When students call in a bomb scare, even though they're not at the school, does that mean that a suspension isn't warranted (as well as possible police/legal issues)?
It affects the school. The target is part of the structure of the school. Ergo, while the clicking of a fucking "Submit" button didn't occur within the bounds of the school, the potential damage to the direct target (the principal) as well as the school itself is still apparent.
Now if you did something outside of school that had no obvious affect upon the school itself, fine. However, posting that the principal is a pedo is obviously linked to the school itself.
If the student had been hit with a libel suit, how many of those same people bitching about the suspension would be making statements like "OMG, what an overreaction, why not just suspend the kid of something. OMG. OMFG. How gestapo is that.What a waste of court time, etc etc"
And the bullies were 100% correct. Assault should be handled by the police.
And it can be. The two are not mutually exclusive. If a "bully" is following kids to/from school in order to apply physical damage, the school should suspend him/her, and the parents of the child should see legal recourse as well.
Sorry no. Suppose Mr X were an IRS agent, instead of a principal...
But he's not. His relationship with you is at arm's length, and his duties differ. If your blog stated that you cheated on your taxes, then his duty would probably fall in line with an audit. A principal, on the other hand, has a certain duty towards education and discipline of students. If it were an IRS agent, then certainly he could kick you out of his office and ban you there-from after such accusations, which is in effect what the principal has done in relation to the school.
What happens off school ground, outside of school time is none of the schools business.
It is when it involves members of the school, depending on circumstance. A school should not be forced to accept students which violate certain rules, so long as these rules are lawful, which - in this case - the court has agreed with (the school need not accept students whom engage in attacks against faculty members).
It seems like the writer of the article assumes that "actions done outside should shouldn't have consequences/effects/jurisdiction inside school." This is bullshit. Aside from the fact that this teen should be held up on charges of liable/slander (depending on whether said statements were made solely online), the fact is that actions corresponding to the institution apply outside of the physical premises.
I seem to remember plenty of cases where kids would be beaten by classmates outside of school grounds. The argument by the bullies was that it wasn't on school properly, and thus not in the school's concern (although this is a dumb concept in itself, for as such that would make it more of a police concern and/or an assault charge... a suspension seems a lighter consequence).
This is a school matter, as well as a legal matter, and - unless the principal does turn out to be at fault (which requires actual charges, evidence, and court hearings, not just hearsay) - as such should be fully within the school's jurisdiction to discipline. There's a big difference between writing something silly online like
"Mr X is a poopoo head" (infantile and easily disregarded)
or
"Mr X sucks donkey dong" (infantile, still more likely to be disregarded, but depending on scale may warrant detention)
In this case, "Mr X molests small children in his office" is - by the nature of the comment - damaging to the reputation of the principal, and warrants both in-school (detention/suspension) and legal (civil and/or libel charges).
The fact is, people are often by nature willing to believe the worst in somebody. Even if it seems spurious, such a claim - because of its gravity, and prior histories of such instances - can be damaging simply because of the little nagging "it seems untrue, but what if..." thoughts it tends to bring up.
To those that disagree: if somebody posts up a MySpace page claiming that you are a flaming bisexual with a penchant for buggery of small children and animals... do you think that "free speech" should allow them a pass? How about when your future or current employer finds this page when checking into you online?
"Wow, nice dream world you live in. If 'congress critters' actually did that then nothing would get passed.... though that might not be so bad"
Yes, this would happen for awhile, but the end result might be pushing forth something that blocks having a bunch of unrelated bullshit in a single bill, etc. At the moment lots of bills get pushed on this notion, where you've attached the "invasion of privacy 2009 act" to page 127 of "Timmy's save the children act"
If you don't agree with the bill, vote it down. Don't agree because "I kinda want this part even though I really dislike that part".
The sad thing is that Asus used to be fairly decent, but it does seem that their failed/buggy boards are a bit more common these days.
On the other hand, Gigabyte doesn't have much to be proud of either. Back when I used them a few years back, their boards gained a notoriety for failure, mainly due to bad capacitors, etc.
It's funny because since I've moved to cheaper boards I've had less issues with dead hardware, but even if I did I'd rather have to replace hardware that costs half the price.
I believe that in some cases, however, compilations can. In that case - though I could be wrong - specific arrangement of facts could be considered copyrighted if it were copied verbatim, like OCR'ing a phonebook or something of the sort.
If memory serves cases have gone for and against this though, so it's not that clear-cut.
As noted on the admin page, "The entire categorization schema that was in place was copyrighted by Nielsen and could not be used under our GFDL license," so it wasn't just that the information was used, but that it was copied pretty much directly.
Here we don't have any kids hawking the goods, but we have malls full of the stuff (which I'm really unsure why they don't get busted).
One of the fake-movie resellers actually tried to move into one of the small shopping centers closer to where I live, and disappeared within about a week, so I'm guessing they got nailed. However, about 20 minutes from here is a *HUGE* Chinese mall wherein probably 80% of the merchandise is either fake knock-offs or burned DVD's, games, and music.
I really don't how these places are left up to operate, as there's no way the police don't know about them, and even the media companies likely should have gotten wind of it.
My girlfriend (who is from Chinese) actually commented that maybe she should setup a shop and sell these sort of things. When I told her it was illegal she mentioned that at first she was shocked to see people selling this stuff (which even in China is illegal), but figured that since so many were doing it without apparent penalty she figured it was somehow legal here. Luckily after finding it was in fact not legal, she quickly dropped the idea of doing anything similar.
There are plenty of these guys around here, and they're pretty arrogant too. I had a buddy looking for some XBox 360 games, and there was a pirate shop that was apparently selling (copies) for cheap. Curious about how they operated, I dropped in and found they have a huge binder listing game titles, and it's about $8 for a Wii/PS2 game or $20 for an Xbox 360 game. This is for a *BURNED DISC*
So I asked why the price differential for the 360 games (hell, it's all copied BS, no originals) and they said it's because XB360 discs are double-layer and cost more.
So let's see. About $0.50 or less for a single layer DVD, maybe add the cost of a label, is about $7 profit. At what, $1.50 for a dual-layer DVD is maybe $18 profit. For copied games.
Oh, and nevermind the problems he had returning one of the discs that didn't work.
Yeah, I think I'll stick with legit retailers and used but original discs (not that I game much these days anyhow).
If movie/music/game companies want to make a real killing nailing *real* "pirates", just go to one of the big Chinese malls and nail all of these guys. They're raking in cash selling copies of other people's work, and if anyone should be sued for "piracy" I think these are a good place to start.
We had one of those for Alesse around here. It never actually said what it was for, except that it was obviously targeted at younger females. Apparently it's a form of birth-control, but I had thought it was cosmetics or something of that sort as the ads never mentioned what it's for.
At least in some provinces. I moved to Ontario from BC. It's more of a rat-race where I live now, but one of the nice things is that the police here are investigated by a special unit which has very strict rules about non-bias. They're not part of the police department, they're not allowed to associate with depts they may be investigating, and when one is called in they're generally pulled from out-of-area.
In BC (and apparently Alberta), such investigations are in fact internal, and as such a lot of shit tends to pass that shouldn't.
One of note that always brings a chill down my spine is the Ian Bush case. See here, here, and here//here. Also note that the blood-spatter expert who testified against the police was later disciplined on "unrelated matters"
It's not that some money doesn't make it to useful programs. Some does. But a huge amount is squandered on other things that really have no benefit to the majority of the country's populace, or sometimes even things that have negative effect on the gross majority.
There's a good amount of money that simply falls off the radar too. Some to secret projects, and others to line pockets.
I've been wondering what was up with the large amount of "common sense" outbreak recently. Then I remembered... there's an election coming up (in both Canada and the US now). Prepare to see lots of promises, bills drafted, and even some intelligent decisions for the next while, but don't expect it to last too far beyond the next election(s).
"There is a reason that it is automatically your fault if you rear-end someone"
I've heard this argument consistently, and while I've seen many accidents due to some idiot tailgating and not able to stop in time, or not paying attention, I've seen others where the guy was just plain cut off by a traffic dodger. In some situations, the traffic dodger then finds a sudden need to decellerate, and the person following (who had a perfectly acceptable safe following distance) nails him from behind because there simple wasn't time to adjust the SFD.
b) Stuck in front of or behind guys making a sudden lane-change because they're missing their offramp
c) Dodging vehicles coming in on the onramp
I'm not saying that slower vehicles shouldn't drive on the right, but it seems that 85% of the time those passing you on either end are actually traffic-dodgers who are going fast and - really - wouldn't give a shit what lane they're in.
Ahh, but the real question: if you fire yourself can you sue the company for wrongful termination?
My previous comment was, of course, a jest. Personally though, I wouldn't want *that* particular link to show up on my browsing history where my wife/boss (if you're self-employed are those both the same thing) could see it.
One of the best things you can hear in scientific circles is something along the lines of "What the hell is that?"
So long as it's not followed by "ohhhhh, shit."
But as far as this object goes, is this case that it wasn't previously bright enough to see in the current location, or that it wasn't in the current location until recently? If it's the latter, how fast would it have had to move to get to where it is now, and how would that compare to the maximum velocity of other known celestial objects?
Shows a pink slip coming in the mail from the employers of the parent and grandparent. Apparently something based on inappropriate google searches using company computers:-)
Having rusty experience is a little different from no experience at all. At that point it depends on how rusty you are (or how good you were to begin with) and how difficult the test is.
I've seen a lot of people get thrown by very basic questions, but hopefully somebody with (even dated) prior experience would manage those.
C++ really isn't my forte these days. Like you it's been quite a long time since I used it. I've had jobs where they've asked about my C++ experience, and I've let them know that (usually the jobs would be a lot of X and a little C++ anyhow, so it's ok). If I get a test with a bunch of hardcore C++ questions, then I usually hand it back and say "you advertised a position with a little C++ and a lot of [X]. According to this test it seems you want more of an expert in C++, so I don't think I'll be useful to you"
Not as bad as the Java test I was given on a Javascript (position mentioned JS and other - server side - languages, no Java) position... even though I'd told them that I have negligible Java skills several times prior and was assured the position didn't require it (damn recruiters).
How long does it take to connect to a website in "location X" (in a different country, and it was actually asking for a numerical answer).
Uhhhh... notwithstanding that it could be any number of different answers, the question itself was asking for a numerical answer. A slightly better answer might be:
How might you determine the length of time it takes to connect to a server in location X from our office.
But it's still a pretty dumb question for a paper test IMHO, because it's simply not the type of thing even many competent people might carry around in their pocket.
Of course the ones I absolutely despise are those that depend on knowing obscure flags to a given command, especially when those flags change between different distros/OS's. (and along that meme, whomever made the port flag differing in case between SSH/SCP different deserves a sound thrashing).
That you'd be better at a Java/C position than somebody who actually has recent experience and training/education in the languages the company uses?
It sounds like you're the type of person this test should root out.
Yes, being able to learn is a very important skill, but so is coming prepared with the necessary knowledge to do the job.
you'll find them quickly with a Google search because you're trained to know what to search for
If you want to learn a new language, do so on your own time before taking the position, rather than looking up code snippets on google and accidentally coding a gaping security hole into the app.
I've found plenty of code on google that made me want to retch. One of them was a fix to a firewall issue that it looks like me predecessor followed, because after I patched up his gaping equivalent to an "allow all from anywhere to anywhere" rule I also had the fix the issue(s) that he was covering with the rule. Dozens of people online had repeated the bad rule as a solution to the issue, so while google might have "an answer" don't expect it to have "a good answer" readily available.
Lawyers and accountants tend to have some fairly serious certifications. Sales and HR may not have them, but managers may know more about which questions to ask (with HR, it may just be difficult to come up with an appropriate "test").
IT Professionals do have plenty of different certs as well, but mileage from those depends on what your company actually uses (I'm LPI - Linux Professional Institute - certified myself, but I found the tests to be much more a measure of memorization than any actual skill).
As a SysAdmin that is - happily - somewhat involved in the company hiring of IT, I wholly agree with a small IT test. In fact, I wrote one. And no, it's not onerous or brain-baking (I've taken some that were).
My boss is also smart enough to let me review the answers (since the answers I came up with might not be the only right ones). Some of the best candidates not only answered the questions correctly, but thought up scenarios I hadn't and came up with a bunch more correct answers.
I've never been insulted by being given a small test on job interviews, so long as the test is intelligent/fair. Personally, I'd rather be judged based on my ability to actively solve a problem than what skills I "say" that I have, because there are plenty of fakes out there.
Oh, and there are plenty of tests out there that suck as well. I had one where the test was actually provided by a third-party company, and the questions had multiple-choice answers that were all wrong. I know for sure that they are since I recorded the questions and tested the commands afterwards just to confirm that there wasn't some weird way of doing things that I was aware of. I actually got a high score on the test anyhow, but the interviewer (actually a recruiting company) didn't seem concerned with the fact that they were testing with impossible questions.
So here's a question for those that don't like tests: if they're hiring somebody to be your assistant do you want the guy that could solve a few base questions on Topics X,Y,Z, or the guy that says he can?
Slashdot Mirror
When students call in a bomb scare, even though they're not at the school, does that mean that a suspension isn't warranted (as well as possible police/legal issues)?
It affects the school. The target is part of the structure of the school. Ergo, while the clicking of a fucking "Submit" button didn't occur within the bounds of the school, the potential damage to the direct target (the principal) as well as the school itself is still apparent.
Now if you did something outside of school that had no obvious affect upon the school itself, fine. However, posting that the principal is a pedo is obviously linked to the school itself.
If the student had been hit with a libel suit, how many of those same people bitching about the suspension would be making statements like "OMG, what an overreaction, why not just suspend the kid of something. OMG. OMFG. How gestapo is that.What a waste of court time, etc etc"
And the bullies were 100% correct. Assault should be handled by the police.
And it can be. The two are not mutually exclusive. If a "bully" is following kids to/from school in order to apply physical damage, the school should suspend him/her, and the parents of the child should see legal recourse as well.
Sorry no. Suppose Mr X were an IRS agent, instead of a principal...
But he's not. His relationship with you is at arm's length, and his duties differ. If your blog stated that you cheated on your taxes, then his duty would probably fall in line with an audit. A principal, on the other hand, has a certain duty towards education and discipline of students. If it were an IRS agent, then certainly he could kick you out of his office and ban you there-from after such accusations, which is in effect what the principal has done in relation to the school.
What happens off school ground, outside of school time is none of the schools business.
It is when it involves members of the school, depending on circumstance. A school should not be forced to accept students which violate certain rules, so long as these rules are lawful, which - in this case - the court has agreed with (the school need not accept students whom engage in attacks against faculty members).
It seems like the writer of the article assumes that "actions done outside should shouldn't have consequences/effects/jurisdiction inside school." This is bullshit. Aside from the fact that this teen should be held up on charges of liable/slander (depending on whether said statements were made solely online), the fact is that actions corresponding to the institution apply outside of the physical premises.
I seem to remember plenty of cases where kids would be beaten by classmates outside of school grounds. The argument by the bullies was that it wasn't on school properly, and thus not in the school's concern (although this is a dumb concept in itself, for as such that would make it more of a police concern and/or an assault charge... a suspension seems a lighter consequence).
This is a school matter, as well as a legal matter, and - unless the principal does turn out to be at fault (which requires actual charges, evidence, and court hearings, not just hearsay) - as such should be fully within the school's jurisdiction to discipline. There's a big difference between writing something silly online like
"Mr X is a poopoo head" (infantile and easily disregarded)
or
"Mr X sucks donkey dong" (infantile, still more likely to be disregarded, but depending on scale may warrant detention)
In this case,
"Mr X molests small children in his office" is - by the nature of the comment - damaging to the reputation of the principal, and warrants both in-school (detention/suspension) and legal (civil and/or libel charges).
The fact is, people are often by nature willing to believe the worst in somebody. Even if it seems spurious, such a claim - because of its gravity, and prior histories of such instances - can be damaging simply because of the little nagging "it seems untrue, but what if..." thoughts it tends to bring up.
To those that disagree: if somebody posts up a MySpace page claiming that you are a flaming bisexual with a penchant for buggery of small children and animals... do you think that "free speech" should allow them a pass? How about when your future or current employer finds this page when checking into you online?
"Wow, nice dream world you live in. If 'congress critters' actually did that then nothing would get passed.... though that might not be so bad"
Yes, this would happen for awhile, but the end result might be pushing forth something that blocks having a bunch of unrelated bullshit in a single bill, etc. At the moment lots of bills get pushed on this notion, where you've attached the "invasion of privacy 2009 act" to page 127 of "Timmy's save the children act"
If you don't agree with the bill, vote it down. Don't agree because "I kinda want this part even though I really dislike that part".
The sad thing is that Asus used to be fairly decent, but it does seem that their failed/buggy boards are a bit more common these days.
On the other hand, Gigabyte doesn't have much to be proud of either. Back when I used them a few years back, their boards gained a notoriety for failure, mainly due to bad capacitors, etc.
It's funny because since I've moved to cheaper boards I've had less issues with dead hardware, but even if I did I'd rather have to replace hardware that costs half the price.
I believe that in some cases, however, compilations can. In that case - though I could be wrong - specific arrangement of facts could be considered copyrighted if it were copied verbatim, like OCR'ing a phonebook or something of the sort.
If memory serves cases have gone for and against this though, so it's not that clear-cut.
As noted on the admin page, "The entire categorization schema that was in place was copyrighted by Nielsen and could not be used under our GFDL license," so it wasn't just that the information was used, but that it was copied pretty much directly.
Here we don't have any kids hawking the goods, but we have malls full of the stuff (which I'm really unsure why they don't get busted).
One of the fake-movie resellers actually tried to move into one of the small shopping centers closer to where I live, and disappeared within about a week, so I'm guessing they got nailed. However, about 20 minutes from here is a *HUGE* Chinese mall wherein probably 80% of the merchandise is either fake knock-offs or burned DVD's, games, and music.
I really don't how these places are left up to operate, as there's no way the police don't know about them, and even the media companies likely should have gotten wind of it.
My girlfriend (who is from Chinese) actually commented that maybe she should setup a shop and sell these sort of things. When I told her it was illegal she mentioned that at first she was shocked to see people selling this stuff (which even in China is illegal), but figured that since so many were doing it without apparent penalty she figured it was somehow legal here. Luckily after finding it was in fact not legal, she quickly dropped the idea of doing anything similar.
There are plenty of these guys around here, and they're pretty arrogant too. I had a buddy looking for some XBox 360 games, and there was a pirate shop that was apparently selling (copies) for cheap. Curious about how they operated, I dropped in and found they have a huge binder listing game titles, and it's about $8 for a Wii/PS2 game or $20 for an Xbox 360 game. This is for a *BURNED DISC*
So I asked why the price differential for the 360 games (hell, it's all copied BS, no originals) and they said it's because XB360 discs are double-layer and cost more.
So let's see. About $0.50 or less for a single layer DVD, maybe add the cost of a label, is about $7 profit. At what, $1.50 for a dual-layer DVD is maybe $18 profit. For copied games.
Oh, and nevermind the problems he had returning one of the discs that didn't work.
Yeah, I think I'll stick with legit retailers and used but original discs (not that I game much these days anyhow).
If movie/music/game companies want to make a real killing nailing *real* "pirates", just go to one of the big Chinese malls and nail all of these guys. They're raking in cash selling copies of other people's work, and if anyone should be sued for "piracy" I think these are a good place to start.
Disbarred would be the correct term, but "Defenestrated" might be more useful :-)
We had one of those for Alesse around here. It never actually said what it was for, except that it was obviously targeted at younger females. Apparently it's a form of birth-control, but I had thought it was cosmetics or something of that sort as the ads never mentioned what it's for.
At least in some provinces. I moved to Ontario from BC. It's more of a rat-race where I live now, but one of the nice things is that the police here are investigated by a special unit which has very strict rules about non-bias. They're not part of the police department, they're not allowed to associate with depts they may be investigating, and when one is called in they're generally pulled from out-of-area.
In BC (and apparently Alberta), such investigations are in fact internal, and as such a lot of shit tends to pass that shouldn't.
One of note that always brings a chill down my spine is the Ian Bush case. See here, here, and here/ /here. Also note that the blood-spatter expert who testified against the police was later disciplined on "unrelated matters"
Sounds like a good way to frame somebody too though...
As per 2008 or back in 2007
It's not that some money doesn't make it to useful programs. Some does. But a huge amount is squandered on other things that really have no benefit to the majority of the country's populace, or sometimes even things that have negative effect on the gross majority.
There's a good amount of money that simply falls off the radar too. Some to secret projects, and others to line pockets.
I've been wondering what was up with the large amount of "common sense" outbreak recently. Then I remembered... there's an election coming up (in both Canada and the US now). Prepare to see lots of promises, bills drafted, and even some intelligent decisions for the next while, but don't expect it to last too far beyond the next election(s).
We can work out a "Truth" rating for Slashdot and TheOnion as soon as they find an appropriate one for "Faux News", erm, I mean, "Fox News"...
"There is a reason that it is automatically your fault if you rear-end someone"
I've heard this argument consistently, and while I've seen many accidents due to some idiot tailgating and not able to stop in time, or not paying attention, I've seen others where the guy was just plain cut off by a traffic dodger. In some situations, the traffic dodger then finds a sudden need to decellerate, and the person following (who had a perfectly acceptable safe following distance) nails him from behind because there simple wasn't time to adjust the SFD.
Around here that tends to ensure that you get:
a) Tailgated on the right
b) Stuck in front of or behind guys making a sudden lane-change because they're missing their offramp
c) Dodging vehicles coming in on the onramp
I'm not saying that slower vehicles shouldn't drive on the right, but it seems that 85% of the time those passing you on either end are actually traffic-dodgers who are going fast and - really - wouldn't give a shit what lane they're in.
Ahh, but the real question: if you fire yourself can you sue the company for wrongful termination?
My previous comment was, of course, a jest. Personally though, I wouldn't want *that* particular link to show up on my browsing history where my wife/boss (if you're self-employed are those both the same thing) could see it.
One of the best things you can hear in scientific circles is something along the lines of "What the hell is that?"
So long as it's not followed by "ohhhhh, shit."
But as far as this object goes, is this case that it wasn't previously bright enough to see in the current location, or that it wasn't in the current location until recently? If it's the latter, how fast would it have had to move to get to where it is now, and how would that compare to the maximum velocity of other known celestial objects?
Shows a pink slip coming in the mail from the employers of the parent and grandparent. Apparently something based on inappropriate google searches using company computers :-)
Having rusty experience is a little different from no experience at all. At that point it depends on how rusty you are (or how good you were to begin with) and how difficult the test is.
I've seen a lot of people get thrown by very basic questions, but hopefully somebody with (even dated) prior experience would manage those.
C++ really isn't my forte these days. Like you it's been quite a long time since I used it. I've had jobs where they've asked about my C++ experience, and I've let them know that (usually the jobs would be a lot of X and a little C++ anyhow, so it's ok). If I get a test with a bunch of hardcore C++ questions, then I usually hand it back and say "you advertised a position with a little C++ and a lot of [X]. According to this test it seems you want more of an expert in C++, so I don't think I'll be useful to you"
Not as bad as the Java test I was given on a Javascript (position mentioned JS and other - server side - languages, no Java) position... even though I'd told them that I have negligible Java skills several times prior and was assured the position didn't require it (damn recruiters).
A question something like:
How long does it take to connect to a website in "location X" (in a different country, and it was actually asking for a numerical answer).
Uhhhh... notwithstanding that it could be any number of different answers, the question itself was asking for a numerical answer. A slightly better answer might be:
How might you determine the length of time it takes to connect to a server in location X from our office.
But it's still a pretty dumb question for a paper test IMHO, because it's simply not the type of thing even many competent people might carry around in their pocket.
Of course the ones I absolutely despise are those that depend on knowing obscure flags to a given command, especially when those flags change between different distros/OS's. (and along that meme, whomever made the port flag differing in case between SSH/SCP different deserves a sound thrashing).
That you'd be better at a Java/C position than somebody who actually has recent experience and training/education in the languages the company uses?
It sounds like you're the type of person this test should root out.
Yes, being able to learn is a very important skill, but so is coming prepared with the necessary knowledge to do the job.
you'll find them quickly with a Google search because you're trained to know what to search for
If you want to learn a new language, do so on your own time before taking the position, rather than looking up code snippets on google and accidentally coding a gaping security hole into the app.
I've found plenty of code on google that made me want to retch. One of them was a fix to a firewall issue that it looks like me predecessor followed, because after I patched up his gaping equivalent to an "allow all from anywhere to anywhere" rule I also had the fix the issue(s) that he was covering with the rule. Dozens of people online had repeated the bad rule as a solution to the issue, so while google might have "an answer" don't expect it to have "a good answer" readily available.
(lawyer, accountant, sales, HR, etc.)
Lawyers and accountants tend to have some fairly serious certifications. Sales and HR may not have them, but managers may know more about which questions to ask (with HR, it may just be difficult to come up with an appropriate "test").
IT Professionals do have plenty of different certs as well, but mileage from those depends on what your company actually uses (I'm LPI - Linux Professional Institute - certified myself, but I found the tests to be much more a measure of memorization than any actual skill).
As a SysAdmin that is - happily - somewhat involved in the company hiring of IT, I wholly agree with a small IT test. In fact, I wrote one. And no, it's not onerous or brain-baking (I've taken some that were).
My boss is also smart enough to let me review the answers (since the answers I came up with might not be the only right ones). Some of the best candidates not only answered the questions correctly, but thought up scenarios I hadn't and came up with a bunch more correct answers.
I've never been insulted by being given a small test on job interviews, so long as the test is intelligent/fair. Personally, I'd rather be judged based on my ability to actively solve a problem than what skills I "say" that I have, because there are plenty of fakes out there.
Oh, and there are plenty of tests out there that suck as well. I had one where the test was actually provided by a third-party company, and the questions had multiple-choice answers that were all wrong. I know for sure that they are since I recorded the questions and tested the commands afterwards just to confirm that there wasn't some weird way of doing things that I was aware of. I actually got a high score on the test anyhow, but the interviewer (actually a recruiting company) didn't seem concerned with the fact that they were testing with impossible questions.
So here's a question for those that don't like tests: if they're hiring somebody to be your assistant do you want the guy that could solve a few base questions on Topics X,Y,Z, or the guy that says he can?