Of all the days not to have mod points. I'd mod you through the roof for this, because you're exactly right. This guy is whining like a 12-year-old kid. He's been told he can't do something he wants to, and somehow he managed to get a front page slashdot article about it. He does write what should be some interesting and thought-provoking points, but I just can't take him seriously. The mental image I have of him is a 12-year-old that's been grounded.
This is probably going to get flagged as flamebait or insensitive or something instead of just conversation like it's intended but I'll bite anyway...
I used to think that I could listen to and tolerate almost any kind of music. Then I met my wife, and I've since learned that I must have a very narrow view of "good" music. Some of the stuff she listens to makes me want to either vomit or stand in the middle of traffic.
one of the last episodes of Geeks in Space where this got mentioned as a submitted (but rejected) story? Looks like the submission approval process is taking a little long these days...
Alright, time to put up or shut up. You listed some media outlets that you don't believe provide accurate information. Now, list some that you do trust. Where do those who "care to inform themselves" get their information? And while not required, I'd certainly be interested in why you trust them.
I'm anxiously awaiting bots for Counter Strike. They're in the game, but Valve disabled the ability to add them because of a couple of minor bugs (for example, the bots don't seem to understand that windows must be broken before they can run through them). I could enjoy the Counter Strike game, but my internet connection is a bit too laggy. The half a dozen servers with less than 200 ping to me are constantly having problems with speed hackers and other forms of cheating, so even when I find a server it's not worth playing on.
Yay HL2 multiplayer, but I would rather Valve have enabled the bots for Counter Strike.
Not only am I disappointed in CS-Source, but I actually think it's worse than the first Counter Strike. At least the first one had decent hit collision, and didn't provide feedback (ie, blood splatter) until the server said it was okay. With CS:S it's possible to believe you're hitting an opponent, but when you check the console after dying the server never registered a single hit. I've never been more disappointed in a multiplayer game. I made a mistake in paying for HL2 early so I could get CS:S. Now I'm disappointed with both games. Oh well, I'll mark this up to a $60 lesson.
I've actually tried the "I just can't figure it out" approach before. Unfortunately, he's one of those "won't take that for an answer" fellows, so I end up going around and around about it.
I think part of the problem is that he runs his own small business, and there's just no money for computers (despite the fact that his entire business is built around computers). So as strange as it seems to me, the only choice he has is "fix it" and never "replace it".
I've been fortunate in that most of my family understands how much I hate tech support and unless it's just something critical, they leave me alone about it.
I recently got married, and with that of course comes the in-laws. My father-in-laws in particular has a difficult time understanding hwo much I hate tech support. He lives several states away, and insists on calling me frequently with vague descriptions like "the screen just went black." The late night calls. The hours of my cell phone minutes used. The broken laptops (with their quick restore CD) in the mail. I've not had much luck in explaining the difference between reasonable use of my free help and unreasonable, so if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate them.
There's probably some truth in that. Pretending to forget will probably land you in less trouble than admitting you remembered and ditched her anyway for a game.
Re:More pages v.s more relevant pages
on
Google Index Doubles
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I'm especially irritated by the increasing number of highly-ranked pages that are nothing more than another search engine's results. If Google could find some way to identify and remove these from my result set, Google's usefulness to me would increase 10 times over.
That may be the difference between our experiences. "Called them." I've never used their phone customer service, I'm just gone into my local Verizon store. I'm starting to suspect that if you're a decent human being, Verizon throws your application for employment away, because everyone I've dealt with at the store has been pretty rude, unconcerned about my issue, not knowledgeable about their products or services, flat-out lying about service agreements, and condescending. When I went to complain about the speaker on my phone being too quiet, I got a 5 minute demonstration on how to hold a phone to my ear.:)
Verison is *user* unfriendly, too. I've been with Verizon for almost two years now and can't think of anything positive to say about them except that their coverage is pretty decent. Their customer service is an abomination. Their phones are among the most feature-poor phones in the industry. When I switched to Verizon, their phones were cutting-edge and it was other carriers (AT&T) that were lagging behind. Now, things have totally switched. I've been waiting for a bluetooth phone from Verizon to interact with my Tungsten T, but based on what I've read so far, I'll be looking for a new carrier instead.
Seriously, given the number of high tech jobs that have been disappearing, and how much more difficult it has become to get IT work thanks to over-production by universities and micro-versities (ITT Tech, etc.), why would we want to attract anyone into this dying field?
My favorite part of the article is the bit about going to Congress to get ligislation enacted to get rid of or disable analog outputs. That single line pretty much sums up (in my view) just how out of control this broadcast flag has gotten.
I have a related issue with my full, legal name. The name on my birth certificate and SS card has "III" at the end, indicating that I'm the 3rd. However, the State of Tennessee DMV doesn't seem to have the ability to put that on my license. So my license and carry permit have a different name than my SS card, all of which have a different name than my auto insurance card (the form for which directed me to leave any suffix off of my name).
So each legal document has as much of my full name as the issuing agency has capability to use. I'm sure this is going to cause me problems in the future, but I'm not sure what options I have. Anyone have any opinions?
No problem, glad to offer some reassurance. In truth, my company's decision to go the C#/.NET route instead of a pure C++ route was in part tied to the possibility of using mono to extend to other platforms in the future. I'm not sure a lot of companies have really thought about that yet, but the ports almost write themselves. Once a few more namespaces are fleshed out in mono (in particular, the performance monitors weren't implemented the last time I looked), it gets even easier. So I think by going the C# route, you're doing anything but locking yourself in to Windows.
I certainly am. I am required to use C# in a Windows environment, and since I've discovered mono for my at-home-just-for-fun stuff, I'm able to leverage the experience and education from my day job. I find myself doing far more of this for-fun work in the linux environment now. For me, this has been the greatest boon of having mono, and hopefully other developers forced to work in Windows will also leverage mono to bring even more great software to other platforms.
Oh, I can *live* without net access, but I can't work. Software development requires me to be online looking for new methods of doing things and looking for sample code for use when the packaged help is lacking (*couch* MSDN *cough*). I can live a perfectly happy life without having net access, but my employer can't.:)
I was with you on that for a few minutes, and then I realized that a person who used "professional" (for lack of a better word) language wouldn't probably spend their time on a project like this.
I'm in pretty much the same boat. I have a script that generates a password that's complicated enough that I don't actually know it very well. If I had to write it on a notecard, I'd be hosed. But I can type it correctly. It's interesting to see someone doing actual research into what many of us have experienced for the last (#include "NumYearsAdminingBoxes.h") years.
I do seem to recall that, although I've got no information to back that up. For all I know that could have been just some rumor that got started, but I definately remember hearing it.
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I'm one of those without work and that I'm bitter about that. That's incorrect on both counts. I've got a very good job. An IT job, no less. I'm very glad of that.
I'm also not denying that other fields are hurting for jobs. That's not the issue. The issue I have a problem with is how schools (both 4-year universities and tech schools like ITT) spent years preaching that if you go into IT, you'll be set for life with a great job. I don't blame the jobless graduates for their situation, I blame the schools. Even at the highlight, we simply didn't need as many IT people are schools were trying to crank out.
The school I went to grew their MIS/CS departments from the two smallest majors on campus into the two largest in a single year. They did it because the professors actively went to other majors and tried to get people to join the program. So now, my old school continues to crank out another 500 CS people very semester who have little hope of finding work. That was my only point. I'm not even going to touch the state of other fields in the US right now...
The fact that I'm sitting here trying to understand how RPN works based on that title is basically admitting the same thing. Clearly I need a better understanding of RPN. Then again, maybe not. I made it this far without it...
Slashdot Mirror
Of all the days not to have mod points. I'd mod you through the roof for this, because you're exactly right. This guy is whining like a 12-year-old kid. He's been told he can't do something he wants to, and somehow he managed to get a front page slashdot article about it. He does write what should be some interesting and thought-provoking points, but I just can't take him seriously. The mental image I have of him is a 12-year-old that's been grounded.
This is probably going to get flagged as flamebait or insensitive or something instead of just conversation like it's intended but I'll bite anyway...
I used to think that I could listen to and tolerate almost any kind of music. Then I met my wife, and I've since learned that I must have a very narrow view of "good" music. Some of the stuff she listens to makes me want to either vomit or stand in the middle of traffic.
Hopefully so, given how long ago that was. What was that, a little over two years ago?
one of the last episodes of Geeks in Space where this got mentioned as a submitted (but rejected) story? Looks like the submission approval process is taking a little long these days...
Alright, time to put up or shut up. You listed some media outlets that you don't believe provide accurate information. Now, list some that you do trust. Where do those who "care to inform themselves" get their information? And while not required, I'd certainly be interested in why you trust them.
I'm anxiously awaiting bots for Counter Strike. They're in the game, but Valve disabled the ability to add them because of a couple of minor bugs (for example, the bots don't seem to understand that windows must be broken before they can run through them). I could enjoy the Counter Strike game, but my internet connection is a bit too laggy. The half a dozen servers with less than 200 ping to me are constantly having problems with speed hackers and other forms of cheating, so even when I find a server it's not worth playing on.
Yay HL2 multiplayer, but I would rather Valve have enabled the bots for Counter Strike.
Not only am I disappointed in CS-Source, but I actually think it's worse than the first Counter Strike. At least the first one had decent hit collision, and didn't provide feedback (ie, blood splatter) until the server said it was okay. With CS:S it's possible to believe you're hitting an opponent, but when you check the console after dying the server never registered a single hit. I've never been more disappointed in a multiplayer game. I made a mistake in paying for HL2 early so I could get CS:S. Now I'm disappointed with both games. Oh well, I'll mark this up to a $60 lesson.
I've actually tried the "I just can't figure it out" approach before. Unfortunately, he's one of those "won't take that for an answer" fellows, so I end up going around and around about it.
I think part of the problem is that he runs his own small business, and there's just no money for computers (despite the fact that his entire business is built around computers). So as strange as it seems to me, the only choice he has is "fix it" and never "replace it".
I've been fortunate in that most of my family understands how much I hate tech support and unless it's just something critical, they leave me alone about it.
I recently got married, and with that of course comes the in-laws. My father-in-laws in particular has a difficult time understanding hwo much I hate tech support. He lives several states away, and insists on calling me frequently with vague descriptions like "the screen just went black." The late night calls. The hours of my cell phone minutes used. The broken laptops (with their quick restore CD) in the mail. I've not had much luck in explaining the difference between reasonable use of my free help and unreasonable, so if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate them.
There's probably some truth in that. Pretending to forget will probably land you in less trouble than admitting you remembered and ditched her anyway for a game.
I'm especially irritated by the increasing number of highly-ranked pages that are nothing more than another search engine's results. If Google could find some way to identify and remove these from my result set, Google's usefulness to me would increase 10 times over.
That may be the difference between our experiences. "Called them." I've never used their phone customer service, I'm just gone into my local Verizon store. I'm starting to suspect that if you're a decent human being, Verizon throws your application for employment away, because everyone I've dealt with at the store has been pretty rude, unconcerned about my issue, not knowledgeable about their products or services, flat-out lying about service agreements, and condescending. When I went to complain about the speaker on my phone being too quiet, I got a 5 minute demonstration on how to hold a phone to my ear. :)
Verison is *user* unfriendly, too. I've been with Verizon for almost two years now and can't think of anything positive to say about them except that their coverage is pretty decent. Their customer service is an abomination. Their phones are among the most feature-poor phones in the industry. When I switched to Verizon, their phones were cutting-edge and it was other carriers (AT&T) that were lagging behind. Now, things have totally switched. I've been waiting for a bluetooth phone from Verizon to interact with my Tungsten T, but based on what I've read so far, I'll be looking for a new carrier instead.
Seriously, given the number of high tech jobs that have been disappearing, and how much more difficult it has become to get IT work thanks to over-production by universities and micro-versities (ITT Tech, etc.), why would we want to attract anyone into this dying field?
My favorite part of the article is the bit about going to Congress to get ligislation enacted to get rid of or disable analog outputs. That single line pretty much sums up (in my view) just how out of control this broadcast flag has gotten.
I have a related issue with my full, legal name. The name on my birth certificate and SS card has "III" at the end, indicating that I'm the 3rd. However, the State of Tennessee DMV doesn't seem to have the ability to put that on my license. So my license and carry permit have a different name than my SS card, all of which have a different name than my auto insurance card (the form for which directed me to leave any suffix off of my name).
So each legal document has as much of my full name as the issuing agency has capability to use. I'm sure this is going to cause me problems in the future, but I'm not sure what options I have. Anyone have any opinions?
No problem, glad to offer some reassurance. In truth, my company's decision to go the C#/.NET route instead of a pure C++ route was in part tied to the possibility of using mono to extend to other platforms in the future. I'm not sure a lot of companies have really thought about that yet, but the ports almost write themselves. Once a few more namespaces are fleshed out in mono (in particular, the performance monitors weren't implemented the last time I looked), it gets even easier. So I think by going the C# route, you're doing anything but locking yourself in to Windows.
I certainly am. I am required to use C# in a Windows environment, and since I've discovered mono for my at-home-just-for-fun stuff, I'm able to leverage the experience and education from my day job. I find myself doing far more of this for-fun work in the linux environment now. For me, this has been the greatest boon of having mono, and hopefully other developers forced to work in Windows will also leverage mono to bring even more great software to other platforms.
Oh, I can *live* without net access, but I can't work. Software development requires me to be online looking for new methods of doing things and looking for sample code for use when the packaged help is lacking (*couch* MSDN *cough*). I can live a perfectly happy life without having net access, but my employer can't. :)
I was with you on that for a few minutes, and then I realized that a person who used "professional" (for lack of a better word) language wouldn't probably spend their time on a project like this.
I'm in pretty much the same boat. I have a script that generates a password that's complicated enough that I don't actually know it very well. If I had to write it on a notecard, I'd be hosed. But I can type it correctly. It's interesting to see someone doing actual research into what many of us have experienced for the last (#include "NumYearsAdminingBoxes.h") years.
I do seem to recall that, although I've got no information to back that up. For all I know that could have been just some rumor that got started, but I definately remember hearing it.
I consider fresh university graduates to still be immature teenagers. :)
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that I'm one of those without work and that I'm bitter about that. That's incorrect on both counts. I've got a very good job. An IT job, no less. I'm very glad of that.
I'm also not denying that other fields are hurting for jobs. That's not the issue. The issue I have a problem with is how schools (both 4-year universities and tech schools like ITT) spent years preaching that if you go into IT, you'll be set for life with a great job. I don't blame the jobless graduates for their situation, I blame the schools. Even at the highlight, we simply didn't need as many IT people are schools were trying to crank out.
The school I went to grew their MIS/CS departments from the two smallest majors on campus into the two largest in a single year. They did it because the professors actively went to other majors and tried to get people to join the program. So now, my old school continues to crank out another 500 CS people very semester who have little hope of finding work. That was my only point. I'm not even going to touch the state of other fields in the US right now...
The fact that I'm sitting here trying to understand how RPN works based on that title is basically admitting the same thing. Clearly I need a better understanding of RPN. Then again, maybe not. I made it this far without it...