Fedex and UPS have better security in some ways, better email and web notification already of when packages are about to arrive, and are more expensive. All of these things make them less attractive to terrorists.
Actually, yes they do - I've seen it
on
Bert Is Evil
·
· Score: 2
Or at least, a version of it. My dad has family in Israel, and when my sister and I were little, we used to watch tapes of the Israeli version of Sesame Street. I honestly don't know whether it's a spin-off of the original series or a simple clone - the fact it's in Hebrew makes it difficult. But Ernie and Bert (or look-alikes) were both in the series. So it certainly is possible for someone in the middle east to know about Bert.
(Incidentally, even though I never did get a good comprehension of spoken Hebrew, I have to say that I found the Israeli version of Sesame Street much more entertaining than the American version. The animation in particular is very trippy.)
As a hobbyist programmer, I have to say that I feel it is my duty NOT to dance - and nauseate the other dancers - unless one of these two cirumstances applies:
1.)An attractive member of the opposite gender requests that I dance - thus instantly causing me to lose the self-resraint and dignity I normally cling to desperatly, all in an effort to make a favorable impression.
OR
2.) I am attempting to impress a member of the opposite gender who has not yet expressed an interest in me.
Of course, I am only a high school senior, which may have more to do with my opinions on dancing than my sometime-programmer status. Can anyone tell me if this is the case?
If I may ask: In a postscript to your article "The Devil is in Windows'
Details", you point out that it is irrelevant that the program used to open
a given format can be changed by right-clicking on a file of that type,
because there are many users who don't even know what right-clicking is.
That's certainly true, but at the risk of sounding like an elitist, why
should we (the computer-literate people) care? It is really not that hard to
learn about the "hidden" features in windows, through one's own experience
or research on the Internet, or even in the Dummies books. I agree that the
concept of hidden features is anti-competitive, but why should we lose any
sleep over people who are, for whatever reason, unable to learn enough to
make windows do what they wish? Isn't it best for them that they aren't
faced with choices that could tax their limited understanding of technology
beyond the breaking point? You and I, sir, and the legions of other
competant users, will use whatever software and operating systems we like,
no matter what Microsoft does. It just seems to me that people who are being
hurt the most by "hidden" features are those who shouldn't really be playing
with them anyway, because they have no idea what they are doing.
I know that sounds - well, assinine, to put it mildly - but I'd like to cite
an example from my work. I am a part-time computer tech at my high school,
and one of my duties (and hobbies, when I am not on the clock) is to assist
teachers when they have technical problems. About half the calls I get that
don't boil down to "You didn't plug in the power cord" are related to
incidents where teachers install some new word processor/media
player/whatever that a friend (or email spam that sounded "friendly")
recommended. All of a sudden, "My Microsoft looks different!" they cry, and
they are hopelessly confused.
Most users really do benefit from using an OS that limits what they can do,
because most users lack the initiative to learn how to use a less
constricting system. Being held by the hand allows computer illiterates to
do, for the most part, what they want to do (word processing/games/web
browsing). For those who are capable of a greater degree of computer
literacy, the modern versions of windows are simply not appropriate - they
are not targeted at us. For computer-literate users to complain Windows
over-limits the user is like a racing bycyclist to complain that training
wheels greatly limit his/her speed - it's true, but what the heck is he
doing with training wheels?
BeOS and Linux are both more powerful, inexpensive operating systems without
the penchant Windows has for assisting Microsoft megalomania. I would assert
that a user who feels constrained by windows should simply switch - and if
he/she has documents or other files Linux or Beos can't run, to complain is
inappropriate - find or start a project that is working on what you need,
and help it however you can. Don't just sit there.
>It is clear that these Islamic pigs are not human.
No, no, no, no NO!!!!!!!!! How many times do I have to say it? Blair said it, bush said it, all the talking heads and cabinet members have said it: THESE TERRORISTS ARE NOT MUSLIMS, ANYMORE THAN A GUY WHO FIREBOMBS AN ABORTION CLINIC IS A CHRISTIAN! That has to be the three-hundredth post to that effect on/., and I still see idiot racist comments like yours.
You think you're better than them? Your words give the lie to that sentiment, my friend.
Man, these people think of us as the Great Satan, okay? They want you dead. They want me dead. They want pretty much everyone posting to/. right now, dead. Finally, they want pretty much all Americans dead. I don't care what whacked-our reason they had for the attacks - they killed unarmed civilians by the thousands, and that is all that matters.
Jesus, I hope this is bullshit, but I just heard on CNN the Taliban is forcing 13-year olds to fight and is redirecting refugees into combat areas. What the hell is worth all this? Why would a human being do something like that? It makes no sense! Surely they realize they're alienate and enrage their own people!
How can anyone be so far removed from a sense of respect for human life?
This isn't like Vietnam, where it could be argued that the fate of Vietnam didn't really matter that much to the United States. (I'm not saying I agree with that, just that a compelling argument could be made.) The terrorists want to destroy us. Either you are for stopping them however we can, or you are for not stopping them. And we can't negotiate with them - their position is that we (The Unites States of America) have no right to exist - we are The Great Satan to a very small but very well-organized and armed group of nuts who've bastardized the Islamic faith. So, we can stop them by killing them, or we can let them live and kill us. Am I missing something?
I just have to say, I listen to Blair's speech a few minutes ago, and I douub the United States could have any better friend than Britain and Tony Blair himself. He was with us the day of the attack, he's been with us since, and he's with us now, and Britain's soldiers' lives are on the line along with ours.
I'm not normally a religous man, but I have to say: God bless the UK and Tony Blair.
Here's hoping we pound the shit out of the bastards responsible for the terrorist attacks, as opposed to anyone our cruise missiles can reach. That said, I feel compelled to point out again: YAH!!!!! GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to scenic Wamego, Kansas, the *former* ground zero for the greater Wamego, Kansas area. Feel free to enjoy the open fields, crystalline night sky, and fresh air with only a taint of pollutants from our former friendly neighbors in the SAC! Wamego - now there really is nothing here worth shooting at!
-This message brought to your by the Wamego Chamber of Commerce.
Of course, you know that makes the threat presented by the word even more insidious. If non-techies can use it well - I shudder to think of the potential for linguistic infiltration!
I refer to "the british" meaning the residents of the island now known as England, not in the sense of citizens of the modern political entity. I probably shouldn't have done that, but hey - it wasn't meant to be accurate anyway.
As we all know, "kit" is a british slang term for computer hardware. What many people may not know is that it is also the secret weapon in a British campaign of cultural assimilation.
Yes, you heard me right. Cultural assimilation. The brits are sick of seeing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the sexy chick from Enterprise on TVs all over the world, and they're going to do something about it.
The British invented the English language, and in many circles certain British accents are percieved as more sophisticated or upper-class. They're capitalizing on that by inventing slang terms - "kit" being among the forerunners - that other English-speaking peoples appropriate. Thus is begins.
Soon, British TV will move off of PBS, where it belongs. British computer games and hardware will surpass American in popularity. And there is nothing - absolutely nothing - we can do about it.
(In case you hadn't realized it, yes this is a joke. And yes, I know it's offtopic and will be moderated as such. But this was fun to write.)
Yes, I know it wasn't the best movie ever made, but it had the goofiest dataglove gestures I've even seen or imagined. Gave new meaning to pointlessness. (Much like this post).
Is that they can download the source themselves, and then compile their own binaries. There's no need to "trust" the program not to screw you over - if you have enough knowledge, you can examine the source yourself.
Very true. It's not as if it harms anyone - hell, if my memory serves my right there's actually obscene amounts of cash in modeling for playboy or maxim.
The problem is that the A+ exam does not even really evaluate the information it claims to test. According to the certificate hanging on my wall, when I passed the exam I had a solid grasp of a large number of facts involved with operating systems deployment, motherboards, disk drives, printers, and networking. I did not really have the degree of skill in these things my certification indicated, and that's the problem. It certainly is an entry-level cert, but it does not accurately evaluate an entry-level tech.
Mainly by lying. Tell stories about how you got the card - spending hours disassembling computers to learn the answers to questions, family traditions about computers - you know, emotional stuff. Women dig that, supposedly.
I do apologize, however. I shouldn't have left my statement as it was - it implies that the card alone, without a backstory, is enough to impress women. You use the card to intrigue women ("Hey, what's that?") then tell your story. Make it good.
And remember: Knowledge is power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Therefor, your A+ cert. card has the potential for - interesting - applications.
Slashdot Mirror
Fedex and UPS have better security in some ways, better email and web notification already of when packages are about to arrive, and are more expensive. All of these things make them less attractive to terrorists.
As it's own FAQ points out.
Or at least, a version of it. My dad has family in Israel, and when my sister and I were little, we used to watch tapes of the Israeli version of Sesame Street. I honestly don't know whether it's a spin-off of the original series or a simple clone - the fact it's in Hebrew makes it difficult. But Ernie and Bert (or look-alikes) were both in the series. So it certainly is possible for someone in the middle east to know about Bert.
(Incidentally, even though I never did get a good comprehension of spoken Hebrew, I have to say that I found the Israeli version of Sesame Street much more entertaining than the American version. The animation in particular is very trippy.)
As a hobbyist programmer, I have to say that I feel it is my duty NOT to dance - and nauseate the other dancers - unless one of these two cirumstances applies:
1.)An attractive member of the opposite gender requests that I dance - thus instantly causing me to lose the self-resraint and dignity I normally cling to desperatly, all in an effort to make a favorable impression.
OR
2.) I am attempting to impress a member of the opposite gender who has not yet expressed an interest in me.
Of course, I am only a high school senior, which may have more to do with my opinions on dancing than my sometime-programmer status. Can anyone tell me if this is the case?
If I may ask: In a postscript to your article "The Devil is in Windows' Details", you point out that it is irrelevant that the program used to open a given format can be changed by right-clicking on a file of that type, because there are many users who don't even know what right-clicking is.
That's certainly true, but at the risk of sounding like an elitist, why should we (the computer-literate people) care? It is really not that hard to learn about the "hidden" features in windows, through one's own experience or research on the Internet, or even in the Dummies books. I agree that the concept of hidden features is anti-competitive, but why should we lose any sleep over people who are, for whatever reason, unable to learn enough to make windows do what they wish? Isn't it best for them that they aren't faced with choices that could tax their limited understanding of technology beyond the breaking point? You and I, sir, and the legions of other competant users, will use whatever software and operating systems we like, no matter what Microsoft does. It just seems to me that people who are being hurt the most by "hidden" features are those who shouldn't really be playing with them anyway, because they have no idea what they are doing.
I know that sounds - well, assinine, to put it mildly - but I'd like to cite an example from my work. I am a part-time computer tech at my high school, and one of my duties (and hobbies, when I am not on the clock) is to assist teachers when they have technical problems. About half the calls I get that don't boil down to "You didn't plug in the power cord" are related to incidents where teachers install some new word processor/media player/whatever that a friend (or email spam that sounded "friendly") recommended. All of a sudden, "My Microsoft looks different!" they cry, and they are hopelessly confused.
Most users really do benefit from using an OS that limits what they can do, because most users lack the initiative to learn how to use a less constricting system. Being held by the hand allows computer illiterates to do, for the most part, what they want to do (word processing/games/web browsing). For those who are capable of a greater degree of computer literacy, the modern versions of windows are simply not appropriate - they are not targeted at us. For computer-literate users to complain Windows over-limits the user is like a racing bycyclist to complain that training wheels greatly limit his/her speed - it's true, but what the heck is he doing with training wheels?
BeOS and Linux are both more powerful, inexpensive operating systems without the penchant Windows has for assisting Microsoft megalomania. I would assert that a user who feels constrained by windows should simply switch - and if he/she has documents or other files Linux or Beos can't run, to complain is inappropriate - find or start a project that is working on what you need, and help it however you can. Don't just sit there.
>It is clear that these Islamic pigs are not human.
/., and I still see idiot racist comments like yours.
No, no, no, no NO!!!!!!!!! How many times do I have to say it? Blair said it, bush said it, all the talking heads and cabinet members have said it: THESE TERRORISTS ARE NOT MUSLIMS, ANYMORE THAN A GUY WHO FIREBOMBS AN ABORTION CLINIC IS A CHRISTIAN! That has to be the three-hundredth post to that effect on
You think you're better than them? Your words give the lie to that sentiment, my friend.
Man, these people think of us as the Great Satan, okay? They want you dead. They want me dead. They want pretty much everyone posting to /. right now, dead. Finally, they want pretty much all Americans dead. I don't care what whacked-our reason they had for the attacks - they killed unarmed civilians by the thousands, and that is all that matters.
Jesus, I hope this is bullshit, but I just heard on CNN the Taliban is forcing 13-year olds to fight and is redirecting refugees into combat areas. What the hell is worth all this? Why would a human being do something like that? It makes no sense! Surely they realize they're alienate and enrage their own people!
How can anyone be so far removed from a sense of respect for human life?
...there's a nasty rumor that the Taliban is using human shields in those installations. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
And later on, we'll be using aircraft as well. Again, that's from Blair's apeech of about 1:40 US eastern time.
This isn't like Vietnam, where it could be argued that the fate of Vietnam didn't really matter that much to the United States. (I'm not saying I agree with that, just that a compelling argument could be made.) The terrorists want to destroy us. Either you are for stopping them however we can, or you are for not stopping them. And we can't negotiate with them - their position is that we (The Unites States of America) have no right to exist - we are The Great Satan to a very small but very well-organized and armed group of nuts who've bastardized the Islamic faith. So, we can stop them by killing them, or we can let them live and kill us. Am I missing something?
I just have to say, I listen to Blair's speech a few minutes ago, and I douub the United States could have any better friend than Britain and Tony Blair himself. He was with us the day of the attack, he's been with us since, and he's with us now, and Britain's soldiers' lives are on the line along with ours.
I'm not normally a religous man, but I have to say: God bless the UK and Tony Blair.
Here's hoping we pound the shit out of the bastards responsible for the terrorist attacks, as opposed to anyone our cruise missiles can reach. That said, I feel compelled to point out again: YAH!!!!! GO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Welcome to scenic Wamego, Kansas, the *former* ground zero for the greater Wamego, Kansas area. Feel free to enjoy the open fields, crystalline night sky, and fresh air with only a taint of pollutants from our former friendly neighbors in the SAC! Wamego - now there really is nothing here worth shooting at!
-This message brought to your by the Wamego Chamber of Commerce.
The United Kingdom consists of Wales, England, the Isles of Man, Scotland, and part of Ireland. So There!
Hail Brittania!
You're right, I should get out more.
Of course, you know that makes the threat presented by the word even more insidious. If non-techies can use it well - I shudder to think of the potential for linguistic infiltration!
I refer to "the british" meaning the residents of the island now known as England, not in the sense of citizens of the modern political entity. I probably shouldn't have done that, but hey - it wasn't meant to be accurate anyway.
As we all know, "kit" is a british slang term for computer hardware. What many people may not know is that it is also the secret weapon in a British campaign of cultural assimilation.
Yes, you heard me right. Cultural assimilation. The brits are sick of seeing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the sexy chick from Enterprise on TVs all over the world, and they're going to do something about it.
The British invented the English language, and in many circles certain British accents are percieved as more sophisticated or upper-class. They're capitalizing on that by inventing slang terms - "kit" being among the forerunners - that other English-speaking peoples appropriate. Thus is begins.
Soon, British TV will move off of PBS, where it belongs. British computer games and hardware will surpass American in popularity. And there is nothing - absolutely nothing - we can do about it.
(In case you hadn't realized it, yes this is a joke. And yes, I know it's offtopic and will be moderated as such. But this was fun to write.)
I dunno...I know some chicks who dig some pretty weird stuff - but probably not that weird.
Yes, I know it wasn't the best movie ever made, but it had the goofiest dataglove gestures I've even seen or imagined. Gave new meaning to pointlessness. (Much like this post).
Is that they can download the source themselves, and then compile their own binaries. There's no need to "trust" the program not to screw you over - if you have enough knowledge, you can examine the source yourself.
"if kids wanna watch porn, let them."
Very true. It's not as if it harms anyone - hell, if my memory serves my right there's actually obscene amounts of cash in modeling for playboy or maxim.
You're right. I retract my earlier comment. Can you tell I have no actual parenting experience?
Thank you for correcting my ignorance.
The problem is that the A+ exam does not even really evaluate the information it claims to test. According to the certificate hanging on my wall, when I passed the exam I had a solid grasp of a large number of facts involved with operating systems deployment, motherboards, disk drives, printers, and networking. I did not really have the degree of skill in these things my certification indicated, and that's the problem. It certainly is an entry-level cert, but it does not accurately evaluate an entry-level tech.
Mainly by lying. Tell stories about how you got the card - spending hours disassembling computers to learn the answers to questions, family traditions about computers - you know, emotional stuff. Women dig that, supposedly.
I do apologize, however. I shouldn't have left my statement as it was - it implies that the card alone, without a backstory, is enough to impress women. You use the card to intrigue women ("Hey, what's that?") then tell your story. Make it good.
And remember: Knowledge is power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Therefor, your A+ cert. card has the potential for - interesting - applications.
Yes, this is all tongue-in-cheek.