Two articles on slashdot about quality of life issues for programmers. First slashdot-izens cry foul on Philip Greenspun's view that techies should work 70+ hours, now we beg for on-site daycare.
What does this all mean?
Are slashdot-izens growing up?
Is slashdot reaching out for a new audience?
Are slashdot readers just feeling burnt out?
Is it just a Monday thing?
Or... is it all just a sign that today is the day to tell my office that my wife is pregnant?
I like Ralph Nader but I don't encourage everybody to vote for him.
There will likely be 2-3 seats of the Supreme Court up for reappointment in the next administration. I think that control of this is more important than the worthy longer term goal of getting more choices on the ballot. But not everybody's vote will make a big difference on that.
Here's my opinion:
Who should vote for Nader? - people who live in states where Gore or Bush is a sure bet to win. I live in DC and there is no way that Gore is not going to win our three electoral votes. My vote for Nader can help the Green Party towards the 5% of the popular vote they need to receive matching funds in the next election.
Who should not vote for Nader? - people who live in states where the race between Bush & Gore is close. Your vote will make a difference. Support the candidate that you want making the decisions for Supreme Court appointments. If I lived across the Potomac in Virginia, I would vote for Gore because he definitely needs votes there.
Naturally, the same arguments could be made about Buchanan, Browne, Hagelin and other third party candidates. I just happen to prefer Ralph to any of the other candidates.
The residents of the District of Columbia pay full federal income taxes yet lack voting representation in Congress. To add insult to injury, DC is the only locality in the country that must have its budget approved by Congress and whose laws may be overturned by Congress.
Do you support full voting representation for 500,000+ citizens of the United States?
I programmed professionally under NeXTStep/OpenStep for eight years. While the development environment was nice, I've seen similar functionality in a few other environments now.
What I have yet to see is a replication of the "Services" menu provided by the NeXTStep environment. Programmers would declare services provided by their application for particular types of selections (e.g. string, file, rtf text). All other NeXTStep apps have a Services menu item which is automatically populated by these services.
For example, you're editing a document. Double-click a word to select, go to the Services menu and choose "Look up in Webster" -- which tells the Webster dictionary app to look up the word. The Terminal app provided a service building feature so that you could define a "wc" service.... select a bunch of text, click on the Services->Terminal->Word Count service and the results from wc appear.
If you're a sysadmin or a help-desk person or a person who your co-workers trust on techie matters, you're not helping and your data are flawed.
While it's true that too many users ignore warning dialog boxes, it's also true that many users won't know the difference between "format" and "defrag".
When somebody they trust pulls tricks like this, it only confuses them more.
Then again, if it keeps them from opening suspect files, may it is good after all.
I didn't see anything in this article about what I consider to be one of the most disturbing features of the WTO -- their policy of closed door tribunals.
If a country (or a multi-national corporation with the proper officials working for them) has a problem with another country's policies, the issue is argued before a WTO tribunal BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. Other parties are not allowed in, NGOs are not allowed in, interested onlookers are not allowed in.
I was diagnosed with tendonitis in both wrists and mild CTS in my right wrist. Here are some things that worked for me:
Wrist braces! These look like rollerblading wrist protectors and have a thin metal brace in them which bends your wrist slightly up. This position is the position that opens the tendons which form the carpal tunnel.
Wrist braces while you sleep. Again, the braces hold your wrist in a good position while you sleep and helps rest your poor tired wrists more.
Typing position. As many people have said, it's important to have your wrists off of the desk, but it's also bad to have your wrists arched too high. The knuckles between your palm and your fingers should be well above your wrists.
Vitamin I, better known as ibuprofen. It's an anti-inflammatory which will lessen swelling. My doctor suggested 800 mg, three times per day -- that's 12 standard Advil per day. I am not a doctor, you are not me. Do not take my advice about drugs. Ask YOUR doctor what YOU should do for YOUR body.
emacs. Too many mouse clicks aggravated (actually still aggravates) the tendons in my wrists. The more I can do on the keyboard, the better I feel.
About seven years ago, I had extreme soreness in both wrists and went to see a doctor. He diagnosed me as having tendonitis in both wrists and very mild CTS in my right wrist.
If you feel a tingling or pins-and-needles sensation in your finger tips, that's because a nerve is being pinched because the carpal tunnel is swollen and is closing.
On this page, they break down their count by country domain (e.g..uk,.de,.au, etc.) and they show stats for.edu -- but there is no break down for.com,.net, or.org.
Does this mean they don't query those sites? While I like to see stats that raise linux and diminish Win, I don't think these stats can be reliable with these three TLDs left out.
a book written by thousand of trained monkeys takes only one day
even though it only took a day, it sucks
linux was written by thousands of trained monkeys quickly
therefore, linux must suck.
I can't see how this book effort could possibly be a positive press item for OSS. Not only do OSS project greatly benefit from continual debugging and rewriting, but OSS projects also have somebody who dictates the overall design and ensures quality.
Slashdot Mirror
>p.s. Wow, I hope Slashdot gives the Canadian elections this much coverage in three weeks' time...
y'mean they didn't vote yesterday like the rest of the country?
(duck!)
--
Silly, silly boy, don't mistake slashdot users as representative of "regular users of the internet".
Don't forget that there are many people out there who get their internet service from AOL or their (non-techie) jobs.
Repeat after me. "Slashdot is not the internet, slashdot is not the internet".
--
Two articles on slashdot about quality of life issues for programmers. First slashdot-izens cry foul on Philip Greenspun's view that techies should work 70+ hours, now we beg for on-site daycare.
What does this all mean?
Are slashdot-izens growing up?
Is slashdot reaching out for a new audience?
Are slashdot readers just feeling burnt out?
Is it just a Monday thing?
Or... is it all just a sign that today is the day to tell my office that my wife is pregnant?
What does the "Upgrade" option in a Mandrake installation actually do?
/etc, /usr/bin, /usr/X11R6...) and put the new stuff in?
Does it merely compare existing RPMs and replace them with different versions?
Does it wipe out full directories (e.g.
I've installed some RPMs on top of my Mandrake 6.1... will these be there when I upgrade or will I need to reinstall?
Yes, I've RTFM, all it says is "choose Upgrade to upgrade an older Mandrake installation".
We have a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse in each conference room. Great for meetings...
"Give me the mouse and keyboard and I'll show you what I mean"
We can just throw the mouse and keyboard around and nobody has to switch seats.
---
There will likely be 2-3 seats of the Supreme Court up for reappointment in the next administration. I think that control of this is more important than the worthy longer term goal of getting more choices on the ballot. But not everybody's vote will make a big difference on that.
Here's my opinion:
Who should vote for Nader? - people who live in states where Gore or Bush is a sure bet to win. I live in DC and there is no way that Gore is not going to win our three electoral votes. My vote for Nader can help the Green Party towards the 5% of the popular vote they need to receive matching funds in the next election.
Who should not vote for Nader? - people who live in states where the race between Bush & Gore is close. Your vote will make a difference. Support the candidate that you want making the decisions for Supreme Court appointments. If I lived across the Potomac in Virginia, I would vote for Gore because he definitely needs votes there.
Naturally, the same arguments could be made about Buchanan, Browne, Hagelin and other third party candidates. I just happen to prefer Ralph to any of the other candidates.
--
It's Time -- www.dcvote.org
Do you support full voting representation for 500,000+ citizens of the United States?
If not, why?
--
It's Time - www.dcvote.org
I programmed professionally under NeXTStep/OpenStep for eight years. While the development environment was nice, I've seen similar functionality in a few other environments now.
What I have yet to see is a replication of the "Services" menu provided by the NeXTStep environment. Programmers would declare services provided by their application for particular types of selections (e.g. string, file, rtf text). All other NeXTStep apps have a Services menu item which is automatically populated by these services.
For example, you're editing a document. Double-click a word to select, go to the Services menu and choose "Look up in Webster" -- which tells the Webster dictionary app to look up the word. The Terminal app provided a service building feature so that you could define a "wc" service.... select a bunch of text, click on the Services->Terminal->Word Count service and the results from wc appear.
sigh
While it's true that too many users ignore warning dialog boxes, it's also true that many users won't know the difference between "format" and "defrag".
When somebody they trust pulls tricks like this, it only confuses them more.
Then again, if it keeps them from opening suspect files, may it is good after all.
(Vassar '90 Alum)
I didn't see anything in this article about what I consider to be one of the most disturbing features of the WTO -- their policy of closed door tribunals.
If a country (or a multi-national corporation with the proper officials working for them) has a problem with another country's policies, the issue is argued before a WTO tribunal BEHIND CLOSED DOORS. Other parties are not allowed in, NGOs are not allowed in, interested onlookers are not allowed in.
- Wrist braces! These look like rollerblading wrist protectors and have a thin metal brace in them which bends your wrist slightly up. This position is the position that opens the tendons which form the carpal tunnel.
- Wrist braces while you sleep. Again, the braces hold your wrist in a good position while you sleep and helps rest your poor tired wrists more.
- Typing position. As many people have said, it's important to have your wrists off of the desk, but it's also bad to have your wrists arched too high. The knuckles between your palm and your fingers should be well above your wrists.
- Vitamin I, better known as ibuprofen. It's an anti-inflammatory which will lessen swelling. My doctor suggested 800 mg, three times per day -- that's 12 standard Advil per day. I am not a doctor, you are not me. Do not take my advice about drugs. Ask YOUR doctor what YOU should do for YOUR body.
- emacs. Too many mouse clicks aggravated (actually still aggravates) the tendons in my wrists. The more I can do on the keyboard, the better I feel.
Good luck.I'm not a doctor, but I think I'm anyone.
About seven years ago, I had extreme soreness in both wrists and went to see a doctor. He diagnosed me as having tendonitis in both wrists and very mild CTS in my right wrist.
If you feel a tingling or pins-and-needles sensation in your finger tips, that's because a nerve is being pinched because the carpal tunnel is swollen and is closing.
General soreness is more likely tendonitis.
Again, I'm not a doctor.
On this page, they break down their count by country domain (e.g. .uk, .de, .au, etc.) and they show stats for .edu -- but there is no break down for .com, .net, or .org.
Does this mean they don't query those sites? While I like to see stats that raise linux and diminish Win, I don't think these stats can be reliable with these three TLDs left out.
- a book written by thousand of trained monkeys takes only one day
- even though it only took a day, it sucks
- linux was written by thousands of trained monkeys quickly
- therefore, linux must suck.
I can't see how this book effort could possibly be a positive press item for OSS. Not only do OSS project greatly benefit from continual debugging and rewriting, but OSS projects also have somebody who dictates the overall design and ensures quality.Oh please.