"I mean, are we saying kids today are more STUPID than we were growing up? I certainly knew not to go with anyone else...to stay in public places...and to pretty much obey my parents!! If I could be trusted at that age, why the hell can't kids today be trusted in the same manner?"
I totally agree with you. I think the problem may well be today's legal environment. By the time I was 13 I was old enough for my parents to go away for a weekend. They might have a neighbor look in on me, but other than that I was by myself.
I'm about to leave my son at home alone for three days with my almost 14 year old son, and even though "Nana" will be coming to spend one night with him, I'm more worried that some busybody will call child services on us for reckless endangerment or something.
I don't worry about him at all. He's got a level head, can take care of himself...he's a bit of a picky eater and because I don't run a restaurant, he's learned to cook and clean up after himself when he doesn't want what I'm making. He keeps his cool in an emergency and he's an all round good kid.
Heck, when I was a kid, 13 or 14 was when I started babysitting other kids. Does anybody do that these days?
"I'm sorry, but why are references so bloody important to get a job when they're fundamentally superficial in light of a potential-hiree's actual abilities?"
Because humans are first and foremost, social creatures, and that's pretty much how the world works?
"If being an unctuous manipulator is a more important skill to get employed than your actual skills related to the job in question, I'd rather end up homeless the rest of my life."
It's not unctuous or manipulating in the least to talk to people whom you know to see if they know of anything available in fields you're interested in, and if they know you well enough, to ask if they would act as a reference.
You can have a great CV and an impeccable transcript from a prestigious university, but if you can't find three or four people to vouch for your skills and usefulness... well, would you like to have the box my refrigerator came in?
Base 30 is as good as 60, since 30 = 2 * 3 * 5 and 60 only gives another factor of 2. 62 is = 2 * 31 which is actually worse, with only two prime factors.
A floating point system for a base can only precisely represent fractional values where the denominator's prime factorization contains only prime factors that the base has. This is why things like 1/3, 1/7, etc. can't be exactly represented in decimal, either.
A base 210 system would be kind of handy, having the prime factorization of the first 4 primes, which would give us a lot of exact decimals for many fractions.
"So Microsoft intentionally ships crappy software so that spammers will disrupt communication among open source programmers? Did I get that right?"
No, silly! Microsoft intentionally ships crappy software so that spammers will disrupt communication among the Bilderbergers, The Freemasons, The Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations and then Microsoft sets up open source programmers as the bad guys creating the spam so that the Illuminati will hire the Knights Templar to kill off all the open source programmers.
Honestly, I'd just settle for allowing me to play my DVDs on my Linux boxes without being guilty of a crime that makes me eligible for incarceration in Federal-pound-me-in-the-ass prison. I really don't think that's too much to ask, do you?
BTW, what is this "Slashdot position" you speak of?
" the only security check I have to worry about is to make sure the doors are locked when I stop for breaks.:) It's freedom!"
As long as you're not traveling through California, where you'll have to stop for an agricultural inspection, or if you're on I-10 coming out of El Paso, then we'll have to check to make sure you're not smuggling illegals, or the various random sobriety checkpoints scattered throughout, or...
Some of my best friends are people I disagree with on many issues because they are passionate about things and give a damn. They usually want the same things I do, we just see how to get there differently. I can always get along with someone like that even if occasionally they piss me off.
Yeah, that's pretty darned nifty, and I've looked at it before, but frankly it's a function that the actual player should provide and not be disableable (is that a word?) be the developer.
When the players they make always lets me turn off a misbehaving Flash app. Nothing I love to see more than Flash Ads burning 95% of my CPU and 60% of my memory.
I'm probably not as anti-ad as the average/.er, but I draw the line at demanding the bulk of my computing resources in addition to desktop real-estate to advertise at me.
And to put more anecdotal evidence on the table: My 36-year-old wife is actually rather hard-of-hearing in most of the frequencies that human (especially male) voices occurs in (enough to have hearing aids and for us to communicate in ASL sometimes), but she actually has freakishly good hearing in the upper registers. Something like that blasting at 20kHz near us would put her in permanent migraine state.
If it were me, I would have no compunction about disabling this device. If it's wrong or amoral for me to defend my wife from a neighbor's continued assault when the police won't do anything, then I'm not terribly interested in being right or moral.
I think the demands for fans with UV LEDs and holographic stickers has gone so high that they have economies of scale. The last time I was at Fry's (admittedly several months ago... I live six hours from the nearest one now) I wanted just a plain old fan for a box I was building. The plain black fan cost a dollar more than the clear plastic blue LED fan with the same cooling and noise specs.
So I have a server in my office with tricked out fans. Nobody ever sees them, of course, because the case doesn't have windows.
I tend to respect anybody who has a firearm with 11 to 16 rounds of hollow point ammunition strapped to their side. I highly recommend it as a survival strategy.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I think the young people enjoy it when I get down verbally, don't you?
Do you honestly believe that a guy with a THREE DIGIT slashdot ID needs to karma whore?
"I mean, are we saying kids today are more STUPID than we were growing up? I certainly knew not to go with anyone else...to stay in public places...and to pretty much obey my parents!! If I could be trusted at that age, why the hell can't kids today be trusted in the same manner?"
I totally agree with you. I think the problem may well be today's legal environment. By the time I was 13 I was old enough for my parents to go away for a weekend. They might have a neighbor look in on me, but other than that I was by myself.
I'm about to leave my son at home alone for three days with my almost 14 year old son, and even though "Nana" will be coming to spend one night with him, I'm more worried that some busybody will call child services on us for reckless endangerment or something.
I don't worry about him at all. He's got a level head, can take care of himself...he's a bit of a picky eater and because I don't run a restaurant, he's learned to cook and clean up after himself when he doesn't want what I'm making. He keeps his cool in an emergency and he's an all round good kid.
Heck, when I was a kid, 13 or 14 was when I started babysitting other kids. Does anybody do that these days?
"I'm sorry, but why are references so bloody important to get a job when they're fundamentally superficial in light of a potential-hiree's actual abilities?"
Because humans are first and foremost, social creatures, and that's pretty much how the world works?
"If being an unctuous manipulator is a more important skill to get employed than your actual skills related to the job in question, I'd rather end up homeless the rest of my life."
It's not unctuous or manipulating in the least to talk to people whom you know to see if they know of anything available in fields you're interested in, and if they know you well enough, to ask if they would act as a reference.
You can have a great CV and an impeccable transcript from a prestigious university, but if you can't find three or four people to vouch for your skills and usefulness... well, would you like to have the box my refrigerator came in?
Put another way:
"Could the evolution of the term 'Zonkism' have major legal ramifications from the trolling community?"
Base 30 is as good as 60, since 30 = 2 * 3 * 5 and 60 only gives another factor of 2. 62 is = 2 * 31 which is actually worse, with only two prime factors.
A floating point system for a base can only precisely represent fractional values where the denominator's prime factorization contains only prime factors that the base has. This is why things like 1/3, 1/7, etc. can't be exactly represented in decimal, either.
A base 210 system would be kind of handy, having the prime factorization of the first 4 primes, which would give us a lot of exact decimals for many fractions.
"So Microsoft intentionally ships crappy software so that spammers will disrupt communication among open source programmers? Did I get that right?"
No, silly! Microsoft intentionally ships crappy software so that spammers will disrupt communication among the Bilderbergers, The Freemasons, The Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations and then Microsoft sets up open source programmers as the bad guys creating the spam so that the Illuminati will hire the Knights Templar to kill off all the open source programmers.
It's brilliant. Really.
Thanks for that... I almost sprayed Diet Coke all over my spiffy new Intel iMac.
Honestly, I'd just settle for allowing me to play my DVDs on my Linux boxes without being guilty of a crime that makes me eligible for incarceration in Federal-pound-me-in-the-ass prison. I really don't think that's too much to ask, do you?
BTW, what is this "Slashdot position" you speak of?
Well, I have an M198 for home defense.
No, it's cool, I've got the hollow-point shells so it won't go through to the neighbor's house.
" the only security check I have to worry about is to make sure the doors are locked when I stop for breaks. :) It's freedom!"
As long as you're not traveling through California, where you'll have to stop for an agricultural inspection, or if you're on I-10 coming out of El Paso, then we'll have to check to make sure you're not smuggling illegals, or the various random sobriety checkpoints scattered throughout, or...
Yes. Netcraft also confirms that he was a truly an American Icon and that there's no denying his contributions to popular culture^W^Wspace science.
"Ugly, lonely losers copulating with soulless machines would be much less depressing."
Unless they're like, totally hot looking.
Some of my best friends are people I disagree with on many issues because they are passionate about things and give a damn. They usually want the same things I do, we just see how to get there differently. I can always get along with someone like that even if occasionally they piss me off.
Yeah, that's pretty darned nifty, and I've looked at it before, but frankly it's a function that the actual player should provide and not be disableable (is that a word?) be the developer.
When the players they make always lets me turn off a misbehaving Flash app. Nothing I love to see more than Flash Ads burning 95% of my CPU and 60% of my memory.
I'm probably not as anti-ad as the average /.er, but I draw the line at demanding the bulk of my computing resources in addition to desktop real-estate to advertise at me.
Didn't you hear? There was a coup yesterday. It's now the The People's Democratic Republic of Cmonistan.
Wait... shit. There's been another coup. Let me get back to you.
And to put more anecdotal evidence on the table: My 36-year-old wife is actually rather hard-of-hearing in most of the frequencies that human (especially male) voices occurs in (enough to have hearing aids and for us to communicate in ASL sometimes), but she actually has freakishly good hearing in the upper registers. Something like that blasting at 20kHz near us would put her in permanent migraine state.
If it were me, I would have no compunction about disabling this device. If it's wrong or amoral for me to defend my wife from a neighbor's continued assault when the police won't do anything, then I'm not terribly interested in being right or moral.
Dear Mars Department of Blue Planet Studies and Relations:
We have decided that you have outlived your usefulness. Our scientists even as we speak are preparing kinetic strikes against your hidden bunkers.
Regards,
The Blue Planet.
Insert "Ministry of Silly Walks" reference here.
I think the demands for fans with UV LEDs and holographic stickers has gone so high that they have economies of scale. The last time I was at Fry's (admittedly several months ago... I live six hours from the nearest one now) I wanted just a plain old fan for a box I was building. The plain black fan cost a dollar more than the clear plastic blue LED fan with the same cooling and noise specs.
So I have a server in my office with tricked out fans. Nobody ever sees them, of course, because the case doesn't have windows.
Protecting the environment, manned space flight, protection of human rights, more games for Macs.
One of these things does not fit with the others. Can you guess which?
Ah! You work in government procurement, don't you? ;-)
Because I'm not quite sure yet: Are you in this movie? ;-)
I tend to respect anybody who has a firearm with 11 to 16 rounds of hollow point ammunition strapped to their side. I highly recommend it as a survival strategy. :-)