I admit my sociology and psychology are rusty, but I'm sticking with my terminology in this case. Here's the best definition of Skinnerian Conditioning as I understand it (yeah yeah, I googled it):
operant conditioning (a.k.a. instrumental conditioning, Skinnerian conditioning):
A process in which behaviors are changed by controlling consequences. Pleasant consequences increase frequency of response, while unpleasant consequences decreases it.
A sociology professor of mine once gave the following example of Skinnerian Conditioning...
Jack (the professor) said that one of his greatest fears as a new parent was that his child would stab a knife or scissors into an electrical socket. While the kid was an infant the situation was manageable, but eventually the kid was big enough to work around the little plastic plugs and other baby protectors.
So Jack rigged up a wall socket so that it was hooked to a battery instead of the house current. Then he gave the kid a knife and told him to stick the knife into the wall socket. The kid did as he was told and received the mildest of electric shocks. Thereafter the child had a healthy fear of electrical sockets.
On that momentous day, Hobart Brown [blah blah blah] decided to try to fix his son's broken tricycle. [blah blah blah] When he finished, the tricycle was more than six feet tall, and Brown had to add three extra wheels to the bright red, wobbly piece of art to stop it from falling over.
Somebody has been sending out spam
as if it were from Idocs.com. I'm very angry about it. I save all the bounces. I'm going to get to work on figuring out who to contact in the VA government and see if I can get someone interested in pursuing this.
Due to the people at slashdot.org linking to this site without asking the owners or the hosters, asciipr0n.com is offline until further notice. Maybe you guys should start mirroring the sites you link to...
Now, I can understand that a site would get brought down if it were serving out huge files (like music or movies) but I'm perplexed by all these sites that are brought down just by serving out small static pages. My site was slashdotted once, and the web host had no problem. That site was done with PHP served by Apache.
So I guess I'm wondering, what have been your experiences getting slashdotted... did your site go down? What server software were you using, and what kind of bandwidth did you have?
Start with that off-topic posting about moderation that ended up being the most modded posting ever on/. . IIRC, it received about 200 mods, both up and down.
I read the item about the
one-way highway that changes directions with great interest. Like many Northern Virginians, I have many times driven the section of Interstate 95 inside the beltway that is inbound in the morning and outbound in the evening.
If you ever wondered why the Bee Gees never went on tour in the 90's and 00's, even though they were wildly popular, it's because Barry Gibb has terrible back problems. He simply can't stand up to perform for long periods of time. All the money they have and all the money they could have made from touring made no difference: he just couldn't do it.
Back in my tech support days we once got a call from a secretary who had had a vase of flowers sitting on a shelf next to her monitor. A coworker had accidentally knocked the vase over and the quart of water in the vase had all poured into the top of the monitor. There was an audible zzzzzzt and the monitor went dead.
My coworker took a replacement monitor up to her. Then he turned the monitor upside down (after unplugging it of course), drained out all the water, and instructed the secretary to let the monitor dry in the corner for a few days.
A few days later he connected the formerly hydrated monitor back to the computer and everything worked fine.
Slashdot Mirror
"Operating machinery without head. Fine: $250"
Wish I had a point to burn, this one would be well spent.
... does it make that cool "Bzzzzt" sound when you walk into it?
Jack (the professor) said that one of his greatest fears as a new parent was that his child would stab a knife or scissors into an electrical socket. While the kid was an infant the situation was manageable, but eventually the kid was big enough to work around the little plastic plugs and other baby protectors.
So Jack rigged up a wall socket so that it was hooked to a battery instead of the house current. Then he gave the kid a knife and told him to stick the knife into the wall socket. The kid did as he was told and received the mildest of electric shocks. Thereafter the child had a healthy fear of electrical sockets.
His son, OTOH, is still in therapy.
-Miko
-Miko
We had a pretty good discussion of this very topic a year and a half ago. Looking over the postings, they still ring true.
Wife: Dear
Me: Dear
Wife: Dear
Me: Dear!
Wife: DEAR!
long pause, we look at each other with arched eyebrows
Me: Dear!
Wife: Dear...
and on it goes...
Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks for the reminder. :-)
So I guess I'm wondering, what have been your experiences getting slashdotted... did your site go down? What server software were you using, and what kind of bandwidth did you have?
Yeah, you're right, I am thinking of I-395. Hey, I escaped from Northern Virginia eight years ago. These details are drifting away. :-)
... can it kill a guy who's slowly evolving into a god?
Start with that off-topic posting about moderation that ended up being the most modded posting ever on /. . IIRC, it received about 200 mods, both up and down.
I read the item about the one-way highway that changes directions with great interest. Like many Northern Virginians, I have many times driven the section of Interstate 95 inside the beltway that is inbound in the morning and outbound in the evening.
They should put a bomb icon on their web site to reflect their /.ing.
... it does seem that whenever they talk about space they compare things to Volkwagens.
If you ever wondered why the Bee Gees never went on tour in the 90's and 00's, even though they were wildly popular, it's because Barry Gibb has terrible back problems. He simply can't stand up to perform for long periods of time. All the money they have and all the money they could have made from touring made no difference: he just couldn't do it.
The kid's got his own Sherman Tank. Kindergarten's going to rough for the other kids.
Now if we could just lose the rest of Disney, our freedom might be safe.
-Miko
Interesting stuff. Which city are you refering to? I'd like to read more about it.
... the power of bullshit.
I especially dig the part about the dolphins retreiving the cameras. That would almost make me want to drop my camera into the pool.
My coworker took a replacement monitor up to her. Then he turned the monitor upside down (after unplugging it of course), drained out all the water, and instructed the secretary to let the monitor dry in the corner for a few days.
A few days later he connected the formerly hydrated monitor back to the computer and everything worked fine.
Of course, I am the IT department, so it's pretty easy for my opinions to hold sway.