Yes, very clever indeed. I sure fell for it, and it took me a minute to figure it out.
But what I'd like to know is why the sig doesn't appear under IE. In fact, comparing the source produced by both browsers, its not the same. Its like IE ignores the <ul> tag and everything within it.
My experience has been that those on bugzilla want to correct bugs, not hide or deny them. If you can reproduce it well, and document that well, others will test for it, and assuming its a real bug and not your problem, they will confirm it as a bug. All submissions i've made have been taken seriously.
I think you're being very narrow-minded. A few centuries is a long time. Look how the world has changed. Yes it is physically possible to live without petroleum, but we wouldn't exactly make the switch smoothly. We are hugely dependant upon our own technological advances.
Just imagine that all the oil and gas in the world disappeared right now. How will you heat your house tonight? If that's not an issue, how will you eat tomorrow? You'll probably have enough food on hand for a couple days, and maybe if you get to the store quickly you can grab some more. But, that will soon run out, and then what? No new food will be getting to the stores, because it all comes on trucks, and they sure as hell won't be able to convert them all to peanut oil, and find enough peanut oil quickly enough (keeping in mind any petroleum powered machinery won't work) to supply our entire civilization.
Certain people, mainly farmers, would still have the skills and resources to feed themselves. I haven't the foggiest idea how to turn a cow or a pig into food. I'm sure that "scarcely a few centuries" ago, this was common knowledge. Even if I did know how, I live in a city, my 60x40' yard won't feed an animal, even if I could acquire one.
Sure, there are other possible sources of fuel, but to think we could convert to them, even within a couple years, is doubtful. Totally losing petroleum would result in most of our population dying off. There's no way we could support our current population with the technology and machinery we have now, and there's no way we could convert it to some other fuel fast enough. It would set us back 100 years, and completely change our entire world.
I think the biggest BSA nightmare here is the generation of kids that will be graduating into university and then into the job market who are actually aware of and know how to use software other than that of Microsoft. They'll have a better understanding of how computers work and they'll expect them to work properly. That will mean a whole generation of workers who are comfortable and productive with Linux systems and who will see the crap that Microsoft produces for what it is.
"Television decides for us, tells us what to think about the matter, and then we just shrug and go to work.
I think there needs to be a citizen's veto system:"
Those are two contradicting ideas. Yes, television does tell us what to think, and I don't think anyone should ever underestimate the power and influence that the media has. You mention the ignorance of the American people and how its amazing that people are so dumb. Bingo. Which is EXACTLY why the average citizen should have no part in running the country.
Joe Shmuck who gets his news from the National Inquirer and Jerry Springer should not have any say in running the country. What a truly frightening notion. Even the intelligent among us shouldn't have that power. The reason simply is that we all have our own jobs to do and our own lives to run. We can't possibly have the knowledge to be able to make sound decisions about something like national defence. What the hell does the average person know about defending a nation from military attacks? Shit, what does the average citizen know about YOUR job, whatever it may be? Better yet, what does your manager even know about your job? Not only are people clueless but they're too clueless to know they're clueless and feel they have to have an opinion about everything. That's why there's a government that hires people to run the country. Specialists who know the subject matter at hand, and decision makers who know all the different sides to a decision, because its their job to investigate it. There's always more to a subject than what meets the eye, and the average person can't possibly have the knowledge required to make good decisions, so we get people who do to make the decisions.
Granted, its certainly not a flawless system. Politicians run their own agendas, they pull the wool over our eyes, and in some cases they're making decisions with no more knowledge than you or I have. But its still, IMHO, better than letting everyone and their dog try and have their say.
Worse yet would be such an easy system for launching a vote. Anything that's that easy (and this should be obvious to anyone who's used the internet and seen the human stupidity on it) would not produce well thought out decisions. They would be snap decisions based on whatever little knowledge the person has and however they tend to feel at that moment before hitting the submit button. At least now voicing your opinion requires writing to your congressman or whomever. This is somewhat difficult and time consuming, which means that only those who feel strongly will bother, and those who do will have some time to think the issue through. Otherwise, you'd have everyone voting on every issue, regardless of what they know about it, like it were a Slashdot poll, clicking through on whatever looks good without even thinking about it.
Re:Best Jon Katz ever!
on
Disconnecting
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· Score: 2
I think this is the only Jon Katz story I've ever read beyond the preview text.
If backwards compatability and consumer familiarity were the only reasons why controls haven't changed, then why haven't they changed in racecars? Its because they work, that's why. They do what needs to be done and does it extremely well. At least, that is, for the main controls, like pedals and steering wheel. Secondary controls like headlights, wipers, etc. do change over time and between makes and models.
From some site on the internet about the Model T's controls:
"There are three pedals on the floor, two levers on the steering column, and one floor lever to the left of the driver. The floor lever is neutral while in the upright position, second gear when in the forward position while the leftmost pedal is not depressed, and emergency brake when all the way back.
The leftmost pedal is first gear while depressed, second gear if the floor lever is forward when released. The middle pedal is reverse gear and the rightmost pedal is the brake. The right lever on the steering column is the gas, and the other lever is the spark advance."
Just because the controls are still mechanical doesn't mean they haven't been improved. Far from it. The reason why they're still mechanical is that first of all that mechanicals are reliable and a proven solution. This isn't software where crashes are acceptible, so there is, rightfully so, hesitation to move to something else. Secondly, mechanical controls transfer vibrations through them that allow the driver to feel what the car is doing. That is lost with by-wire controls. So really, there's no desire to move away from mechanical controls.
There has, however, been plenty of innovation where its warranted. Air bags and ABS are obvious safety innovations that are on almost all cars these days. How about efficiency improvements like CVTs and variable valve timing and lift setups seen in engines today? Or better yet, hybrids and electrics? What about Ferrari's new automatic clutch? There is plenty of innovation in cars these days.
The new BMW (unless its a new Mercedes... I actually can't remember now, but its unimportant anyway) has brake-by-wire brakes. When I read about that, I really had to wonder what the brake feel would be like and how drivers would really like it.
I live in Winnipeg and Shaw is my ISP, and although I haven't really needed it, their support has been helpful when I have. My cousin also works for Convergys, but in Edmonton, and he's said that basically they're trained to be script readers.
However, I'd bet at least 95% of customers and 95% of problems reported are the same old stupid things which only requires a script reader to fix. My cousin said he's got all of Windows' TCP dialogs etc. memorized because that's what every call deals with.
What they need is two-tier (or more) support where if its not a standard problem, they can forward you to someone who knows what they're talking about.
I've got an HP CD-RW. One day I was at my computer, leaning back in my chair, when I somehow opened the drive. I leaned forward to close it, and in doing so my chair came down on the tray and broke it. So I took it back to the computer store where I bought it, explained to them what happened, and they said they'd have to send it back to HP to get it fixed. Three weeks later it came back, repaired under warranty at no charge to me. I don't know if this was someone's screw up, or the store lying to HP or what, but I was happy.
I work for a company with many high-mileage Ford full-size vans. The ones made around 95 have a digital odometer. This odometer, when it hits 400,000 clicks, resets to 300,000. We've got at least 2 vans that have done it twice.
Another interesting point, is that on one of them, the ignition was sticking a bit at one time. Now, most ignitions, when you crank them, kill all the electronics in the vehicle to get as much power to the starter as possible.
But this particular van, after you released the ignition once the engine fired, the ignition wouldn't come fully back to the "On" position from the "Start" position. The starter would seem to disengage, but the power to the rest of the electronics wouldn't come back unless you manually brought the switch back to the On position. This meant no headlights, turn signals, radios, and no guages. Nothing. Which meant that the odometer didn't rack up miles. Perfect if you plan on selling the thing.
I imagine though that it would probably be just as easy to disconnect the cable in a normal odometer if you wanted to deceive. I'm not positive though.
Ohh, I did, I did! But I'm a Slashdot reader, I don't have the attention span for that. I was barely able to read your post. I was hoping for a basic sentence-or-two long summary, one that could fit in my brain.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, very clever indeed. I sure fell for it, and it took me a minute to figure it out.
But what I'd like to know is why the sig doesn't appear under IE. In fact, comparing the source produced by both browsers, its not the same. Its like IE ignores the <ul> tag and everything within it.
My experience has been that those on bugzilla want to correct bugs, not hide or deny them. If you can reproduce it well, and document that well, others will test for it, and assuming its a real bug and not your problem, they will confirm it as a bug. All submissions i've made have been taken seriously.
I think you're being very narrow-minded. A few centuries is a long time. Look how the world has changed. Yes it is physically possible to live without petroleum, but we wouldn't exactly make the switch smoothly. We are hugely dependant upon our own technological advances.
Just imagine that all the oil and gas in the world disappeared right now. How will you heat your house tonight? If that's not an issue, how will you eat tomorrow? You'll probably have enough food on hand for a couple days, and maybe if you get to the store quickly you can grab some more. But, that will soon run out, and then what? No new food will be getting to the stores, because it all comes on trucks, and they sure as hell won't be able to convert them all to peanut oil, and find enough peanut oil quickly enough (keeping in mind any petroleum powered machinery won't work) to supply our entire civilization.
Certain people, mainly farmers, would still have the skills and resources to feed themselves. I haven't the foggiest idea how to turn a cow or a pig into food. I'm sure that "scarcely a few centuries" ago, this was common knowledge. Even if I did know how, I live in a city, my 60x40' yard won't feed an animal, even if I could acquire one.
Sure, there are other possible sources of fuel, but to think we could convert to them, even within a couple years, is doubtful. Totally losing petroleum would result in most of our population dying off. There's no way we could support our current population with the technology and machinery we have now, and there's no way we could convert it to some other fuel fast enough. It would set us back 100 years, and completely change our entire world.
I think the biggest BSA nightmare here is the generation of kids that will be graduating into university and then into the job market who are actually aware of and know how to use software other than that of Microsoft. They'll have a better understanding of how computers work and they'll expect them to work properly. That will mean a whole generation of workers who are comfortable and productive with Linux systems and who will see the crap that Microsoft produces for what it is.
The formula doesn't take into account the cost of bad publicity however. That's why that formula isn't really used by car manufacturers.
You must be new to Slashdot.... hell, you must be new to this planet.
Amen.
I think there needs to be a citizen's veto system:"
Those are two contradicting ideas. Yes, television does tell us what to think, and I don't think anyone should ever underestimate the power and influence that the media has. You mention the ignorance of the American people and how its amazing that people are so dumb. Bingo. Which is EXACTLY why the average citizen should have no part in running the country.
Joe Shmuck who gets his news from the National Inquirer and Jerry Springer should not have any say in running the country. What a truly frightening notion. Even the intelligent among us shouldn't have that power. The reason simply is that we all have our own jobs to do and our own lives to run. We can't possibly have the knowledge to be able to make sound decisions about something like national defence. What the hell does the average person know about defending a nation from military attacks? Shit, what does the average citizen know about YOUR job, whatever it may be? Better yet, what does your manager even know about your job? Not only are people clueless but they're too clueless to know they're clueless and feel they have to have an opinion about everything. That's why there's a government that hires people to run the country. Specialists who know the subject matter at hand, and decision makers who know all the different sides to a decision, because its their job to investigate it. There's always more to a subject than what meets the eye, and the average person can't possibly have the knowledge required to make good decisions, so we get people who do to make the decisions.
Granted, its certainly not a flawless system. Politicians run their own agendas, they pull the wool over our eyes, and in some cases they're making decisions with no more knowledge than you or I have. But its still, IMHO, better than letting everyone and their dog try and have their say.
Worse yet would be such an easy system for launching a vote. Anything that's that easy (and this should be obvious to anyone who's used the internet and seen the human stupidity on it) would not produce well thought out decisions. They would be snap decisions based on whatever little knowledge the person has and however they tend to feel at that moment before hitting the submit button. At least now voicing your opinion requires writing to your congressman or whomever. This is somewhat difficult and time consuming, which means that only those who feel strongly will bother, and those who do will have some time to think the issue through. Otherwise, you'd have everyone voting on every issue, regardless of what they know about it, like it were a Slashdot poll, clicking through on whatever looks good without even thinking about it.
I think this is the only Jon Katz story I've ever read beyond the preview text.
Worse yet, I try and edit it with IE instead of Moz RC2, and IE hangs and hoses my system! On Win2k! WTF??
How much did these companies spend on these cases though? Is it even fair to say that Adobe and Macromedia even get a point each?
Hey now, that's a low blow. Its not fair to call heathen devil sodomites "Al Gore voters."
If backwards compatability and consumer familiarity were the only reasons why controls haven't changed, then why haven't they changed in racecars? Its because they work, that's why. They do what needs to be done and does it extremely well. At least, that is, for the main controls, like pedals and steering wheel. Secondary controls like headlights, wipers, etc. do change over time and between makes and models.
From some site on the internet about the Model T's controls:
"There are three pedals on the floor, two levers on the steering column, and one floor lever to the left of the driver. The floor lever is neutral while in the upright position, second gear when in the forward position while the leftmost pedal is not depressed, and emergency brake when all the way back.
The leftmost pedal is first gear while depressed, second gear if the floor lever is forward when released. The middle pedal is reverse gear and the rightmost pedal is the brake. The right lever on the steering column is the gas, and the other lever is the spark advance."
So in short, you're wrong.
Just because the controls are still mechanical doesn't mean they haven't been improved. Far from it. The reason why they're still mechanical is that first of all that mechanicals are reliable and a proven solution. This isn't software where crashes are acceptible, so there is, rightfully so, hesitation to move to something else. Secondly, mechanical controls transfer vibrations through them that allow the driver to feel what the car is doing. That is lost with by-wire controls. So really, there's no desire to move away from mechanical controls.
There has, however, been plenty of innovation where its warranted. Air bags and ABS are obvious safety innovations that are on almost all cars these days. How about efficiency improvements like CVTs and variable valve timing and lift setups seen in engines today? Or better yet, hybrids and electrics? What about Ferrari's new automatic clutch? There is plenty of innovation in cars these days.
The new BMW (unless its a new Mercedes... I actually can't remember now, but its unimportant anyway) has brake-by-wire brakes. When I read about that, I really had to wonder what the brake feel would be like and how drivers would really like it.
That's not justification, that's a descriptor of what they want. Justification would be something like "because it helps us to rule the world."
I live in Winnipeg and Shaw is my ISP, and although I haven't really needed it, their support has been helpful when I have. My cousin also works for Convergys, but in Edmonton, and he's said that basically they're trained to be script readers.
However, I'd bet at least 95% of customers and 95% of problems reported are the same old stupid things which only requires a script reader to fix. My cousin said he's got all of Windows' TCP dialogs etc. memorized because that's what every call deals with.
What they need is two-tier (or more) support where if its not a standard problem, they can forward you to someone who knows what they're talking about.
I've got an HP CD-RW. One day I was at my computer, leaning back in my chair, when I somehow opened the drive. I leaned forward to close it, and in doing so my chair came down on the tray and broke it. So I took it back to the computer store where I bought it, explained to them what happened, and they said they'd have to send it back to HP to get it fixed. Three weeks later it came back, repaired under warranty at no charge to me. I don't know if this was someone's screw up, or the store lying to HP or what, but I was happy.
I always thought that OpenBSD was a funny name for what thrives to be the most secure OS on the planet. Its all in how you look at it.
I work for a company with many high-mileage Ford full-size vans. The ones made around 95 have a digital odometer. This odometer, when it hits 400,000 clicks, resets to 300,000. We've got at least 2 vans that have done it twice.
Another interesting point, is that on one of them, the ignition was sticking a bit at one time. Now, most ignitions, when you crank them, kill all the electronics in the vehicle to get as much power to the starter as possible.
But this particular van, after you released the ignition once the engine fired, the ignition wouldn't come fully back to the "On" position from the "Start" position. The starter would seem to disengage, but the power to the rest of the electronics wouldn't come back unless you manually brought the switch back to the On position. This meant no headlights, turn signals, radios, and no guages. Nothing. Which meant that the odometer didn't rack up miles. Perfect if you plan on selling the thing.
I imagine though that it would probably be just as easy to disconnect the cable in a normal odometer if you wanted to deceive. I'm not positive though.
You can't be serious about being able to type at 140 wpm.
I know! Lets all run our air conditioners with the doors OPEN! That'll solve everything!
Excellent point... However, its snowing and -16 with the wind in Winnipeg right now. Argue with THAT!
Ohh, I did, I did! But I'm a Slashdot reader, I don't have the attention span for that. I was barely able to read your post. I was hoping for a basic sentence-or-two long summary, one that could fit in my brain.