Just because some of what you say is true doesn't mean that the AC's characterization of OWS isn't dead-on.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. OWS needlessly broke laws and were generally a bunch slobs causing not insignificant harm to many of the people they claim to stand for. It isn't so much a protest as a temper tantrum. If they were really trying to make a difference in the world, they could have their protest, make their point (well, they need to get a coherent point, and then communicate it) then go home and try to get a job, or volunteer or do something to contribute rather than pooping on the sidewalk for months on end and pretending they're Gandhi.
I had a short stint working at a defense contractor with a bunch of folks with less programming experience than me. What really amazed me is one day one of my co-workers was reading a news article and complained that they'd misspelled the word "organize" with an "s" rather than a "z".
I just commented, "Oh, that's just the British spelling." to which everyone in the group was literally amazed at how I could possibly know that.
Because, um, I've read a few books?
I have no problems with our friends in the UK spelling and pronouncing things differently. It's just another bit of spice to the variety of language. Of course, too much of our language is polluted with the foul flavors of misuse and ignorance, but being the good Grammar Nazi that I am, I'll keep plugging along trying not to make mistakes myself and making the occasional snarky comment upon seeing some egregious misuse of the language.
Several years ago, my biggest peeve was people using "loose" for "lose", an error which seemed to me to grow very fast. The new one that really chafes my behind is the increasing use of "suppose" for "supposed", as in "You're supposed to use good grammar if you want to communicate effectively." This one bothers me a lot more because it's not a case of failing to know the vagaries of English spelling (after all, "choose" rhymes with "lose") but a complete misapprehension of the grammar of the words involved.
Most companies don't give a damn about experience or seniority or anything else. Most managers will look at the math and say "3 junior scientists at x salary is worth far more than 1 senior scientist at 3x salary" regardless of who the scientists are and what they've accomplished.
At least if research organizations are run like software development organizations.
See, the situation is obvious. Congress can't outlaw stupidity, which causes most accidents, and they have to do _something_, so they will find a good scapegoat to sacrifice and the public will be appeased and you probably won't see any noticeable difference in dangerous behavior on the road.
All I can do is wish you and the rest of people who make their livings on the road best wishes and a prayer because your safety is much more at risk by the stupid actions of others. Stay safe!
p.s. I buy a lot of music, so I just carry a packed MP3 player on the road with tons of music, audiobooks, lectures, etc. Also, there's a lot of cool stuff you can get that's free (and legit) online: archive.org, librivox.org, jamendo.com, just to name a few.
Funny, I bought TOS for $20-some/season a few years ago. Perhaps the higher price is for Blu-Ray and/or the "remastered" versions. Besides, you can stream them from Netflix as well.
You've got a point, but on the other hand, I experienced exactly the same thing in the 80s. I recall one person in one of my CS classes that was constantly bragging about how long his programs were.
"Space Mutiny" suffered a similar fate. Yes, it's an awful movie and yes, the writing was pathetic, but again, some key plot exposition got cut for MST3K and the movie definitely makes more sense when viewed uncut.
But let's face it, I've probably watched the MST3K episode of "Manos" a dozen times, but the uncut/unriffed movie only once. I'm pretty certain I would never have seen it, and probably not even heard of it, if it weren't for Joel and the Bots.
I've read that poor John Reynolds was a troubled person to being with. It's a shame he committed suicide.
Also, according to the same article the camera could only shoot 32 seconds of film at once, which is a pretty amazing limitation to deal with.
Yes, "Manos" is a terrible, boring and disturbing film, but it is not entirely without merit. For one thing, the music is pretty decent, even if repeated too much. The whole thing is a weird story and this new discovery of a workprint is an equally weird coda.
I'm doing A but fantasizing about B because I'm tired of the enviro-extremists telling me that the science is settled and denying, or even questioning, their (sometimes) ridiculous assertions is tantamount to being a Nazi.
I think you're arguing with a wall. We are in the midst of a culture that has been so dumbed down they think you can have inalienable rights to anything material.
It seems to me the length of the release cycle is orthogonal to how much you want feedback to affect what you're doing. The thing is, Ubuntu still comes in several flavors, although I've finally given on the KDE version. It was usually usable, but never as easy to set up or bug-free as I remember OpenSuSE being. Of course that was before KDE 4, but KDE 4 has had plenty of time to get stable... if it's still not stable by now, there's no hope for it. (In fact, it seems to have gotten pretty good since about version 4.4 or so). Nevertheless, I've started using Linux Mint with LXDE and have traded some (albeit cool and useful) features for more stability and less hassle.
I just switched from Kubuntu to Linux Mint with LXDE after using the former for several years, I've found it to be stable and lean and with fewer of the issues that caused problems with my rather old desktop with Kubuntu.
Well, I won't argue the point. Adobe is extremely good at doing things extremely poorly. How many versions of the Acrobat Reader did we have to go through before it actually became decent? 4 or 5 according to my recollection. And then at that point it started becoming the bloated monstrosity it is today. The problem with Adobe Reader now is that it is huge and slow (although less slow than it used to be), yet 99% of its users don't need 99% of its functionality.
But at least the format is open. You can't say the same for Flash.
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Just because some of what you say is true doesn't mean that the AC's characterization of OWS isn't dead-on.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while. OWS needlessly broke laws and were generally a bunch slobs causing not insignificant harm to many of the people they claim to stand for. It isn't so much a protest as a temper tantrum. If they were really trying to make a difference in the world, they could have their protest, make their point (well, they need to get a coherent point, and then communicate it) then go home and try to get a job, or volunteer or do something to contribute rather than pooping on the sidewalk for months on end and pretending they're Gandhi.
Well, consider yourself lucky. From my experience, your company is in the minority.
I had a short stint working at a defense contractor with a bunch of folks with less programming experience than me. What really amazed me is one day one of my co-workers was reading a news article and complained that they'd misspelled the word "organize" with an "s" rather than a "z".
I just commented, "Oh, that's just the British spelling." to which everyone in the group was literally amazed at how I could possibly know that.
Because, um, I've read a few books?
I have no problems with our friends in the UK spelling and pronouncing things differently. It's just another bit of spice to the variety of language. Of course, too much of our language is polluted with the foul flavors of misuse and ignorance, but being the good Grammar Nazi that I am, I'll keep plugging along trying not to make mistakes myself and making the occasional snarky comment upon seeing some egregious misuse of the language.
Several years ago, my biggest peeve was people using "loose" for "lose", an error which seemed to me to grow very fast. The new one that really chafes my behind is the increasing use of "suppose" for "supposed", as in "You're supposed to use good grammar if you want to communicate effectively." This one bothers me a lot more because it's not a case of failing to know the vagaries of English spelling (after all, "choose" rhymes with "lose") but a complete misapprehension of the grammar of the words involved.
Most companies don't give a damn about experience or seniority or anything else. Most managers will look at the math and say "3 junior scientists at x salary is worth far more than 1 senior scientist at 3x salary" regardless of who the scientists are and what they've accomplished.
At least if research organizations are run like software development organizations.
See, the situation is obvious. Congress can't outlaw stupidity, which causes most accidents, and they have to do _something_, so they will find a good scapegoat to sacrifice and the public will be appeased and you probably won't see any noticeable difference in dangerous behavior on the road.
All I can do is wish you and the rest of people who make their livings on the road best wishes and a prayer because your safety is much more at risk by the stupid actions of others. Stay safe!
p.s. I buy a lot of music, so I just carry a packed MP3 player on the road with tons of music, audiobooks, lectures, etc. Also, there's a lot of cool stuff you can get that's free (and legit) online: archive.org, librivox.org, jamendo.com, just to name a few.
Funny, I bought TOS for $20-some/season a few years ago. Perhaps the higher price is for Blu-Ray and/or the "remastered" versions. Besides, you can stream them from Netflix as well.
You've got a point, but on the other hand, I experienced exactly the same thing in the 80s. I recall one person in one of my CS classes that was constantly bragging about how long his programs were.
In other words, it's like everything else in the software world that has the word "Enterprise" in it.
You must be new here or you'd know the answer is "Yes".
"Space Mutiny" suffered a similar fate. Yes, it's an awful movie and yes, the writing was pathetic, but again, some key plot exposition got cut for MST3K and the movie definitely makes more sense when viewed uncut.
But let's face it, I've probably watched the MST3K episode of "Manos" a dozen times, but the uncut/unriffed movie only once. I'm pretty certain I would never have seen it, and probably not even heard of it, if it weren't for Joel and the Bots.
I've read that poor John Reynolds was a troubled person to being with. It's a shame he committed suicide.
Also, according to the same article the camera could only shoot 32 seconds of film at once, which is a pretty amazing limitation to deal with.
Yes, "Manos" is a terrible, boring and disturbing film, but it is not entirely without merit. For one thing, the music is pretty decent, even if repeated too much. The whole thing is a weird story and this new discovery of a workprint is an equally weird coda.
Actually, it is, but it's the kind that:
a.) Works.
b.) Isn't a burden.
c.) Doesn't deprive people of what they paid for for stupid and unfair reasons.
That's why I always check things out before I bust on someone for being wrong.
Of course, there are still tons of opportunities to point out real mistakes. :-)
Aunchaki never said they talked, just that they have opinions. ;-)
Dropping all those f-bombs really increases your credibility.
I'm doing A but fantasizing about B because I'm tired of the enviro-extremists telling me that the science is settled and denying, or even questioning, their (sometimes) ridiculous assertions is tantamount to being a Nazi.
I think you're arguing with a wall. We are in the midst of a culture that has been so dumbed down they think you can have inalienable rights to anything material.
You mean like OWS?
Certain economic harm should trump vague and unprovable environmental harm.
That's OK, the economic damage done by the tax itself will be enough to assure disaster.
Too bad no one in power has read the Constitution this way for many decades.
It seems to me the length of the release cycle is orthogonal to how much you want feedback to affect what you're doing. The thing is, Ubuntu still comes in several flavors, although I've finally given on the KDE version. It was usually usable, but never as easy to set up or bug-free as I remember OpenSuSE being. Of course that was before KDE 4, but KDE 4 has had plenty of time to get stable... if it's still not stable by now, there's no hope for it. (In fact, it seems to have gotten pretty good since about version 4.4 or so). Nevertheless, I've started using Linux Mint with LXDE and have traded some (albeit cool and useful) features for more stability and less hassle.
I didn't know the ISO English committee had approved the new standard.
I just switched from Kubuntu to Linux Mint with LXDE after using the former for several years, I've found it to be stable and lean and with fewer of the issues that caused problems with my rather old desktop with Kubuntu.
Well, I won't argue the point. Adobe is extremely good at doing things extremely poorly. How many versions of the Acrobat Reader did we have to go through before it actually became decent? 4 or 5 according to my recollection. And then at that point it started becoming the bloated monstrosity it is today. The problem with Adobe Reader now is that it is huge and slow (although less slow than it used to be), yet 99% of its users don't need 99% of its functionality.
But at least the format is open. You can't say the same for Flash.