"This is no mysterious dramatic event. It happens every year, but this year, it's worse than usual, possibly because ocean currents have shifted due to weather."
That seems intuitively backwards, as if I was being asked to believe that the trees make the wind by moving back and forth.
Think consoles: PS2, XBox, GameCube, etc. They are severly underpowered if you compare them to a PC, yet they can push out graphics rivaling them, why? Because the developers know exactly what hardware they are coding for and can take full advantage of it.
No... they can't.
The problem with having a clearly inaccurate statement in your post is that your other points, however good, lose credibility.
Unless you take the shielding off of your drive, the data would probably be just fine. That's why I recommend pissing on the drive instead. Sure, the data remains intact, but who'll touch it?
Simple. Do the opposite of locking him in his room.
Make him attend a minimum of three raging parties per week, each one primarily populated by jocks and hotties.
If he's 18 and spamming people, he does not have the social skills necessary to do well in such an environment. He'll cry for the warmth and security of his home, but he should be forced to stay until the last jock has wedgie'd him.
"I am at a point where all I do is raid. Login, go raid 3-4 hours, log off and go play something I enjoy (Like cov4: Warlords). I despise this game with every fiber of my being..."
I would imagine that Borland hopes to boost sales of its higher end lines by giving away the cheap ones and hooking the developers, but they'd better have some super-sweet bait on the end of the hook. There are tons of powerful IDE's, many free. Unless they bring something to the table that is lacking in other products, I can't see them reaching their business objectives.
People are beginning to expect the IDE to be free. Oracle knows this, so does Sun.
Best of luck to Borland. I have fond memories all the way back to Borland C++ 3.x for Windows, and Delphi - ESPECIALLY Delphi.
"The business and marketing folks are as good as out the door. Us tech guys? Pfft, nothing to worry about. The fact is the reason your tech guys have you by the proverbial balls is because you're not educated enough to do their job. Heh, but the fact is, most anyone who has powerpoint and mediocre social skills can do your job."
This kind of self-aggrandizing claptrap is just annoying. There's no way you could do their jobs. You suffer from the delusion that anything that isn't technical is simple.
Why is it that when people say, "the fact is", "the simple truth is", or "the reality is", they're almost always wrong about the topic under discussion?
"Then Javascript will be disabled by default, but user can whitelist the sites where Javascript should be enabled. Problem solved.
The consequences of disabling Javascript can lead to a host of new problems. I used to disable javascript and enable it by whitelist. Then I registered a piece of shareware, paid by credit card, and waited. Of course since the whitelisted servers forwarded off to some other entity which provided the registration pages, it never came back. So I figured out the servers that it was dealing with, whitelisted them, and reregistered.
Naturally I got double-billed. The shareware provider kindly fixed that situation, and I was credited, but this situation was a good example of why whitelisting sites is not the solution.
Who the hell thinks there ought to be a system adminstrators day? If they get a day, then EVERY profession should get a day.
Seriously. Do you all think the job is more noble, or deserving of special recognition than, oh, let's say, that of paramedic? Or fire fighter? Or homeless shelter worker?
Get a grip. It's a normal job, it pays okay, and it doesn't need its own day.
"A friend of mine has certifications as an MCSE and a CNE. When I tell him to run "ipconfig/all" and "route print" (on his WinXP machine), the look of consternation and confusion on his face is priceless."
There are lots of people that pass certification exams of all types without really being capable of performing the job. Lots of talentless certified pros out there on many technologies. Apparently your friend is one of them. How is this relevant? It certainly isn't "insightful". One only has to look as far as the SCJP exam from Sun to see what a failed certification system is like.
"What exactly is a sufficient in the verification of facts?"
Asking somebody who is actually involved, or who is really in a position to know the answer would go a long way towards verifying something. But most people just quote other people who aren't authoritative in any way.
Somebody lies and says that Tommy Hilfiger made a racist statement on Oprah Winfrey. Then somebody else hears that lie and figures it's so good a story it's got to be repeated. And then there are thousands of idiots reposting the details, and suddenly you've got mass acceptance based on how widespread the story is. Like the whole "Einstein is Dyslexic" thing, a claim doesn't have to be true to spread... it just has to be interesting.
With very few exceptions, I treat everything I read online as unreliable crap until somebody convinces me differently.
"Solved? We should be so lucky. Things are far from solved. If Sun had released Solaris under the GPL, that would be good and done. Instead, it's under their own CDDL, which isn't easily compatible with the far-more-common GPL. This leads to issues for interesting projects like GNU/Solaris (Nexenta), which should have been quickly welcomed by the Open Source community. Instead, Sun's choice of the CDDL makes things complicated where they shouldn't be.
"
Sun solved "their" problems. I highly doubt they took all that time to solve "your" problems. Their measure of success is not how they've complied with the open source community, it's how they fared in meeting their own needs.
"Just over a third of the bloggers said they often conduct journalistically appropriate tasks such as verifying facts and linking to source material."
And nearly all of those who verify their facts do so by finding somebody else online who makes the same claim. Of course those other people don't verify THEIR facts.
If you read a typical blog - even a "journalistic" one - with anything less than a pillar of salt, you're a fool.
Well, since I have never had this problem with any other piece of software, I'm inclined to say I HAD computer problems... then I deinstalled the software causing the problem, and everything is fine.
Make no mistake - my computer works HARD from a networking standpoint. If the problem were elsewhere, I would know it. Why Firefox chose to not get along, I can't say. But the squeaky wheel got the axe.
"Thats interesting, I used IE for a long time, started using Firefox a couple years ago and found it to be a very easy transition, my wife uses Opera and I could just never get into that interface."
Guess that's why ice cream comes in flavours other than vanilla.
I respect Firefox for bringing a viable alternative to market, even if I don't use the product.
I've traditionally used IE. I keep up with the patches, so I haven't had spyware or virus issues in a very long time, and IE always just seemed to fit how I liked to operate. I've got Firefox installed, and sometimes I use it, but until the last update I found it would periodically cause my network connection to fail. I'd reset it via the control panel and it'd be good for a while, but inevitably it would happen again. It was the only application to exhibit this quirk.
Recently I downloaded a copy of Opera, and I find it far more to my liking than Firefox. It's well-behaved, fast, and everything feels intuitive, which is something I never got from Firefox. I'm very happy with it, and I use it about half-and-half with IE.
I de-installed Firefox last night, after realizing I'd probably never start it again.
You seem, however, to be drawing a false conclusion from that, which is that the truth doesn't matter. In working social systems, accurate criticism creates effective responses, no matter what the disbelievers do.
Actually I specifically meant that the methodology (and potentially the truth, now that you mention it) doesn't matter HERE - on Slashdot.
You're right - it makes a difference to the world at large.
"Know why prohibition (the real alcohol one) was repealed back in the 30s? Cause alcohol ended up getting taxed through the roof and that gave the gov't a much needed revenue boost."
Why yes, I do know why prohibition was repealed. Go read the Wiki for an overview. Taxation was a very small factor.
"At absolute best, this compares portal frameworks on various platforms. Even if they were trying to do that, they did a piss poor job."
No study that concludes Microsoft's product is faster, more efficient or "better" in any way will ever be accepted here because holes can be poked in the methodology of any study. ANY study.
And before you say, "Yeah, but look at the holes in this one!", let me repeat myself. No study will survive in the eyes of people who don't like the results.
Fair enough, but I suppose my point was supposed to be that absense of evidence is not evidence of absense. What leads you to believe that Einstien was not dyslexic?
And the plural of anecdote is not "proof". (Not my quote - I don't remember where I got it from, but it rings true)
There are thousands of sites claiming Albert Einstein is dyslexic. However, they all seem to either make the claim without reference, or reference somebody else who made the claim without reference.
The Cambridge press biography, "Subtle is the Lord" makes no mention of dyslexia, and none of the papers made available from his early childhood showed any evidence (which is why I suspect none of the new ones will). Interviews with his family and teachers have also failed to bring forth anything to suggest he is dyslexic.
I believe this story persists because people want it to be true. Organizations dedicated to helping people with dyslexia LOVE having big names associated with the problem - it's very inspiring.
But for Albert Einstein to be dyslexic and excel where he did just doesn't make any sense. There's no evidence - just a bunch of unsupported anecdotes - ones that don't even refer to events or examples. Just baseless claims.
"Instead we have gas guzzling cars that will end society, microwaves using decades old technology, TV incompatibilities up the wazoo and fake sugar pills sold on SpikeTV at 2am."
Fake sugar pills? What are they putting in them that is cheaper than sugar?
"I would be interested to know how letters could show evidence of dyslexia."
Common symptoms of dyslexia include poor handwriting, bizarre spelling, directionality and sequencing issues, and transposition of letters. When you write a few thousand pages, if you're dyslexic, it'll show.
I'm willing to bet that the pages will show no evidence of dyslexia. And yet thousands of people will choose to ignore it, and go on believing that Einstein was, in fact, dyslexic.
Slashdot Mirror
"This is no mysterious dramatic event. It happens every year, but this year, it's worse than usual, possibly because ocean currents have shifted due to weather."
That seems intuitively backwards, as if I was being asked to believe that the trees make the wind by moving back and forth.
Think consoles: PS2, XBox, GameCube, etc. They are severly underpowered if you compare them to a PC, yet they can push out graphics rivaling them, why? Because the developers know exactly what hardware they are coding for and can take full advantage of it.
No... they can't.
The problem with having a clearly inaccurate statement in your post is that your other points, however good, lose credibility.
Unless you take the shielding off of your drive, the data would probably be just fine. That's why I recommend pissing on the drive instead. Sure, the data remains intact, but who'll touch it?
Simple. Do the opposite of locking him in his room.
Make him attend a minimum of three raging parties per week, each one primarily populated by jocks and hotties.
If he's 18 and spamming people, he does not have the social skills necessary to do well in such an environment. He'll cry for the warmth and security of his home, but he should be forced to stay until the last jock has wedgie'd him.
"I am at a point where all I do is raid. Login, go raid 3-4 hours, log off and go play something I enjoy (Like cov4: Warlords). I despise this game with every fiber of my being..."
What the hell is wrong with you?
I would imagine that Borland hopes to boost sales of its higher end lines by giving away the cheap ones and hooking the developers, but they'd better have some super-sweet bait on the end of the hook. There are tons of powerful IDE's, many free. Unless they bring something to the table that is lacking in other products, I can't see them reaching their business objectives.
People are beginning to expect the IDE to be free. Oracle knows this, so does Sun.
Best of luck to Borland. I have fond memories all the way back to Borland C++ 3.x for Windows, and Delphi - ESPECIALLY Delphi.
"The fact is, you're an idiot"
And you have no idea what you are talking about. NONE. Good luck with that.
"The business and marketing folks are as good as out the door. Us tech guys? Pfft, nothing to worry about. The fact is the reason your tech guys have you by the proverbial balls is because you're not educated enough to do their job. Heh, but the fact is, most anyone who has powerpoint and mediocre social skills can do your job."
This kind of self-aggrandizing claptrap is just annoying. There's no way you could do their jobs. You suffer from the delusion that anything that isn't technical is simple.
Why is it that when people say, "the fact is", "the simple truth is", or "the reality is", they're almost always wrong about the topic under discussion?
Just follow the average slashdotter to a night club.
"Then Javascript will be disabled by default, but user can whitelist the sites where Javascript should be enabled. Problem solved.
The consequences of disabling Javascript can lead to a host of new problems. I used to disable javascript and enable it by whitelist. Then I registered a piece of shareware, paid by credit card, and waited. Of course since the whitelisted servers forwarded off to some other entity which provided the registration pages, it never came back. So I figured out the servers that it was dealing with, whitelisted them, and reregistered.
Naturally I got double-billed. The shareware provider kindly fixed that situation, and I was credited, but this situation was a good example of why whitelisting sites is not the solution.
Who the hell thinks there ought to be a system adminstrators day? If they get a day, then EVERY profession should get a day.
Seriously. Do you all think the job is more noble, or deserving of special recognition than, oh, let's say, that of paramedic? Or fire fighter? Or homeless shelter worker?
Get a grip. It's a normal job, it pays okay, and it doesn't need its own day.
"A friend of mine has certifications as an MCSE and a CNE. When I tell him to run "ipconfig /all" and "route print" (on his WinXP machine), the look of consternation and confusion on his face is priceless."
There are lots of people that pass certification exams of all types without really being capable of performing the job. Lots of talentless certified pros out there on many technologies. Apparently your friend is one of them. How is this relevant? It certainly isn't "insightful". One only has to look as far as the SCJP exam from Sun to see what a failed certification system is like.
"What exactly is a sufficient in the verification of facts?"
Asking somebody who is actually involved, or who is really in a position to know the answer would go a long way towards verifying something. But most people just quote other people who aren't authoritative in any way.
Somebody lies and says that Tommy Hilfiger made a racist statement on Oprah Winfrey. Then somebody else hears that lie and figures it's so good a story it's got to be repeated. And then there are thousands of idiots reposting the details, and suddenly you've got mass acceptance based on how widespread the story is. Like the whole "Einstein is Dyslexic" thing, a claim doesn't have to be true to spread... it just has to be interesting.
With very few exceptions, I treat everything I read online as unreliable crap until somebody convinces me differently.
"Solved? We should be so lucky. Things are far from solved. If Sun had released Solaris under the GPL, that would be good and done. Instead, it's under their own CDDL, which isn't easily compatible with the far-more-common GPL. This leads to issues for interesting projects like GNU/Solaris (Nexenta), which should have been quickly welcomed by the Open Source community. Instead, Sun's choice of the CDDL makes things complicated where they shouldn't be. "
Sun solved "their" problems. I highly doubt they took all that time to solve "your" problems. Their measure of success is not how they've complied with the open source community, it's how they fared in meeting their own needs.
What exactly did you expect?
"Just over a third of the bloggers said they often conduct journalistically appropriate tasks such as verifying facts and linking to source material."
And nearly all of those who verify their facts do so by finding somebody else online who makes the same claim. Of course those other people don't verify THEIR facts.
If you read a typical blog - even a "journalistic" one - with anything less than a pillar of salt, you're a fool.
"Sounds like you've got computer problems then."
Well, since I have never had this problem with any other piece of software, I'm inclined to say I HAD computer problems... then I deinstalled the software causing the problem, and everything is fine.
Make no mistake - my computer works HARD from a networking standpoint. If the problem were elsewhere, I would know it. Why Firefox chose to not get along, I can't say. But the squeaky wheel got the axe.
"Thats interesting, I used IE for a long time, started using Firefox a couple years ago and found it to be a very easy transition, my wife uses Opera and I could just never get into that interface."
Guess that's why ice cream comes in flavours other than vanilla.
I respect Firefox for bringing a viable alternative to market, even if I don't use the product.
I've traditionally used IE. I keep up with the patches, so I haven't had spyware or virus issues in a very long time, and IE always just seemed to fit how I liked to operate. I've got Firefox installed, and sometimes I use it, but until the last update I found it would periodically cause my network connection to fail. I'd reset it via the control panel and it'd be good for a while, but inevitably it would happen again. It was the only application to exhibit this quirk.
Recently I downloaded a copy of Opera, and I find it far more to my liking than Firefox. It's well-behaved, fast, and everything feels intuitive, which is something I never got from Firefox. I'm very happy with it, and I use it about half-and-half with IE.
I de-installed Firefox last night, after realizing I'd probably never start it again.
You seem, however, to be drawing a false conclusion from that, which is that the truth doesn't matter. In working social systems, accurate criticism creates effective responses, no matter what the disbelievers do.
Actually I specifically meant that the methodology (and potentially the truth, now that you mention it) doesn't matter HERE - on Slashdot.
You're right - it makes a difference to the world at large.
"Know why prohibition (the real alcohol one) was repealed back in the 30s? Cause alcohol ended up getting taxed through the roof and that gave the gov't a much needed revenue boost."
Why yes, I do know why prohibition was repealed. Go read the Wiki for an overview. Taxation was a very small factor.
"At absolute best, this compares portal frameworks on various platforms. Even if they were trying to do that, they did a piss poor job."
No study that concludes Microsoft's product is faster, more efficient or "better" in any way will ever be accepted here because holes can be poked in the methodology of any study. ANY study.
And before you say, "Yeah, but look at the holes in this one!", let me repeat myself. No study will survive in the eyes of people who don't like the results.
Fair enough, but I suppose my point was supposed to be that absense of evidence is not evidence of absense. What leads you to believe that Einstien was not dyslexic?
And the plural of anecdote is not "proof". (Not my quote - I don't remember where I got it from, but it rings true)
There are thousands of sites claiming Albert Einstein is dyslexic. However, they all seem to either make the claim without reference, or reference somebody else who made the claim without reference.
The Cambridge press biography, "Subtle is the Lord" makes no mention of dyslexia, and none of the papers made available from his early childhood showed any evidence (which is why I suspect none of the new ones will). Interviews with his family and teachers have also failed to bring forth anything to suggest he is dyslexic.
I believe this story persists because people want it to be true. Organizations dedicated to helping people with dyslexia LOVE having big names associated with the problem - it's very inspiring.
But for Albert Einstein to be dyslexic and excel where he did just doesn't make any sense. There's no evidence - just a bunch of unsupported anecdotes - ones that don't even refer to events or examples. Just baseless claims.
"Instead we have gas guzzling cars that will end society, microwaves using decades old technology, TV incompatibilities up the wazoo and fake sugar pills sold on SpikeTV at 2am."
Fake sugar pills? What are they putting in them that is cheaper than sugar?
"I would be interested to know how letters could show evidence of dyslexia."
Common symptoms of dyslexia include poor handwriting, bizarre spelling, directionality and sequencing issues, and transposition of letters. When you write a few thousand pages, if you're dyslexic, it'll show.
I'm willing to bet that the pages will show no evidence of dyslexia. And yet thousands of people will choose to ignore it, and go on believing that Einstein was, in fact, dyslexic.