Funny, I thought I did (go re-read the part I quoted. Hint: "they're" is a contraction, meaning "they are". "There" is a reference to a location, as in "over there".
But since you asked, here are some choice quotes, straight from his post.
I would rather have a child eho challenged himself and got B's, then one that took the easy couses and got A's
Ignoring the typo in this sentence (I assume he really doesn't spell "who" as "eho"), and the fact that it's a grammatical nightmare, he's unable to properly spell a four letter word. (Unless he really is constructing a sequence of events, in which case his grammar definitely needs to be assessed.)
it requires lots of time. this is why 'Nerds' seldom are at the top
Again, we'll ignore the horrible grammar, but note the lack of capitalization - again something that would cause him to fail a third-grade english test.
Because they enjoy and spend most of there time thinking
Gee, now he's misused the word "there" in a second way - it should be the possesive pronoun "their."
... and enjoying activities like chess, and cryptograms it can and will, have an effect that will ripple
"cryptgrams it can and will" - what the hell does that mean?
"Being a nerd doesn't mean you are smart. I knew plenty of dumbass nerds. " yes, there called geeks.
First of all, finish third-grade english, then come back here and post your opinion.
Second of all, the difference between a geek and a nerd is that geeks have social skills.
Geeks are smarter than nerds because they've actually learned how to co-exist with "normal" people.
True. But to become really good at something it requires lots of time.
Depends on what that "something" is, and how well you're predisposed to it. Before puberty, I was lousy at sports - after, I became quite good at football, soccer, and track. I didn't spend "lots of time" on it, but I was still one of the best in my school (I have several medals from county track meets, where I won medals in several events, including sprinting, high-jump, and distance running.) Outside of school, I didn't spend any time on it, it just came natually.
Yes, but when you get the snot pounded out of you regularly for watching star trek reruns, and enjoying activities like chess, and cryptograms it can and will, have an effect that will ripple though someones life
Yes, the article does say why, but not directly - you have to read the first line, and completely ignore the rest of it.
The author makes one statement, and then goes on to produce the stupidest bunch of hooey I've ever read.
When we were in junior high school, my friend Rich and I made a map of the school lunch tables according to popularity.
You do stuff like this, and still wonder why you're unpopular?!?!?!
Because non-nerds don't waste time doing stupid things like this.
Unpopular kids are not unpopular because they want to be (as the article implies), they're unpopular because they have unpopular interests. Unpopular children have fewer opporunities to learn social skills, and so become nerds. (Which is the primary difference between a geek and a nerd.)
I am a geek. I'm happily married, have a good job, and have friends from all walks of life.
I was unpopular as a child, but learned why. Social skills can be learned. It's about time that the Mr. Graham woke up and realized the truth.
Seems to me that Mr. Brandt is a whining crybaby. The main thrust of his argument (which is why it's so easily countered) is that he constantly compares Google to a public utility. (Which is absurd - see my response to him here)
Mr Brandt is (at best) naieve, and (at worst) a troll. Until he comes up with a more logical argument, don't give him any consideration.
What about a Linux Firewall? RAID performance is no real issue here - but security for the logfiles is
This really isn't a viable argument - if you're really worried about security, you wouldn't be wasting time with RAID, you'd be sending your logs to a different box.
Forget all the bogus attempts to move your antique business model online.
They're bogus for a reason.
What you want to do is license this technology from its creators, and build a mechanism to sell digital copies of the recommended tunes
No, it most certainly isn't what they want to do.
The RIAA represents the recording industry, not the music industry. Their entire existance relies on tying music to physical objects. Doing as you suggest would be simply hastening their own demise.
A recording session used to cost huge $$$ - but due to advances in technology, now costs relatively litte (it's possible to build your own recording studio for a few thousand dollars.) The internet has started a similar revolution with regards to distribution.
The RIAA knows this, and they know that it dooms them - with cheap recording and distribution, the artists no longer need them (and their lop-sided contracts). The problem is that the artists don't know this yet.
The recoding industry's whole "this is theft" mantra is basically a smoke screen to prevent artists from finding out they have an alternative to being a slave to a record label.
Has anyone experienced a name change in their childhood?
Yes, when I was young, my mother remarried, and my sister and I were forced to take step-father's surname. (When we were registered in school, etc., his surname was always given as ours.)
When I turned 18, I changed it back to my birth name (as did my sisters.)
I wouldn't say it affected my self-image (or theirs).. I just prefered my birth name.
Remember that your children will always have the opportunity to change it back when they get older. Talk it over with your wife, and see what she says.
Last time I heard the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show, it did not at all sound like he spoke Swedish
You have a very keen ear.
As shown on the episode that guest starred Jean Stapleton, the Swedish Chef actually speaks mock-Swedish. (Jean is apparently the only other person to note this.)
The Swedish Chef's native language is in fact mock-Chinese.
Unless you believe that only white males are genetically predisposed to becoming capable engineers, in which case, well... you're a moron.
No, if you believe that the only reason that people have different abilities is because of culture, then you're a moron.
If you think (as you seem to) that the only reason that men are (generally) physically larger and stronger than women is culture, you're a moron.
Why are men larger and stronger? Hormones (typically testosterone.) The effects of testosterone on muscle tissue and general physique have long been known - and we're beginning to discover that it affects the brain too. Agression (one of the easiest metrics) is higher when you have higher levels of testosterone.
You're going to completely discard the notion that it might affect the brain in other ways too?
As someone else pointed out, read "Brain Sex". It shows that there are distinct differences (and hence abilities) of people with different hormone levels. People with high levels of male hormones are better with spacial reasoning, and people with high levels of female hormones are better at communication.
This isn't an effect of culture, it's an effect of biology - and we're still discovering more.
Some of the responses were from auto-reply responders, and not a single one was from a real live human.
Same thing happened to me, only it was my work email (not hotmail). I got a couple of thousand bounce messages over a long weekend.
And yes, not one single human reply.
We need to set up some sort of clearing house for stuff like this (seems it's happened to a lot of people.) Next time some idiot says "spam must work otherwise people wouldn't do it" we can point them to it, and show them.
Why do we just not modify the mailer daemons to do a forward and reverse DNS lookup whenever another host attempts to send it mail. If the domain the mail originates from does not resolve,
It's already being done.
or the source IP address of the sender is not registered to the same domain that the mail originates from, the message is considered SPAM and the connection dropped.
Because (as others have pointed out) it would destroy the usefulness of email, and not do a damn thing to stop spam. (Spammers will just use bogus addresses from the domains they're on.)
About 50% of spam comes from open proxies (relay rape) - so your idea wouldn't stop it. The other ~50% comes direct from dial-up connections, so spammers just spoof an email address that will get by your server.
So you're talking about inconveniencing a large number of legitimate users, with no benefit.
My board forced registration before you could post anything - in the registration sign-up (before it asked for any information) I had it say "Press any key to begin. If you don't know which key is the 'any key, it's the large one on the front of your computer labeled 'reset'
Over the course of the 3 years I had it running, the logs showed two people drop carrier immediately after reading that.
Why intentionally spoof someone's legitimate email address in the reply-to field?
Revenge.
I've had several spammers disconnected by reporting them to their ISP. One of the ISPs I reported to was stupid enough to send the report (along with my email address) to the spammer (before they disconnected them.)
Next thing I know, I'm getting tons of bounce messages for spam I didn't send.
MS Bob had this wonderful security feature.. you could set it to lock your computer so nobody else could use it.
Only, that wasn't terribly user-friendly, so if you entered the wrong password three times in a row, Bob figured that you must have forgotten it, so it asked you if you wanted to change it.
An engineer and a salesman go bear hunting.. they rent a large cabin on a mountain, and hike up to it.. when they get there, the salesman says "OK, you get us unpacked, and I'll go get us some bears."
The engineer thinks this is a little odd, but agrees. He finishes unpacking, when he hears some shouting. He goes outside, and across the clearing, the salesman is running directly towards the cabin, being chased by the biggest, angriest looking bear the engineer had ever seen.
"Open the door!" yells the salesman, and the engineer complies. With the bear on his heels, the salesman rushes up to the door, but at the last minute, he darts to the side. The bear, unable to stop, continues into the cabin.
The salesman quickly slams the door shut, and the bear (even angrier now) begins to trash the cabin.
The salesman smiles at the engineer, and says "OK, you finish this one, I'll go find us another."
Which means she OWNS those CD's, because CompUSA sold it to her.
yes, exactly.
And MS should have a beef with CompUSA, because they are selling MS software, without fulfilling their obligation as an Agent and making sure the end user agrees with MS as to the conditions of sale.
Bzzt! Wrong answer. MS doesn't have a beef because there is no "agreement" with the "Agent". As someone who has worked in retail purchasing, you just buy the damn software from the distributor.
Slashdot Mirror
No one has ever said that communication is the strongest skill that a geek ever had.
Actually, (for coding geeks, anyway), communication probably is their strongest skill.
Remember those lawsuits about code being speech? Coders communicate what they want to the computer (or to other coders).
Programming is communication. It's just not verbal communication.
Care to point out the errors, oh master linguist?
... and enjoying activities like chess, and cryptograms it can and will, have an effect that will ripple
Funny, I thought I did (go re-read the part I quoted. Hint: "they're" is a contraction, meaning "they are". "There" is a reference to a location, as in "over there".
But since you asked, here are some choice quotes, straight from his post.
I would rather have a child eho challenged himself and got B's, then one that took the easy couses and got A's
Ignoring the typo in this sentence (I assume he really doesn't spell "who" as "eho"), and the fact that it's a grammatical nightmare, he's unable to properly spell a four letter word. (Unless he really is constructing a sequence of events, in which case his grammar definitely needs to be assessed.)
it requires lots of time. this is why 'Nerds' seldom are at the top
Again, we'll ignore the horrible grammar, but note the lack of capitalization - again something that would cause him to fail a third-grade english test.
Because they enjoy and spend most of there time thinking
Gee, now he's misused the word "there" in a second way - it should be the possesive pronoun "their."
"cryptgrams it can and will" - what the hell does that mean?
Do you need more?
Why the hostility to people who act like you yourself used to?
That's kinda my point - he's not acting like I used to, he's got a very large case of sour grapes.
Look, if you still hate the person you used to be, then that's your problem.
Who said that I hate the person I used to be? Oh yeah, the guy I called an idiot.
Someone asked me once why I called someone an idiot, I told them "he's someone for whom I have no respect."
the primary difference between a nerd and a geek is style.
This is true - geeks have style, nerds don't.
Geeks try to live to a style, nerds don't give a damn.
No, nerds can't do something, so they resent those who can.
You can go on and continue to do what people expect you to, I'll do what I enjoy.
You're an idiot. See, I do what I enjoy too, and I'm able to interact with people outside my peer group.
Just because you're incapable of learning social skills doesn't mean that others are just as limited as you are.
"Being a nerd doesn't mean you are smart. I knew plenty of dumbass nerds. " yes, there called geeks.
First of all, finish third-grade english, then come back here and post your opinion.
Second of all, the difference between a geek and a nerd is that geeks have social skills.
Geeks are smarter than nerds because they've actually learned how to co-exist with "normal" people.
True. But to become really good at something it requires lots of time.
Depends on what that "something" is, and how well you're predisposed to it. Before puberty, I was lousy at sports - after, I became quite good at football, soccer, and track. I didn't spend "lots of time" on it, but I was still one of the best in my school (I have several medals from county track meets, where I won medals in several events, including sprinting, high-jump, and distance running.) Outside of school, I didn't spend any time on it, it just came natually.
Yes, but when you get the snot pounded out of you regularly for watching star trek reruns, and enjoying activities like chess, and cryptograms it can and will, have an effect that will ripple though someones life
Only if you're not capable of learning.
See my previous post here
Jennifer Anniston is plain?
Yeah, pretty much.
I think she is a mass hottie.
She has a nice body, but her face really isn't anything to write home about.
Yes, the article does say why, but not directly - you have to read the first line, and completely ignore the rest of it.
The author makes one statement, and then goes on to produce the stupidest bunch of hooey I've ever read.
When we were in junior high school, my friend Rich and I made a map of the school lunch tables according to popularity.
You do stuff like this, and still wonder why you're unpopular?!?!?!
Because non-nerds don't waste time doing stupid things like this.
Unpopular kids are not unpopular because they want to be (as the article implies), they're unpopular because they have unpopular interests. Unpopular children have fewer opporunities to learn social skills, and so become nerds. (Which is the primary difference between a geek and a nerd.)
I am a geek. I'm happily married, have a good job, and have friends from all walks of life.
I was unpopular as a child, but learned why. Social skills can be learned. It's about time that the Mr. Graham woke up and realized the truth.
The new Tablet PCs have been out for a while now
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if they've been out for awhile, wouldn't that make them "the old" tablet PCs?
Wasn't this already covered in this article?
Seems to me that Mr. Brandt is a whining crybaby. The main thrust of his argument (which is why it's so easily countered) is that he constantly compares Google to a public utility. (Which is absurd - see my response to him here)
Mr Brandt is (at best) naieve, and (at worst) a troll. Until he comes up with a more logical argument, don't give him any consideration.
What about a Linux Firewall? RAID performance is no real issue here - but security for the logfiles is
This really isn't a viable argument - if you're really worried about security, you wouldn't be wasting time with RAID, you'd be sending your logs to a different box.
Forget all the bogus attempts to move your antique business model online.
They're bogus for a reason.
What you want to do is license this technology from its creators, and build a mechanism to sell digital copies of the recommended tunes
No, it most certainly isn't what they want to do.
The RIAA represents the recording industry, not the music industry. Their entire existance relies on tying music to physical objects. Doing as you suggest would be simply hastening their own demise.
A recording session used to cost huge $$$ - but due to advances in technology, now costs relatively litte (it's possible to build your own recording studio for a few thousand dollars.) The internet has started a similar revolution with regards to distribution.
The RIAA knows this, and they know that it dooms them - with cheap recording and distribution, the artists no longer need them (and their lop-sided contracts). The problem is that the artists don't know this yet.
The recoding industry's whole "this is theft" mantra is basically a smoke screen to prevent artists from finding out they have an alternative to being a slave to a record label.
He means the single back quote, not tilde.
/etc/passwd`
Which is of course never used in Unix, right?
userlist=`cut -d: -f1
the moral obligation of Symantec is to increase shareholder value.
So you're telling us that it would be moral for Symantec to start writing and releasing viruses, or to start hacking into other people's machines?
After all, that would increase stockholder value, too.
Has anyone experienced a name change in their childhood?
Yes, when I was young, my mother remarried, and my sister and I were forced to take step-father's surname. (When we were registered in school, etc., his surname was always given as ours.)
When I turned 18, I changed it back to my birth name (as did my sisters.)
I wouldn't say it affected my self-image (or theirs).. I just prefered my birth name.
Remember that your children will always have the opportunity to change it back when they get older. Talk it over with your wife, and see what she says.
Last time I heard the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show, it did not at all sound like he spoke Swedish
You have a very keen ear.
As shown on the episode that guest starred Jean Stapleton, the Swedish Chef actually speaks mock-Swedish. (Jean is apparently the only other person to note this.)
The Swedish Chef's native language is in fact mock-Chinese.
Inclination to mechanical engineering is cultural
Proof please?
Unless you believe that only white males are genetically predisposed to becoming capable engineers, in which case, well ... you're a moron.
No, if you believe that the only reason that people have different abilities is because of culture, then you're a moron.
If you think (as you seem to) that the only reason that men are (generally) physically larger and stronger than women is culture, you're a moron.
Why are men larger and stronger? Hormones (typically testosterone.) The effects of testosterone on muscle tissue and general physique have long been known - and we're beginning to discover that it affects the brain too. Agression (one of the easiest metrics) is higher when you have higher levels of testosterone.
You're going to completely discard the notion that it might affect the brain in other ways too?
As someone else pointed out, read "Brain Sex". It shows that there are distinct differences (and hence abilities) of people with different hormone levels. People with high levels of male hormones are better with spacial reasoning, and people with high levels of female hormones are better at communication.
This isn't an effect of culture, it's an effect of biology - and we're still discovering more.
Some of the responses were from auto-reply responders, and not a single one was from a real live human.
Same thing happened to me, only it was my work email (not hotmail). I got a couple of thousand bounce messages over a long weekend.
And yes, not one single human reply.
We need to set up some sort of clearing house for stuff like this (seems it's happened to a lot of people.) Next time some idiot says "spam must work otherwise people wouldn't do it" we can point them to it, and show them.
Why do we just not modify the mailer daemons to do a forward and reverse DNS lookup whenever another host attempts to send it mail. If the domain the mail originates from does not resolve,
It's already being done.
or the source IP address of the sender is not registered to the same domain that the mail originates from, the message is considered SPAM and the connection dropped.
Because (as others have pointed out) it would destroy the usefulness of email, and not do a damn thing to stop spam. (Spammers will just use bogus addresses from the domains they're on.)
About 50% of spam comes from open proxies (relay rape) - so your idea wouldn't stop it. The other ~50% comes direct from dial-up connections, so spammers just spoof an email address that will get by your server.
So you're talking about inconveniencing a large number of legitimate users, with no benefit.
Press CTRL-ALT-DEL now for an IQ test.
Reminds me of my days as a BBS sysop..
My board forced registration before you could post anything - in the registration sign-up (before it asked for any information) I had it say "Press any key to begin. If you don't know which key is the 'any key, it's the large one on the front of your computer labeled 'reset'
Over the course of the 3 years I had it running, the logs showed two people drop carrier immediately after reading that.
Why intentionally spoof someone's legitimate email address in the reply-to field?
Revenge.
I've had several spammers disconnected by reporting them to their ISP. One of the ISPs I reported to was stupid enough to send the report (along with my email address) to the spammer (before they disconnected them.)
Next thing I know, I'm getting tons of bounce messages for spam I didn't send.
It stopped after a week or so.
MS Bob had this wonderful security feature.. you could set it to lock your computer so nobody else could use it.
Only, that wasn't terribly user-friendly, so if you entered the wrong password three times in a row, Bob figured that you must have forgotten it, so it asked you if you wanted to change it.
the poor in London rely on busses and that is exactly where the money from the congestion charge will go
Yes, and *snicker*, I have some swam^H^H^H^H undeveloped resort property in Florida that you may be interested in.
I'll believe that the money will go to public transportation when it happens, and not a moment sooner - and I won't be holding my breath, either.
An engineer and a salesman go bear hunting.. they rent a large cabin on a mountain, and hike up to it.. when they get there, the salesman says "OK, you get us unpacked, and I'll go get us some bears."
The engineer thinks this is a little odd, but agrees. He finishes unpacking, when he hears some shouting. He goes outside, and across the clearing, the salesman is running directly towards the cabin, being chased by the biggest, angriest looking bear the engineer had ever seen.
"Open the door!" yells the salesman, and the engineer complies. With the bear on his heels, the salesman rushes up to the door, but at the last minute, he darts to the side. The bear, unable to stop, continues into the cabin.
The salesman quickly slams the door shut, and the bear (even angrier now) begins to trash the cabin.
The salesman smiles at the engineer, and says "OK, you finish this one, I'll go find us another."
Which means she OWNS those CD's, because CompUSA sold it to her.
yes, exactly.
And MS should have a beef with CompUSA, because they are selling MS software, without fulfilling their obligation as an Agent and making sure the end user agrees with MS as to the conditions of sale.
Bzzt! Wrong answer. MS doesn't have a beef because there is no "agreement" with the "Agent". As someone who has worked in retail purchasing, you just buy the damn software from the distributor.