Ralph Nader did a wonderful job of inspiring the US auto industry to add a little quality to their product. A few instances of failure-inspired finger pointing things in RL programming crashes might inspire greater interest in the quality of computer programming standards.
Amipro is a IDE wordprocessor, made up of an integrated editor, spell checker, printer, &c. TeX is just a page markup thing, which you add other tools to.
In Amipro, it is easy to use, and all the supplied tools are there in the menu. I can see what I get, and so forth. But once I exceed its limits, I need to invest heavily in its macro language or other dodgy fixes. I can not add functionality to its menus.
TeX is a markup compiler. I supply it a source file, and it makes up neatly polished pages. I can add all sorts of tools to the front, and add all sorts of tweaks to it. The interface is really not easy to use, but I can replace the editor, the spell checker, &c.
And come to think of it, most of the unix command line filters and tools were designed to handle specific problems with text data: sort, change, do this, do that...
How many of these would have come had the IDE always been there? Enough said.
Not all gender problems appear as one wanting to be, or identifying with, the opposite sex. That's why I listed "Gender Identity" as a separate issue.
Males who prefer the same sorts of people that females normally prefer have this element set to the same end as females, but this in itself does not make them female.
But it's a phobia, not a predisposition, and you would have to tease out things like cultural preferences.
I suppose the nearest thing is phobias and avoidances people have of others with assorted defects (like blindness, old age, &c) where they need different care.
People fake all sorts of non-visiable conditions to claim on insurance. But these must also be real, otherwise the insurance companies would have wised up years ago.
I know blind people. You can't tell by looking that they are blind. So as far as I know, they are faking it.
Homosexuality is a defect that is caused by a hypothamus in the brain (sorry, I don't know the spelling), which is different sized in different sexual persuasions. If that's not physical, than what is...
Also, some blindness is caused by the brain not processing the signals.
Here's a cure for blindness, based on your arguements. Homosexuality is a conscious decision
they just need some tender cult deprogramming
The condition does not exist as a physical defect.
Therefore it must be in the mind
My mind is ok here
Therefore it must be a choice
Therefore it's your fault
Therefore we can deprogram you.
And so you can treat blind and deaf people as if they are perfectly sighted and hearing. Very interesting.
some real considerate love like anyone else
So what's wrong with love me love my dog. I mean, Why do I have to be like you for you to consider me. Enough said.
You know horoscopes? How vague and predictable can you get!
Horoscopes, personality types, and genes, are predispositions to become, not excuses for... Just because you're a homosexual, it does not mean that we are unable to do heterosexual acts.
The "homosexuality gene" turned out to be a fraud. The person who thought up that piece of "research" was himself a homosexual. Didn't mention that in the full disclosure section did they now?
Homosexuality may indeed have a genetic component. It has been verified many times. But there is this additional process that upsets the genetic process, as I have indicated elsewhere.
If we were really meant to be homosexual then we would be hermaphrodites
As I was saying: hermaphrodites and homosexuals both prove that the gender process is multistranded with sliding scales: both of these are "defects" in the formation.
Instead actually try and help people who have been fooled into that lie.
You would do well to consider the various opinions objectively before you start applying your "tender loving care". You may be hurting people yourself.
What it does do is change one's attitude to sex, and some of the enjoyment of sex. It may in some cases alter the direction, if this is a marginal case. Otherwise, events after birth do not affect one.
Gender dysphoria is set off by hormones in the womb after the foetus is formed. It is *not* genetic, and therefore there is no gene for it. What happens is that the brain can be affected by hormone levels as the foetus forms in the womb, about 12 weeks after conception.
There is a fairly easy explanation of why reassignments work in lots of cases. One needs only consider magnetic hysteristus - a bar magnet can be polarised either way, and retain it. But if the field is too ingrained, no amount of magnetisation will change the field.
Homosexuality is not a concious decision, no more than heterosexuality is. What the issue here is is that the people who make this remark are trying to sweep the issue under the carpet, by saying "It's your fault", rather than consider the notion that it may really be an underlying biological cause.
Firstly, generalisations are based on norms. One can find individuals that disprove any particular norm.
Gender is laid out in a number of separate sliding scales, which eventually define, for example:
Body shape
mating preferences
level of aggression
gender identity, and
desire to cross-dress.
None of these have any effect on one's general intelligence. One of them, (I don't know which), does show up, faintly, in the Myers Briggs Type indicator: 60% of males tend to be T types, and 60% of females, F types. They are all sliding scales, but in 89% of the population, they are all on the same side (either males or females).
On top of the shape of the brain, there is the chemical soup called hormones, and also the inhibitions and restrictions that we impose through our education. Education and environment do not, as a rule change any predisposition, unless it was pretty marginal to start off with anyway.
Assuming that intellegence is not correlated, the increase in general intelligence of the gender dysphorics is due to their more often exercising the brain, and that those with poor coping abilities, regardless of intelligence, succumb to an early exit. Whatever the reason, the general intellegence level increases.
Being more tolerant on both sides makes life easier for all. But this does not stop the gender dysphoric from suffering internally generated stresses that might arise from doing something different.
As we see above, the mating preference is on its own slider. This means that homosexuals look and act pretty much like the normal heterosexuals.
But the comment I made about the spread of AIDS and sexual deseases through sexual contact applies to all people who are sexually active.
Still, I'd rather be shot down by the truth, than to live in ignorance.
It's pretty true. But there are some points to note here. The same holds for both sexes, so I'll mention the males only.
Also, the sorts of homosexuals that you may have mixed with may be only the brighter ones who can cope with it revealed.
The "outcasting" is done on both sides. This is because, for homosexuals are not trying to be the "ideal man" for the girl in their eye.
Hiding in geekdom means that you don't have to play the male domination game. This is useful even if you're a normal male with a late pubety. However, to be a successful geek, you have to be pretty good anyway. But suitable practice makes perfect, whatever the sexual persuasion.
The sort of people who delve into geekdom tend to be introverts anyway, and introverts as a group have a few close friends.
Having lots of free time because you don't play the boy/girl game does not mean that it can be productively used elsewhere. Lots of them just mope around.
Just because you're a geek, it does not mean that you do not have a normal sexual persuasion. If the thing is socially acceptable, even suitoids will end up there.
Geeks tend to be more open-minded because this comes from a better general intellegence. Also, if you start to make yourself unpleasent, word spreads, and you may find yourself cut off from your interests.
At least MIR stayed up there for a good amount of time, and showed us the possibilities.
Unfortunately, the end of the Cold War has hastened the demise of space exploration, probably because of the suits have overtaken the uniforms as the patron of the techie budget.
What the Americans and Soviets could once do, a whole league of nations now struggle to do.
{ahem}There was that User Friendly cartoon about "a new erosive force" on Mars{/ahem}
Homosexuality and gender identity are conditions of birth, and affect something like 11% of the population, to some degree.
In the main, you can not change it. The smart ones survive it, the dumb ones commit suicide. That's the reality. A little love and understanding, and a little openness makes life more bearable.
Alan Turning was a brilliant mathematician, he was also a homosexual. Having a gender issue does not prevent you from making a serious contribution to society. On the other hand, the very same thing, like any other defect, gives one ample scope to master other skills to a much more worthy level.
And it's sad, that we take away from these great people the fruits of their work, and at the same time, make their life more miserable for what they are. Even if this makes them what they are.
Learn to love and cherish variety. It's what make the world go around.
You can do the same thing over here in Australia as well. My point was not the renaming of the identity (which is why I don't have "married women" in there), but that a person might need two or more separate identities that run separately.
Another example might be people in the public eye, a separate identity gives a cloak of anomynity that allows them to move around undetected.
Unfortunately, a single name does not work all that well. The whole point is that one has separate identities, so that one does not confuse the male and female identities up.
But there are also lots of other legitimate reasons why a person might want two identities: a high profile person can have a private identity that is unknown to others: eg Bette Middler might also be Norma Jones.
Whatever it is, it needs to be addressed seriously.
A Hardware monopoly?
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Maybe we might end up with a hardware monopoly to rival Microsoft - aka IBM's PS/2 architecture.
What happens if HP and Microsoft fight... HP are already on record as saying they would go elsewhere if they could...
The idea of people identifying themselves on the net is rather interesting, but we also have to address that people may have a legitimate need to have more than one name.
The following is a sample of people who might need more than one identity:
Battered wives hiding from husbands.
Witness protection programs
Whistle-Blowers and others wanting to be semi-anomonious
People having strong gender dysphoria, wishing to have a foot in each gender. [Yes, it's a real condition that has a high suicide rate, because the mind and body don't get along that well.]
So we should consider the identity issues before we start slamming other doors first.
Re:Homogeny isn't a bad thing.
on
Windows in 2020
·
· Score: 1
It is, even if is our system they're talking about. You see, different operating systems, like different shells, allow one to explore different metaphores, and allow the systems to grow.
Linux is where it is today because it follows in the footsteps of UN*X and to a lesser extent, competes with OS/2 and Windows.
Were someone to find a virus like Code Red for linux, it would do as much damage as code red does for Windows.
We need diversity, in the shell, in the OS, and on the wheat feilds.
singing
Only people know just how to change the world
Well a million heads are better than one
So get it on....
I have no real reason to reduce tool-languages. I use a wide variety of languages for different reasons myself.
If you read my post, the main objection is that in order to read these languages on machines, you need the runtime libraries for your OS. So while REXX, Perl, CEnvi, 4DOS &c are very useful for your own environment, you would probably object if you had to load a rexx, perl, cenvi, 4dos reader every time you go on the net.
But what you are saying, is that we can have clients for Java, macromedia, Curl, XHTML, and any other fancy language you would like to inflict on us to browse the net.
The net's not like c++, pascal &c, where the distributed form does not rely on everyone having a compiler. For java, macromedia, &c, everyone needs the runtime virtual machine or player. And it is this we should standardise.
Ideally, we could have a virtual software netcomputer, which would run as a separate vm on different hardware. You then write for that in any language you like.
Slashdot Mirror
Sad it has to come to that, really.
In Amipro, it is easy to use, and all the supplied tools are there in the menu. I can see what I get, and so forth. But once I exceed its limits, I need to invest heavily in its macro language or other dodgy fixes. I can not add functionality to its menus.
TeX is a markup compiler. I supply it a source file, and it makes up neatly polished pages. I can add all sorts of tools to the front, and add all sorts of tweaks to it. The interface is really not easy to use, but I can replace the editor, the spell checker, &c.
And come to think of it, most of the unix command line filters and tools were designed to handle specific problems with text data: sort, change, do this, do that ...
How many of these would have come had the IDE always been there? Enough said.
And if it's done right, it could even protect the system from being damaged.
Just a thought.
Not all gender problems appear as one wanting to be, or identifying with, the opposite sex. That's why I listed "Gender Identity" as a separate issue.
Males who prefer the same sorts of people that females normally prefer have this element set to the same end as females, but this in itself does not make them female.
But then, if I don't believe this whole optometry, hey - like - it's snake oil.
And maybe in the future, someone can hold up a machine to you, and say, hey, you're 83% homosexual...
You're saying that because it does not exist today, that it will never happen. Understanding and application could well change that...
Not-off topic What I am trying to do is untangle you from the web of your prejudices that you can see the parts separately.
Blindness/Homosexuality leave no mark on the body, and therefore must be internal, and therefore in the mind, and therefore a matter of choice.
But it's a phobia, not a predisposition, and you would have to tease out things like cultural preferences.
I suppose the nearest thing is phobias and avoidances people have of others with assorted defects (like blindness, old age, &c) where they need different care.
I know blind people. You can't tell by looking that they are blind. So as far as I know, they are faking it.
Therefore my first point stands.
Also, some blindness is caused by the brain not processing the signals.
Homosexuality is a conscious decision
they just need some tender cult deprogramming
- The condition does not exist as a physical defect.
- Therefore it must be in the mind
- My mind is ok here
- Therefore it must be a choice
- Therefore it's your fault
- Therefore we can deprogram you.
And so you can treat blind and deaf people as if they are perfectly sighted and hearing. Very interesting.some real considerate love like anyone else
So what's wrong with love me love my dog. I mean, Why do I have to be like you for you to consider me. Enough said.
You know horoscopes? How vague and predictable can you get!
Horoscopes, personality types, and genes, are predispositions to become, not excuses for ... Just because you're a homosexual, it does not mean that we are unable to do heterosexual acts.
The "homosexuality gene" turned out to be a fraud. The person who thought up that piece of "research" was himself a homosexual. Didn't mention that in the full disclosure section did they now?
Homosexuality may indeed have a genetic component. It has been verified many times. But there is this additional process that upsets the genetic process, as I have indicated elsewhere.
If we were really meant to be homosexual then we would be hermaphrodites
As I was saying: hermaphrodites and homosexuals both prove that the gender process is multistranded with sliding scales: both of these are "defects" in the formation.
Instead actually try and help people who have been fooled into that lie.
You would do well to consider the various opinions objectively before you start applying your "tender loving care". You may be hurting people yourself.
What it does do is change one's attitude to sex, and some of the enjoyment of sex. It may in some cases alter the direction, if this is a marginal case. Otherwise, events after birth do not affect one.
There is a fairly easy explanation of why reassignments work in lots of cases. One needs only consider magnetic hysteristus - a bar magnet can be polarised either way, and retain it. But if the field is too ingrained, no amount of magnetisation will change the field.
Homosexuality is not a concious decision, no more than heterosexuality is. What the issue here is is that the people who make this remark are trying to sweep the issue under the carpet, by saying "It's your fault", rather than consider the notion that it may really be an underlying biological cause.
Firstly, generalisations are based on norms. One can find individuals that disprove any particular norm.
Gender is laid out in a number of separate sliding scales, which eventually define, for example:
- Body shape
- mating preferences
- level of aggression
- gender identity, and
- desire to cross-dress.
None of these have any effect on one's general intelligence. One of them, (I don't know which), does show up, faintly, in the Myers Briggs Type indicator: 60% of males tend to be T types, and 60% of females, F types. They are all sliding scales, but in 89% of the population, they are all on the same side (either males or females).On top of the shape of the brain, there is the chemical soup called hormones, and also the inhibitions and restrictions that we impose through our education. Education and environment do not, as a rule change any predisposition, unless it was pretty marginal to start off with anyway.
Assuming that intellegence is not correlated, the increase in general intelligence of the gender dysphorics is due to their more often exercising the brain, and that those with poor coping abilities, regardless of intelligence, succumb to an early exit. Whatever the reason, the general intellegence level increases.
Being more tolerant on both sides makes life easier for all. But this does not stop the gender dysphoric from suffering internally generated stresses that might arise from doing something different.
As we see above, the mating preference is on its own slider. This means that homosexuals look and act pretty much like the normal heterosexuals.
But the comment I made about the spread of AIDS and sexual deseases through sexual contact applies to all people who are sexually active.
Still, I'd rather be shot down by the truth, than to live in ignorance.
Also, the sorts of homosexuals that you may have mixed with may be only the brighter ones who can cope with it revealed.
Unfortunately, the end of the Cold War has hastened the demise of space exploration, probably because of the suits have overtaken the uniforms as the patron of the techie budget.
What the Americans and Soviets could once do, a whole league of nations now struggle to do.
{ahem}There was that User Friendly cartoon about "a new erosive force" on Mars{/ahem}
As a result, homosexual males in particular, are likely to have a larger number of sexual partners, and more opportunity to catch sexual deseases.
But AIDS is not a "politically correct" disease. It affects everyone.
The suicide rate among known gender people is five times the general population.
One reason posited for this was that these conditions makes people smarter anyway.
The other reason is that this represents the survivors after suicide on diagnosed and undiagnosed people have taken its toll.
Read this for more info.
It's a plea for sanity and civility.
In the main, you can not change it. The smart ones survive it, the dumb ones commit suicide. That's the reality. A little love and understanding, and a little openness makes life more bearable.
Alan Turning was a brilliant mathematician, he was also a homosexual. Having a gender issue does not prevent you from making a serious contribution to society. On the other hand, the very same thing, like any other defect, gives one ample scope to master other skills to a much more worthy level.
And it's sad, that we take away from these great people the fruits of their work, and at the same time, make their life more miserable for what they are. Even if this makes them what they are.
Learn to love and cherish variety. It's what make the world go around.
Another example might be people in the public eye, a separate identity gives a cloak of anomynity that allows them to move around undetected.
But there are also lots of other legitimate reasons why a person might want two identities: a high profile person can have a private identity that is unknown to others: eg Bette Middler might also be Norma Jones.
Whatever it is, it needs to be addressed seriously.
What happens if HP and Microsoft fight ... HP are already on record as saying they would go elsewhere if they could ...
The following is a sample of people who might need more than one identity:
- Battered wives hiding from husbands.
- Witness protection programs
- Whistle-Blowers and others wanting to be semi-anomonious
- People having strong gender dysphoria, wishing to have a foot in each gender. [Yes, it's a real condition that has a high suicide rate, because the mind and body don't get along that well.]
So we should consider the identity issues before we start slamming other doors first.Linux is where it is today because it follows in the footsteps of UN*X and to a lesser extent, competes with OS/2 and Windows.
Were someone to find a virus like Code Red for linux, it would do as much damage as code red does for Windows.
We need diversity, in the shell, in the OS, and on the wheat feilds.
singing
Only people know just how to change the world ....
Well a million heads are better than one
So get it on
If you read my post, the main objection is that in order to read these languages on machines, you need the runtime libraries for your OS. So while REXX, Perl, CEnvi, 4DOS &c are very useful for your own environment, you would probably object if you had to load a rexx, perl, cenvi, 4dos reader every time you go on the net.
But what you are saying, is that we can have clients for Java, macromedia, Curl, XHTML, and any other fancy language you would like to inflict on us to browse the net.
The net's not like c++, pascal &c, where the distributed form does not rely on everyone having a compiler. For java, macromedia, &c, everyone needs the runtime virtual machine or player. And it is this we should standardise.
Ideally, we could have a virtual software netcomputer, which would run as a separate vm on different hardware. You then write for that in any language you like.