Not only that, but even if the observation (that women write better documented code than men) is true, that would only be a correlation. The gender itself is not causation - if you want to learn something meaningful, find out why the gender is correlated (e.g. women at that company are given more reasonable deadlines, men feel less secure in their positions so they don't care about helping others untangle the 'spaghetti'). ... or, say, that the average female coder might actually be more skilled because only the very strongest survive, facing the kind of hysterical screamy-kicky responses from men that this article provokes on any suggestion that they may not be automatically superior at coding.
And thus dies my karma...
... typing this on my shiny 900 (delivered yesterday, UK), interesting to note that the 20GB linux-loaded version still has a large section in the manual on "how to install XP". I wonder if the 12GB version has a section on installing Xandros...
If it's really true that squatters will pick up a name that Network Solutions have dropped after front running, isn't this good news? Someone might for instance modify that firefox plugin that generates random googles queries (to obfuscate) and make it do random domain name queries at Network Solutions all day. Spread it around the net and soon Network Solutions would be front running millions of domains a day, and the squatters running in circles. Not that I'm suggesting it:)
Pretty off-topic and karmically dead, but agreed with AC that no-one, but no-one in the UK puts punctuation inside quotes in the forms you quote. I'm not sure where you got the information from that we do, but it's of some surprise to discover that Americans do. Very odd. I only found out a few years ago, always assuming previously that it was bad typography or something. We've always done it the "hacker way". (not "the hacker way."). The UK: We're New, We're Logical.
I keep seeing comments that Skype is "Luxembourg-based". Skype's legal headquarters are (were, pre-Ebay?) based in Luxembourg for tax reasons, but just about nothing else is as far as I understood it. Estonians wrote the code, and it's touted as a big success story in Estonia. The co-founders are a Swede and a Dane. Newsweek might see minimal legal headquarters as being the basis to call it its base, but from a Slashdot readership's perspective, you'd think you'd want to know where the developers are, and what they're doing now.
It's probably safest to say "EU-based". But I think Estonia at least needs a nod.
Quote from chinese bloggers by the BBC (in the context of the real problem being lack of free speech):
If I send an email to anyone with a Yahoo.cn account which has the words "democracy" or "civil society", it will bounce back.
So presumably, to be consistent with policy, Google will start enforcing blocking emails with politically objectionable content between Chinese citizens when the government asks? Will this be ok too, with those who say "partial information is better than none"?
Rosa Parks had something of a similar choice in December 1955: as a black woman, she was allowed to go "so far" by the authority of the day and actually ride on a city bus, but was required to give up her seat for a white man. Maybe several other black people made the same brave choice previously, and were ignored, or beaten up. Taking a stand won't always work. But if you're in the right, it may be your stand that starts a change.
She had similar choices:
Rosa refuses to abide by American law and is not allowed to ride buses at all.
Rosa abides by the law by giving up her seat, and is allowed to continue riding buses, albeit on a limited basis, in white America.
I'm not at all convinced by the argument that returning partial search results is better than returning none at all: calling this "partial freedom" (previous post) is misleading. If I look for information in Wikipedia about Iraq, and find no mention of the war in 5 years time because the US Government (not my country) deems it unhelpful, I'd rather no entry existed.
So it's a different god? Wow, do the two get on? Or is it like good-Kirk bad-Kirk in that Star Trek episode?
Someone should mention this to the countless priests and vicars who continue to preach from the old testament, declare Christ's coming as the fulfilment of Old Testament blood-strewn prophecy, and Gideon's, who continue along with every other publisher to include this testament from an alien god in your own bible.
Don't get me started on where the NT clashes and patently disagrees with itself. How many loaves and fishes was it? I've had christians tell me Jeez must have done the trick *twice*, as the bible is infallible, so if the count was wrong in two accounts, it must have been two conjuring tricks not one. And if it's *not* infallible, where exactly do we draw the line?
It's a good yarn, along with Jonah and burping whales.
Fair enough. The US get to keep the Internet because they "invented" it. Could you please get off the web now though? It was "invented", by most usual definitions (which are all pretty nonsensical, because the value of such things is in those who join them and encourage their growth organically) by someone British: maybe the UK will probably share "control over the web" with Switzerland because Tim invented it there. Please apply in writing to Her Majesty's Government for a website.
While we're at it, Africa's going to start to take back and control the production and usage of wheels from now on, because it was probably invented there.
If it doesn't come from the Bible, it is best to be circumspect of it.
... and if it does?
Deuteronomy 21:10-14:
"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house."
Or does the Old Testament condoning the rape of innocent victims of war not count? You're going to tell me it's a metaphor, or something, or Jesus overruled it? Odd that it's still in the pews.
I'd agree that it's hardly evident the bible's primary aim is universal human happiness. It's ok if you happen to be the side God picks.
... a bit like how I just made a mistake typing "satellite". *cough*. See how easily mistakes happen?:) Now if we see someone else type "satillite" too, and it catches on, there's the perfect example.
Yes, it was "satellite" in Medieval French too: the commenter didn't specify when the mistake was made. Maybe the mistake was to interpret a false singular nominative "satillite" from accusative "satellitem" as Latin turned into the Romance languages; or maybe someone on Rome did it. Etymology is always relevant! It tells you things like, for instance, the word "satelles" itself was actually first used to refer to the companion of a planet in exactly that form: by Kepler, in 1665, referring to the moons of Jupiter. I think it's particularly poetic for him to use the latin for "bodyguard": oh that astronomers were as inventive now.
English did not get the word "father" from Latin "pater" because it has undergone the germanic sound shift
I'm not sure the parent (father) post was directly implying it had, but oh, the ambiguity of English! I'm also not sure any had disentangled the cluster of probably cognate words everywhere that denote th concept of parenthood of any gender.
Greek: pater, Latin: pater, English: father, (Greek & Latin nursery words for daddy: tata), Gothic: atta, Hittite: attas, Old Irish: attir, Gaelic: athair, Welsh, Cornish: tad, Sanskrit: attas. Many sources thing they probably all descend from pre-articulate words from proud parents to their babbling babies in.. Indo-European or some common ancestral tongue. Same for "mother".
We often have two words for the same thing derived from Saxon and Norman. For instance: "Beef and cattle"
Other way round for those two I think: "bouef" in French. Interesting to note that English usually uses the French word for the food derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for the animal, e.g.
Um, don't compare apt-get to rpm. It's like saying you don't like "deb". Rpm's job isn't to resolve dependencies, merely to understand them: RedHat's up2date is there to resolve them, and does it well.
And if you don't like up2date, because you have to pay to get the best service, you can always use apt-rpm, which works excellently.
"Ask yourself this question: How intelligent does a rabbit need to be to be successful as a rabbit?... Apply this same question to machine A.I.: How intelligent does a machine need to be to be successful as a machine?"
I'm not sure this helps that much. How intelligent does a chair have to be to be successful as a chair? Well, it has to keep its legs on the ground, not much more. We can define this as "chair intelligence" if we want, but it doesn't tell us much about what we generally think of as "intelligence" in the real world.
I don't know if anyone's still reading this story, but
Radio 4 is confirming that the debate they tried to
rush through on this bill has been postponed "until
at least autumn". David Blunkett's comment on the
climbdown is refreshingly honest: "I believe that
when you're in a hole you should stop digging".
He said he wasn't going to force something through
with a majority that they hadn't "explained properly".
This doesn't mean it's off the table: he's saying it
will be redrafted, or something. Interestingly he says
he "has a son in the data business"(!) who said "Dad,
they don't understand what you're trying to do here".:)
He says he's extremely concerned about his own
privacy too. Hmmmmmmmm.
raduga> check out headlines on slashdot! raduga> some crazy hacker has apparently managed to run linux on an ipaq!!!! dc_> OMFG dc_> who?? dc_> I want one! raduga> i dunno raduga> but slashdot seems to think its amazing raduga> not only linux but an http server!! raduga> and wifi! dc_> hahaha dc_> omg. dc_> somone's actualy installed linux on an... dc_> iPAQ!! raduga> WEIRD * honeypea goes to read:) dc_> really honeypea> theyre really on the ball, arent they raduga> slashdot is news for nerds! raduga> er. you *are* a nerd, aren't you? honeypea> stuff that used to matter!
dunno. my ipaq happily uses bluetooth at the same time as 802.11b. or at least i've never noticed it cough and splutter. i'dve thought the bigger objection to sharing serious content via bluetooth is bandwidth?
Slashdot Mirror
... typing this on my shiny 900 (delivered yesterday, UK), interesting to note that the 20GB linux-loaded version still has a large section in the manual on "how to install XP". I wonder if the 12GB version has a section on installing Xandros...
If it's really true that squatters will pick up a name that Network Solutions have dropped after front running, isn't this good news? Someone might for instance modify that firefox plugin that generates random googles queries (to obfuscate) and make it do random domain name queries at Network Solutions all day. Spread it around the net and soon Network Solutions would be front running millions of domains a day, and the squatters running in circles. Not that I'm suggesting it :)
Pretty off-topic and karmically dead, but agreed with AC that no-one, but no-one in the UK puts punctuation inside quotes in the forms you quote. I'm not sure where you got the information from that we do, but it's of some surprise to discover that Americans do. Very odd. I only found out a few years ago, always assuming previously that it was bad typography or something. We've always done it the "hacker way". (not "the hacker way."). The UK: We're New, We're Logical.
I keep seeing comments that Skype is "Luxembourg-based". Skype's legal headquarters are (were, pre-Ebay?) based in Luxembourg for tax reasons, but just about nothing else is as far as I understood it. Estonians wrote the code, and it's touted as a big success story in Estonia. The co-founders are a Swede and a Dane. Newsweek might see minimal legal headquarters as being the basis to call it its base, but from a Slashdot readership's perspective, you'd think you'd want to know where the developers are, and what they're doing now.
It's probably safest to say "EU-based". But I think Estonia at least needs a nod.
Quote from chinese bloggers by the BBC (in the context of the real problem being lack of free speech):
So presumably, to be consistent with policy, Google will start enforcing blocking emails with politically objectionable content between Chinese citizens when the government asks? Will this be ok too, with those who say "partial information is better than none"?
Rosa Parks had something of a similar choice in December 1955: as a black woman, she was allowed to go "so far" by the authority of the day and actually ride on a city bus, but was required to give up her seat for a white man. Maybe several other black people made the same brave choice previously, and were ignored, or beaten up. Taking a stand won't always work. But if you're in the right, it may be your stand that starts a change.
She had similar choices:
I'm not at all convinced by the argument that returning partial search results is better than returning none at all: calling this "partial freedom" (previous post) is misleading. If I look for information in Wikipedia about Iraq, and find no mention of the war in 5 years time because the US Government (not my country) deems it unhelpful, I'd rather no entry existed.
So it's a different god? Wow, do the two get on? Or is it like good-Kirk bad-Kirk in that Star Trek episode?
Someone should mention this to the countless priests and vicars who continue to preach from the old testament, declare Christ's coming as the fulfilment of Old Testament blood-strewn prophecy, and Gideon's, who continue along with every other publisher to include this testament from an alien god in your own bible.
Don't get me started on where the NT clashes and patently disagrees with itself. How many loaves and fishes was it? I've had christians tell me Jeez must have done the trick *twice*, as the bible is infallible, so if the count was wrong in two accounts, it must have been two conjuring tricks not one. And if it's *not* infallible, where exactly do we draw the line?
It's a good yarn, along with Jonah and burping whales.
Fair enough. The US get to keep the Internet because they "invented" it. Could you please get off the web now though? It was "invented", by most usual definitions (which are all pretty nonsensical, because the value of such things is in those who join them and encourage their growth organically) by someone British: maybe the UK will probably share "control over the web" with Switzerland because Tim invented it there. Please apply in writing to Her Majesty's Government for a website. While we're at it, Africa's going to start to take back and control the production and usage of wheels from now on, because it was probably invented there.
If it doesn't come from the Bible, it is best to be circumspect of it.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14:
"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house."
Or does the Old Testament condoning the rape of innocent victims of war not count? You're going to tell me it's a metaphor, or something, or Jesus overruled it? Odd that it's still in the pews.
I'd agree that it's hardly evident the bible's primary aim is universal human happiness. It's ok if you happen to be the side God picks.
... a bit like how I just made a mistake typing "satellite". *cough*. See how easily mistakes happen? :) Now if we see someone else type "satillite" too, and it catches on, there's the perfect example.
Yes, it was "satellite" in Medieval French too: the commenter didn't specify when the mistake was made. Maybe the mistake was to interpret a false singular nominative "satillite" from accusative "satellitem" as Latin turned into the Romance languages; or maybe someone on Rome did it. Etymology is always relevant! It tells you things like, for instance, the word "satelles" itself was actually first used to refer to the companion of a planet in exactly that form: by Kepler, in 1665, referring to the moons of Jupiter. I think it's particularly poetic for him to use the latin for "bodyguard": oh that astronomers were as inventive now.
English did not get the word "father" from Latin "pater" because it has undergone the germanic sound shift
I'm not sure the parent (father) post was directly implying it had, but oh, the ambiguity of English! I'm also not sure any had disentangled the cluster of probably cognate words everywhere that denote th concept of parenthood of any gender.
Greek: pater, Latin: pater, English: father, (Greek & Latin nursery words for daddy: tata), Gothic: atta, Hittite: attas, Old Irish: attir, Gaelic: athair, Welsh, Cornish: tad, Sanskrit: attas. Many sources thing they probably all descend from pre-articulate words from proud parents to their babbling babies in.. Indo-European or some common ancestral tongue. Same for "mother".
We often have two words for the same thing derived from Saxon and Norman. For instance: "Beef and cattle"
Other way round for those two I think: "bouef" in French. Interesting to note that English usually uses the French word for the food derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for the animal, e.g.
English: calf French: veal
English: pig French: pork
English: lamb French: mutton
I've always thought this speaks wonders for why English people eat rubbish compared to the French, and feed their pets much better.
Um, don't compare apt-get to rpm. It's like saying you don't like "deb". Rpm's job isn't to resolve dependencies, merely to understand them: RedHat's up2date is there to resolve them, and does it well. And if you don't like up2date, because you have to pay to get the best service, you can always use apt-rpm, which works excellently.
"Ask yourself this question: How intelligent does a rabbit need to be to be successful as a rabbit? ... Apply this same question to machine A.I.: How intelligent does a machine need to be to be successful as a machine?"
I'm not sure this helps that much. How intelligent does a chair have to be to be successful as a chair? Well, it has to keep its legs on the ground, not much more. We can define this as "chair intelligence" if we want, but it doesn't tell us much about what we generally think of as "intelligence" in the real world.
This doesn't mean it's off the table: he's saying it will be redrafted, or something. Interestingly he says he "has a son in the data business"(!) who said "Dad, they don't understand what you're trying to do here". :)
He says he's extremely concerned about his own
privacy too. Hmmmmmmmm.
Well done Stand.
raduga> check out headlines on slashdot! :)
raduga> some crazy hacker has apparently managed to run linux on an ipaq!!!!
dc_> OMFG
dc_> who??
dc_> I want one!
raduga> i dunno
raduga> but slashdot seems to think its amazing
raduga> not only linux but an http server!!
raduga> and wifi!
dc_> hahaha
dc_> omg.
dc_> somone's actualy installed linux on an...
dc_> iPAQ!!
raduga> WEIRD
* honeypea goes to read
dc_> really
honeypea> theyre really on the ball, arent they
raduga> slashdot is news for nerds!
raduga> er. you *are* a nerd, aren't you?
honeypea> stuff that used to matter!
dunno. my ipaq happily uses bluetooth at the same time as 802.11b. or at least i've never noticed it cough and splutter. i'dve thought the bigger objection to sharing serious content via bluetooth is bandwidth?