I predict someone will once again make posts about how poor the posting quality is (even providing a list to prove it!), and how no one reads the articles, with the occasional "signal to noise" comment (which will then entail a Usenet flamewar).
However, every 11th poster will faithfully sit, read Slashdot, and post comments, and never get it.
Man, you'd think this site was required to get your daily Oxygen supply, the way people bitch about how bad it is. Every single day, and usually multiple times.
And people on/. complain when Americans don't get out of their country, or learn anything about other countries. *sigh*
if you boil water with it it leaves a residue that is apparently more toxic than cyanide
Hmm, that's interesting, most of North America has had fluoridated water for decades (I've only been around 30 years, so I can't swear on how far back this goes). I don't recall any large scale "more toxic than cyanide" poisonings happening within my lifetime. Oddly enough, we to will occasionally boil fluoridated water. Like daily. I've never seen someone "scrub the kettle out" after doing so - in fact, with most electric kettles, you can't even get into them in the first place.
Considering cyanide is a pretty much guaranteed way to die, we should be a continent of maybe 2 million people by now.
I guess this early in the morning, the moderators are all from the UK?
Nope. Freedom of EXPRESSION is. Freedom of speech is far from absolute, and you listed many examples why.
Subtle difference, but there are many things that you can face charges for saying. Libel, Slander, the list goes on and on. But no one can arrest you for expressing an opinion.
Quite possibly because a lot of us are willing to laugh at ourselves, and others, without attacking each other every time something we don't agree with happens to be said.
There's no rule stopping the computing world from "borrowing" the term mega, to describe 2^20.
In fact, there's a lot of precedence. Look up any word beginning with 'mega' that ISN'T a *metric* unit of measurement, there are hundreds. Megalopolis, anyone? I'm pretty sure it doesn't refer to one million cities, the context makes that clear. Just as seeing 'byte' next to something has always indicated to everyone (with the exception of hard drive manufacturers) base 2, not 10.
It makes no sense to measure anything in a computer system in powers of 10, other than the make products look a few percent bigger, and confuse the public. The world got along just fine using MB, KB, etc until people started abusing it.
This would be you aging and losing touch with the younger generation. If you ask anyone, at any point in history, they will tell you that things were better "before".
This makes no sense; in the sentence you quoted, the grandparent specifically says s/he thinks that movies have improved.
If it's just a case of "things get worse as you get older", why would the poster claim that movies have gotten better?
Many, many moons ago the place I worked at had a computer tech with a bizzare sense of humor.
Every year in December, he'd replace the boss' keyboard's L with a J key. We'd ask him why, and he'd say "because this way you now have a Christmas keyboard".
Except now we are at war with al Qaeda again, erm, I mean "We have always been at war with al Qaeda!"
Odd, I'd swear we went to war with them after they KILLED 3000 CIVILIANS. It was almost 2 years ago, around September 11th or so.
I've yet to hear a government official of any kind claim that 'we've always been at war with Al Qaeda'. Iraq, on the other hand, ever since.. wait for it.. they invaded Kuwait.
See, in 1984, the government lied to its people about the past, and went so far as to remove evidence of the real past. Anyone can pick up a history book/surf the web/watch TV and learn what I've just said.
Slight difference. And yes, I've read the book, about a dozen times now.
Actually, the media went on and on and on and on about SARS, as if anyone who even thought about Toronto would keel over and die that second. If anything, I'd say they caused far more people to needlessly panic than belittle the situation.
As for the harm? No, wearing masks isn't in itself harmful. Ignoring the much more likely causes of death life throws at us is, and 9 times out of 10 people put on a mask, figure "I'll live through today", and remain ignorant. Decimating the local economy (think tourism) is. Bankrupting hundreds of farmers because of one cow is, especially for a disease that may not even be transmittable to humans.
Thanks, I'll stay informed about what's real, and not trouble myself over things that will less likely kill me than lightning.
I think you'd be surprised just how many Comp Sci students don't even know what the C: drive is in windows, or what a firewall even is. I agree with your sentiment, but at least 50% of the kids I'm in school with (just finished 3rd year) still store everything in 'My Documents', use default everything within Windows, and whine and bitch every time they have to do homework using anything other than WindowsXP and Java.
Doesn't bother me though, because the lack of competition has meant that I have gotten top pick out of any co-op jobs I've applied for:)
Check out how our taxes are calculated sometime. Your employer either made a mistake beforehand, or after your raise.
CPP and UI are flat rated deductions, and we're talking 2-3% each. You're saying a ~$167 monthly raise cost you ~$267 in extra deductions? I don't buy it. Or was this a $2000/month raise? In which case, lemme know what company I should apply for:)
Your extra $2000 would have been taxed at a higher tax rate, sure. But you'd still have the after-tax part of that to add to your existing salary.
Oddly enough, many employees think this as well, and I've known more than one person who turned down a small raise because they thought it would actually throw them "into the next tax bracket".
Up here in the great cold north, higher tax brackets only apply to income ABOVE THAT BRACKET. It's not like the rest of your salary gets taxed higher because you got that $500 raise.
What blows me away is the number of people on a geek/tech news site that don't even know the difference between RAM and ROM. Check out the responses to the parent for a good laugh.
Yes kids, we all know that ROMs are random access as well. So's a hard drive, a CD-ROM, or for that matter, a book. The terminology has been around for decades to distinguish between the read-only kind and the read/write kind, and ever since EPROMs came out, which are read/write (in a sense), we generally use RAM to describe volatile (data loss if no power) memory, and ROM to describe non-volatile (data retained even if no power).
Every mp3 player I've ever seen uses either a CD-ROM, hard drive, or ROM. With an O.
Yeesh.
(Hey, if there actually is a battery-backed RAM mp3 player on the market, lemme know, it'd be good for a laugh.)
it is amusing to see capitalists from time to time, whine about taxes as if taxes were never a part of capitalism to begin with. Its really the opposite. You *need* taxes to allow a government to enforce ownership laws.
Yup, which is exactly why you never see anyone with a brain complaining about ALL taxes. Anyone with the remotest clue about how our society is set up knows that some taxes are necessary in order for government to function.
Now, as to the 50%+ of my income that I pay in taxes, and a goodly chunk of that going to people too lazy to get a job... most capitalists would argue that that's excessive. But no taxes? Anyone saying that is either an idiot or an anarchist.
Interesting ideas, but I have to question his use of the V2 as a model for mass rocketry. They were cheap, fast to build, and it only took a few people to launch one.
Probably because the Germans didn't have human cargo that they wanted to keep alive on top of them.
Yeah, I'm kind of stumped as to the issue here myself.
To me, there are 2 common uses for email: replacing the written word, and replacing the telephone.
If we're talking written letters, it's not like people usually have thousands of these kicking around, so how hard can it be to organize?
If we're talking phone calls, would anyone in their right mind consider recording and storing every single phone conversation they had? Call me crazy, I just use my brain for that.
A line from Strange Days comes back to me whenever I see people rant about how hard it is to keep track of 5 year old email conversations, or (even worse) IM logs:
"Memories were meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
Slashdot Mirror
I predict someone will once again make posts about how poor the posting quality is (even providing a list to prove it!), and how no one reads the articles, with the occasional "signal to noise" comment (which will then entail a Usenet flamewar).
However, every 11th poster will faithfully sit, read Slashdot, and post comments, and never get it.
Man, you'd think this site was required to get your daily Oxygen supply, the way people bitch about how bad it is. Every single day, and usually multiple times.
And people on /. complain when Americans don't get out of their country, or learn anything about other countries. *sigh*
if you boil water with it it leaves a residue that is apparently more toxic than cyanide
Hmm, that's interesting, most of North America has had fluoridated water for decades (I've only been around 30 years, so I can't swear on how far back this goes). I don't recall any large scale "more toxic than cyanide" poisonings happening within my lifetime. Oddly enough, we to will occasionally boil fluoridated water. Like daily. I've never seen someone "scrub the kettle out" after doing so - in fact, with most electric kettles, you can't even get into them in the first place.
Considering cyanide is a pretty much guaranteed way to die, we should be a continent of maybe 2 million people by now.
I guess this early in the morning, the moderators are all from the UK?
Freedom of speech is absolute. No exceptions.
Nope. Freedom of EXPRESSION is. Freedom of speech is far from absolute, and you listed many examples why.
Subtle difference, but there are many things that you can face charges for saying. Libel, Slander, the list goes on and on. But no one can arrest you for expressing an opinion.
Quite possibly because a lot of us are willing to laugh at ourselves, and others, without attacking each other every time something we don't agree with happens to be said.
Oh wait...
Title:
:(
Unix programmer
Skills:
Unis scripts, FTP, SQL loader, SQL plus
Damn, I know FTP. Wonder what they're paying.
Oh wait, I've never done Unis scripting
Which most certainly isn't a problem for slashdotters, thanks to Natalie Portman, et al.
There's no rule stopping the computing world from "borrowing" the term mega, to describe 2^20.
In fact, there's a lot of precedence. Look up any word beginning with 'mega' that ISN'T a *metric* unit of measurement, there are hundreds. Megalopolis, anyone? I'm pretty sure it doesn't refer to one million cities, the context makes that clear. Just as seeing 'byte' next to something has always indicated to everyone (with the exception of hard drive manufacturers) base 2, not 10.
It makes no sense to measure anything in a computer system in powers of 10, other than the make products look a few percent bigger, and confuse the public. The world got along just fine using MB, KB, etc until people started abusing it.
It'd sell less than my Total Network Security Scissors. They block all known malicious ports, and P2P usage is pretty much nonexistent.
This would be you aging and losing touch with the younger generation. If you ask anyone, at any point in history, they will tell you that things were better "before".
This makes no sense; in the sentence you quoted, the grandparent specifically says s/he thinks that movies have improved.
If it's just a case of "things get worse as you get older", why would the poster claim that movies have gotten better?
Which is it?
:)
Your 486 caused interference, and your P3 doesn't, and yet you say
Those old AT's appear to have better shielding than an ATX.
I think you got that part backwards
Most keyboards I've ever worked on use the exact same sized keys for all letters.
The little bump on the J is now doubled, you're right. But the key cap is exactly the same size.
YMMV
Many, many moons ago the place I worked at had a computer tech with a bizzare sense of humor.
Every year in December, he'd replace the boss' keyboard's L with a J key. We'd ask him why, and he'd say "because this way you now have a Christmas keyboard".
"Huh?"
"No L".
*cymbal crash*
Consider how many negative Microsoft comments are made here on /. from Windows machines...thats what I consider ironic
Or perhaps it's a symptom of a monopoly that's gone on too long.
I'd love to post everything from Linux, unfortunately that excludes my network connection (Dlink wireless card with some really funky chipset).
Oh yeah, and I can't use my video hardware under Linux either (once again, funky ATI chipset), unless I want stock VESA drivers.
No thanks, I'd rather not pay the extra $500 the Mac laptop woulda cost.
Except now we are at war with al Qaeda again, erm, I mean "We have always been at war with al Qaeda!"
Odd, I'd swear we went to war with them after they KILLED 3000 CIVILIANS. It was almost 2 years ago, around September 11th or so.
I've yet to hear a government official of any kind claim that 'we've always been at war with Al Qaeda'. Iraq, on the other hand, ever since.. wait for it.. they invaded Kuwait.
See, in 1984, the government lied to its people about the past, and went so far as to remove evidence of the real past. Anyone can pick up a history book/surf the web/watch TV and learn what I've just said.
Slight difference. And yes, I've read the book, about a dozen times now.
Actually, the media went on and on and on and on about SARS, as if anyone who even thought about Toronto would keel over and die that second. If anything, I'd say they caused far more people to needlessly panic than belittle the situation.
As for the harm? No, wearing masks isn't in itself harmful. Ignoring the much more likely causes of death life throws at us is, and 9 times out of 10 people put on a mask, figure "I'll live through today", and remain ignorant. Decimating the local economy (think tourism) is. Bankrupting hundreds of farmers because of one cow is, especially for a disease that may not even be transmittable to humans.
Thanks, I'll stay informed about what's real, and not trouble myself over things that will less likely kill me than lightning.
It'd moderated as funny, but I gotta say it. This comment sums up exactly how stupid lawsuits, and situations, like this are.
Let's see just one person out there get in the news for *gasp* taking responsibility for their own actions.
And let's also see some parents out there let just one bad thing happen to little Timmy without trying to profit from it.
Go ahead world, I dare you.
And I've got a feeling a 15 year old kid can't file a lawsuit in Canada.
You really have to wonder just what kind of example his parents are setting for him: someone hurts your feelings, let's sue!
Maybe the kid is being groomed for CEO of SCO.
Or as Anakin. Couldn't be any worse than the first 2 in the series.
I think you'd be surprised just how many Comp Sci students don't even know what the C: drive is in windows, or what a firewall even is. I agree with your sentiment, but at least 50% of the kids I'm in school with (just finished 3rd year) still store everything in 'My Documents', use default everything within Windows, and whine and bitch every time they have to do homework using anything other than WindowsXP and Java.
:)
Doesn't bother me though, because the lack of competition has meant that I have gotten top pick out of any co-op jobs I've applied for
Check out how our taxes are calculated sometime. Your employer either made a mistake beforehand, or after your raise.
:)
CPP and UI are flat rated deductions, and we're talking 2-3% each. You're saying a ~$167 monthly raise cost you ~$267 in extra deductions? I don't buy it. Or was this a $2000/month raise? In which case, lemme know what company I should apply for
Your extra $2000 would have been taxed at a higher tax rate, sure. But you'd still have the after-tax part of that to add to your existing salary.
Oddly enough, many employees think this as well, and I've known more than one person who turned down a small raise because they thought it would actually throw them "into the next tax bracket".
:)
Up here in the great cold north, higher tax brackets only apply to income ABOVE THAT BRACKET. It's not like the rest of your salary gets taxed higher because you got that $500 raise.
YMMV in other countries, of course
What blows me away is the number of people on a geek/tech news site that don't even know the difference between RAM and ROM. Check out the responses to the parent for a good laugh.
Yes kids, we all know that ROMs are random access as well. So's a hard drive, a CD-ROM, or for that matter, a book. The terminology has been around for decades to distinguish between the read-only kind and the read/write kind, and ever since EPROMs came out, which are read/write (in a sense), we generally use RAM to describe volatile (data loss if no power) memory, and ROM to describe non-volatile (data retained even if no power).
Every mp3 player I've ever seen uses either a CD-ROM, hard drive, or ROM. With an O.
Yeesh.
(Hey, if there actually is a battery-backed RAM mp3 player on the market, lemme know, it'd be good for a laugh.)
it is amusing to see capitalists from time to time, whine about taxes as if taxes were never a part of capitalism to begin with. Its really the opposite. You *need* taxes to allow a government to enforce ownership laws.
Yup, which is exactly why you never see anyone with a brain complaining about ALL taxes. Anyone with the remotest clue about how our society is set up knows that some taxes are necessary in order for government to function.
Now, as to the 50%+ of my income that I pay in taxes, and a goodly chunk of that going to people too lazy to get a job... most capitalists would argue that that's excessive. But no taxes? Anyone saying that is either an idiot or an anarchist.
Interesting ideas, but I have to question his use of the V2 as a model for mass rocketry. They were cheap, fast to build, and it only took a few people to launch one.
Probably because the Germans didn't have human cargo that they wanted to keep alive on top of them.
Yeah, I'm kind of stumped as to the issue here myself.
To me, there are 2 common uses for email: replacing the written word, and replacing the telephone.
If we're talking written letters, it's not like people usually have thousands of these kicking around, so how hard can it be to organize?
If we're talking phone calls, would anyone in their right mind consider recording and storing every single phone conversation they had? Call me crazy, I just use my brain for that.
A line from Strange Days comes back to me whenever I see people rant about how hard it is to keep track of 5 year old email conversations, or (even worse) IM logs:
"Memories were meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
Goofy Y2K movie, great quote.