I use the phrase Joe Sixpack often. Been using it for over 20 years. I have never taken it to mean "clueless" or "unwashed." It's used to describe someone who is an average consumer who typically doesn't care very passionateley, if at all, about the wacky techno-babble stuff that is discussed on this board, or among a particular field's cognoscenti. If someone is a car mechanic, talking to another car mechanic about some spark plug minutiae, then *I* am Joe Sixpack for purposes of that discussion. Likewise two accountants grousing over lunch about the latest amortization macros in their spreadsheets.
"Newbie" is not an appropriate word to use to describe the "non-cognoscenti" as it implies the person is "on the path" to becoming an insider (of something). I am not a "newbie" as relates to automotive mechanics. I've no desire to delve into a car's deeper mysteries. I just want to turn the key and have the thing move.
Most people don't care one way or the other about their computer's operating systems, nor will they ever, nor should they have to. "Does it play most applications I see advertised? Great!" They are Joe Sixpacks; they are not clueless, nor are they unwashed.
You and I, whether through vocation or avocation, know and care a lot about computer systems. All well, good, and harmless. There are plenty of people wa-a-a-a-y smarter and better washed than either you or I who are "Joe Sixpack" when it comes to computer operating systems. We know it and they know it. None of us have had a problem with the term until you brought this up...
Feel better, now that you understand the meaning of the phrase?
C'mon, niblet, they're the New York friggin' Times, they're in business to make money. You have access to everything in the print edition at a cost of zero beans. It's among the best, most amazing, values on the Web. You want to go slogging through Google to find an imprint of the story, be our guest, but please excuse the rest of us who have registered there years ago and have somehow managed to survive this long with our privacy, dignity, and self-esteem intact.
You think the average American -- hell, the above-average American -- gives a damn about copyright tenure? For Joe Sixpack, it is an issue right up there with water rights on Mars. You can't even include this in the same conversation as coming down on the telemarketers who call at dinner time.
Seriously, how many people do you think there are like you or me who stand to make a mint when we can turn pro with our Steamboat Willie fan-fic, huh?
Seems to me they have to raise the bar a little bit for these entries, else they'll be bombarded. Granted, they're soliciting, but there's a difference between holding your cattle call at 8:00am on a Thursday in a SoHo loft and Noon on a Saturday in Central Park. You'd be surprised at how many time-wasting wannabes and poseurs the simple requirement of licking a stamp and dropping an envelope into a box eliminates.
Well, sure, it's IE biased. Any study of general Web browsing habits will be IE biased. IE owns something like 96% of the marketplace, rightly or wrongly.
The mozilla guys could add a feature wherein their users flip webpages via psychokinesis and it would still only be a footnote in any story about what the majority does.
Damn spiffy footnote, but a footnote nonetheless...
Have you even seen Ice Age or Lilo & Stitch? Seriously, do you know what you're talking about?
Or is your reaction merely a standard-issue anti-Disney karma whoring attempt?
Both of the flicks were wonderful, straying occasionally into the brilliant. As the previous poster mentioned, Ice Age had its rougher moments, but it was still better than 90% of the animation (Western or Asian) produced last year.
Get an informed opinion, dude, or just lurk, 'kay? You'll learn something.
I said "SF," not "SF Television." Or what passes for SF on Television.
Once upon a time, the only way anyone "accessed" SF or Fantasy was through books. Now, I'm always amused by how many self-professed "Sci-Fi fans'" only knowledge of the genre is from the raygun-and-catsuit content of TV and movies.
Part of the value in a successful mini-series based upon a classic SF book is, to my way of thinking, the number of people who will read the book afterwards, get 'hooked,' and read some more...
just look at what over-commercialization has done to the Star Trek franchise?
OK, I'll bite. What?
Seriously, the Dune books are written, they are what they are. No one can take anything away from them. If, as a result of the new TV movies, five people go and read the books who might never have picked them up, great! It's not like Frank Herbert is still writing 'em and some new populist direction derived from the TV shows is going to somehow alter a greatness that might have been or the greatness that is and was.
With luck, the shows will be wildly successful, a new generation of people will read the novels, and the dim expectations of a youth culture made to believe that the likes of "Farscape" or "Babylon 5" constitute the best SF has to offer, simply because they're a tick above the Star Trek/Star Wars "Happy Meal" fodder, will be raised.
I don't think the Fantsy genre has been ill-served by Peter Jackson's reverent treatment of LOTR. If anything, it means that the public tolerance for a "Sword and the Sorcerer II" has been lowered drastically. All good.
Pardon me while I re-post the parent message in this thread back above the -1 threshold
LOL! You've just taken "getting Trolled" to a whole new level, ya boob!
Every anime-oriented thread on this board gets some AC or other posting this pseudo-sociology crap to merely get a rise out of all the 'toon heads here. You're supposed to ignore him, Bunky, not actually go to the trouble of re-posting his tripe after the editors demote it below zero!
Boy, don't I wish! Evolution is a shadow of Outlook. Don't get me wrong, I use Evolution, am not unhappy with it, but it lacks Outlook's journal and Notes function, and that's just off the top list of features. No support for PocketPC synching almost made it a deal breaker for me. I know it still does for many others.
I love Linux and am a big advocate, but there is nothing comparable to Outlook written for Linux yet. I get by with Evolution, after a fashion. Outlook is the only "office" app I miss from my Windows days.
Actually thinking of upgrading my iPaq to a Zaurus; does anyone know if Evolution will even synch with that?
To my mind it's as if SlashDot ran a story on, say, the viscosity of motor oil, and somebody replies, "Hey, funny thing about that viscosity, my engine fell out of my car once and I found out the hard way I should have changed the oil periodically." I believe most people, if pressed, would find it very difficult to respond to that with a mere "How interesting! Thanks for the tip!"
I still find it more naughty to send an SMS to my girl to get her all hot and bothered
Careful cowboy, there's such a thing here as too much information...
He's not a troll, he's on the mark. Someone who has a rift with a girlfriend who tries to reconcile THROUGH E-MAIL OF ALL THINGS, and the guy doesn't get in on the reconciliation because there's a coding error in the whitelisting of his spam filter, and the guy THEN GOES ON SLASHDOT to tell everyone... man, that's like something you would read in The Onion. Wow.
I mean, yeah, everyone shoots themselves in the foot at one time or another. The trick is to live your life without a lot of Trident missiles handy...
Taco, ol' Sod, I see you're hard at work addressing those complaints from our brothers overseas about the persistent American slant of SlashDot.
Good On Ya, Mate!
That said, and out of fear of being mod'd OT, let me add that I have had success training Evolution's filter system to recognize spam not based on the subject but on the domain name. Without ever bothering with public blacklists, I've just patiently built out my own Enemies List over the years. The "keywords," if you will, in so many of the spammers' domains are remarkably similar -- "email" "deals" "free" etc. Combine that with whitelisting based upon my address list, and I think I've had maybe 2 false plucks for as long as I can remember (receiving on the order of 150 spams daily)
... both have "walker" as a last name. I suspect someone's shilling for their wife/husband/brother/sister
Let's listen in on a phonecall, occuring between two points in the Beltway area, right about now...
RH Walker: "Hi, honey! I submitted an article to SlashDot about your Berners-Lee Tolkien thingy, and that sweet michael was nice enough to post it. You'll be real famous now!" Leslie Walker: "You... what?" RH Walker: "SlashDot, you know that 'News for Nerds, Stuff that...'" Leslie Walker: "I KNOW WHAT SLASHDOT IS, YOU CLOD!" RH Walker: "But, darling, why are you so upset?" Leslie Walker: "Because now the newspaper's webserver is jammed by a bunch of smelly Hobbit fanatics who are probably ripping me a new one about my rather sketchy Tolkien analogies, and anyone who might actually buy into my trendy metaphors unquestioningly CAN'T READ THE ARTICLE!!" RH Walker:"...oops..."
Umm, if most people don't care, why should most representatives?
You want to get lawyers and litigation rolling for something like this when there is such a backlog of legislation pending in areas like, say, healthcare where most people DO care? There is a reason "our" voice is small on "legal" matters like this: It's because it's a waste of legislators' time!
...and on another "legal" note: I doubt whether either the Internet Explorer web browser or the Windows Operating system and Registry on your PC would count as your "personal property." You've a license for it, is all.
hating capitalism, or in this case, feeling uneasy about lining the pockets of someone who's got more than enough money already, does not equal socialism
No, that's called "Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face." If you like the work the man puts out, buy into it. If you don't like, buy into something else. Why do you feel you have to check an artist's bank account before you decide whether or not the art itself is worthy of your attention or money?
How much money is "enough," by the way? Does Peter Jackson have enough money? Does William Gibson? Please let me know soon, cuz I wanted to see the Two Towers this weekend and pick up Gibson's book while I was at the mall, but I won't if you tell me they already have enough dough.
The PC vs. Console Game Debate is being carried out far more eloquently in other places on the 'net than either you or I can hope to emulate here. I do agree with you re RTS games, and since I've never been a big fan of them, I found my transition to console much easier.
As for the "Cute Character" games, they have never been my cup of tea either, and for the longest time I had the misconception (as you might) that consoles were all geared to platformers.
Of course, then came Halo and the Xbox, and all the quanta shifted.
But more importantly, my five year old and eight year old love the platformers, and they are making the gaming platform decisions of tomorrow, not you and I.
Most signifianctly, it does not matter what you and I think, the transition of gaming industry focus away from PC's and towards consoles has already begun, and is irreversible, not to mention logical. This is not to say that PC gaming will ever go away, but I think, ten years from now, PC Games will be to Console Games what Mac Games are to PC games today.
Slashdot Mirror
Add in Sean Connery
Happy to oblige:
"I'll take 'Amoral' for One Hundred!"
"Err, that's 'Immortals'..."
"Screw You, Trebek!!"
There's a boatload of stuff that be used in terrorist acts.
I'm guessing that MacGyver revival is now doomed before it begins...
I use the phrase Joe Sixpack often. Been using it for over 20 years. I have never taken it to mean "clueless" or "unwashed." It's used to describe someone who is an average consumer who typically doesn't care very passionateley, if at all, about the wacky techno-babble stuff that is discussed on this board, or among a particular field's cognoscenti. If someone is a car mechanic, talking to another car mechanic about some spark plug minutiae, then *I* am Joe Sixpack for purposes of that discussion. Likewise two accountants grousing over lunch about the latest amortization macros in their spreadsheets.
"Newbie" is not an appropriate word to use to describe the "non-cognoscenti" as it implies the person is "on the path" to becoming an insider (of something). I am not a "newbie" as relates to automotive mechanics. I've no desire to delve into a car's deeper mysteries. I just want to turn the key and have the thing move.
Most people don't care one way or the other about their computer's operating systems, nor will they ever, nor should they have to. "Does it play most applications I see advertised? Great!" They are Joe Sixpacks; they are not clueless, nor are they unwashed.
You and I, whether through vocation or avocation, know and care a lot about computer systems. All well, good, and harmless. There are plenty of people wa-a-a-a-y smarter and better washed than either you or I who are "Joe Sixpack" when it comes to computer operating systems. We know it and they know it. None of us have had a problem with the term until you brought this up...
Feel better, now that you understand the meaning of the phrase?
"Justify this behavior?"
C'mon, niblet, they're the New York friggin' Times, they're in business to make money. You have access to everything in the print edition at a cost of zero beans. It's among the best, most amazing, values on the Web. You want to go slogging through Google to find an imprint of the story, be our guest, but please excuse the rest of us who have registered there years ago and have somehow managed to survive this long with our privacy, dignity, and self-esteem intact.
Grow up!! just... grow up...
You think the average American -- hell, the above-average American -- gives a damn about copyright tenure? For Joe Sixpack, it is an issue right up there with water rights on Mars. You can't even include this in the same conversation as coming down on the telemarketers who call at dinner time.
Seriously, how many people do you think there are like you or me who stand to make a mint when we can turn pro with our Steamboat Willie fan-fic, huh?
Not very technically saavy they seem
Talk like Yoda you do much?
Seems to me they have to raise the bar a little bit for these entries, else they'll be bombarded. Granted, they're soliciting, but there's a difference between holding your cattle call at 8:00am on a Thursday in a SoHo loft and Noon on a Saturday in Central Park. You'd be surprised at how many time-wasting wannabes and poseurs the simple requirement of licking a stamp and dropping an envelope into a box eliminates.
Well, sure, it's IE biased. Any study of general Web browsing habits will be IE biased. IE owns something like 96% of the marketplace, rightly or wrongly.
The mozilla guys could add a feature wherein their users flip webpages via psychokinesis and it would still only be a footnote in any story about what the majority does.
Damn spiffy footnote, but a footnote nonetheless...
Have you even seen Ice Age or Lilo & Stitch? Seriously, do you know what you're talking about?
Or is your reaction merely a standard-issue anti-Disney karma whoring attempt?
Both of the flicks were wonderful, straying occasionally into the brilliant. As the previous poster mentioned, Ice Age had its rougher moments, but it was still better than 90% of the animation (Western or Asian) produced last year.
Get an informed opinion, dude, or just lurk, 'kay? You'll learn something.
WinXP?! Because...?
Best to load a different OS, no?
Light a candle rather than curse the darkness, and all that...
I said "SF," not "SF Television." Or what passes for SF on Television.
Once upon a time, the only way anyone "accessed" SF or Fantasy was through books. Now, I'm always amused by how many self-professed "Sci-Fi fans'" only knowledge of the genre is from the raygun-and-catsuit content of TV and movies.
Part of the value in a successful mini-series based upon a classic SF book is, to my way of thinking, the number of people who will read the book afterwards, get 'hooked,' and read some more...
just look at what over-commercialization has done to the Star Trek franchise?
OK, I'll bite. What?
Seriously, the Dune books are written, they are what they are. No one can take anything away from them. If, as a result of the new TV movies, five people go and read the books who might never have picked them up, great! It's not like Frank Herbert is still writing 'em and some new populist direction derived from the TV shows is going to somehow alter a greatness that might have been or the greatness that is and was.
With luck, the shows will be wildly successful, a new generation of people will read the novels, and the dim expectations of a youth culture made to believe that the likes of "Farscape" or "Babylon 5" constitute the best SF has to offer, simply because they're a tick above the Star Trek/Star Wars "Happy Meal" fodder, will be raised.
I don't think the Fantsy genre has been ill-served by Peter Jackson's reverent treatment of LOTR. If anything, it means that the public tolerance for a "Sword and the Sorcerer II" has been lowered drastically. All good.
>Probably nothing to users who read this site
I don't understand, why do you say that?
Ben. Ben!! I'm surprised at you! It doesn't have to help Apple. It only has to help The Community!
Say you're sorry now.
LOL! You've just taken "getting Trolled" to a whole new level, ya boob!
Every anime-oriented thread on this board gets some AC or other posting this pseudo-sociology crap to merely get a rise out of all the 'toon heads here. You're supposed to ignore him, Bunky, not actually go to the trouble of re-posting his tripe after the editors demote it below zero!
Somebody with points please mod this guy into the sub-basement as "Troll" before I'm forced to go to his house and kick him down a flight of stairs.
Didn't it open the same weekend as Rob Schneider's The Hot Chick?
My God, what was Paramount thinking of!
Evolution as an Outlook replacement
Boy, don't I wish! Evolution is a shadow of Outlook. Don't get me wrong, I use Evolution, am not unhappy with it, but it lacks Outlook's journal and Notes function, and that's just off the top list of features. No support for PocketPC synching almost made it a deal breaker for me. I know it still does for many others.
I love Linux and am a big advocate, but there is nothing comparable to Outlook written for Linux yet. I get by with Evolution, after a fashion. Outlook is the only "office" app I miss from my Windows days.
Actually thinking of upgrading my iPaq to a Zaurus; does anyone know if Evolution will even synch with that?
To my mind it's as if SlashDot ran a story on, say, the viscosity of motor oil, and somebody replies, "Hey, funny thing about that viscosity, my engine fell out of my car once and I found out the hard way I should have changed the oil periodically." I believe most people, if pressed, would find it very difficult to respond to that with a mere "How interesting! Thanks for the tip!"
I still find it more naughty to send an SMS to my girl to get her all hot and bothered
Careful cowboy, there's such a thing here as too much information...
Dude... seriously here for a minute...
He's not a troll, he's on the mark. Someone who has a rift with a girlfriend who tries to reconcile THROUGH E-MAIL OF ALL THINGS, and the guy doesn't get in on the reconciliation because there's a coding error in the whitelisting of his spam filter, and the guy THEN GOES ON SLASHDOT to tell everyone... man, that's like something you would read in The Onion. Wow.
I mean, yeah, everyone shoots themselves in the foot at one time or another. The trick is to live your life without a lot of Trident missiles handy...
bit me on the bum
Taco, ol' Sod, I see you're hard at work addressing those complaints from our brothers overseas about the persistent American slant of SlashDot.
Good On Ya, Mate!
That said, and out of fear of being mod'd OT, let me add that I have had success training Evolution's filter system to recognize spam not based on the subject but on the domain name. Without ever bothering with public blacklists, I've just patiently built out my own Enemies List over the years. The "keywords," if you will, in so many of the spammers' domains are remarkably similar -- "email" "deals" "free" etc. Combine that with whitelisting based upon my address list, and I think I've had maybe 2 false plucks for as long as I can remember (receiving on the order of 150 spams daily)
Pick One.
wife/husband/brother/sister
Let's listen in on a phonecall, occuring between two points in the Beltway area, right about now...
RH Walker: "Hi, honey! I submitted an article to SlashDot about your Berners-Lee Tolkien thingy, and that sweet michael was nice enough to post it. You'll be real famous now!"
Leslie Walker: "You... what?"
RH Walker: "SlashDot, you know that 'News for Nerds, Stuff that...'"
Leslie Walker: "I KNOW WHAT SLASHDOT IS, YOU CLOD!"
RH Walker: "But, darling, why are you so upset?"
Leslie Walker: "Because now the newspaper's webserver is jammed by a bunch of smelly Hobbit fanatics who are probably ripping me a new one about my rather sketchy Tolkien analogies, and anyone who might actually buy into my trendy metaphors unquestioningly CAN'T READ THE ARTICLE!!"
RH Walker:"...oops..."
Umm, if most people don't care, why should most representatives?
You want to get lawyers and litigation rolling for something like this when there is such a backlog of legislation pending in areas like, say, healthcare where most people DO care? There is a reason "our" voice is small on "legal" matters like this: It's because it's a waste of legislators' time!
hating capitalism, or in this case, feeling uneasy about lining the pockets of someone who's got more than enough money already, does not equal socialism
No, that's called "Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face." If you like the work the man puts out, buy into it. If you don't like, buy into something else. Why do you feel you have to check an artist's bank account before you decide whether or not the art itself is worthy of your attention or money?
How much money is "enough," by the way? Does Peter Jackson have enough money? Does William Gibson? Please let me know soon, cuz I wanted to see the Two Towers this weekend and pick up Gibson's book while I was at the mall, but I won't if you tell me they already have enough dough.
Classist buffoon...
The PC vs. Console Game Debate is being carried out far more eloquently in other places on the 'net than either you or I can hope to emulate here. I do agree with you re RTS games, and since I've never been a big fan of them, I found my transition to console much easier.
As for the "Cute Character" games, they have never been my cup of tea either, and for the longest time I had the misconception (as you might) that consoles were all geared to platformers.
Of course, then came Halo and the Xbox, and all the quanta shifted.
But more importantly, my five year old and eight year old love the platformers, and they are making the gaming platform decisions of tomorrow, not you and I.
Most signifianctly, it does not matter what you and I think, the transition of gaming industry focus away from PC's and towards consoles has already begun, and is irreversible, not to mention logical. This is not to say that PC gaming will ever go away, but I think, ten years from now, PC Games will be to Console Games what Mac Games are to PC games today.