Yeah, it doesn't really matter, except perhaps in the context of the knowledge that I look like a biker dude. Your LOL is apt in any case.
And as far as doing my job properly, I (and the shareholders) leave that judgment to the bottom line, which is all that really matters.
But the fact remains that if you're a turd in a suit then you're taking up valuable air the real engineers need to breathe, and you will be escorted from my office promptly.
Bingo, you hit the nail on the head of what I think (involuntarily, I might add) when I see some dude in a suit. "Con man" "Turd Polisher" "No useful skills?".
Oh, by the way, I've been on the fast track since I got done with grad school.
You guys are the past. I am the future. And dudes who show up wearing a suit for an interview with me get extra special grilling to make sure they aren't faking it.
Yeah, but "Engineer" describes me adequately. "Atheist" does not.:)
"Agnostic - Someone who claims that they do not know or are unable to know whether God exists." -- And I don't think there is anything to know..... which makes me not an agnostic.
Right ON! I have always felt a little uncomfortable calling myself an atheist, because I'm not militant about it -- I just don't think all the hocus pocus is real... and I am uncomfortable calling myself an agnostic because I'm not sure there is anything to know, whether we are capable of understanding it or not!
In the early 80s, the FBI rejected around 40% of the tenprint cards it received due to sub-standard quality (smudges, incomplete prints, etc).
In the early 80s there wasn't such a huge push to get all tenprint cards to the FBI in the first place, BUT there would have been an effort made as part of the "think of the children" type program you describe. So I would guess about a 50% likelihood an attempt was made to send the cards to the feds.
I really like your double-blind idea, but I have a question.
When I was a graduate student one of the things that struck me was how SMALL my field was. I would say after a year or two of study I could recognize the writing style of every single person in my field of research.
I have reason to believe that my particular field of study is not unique in being thusly small.
So is the double-blind actually feasible, or would it just look like it's working?
No, actually it was closer to 10mph, and there was literally NO damage to either vehicle. My point was basically that in an impact where the bumpers don't NEED to crumple to protect the occupant, they shouldn't.
If I someone hits me at 30mph, I expect there to be a good bit of damage.
If I hit a cement barricade like the one in the video at 30-40mph, I expect the truck to be destroyed. I do not know whether a little car would hold up better in such situations, but consumer reports et al suggest they would.
Damn straight! Although I must admit I find it hilarious when some dork in a 4wd blows past me on an icy road, and 5 miles later I see his smug butt in the ditch:)
Both of my trucks are rear wheel drive (read: one wheel drive). They are a bitch and a half on the ice.
My favorite trick is to load the bed up with packed snow instead of sand. Then when it thaws the snow goes away on its own and I don't have to unload the sand:)
The exception to this is (for now, anyway) American-made trucks. I got rear-ended really hard the other day by another Ford truck. We got out, looked at our undamaged bumpers, grinned at each other, and drove away:)
>I noticed about 10 years ago CDs became very easy to scratch not the bottom but the top.
You are NOT kidding... About 10 years ago I worked at a radio station. We would stack the CDs bare all over the place, we would play frisbee with them, we handled them roughly without a care, and then we would play them on the air. I can't remember ever getting a skippy CD on the air.
But now I have to handle my CDs like they are made of still-cooling candle wax. Even scratches I can't see make them skip. The CD player itself can scratch the CD enough to make it skip.
I read X0's comments a bit differently, I believe. X0 is making the argument that even with his very advanced prosthetic leg, it's HARDER to move than it would be with a natural limb. And he is extending that to make a very well-informed conjecture that the running limb replacements at issue are also not all they are cracked up to be.
Given that the physics of running is extremely complex (I am a physicist), I would lean towards the attitude that X0's human brain is much better at estimating the effort required to run using a prosthetic limb than we can be by making some very simple assumptions about how much energy is stored where.
> I do not think they are opposite approaches to things. They are actually quite orthogonal.
I am staying out of the religious debate, here, but I can't resist pointing out a pet peeve...
Orthogonal means "perpendicular", or, in a colloquial sense, "unrelated".
I am pointing this out because I respect your well thought out writing (though I find your logic to be no less hyperbolic than the gp), and I expect you possess a desire to have your words understood.
Linguists please correct me if you know of any sense in which it can be correctly used as the parent intended. Non-linguists shut up.
My trash-80 was new when I was using it. The cassette tape "drive" never quite worked, so I had to type the games in anytime I wanted to play them.
My own original code mostly involved writing infinite loops to print out something goofy on the screen. I was 10, gimme a break:)
I still name loop variables i or j (the trash 80's basic interpreter allowed variable names of one character only). Yes, you may feel free to slap me on the wrist for THAT bad habit!
> What makes you think radio stations or schools can not pay for music?
What makes me think that is the fact that I've worked at several radio stations, including my college's station. Radio stations operate on a very tight shoestring.
And here is an example of what I always tell people about myself -- that my mind is open and I can change opinions the instant I see my old one is wrong.
When I first read this article my only thought was "goodbye college radio"... but your point is so very true. This will shoot the 'AAs squarely in the foot. Radio stations can't afford to pay for music. Even ClearChannel etc won't pony up for this. This may just clear the way to get the forest of unwanted garbage music out of our face so we can see the few trees of good music that are out there!
Sorry, I'll come up with a better metaphor after my coffee...
I've had a cell phone, pager capable of sending receiving email, cell phone capable of sending and receiving email and IMs or some sort of "leash" type telecommunications device for at least a decade, and I never felt any work pressure from these devices on my off time.
Then about 6 months ago I got a blackberry. Something about that device changed (ruined) my personal life. I felt the intrusion of work like never before.
Logic tells me it's just another email device. But there was something insidious about it, and I just can't manage to put my finger on what it was.
I carried the thing for two weeks, and then returned it to the IT department. I could not tolerate the thing.
Anybody have more of a clue than I do about what is so evil about these devices?
I believe some people are damaged by childhood molestation, but I do not believe it is the act itself that does the damage.
In the absence of our societal structure, would an act of incest or molestation actually cause any damage (beyond physical damaged caused my size differential, of course, but that's a matter of battery, in my opinion)? I don't think so. I think that if our society did not place a taboo on these acts, then there would be little or no harm from them.
Slashdot Mirror
Sheesh, I try to fire up the crowd with tales of geek empowerment, and I end up getting flamed by some anonymous coward in his mom's basement.
:)
Bah, I have better things to do
-Vort
Yeah, it doesn't really matter, except perhaps in the context of the knowledge that I look like a biker dude. Your LOL is apt in any case.
And as far as doing my job properly, I (and the shareholders) leave that judgment to the bottom line, which is all that really matters.
But the fact remains that if you're a turd in a suit then you're taking up valuable air the real engineers need to breathe, and you will be escorted from my office promptly.
-Vort
Bingo, you hit the nail on the head of what I think (involuntarily, I might add) when I see some dude in a suit. "Con man" "Turd Polisher" "No useful skills?".
Oh, by the way, I've been on the fast track since I got done with grad school.
You guys are the past. I am the future. And dudes who show up wearing a suit for an interview with me get extra special grilling to make sure they aren't faking it.
-Vort
Yeah, but "Engineer" describes me adequately. "Atheist" does not. :)
"Agnostic - Someone who claims that they do not know or are unable to know whether God exists." -- And I don't think there is anything to know..... which makes me not an agnostic.
-Vort
Right ON! I have always felt a little uncomfortable calling myself an atheist, because I'm not militant about it -- I just don't think all the hocus pocus is real... and I am uncomfortable calling myself an agnostic because I'm not sure there is anything to know, whether we are capable of understanding it or not!
I like your way of thinking, man!
-Vort
Hehe, math in my head not so good. My numbers there would actually make a 30% likelihood. But it's a pretty wide guess anyway.
-Vort
I'd say about 20%, because:
In the early 80s, the FBI rejected around 40% of the tenprint cards it received due to sub-standard quality (smudges, incomplete prints, etc).
In the early 80s there wasn't such a huge push to get all tenprint cards to the FBI in the first place, BUT there would have been an effort made as part of the "think of the children" type program you describe. So I would guess about a 50% likelihood an attempt was made to send the cards to the feds.
-Vort
I've started calling it "Every Child Left Behind"... Seems to sum it up pretty well :)
-Vort
I really like your double-blind idea, but I have a question.
When I was a graduate student one of the things that struck me was how SMALL my field was. I would say after a year or two of study I could recognize the writing style of every single person in my field of research.
I have reason to believe that my particular field of study is not unique in being thusly small.
So is the double-blind actually feasible, or would it just look like it's working?
-Vort
No, actually it was closer to 10mph, and there was literally NO damage to either vehicle. My point was basically that in an impact where the bumpers don't NEED to crumple to protect the occupant, they shouldn't.
If I someone hits me at 30mph, I expect there to be a good bit of damage.
If I hit a cement barricade like the one in the video at 30-40mph, I expect the truck to be destroyed. I do not know whether a little car would hold up better in such situations, but consumer reports et al suggest they would.
-Vort
Damn straight! Although I must admit I find it hilarious when some dork in a 4wd blows past me on an icy road, and 5 miles later I see his smug butt in the ditch :)
:)
Both of my trucks are rear wheel drive (read: one wheel drive). They are a bitch and a half on the ice.
My favorite trick is to load the bed up with packed snow instead of sand. Then when it thaws the snow goes away on its own and I don't have to unload the sand
-Vort
The exception to this is (for now, anyway) American-made trucks. I got rear-ended really hard the other day by another Ford truck. We got out, looked at our undamaged bumpers, grinned at each other, and drove away :)
-Vort
>I noticed about 10 years ago CDs became very easy to scratch not the bottom but the top.
You are NOT kidding... About 10 years ago I worked at a radio station. We would stack the CDs bare all over the place, we would play frisbee with them, we handled them roughly without a care, and then we would play them on the air. I can't remember ever getting a skippy CD on the air.
But now I have to handle my CDs like they are made of still-cooling candle wax. Even scratches I can't see make them skip. The CD player itself can scratch the CD enough to make it skip.
-Vort
Yeah, it's kinda like kicking a dog -- they don't understand and they just might turn around and bite you :)
-Vort
I read X0's comments a bit differently, I believe. X0 is making the argument that even with his very advanced prosthetic leg, it's HARDER to move than it would be with a natural limb. And he is extending that to make a very well-informed conjecture that the running limb replacements at issue are also not all they are cracked up to be.
Given that the physics of running is extremely complex (I am a physicist), I would lean towards the attitude that X0's human brain is much better at estimating the effort required to run using a prosthetic limb than we can be by making some very simple assumptions about how much energy is stored where.
-Vort
> I do not think they are opposite approaches to things. They are actually quite orthogonal.
I am staying out of the religious debate, here, but I can't resist pointing out a pet peeve...
Orthogonal means "perpendicular", or, in a colloquial sense, "unrelated".
I am pointing this out because I respect your well thought out writing (though I find your logic to be no less hyperbolic than the gp), and I expect you possess a desire to have your words understood.
Linguists please correct me if you know of any sense in which it can be correctly used as the parent intended. Non-linguists shut up.
-Vort
Hehe, I mixed Clockwork Orange and 1984 :) I concede victory to thee, Constantine :)
-Nick
yes yes, we've all seen clockwork orange -- Nuff said about who didn't get what :)
-Vort
Hello, you just described Hamlet. Not exactly a new idea, eh? :)
-Vort
Once, upon some goob giving me a hard time about using i to increment a loop, I renamed it intIterationControlVariable. :)
-Vort
My trash-80 was new when I was using it. The cassette tape "drive" never quite worked, so I had to type the games in anytime I wanted to play them.
:)
My own original code mostly involved writing infinite loops to print out something goofy on the screen. I was 10, gimme a break
I still name loop variables i or j (the trash 80's basic interpreter allowed variable names of one character only). Yes, you may feel free to slap me on the wrist for THAT bad habit!
-Vort
> What makes you think radio stations or schools can not pay for music?
What makes me think that is the fact that I've worked at several radio stations, including my college's station. Radio stations operate on a very tight shoestring.
-Vort
And here is an example of what I always tell people about myself -- that my mind is open and I can change opinions the instant I see my old one is wrong.
When I first read this article my only thought was "goodbye college radio"... but your point is so very true. This will shoot the 'AAs squarely in the foot. Radio stations can't afford to pay for music. Even ClearChannel etc won't pony up for this. This may just clear the way to get the forest of unwanted garbage music out of our face so we can see the few trees of good music that are out there!
Sorry, I'll come up with a better metaphor after my coffee...
-Vort
I've had a cell phone, pager capable of sending receiving email, cell phone capable of sending and receiving email and IMs or some sort of "leash" type telecommunications device for at least a decade, and I never felt any work pressure from these devices on my off time.
Then about 6 months ago I got a blackberry. Something about that device changed (ruined) my personal life. I felt the intrusion of work like never before.
Logic tells me it's just another email device. But there was something insidious about it, and I just can't manage to put my finger on what it was.
I carried the thing for two weeks, and then returned it to the IT department. I could not tolerate the thing.
Anybody have more of a clue than I do about what is so evil about these devices?
-Vort
I believe some people are damaged by childhood molestation, but I do not believe it is the act itself that does the damage.
:)
In the absence of our societal structure, would an act of incest or molestation actually cause any damage (beyond physical damaged caused my size differential, of course, but that's a matter of battery, in my opinion)? I don't think so. I think that if our society did not place a taboo on these acts, then there would be little or no harm from them.
So I guess we are all to blame