I agree absolutely. As Lord Byron II (above) said, let the editors edit! And when editing is not enough, rewrite the submission completely. Why constrain yourselves to posting what the slashdot crowd submits? I mean, yes, you have this great group of geeks doing research for you and submitting ideas of what they think would be good for the front page or whatever other sub-area of slashdot or whatever. But you don't need to simply post it verbatim or even with slight edits.
My suggestion is that you get those "couple of dozen postable stories" (out of the 50-100 unique stories you said you receive daily), do enough research on them to find the underlying facts and articles, read the article(s) YOURSELF, and then write up a brief synopsis or introduction linking to the relevant pages and post THAT to the front page. This whole process may take half an hour for an article, meaning maybe 12 hours of work per day would be put into the process by the conglomerate editing group.
That, in my opinion, is what the editor of a site should do. Personally see to it that good stories are posted well. If this isn't something that the current editors seem interested in particularly qualified (I don't know your backgrounds, so don't take offense at that), hire two people with the necessary experience and skills to do it. At the least, it would free up your time for other pursuits. It could also greatly raise the level of quality of story postings, and make the whole site more enjoyable. A front-page post should be thought-provoking, informative, well-written... in short, it should be good journalism. Expecting only mild editing of mob-submitted work to result in good journalism is, in the vast majority of cases, ludicrous.
I'm 27 now, and I'm well on my way to being able to quit my job and do something I REALLY like. I mean, my work can be fun and challenging, but really I want time to spend with my wife and kid (and more kids later). I do enjoy coding, but, as a previous comment said, I don't want to just be coding what somebody assigned to me. I want to build and program robots. I want to enjoy my toddler's growing-up years. I refuse to be cubicle-bound for the rest of the best years of my life. As Thoreau put it, "Why work like A dog so you can pant for A moment or two before you die?"*
* - Okay, it was actually attributed to Thoreau by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee, authors of "The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail," but I'm sure Thoreau would have said it if he'd thought of it.
While we're at it, we should refer to all distances in base pi. That would make things a LOT simpler. For example, the area of the unit circle would be 10, and its circumferene would be 20. So many things could be simplified this way. I think I'll suggest this idea to the author, and maybe I can share in his Nobel Prize!
The "My" stuff that has pervaded all of computing is absolutely the most idiotic, imbecilic, moronic, dippy meme ever to have been conceived by humanity, and the sludge-brained cretin who started its unholy propagation ought to be shot, crushed, boiled in his own fat, and rendered down for soap.
For example, if Deep Impact actually collides (including any measurable gravity-only interactions) with the comet, then we'll know that the comet and our planet have something in common - they're material objects. Therefore, this experiment CAN answer something once and for all.
On the other hand, if there is no collision, and the spacecraft passes right through the comet ghost-like, then we'll know that the comet has less in common with Earth than we might otherwise expect.
As for complexity, any metaphysics philosopher or string theorist (is there a difference? [ducks]) could tell you that the nature of matter (or this new strange substance, in case there's no collision) is anything but simple.
My mother prefers the term "word purist," which she lobs at anyone willing to stay put and listen to her. She uses that term to refer to any of her exceptionally literate progeny.
I am almost disappointed to see this story listed as "funny." It's actually tragic, in my opinion.
Granted, I am a word purist. I hate to see people slaughter the written language. That is, I don't mind it at all when it's intentional. But when so many people are incapable of writing a coherent email in a serious situation, there's a problem. I like the part in the article where he says that multiple exclamation points, smileys, etc. are fine in personal emails, but too many people just drool into their outbox.
Almost nothing I come across bugs me more than the pseudo word 'ur.' (Yes, Ur is a place. 'ur' is not a proper contraction for 'your' or 'you're.')
While not much horsepower is generated,
That's good, because horses would die in the cold, airless void. Plus there's nothing for their feet to push against, so it would be pointless anyway.
Besides, a quarter-million miles is a long way to make those poor suckers walk.
Slashdot Mirror
My suggestion is that you get those "couple of dozen postable stories" (out of the 50-100 unique stories you said you receive daily), do enough research on them to find the underlying facts and articles, read the article(s) YOURSELF, and then write up a brief synopsis or introduction linking to the relevant pages and post THAT to the front page. This whole process may take half an hour for an article, meaning maybe 12 hours of work per day would be put into the process by the conglomerate editing group.
That, in my opinion, is what the editor of a site should do. Personally see to it that good stories are posted well. If this isn't something that the current editors seem interested in particularly qualified (I don't know your backgrounds, so don't take offense at that), hire two people with the necessary experience and skills to do it. At the least, it would free up your time for other pursuits. It could also greatly raise the level of quality of story postings, and make the whole site more enjoyable. A front-page post should be thought-provoking, informative, well-written ... in short, it should be good journalism. Expecting only mild editing of mob-submitted work to result in good journalism is, in the vast majority of cases, ludicrous.
* - Okay, it was actually attributed to Thoreau by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E Lee, authors of "The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail," but I'm sure Thoreau would have said it if he'd thought of it.
News for nerds...
While we're at it, we should refer to all distances in base pi. That would make things a LOT simpler. For example, the area of the unit circle would be 10, and its circumferene would be 20. So many things could be simplified this way. I think I'll suggest this idea to the author, and maybe I can share in his Nobel Prize!
"That's a load of malarkey! The earth isn't just floating out there somewhere; it sits on the back of a giant elephant."
The scientist looks at the man and asks "So what is the elephant standing on?"
"A huge tortoise."
"And what is the tortoise standing on?"
"An even BIGGER tortoise."
"And what is THAT tortoise standing on?"
The old man thinks for a moment, then smiles wryly at the scientist. "You're very clever young man, very clever. But it's tortoises all the way down!"
The "My" stuff that has pervaded all of computing is absolutely the most idiotic, imbecilic, moronic, dippy meme ever to have been conceived by humanity, and the sludge-brained cretin who started its unholy propagation ought to be shot, crushed, boiled in his own fat, and rendered down for soap.
Grrrr!
Bring him back? Where has he been?
Wow! One physical object transferred over the internet to zillions of recipients! You could call this Wonkarouting!
A difficult-to-copy but easy-to-acquire signature for those purchase forms?
I mean geez - Mononucleosis as a job requirement? No thanks.
That's a beautiful term. I'm going to start using it. (I am aware you may not have invented it, but thanks for using it.)
In theory, yes. But unless you can find a perfectly circular CD, then even your ideally accurate measurements will be off by a large factor.
Wow, it's FUTURE NEWS!
Yeah, real cold here. But at least it's warmer than out there in the vacuum.
Because of course, while it's cold on the surface by our standards, it's a lot warmer than where the probe has been for the last few years.
Though strictly speaking, any interaction between two massive bodies (even if only a gravitational interaction) can be described as a collision.
For example, if Deep Impact actually collides (including any measurable gravity-only interactions) with the comet, then we'll know that the comet and our planet have something in common - they're material objects. Therefore, this experiment CAN answer something once and for all.
On the other hand, if there is no collision, and the spacecraft passes right through the comet ghost-like, then we'll know that the comet has less in common with Earth than we might otherwise expect.
As for complexity, any metaphysics philosopher or string theorist (is there a difference? [ducks]) could tell you that the nature of matter (or this new strange substance, in case there's no collision) is anything but simple.
(At least, it will as soon as google spiders this post. ;) )
oh.
Ugh. I hate that. Ironically, it's the editor-in-chief of our monthly newsletter/magazine that sends those to me.
My mother prefers the term "word purist," which she lobs at anyone willing to stay put and listen to her. She uses that term to refer to any of her exceptionally literate progeny.
A barber, on the other hand, could reasonably be expected to have somebody other than himself cut his hair.
Granted, I am a word purist. I hate to see people slaughter the written language. That is, I don't mind it at all when it's intentional. But when so many people are incapable of writing a coherent email in a serious situation, there's a problem. I like the part in the article where he says that multiple exclamation points, smileys, etc. are fine in personal emails, but too many people just drool into their outbox.
Almost nothing I come across bugs me more than the pseudo word 'ur.' (Yes, Ur is a place. 'ur' is not a proper contraction for 'your' or 'you're.')
For a minute I was thinking "Oh, so they've got eBooks on the iPod now, have they?"
But just imagine what a beowulf cluster of AOL CDs could do!
Besides, a quarter-million miles is a long way to make those poor suckers walk.