> Despite this stupid move, KPMG is
actually very reputable and is great company to work for.
Reputable, yes. But if you have to sing that song, I'm not so sure about it being great to work for.
Hell, if you even have to hear it, I'm not sure I'd want to work there.
My theory is that perhaps it's some sort of filter - new hires who hear it and say "wow, that's so inspirational!" are put on the managerial track, and new hires who run shrieking from the room, or who skewer their ears with pencils, are put on a technical track?
> Here's the problem (from the source code): >
(c) 2000, Razorfish, Inc. all rights reserved.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a consluting company (aren't we, in the KPMG world, supposed to hire conslutants when the task is beyond our ability to perform?) has to outsource its own web development?
If my boss gave me the choice between singing that song and sodomizing myself with a baseball bat dipped in a paste of ground glass and 5-minute epoxy, I'd ask him for a map to the nearest Home Depot.
> Anyone else remember when one could adjust the carburetor, adjust the spark gap, bolt on a different carb, or
connect more speakers to the radio?
Anyone remember when all the chips in your computer were 0.300" DIPs, no surface mount, easy to glom probes onto and desolder and replace? All standard TTL, no ASICs to speak of?
Anyone remember when it took 100 chips to make a motherboard?
As much as I miss old-sk00l hardware-hacking, the fact is that you couldn't build an Athlon system with a GF3 Ti500 without ASICs and other "hard-to-hack" parts.
Likewise, you can't have new-sk00l things like onboard GPS, in-dash map views, collision-avoidance, heads-up displays, and EFI on your car without some "hard-to-hack" parts.
Cars may not be as much fun as they used to be, but on the whole, they're quieter, more efficient, and more usable. You win some, you lose some.
> Why can't the car tell you why the check engine light is on? Because the dealers want
you to come down to the shop and pay them $40 just to do a diagnosis.
Maddest props to Chrysler for making their diagnostic codes end-user accessible.
Saved me a bundle being able to walk into a good mechanic's shop and saying "Diagnostic code XX, friggin' oxygen sensor."
> Since Ashcroft refuses to match gun purchase records with arrested terrorist suspects
[nytimes.com] - claiming that would infringe on gun rights - but wants to closely monitor the Net - it's clear
which he and his friends are more scared of.
1) The terrorists we're looking for probably aren't worried about acquiring their guns illegally.
2) The terrorists we're looking for probably are using the publicly-available communications infrastructure, even if they're not using crypto. We also know they're using it for money-laundering, even if they're not using it to discuss their operational plans.
Ergo, if you want to find the terrorists, monitor the communications infrastructure, not gun purchase records.
> Thinking that a computer is scarier than a gun is about as rational
as prefering a musket to a crossbow. Isn't it?
Who was the mobster who said that he'd teach his son computers rather than bank-robbing, because you can steal a lot more money with a computer than you can with a gun?
I'd say Ashcroft's on the right track. We use guns on the battlefield today, not crossbows, no?
> Communism has nothing to do with the way a government deals with it's citizen's rights
*blink* What part of "dictatorship of the proletariat" did you fail to understand?
I'll grant you that in Communist theory, that's only an intermediate stage that's intended to pass away after the dissenters have been, to put it gently, "re-educated".
But in every historical case, this stage has been effectively permanent, and documented as deadly, not just to the economy, but to the citizens (whether dissenters or not) forced to live under it.
> Face it; most people lack the ability to evaluate the value of information on the Internet.
s/on the Internet//g.
Apart from that, you hit the nail on the head -- non-netizens have spent their entire lives learning not to think about the information with which they're presented.
Netizens, exposed daily to the most fascinating truths, the wildest conspiracy theories, and the most mind-bogglingly-high piles of utter bullshit, have, by virtue of our existence, been forced to learn how to think critically about every piece of information we're offered.
When I see pictures of kids rejoicing at their liberation in Afghanistan, I'm skeptical. I've seen enough reports of Westerners being torn limb from limb by angry mobs that I think maybe the folks on camera are only rejoicing because the camera crew tossed them some food, and that there are a bunch of people who, while glad the Taliban are gone, will be even happier when we leave, too.
When I see the someone whining about the unjustness of collateral damage and how the war must be stopped now, I'm equally skeptical. Because I've known enough soldiers to know that (1) we don't target civilians, and (2) collateral damage and friendly fire casualties are a fact of war. Doesn't matter how high-tech your weapons, sometimes things malfunction, and sometimes the humans who fire them, make mistakes. In combat, shit, as they say, happens. (And besides, during the first days of the war, the only pictures we could get were the ones our enemies wanted us to take. Of course, we're only gonna see the mistakes! Duh!)
Ask Joe Sixpack -- "Of course everyone in Afghanistan loves us! I saw the pictures on CNN! But why are we only bombing Red Cross centers?" -- and you can only despair.
> As I said (earlier in the thread), idiots are a product of perception, they certainly don't consider themselves idiots, too. But this doesn't change my opinion.
So true.
Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People (synopsis here) should be required reading for all.
Sums up the cloning debate, the stem cell debate, and damn near any other "technology vs. popular ignorance" debate to a "T".
Come to think of it, I take back what I said about it being required reading. Our politicians have clearly read and understood this play and its message. And that's what frightens me for the future. Technology-minded geeks should read it, and beware. No politician should be allowed within a hundred miles of this text.
> Besides, this isn't a personnel carried device- it's a Humvee/Bradley mounted device. One's an
eximer the other something solid-state. Both are going to be too large for people to carry.
How many of you, when reading this, started drooling and pounding on the table, screaming "I want one! On my car! I've been good, Santa! I WANT! I'll never get stuck in traffic again, and if I do, at least it'll be fun!"
A Humvee (or better yet, a giant winged robot that can fly on Mars!) with a battlefield laser! Fuck this traffic jam, d00dz! Check out my ride!I rule!
> I'd add alcohol to the list - consumed in great quantites at my LAN parties, and very addictive. Oh, and
cigarettes. Oh, and X. And various other substances.
You Know You've Been Gaming Too Long When:
You think "What, DirectX, or the X Window System?"
> Am I the only one who thinks that there is a serious problem with the researchers getting a patent on this after being funded by NASA and the Georgia Insitute of
Technology?
Given the speed with which NASA moves on adopting and deploying new technology (somewhere between "glacial" and "sloth on valium"), the patents will have expired by the time the devices are ever used, so develop away to your heart's content.
> I saw one suggestion in the posts that was cool, 4-player party video games.
A Marble Madness, Joust, or Gauntlet machine rented from an old-school "classic game" operator will run you a few hundred bucks for an evening (Sounds expensive, but consider the weight of the thing and that the operator has to travel to your place to plug it in. Time and hassle is money.) and be a great way to either bring out the introverted geeks amongst each other.
Even if there's only one introvert, it'll give him something to do while waiting for the party to end;-)
> As a self professed introvert, I have to say that [the animal / sticky label on your back game] is the worst idea ever.
What he said.
I loathe making small talk. I suspect I'd amuse myself at an animal-game party by saying "Senator?", "Marketing Guy?", "Spammer?", "The goat in goatse.cx?" or other some such quasi-geek humor until the annoying person talking to me went away.
I agree with the ones who say that if you wanna get the introverted techies talking, you gotta talk their language.
Read Slashdot for three days before the party. Pick the top five stories by number of comments. Ask the geeks about the subject matter. (Even if they don't read/., they're probably interested.)
As a non-sportswatching-geek, I'd much rather talk shop than talk about the latest reality TV series or sporting event. (My lust for tribalism is satisfied by watching matchups like Microsoft vs. Linux, or RIAA/MPAA vs. Everyone. YMMV.)
Of course, if you do this, don't expect to understand the conversation that follows. Don't try and bluff -- we'll spot that from a mile away. Just find two people interested in these things and get them in a conversation with each other, and then quietly go away. The rest of the geeks will gravitate towards that cluster and geek out amongst ourselves, leaving you alone to go do whatever sorts of things it is that extroverts like to do.
As long as we're guessing, how about the INS? Lord knows those fucksticks could certainly use the help.
And it'd be consistent with Ellison "[declining] to give further details, such as which agency or for what usage".
At the INS, I'd bet the usage would be "Put it in the mailroom for six months. Have an agent take it from the mailroom and put it on the shelf sometime in spring of 2002. Have another agent wipe the dust off the box in 2004. Take the box off the shelf and try to install it on a 4.77 MHz PC/XT in 2007. (Side project: Install a CD-ROM for the PC/XT. Should be done by 2011.) When the installation program reports "not enough RAM" sometime in 2018, write a glowing report to Congress about the wonders of the ongoing INS modernization programme, and how, Real Soon Now, INS will finally be able to stop Bad Guys and illegal aliens from getting into (and staying in) our country, if it weren't for all those goddamn legal aliens we're still spending all our time trying to get rid of through interminably long delays in their paperwork."
Slashdotters can moderate this as (+1, Funny). INS employees will probably moderate it as (+1, Informative).
> Ein folk, Ein reich, Ein RDBMS?
> >
What? The form you must fill as you enter the US asking if you're a terrorist, nazi or have participated in any
genocides recently isn't enough?
Nope. It'll have a new line: "Are you now, or have you at any time in the past, administered a Sybase server?"
> We should send up a few M$ employees to store in the airlock.
I think you misspelled "outside of". Though it could be fun to have 'em inside and just pressurize and depressurize the airlock a few times a day. Costs a lot of money to lift a pound of M$ employee to orbit, probably shouldn't waste it all in one go.
> But Sorenson 3 is a damn tough codec to beat on quality.
Speaking of which, does anyone know how I can get the Sorenson codec for Winblows without having to play a.MOV and let WinMediaPlayer "update itself"? It should be as simple as shoving a few DLLs in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM, no?
Gotta update a buncha '98 boxen that aren't net.connected. I have no interest in a separate Quicktime player, just want the damn codec for WinMediaPlayer.
> Sure, perhaps we would suddenly see thousands more videos a la Rodney King
Yeah, right.
"Holy shit! Citizen CX29BR7 just saw Homeland Defence Squad HDS4787 gunning down dissident JF78Z4 and reported it as a terrorist act. Homeland Response Squyad HRS5651 has been dispatched to terminate CX29BR7."
Slashdot Mirror
> These are the words that will lead us into our new world
That's because anyone who's heard the theme song realizes that anything to do with KPMG belongs in "It's Funny. Laugh."
Reputable, yes. But if you have to sing that song, I'm not so sure about it being great to work for.
Hell, if you even have to hear it, I'm not sure I'd want to work there.
My theory is that perhaps it's some sort of filter - new hires who hear it and say "wow, that's so inspirational!" are put on the managerial track, and new hires who run shrieking from the room, or who skewer their ears with pencils, are put on a technical track?
>We're strong as can be
> Something, Something
> And our visions of global strategy
"With glass epox-yyyyy"? ;-)
> (c) 2000, Razorfish, Inc. all rights reserved.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a consluting company (aren't we, in the KPMG world, supposed to hire conslutants when the task is beyond our ability to perform?) has to outsource its own web development?
Can you say "middleman"?
If my boss gave me the choice between singing that song and sodomizing myself with a baseball bat dipped in a paste of ground glass and 5-minute epoxy, I'd ask him for a map to the nearest Home Depot.
Anyone remember when all the chips in your computer were 0.300" DIPs, no surface mount, easy to glom probes onto and desolder and replace? All standard TTL, no ASICs to speak of?
Anyone remember when it took 100 chips to make a motherboard?
As much as I miss old-sk00l hardware-hacking, the fact is that you couldn't build an Athlon system with a GF3 Ti500 without ASICs and other "hard-to-hack" parts.
Likewise, you can't have new-sk00l things like onboard GPS, in-dash map views, collision-avoidance, heads-up displays, and EFI on your car without some "hard-to-hack" parts.
Cars may not be as much fun as they used to be, but on the whole, they're quieter, more efficient, and more usable. You win some, you lose some.
Maddest props to Chrysler for making their diagnostic codes end-user accessible.
Saved me a bundle being able to walk into a good mechanic's shop and saying "Diagnostic code XX, friggin' oxygen sensor."
1) The terrorists we're looking for probably aren't worried about acquiring their guns illegally.
2) The terrorists we're looking for probably are using the publicly-available communications infrastructure, even if they're not using crypto. We also know they're using it for money-laundering, even if they're not using it to discuss their operational plans.
Ergo, if you want to find the terrorists, monitor the communications infrastructure, not gun purchase records. > Thinking that a computer is scarier than a gun is about as rational as prefering a musket to a crossbow. Isn't it?
Who was the mobster who said that he'd teach his son computers rather than bank-robbing, because you can steal a lot more money with a computer than you can with a gun?
I'd say Ashcroft's on the right track. We use guns on the battlefield today, not crossbows, no?
*blink* What part of "dictatorship of the proletariat" did you fail to understand?
I'll grant you that in Communist theory, that's only an intermediate stage that's intended to pass away after the dissenters have been, to put it gently, "re-educated".
But in every historical case, this stage has been effectively permanent, and documented as deadly, not just to the economy, but to the citizens (whether dissenters or not) forced to live under it.
Nothing personal, but I'll pass.
s/on the Internet//g.
Apart from that, you hit the nail on the head -- non-netizens have spent their entire lives learning not to think about the information with which they're presented.
Netizens, exposed daily to the most fascinating truths, the wildest conspiracy theories, and the most mind-bogglingly-high piles of utter bullshit, have, by virtue of our existence, been forced to learn how to think critically about every piece of information we're offered.
When I see pictures of kids rejoicing at their liberation in Afghanistan, I'm skeptical. I've seen enough reports of Westerners being torn limb from limb by angry mobs that I think maybe the folks on camera are only rejoicing because the camera crew tossed them some food, and that there are a bunch of people who, while glad the Taliban are gone, will be even happier when we leave, too.
When I see the someone whining about the unjustness of collateral damage and how the war must be stopped now, I'm equally skeptical. Because I've known enough soldiers to know that (1) we don't target civilians, and (2) collateral damage and friendly fire casualties are a fact of war. Doesn't matter how high-tech your weapons, sometimes things malfunction, and sometimes the humans who fire them, make mistakes. In combat, shit, as they say, happens. (And besides, during the first days of the war, the only pictures we could get were the ones our enemies wanted us to take. Of course, we're only gonna see the mistakes! Duh!)
Ask Joe Sixpack -- "Of course everyone in Afghanistan loves us! I saw the pictures on CNN! But why are we only bombing Red Cross centers?" -- and you can only despair.
So true.
Henrik Ibsen's Enemy of the People (synopsis here) should be required reading for all.
Sums up the cloning debate, the stem cell debate, and damn near any other "technology vs. popular ignorance" debate to a "T".
Come to think of it, I take back what I said about it being required reading. Our politicians have clearly read and understood this play and its message. And that's what frightens me for the future. Technology-minded geeks should read it, and beware. No politician should be allowed within a hundred miles of this text.
True. And Katz does it once or twice in every piece he writes.
Why the fsck he can't get a spell checker, or at least s/l99/199/g before he publishes, I'll never know.
If you're one of the guys sitting under the incoming artillery shell, it's simultaneously "cheap" and "priceless".
How many of you, when reading this, started drooling and pounding on the table, screaming "I want one! On my car! I've been good, Santa! I WANT! I'll never get stuck in traffic again, and if I do, at least it'll be fun!"
A Humvee (or better yet, a giant winged robot that can fly on Mars!) with a battlefield laser! Fuck this traffic jam, d00dz! Check out my ride! I rule!
You Know You've Been Gaming Too Long When:
You think "What, DirectX, or the X Window System?"
Pull myself away from reading Slashdot? I can quit anytime!
> Broke or deeply in debt, because all one's capital goes into support of the activity. Thank God CmdrTaco doesn't charge for this
> Deceptive, distorting truth or outright lying to cover signs others observe and ask questions about.
No, honest, boss, I read it for the articles about new technology!
> Denial, all of the above are evident, but failing to accept that it's a problem.
And besides, who are you to get on my back about it. My User# is lower than yours, and I bet I have more Karma, too! Damn Karma cap!
Given the speed with which NASA moves on adopting and deploying new technology (somewhere between "glacial" and "sloth on valium"), the patents will have expired by the time the devices are ever used, so develop away to your heart's content.
A Marble Madness, Joust, or Gauntlet machine rented from an old-school "classic game" operator will run you a few hundred bucks for an evening (Sounds expensive, but consider the weight of the thing and that the operator has to travel to your place to plug it in. Time and hassle is money.) and be a great way to either bring out the introverted geeks amongst each other.
Even if there's only one introvert, it'll give him something to do while waiting for the party to end ;-)
What he said.
I loathe making small talk. I suspect I'd amuse myself at an animal-game party by saying "Senator?", "Marketing Guy?", "Spammer?", "The goat in goatse.cx?" or other some such quasi-geek humor until the annoying person talking to me went away.
I agree with the ones who say that if you wanna get the introverted techies talking, you gotta talk their language.
Read Slashdot for three days before the party. Pick the top five stories by number of comments. Ask the geeks about the subject matter. (Even if they don't read /., they're probably interested.)
As a non-sportswatching-geek, I'd much rather talk shop than talk about the latest reality TV series or sporting event. (My lust for tribalism is satisfied by watching matchups like Microsoft vs. Linux, or RIAA/MPAA vs. Everyone. YMMV.)
Of course, if you do this, don't expect to understand the conversation that follows. Don't try and bluff -- we'll spot that from a mile away. Just find two people interested in these things and get them in a conversation with each other, and then quietly go away. The rest of the geeks will gravitate towards that cluster and geek out amongst ourselves, leaving you alone to go do whatever sorts of things it is that extroverts like to do.
As long as we're guessing, how about the INS? Lord knows those fucksticks could certainly use the help.
And it'd be consistent with Ellison "[declining] to give further details, such as which agency or for what usage".
At the INS, I'd bet the usage would be "Put it in the mailroom for six months. Have an agent take it from the mailroom and put it on the shelf sometime in spring of 2002. Have another agent wipe the dust off the box in 2004. Take the box off the shelf and try to install it on a 4.77 MHz PC/XT in 2007. (Side project: Install a CD-ROM for the PC/XT. Should be done by 2011.) When the installation program reports "not enough RAM" sometime in 2018, write a glowing report to Congress about the wonders of the ongoing INS modernization programme, and how, Real Soon Now, INS will finally be able to stop Bad Guys and illegal aliens from getting into (and staying in) our country, if it weren't for all those goddamn legal aliens we're still spending all our time trying to get rid of through interminably long delays in their paperwork."
Slashdotters can moderate this as (+1, Funny). INS employees will probably moderate it as (+1, Informative).
>
> What? The form you must fill as you enter the US asking if you're a terrorist, nazi or have participated in any genocides recently isn't enough?
Nope. It'll have a new line: "Are you now, or have you at any time in the past, administered a Sybase server?"
I think you misspelled "outside of". Though it could be fun to have 'em inside and just pressurize and depressurize the airlock a few times a day. Costs a lot of money to lift a pound of M$ employee to orbit, probably shouldn't waste it all in one go.
Speaking of which, does anyone know how I can get the Sorenson codec for Winblows without having to play a .MOV and let WinMediaPlayer "update itself"? It should be as simple as shoving a few DLLs in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM, no?
Gotta update a buncha '98 boxen that aren't net.connected. I have no interest in a separate Quicktime player, just want the damn codec for WinMediaPlayer.
Yeah, right.
"Holy shit! Citizen CX29BR7 just saw Homeland Defence Squad HDS4787 gunning down dissident JF78Z4 and reported it as a terrorist act. Homeland Response Squyad HRS5651 has been dispatched to terminate CX29BR7."