To be honest attitudes like that are part of what holds the adoption of open source back. There is nothing wrong with that attitude, I share it - I am put off too, but OSS needs to get past that "by geeks for geeks" attitude *if* it wants to dominate.
My statement had nothing to do with OSS zealotry or any sort of "geeks for geeks" agenda. OSS is a nice idea, but I care more about whether the product/app/etc works and does what I need it to do. I won't use (or encourage others to use) ill-fitting products just because they are OSS.
If someone wants to inform me or to change my mind about something, he is better off just presenting the facts and showing - in a reasonably objective fashion - why A is better than B. This is not geeky; this is pragmatic. I also said Y[G]MMV, which should be a clear indication that I do not expect everyone to hold the same view.
The letter's author could have mentioned "an opportunity to collaborate" or similar in the first paragraph; this would have conveyed the desired point without mentioning an "exciting new IBM product". As was mentioned elsewhere, IBM is a commercial entity; the reader will likely interpret the opener as "IBM wants to sell me something" (where sell==exchange_money_for_goods_and_services).
Note also that I didn't have a problem with the rest of the letter.
I'd like to share some information on an exciting new IBM product that was built in Massachusetts but is expected to have implications on both a national and international level.
It would have been nice to make the point without making the letter seem like a cold-call sales pitch. I found the first paragraph a bit off-putting - YGMMV.
Seems like this would be the PERFECT product to have a rechargeable solar battery!
Since we're integrating gadgets, we could place small solar panels on a hat and attach the hat to the glasses. The panels would charge the battery while providing additional sun protection, and it wouldn't look much dorkier than the Oakleys. (How could it?)
The silly things is, now that you've read that, some of you are thinking "Is he serious??" and some of you are thinking "What a great idea!". I'm sure you'll identify yourselves in short order.:-)
For the record, I think this would be marginally functional (inefficiency of solar panels, small surface area for collection) and not at all practical, but would be an interesting exercise.
Is it a Harry Potter reference (haven't seen or read any yet), or am I just getting too old these days??
Harry has a white owl named Hedwig that looks a bit like the 'O Rly' owl (in that they are both white and are both owls). The joke is that Harry is lamenting the identity of his parents' killer and the owl responds 'O Rly?', which (I suppose) is something Hedwig is unlikely to do.
The Harry Potter movies are actually pretty entertaining. I haven't read any of the books so I can't speak to those.
I believe you are required to link to pictures of the 'O Rly?' owls.:-)
Linky to Google cache for the three people that have not yet seen the owls.
Yes, I know owls can't smile, etc. with their beaks, but the original picture cracks me up anyway. (I'm easily amused.) He just looks so joyous and enthusiastic, even though that's a gross misanthropomorphism.
The first Monday after Thanksgiving has always been and will always be Deer Slaying Day. Hell, we have off for work and school, just so we can go slay some of those fierce creatures.
Don't be fooled, Timmy: if given a chance that deer would kill you and everyone you care about.
It's kind of like Snake Whacking day...only with deer.
At least that would be a fair fight:
"Monday! MONDAY! MONDAY!! A knock-down, drag-out brawl between Homo Redneckien and a Deerus Pistofficus! It's antler vs whacking club in a fight to the death!"
(Yes, I know we need to control the deer population. No, I don't think all hunters are rednecks. This was a pre-emptive "sshhh".)
This matters because there are some nerds that meet a member of the opposite sex, score, and have a kid.
And no, it doesn't matter. If a new parent needs to find info about sprog maintenance, there are eleventy bajillion other sites where he can do just that. Similarly, items related to cooking, DIY, clothing, etc. are off-topic even thought geeks cook, eat, and wear clothes. Leave/. to its focus areas.
Why is it considered wrong to stereotype and degrade anyone except Southern Americans?
That's easy: people from the deep south are all inbred, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, "kinfolk"-marrying, Nascar-watching, trailer-dwelling, unemployed alcoholics who park cars on their lawn, and store appliances on their porches. Duh.
Everyone else is above reproach, so Southerners are the only remaining viable target. Besides, they're illiterate so they won't know we're bashing them.
*sarcasm meter explodes*
You're just a prejudiced as any hate group in history.
When southern whites are systematically lynched/burned/beaten/dragged behind vehicles/exterminated en masse/otherwise murdered/abused simply because they ARE southern whites, then you can draw that comparison - not before. Go read a history book.
There couldn't be a larger difference between a boring, institutional show like CSI and a small, independent event like Black Hat Briefings. Hopefully the corporate approach of CSI won't crush the life out of Black Hat.
'We are confident that our version of 'text' books will... raise up educational standards rather than decrease levels of literacy"
Wow, that's good news. I was afraid they would raise the standards down.
Site is very slow; here is the text
on
Atari 800 XE Laptop
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
The site appears to be struggling already: none of the images came across, but here is the text description. You'll just have to use your imagination.:-)
Measuring 11 3/8" x 7 1/2" x 2" my Atari 800 laptop kicks major butt and includes the following features:
Uses (what's left of;) an Atari XE GS (Game System) the last model Atari 800 type computer from 1987.
8" TFT active matrix display
Compact Flash "hard disk drive" utilizing MyDOS 4.53 for maximum drive size of 16 megabytes. Card is removable for swapping.
Built-in NiMH battery pack and charger (uses external plug like a normal laptop) Also battery is removable from base as with most laptops.
Full (Atari 800) sized keyboard
Built-in Player 1 & 2 controls, plus joystick ports. Built-in joypads great for playing Robotron 2084!
Brushed aluminum and wood grain everywhere! A weird combo style, sure, but I like it!
Cursor control knob - Allows you to move the cursor around the screen without pressing control+arrow keys. That's awesome if you're an old-school Atari programmer "from the day"
Slim (compared to an original SIO port) DB25 printer-style port for connecting to disk drives, printers or PC's using an SIO2PC cable.
The sony eula says you must destroy any and all fair use copies of the music you possess, if you are no longer in possession of the actual cd.
I hope they don't mean actual physical "possession": if I contract with an organization to store the CD on my behalf (as described in the parent post) I still control/own the CD even if I cannot lay my hands on it instantly; the storage facility has no ownership rights [to my CD] whatsoever, even if they maintain control over the object itself. Think of a safety deposit box at a bank: you still own your contents, but the bank is storing them for you; the bank can't sell the contents if business is slow.
ltwally writes "Although not posted on the Mozilla website yet, Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 is out. You can grab it here.
What exactly is wrong with waiting for the official announcement? Posting the link - and inciting a/.ing - seems like a rude gesture toward an organization techies generally profess to love. Did it occur to anyone that maybe the mozilla folks didn't feel ready to announce the release?? If they did, don't you think the announcement would have been added to their site? (Despite the summary, it appears that 1.5 RC2 was actually there yesterday (09 Nov).)
You want to see if...
on
Space Lichens
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Now that we know lichens can survive exposed to the harsh conditions of space, how about we try it with Karl Rove?
You want to see if the lichens can survive exposed to the harsh conditions of Karl Rove? That's just mean... to the lichens.
Slashdot Mirror
Yahoo.eu reads like a profanity in Russian... I wonder if they'll register.
Yah.eu?
1. aeiou.eu
2. p.eu
3. howar.eu
4. ach.eu
5. InSovietRussiaWeGoogl.eu
6. AndNowImSpent.eu
wh.eu
To be honest attitudes like that are part of what holds the adoption of open source back. There is nothing wrong with that attitude, I share it - I am put off too, but OSS needs to get past that "by geeks for geeks" attitude *if* it wants to dominate.
My statement had nothing to do with OSS zealotry or any sort of "geeks for geeks" agenda. OSS is a nice idea, but I care more about whether the product/app/etc works and does what I need it to do. I won't use (or encourage others to use) ill-fitting products just because they are OSS.
If someone wants to inform me or to change my mind about something, he is better off just presenting the facts and showing - in a reasonably objective fashion - why A is better than B. This is not geeky; this is pragmatic. I also said Y[G]MMV, which should be a clear indication that I do not expect everyone to hold the same view.
The letter's author could have mentioned "an opportunity to collaborate" or similar in the first paragraph; this would have conveyed the desired point without mentioning an "exciting new IBM product". As was mentioned elsewhere, IBM is a commercial entity; the reader will likely interpret the opener as "IBM wants to sell me something" (where sell==exchange_money_for_goods_and_services).
Note also that I didn't have a problem with the rest of the letter.
Just when you thought you'd never be able to get live action David Hasselhoff on your iPod video
s/thought/hoped
From the letter to Governor Romney:
I'd like to share some information on an exciting new IBM product that was built in Massachusetts but is expected to have implications on both a national and international level.
It would have been nice to make the point without making the letter seem like a cold-call sales pitch. I found the first paragraph a bit off-putting - YGMMV.
"You smell that? Do you smell that?... litigation, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of litigation in the morning."
"Smells like... power supply."
Seems like this would be the PERFECT product to have a rechargeable solar battery!
Since we're integrating gadgets, we could place small solar panels on a hat and attach the hat to the glasses. The panels would charge the battery while providing additional sun protection, and it wouldn't look much dorkier than the Oakleys. (How could it?)
The silly things is, now that you've read that, some of you are thinking "Is he serious??" and some of you are thinking "What a great idea!". I'm sure you'll identify yourselves in short order.
For the record, I think this would be marginally functional (inefficiency of solar panels, small surface area for collection) and not at all practical, but would be an interesting exercise.
At least this one took over a month.
That's because it was on Fark.com (yesterday? the day before?), so the people that like to copy links from one site to the other thought it was new.
You know, I just don't get that joke.
Is it a Harry Potter reference (haven't seen or read any yet), or am I just getting too old these days??
Harry has a white owl named Hedwig that looks a bit like the 'O Rly' owl (in that they are both white and are both owls). The joke is that Harry is lamenting the identity of his parents' killer and the owl responds 'O Rly?', which (I suppose) is something Hedwig is unlikely to do.
The Harry Potter movies are actually pretty entertaining. I haven't read any of the books so I can't speak to those.
I believe you are required to link to pictures of the 'O Rly?' owls.
Yes, I know owls can't smile, etc. with their beaks, but the original picture cracks me up anyway. (I'm easily amused.) He just looks so joyous and enthusiastic, even though that's a gross misanthropomorphism.
The first Monday after Thanksgiving has always been and will always be Deer Slaying Day. Hell, we have off for work and school, just so we can go slay some of those fierce creatures.
Don't be fooled, Timmy: if given a chance that deer would kill you and everyone you care about.
It's kind of like Snake Whacking day...only with deer.
At least that would be a fair fight:
"Monday! MONDAY! MONDAY!! A knock-down, drag-out brawl between Homo Redneckien and a Deerus Pistofficus! It's antler vs whacking club in a fight to the death!"
(Yes, I know we need to control the deer population. No, I don't think all hunters are rednecks. This was a pre-emptive "sshhh".)
And yet you still can't spell populace right. I'd get a refund.
No, he spelled populous correctly; he used it incorrectly.
As an INTP, I'd like to be the first to say...
That INTJs are way cooler than INTPs could ever hope to be.
This matters because there are some nerds that meet a member of the opposite sex, score, and have a kid.
And no, it doesn't matter. If a new parent needs to find info about sprog maintenance, there are eleventy bajillion other sites where he can do just that. Similarly, items related to cooking, DIY, clothing, etc. are off-topic even thought geeks cook, eat, and wear clothes. Leave
Yeah, but I bet any a one of them can kick your ass.
You will note that I cleverly avoided that particular issue.
Why is it considered wrong to stereotype and degrade anyone except Southern Americans?
That's easy: people from the deep south are all inbred, knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, "kinfolk"-marrying, Nascar-watching, trailer-dwelling, unemployed alcoholics who park cars on their lawn, and store appliances on their porches. Duh.
Everyone else is above reproach, so Southerners are the only remaining viable target. Besides, they're illiterate so they won't know we're bashing them.
*sarcasm meter explodes*
You're just a prejudiced as any hate group in history.
When southern whites are systematically lynched/burned/beaten/dragged behind vehicles/exterminated en masse/otherwise murdered/abused simply because they ARE southern whites, then you can draw that comparison - not before. Go read a history book.
There couldn't be a larger difference between a boring, institutional show like CSI and a small, independent event like Black Hat Briefings. Hopefully the corporate approach of CSI won't crush the life out of Black Hat.
Well, there is a nice, unbiased summary. Oh, that's right: Black Hat is a cool, hip, and edgy conference that is sponsored by such rockin' organizations as Ernst & Young and Microsoft. w00t.
From the Fine Article (and the summary):
'We are confident that our version of 'text' books will... raise up educational standards rather than decrease levels of literacy"
Wow, that's good news. I was afraid they would raise the standards down.
The site appears to be struggling already: none of the images came across, but here is the text description. You'll just have to use your imagination.
Measuring 11 3/8" x 7 1/2" x 2" my Atari 800 laptop kicks major butt and includes the following features:
Uses (what's left of ;) an Atari XE GS (Game System) the last model Atari 800 type computer from 1987.
8" TFT active matrix display
Compact Flash "hard disk drive" utilizing MyDOS 4.53 for maximum drive size of 16 megabytes. Card is removable for swapping.
Built-in NiMH battery pack and charger (uses external plug like a normal laptop) Also battery is removable from base as with most laptops.
Full (Atari 800) sized keyboard
Built-in Player 1 & 2 controls, plus joystick ports. Built-in joypads great for playing Robotron 2084!
Brushed aluminum and wood grain everywhere! A weird combo style, sure, but I like it!
Cursor control knob - Allows you to move the cursor around the screen without pressing control+arrow keys. That's awesome if you're an old-school Atari programmer "from the day"
Slim (compared to an original SIO port) DB25 printer-style port for connecting to disk drives, printers or PC's using an SIO2PC cable.
I used the comparison over at asymptotic.net
I tried to visit that site: I got closer and closer but never actually got there. Oh, well.
The sony eula says you must destroy any and all fair use copies of the music you possess, if you are no longer in possession of the actual cd.
I hope they don't mean actual physical "possession": if I contract with an organization to store the CD on my behalf (as described in the parent post) I still control/own the CD even if I cannot lay my hands on it instantly; the storage facility has no ownership rights [to my CD] whatsoever, even if they maintain control over the object itself. Think of a safety deposit box at a bank: you still own your contents, but the bank is storing them for you; the bank can't sell the contents if business is slow.
Maybe they should consider something more suitable to their latest offering and switch to the names of cheeses.
They're way ahead of you! Have a look.
Scary, n'cest pas?
*thunk* - "Stinking Bishop"
I don't know why, but that was absolutely bloody hilarious.
I thought Intel just put a regional map over a dart board:
*thunk* - "Williamette"
*thunk* - "Tillamook"
et cetera, et cetera
ltwally writes "Although not posted on the Mozilla website yet, Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 is out. You can grab it here.
What exactly is wrong with waiting for the official announcement? Posting the link - and inciting a
Now that we know lichens can survive exposed to the harsh conditions of space, how about we try it with Karl Rove?
You want to see if the lichens can survive exposed to the harsh conditions of Karl Rove? That's just mean... to the lichens.
PS Eeewwww.