Actually, what he seems to have been trying to do (clumsily) is say that he wouldn't expect the intersection of the set of "Born-Again Christians" and "Nerds" to be much bigger than the empty set. He also said "I don't expect true nerds to be religious..."
Here's the crux: He never said "Born-Again Christians." The OP never said "Born-Again Christians." The Born-Agains/Evangelicals are, to use your topology metaphor, a small sub-set of Christianity. Kind of like sniffing "Modern Music Sucks" when what you mean to say is "Boy Bands Suck."
I live, since you asked, in the Hudson Valley, midway between Manhattan and Upper Bucolia. I've never met a Wiccan who did not fancy herself at least "technically inclined." It's a phenomenon more learned peeps than me have commented upon: Starhawk discussed it at length in her seminal study of modern wtichcraft, "Drawing Down the Moon," and Joss Whedon featured two-such self-proclaimed characters in his "Buffy" series (Willow and Jenny Calendar). Go figure.
It has been my experience that "nerds" do tend towards being secular in nature.
Well, like I say (politely, respectfully) to the people "whose experience it is" that all gays are lisping limp-wristed Judy-worshippers, "Maybe you should get out more...?" Is it that there is no "interestion of sets" between the nerdy and the religious in your circle of acquaintances, or just that there are no religious?
Dude, this guy wasn't "rooting for the underdog" (Yay, Hindus!! Sis Boom Bah!!), he's taking a shot at a *very* large and *very* diverse group of people and comparing them to the Goatse guy! Then, when he gets called out on it, he basically sez, "So sorry, I didn't mean just Christians, I mean *all* religious people (My many 'techno-pagan' friends will be tres amused to learn they can't be nerds cuz they're spiritual, BTW...).
He's as much a bigot as any white supremacist or anti-Semite.
Just that I don't expect true nerds to be religious and I always see christian or reborn -something everywhere and wonder why they do it for someone (jesus)that had nothing to do with what they're doing...
Maybe they believe Jesus had EVERYTHING to do with what they're doing. Something to think about.
Also think about the notion that if the guy's website was called "jewnerd" or "wiccannerd" or "muslimnerd" and you had made the same crack you would have been modded so low so fast it would make your head spin.
Fortunately for your slashdot karma, you selected a politically correct religious group to demonstrate your bigotry. 'grats on dodging a bullet, m'man!
his blog doesn't even render properly in my browser (Firefox, Unbuntu). Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen. Spew out your opinion and throw internet standards to the wind... it's all okay because you've got a big AdSense cheque coming your way.
Exactly. You nailed it. Good for him.
Geeks are funny sometimes. (OK, all the time...) We praise the Internet and the Web cuz it lowers the barriers to publication, democratizes punditry, allows any schmo from Podunk to make a name for himself doing whatever he's good at, but then, like the professional journalists looking down their noses at the bloggers "working in their pajamas," geeks sniff at the newbs whose work 'doesn't even render properly in... Unbuntu.'
Generally speaking, I would have to say I prefer the obvious jealousy and envy of the Geeks over the obvious jealousy and envy of the professional journalists cuz the Geeks' obvious jealousy and envy is much, much funnier.
"Doesn't render properly in Unbuntu." I'm sure that egregious failing will be gnawing away at him while he stands in line at the bank teller next week...
We don't expect your kids to play it, we don't want your kids to play it, the game is for adults.
Except, what adult worth his mortgage plays that crap? And Rockstar knows it. Their revenue would drop like a rock if only adults bought their GTA series.
The whole dirty truth-that-dare-not-speak-its-name here is that the GTA series is marketed to kids, bought and played by kids, but contains lots of material that is unsuitable for kids. Should the kids' parents be aware of what their children are playing, forbid it, slap 'em upside the head for trying to sneak it past them, whatever? Sure. But Rockstar is banking/has banked on the fact that the parents are oblivious, and that stinks, pure and simple.
Now this incident shines a spotlight on the whole series, and parents will be much more tuned-in. Good. Better the parents than the politicos, although Rockstar exces' lying (or was that merely, ermm, 'mis-direction'?) about the content is the kind of kindling that ignites congressional investigations.
"The collecting of this fingertip information and how it is to be used and what the source of that information is as it relates to what it will show -- I don't like it and we will look into it," Crossley said.
Shut up. And stop drooling.
Don't like it, don't go to Disneyland.
If a tavern owner says that I must sing two choruses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic while dancing the Hokey-Pokey before I can order a Scotch in his establishment, I'll take it into consideration as I shop my single malt money around. Maybe I'll even do the song-and-dance if he lets me light up while all the other pubs ban it. Who knows? The joys and amusements of a free market... But I sure as hell don't need the ACL-freakin'-U to 'protect' me.
"I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is, of course, the goal" -- Roger Nash Baldwin, Founder of the ACLU, and galaxy-class Nut
My point being, the summary is misleading in that it implies Valerie Plame was an undercover agent at the time of her "outing." Her husband, when pressed (cuz it's kinda dopey to complain about bureaucrats being outed...) admits as much.
Relevant quote from article: Wilson also said "my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."
No Spy, No Crime. (Another of those niggling details the press forgets amidst the excitement of their pitchfork-sharpening and torch-lighting...)
What is really needed is a way to take the RIAA out of the loop and have royalties go directly to the copyright holder (which eventually would be the performer or composer for new works).
Well, which is it, the performer or the composer? What about the producer? The recording engineer? Who's tracking all this data? Who's holding the money? (Please don't tell me it's the lead singer, or the code monkey who set up the torrent...)
There is still a business to the distribution of Art, and although the Internet may have made the process "simpler" to the consumer, the accounting and funds disbursement is still a nightmare. There's a reason, beyond the "Look, Ma, I signed with A&M!" appeal that artists sign away rights to Big Businesses: The Big Businesses handle the big business, and that frees up creators to create, and not balance books, write checks, and lick envelopes all day long.
Do many artists sign away too many rights? Are the labels and publishers too greedy? Inarguably. But artists need some middle-ground choice between being a slave and becoming a CPA (I'm not sure there is any genuine substantive difference between either fate, but you get my drift...)
For those joining us from overseas and parts West, Greenwich, Connecticut is among the more -- what's the word? -- 'tony' of digs. Sort of like a Beverly Hills for the New York glitter- and media-rati who don't like the feel of sand between their toes out in the Hamptons.
This usage stems from the 70s and 80s era usage of the plural "Vaxen" to refer to a class of computers which were based on Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX processor
I worked with Vaxen in the '80s. We also used terms like "time to rebootski," "cay-byools" for "cables," and "pooter" for "computer." We also quoted Monty Python, named our Vaxen after computers in William Gibson novels, argued over why Chekov never got his own ship, and giggled a lot. We were Geeks.
But we never presumed that if we were somehow persistent in our dweebishness that some of our geek-isms would be adopted in the English language proper. What is it with you 'virii' and 'cracker' and 'boxen' bozos that you seek such vindication from the mundanes? What, did the tech boom of the '90s so over-inflate your feelings of self-worth that you think you can wave some magic screwdriver and move language in any direction other than that which majority of people, the media, and academe doesn't want it to move?
English is a living language. Cope.
Right, And the Oxford English Dictionary (not... not... 'jargonfile' or 'wikipedia' or some other self-serving "hey, kids, let's put on a reference work! Gosh, I know, we can use the Web!!" recent invention) has its finger on the pulse of that living language. When the OED recognizes 'boxen' as meaning 'more than one box,' I'll deal with it, but in the long, long meantime, I'm suggesting it's you be the one doing the 'coping.'
IIRC the first Batman movie (Tim Burton's one, not the 1966 one) was filmed in the UK
Um, dood, by "Hollywood Movie" one means those films created and distributed by the US Studio system. They can be shot anywhere, not just that narrow section of Los Angeles beneath that big sign on the hillside...
So, would it be worth it, or is this essentially more Hollywood crap?
As contrasted, say, by those fine, fine French superhero films? Or those magnificent big-budget Dutch action-adventure movies?
I mean, d00d, it's a Batman flick! The scale for movies adapted from comix goes from Corman's Fantastic Four at the crap end up through Spiderman 2 on the Tiffany side, but either way it's all Hollywood. Don't get all sniffy and European when you're discussing grand-scale superhero movies: nobody does them better -- or worse -- than Hollywood, cuz nobody else does them at all!
Um, what does this have to do with your country? Definitions re what is and is not obscene have ever been defined at the state and local level.
This makes sense to me. Folks in Salt Lake City don't have the same mores as the folks in Greenwich Village, and these regions should all have the ability to legislate (or not) as the residents deem fit.
Now that you've proven my point, why don't you address the issue of your racist statements?
Oh, and I guess "RobotRunAmok" is supposed to denote you as a serious individual who retired his crayons years ago, huh? Sounds like a misguided sci-fi fan still living in mommy's basement to me. I post as AC...big fucking deal. Having an account on/. does not, my dear bunky, make you a man.
See you after the Klan rally, asshole
Do try to keep up, Niblet. I addressed the statement you mistakenly call "racist" elsewhere in this thread hours ago.
Now, once you have sufficiently cleaned the egg from your face, my offer still stands: Tell me how and when I have offended you here recently, and I'll see about an apology.
I mean, you were fabulously wrong about the racism; chances are strong you've misread some of my other posts as well (I sometimes use big words, my mommy tells me...)
Anyone who has read RobotRunAmok's comments recently should conclude, as I have, that he is an arrogant, pretentious asshole & should be disregarded as such
And in what way have I broken your crayons recently, Bunky? C'mon, I'm in a humbled and expansive mood right now, creep out of the AC closet and let's talk about it like adults. If I need to apologize, I will (but I don't apologize to -- let alone usually speak with -- AC's, so you've got to walk like a man if you want anything besides a monologue.)
I did not mean to imply that all southerners were bigots. (My experience has been just the opposite, actually.) I sincerely regret if the phrasing of my original post seemed as a slur.
I am making a mental note to always go with my first instinct, which in this case was to make a "cheese" reference...
The point of it all, for those who can't see past the allegations of bigotry, is that the continued use of the word "cracker" in an IT context when it already has so many other definitions (particularly some that are so racially-charged, as we have seen here today) is silly and serves no one except the script-kiddie Johnny-Mnemonic-wannabes who missed out on 1994 the first time round.
Again, I apologize for the poor phraseology, and hope I did not offend any southerners.
Besides, a top pro athlete (okay, it's golf, but you get my point) and a young top record exec are hardly the classic definitions of 'nerd.'
When the Number 3 Guy in something like the Free Software Foundation -- you know, the under-paid smart one who does all the real work -- bags a supermodel, call me.
Slashdot Mirror
Why are Sys Admins (and secretaries, I suppose) singled out for their own special day?
Because they are traditionally the touchiest and thinnest-skinned groups within any corporation?
Actually, what he seems to have been trying to do (clumsily) is say that he wouldn't expect the intersection of the set of "Born-Again Christians" and "Nerds" to be much bigger than the empty set. He also said "I don't expect true nerds to be religious..."
Here's the crux: He never said "Born-Again Christians." The OP never said "Born-Again Christians." The Born-Agains/Evangelicals are, to use your topology metaphor, a small sub-set of Christianity. Kind of like sniffing "Modern Music Sucks" when what you mean to say is "Boy Bands Suck."
I live, since you asked, in the Hudson Valley, midway between Manhattan and Upper Bucolia. I've never met a Wiccan who did not fancy herself at least "technically inclined." It's a phenomenon more learned peeps than me have commented upon: Starhawk discussed it at length in her seminal study of modern wtichcraft, "Drawing Down the Moon," and Joss Whedon featured two-such self-proclaimed characters in his "Buffy" series (Willow and Jenny Calendar). Go figure.
It has been my experience that "nerds" do tend towards being secular in nature.
Well, like I say (politely, respectfully) to the people "whose experience it is" that all gays are lisping limp-wristed Judy-worshippers, "Maybe you should get out more...?" Is it that there is no "interestion of sets" between the nerdy and the religious in your circle of acquaintances, or just that there are no religious?
Huh?
Dude, this guy wasn't "rooting for the underdog" (Yay, Hindus!! Sis Boom Bah!!), he's taking a shot at a *very* large and *very* diverse group of people and comparing them to the Goatse guy! Then, when he gets called out on it, he basically sez, "So sorry, I didn't mean just Christians, I mean *all* religious people (My many 'techno-pagan' friends will be tres amused to learn they can't be nerds cuz they're spiritual, BTW...).
He's as much a bigot as any white supremacist or anti-Semite.
Just that I don't expect true nerds to be religious and I always see christian or reborn -something everywhere and wonder why they do it for someone (jesus)that had nothing to do with what they're doing...
Maybe they believe Jesus had EVERYTHING to do with what they're doing. Something to think about.
Also think about the notion that if the guy's website was called "jewnerd" or "wiccannerd" or "muslimnerd" and you had made the same crack you would have been modded so low so fast it would make your head spin.
Fortunately for your slashdot karma, you selected a politically correct religious group to demonstrate your bigotry. 'grats on dodging a bullet, m'man!
christiannerds hey?
To me that's almost as revolting as goatse...
How do you figure?
his blog doesn't even render properly in my browser (Firefox, Unbuntu). Step right this way, ladies and gentlemen. Spew out your opinion and throw internet standards to the wind... it's all okay because you've got a big AdSense cheque coming your way.
Exactly. You nailed it. Good for him.
Geeks are funny sometimes. (OK, all the time...) We praise the Internet and the Web cuz it lowers the barriers to publication, democratizes punditry, allows any schmo from Podunk to make a name for himself doing whatever he's good at, but then, like the professional journalists looking down their noses at the bloggers "working in their pajamas," geeks sniff at the newbs whose work 'doesn't even render properly in... Unbuntu.'
Generally speaking, I would have to say I prefer the obvious jealousy and envy of the Geeks over the obvious jealousy and envy of the professional journalists cuz the Geeks' obvious jealousy and envy is much, much funnier.
"Doesn't render properly in Unbuntu." I'm sure that egregious failing will be gnawing away at him while he stands in line at the bank teller next week...
We don't expect your kids to play it, we don't want your kids to play it, the game is for adults.
Except, what adult worth his mortgage plays that crap? And Rockstar knows it. Their revenue would drop like a rock if only adults bought their GTA series.
The whole dirty truth-that-dare-not-speak-its-name here is that the GTA series is marketed to kids, bought and played by kids, but contains lots of material that is unsuitable for kids. Should the kids' parents be aware of what their children are playing, forbid it, slap 'em upside the head for trying to sneak it past them, whatever? Sure. But Rockstar is banking/has banked on the fact that the parents are oblivious, and that stinks, pure and simple.
Now this incident shines a spotlight on the whole series, and parents will be much more tuned-in. Good. Better the parents than the politicos, although Rockstar exces' lying (or was that merely, ermm, 'mis-direction'?) about the content is the kind of kindling that ignites congressional investigations.
Bozos...
"They came for the Anonymous Cowards, but I was not an Anonymous Coward, so I did not speak up...?"
Shut up. Stop drooling.
"The collecting of this fingertip information and how it is to be used and what the source of that information is as it relates to what it will show -- I don't like it and we will look into it," Crossley said.
Shut up. And stop drooling.
Don't like it, don't go to Disneyland.
If a tavern owner says that I must sing two choruses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic while dancing the Hokey-Pokey before I can order a Scotch in his establishment, I'll take it into consideration as I shop my single malt money around. Maybe I'll even do the song-and-dance if he lets me light up while all the other pubs ban it. Who knows? The joys and amusements of a free market... But I sure as hell don't need the ACL-freakin'-U to 'protect' me.
My point being, the summary is misleading in that it implies Valerie Plame was an undercover agent at the time of her "outing." Her husband, when pressed (cuz it's kinda dopey to complain about bureaucrats being outed...) admits as much.
Relevant quote from article:
Wilson also said "my wife was not a clandestine officer the day that Bob Novak blew her identity."
No Spy, No Crime. (Another of those niggling details the press forgets amidst the excitement of their pitchfork-sharpening and torch-lighting...)
Here's a tip: You cannot give offense, you can only take it.
To paraphrase that icon of Nerd-dom, James Kirk, "Sorry about your thin skin, but as we say on Earth, 'C'est la vie.'"
At least they didn't get planes flown into their skyscrapers. I think they are making too big of a deal about it.
Multiple bombs... coordinated attack... rush hour in a major Western city... people dead... transit systems shut down... start of the G8 conference...
And you think "they" are making too big of a deal about it?! Christ-on-a-crutch, man, what video game are you living in?
What is really needed is a way to take the RIAA out of the loop and have royalties go directly to the copyright holder (which eventually would be the performer or composer for new works).
Well, which is it, the performer or the composer? What about the producer? The recording engineer? Who's tracking all this data? Who's holding the money? (Please don't tell me it's the lead singer, or the code monkey who set up the torrent...)
There is still a business to the distribution of Art, and although the Internet may have made the process "simpler" to the consumer, the accounting and funds disbursement is still a nightmare. There's a reason, beyond the "Look, Ma, I signed with A&M!" appeal that artists sign away rights to Big Businesses: The Big Businesses handle the big business, and that frees up creators to create, and not balance books, write checks, and lick envelopes all day long.
Do many artists sign away too many rights? Are the labels and publishers too greedy? Inarguably. But artists need some middle-ground choice between being a slave and becoming a CPA (I'm not sure there is any genuine substantive difference between either fate, but you get my drift...)
you proceeded to show how you yourself are a classist
How do you figure?
Irony?
English?
For those joining us from overseas and parts West, Greenwich, Connecticut is among the more -- what's the word? -- 'tony' of digs. Sort of like a Beverly Hills for the New York glitter- and media-rati who don't like the feel of sand between their toes out in the Hamptons.
This usage stems from the 70s and 80s era usage of the plural "Vaxen" to refer to a class of computers which were based on Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX processor
I worked with Vaxen in the '80s. We also used terms like "time to rebootski," "cay-byools" for "cables," and "pooter" for "computer." We also quoted Monty Python, named our Vaxen after computers in William Gibson novels, argued over why Chekov never got his own ship, and giggled a lot. We were Geeks.
But we never presumed that if we were somehow persistent in our dweebishness that some of our geek-isms would be adopted in the English language proper. What is it with you 'virii' and 'cracker' and 'boxen' bozos that you seek such vindication from the mundanes? What, did the tech boom of the '90s so over-inflate your feelings of self-worth that you think you can wave some magic screwdriver and move language in any direction other than that which majority of people, the media, and academe doesn't want it to move?
English is a living language. Cope.
Right, And the Oxford English Dictionary (not... not... 'jargonfile' or 'wikipedia' or some other self-serving "hey, kids, let's put on a reference work! Gosh, I know, we can use the Web!!" recent invention) has its finger on the pulse of that living language. When the OED recognizes 'boxen' as meaning 'more than one box,' I'll deal with it, but in the long, long meantime, I'm suggesting it's you be the one doing the 'coping.'
IIRC the first Batman movie (Tim Burton's one, not the 1966 one) was filmed in the UK
Um, dood, by "Hollywood Movie" one means those films created and distributed by the US Studio system. They can be shot anywhere, not just that narrow section of Los Angeles beneath that big sign on the hillside...
*sigh* somedays I wonder why I still bother...
So, would it be worth it, or is this essentially more Hollywood crap?
As contrasted, say, by those fine, fine French superhero films? Or those magnificent big-budget Dutch action-adventure movies?
I mean, d00d, it's a Batman flick! The scale for movies adapted from comix goes from Corman's Fantastic Four at the crap end up through Spiderman 2 on the Tiffany side, but either way it's all Hollywood. Don't get all sniffy and European when you're discussing grand-scale superhero movies: nobody does them better -- or worse -- than Hollywood, cuz nobody else does them at all!
Not in my country, motherfuckers
Um, what does this have to do with your country? Definitions re what is and is not obscene have ever been defined at the state and local level.
This makes sense to me. Folks in Salt Lake City don't have the same mores as the folks in Greenwich Village, and these regions should all have the ability to legislate (or not) as the residents deem fit.
Don't confuse Porn with Free Speech.
Now that you've proven my point, why don't you address the issue of your racist statements?
/. does not, my dear bunky, make you a man.
Oh, and I guess "RobotRunAmok" is supposed to denote you as a serious individual who retired his crayons years ago, huh? Sounds like a misguided sci-fi fan still living in mommy's basement to me. I post as AC...big fucking deal. Having an account on
See you after the Klan rally, asshole
Do try to keep up, Niblet. I addressed the statement you mistakenly call "racist" elsewhere in this thread hours ago.
Now, once you have sufficiently cleaned the egg from your face, my offer still stands: Tell me how and when I have offended you here recently, and I'll see about an apology.
I mean, you were fabulously wrong about the racism; chances are strong you've misread some of my other posts as well (I sometimes use big words, my mommy tells me...)
Anyone who has read RobotRunAmok's comments recently should conclude, as I have, that he is an arrogant, pretentious asshole & should be disregarded as such
And in what way have I broken your crayons recently, Bunky? C'mon, I'm in a humbled and expansive mood right now, creep out of the AC closet and let's talk about it like adults. If I need to apologize, I will (but I don't apologize to -- let alone usually speak with -- AC's, so you've got to walk like a man if you want anything besides a monologue.)
Stage is yours, my friend...
I did not mean to imply that all southerners were bigots. (My experience has been just the opposite, actually.) I sincerely regret if the phrasing of my original post seemed as a slur.
I am making a mental note to always go with my first instinct, which in this case was to make a "cheese" reference...
The point of it all, for those who can't see past the allegations of bigotry, is that the continued use of the word "cracker" in an IT context when it already has so many other definitions (particularly some that are so racially-charged, as we have seen here today) is silly and serves no one except the script-kiddie Johnny-Mnemonic-wannabes who missed out on 1994 the first time round.
Again, I apologize for the poor phraseology, and hope I did not offend any southerners.
And the hotspots less sympathetic to our racist neighbors south of the Mason-Dixon line? These are somehow more secure?
I'm so confused...
...when the Nerds have the dough-re-mi.
Besides, a top pro athlete (okay, it's golf, but you get my point) and a young top record exec are hardly the classic definitions of 'nerd.'
When the Number 3 Guy in something like the Free Software Foundation -- you know, the under-paid smart one who does all the real work -- bags a supermodel, call me.