, I'd actually gotten more done at home, despite taking frequent breaks to read a book, play Katamari Damacy, what have you. I suspect it's those relaxation periods that keep my work brain running at full speed, whereas it's awful hard to relax at the office (I don't even have a cubicle, just a desk in a big open room).
One curious thing I've found since starting to telecommute is that work has become almost another hobby for me. Granted I've always found it interesting, but at the office there was always an element of stuffiness, if you will, whereas at home, as long as I make my weekly goals (and I do), it's just one more part of my daily schedule. I guess work really does flow more smoothly when it's fun.
(Sorry, but you asked for it . . .)
crystal:/tmp> wget tp://www.jp.kernel.org/.../linux-2.6.16.19.tar.bz2
2
--17:03:43-- tp://www.jp.kernel.org/.../linux-2.6.16.19.tar.bz
[...]
17:03:48 (8.61 MB/s) - `linux-2.6.16.19.tar.bz2' saved [40836905/40836905]
Granted, the trick is finding a server that has enough upstream to saturate my link . . .
It seems like Sony is trying to use the concept of a "license" to get around that, and I don't think either the used game stores--who brought that lawsuit in the first place--or the courts will look favorably on that. (If nothing else, I'd take it up with them, assuming I bothered to get a PS3 in the first place.)
While we're at it, isn't most of Microsoft's software long past mature? I do my finances in Excel 95, and not only is it more than sufficient for the task (graphs included), on a modern processor its response time is literally instant--you hit Tab or Enter and it's immediately waiting for your next input, recalculations and everything done, and this in a ~100k cell file. The 1-second loading time is nice too (hi, OO.o).
And those are the "cold books" mentioned by the OP, which have a completely different reading context from the "cozy books" I'm talking about. I have no dispute that things like college texts and reference books will need to be updated or corrected every once in a while, but they're also not things you sit down with when you want a nice relaxing evening of reading. (Well, maybe if you're a leading quantum physicist you might find an introductory text on quantum physics relaxing, but in that case you wouldn't be paying close attention to any errors anyway.)
I wonder how much raw storage you could stick in a little chip embedded in the cover/spine, which would then transmit the book's contents to a reader through RF or some other method that doesn't require independent power--then you could have your cake and eat it too . . .
Compared to a direct-light display such as an LED or CRT screen, perhaps, but I'd argue that the contrast is more than adequate. I personally find direct-light displays less comfortable to look at for long periods than reflected-light displays such as paper, but I suppose you can get used to either one; and I'll grant that the lack of a built-in light source can be a problem in dark areas, if you happen to read in such places frequently.
doesn't scroll, is unsearchable, is uncopypasteable,
Why would you need to do any of these? Maybe this is the generation gap, but at 28 and having read hundreds of paper novels, I've never once felt the need for any of those while reading. There have been a few occasions when I've wanted to go back and find a particular quote in a novel I read years ago, but that's a different usage pattern from ordinary reading--and incidentally, I've found that when I do need to search, my brain does a remarkably good job of finding the right place as I flip through the pages.
takes up physical space,
I guess if you've succumbed to the "gotta-get-em-all" Pokemon mindset, this could be an issue. I'm living in a 45m^2 apartment in Japan with two medium-size bookshelves, and already have plenty of books (around 150 at rough count) to occupy what free time I have--when I want more, I just sell some of the ones I already own.
and is a fire risk.
As is that CPU you're overclocking. No, seriously--the chance of a fire actually starting from or due to a book is probably about the same as, if not less than, the chance of a fire starting from your PC or other electronic equipment. If your apartment or house is stacked from floor to ceiling with paper books, maybe you'd have something to worry about if a kitchen fire or the like spread, but in ordinary circumstances it's really not something that merits particular concern.
I'd also add that aside from having resolution that exceeds that of electronic displays, paper books don't need electricty to read, don't suffer from bugs or require updates, and survive ordinary wear and tear much better than electronic readers (I've got a book on Japan dating from 1907--a few photograph pages are no longer glued in they way they should be, but on the whole it's in fine shape).
is probably bigger than the average Japanese apartment.
I can't tell whether the interviewees are simply trying to sound l33t or really don't comprehend the usefulness of (proper) version numbers to users, but either way I have to wonder: What is this resistance to the version number "1.0"? It's certainly not limited to MPlayer (I've been hacking transcode lately, and all the modules have version numbers of 0.something, or even 0.0.something), but everybody knows software changes--version 1.0 doesn't mean the end of the line; if anything, it gives users confidence that the program works.
Or games that need to wait for an interval less than 1/60 second. On the NES, for example, counting CPU cycles is the only way (on pre-MMC3 cartridges, at least) to know when you've reached a certain screen position, which is necessary for certain visual effects.
I think you (or the author, rather) meant "safe", not "free". And it wouldn't last, of course, because the potential gain from cracking the system would be too great. Should I bring up that old quote from Ben Franklin about essential liberty and temporary safety?
That's a nice optimistic thought. Unfortunately, in real life it would probably be more like "it would really delight the insurgency, because they only have to hack one and they have a million killing machines they can send at the US troops". (You can tell how much faith I have in the software industry . . .)
Chinese or Japanese? If it's Japanese (and word-processing), you want Ichitaro. Recent versions admittedly suffer from glitz, but in terms of actually writing Japanese text it beats the pants off MS Word, OO.o, Abiword, and probably any other word processor out there. I picked it up when I couldn't get anything else to do furigana (supralinear comments) on vertical text properly, and I haven't looked back.
Right back atcha.
Ok, so it sounds "bleak", but we ARE talking about the minds of people who would feel better off dead here, so bear with me for a minute. If you're not willing to consider their position for just a few moments, and think for a minute of WHY they might feel that way, given possible situations, then you're going to be less able to think from their perspective.
I'll grant that from the perspective of such a person, your post probably describes their worldview fairly well. What I took exception to is your implication--and if you didn't mean to imply this, my apologies for misunderstanding you--that people outside of that group also view things that way, that this sort of "harassment" takes place on an everyday basis all over the place. (It doesn't; at least, I've rarely had to deal with it, and have rarely heard friends complain about it either.)
Have YOU ever thought about starting your own company? I figure it would be very easy to do in Japan. You could start your own company, bring in a bunch of unskilled Japanese workers, underpay them for what they do, tell them that they are gaining valuable experience, tell them to ganbare a million times, socially ostracize them for not working hard enough, then just sit back and watch those profits roll in.
The thing is--and this is why I suggested you were unfamiliar with "Japanese culture", to the extent it can be defined--most Japanese would not do this (Horiemon excepted). I don't have any hard data to demonstrate this, just my own experience and hearsay, but a large part of the Japanese kaisha system is based on trust, and--in large part--it works, for both sides.
Out of curiosity, where do you work? I'm in Tokyo, so there may be a regional difference.
Now, one of two things happen at this point. Most employees find out they're being used and try to leave for foreign companies who don't treat them like crap
I have a few (Japanese) friends who have worked for foreign companies. Interestingly, they all say that gaishikei firms pay better, but Japanese firms treat them better.
I propose that the mental pressuring and increased emphasis on private life are linked.
I disagree; since Japanese society traditionally has not placed much value on private life, most Japanese simply did not consider it a strong desire. (Did you ever watch the movie Tasogare Seibei ? That illustrates pretty well the traditional balance between soshiki and family.) I would actually argue the reverse: that an increased desire for a private life, perhaps resulting from Western influence, has resulted in greater stress as Japanese are no longer satisfied with simply conforming to the group.
Perfectly normal, but do they like it?
No, probably not--but they probably also accept it as necessary to make a living, else they'd be changing jobs. (If you had a billion dollars in your bank account, would you "like" sitting at a desk from 9 to 5 every day?)
Japanese, on the whole, place significant value on helping others rather than fulfilling personal desires; not to an extreme, of course, but enough so that Dilbert has no real-life reference point here, for example. The lifetime employment system you mention is partly due to this, and partly due to the willingness of many Japanese to allow organizations to take care of them rather than taking control of their own lives. The younger generation is certainly beginning to change that, as you mention, but not because of some dislike of this mental pressuring; it's the result of an increased emphasis on private life and personal growth, which the old system doesn't have much (if any) leeway for.
Interpersonal clashes do happen, of course, and as you suggest, the Japanese prefer causing embarrassment to using physical violence. But if you consider things like "overwork" and "deprivation of sleep" to be personal attacks, then I'd seriously suggest finding another job, or possibly another country to work in, because the vast majority of the Japanese people I know consider that perfectly normal. In fact, working overtime has traditionally been seen as a positive trait, the sign of a hard worker, and if that means you have to cut down on your sleep, so be it.
And describing Japan as a "nation of recluses" is simply wrong. Wikipedia says that the hikikomori population was around 1.2 million in September 2004, or less than 1% of the population; even limiting it to the 10-40 age range, that's still on the order of 3-5%, which matches my own experience. A serious problem, yes, but hardly a "nation of recluses".
I can't say I've heard that, but I can say from personal experience that showering with the flu is the only time I've ever fainted; only for a few seconds, but the minute or so before that when my vision blacked out was scary as hell.
On the other hand, I've only caught the flu once in 13 years since (compared to once every year or two until then). Cause and effect? Who knows . . .