You said, "How did we ever get to the point that a vocal
minority of males in Open Source communities behave in the
most boorish, misogynistic, objectifying manner toward
women?"
A vocal minority of males on Slashdot, for example, behave
in the most boorish, objectifying manner toward each other.
Here is a New York Times review of a book by Gates and 2 others, The Road Ahead. Quotes:
"... the book he has written with Nathan Myhrvold, a vice president at Microsoft, and Peter Rinearson, a freelance journalist, is bland and tepid."
"The Road Ahead" is in fact little more than a positioning document, sold in book form with accompanying CD-ROM and designed mainly to advance the interests of the Microsoft Corporation.
"I've worked for Microsoft and in my experience they couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel..."
From the summary: "Capossela has been with Microsoft for over two decades. He used to write speeches for Bill Gates..." That indicates: 1) Bill Gates wasn't able to write his own speeches. 2) What Bill Gates said in a speech was not what he actually thought.
A quote from an NBC News story about Blue Origin, a company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, shows one of the differences between SpaceX rockets, which go into orbit, and Blue Origin rockets, which don't orbit:
SpaceX is working to reuse rockets that are returning from the higher altitudes and faster speeds of orbital missions. "It is... important to clear up the difference between 'space' and 'orbit'," Musk posted on Twitter.... A rocket needs to be traveling about three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, to reach space, but orbital missions require speeds about Mach 30, Musk said.
That's how it seems to me. Jeff Bezos has done that before. He said his company, B.O., Blue Origin, would take tourists into the edge of space, but not into orbit. He has apparently abandoned that idea. Now he is pretending to compete with Elon Musk and SpaceX.
SpaceX is working to reuse rockets that are returning from the higher altitudes and faster speeds of orbital missions. "It is... important to clear up the difference between 'space' and 'orbit'," Musk posted on Twitter.... A rocket needs to be traveling about three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, to reach space, but orbital missions require speeds about Mach 30, Musk said.
I said this above: There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
You apparently didn't read this in the comment to which you replied:
There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
You repeated what I said, "accelerometers and gyros", however you think they would be enough and I don't.
Maybe the difficulty is due to the difference between rich and poor in their assumptions about life. The rich have large flat yards where the children can play. The poor have apartment houses, or small yards with lots of obstructions. How would a drone deliver to an apartment building? Or to a small yard with a swing set and trees?
Yes, accelerometers and gyros might be able to give accurate information about a drone movement caused by a sudden change in wind direction. However, I am skeptical that anything could be done to prevent a loss of control, in some cases. There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
New York Times story:Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big
Ideas in a Bruising Workplace Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push
white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions." Another quote: "The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another's bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others." (New York Times story posted Aug 15, 2015. There are 5,858 comments!)
Response from Amazon:What The New York Times Didn't Tell You by Jay Carney, "Senior Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs at Amazon. Previously, he served as White House Press Secretary and spent 20 years as a reporter for TIME." (Posted on medium.com, October 19, 2015.)
Response from the New York Times:Dean Baquet Responds To Jay Carney's Medium Post by Dean Baquet, Executive Editor, The New York Times. Quote: "As I said in the beginning, this story [the New York Times story linked above] was based on dozens of interviews. And any reading of the responses leaves no doubt that this was an accurate portrait." (Posted on medium.com, October 19, 2015.)
Atlantic Magazine: "... 8-12 hours shifts with no overtime for $8.72 an hour."In the Wake of Protest: One Woman's Attempt to Unionize Amazon Quote: "As that first month dragged on, I tried to tell myself I was organizing, but what I was really doing was driving across town in a beater car working 8-12 hours shifts with no overtime for $8.72 an hour." Another quote: "Time magazine named Jeff Bezos 'Person of The Year.' Yet Amazon had failed so far to show a profit and stockholder pressure was on. In January, five days before fourth-quarter earnings were to be published, Bezos laid off around 150 workers, nearly 2 percent of its workforce, and posted its first-ever gains. I was hired the following week."
Another quote: "He was the one who told me Bezos was going to close the Seattle warehouse. It was too expensive to run. Huge fulfillment centers were springing up around the country. In Nevada, they were getting $5.15 an hour and people had to work 12-hour shifts, five days a week."(Dec. 12, 2011, 4 years ago)
4) Teenager is in a field trying a BB gun, shoots at drone. Drone crashes. What then?
"Same as when a teenager drops a rock from an overpass onto someone's windshield, causing them to crash when they can no longer see. The one doing the malicious damage is to blame."
I find that, with this subject, I make the mistake of thinking that other people will see the same overall picture that is in my mind.
One problem with malicious damage to a drone will be proving that there is malicious damage. A BB gun shot may cause a crash, but will it be obvious that the crash didn't cause a particular small hole?
Also, an Amazon drone crash will put Amazon into news stories, worldwide. A competent CEO would not want that.
Maybe eventually there will be common uses for drones. But no competent CEO of a large company would want the company name to be ruined by the inevitable initial failures.
"No one sane and rational thinks Amazon will ever use drones to deliver anything to anyone."
Interesting. I've wondered about that.
I certainly would not want drones in our neighborhood. About 2 years ago I was in a park and saw a small drone get out of control and come close to killing someone. The operator was standing perhaps 70 feet away.
"Drop off area is controlled and can be elevated."
What does that mean? Most Amazon customers would not have an elevated drop off area.
"Drones are automatic and only travel short distances from the van. Even if they're controlled by a human most of the time, they will be able to handle the loss of their control signal."
Close to the ground, wind is very unpredictable. "loss of a signal" means no GPS, no human control. Onboard gyros and accelerometers can help a drone track its flight. However, there is a huge problem with measuring speed, relative to the ground, particularly when the measurements must be extremely precise. Radar doesn't work when there are lots of obstructions.
Stay logical. Jeff Bezos apparently does not have a technical background. If he did, he certainly would not want to be involved in the introduction of a new technology that has so much potential to kill people and destroy their property. Amazon is not, in some ways, managed well.
Mr. Bezos hired people to do the technology, many years ago. Amazon was originally just an online bookstore. He has a huge amount of stock. Quote from a 2013 Forbes magazine story: "Bezos is still by far the largest shareholder in Amazon, with just under 85 million shares, or approximately 18.5%"
Jeff Bezos is not able to understand the obvious problems with drones. He thinks Amazon can make deliveries using drones. He didn't think of these problems:
1) Dog runs from bushes and attacks drone, does damage. Who pays?
2) Child runs to drone, is hurt. Whose fault?
3) Drone fails in flight, crashes, kills people, destroys property. Amazon pays more than all profits from drone delivery.
4) Teenager is in a field trying a BB gun, shoots at drone. Drone crashes. What then?
5) Someone is testing a Tesla coil in his garage. The huge sparks emit electromagnetic interference, making communication with the drone impossible. Drone cannot be controlled, destroys property. Who pays?
6) Drone noise and danger reduces the value of houses in a neighborhood. An adjoining county has restrictions against drones; the value of the property there goes up.
7) RFI, Radio Frequency Interference: Someone is outside on the street welding something using an electric welder. Electric welding generates interference on ALL frequencies. The drone might receive nothing except noise.
Another case of foolish talk from Tim Cook. Apple needs a new CEO.
There have been other seriously bad communications errors at Apple since Tim Cook has been in charge. Apparently, even though Tim Cook worked with Steve Jobs for years, Mr. Cook did not learn about marketing communication from Mr. Jobs.
To me, the most important feature of Firefox is the add-ons. I like Session Manager, for example.
Question about Firefox: Microsoft's Process Explorer shows that Firefox uses the CPU while no Firefox windows are in the foreground. Why? Firefox's CPU use is especially intense when many windows and tabs are open. Also Process Explorer shows that often Firefox continually adds memory to its "Private Bytes" and "Working Set", even when there is no Again, why?
Someone above mentioned Pale Moon. Pale Moon has a 64-bit edition.
Joke:
Instead of browser.pocket.enabled = false in Firefox, try:
browser.adult.supervision.enabled = true in Pale Moon. (Not a real Pale Moon choice, of course.)
Pale Moon has tools for backup and migration. Adblock Latitude blocks ads. There are other Pale Moon ad-ons, and usually Firefox add-ons work perfectly.
"Pale Moon Commander... provides a user-friendly interface to advanced preferences that would otherwise require manual editing of parameters, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming to do."
Slashdot Mirror
"... how much of the data cloud, or the world's information is in the Netherlands?"
After encryption is outlawed everywhere else, all of it.
Most government leaders are EXTREMELY ignorant about technology, but they know technology is important, so they pretend they know things.
If encryption is outlawed, it will just be hidden. There will be large images with messages in the grey areas, for example.
Bruce,
I read your article, The Empathy Gap, and Why Women are Treated Badly in Open Source Communities. (I saw it on Slashdot.)
It seems to me that I have some useful comments:
You said, "How did we ever get to the point that a vocal minority of males in Open Source communities behave in the most boorish, misogynistic, objectifying manner toward women?"
A vocal minority of males on Slashdot, for example, behave in the most boorish, objectifying manner toward each other.
An example of a programmer being boorish: Linus Torvalds fires off angry 'compiler-masturbation' rant. Yes, Linus is a wonderful leader, but he can also be boorish.
The 1953 translation to English of the book, The Second Sex, began decades of open hostility of women toward men in the United States.
The 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, began decades of a new kind of sneaky hostility of women toward men in the United States.
Most men don't know how to deal with the hostility of women in the United States. They don't see any reason for it. The also don't detect it clearly.
The issues are far more complicated than indicated by those few statements.
I'm writing a book about how people use their brains. The book will have a much more complete explanation of the relationships between women and men.
Michael Jennings
Programmers often choose self-defeating names. Imagine going to a top manager and saying you want to program a product in Rust.
GIMP means "a derrogatory term for someone that is disabled or has a medicial problem that results in physical impairment".
GNU.
LaTeX is written in both English and Greek letters.
There is nothing "regular" about Regular Expressions.
NetLoony Apache Server GUI and Tools. Looney is someone who is "Extremely foolish or silly".
pGina is not VaGina.
Would your boss take Bouncy Castle cryptography seriously. Or would he think it's for children?
You haven't read the books.
Here is a New York Times review of a book by Gates and 2 others, The Road Ahead. Quotes:
"... the book he has written with Nathan Myhrvold, a vice president at Microsoft, and Peter Rinearson, a freelance journalist, is bland and tepid."
"The Road Ahead" is in fact little more than a positioning document, sold in book form with accompanying CD-ROM and designed mainly to advance the interests of the Microsoft Corporation.
"I've worked for Microsoft and in my experience they couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel..."
From the summary: "Capossela has been with Microsoft for over two decades. He used to write speeches for Bill Gates..." That indicates: 1) Bill Gates wasn't able to write his own speeches. 2) What Bill Gates said in a speech was not what he actually thought.
Mod to +10.
A quote from an NBC News story about Blue Origin, a company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, shows one of the differences between SpaceX rockets, which go into orbit, and Blue Origin rockets, which don't orbit:
... important to clear up the difference between 'space' and 'orbit'," Musk posted on Twitter. ... A rocket needs to be traveling about three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, to reach space, but orbital missions require speeds about Mach 30, Musk said.
SpaceX is working to reuse rockets that are returning from the higher altitudes and faster speeds of orbital missions. "It is
That's how it seems to me. Jeff Bezos has done that before. He said his company, B.O., Blue Origin, would take tourists into the edge of space, but not into orbit. He has apparently abandoned that idea. Now he is pretending to compete with Elon Musk and SpaceX.
... important to clear up the difference between 'space' and 'orbit'," Musk posted on Twitter. ... A rocket needs to be traveling about three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3, to reach space, but orbital missions require speeds about Mach 30, Musk said.
Quote from an NBC News story about B.O.:
SpaceX is working to reuse rockets that are returning from the higher altitudes and faster speeds of orbital missions. "It is
I said this above: There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
You apparently didn't read this in the comment to which you replied:
There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
You repeated what I said, "accelerometers and gyros", however you think they would be enough and I don't.
Maybe the difficulty is due to the difference between rich and poor in their assumptions about life. The rich have large flat yards where the children can play. The poor have apartment houses, or small yards with lots of obstructions. How would a drone deliver to an apartment building? Or to a small yard with a swing set and trees?
Yes, accelerometers and gyros might be able to give accurate information about a drone movement caused by a sudden change in wind direction. However, I am skeptical that anything could be done to prevent a loss of control, in some cases. There is too much inertia. There would be a delay in response: If the drone must increase propeller rotation and aim the propellers sideways to avoid a crash, there might be an adequate response after 50 feet of movement, but not after 10 feet.
New York Times story and responses:
New York Times story: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions." Another quote: "The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another's bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others." (New York Times story posted Aug 15, 2015. There are 5,858 comments!)
Response from Amazon: What The New York Times Didn't Tell You by Jay Carney, "Senior Vice President for Global Corporate Affairs at Amazon. Previously, he served as White House Press Secretary and spent 20 years as a reporter for TIME." (Posted on medium.com, October 19, 2015.)
Response from the New York Times: Dean Baquet Responds To Jay Carney's Medium Post by Dean Baquet, Executive Editor, The New York Times. Quote: "As I said in the beginning, this story [the New York Times story linked above] was based on dozens of interviews. And any reading of the responses leaves no doubt that this was an accurate portrait." (Posted on medium.com, October 19, 2015.)
Business Insider stories:
Amazon employees on 'ludicrously comical' NYT story: 'Some people don't belong here, maybe' Quote: "She said she enjoys the culture that pushes her to work harder." (Aug. 15, 2015)
Employees confess the worst parts about working for Amazon (Aug. 21, 2015)
Amazon abuse is an old story. From 4 years ago:
Atlantic Magazine: "... 8-12 hours shifts with no overtime for $8.72 an hour." In the Wake of Protest: One Woman's Attempt to Unionize Amazon Quote: "As that first month dragged on, I tried to tell myself I was organizing, but what I was really doing was driving across town in a beater car working 8-12 hours shifts with no overtime for $8.72 an hour." Another quote: "Time magazine named Jeff Bezos 'Person of The Year.' Yet Amazon had failed so far to show a profit and stockholder pressure was on. In January, five days before fourth-quarter earnings were to be published, Bezos laid off around 150 workers, nearly 2 percent of its workforce, and posted its first-ever gains. I was hired the following week." Another quote: "He was the one who told me Bezos was going to close the Seattle warehouse. It was too expensive to run. Huge fulfillment centers were springing up around the country. In Nevada, they were getting $5.15 an hour and people had to work 12-hour shifts, five days a week."(Dec. 12, 2011, 4 years ago)
The 3rd dimension: Altitude.
"... Amazon can and does hire geniuses..."
Amazon can and does do foolish things. Abusing Amazon employees is just one example. A few links:
Dear Amazon interns, some advice from an old man who has been at Amazon way too long. Quote: "Amazon's work-life balance is awful."
Inside Amazon's Kafkaesque performance-improvement plan
Inside Amazon's Bizarre Corporate Culture
Glassdoor Reviews of Amazon
Amazon Is a Time Thief, by an Amazon Employee.
Working for Amazon Sounds Utterly Soul Crushing.
Life in an Amazon Warehouse: Fear and Efficiency at 35 Orders Per Second
"Same as when a teenager drops a rock from an overpass onto someone's windshield, causing them to crash when they can no longer see. The one doing the malicious damage is to blame."
I find that, with this subject, I make the mistake of thinking that other people will see the same overall picture that is in my mind.
One problem with malicious damage to a drone will be proving that there is malicious damage. A BB gun shot may cause a crash, but will it be obvious that the crash didn't cause a particular small hole?
Also, an Amazon drone crash will put Amazon into news stories, worldwide. A competent CEO would not want that.
Maybe eventually there will be common uses for drones. But no competent CEO of a large company would want the company name to be ruined by the inevitable initial failures.
"No one sane and rational thinks Amazon will ever use drones to deliver anything to anyone."
Interesting. I've wondered about that.
I certainly would not want drones in our neighborhood. About 2 years ago I was in a park and saw a small drone get out of control and come close to killing someone. The operator was standing perhaps 70 feet away.
"This isn't for city use..."
I agree. Drones are not safe for use in a city.
"Drop off area is controlled and can be elevated."
What does that mean? Most Amazon customers would not have an elevated drop off area.
"Drones are automatic and only travel short distances from the van. Even if they're controlled by a human most of the time, they will be able to handle the loss of their control signal."
Close to the ground, wind is very unpredictable. "loss of a signal" means no GPS, no human control. Onboard gyros and accelerometers can help a drone track its flight. However, there is a huge problem with measuring speed, relative to the ground, particularly when the measurements must be extremely precise. Radar doesn't work when there are lots of obstructions.
Stay logical. Jeff Bezos apparently does not have a technical background. If he did, he certainly would not want to be involved in the introduction of a new technology that has so much potential to kill people and destroy their property. Amazon is not, in some ways, managed well.
Mr. Bezos hired people to do the technology, many years ago. Amazon was originally just an online bookstore. He has a huge amount of stock. Quote from a 2013 Forbes magazine story: "Bezos is still by far the largest shareholder in Amazon, with just under 85 million shares, or approximately 18.5%"
Jeff Bezos is not able to understand the obvious problems with drones. He thinks Amazon can make deliveries using drones. He didn't think of these problems:
1) Dog runs from bushes and attacks drone, does damage. Who pays?
2) Child runs to drone, is hurt. Whose fault?
3) Drone fails in flight, crashes, kills people, destroys property. Amazon pays more than all profits from drone delivery.
4) Teenager is in a field trying a BB gun, shoots at drone. Drone crashes. What then?
5) Someone is testing a Tesla coil in his garage. The huge sparks emit electromagnetic interference, making communication with the drone impossible. Drone cannot be controlled, destroys property. Who pays?
6) Drone noise and danger reduces the value of houses in a neighborhood. An adjoining county has restrictions against drones; the value of the property there goes up.
7) RFI, Radio Frequency Interference: Someone is outside on the street welding something using an electric welder. Electric welding generates interference on ALL frequencies. The drone might receive nothing except noise.
8) Drone is stolen.
Agreeing with Tim Cook about tax law is not a reason to disagree with what I said. The problem is the lack of sophistication in his comments.
Another case of foolish talk from Tim Cook. Apple needs a new CEO.
There have been other seriously bad communications errors at Apple since Tim Cook has been in charge. Apparently, even though Tim Cook worked with Steve Jobs for years, Mr. Cook did not learn about marketing communication from Mr. Jobs.
To me, the most important feature of Firefox is the add-ons. I like Session Manager, for example.
... provides a user-friendly interface to advanced preferences that would otherwise require manual editing of parameters, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming to do."
Question about Firefox: Microsoft's Process Explorer shows that Firefox uses the CPU while no Firefox windows are in the foreground. Why? Firefox's CPU use is especially intense when many windows and tabs are open. Also Process Explorer shows that often Firefox continually adds memory to its "Private Bytes" and "Working Set", even when there is no Again, why?
Someone above mentioned Pale Moon. Pale Moon has a 64-bit edition.
Joke:
Instead of browser.pocket.enabled = false in Firefox, try:
browser.adult.supervision.enabled = true in Pale Moon. (Not a real Pale Moon choice, of course.)
Pale Moon has tools for backup and migration. Adblock Latitude blocks ads. There are other Pale Moon ad-ons, and usually Firefox add-ons work perfectly.
"Pale Moon Commander
In general, Google is now badly managed, in my opinion.
People are beginning to dislike the increasing levels of control in the Chrome browser and in the Android operating system.
I stopped using Chrome because of the system services it installs.