1) your mother is in a cult, don't let her brainwash you and destroy your sense of self/ego 2) at age 16, avoid that odd girl in your summer school class but not for reasons you suspect 3) go to art school even if the parents refuse to pay, computers will lead to a lifetime of unsatisfying wageslavery 4) don't worry so damn much 5) you don't need to be normal
NT server farms
on
Is Linux Dead?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Microsoft holds the top spot for the simple reason that you need dozens if not hundreds of NT machines to serve even a moderately-sized site. I've had the fun chore of moving a large website from a broken NT server farm to a single Linux or UNIX machine.
as a developer who works for a major research lab that's sequencing and annotating the human genome, I predict that I will have a very amusing Monday morning.
similar to the RIAA's plans
on
Spyware Fights Back
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
This story immediately reminded me of some of the RIAA plans to hack your home machines (also mentioned here). I can't wait for the day when the big virus/trojan du jour hammering corporate networks and bringing down servers right and left turns out to be from the RIAA or MPAA.
"We were just protecting our copyrights, it's not our fault that your payroll files were lost!"
I am a vegetarian, and I am disturbed and offended by your organization's legal activities concerning PETA.ORG.
When your protest activities go awry, you quickly shield yourself with the First Amendment. Your organization produces parody sites using trademarked properties, but when you yourself are the target, you hide behind claims of fraudulent representation, trademark dilution and commerical exploitation.
Even though I share some of your beliefs, I am sickened by your hypocritical behavior and will neither donate to your organization nor will I encourage others to do, ever. There are far more reasonable and honorable vegetarian/animal rights organizations with whom I would rather be associated.
So, what if I view the Bank of America web site while wearing X-Ray Specs or 3-D glasses, or through the bottom of a gin bottle? I wouldn't want to get the X-Ray Specs company in trouble for copyright infringement. More importantly, is it "fair use" for the images from the Bank of America website to be copied and displayed on my retina? Otherwise, my rods and cones will have to establish a legal defense fund... (not to mention the thousands in royalties that my inner ear will owe)
<rant>When will corporate and legal America learn that the Internet is a transmission medium, like air, while simultaneously being the world's largest public library? Try suing either of those and see how the public reacts.</rant> --
If you don't want to allow other Napster users to download your files, set the max uploads to 0. Maybe their choice of a default is bad, but you are not forced to share, by any means. --
Call me a non-athletic nerd if you will, but what "specific educational purpose" do college sports serve? Besides providing the USA with semi-pro leagues and certain colleges and universities with a multimillion (or billion) dollar revenue stream, how do college sports further or promote learning?
Where do some people get the idea that college (or high school) students should be spending all their waking time "learning," if fact, that they are somehow obligated to do so? When you graduate, do you chain yourself to a job 24/7?
As for reestablishing single-sex dorms, well, you might as well try banning television on campus. --
My wife works for a heavily-used municipal library. A representative of the AFA came to the library, pamphlets in hand, threatening to picket the library for their refusal to install mandatory filters. The library's response was that their existing policy, crafted when they first acquired computers and Internet public access terminals, was that no child would be able to use the equipment without a parent present (forget inappropriate content - they've got to keep the kids from trashing the machine!). Trusting the parents wasn't enough for the AFA rep, who left promising a boycott, etc, etc. Since this is a well-to-do, liberal-leaning suburb obsessed with education, nothing's materialized...
The library computers do have one type of "filter" - the Windows machines run a special shell that prevents software/viruses from being installed or system configs from being altered. They're more worried about script kiddies than porn, and rightfully so. --
I'm in the same boat - I spend three hours a day traveling to and from work, and would much prefer to work at my favorite non-ergonomic desk, sitting in my favorite non-ergonomic chair, with my very own, non-company-mandated, ergonomic keyboard and mouse, listening to my own choice of loud music. But this will just scare major corporations away from telecommuting... what's next? Web cameras to make sure that company dress codes are obeyed at home, so that no one at the office can claim discrimination?
And here's a tricky situation: you telecommute and also run a home business on the side. ConHugeCo, your employer, has provided you with a regulation-issue ergonomic chair, desk, lamp, blotter, keyboard, etc, all meeting OSHA and ConHugeCo standards. Now, after "work", when you sit down in the very same chair to run your side business, are you now improperly using company property? How about if you're using a separate ISP account?
A smarter regulation would be to prohibit companies from refusing to pay for ergonomic equipment requested by telecommuters (within reason, of course), not to force a certain home environment standard. --
there's still one problem...
on
Etoy Update
·
· Score: 2
Check out this article from CNET - there's still something disturbing in the settlement:
But etoy attorney Chris Truax said the settlement letter he received indicates eToys also wants control over the content of the group's site--which eToys believes is unsuitable for children.
"There is no way etoy can give control over their art," Truax said. "If [eToys] decides to unilaterally drop the suit, I think it would be a positive step forward and then maybe we can discuss this in a less confrontational atmosphere."
Evidently, Etoys received complaints from angry parents who can't get a URI right or tell one site from the other. (ok, that's a cheap shot, but still...) It's wrong that an outside organization could dictate your site's content, just because your domain name might be confused by some parent or child. (reminds me of the whole bambi.com controversy)
Very few people can specialize in voice-acting and do it well - talent like Mel Blanc, Phil Hartman, Billy West, Mary Kay Bergman, Dan Castellaneta, etc doesn't appear everyday. Look at the cast credits for the Simpsons... A relatively small group provides the voices for a large number of characters, without them all sounding the same. I would have never guessed that one woman did so many of the voices for South Park. --
REDMOND - Microsoft announced today an exciting new showcase product, MS Breathable Gas, available as part of its new MS Atmosphere 2000 gaseous elements suite.
A spokesman for Microsoft stated that they were committed to providing the richest respiratory experience to their customers by integrating MS Atmosphere 2000 into their MS Basic Life Needs System. "With MS Breathable Gas, both the corporate and home user can breathe easier, knowing that the gaseous content of their lungs are handled by the number one gas bag in the marketplace."
The Microsoft spokesman was also quoted as saying "compared to MS Atmosphere 3.1, it's a breath of fresh air." --
Meet the MS Four Horsemen 2000: MS Mutual Violent Intent MS Lack-of-Food MS Viral Outbreak aka Outlook MS Unsurvivable Occurrence
MS Four Horsemen 2000 comes bundled with the intuitive MS LeviathanPlayer for streaming media formats, and fully supports the MS WhoreOfBabylon web page extensions, because we value our ability to innovate. MS Apocalypse can be a pretty intimidating place. MS Four Horsemen 2000 is designed to make the experience a whole lot easier.
(this goes along the lines of the old joke among my friends that one day we will wake up and find that MS has released a wonderful new product entitled "MS Breathable Gas")
It would also be illuminating to see how kludgey and bloated the code is, how many special cases are defined for microsoft apps, and how many dirty tricks lie in the code. Something has to account for the size.
If it's anything like other major corporations' code, it could be a near-unreadable tangle of legacy conditions. It could also serve as a poison pill for their competition - ie, they spend major dollars deciphering it to only find out it's worthless to them. (that's not to say that enterprising individuals couldn't digest it in smaller bites)
When they graduate and enter the world at large, they will be coming from a heavily-restricted environment and perhaps will be less willing to question lawmakers and special-interest groups who would propose laws that restrict our freedoms in the name of safety.
Isn't that the point of schools, after all? The American school system owes much more to Henry Ford's need to have well-disciplined factory workers than it does to any romantic notions of educational enlightenment. That's why so many high school grads are functionally illiterate these days.
Will MOSIAC catch the winning football team captain who savagely beats his girlfriend? Only if the chances for winning State had already been lost... what about the out-of-control rich kid whose parents are quick with the lawsuit? Expensive legal action is a bigger threat to schools than mass violence, which makes the profiling choice baffling.
What everyone is saying about life after high school is true - it gets better! Mebbe you won't become an instant millionaire immediately after HS, but one things for certain: geeks and nerds *don't* peak at age 18.
Loneliness and depression were my twin demons in high school. I was typed as a "talented-and-gifted" youngster in elementary school (spending a day a week in a special class), but the realization of just how different that makes you came a few years later, in junior high, where the social scene really begins to heat up. That's when I starting having mysterious illnesses and missing alot of class. I won't bore you with details, but 4 years and an ulcer later, I graduated.
Luckily, I escaped the physical abuse that some of you have experienced, but not the self-inflicted mental torture. I survived high school alive only through the encouragement of three teachers that took an interest in my plight and the few friends that I had: Judy (I was on a first name basis with my teachers, so sue me), the one who first gave me the idea that I was the type that withered in HS but thrived in college and real life; Tony, who encouraged self-expression without condemnation, something I never experienced at home or with most of my peers, who ratted me out to HS counselors; Chuck, who held me to a higher standard than I held myself, forcing me not to slack and rely on natural talents, darn him! and Nick, who put up with me even when I was an ass (and when I still am). Thanks everyone.
Hopefully, this hysteria against Quake, goth music, Manson and other "dark subculture elements" will blow over without the book/record burnings, bannings, boycotts or lawsuits that occurred with other McCarthite scares (comic books, Elvis, rock-n-roll, drugs, hippies, heavy metal, Dungeons and Dragons, Alice Cooper, punk music, Dead Kennedys, video games, voting Republican, "Married with Children", the Internet or Marilyn Manson, to name just a few! Notice a pattern, anyone?) - let's hope the courts honor the Bill of Rights before mob rule, but I have my doubts... If you're getting hassled or harassed by school administrators or counselors or other authorities, don't let "the man" get to you. Research your legal options! They're running scared and over-reacting (again), but don't just allow them to run you over.
To make a long story short (too late), if loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts are your only friends and you need an sympathetic and survivor's ear for your troubles, email me at spsd@webgurus.com
Slashdot Mirror
1) your mother is in a cult, don't let her brainwash you and destroy your sense of self/ego
2) at age 16, avoid that odd girl in your summer school class but not for reasons you suspect
3) go to art school even if the parents refuse to pay, computers will lead to a lifetime of unsatisfying wageslavery
4) don't worry so damn much
5) you don't need to be normal
Microsoft holds the top spot for the simple reason that you need dozens if not hundreds of NT machines to serve even a moderately-sized site. I've had the fun chore of moving a large website from a broken NT server farm to a single Linux or UNIX machine.
as a developer who works for a major research lab that's sequencing and annotating the human genome, I predict that I will have a very amusing Monday morning.
This story immediately reminded me of some of the RIAA plans to hack your home machines (also mentioned here). I can't wait for the day when the big virus/trojan du jour hammering corporate networks and bringing down servers right and left turns out to be from the RIAA or MPAA.
"We were just protecting our copyrights, it's not our fault that your payroll files were lost!"
To whom it may concern,
I am a vegetarian, and I am disturbed and offended by your organization's legal activities concerning PETA.ORG.
When your protest activities go awry, you quickly shield yourself with the First Amendment. Your organization produces parody sites using trademarked properties, but when you yourself are the target, you hide behind claims of fraudulent representation, trademark dilution and commerical exploitation.
Even though I share some of your beliefs, I am sickened by your hypocritical behavior and will neither donate to your organization nor will I encourage others to do, ever. There are far more reasonable and honorable vegetarian/animal rights organizations with whom I would rather be associated.
Sincerely,
Tim Elkins
--
So, what if I view the Bank of America web site while wearing X-Ray Specs or 3-D glasses, or through the bottom of a gin bottle? I wouldn't want to get the X-Ray Specs company in trouble for copyright infringement. More importantly, is it "fair use" for the images from the Bank of America website to be copied and displayed on my retina? Otherwise, my rods and cones will have to establish a legal defense fund... (not to mention the thousands in royalties that my inner ear will owe)
<rant>When will corporate and legal America learn that the Internet is a transmission medium, like air, while simultaneously being the world's largest public library? Try suing either of those and see how the public reacts.</rant>
--
That'd be like MS claiming anything bad about them you typed in MSword would be subject to license fees.
Is this idea really that far-fetched? Given their recent legal activities, it wouldn't surprise me...
--
If you don't want to allow other Napster users to download your files, set the max uploads to 0. Maybe their choice of a default is bad, but you are not forced to share, by any means.
--
Call me a non-athletic nerd if you will, but what "specific educational purpose" do college sports serve? Besides providing the USA with semi-pro leagues and certain colleges and universities with a multimillion (or billion) dollar revenue stream, how do college sports further or promote learning?
Where do some people get the idea that college (or high school) students should be spending all their waking time "learning," if fact, that they are somehow obligated to do so? When you graduate, do you chain yourself to a job 24/7?
As for reestablishing single-sex dorms, well, you might as well try banning television on campus.
--
My wife works for a heavily-used municipal library. A representative of the AFA came to the library, pamphlets in hand, threatening to picket the library for their refusal to install mandatory filters. The library's response was that their existing policy, crafted when they first acquired computers and Internet public access terminals, was that no child would be able to use the equipment without a parent present (forget inappropriate content - they've got to keep the kids from trashing the machine!). Trusting the parents wasn't enough for the AFA rep, who left promising a boycott, etc, etc. Since this is a well-to-do, liberal-leaning suburb obsessed with education, nothing's materialized...
The library computers do have one type of "filter" - the Windows machines run a special shell that prevents software/viruses from being installed or system configs from being altered. They're more worried about script kiddies than porn, and rightfully so.
--
I'm in the same boat - I spend three hours a day traveling to and from work, and would much prefer to work at my favorite non-ergonomic desk, sitting in my favorite non-ergonomic chair, with my very own, non-company-mandated, ergonomic keyboard and mouse, listening to my own choice of loud music. But this will just scare major corporations away from telecommuting... what's next? Web cameras to make sure that company dress codes are obeyed at home, so that no one at the office can claim discrimination?
And here's a tricky situation: you telecommute and also run a home business on the side. ConHugeCo, your employer, has provided you with a regulation-issue ergonomic chair, desk, lamp, blotter, keyboard, etc, all meeting OSHA and ConHugeCo standards. Now, after "work", when you sit down in the very same chair to run your side business, are you now improperly using company property? How about if you're using a separate ISP account?
A smarter regulation would be to prohibit companies from refusing to pay for ergonomic equipment requested by telecommuters (within reason, of course), not to force a certain home environment standard.
--
Check out this article from CNET - there's still something disturbing in the settlement:
Evidently, Etoys received complaints from angry parents who can't get a URI right or tell one site from the other. (ok, that's a cheap shot, but still...) It's wrong that an outside organization could dictate your site's content, just because your domain name might be confused by some parent or child. (reminds me of the whole bambi.com controversy)
--
Very few people can specialize in voice-acting and do it well - talent like Mel Blanc, Phil Hartman, Billy West, Mary Kay Bergman, Dan Castellaneta, etc doesn't appear everyday. Look at the cast credits for the Simpsons... A relatively small group provides the voices for a large number of characters, without them all sounding the same. I would have never guessed that one woman did so many of the voices for South Park.
--
REDMOND - Microsoft announced today an exciting new showcase product, MS Breathable Gas, available as part of its new MS Atmosphere 2000 gaseous elements suite.
A spokesman for Microsoft stated that they were committed to providing the richest respiratory experience to their customers by integrating MS Atmosphere 2000 into their MS Basic Life Needs System. "With MS Breathable Gas, both the corporate and home user can breathe easier, knowing that the gaseous content of their lungs are handled by the number one gas bag in the marketplace."
The Microsoft spokesman was also quoted as saying "compared to MS Atmosphere 3.1, it's a breath of fresh air."
--
Meet the MS Four Horsemen 2000:
MS Mutual Violent Intent
MS Lack-of-Food
MS Viral Outbreak aka Outlook
MS Unsurvivable Occurrence
MS Four Horsemen 2000 comes bundled with the intuitive MS LeviathanPlayer for streaming media formats, and fully supports the MS WhoreOfBabylon web page extensions, because we value our ability to innovate. MS Apocalypse can be a pretty intimidating place. MS Four Horsemen 2000 is designed to make the experience a whole lot easier.
(this goes along the lines of the old joke among my friends that one day we will wake up and find that MS has released a wonderful new product entitled "MS Breathable Gas")
--
It would also be illuminating to see how kludgey and bloated the code is, how many special cases are defined for microsoft apps, and how many dirty tricks lie in the code. Something has to account for the size.
If it's anything like other major corporations' code, it could be a near-unreadable tangle of legacy conditions. It could also serve as a poison pill for their competition - ie, they spend major dollars deciphering it to only find out it's worthless to them. (that's not to say that enterprising individuals couldn't digest it in smaller bites)
--
When they graduate and enter the world at large, they will be coming from a heavily-restricted environment and perhaps will be less willing to question lawmakers and special-interest groups who would propose laws that restrict our freedoms in the name of safety.
Isn't that the point of schools, after all? The American school system owes much more to Henry Ford's need to have well-disciplined factory workers than it does to any romantic notions of educational enlightenment. That's why so many high school grads are functionally illiterate these days.
Will MOSIAC catch the winning football team captain who savagely beats his girlfriend? Only if the chances for winning State had already been lost... what about the out-of-control rich kid whose parents are quick with the lawsuit? Expensive legal action is a bigger threat to schools than mass violence, which makes the profiling choice baffling.
--
...feel free to email me.
What everyone is saying about life after high school is true - it gets better! Mebbe you won't become an instant millionaire immediately after HS, but one things for certain: geeks and nerds *don't* peak at age 18.
Loneliness and depression were my twin demons in high school. I was typed as a "talented-and-gifted" youngster in elementary school (spending a day a week in a special class), but the realization of just how different that makes you came a few years later, in junior high, where the social scene really begins to heat up. That's when I starting having mysterious illnesses and missing alot of class. I won't bore you with details, but 4 years and an ulcer later, I graduated.
Luckily, I escaped the physical abuse that some of you have experienced, but not the self-inflicted mental torture. I survived high school alive only through the encouragement of three teachers that took an interest in my plight and the few friends that I had: Judy (I was on a first name basis with my teachers, so sue me), the one who first gave me the idea that I was the type that withered in HS but thrived in college and real life; Tony, who encouraged self-expression without condemnation, something I never experienced at home or with most of my peers, who ratted me out to HS counselors; Chuck, who held me to a higher standard than I held myself, forcing me not to slack and rely on natural talents, darn him! and Nick, who put up with me even when I was an ass (and when I still am). Thanks everyone.
Hopefully, this hysteria against Quake, goth music, Manson and other "dark subculture elements" will blow over without the book/record burnings, bannings, boycotts or lawsuits that occurred with other McCarthite scares (comic books, Elvis, rock-n-roll, drugs, hippies, heavy metal, Dungeons and Dragons, Alice Cooper, punk music, Dead Kennedys, video games, voting Republican, "Married with Children", the Internet or Marilyn Manson, to name just a few! Notice a pattern, anyone?) - let's hope the courts honor the Bill of Rights before mob rule, but I have my doubts... If you're getting hassled or harassed by school administrators or counselors or other authorities, don't let "the man" get to you. Research your legal options! They're running scared and over-reacting (again), but don't just allow them to run you over.
To make a long story short (too late), if loneliness, depression and suicidal thoughts are your only friends and you need an sympathetic and survivor's ear for your troubles, email me at spsd@webgurus.com
timon