Just because people whose job is not critical can afford to "try something out" does not mean that REAL programs are not engineered - in the truest sense of the word.
I've worked on code that controls nuclear plants. Believe me, it was engineered. It was simulated. It was revised in design and implementation countless times. It doesn't crash, it doesn't fail, it works better than most people's nervous system.
Just because your idea of programming entails crap such as shell scripts and "quick and dirty" hacks, does not mean that programmers, REAL programmers, are not engineers, architects, and artists of the most discriminating caliber.
Perl is a Swiss Army Knife. Slashdot, as a site, is at best, a covered bridge from Madison County. It is not a skyscraper. The people who write what you seem to consider "programs" are nothing more than white collar drones with workbenches in their garage and some power tools from Sears. Yes, any bank teller can go and build a deck in their back yard. This does not make them Professionals. Similarly, anyone with the most basal understanding of a language can put hammer to nail, and bang together a "program". This does not make them a professional Programmer.
REAL programs run space ships (except those that crash. Those are written by people who carve Indian heads out of stumps with chainsaws), power plants, pacemakers and banks. REAL software, designed and engineered, instead of hacked together between meetings, is as intricate as any tangible piece of engineering. And, as it comes after 50 years, instead of 50 centuries, of practice, I think we're doing pretty damn well.
The popular opinion of programming, the "shoot from the hip" attitude you claim as prevalent, is a problem. People think we all ride Razor scooters in our offices for God's sake. You and I clearly know better, but the word just isn't getting out.
Every time some putrid pundit whines about "the IT shortage", I want to scream. There is also a shortage of qualified rocket scientists, and metallurgists - the bolts and rivets on the space shuttle are made by grunts who push buttons on a robot, after all. But the few qualified people that are there, put us on the Moon.
There isn't a shortage of talent. It's just misplaced. It's thwarted by the weekend carpenters, who once read a "Learn C++ in 21 Days" book, and not command real salaries because they claim to be Programmers.
There is REAL talent out there, and it usually works for ignorant fucks who choose bravado over skill and common sense. This is why so much retail software crashes at the drop of a hat. This is also why I think we need a "Professional Software Engineer" certification - just as we already have a "Professional Engineer" one. You can do engineering without it, but your work better be signed off on by one before it sees the light of day, and puts the public safety at risk.
The "Swoosh!" thing is just a logo. Unlike big spoilers on Honda Civics, the "swoosh!" doesn't actually make the shoes any faster.
What makes Nikes fast is that they are the running shoes of choice for the Olympic gods. In particular, the educated ones here will quickly confirm, Nike is the name of the goddess of victory. So not only are they fast enough to get you into the Olympics, they're the shoes of victory herfest.
So pay no attention to the logo. But, if you want to make your Nikes even faster than they are out of the box, write "Type R" on them.
As I kid, I'd read a story, by Stanislaus Lem IIRC, in which the Earth seeks admission to a Galactic Congress of sorts. After reviewing Earth's pedigree, we are denied memberships on the grounds that the primordial ooze from which we're descended was actually the result of illegal dumping by some aliens. The specifics of the story escape me, but I recall that after purging their septic system on the young and lifeless Earth, the aliens responsible added insult to injury and stirred the pool of waste with a stick, in a clockwise direction, which imparted onto our DNA a right-handed chirality, which is apparently considered mongrel by everyone else in the galaxy.
The Iridium system is already there. Granted, switching entirely to it will make it prohibitively expensive, but it's still likely to be cheaper than putting up your own birds.
Though, the number of places where cell service is unavailable is decreasing rapidly in the US. In Europe, there are truly few places where there isn't coverage. The places where there isn't coverage, are those places where there is much less truck service to be tracked.
Your point is a good one, but I think this problem is subject to the 80/20 rule. Of all the trackable truck service, 80% can easily be monitored using existing technology. This can then be used to fund the remaining 20% at a later time.
Few solutions spring into the world fully formed, after all.
You can get a cheap GPS module for around $100 now. Coupled to a cheap cell phone ($30), and a decent plan from something like Sprint, you're already there. No need to spend an extra $1000 dollars per vehicle, if your cheap GPS/phone can dial a number automagically every few minutes, transmit it's vehicle ID and position, and disconnect. I'm willing to bet that this can easily be done, at a profit, for under $50/unit.
* Intellectual property is encoded in this message. Reading it is a violation of the DMCA. I will exercise this right should anyone run with the idea and not send me a nice check.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him.
The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost."
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this, let's say we have a man making contest." To which the scientist replied, "OK, great!"
But God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam."
The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God just looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!"
Stan should tell the Studios to blow it out their ass, sell rights to characters and plotlines on a per movie basis, and set up a fund into which all those geeks, eager to see him get his fair share, could make contributions online.
You know, just the thing all the starving artists should do to get out from under the jackboot of the RIAA. We'd all, gladly, give Stan $5 each, if we liked paying $9 to see the movie, right?
Whenever I am in need of some amusement that can only be had by sadistically tormenting another human being, I answer the telemarketting call pretending to be my own next of kin.
I politely explain to the caller that I had been killed a week prior in a terrible car accident, and that as a result, I am no longer interested in health insurance, long distance service, vinyl siding or a penis extension. This is the source of much amusement.
I further request that I be permanently removed from their call list, since I am, quite dead, and thus unlikely to be interested in their offer, no matter of remarkably opportune, in the forseeable future. This reduces my future call load.
If they've not complied and hung up by this point, I become audibly emotional (cue my sobbing girlfriend in the background) and become irate about the insensitivity of the caller, and their corporate policy. This is the fun, sadistic part.
On occasion, when dealing with a cold-call from a business which clearly got my number second or even third hand, I've claim to have died many months ago, in order to raise the question of validity of the information they purchase.
Since the marketting calls in my area wax and wane over the period of several weeks, this can be literally hours of fun each week. I highly recommend it.
You buy a new car every 3-5 years? Dude, the bubble burst... You shouldn't be buying a car less than 3 years old in the first place. Going $30k into debt every few years isn't REALLY helping the economy. HONEST.
But to address your point... Yes, the auto industry does make a mint on after-market touch-up paints. This is why they use yellow plastic on all dark cars, and black plastic on all light colored cars... So when the paint chips, it's obvious, and you have to go and drop either $30k on a new car, or at least $5 on a bottle of nail polish for your bumpers. It's quite literally, highway robbery.
As for perpetually self-repairing cars, I'm sure Ford is talking to Monsanto right now, about making nano-paint with a patented "terminator" gene. Don't worry. Your contribution to the well-being of the economy will not be made obsolete in the near future.
Suffice it to say, until we stumble on something of value "out there", that will make it profitable to keep going "out there", we'll have to rely on curiosity.
I'm sure that in antiquity, we never imagined the usefulness of silk, exotic spices, and the various other things that the existance of trade routes made possible.
We lack the impetus for looking for new routes because we have no tangible, practical, greed-fueling reason to go into space. Yet. I can't imagine what the 'new silk' or 'new gold' or whatever will be, but did the people of the 12th century truly lack the things they eventually imported from China and India?
I doubt it. Once they stumbled across these things though, they found them too valuable to pass up. Hence we got trade routes. Until it becomes a matter of convenience and profitability, we'll keep stumbling, driven by our very expensive curiosity and scientific research. Too bad that these things are not seen as more valuable than weapons. If they were, we'd fund them properly.
How did we know that we needed new trade routes? How did we know that there was something of value "way out there" in the first place?
Because someone got off their bloody ass and went there, either out of curiosity, or out of dire need.
Now, I don't know about you, but considering the harshness of the environment we're talking about, I'd rather go there because I'm curious, not because I'm fighting for survival.
They call it a "Professional OS" for the same reason that Lincoln and Cadillac refer to their leather and sunroof equipped SUV's as "Professional Grade" and why Drain-O calls itself "Professional Strength". It's so people wouldn't think that they're buying something made specifically for the mindless consumer masses. It's that simple. Lindows is billed as a "Professional OS" to blow smoke up the asses of people who would buy a "no user servicable parts inside" PC from the likes of Wal-Mart. Try not to be offended by the "non-geek" label. These people are trying to make sales, and calling things "Grandma Friendly" isn't going to work nearly as well as stroking people's ego.
The reason for comparing KDE, or anything else for that matter, to Windows is because the "average non-geek" doesn't have any computer experience besides Windows. It gives them something familiar to relate to. Comparison and contrast are very effective means of explaining things to people... "Doing A is like doing B." "A looks like B, except with regard to C, which is sort of like D and E, and totally different than F." Giving people a common, familiar reference such as Windows is, actually, doing Linux a service, because (the more observant) people who consider buying a PC from Wal-Mart are now being informed that Linux is a Windows-like alternative to Windows. Wherever they get their PC, hopefully they'll take that factoid with them.
So, it's purely marketting. "Linux people" aren't used to having things sold to them with hype (except for Mountain Dew and crap from ThinkGeek), but it works for just about every other kind of consumer.
I never said anything should be banned. Tools are tools, and the usage of the tool is potentially inapropriate, not the tool itself.
The violation of GPL is exactly my point though. If someone has a copy of music, that they are using in violation of the terms of usage - explicitly they're listenning to it, and keeping a digital copy without owning the original medium, it's not a fair use copy, and they are stealing. Right, wrong or indifferent, that's the definition in the current law, yet the geeks cry foul that they're being made to respect the license.
Similarly, cutting the credits from the source is a violation of the fair use of GPL. And the geeks cry foul because NeoNapster violates license.
I'm going to go out on a Karmic limb here and say something sure to not make me any friends.
What's the big freaking deal?
CDex is used to rip CD's, and this music is then very often shared, against the terms on which it is licensed. I don't care if "you" are honest about it, the fact is most people are not.
Now, someone gives a GPL ripper the same respect, and everyone is up in arms? For shame!
Hypocrites, the lot of you. Share and share alike when it benefits you, and when someone else does it to no advantage to you, they are the enemy? Fascinating. Truly.
The fact that this is a copy of CDex should have no consequence on anything. If this isn't about AdWare/SpyWare, it's about tasting ones own medicine. That is all.
Management is the same as programming, at the highest level of abstraction there is. The manager's job is significantly more difficult than that of a programmer because while the programmer usually deals with quantifiable, or at least qualifiable, problems, the manager deals with ambiguous conditions all the time.
A programmer may run into an uninitialized variable for example. This is an easy fix. The manager runs into uninitialized programmers, and this is considerably more difficult to remedy.
A programmer knows the capabilities of all the objects he arranges into a piece of software, and he also knows the effciency and parameters of the algorithms that get the job done.
A manager does not have full insight into the capabilities, attitudes, and personal lives of the resources he uses to build his project. He may outline, dictate and enforce certain policies, practices and processes, but can not be assured 100% that these will not be circumvented at every turn.
So, while the programmer (such as myself) does their little thing, and when it breaks, reaches for the manual and the debugger; the manager is, at best, dealing with uncertain conditions, on a slippery slope, sans manual, with only conversation and limited metrics to serve as his debugger.
The average manager is just as qualified to manage as the average programmer is qualified to program. Any time anyone bitches and moans about how lousy and clueless their manager is, they should start fixing things by taking a good, long look in the mirror.
As a programmer, how effective an object are you? This is not meant to dehumanize - managers don't mean to treat coders as cogs, but they do have to consider that perspective. As one building block of which the project is constructed, do you provide adequate reflection for your manager to make use of your abilities intelligently? Are you doing too much information hiding? Are you a bottleneck in a good process? Are you under-utilized, or over-extended? Should you NOT be reading Slashdot from work?
Slashdot Mirror
Oh yeah, well, that last step is just such a doozie! ;)
Fuck You!
Just because people whose job is not critical can afford to "try something out" does not mean that REAL programs are not engineered - in the truest sense of the word.
I've worked on code that controls nuclear plants. Believe me, it was engineered. It was simulated. It was revised in design and implementation countless times. It doesn't crash, it doesn't fail, it works better than most people's nervous system.
Just because your idea of programming entails crap such as shell scripts and "quick and dirty" hacks, does not mean that programmers, REAL programmers, are not engineers, architects, and artists of the most discriminating caliber.
Perl is a Swiss Army Knife. Slashdot, as a site, is at best, a covered bridge from Madison County. It is not a skyscraper. The people who write what you seem to consider "programs" are nothing more than white collar drones with workbenches in their garage and some power tools from Sears. Yes, any bank teller can go and build a deck in their back yard. This does not make them Professionals. Similarly, anyone with the most basal understanding of a language can put hammer to nail, and bang together a "program". This does not make them a professional Programmer.
REAL programs run space ships (except those that crash. Those are written by people who carve Indian heads out of stumps with chainsaws), power plants, pacemakers and banks. REAL software, designed and engineered, instead of hacked together between meetings, is as intricate as any tangible piece of engineering. And, as it comes after 50 years, instead of 50 centuries, of practice, I think we're doing pretty damn well.
The popular opinion of programming, the "shoot from the hip" attitude you claim as prevalent, is a problem. People think we all ride Razor scooters in our offices for God's sake. You and I clearly know better, but the word just isn't getting out.
Every time some putrid pundit whines about "the IT shortage", I want to scream. There is also a shortage of qualified rocket scientists, and metallurgists - the bolts and rivets on the space shuttle are made by grunts who push buttons on a robot, after all. But the few qualified people that are there, put us on the Moon.
There isn't a shortage of talent. It's just misplaced. It's thwarted by the weekend carpenters, who once read a "Learn C++ in 21 Days" book, and not command real salaries because they claim to be Programmers.
There is REAL talent out there, and it usually works for ignorant fucks who choose bravado over skill and common sense. This is why so much retail software crashes at the drop of a hat. This is also why I think we need a "Professional Software Engineer" certification - just as we already have a "Professional Engineer" one. You can do engineering without it, but your work better be signed off on by one before it sees the light of day, and puts the public safety at risk.
That is all.
The "Swoosh!" thing is just a logo. Unlike big spoilers on Honda Civics, the "swoosh!" doesn't actually make the shoes any faster.
What makes Nikes fast is that they are the running shoes of choice for the Olympic gods. In particular, the educated ones here will quickly confirm, Nike is the name of the goddess of victory. So not only are they fast enough to get you into the Olympics, they're the shoes of victory herfest.
So pay no attention to the logo. But, if you want to make your Nikes even faster than they are out of the box, write "Type R" on them.
As I kid, I'd read a story, by Stanislaus Lem IIRC, in which the Earth seeks admission to a Galactic Congress of sorts. After reviewing Earth's pedigree, we are denied memberships on the grounds that the primordial ooze from which we're descended was actually the result of illegal dumping by some aliens. The specifics of the story escape me, but I recall that after purging their septic system on the young and lifeless Earth, the aliens responsible added insult to injury and stirred the pool of waste with a stick, in a clockwise direction, which imparted onto our DNA a right-handed chirality, which is apparently considered mongrel by everyone else in the galaxy.
The Iridium system is already there. Granted, switching entirely to it will make it prohibitively expensive, but it's still likely to be cheaper than putting up your own birds.
Though, the number of places where cell service is unavailable is decreasing rapidly in the US. In Europe, there are truly few places where there isn't coverage. The places where there isn't coverage, are those places where there is much less truck service to be tracked.
Your point is a good one, but I think this problem is subject to the 80/20 rule. Of all the trackable truck service, 80% can easily be monitored using existing technology. This can then be used to fund the remaining 20% at a later time.
Few solutions spring into the world fully formed, after all.
You can get a cheap GPS module for around $100 now. Coupled to a cheap cell phone ($30), and a decent plan from something like Sprint, you're already there. No need to spend an extra $1000 dollars per vehicle, if your cheap GPS/phone can dial a number automagically every few minutes, transmit it's vehicle ID and position, and disconnect. I'm willing to bet that this can easily be done, at a profit, for under $50/unit.
* Intellectual property is encoded in this message. Reading it is a violation of the DMCA. I will exercise this right should anyone run with the idea and not send me a nice check.
God is Open Source.
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him.
The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost."
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man and after the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this, let's say we have a man making contest." To which the scientist replied, "OK, great!"
But God added, "Now, we're going to do this just like I did back in the old days with Adam."
The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God just looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt!"
Stan should tell the Studios to blow it out their ass, sell rights to characters and plotlines on a per movie basis, and set up a fund into which all those geeks, eager to see him get his fair share, could make contributions online.
You know, just the thing all the starving artists should do to get out from under the jackboot of the RIAA. We'd all, gladly, give Stan $5 each, if we liked paying $9 to see the movie, right?
Right?
Hello?
Anyone?
Whenever I am in need of some amusement that can only be had by sadistically tormenting another human being, I answer the telemarketting call pretending to be my own next of kin.
I politely explain to the caller that I had been killed a week prior in a terrible car accident, and that as a result, I am no longer interested in health insurance, long distance service, vinyl siding or a penis extension. This is the source of much amusement.
I further request that I be permanently removed from their call list, since I am, quite dead, and thus unlikely to be interested in their offer, no matter of remarkably opportune, in the forseeable future. This reduces my future call load.
If they've not complied and hung up by this point, I become audibly emotional (cue my sobbing girlfriend in the background) and become irate about the insensitivity of the caller, and their corporate policy. This is the fun, sadistic part.
On occasion, when dealing with a cold-call from a business which clearly got my number second or even third hand, I've claim to have died many months ago, in order to raise the question of validity of the information they purchase.
Since the marketting calls in my area wax and wane over the period of several weeks, this can be literally hours of fun each week. I highly recommend it.
Come one man! This is SlashDot... The editors don't even use SPELL-checkers, and you want them to grep for URL's?
;)
#667 can't possibly be your real uid. You MUST be new here.
You buy a new car every 3-5 years? Dude, the bubble burst... You shouldn't be buying a car less than 3 years old in the first place. Going $30k into debt every few years isn't REALLY helping the economy. HONEST.
But to address your point... Yes, the auto industry does make a mint on after-market touch-up paints. This is why they use yellow plastic on all dark cars, and black plastic on all light colored cars... So when the paint chips, it's obvious, and you have to go and drop either $30k on a new car, or at least $5 on a bottle of nail polish for your bumpers. It's quite literally, highway robbery.
As for perpetually self-repairing cars, I'm sure Ford is talking to Monsanto right now, about making nano-paint with a patented "terminator" gene. Don't worry. Your contribution to the well-being of the economy will not be made obsolete in the near future.
1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. 5..
Same as the code on G.W. Bush's luggage.
My point wasn't clear. I apologise.
Suffice it to say, until we stumble on something of value "out there", that will make it profitable to keep going "out there", we'll have to rely on curiosity.
I'm sure that in antiquity, we never imagined the usefulness of silk, exotic spices, and the various other things that the existance of trade routes made possible.
We lack the impetus for looking for new routes because we have no tangible, practical, greed-fueling reason to go into space. Yet. I can't imagine what the 'new silk' or 'new gold' or whatever will be, but did the people of the 12th century truly lack the things they eventually imported from China and India?
I doubt it. Once they stumbled across these things though, they found them too valuable to pass up. Hence we got trade routes. Until it becomes a matter of convenience and profitability, we'll keep stumbling, driven by our very expensive curiosity and scientific research. Too bad that these things are not seen as more valuable than weapons. If they were, we'd fund them properly.
How did we know that we needed new trade routes? How did we know that there was something of value "way out there" in the first place?
Because someone got off their bloody ass and went there, either out of curiosity, or out of dire need.
Now, I don't know about you, but considering the harshness of the environment we're talking about, I'd rather go there because I'm curious, not because I'm fighting for survival.
Sounds like profiling terrorists. It'll work great, and everyone will feel secure and all, until somone flies a plane into their "secure" server.
The Naughties
Well, it seemed funny in my head...
They call it a "Professional OS" for the same reason that Lincoln and Cadillac refer to their leather and sunroof equipped SUV's as "Professional Grade" and why Drain-O calls itself "Professional Strength". It's so people wouldn't think that they're buying something made specifically for the mindless consumer masses. It's that simple. Lindows is billed as a "Professional OS" to blow smoke up the asses of people who would buy a "no user servicable parts inside" PC from the likes of Wal-Mart. Try not to be offended by the "non-geek" label. These people are trying to make sales, and calling things "Grandma Friendly" isn't going to work nearly as well as stroking people's ego.
The reason for comparing KDE, or anything else for that matter, to Windows is because the "average non-geek" doesn't have any computer experience besides Windows. It gives them something familiar to relate to. Comparison and contrast are very effective means of explaining things to people... "Doing A is like doing B." "A looks like B, except with regard to C, which is sort of like D and E, and totally different than F." Giving people a common, familiar reference such as Windows is, actually, doing Linux a service, because (the more observant) people who consider buying a PC from Wal-Mart are now being informed that Linux is a Windows-like alternative to Windows. Wherever they get their PC, hopefully they'll take that factoid with them.
So, it's purely marketting. "Linux people" aren't used to having things sold to them with hype (except for Mountain Dew and crap from ThinkGeek), but it works for just about every other kind of consumer.
Landshark!
*CHOMP!*
Do you seriously believe that steam does not exceed this temperature? If so, I've a nuclear plant with steam at over 1000 degrees to show you.
I suspect that the secret here is convection. Heat, like water and electricity, will follow the path of least resistance as it dissipates.
There will be relatively little heat flowing into the item you're cooking, unless you completely seal it in the lava.
Sure, the better ones do name it a "remix of Artist ABC", but sampling has become a widely accepted form of musical expression.
I never said anything should be banned. Tools are tools, and the usage of the tool is potentially inapropriate, not the tool itself.
The violation of GPL is exactly my point though. If someone has a copy of music, that they are using in violation of the terms of usage - explicitly they're listenning to it, and keeping a digital copy without owning the original medium, it's not a fair use copy, and they are stealing. Right, wrong or indifferent, that's the definition in the current law, yet the geeks cry foul that they're being made to respect the license.
Similarly, cutting the credits from the source is a violation of the fair use of GPL. And the geeks cry foul because NeoNapster violates license.
I'm going to go out on a Karmic limb here and say something sure to not make me any friends.
What's the big freaking deal?
CDex is used to rip CD's, and this music is then very often shared, against the terms on which it is licensed. I don't care if "you" are honest about it, the fact is most people are not.
Now, someone gives a GPL ripper the same respect, and everyone is up in arms? For shame!
Hypocrites, the lot of you. Share and share alike when it benefits you, and when someone else does it to no advantage to you, they are the enemy? Fascinating. Truly.
The fact that this is a copy of CDex should have no consequence on anything. If this isn't about AdWare/SpyWare, it's about tasting ones own medicine. That is all.
Management is the same as programming, at the highest level of abstraction there is. The manager's job is significantly more difficult than that of a programmer because while the programmer usually deals with quantifiable, or at least qualifiable, problems, the manager deals with ambiguous conditions all the time.
A programmer may run into an uninitialized variable for example. This is an easy fix. The manager runs into uninitialized programmers, and this is considerably more difficult to remedy.
A programmer knows the capabilities of all the objects he arranges into a piece of software, and he also knows the effciency and parameters of the algorithms that get the job done.
A manager does not have full insight into the capabilities, attitudes, and personal lives of the resources he uses to build his project. He may outline, dictate and enforce certain policies, practices and processes, but can not be assured 100% that these will not be circumvented at every turn.
So, while the programmer (such as myself) does their little thing, and when it breaks, reaches for the manual and the debugger; the manager is, at best, dealing with uncertain conditions, on a slippery slope, sans manual, with only conversation and limited metrics to serve as his debugger.
The average manager is just as qualified to manage as the average programmer is qualified to program. Any time anyone bitches and moans about how lousy and clueless their manager is, they should start fixing things by taking a good, long look in the mirror.
As a programmer, how effective an object are you? This is not meant to dehumanize - managers don't mean to treat coders as cogs, but they do have to consider that perspective. As one building block of which the project is constructed, do you provide adequate reflection for your manager to make use of your abilities intelligently? Are you doing too much information hiding? Are you a bottleneck in a good process? Are you under-utilized, or over-extended? Should you NOT be reading Slashdot from work?