'course they are. Lots of stuff is easier on Linux:-)
To be fair, I believe he's referring to the phenomenon of people buying linux computers to wipe and put a pirated copy of windows on, since it's difficult to find a pre-built computer with a completely blank hard drive. Of course, those people aren't really "choosing linux."
One nice thing about extensions you may be overlooking is the wonderful option not to have any if you wish. Just imagine having no way of removing those annoying features.
My firefox on linux likewise runs continuously for months, going on standby every night. I only restart after an upgrade, and even then if I forget it lasts a couple days after upgrading before starting to act funny.
What's with the 120 tabs thing, though? I've never understood the appeal.
Re:Surely Slashdot can get cracker vs hacker right
on
How To Hire a Hacker
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Oh, please. Like many words in the English language, the word "hacker" has distinct meanings in distinct contexts, and you and everyone else here knew perfectly well which was intended in this case. The guy who looks around for an aquatic bird when someone says "duck!" might have a valid semantic point, but he still looks like an elitist fool when something smacks him upside the head.
It's days like these that I really appreciate the corporate culture at my work. Here, computers are named something that the primary user can remember. Yes, we get to choose. Amazing concept. When we're in a conference room and need to remote desktop, no one is running back to their desk wondering what their room number/serial number/whatever is.
When we call IT for something and they need it, they ask what our computer name is and we tell them. When any other information about the computer such as the installed hardware or model matters, they ask us and we tell them. If we don't know, they tell us how to look it up. Computers get moved around at will between the lab and people's desks. They still manage to push updates and keep virus databases up to date. When they need to inventory, they come around and look at the serial numbers.
It's amazing how much more smoothly things run here than other places I've worked where they try and too often fail to exercise too much control.
The problem is, the "Yes, dear" strategy is most often used as the path of least resistance. In other words, it is used to short circuit true communication and end a discussion with the least trouble possible. This produces a semblance of peace, but there are long term consequences to someone thinking they are right when they are not, and thinking your spouse is not giving you honest feedback, not to mention damage done in other relationships when your spouse supports you in being irrational or stupid. How does that engender respect? A better solution is to keep talking until you come to a consensus. Much more difficult and much more contentious short term, but long term much less so. You do intend on being married a long time, right?
Perhaps, but I went to a top ten graduate engineering school, and more than one professor freely admitted that they skewed the grades toward A's and B's solely due to the fact that the reputation of the school and high admission standards meant we were competing against smarter fellow students, and they wanted our GPA to reflect that. In other words, they didn't want us to have a low GPA just because we went to a better school. The class average was usually a B or even B+. I completely skipped a term project once due to extreme personal circumstances and still managed a C. Of course, the fact than an A- was only worth 3.7 grade points still made it extremely difficult to get a 4.0, especially if you worked full time.
If only there was some way of getting vocational training for zero to low cost to employers while in college. We could call it a "co-op" or an "internship." Seriously, I graduated right after 9/11 and the dot com burst with 3 job offers. Everyone else I knew who did internships had at least one. Almost everyone I knew with no internships made last minute decisions to attend grad school because they couldn't find a job.
I think the main problem is really the fact that the school is not designed for the 21st century. Students should be -encouraged- to collaborate because the real world is built on collaboration and research.
As opposed to that one guy who wanted to collaborate, but had to build the great pyramids all by himself? Collaboration only works in the real world to the degree that those involved are competent individually and make individual efforts, and education has evolved for millenia accordingly. The vast majority of time in a modern eduction is spent on activities that are collaborative, or that can be to a certain degree, such as class discussions, group projects, and homework. Even studying for tests is often a collaborative activity. You still need a means of occasionally measuring individual contribution, and tests are one of the best, albeit imperfect, methods we have for that. If I have to go ask a colleague every time my boss asks a question, I'm not going to keep my job very long.
I heard about this newfangled kind of phone that actually connects with wires to the central office. It's sort of a niche market, but I think they might really take off one day for people who spend a lot of time in areas that don't get good cell phone reception.
It would have to be specifically written to penetrate whatever device or locking mechanism did that, which would require a LOT of inside information bout the system, and at that point, if that level of detail were achieved, wouldn't you say the system was already compromised by whomever obtained and passed on that information? Might as well just have them push a button.
Having worked as a military contractor before, I can tell you that a LOT of inside information is available to employees of the manufacturer, a lot more than you would expect without a security clearance, even. That information is useless in a direct attack. For example, knowing the basics of the communications encryption algorithms is useless without the classified key of the day, but it is completely conceivable for an employee without any security clearance to insert a trojan that could transmit that key over an unsecured channel. The compromise doesn't necessarily have to happen at the point where someone with a high security clearance can just push the button on a fully armed and operation weapon system.
Those who are naturally skinny have never had to exercise real self control where food is concerned, and you're right, they don't understand the voracious cravings. I know, I used to be one until around 12 years ago, after which a change in my health and appetite left me 120 pounds overweight, despite my best efforts. Suggestions that you should just "decide" to eat less are laughable at best. Self control is useless if applied in the wrong direction.
Finally I learned the right direction to apply my self control, and have lost 77 pounds since last October, and it is by eating whenever I get the tiniest bit hungry, and eating foods I crave before the cravings get too big. The difference is that I fill up on foods with low calorie density and keep the portions low on the rest. Eating a big salad, waiting 20 minutes, then a small serving of ice cream is much more satisfying than either only eating the salad or only eating ice cream. With small enough portions on the unhealthy stuff and big enough portions on the filling foods, I can eat ice cream and fast food every day (and I pretty much do). Any craving except for breath can be put off for 20 minutes.
Most modern networks expect a highly reliable data link with congestion as the primary concern, and are tuned accordingly. You have a highly unreliable data link with little concern about congestion (assuming the microwave link rarely if ever has more than one simultaneous user). The problem is that when a packet is corrupted or lost, the transmitter assumes a crowded pipe and starts slowing down, when you really want it to retransmit as soon as possible. Since it's doing the exact opposite of what's needed to fix the problem, it can compound on itself out of control, eventually causing it to just give up the file transfer altogether. Therefore, you want a short retransmission timeout for TCP, a longer timeout for FTP (or whatever better application layer many people have recommended you try), and a smaller MTU so there is a lower probability of any one given packet getting corrupted or lost.
Of course, you can go too far the other way too, and the ideal settings are going to be highly dependent on your individual network.
Actually, cars are preconfigured to work better driving on one side of the road or the other, by means of selecting which side the controls are on. It's also for the fun of watching the wipers come on when you meant to activate the turn signal.
Went down to the local Department of Human Resources (called Child Protective Services in most states I think) and signed up. They have 40 hours of training, fingerprints, background checks, interviews, and home inspections.
2. Why did you become one (I'm assuming it's rewarding)?
Our 5 year-old daughter was born 3 months preterm. We wanted more kids, but were worried about the risk of another preemie, so we went there to adopt. In our state, it's the same training for fostering and adopting (adopted children face many of the same identity issues). By the end of the class, we were willing to give it a try. It's rewarding, but also one of the most difficult things we've ever done. Almost certainly your preconceptions about it are inaccurate, and it's much too complicated to explain in a forum post, but that's what the 40 hours of training are for.
3. When/how old/circumstances for you? Like, are your kids graduated from college, are you unable to have kids, do you have a genetic defect and so wanted kids but without risking passing on a bad gene.
I was 31 with a 4 year-old. We did it for a year, adopted one of our foster sons, then took a break when my wife unexpectedly got pregnant (it took fertility treatments for our daughter).
There are also groups of people, called mandated reporters, who are required to report certain suspicious activity related to children, whether or not they actually witnessed it directly. Teachers and doctors are mandated reporters. I was one when I was a licensed foster parent. You get training to spot abuse, but you get in trouble for not reporting signs that someone untrained isn't liable for.
Civics are pretty much unchanged over the past 50 years, if not more (there are still two houses in congress, 50 states, and presidential elections every four years).
Umm...50 years ago there were only 49 states, and all but the newest textbooks would have still said 48. (Sorry, couldn't resist, but at least I didn't crack a joke about two out of three not being bad for a public school teacher).
I was thinking something more along the lines of this. Seriously. A bigger screen would be in order, but other than that, I say throw out all the assumptions of needing networking, rechargeable batteries, modern displays, etc. and I bet you could mass produce something that will suffice to replace a textbook for around $50 or less. Want something nicer? Save up your allowance.
I've done both simultaneously. My daughter has cerebral palsy, for which private insurance shells out approximately $20,000 per year in complicated procedures and hospital visits. I've also had foster children who were covered by government health insurance and needed nothing more than standard preventative care.
Dealing with medicare was by far the worst, especially for the proportion of benefits they were providing. For all of insurance companies' faults, they are relatively easy to cease doing business with, and therefore have incentive to pay what they agreed. Governments have no such incentive.
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'course they are. Lots of stuff is easier on Linux :-)
To be fair, I believe he's referring to the phenomenon of people buying linux computers to wipe and put a pirated copy of windows on, since it's difficult to find a pre-built computer with a completely blank hard drive. Of course, those people aren't really "choosing linux."
Well, productivity is a measure of throughput, not latency, and nine women can indeed make one baby per month.
One nice thing about extensions you may be overlooking is the wonderful option not to have any if you wish. Just imagine having no way of removing those annoying features.
My firefox on linux likewise runs continuously for months, going on standby every night. I only restart after an upgrade, and even then if I forget it lasts a couple days after upgrading before starting to act funny.
What's with the 120 tabs thing, though? I've never understood the appeal.
Oh, please. Like many words in the English language, the word "hacker" has distinct meanings in distinct contexts, and you and everyone else here knew perfectly well which was intended in this case. The guy who looks around for an aquatic bird when someone says "duck!" might have a valid semantic point, but he still looks like an elitist fool when something smacks him upside the head.
It's days like these that I really appreciate the corporate culture at my work. Here, computers are named something that the primary user can remember. Yes, we get to choose. Amazing concept. When we're in a conference room and need to remote desktop, no one is running back to their desk wondering what their room number/serial number/whatever is.
When we call IT for something and they need it, they ask what our computer name is and we tell them. When any other information about the computer such as the installed hardware or model matters, they ask us and we tell them. If we don't know, they tell us how to look it up. Computers get moved around at will between the lab and people's desks. They still manage to push updates and keep virus databases up to date. When they need to inventory, they come around and look at the serial numbers.
It's amazing how much more smoothly things run here than other places I've worked where they try and too often fail to exercise too much control.
The problem is, the "Yes, dear" strategy is most often used as the path of least resistance. In other words, it is used to short circuit true communication and end a discussion with the least trouble possible. This produces a semblance of peace, but there are long term consequences to someone thinking they are right when they are not, and thinking your spouse is not giving you honest feedback, not to mention damage done in other relationships when your spouse supports you in being irrational or stupid. How does that engender respect? A better solution is to keep talking until you come to a consensus. Much more difficult and much more contentious short term, but long term much less so. You do intend on being married a long time, right?
Perhaps, but I went to a top ten graduate engineering school, and more than one professor freely admitted that they skewed the grades toward A's and B's solely due to the fact that the reputation of the school and high admission standards meant we were competing against smarter fellow students, and they wanted our GPA to reflect that. In other words, they didn't want us to have a low GPA just because we went to a better school. The class average was usually a B or even B+. I completely skipped a term project once due to extreme personal circumstances and still managed a C. Of course, the fact than an A- was only worth 3.7 grade points still made it extremely difficult to get a 4.0, especially if you worked full time.
If only there was some way of getting vocational training for zero to low cost to employers while in college. We could call it a "co-op" or an "internship." Seriously, I graduated right after 9/11 and the dot com burst with 3 job offers. Everyone else I knew who did internships had at least one. Almost everyone I knew with no internships made last minute decisions to attend grad school because they couldn't find a job.
So does "ritalin."
As opposed to that one guy who wanted to collaborate, but had to build the great pyramids all by himself? Collaboration only works in the real world to the degree that those involved are competent individually and make individual efforts, and education has evolved for millenia accordingly. The vast majority of time in a modern eduction is spent on activities that are collaborative, or that can be to a certain degree, such as class discussions, group projects, and homework. Even studying for tests is often a collaborative activity. You still need a means of occasionally measuring individual contribution, and tests are one of the best, albeit imperfect, methods we have for that. If I have to go ask a colleague every time my boss asks a question, I'm not going to keep my job very long.
Exactly. A society has no hope of progressing until it caters to the whims of its most immature members.
Good point. Better install a firearm jammer while we're at it.
I heard about this newfangled kind of phone that actually connects with wires to the central office. It's sort of a niche market, but I think they might really take off one day for people who spend a lot of time in areas that don't get good cell phone reception.
Having worked as a military contractor before, I can tell you that a LOT of inside information is available to employees of the manufacturer, a lot more than you would expect without a security clearance, even. That information is useless in a direct attack. For example, knowing the basics of the communications encryption algorithms is useless without the classified key of the day, but it is completely conceivable for an employee without any security clearance to insert a trojan that could transmit that key over an unsecured channel. The compromise doesn't necessarily have to happen at the point where someone with a high security clearance can just push the button on a fully armed and operation weapon system.
Those who are naturally skinny have never had to exercise real self control where food is concerned, and you're right, they don't understand the voracious cravings. I know, I used to be one until around 12 years ago, after which a change in my health and appetite left me 120 pounds overweight, despite my best efforts. Suggestions that you should just "decide" to eat less are laughable at best. Self control is useless if applied in the wrong direction.
Finally I learned the right direction to apply my self control, and have lost 77 pounds since last October, and it is by eating whenever I get the tiniest bit hungry, and eating foods I crave before the cravings get too big. The difference is that I fill up on foods with low calorie density and keep the portions low on the rest. Eating a big salad, waiting 20 minutes, then a small serving of ice cream is much more satisfying than either only eating the salad or only eating ice cream. With small enough portions on the unhealthy stuff and big enough portions on the filling foods, I can eat ice cream and fast food every day (and I pretty much do). Any craving except for breath can be put off for 20 minutes.
Most modern networks expect a highly reliable data link with congestion as the primary concern, and are tuned accordingly. You have a highly unreliable data link with little concern about congestion (assuming the microwave link rarely if ever has more than one simultaneous user). The problem is that when a packet is corrupted or lost, the transmitter assumes a crowded pipe and starts slowing down, when you really want it to retransmit as soon as possible. Since it's doing the exact opposite of what's needed to fix the problem, it can compound on itself out of control, eventually causing it to just give up the file transfer altogether. Therefore, you want a short retransmission timeout for TCP, a longer timeout for FTP (or whatever better application layer many people have recommended you try), and a smaller MTU so there is a lower probability of any one given packet getting corrupted or lost.
Of course, you can go too far the other way too, and the ideal settings are going to be highly dependent on your individual network.
Actually, cars are preconfigured to work better driving on one side of the road or the other, by means of selecting which side the controls are on. It's also for the fun of watching the wipers come on when you meant to activate the turn signal.
Exactly. We run out of fossil fuels, we can deal, but if we deplete the wind supply...
Went down to the local Department of Human Resources (called Child Protective Services in most states I think) and signed up. They have 40 hours of training, fingerprints, background checks, interviews, and home inspections.
Our 5 year-old daughter was born 3 months preterm. We wanted more kids, but were worried about the risk of another preemie, so we went there to adopt. In our state, it's the same training for fostering and adopting (adopted children face many of the same identity issues). By the end of the class, we were willing to give it a try. It's rewarding, but also one of the most difficult things we've ever done. Almost certainly your preconceptions about it are inaccurate, and it's much too complicated to explain in a forum post, but that's what the 40 hours of training are for.
I was 31 with a 4 year-old. We did it for a year, adopted one of our foster sons, then took a break when my wife unexpectedly got pregnant (it took fertility treatments for our daughter).
There are also groups of people, called mandated reporters, who are required to report certain suspicious activity related to children, whether or not they actually witnessed it directly. Teachers and doctors are mandated reporters. I was one when I was a licensed foster parent. You get training to spot abuse, but you get in trouble for not reporting signs that someone untrained isn't liable for.
Umm...50 years ago there were only 49 states, and all but the newest textbooks would have still said 48. (Sorry, couldn't resist, but at least I didn't crack a joke about two out of three not being bad for a public school teacher).
I was thinking something more along the lines of this. Seriously. A bigger screen would be in order, but other than that, I say throw out all the assumptions of needing networking, rechargeable batteries, modern displays, etc. and I bet you could mass produce something that will suffice to replace a textbook for around $50 or less. Want something nicer? Save up your allowance.
Those who study history are doomed to repeat it right along with the majority of voters who politicians can count on being ignorant of it.
I've done both simultaneously. My daughter has cerebral palsy, for which private insurance shells out approximately $20,000 per year in complicated procedures and hospital visits. I've also had foster children who were covered by government health insurance and needed nothing more than standard preventative care.
Dealing with medicare was by far the worst, especially for the proportion of benefits they were providing. For all of insurance companies' faults, they are relatively easy to cease doing business with, and therefore have incentive to pay what they agreed. Governments have no such incentive.