The fact that someone has put together instructions on how to fail tells us that people nowadays are more apt to think than to do. In general, I agree that thinking things through is good, but for trivial things, people should just act. What this has to do with skepticism, I don't know, but analysis paralysis just bugs me (I do it a lot) and is a big reason why big orgs can't get anything done.
I think they just randomly choose some users to show the tags to and randomly select a new set every so often. I saw them at one point, but I don't see them at all now.
Are you 17? If so, this is a great accomplishment and maybe somebody ought to write an article about you. On the other hand, if you're not 17, bugger off.
Yes, exactly. If someone screws up your system, somebody else will come along and fix it for you. The many eyes make all bugs shallow or something. Think of it as a Wiki-style OS security.
This reminds me of something that happened at my friend's work. He told me that one day a guy called the company complaining that somebody from their offices was calling his line at 3 in the morning every night. They did some investigating and discovered that their software was calling using a NULL value as the phone number somewhere, and that the NULL value was not really zero, but some valid sequence of digits that ended up mapping to this guy's phone number. Of course, their software was set up to call home every night to transmit some lab data and so ended up dialing this poor sap's number regularly.:-D
Corporations are out to make money. That's it. Often, making money and being good are mutually exclusive. You can guess which one is ultimately more important to a business. If anything, the "Don't Be Evil" mantra gives them a unifying goal in which to spin facts.
Corporations will also be in the spotlight for doing so-called "evil" thing. Saying you're not going to right at the outset gives shareholders and the public a warm fuzzy feeling about you so that when you do bad, it won't seem as bad.
I think the "problem" is that we believe there are better jobs out there for us and that we have the ability to find them with some effort. Whether or not that's true is another matter, but we privileged people of this world are used to choice and so we are forever seeking out the better. It may be a futile search in the end and maybe many of us would be better off just not bothering (i.e. stick with your current job because the grass isn't greener...), but this curse of wanting something even better than what we have is the cost of living in a land of choices.
A gift with strings attached is not a gift. It's just an exchange. Your coffee maker example is a bad one. It's more akin to having a coffee maker and being told you can't use the competition's filters, even though they work in the cofee maker.
Because choice of brands is now a signal to others of your personality and "lifestyle". It's fashion. We buy so much and have so much available to us to buy that we have the ability to buy based on whim and fashion rather than necessity and practicality.
They will only strengthen Wikipedia. Certainly it has faults and now that it is gaining in popularity these problems are showing up more frequently. I welcome them, as making the problems known to everyone who uses Wikipedia should lead to them being fixed. This is how an open and free society should work and we should applaud these attacks.
Yes, I know it's a list of *weirdest* USB drives ever, but couldn't they have checked with a thesaurus for alternate words to use? Each entry makes use of the word "weird".
Yeah, I had a bunch of those, like a Lamborghini Countach that changed from dark purple to pink. I used to put them in the freezer and then took them out to watch the colours change.
A better algebra problem is the one I remember from grade 6. It went something like: a farmer sends his son to the barn to count the number of pigs and chickens. The son comes back and says he counted 20 heads and 50 feet. How many pigs and chickens were in the barn?
It was a simple problem, but our teacher made it interesting by mentioning that he had heard of a kid who solved it by imagining all the pigs standing up on their hind legs and then counting how many feet were still on the ground. Subtract that number from 50 to figure out how many feet are in the air. All those feet belong to pigs, with each pig having two legs in the air, so you just divide that number by two to figure out how many pigs there are. It's still algebra, but a lot more interesting and meaningful this way than just working out the solution to 2*c + 4*p = 50, c+p=20.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, once the novelty effect wears off, I doubt it has any long term benefits.
The fact that someone has put together instructions on how to fail tells us that people nowadays are more apt to think than to do. In general, I agree that thinking things through is good, but for trivial things, people should just act. What this has to do with skepticism, I don't know, but analysis paralysis just bugs me (I do it a lot) and is a big reason why big orgs can't get anything done.
Crystal Skulls?
Yes, you will get sued first.
Mod him up.
Haha, I live on Capitol Hill, too, and you can't throw a rock without hitting these kids you describe.
Yes, because he can't do that AND look towards his future at the same time.
I think they just randomly choose some users to show the tags to and randomly select a new set every so often. I saw them at one point, but I don't see them at all now.
Are you 17? If so, this is a great accomplishment and maybe somebody ought to write an article about you. On the other hand, if you're not 17, bugger off.
Yes, exactly. If someone screws up your system, somebody else will come along and fix it for you. The many eyes make all bugs shallow or something. Think of it as a Wiki-style OS security.
This reminds me of something that happened at my friend's work. He told me that one day a guy called the company complaining that somebody from their offices was calling his line at 3 in the morning every night. They did some investigating and discovered that their software was calling using a NULL value as the phone number somewhere, and that the NULL value was not really zero, but some valid sequence of digits that ended up mapping to this guy's phone number. Of course, their software was set up to call home every night to transmit some lab data and so ended up dialing this poor sap's number regularly. :-D
Hmmm. Have you considered a career in Law Enforcement?
Answer: No.
Corporations are out to make money. That's it. Often, making money and being good are mutually exclusive. You can guess which one is ultimately more important to a business. If anything, the "Don't Be Evil" mantra gives them a unifying goal in which to spin facts.
Corporations will also be in the spotlight for doing so-called "evil" thing. Saying you're not going to right at the outset gives shareholders and the public a warm fuzzy feeling about you so that when you do bad, it won't seem as bad.
I think the "problem" is that we believe there are better jobs out there for us and that we have the ability to find them with some effort. Whether or not that's true is another matter, but we privileged people of this world are used to choice and so we are forever seeking out the better. It may be a futile search in the end and maybe many of us would be better off just not bothering (i.e. stick with your current job because the grass isn't greener...), but this curse of wanting something even better than what we have is the cost of living in a land of choices.
That's not my mom, dude. That's my dog.
A gift with strings attached is not a gift. It's just an exchange. Your coffee maker example is a bad one. It's more akin to having a coffee maker and being told you can't use the competition's filters, even though they work in the cofee maker.
Because choice of brands is now a signal to others of your personality and "lifestyle". It's fashion. We buy so much and have so much available to us to buy that we have the ability to buy based on whim and fashion rather than necessity and practicality.
It, dammit. IT! Next time, preview, moron!
They are doing a reality show about i.
They will only strengthen Wikipedia. Certainly it has faults and now that it is gaining in popularity these problems are showing up more frequently. I welcome them, as making the problems known to everyone who uses Wikipedia should lead to them being fixed. This is how an open and free society should work and we should applaud these attacks.
Only if it's USB-powered and weird.
Yes, I know it's a list of *weirdest* USB drives ever, but couldn't they have checked with a thesaurus for alternate words to use? Each entry makes use of the word "weird".
No digg--er, lame.
Yeah, I had a bunch of those, like a Lamborghini Countach that changed from dark purple to pink. I used to put them in the freezer and then took them out to watch the colours change.
And Poland! They forgot Poland!
A better algebra problem is the one I remember from grade 6. It went something like: a farmer sends his son to the barn to count the number of pigs and chickens. The son comes back and says he counted 20 heads and 50 feet. How many pigs and chickens were in the barn?
It was a simple problem, but our teacher made it interesting by mentioning that he had heard of a kid who solved it by imagining all the pigs standing up on their hind legs and then counting how many feet were still on the ground. Subtract that number from 50 to figure out how many feet are in the air. All those feet belong to pigs, with each pig having two legs in the air, so you just divide that number by two to figure out how many pigs there are. It's still algebra, but a lot more interesting and meaningful this way than just working out the solution to 2*c + 4*p = 50, c+p=20.