Many companies, but especially media companies, and especially in summertime, pass any and all work off to interns, temps, or clueless college grads. All the smart employees stop working, while all the rich employees are on vacation.
then why isn't the universe like something out of Star TRek with hundreds of alien species flittering about, dropping in to violate the prime directive, establish moonbases, and so forth?
Maybe the universe isn't old enough. Seriously! Stuff like carbon, iron took multiple generations of stars (birth-to-supernova) to produce. Intelligent life that appeared approximately before the existence of Sol/Earth would have lived and died without the means to forge swords, much less spaceships. I believe our star is a fifth-generation, although my head is fuzzy on that number.
Human beings may just be the first creatures who have the chance at interstellar civilization. Either that, or we are going to be part of the first wave, developing simultaneously.
It has been my observation that German sites are the worst offenders of meta tag spam. Many a Google search is ruined by pages upon pages of their scripty garbage. I often resort to blocking.de from search results, just to maintain some sanity.
Re:Write to Penguin. Write to Pearson. Or call.
on
The Saga of Katie.com
·
· Score: 1
The CEO of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is
David Shanks
Address correspondence to his office, or better yet, send an additional CC: to him.
It's very unusual in the tech industry and it is very elitist.
But then the short-term mindset of 'populist' investors is the only other option. The more people you include, the lower you must go to find common ground; in this case, that common ground is ignorant (rather than informed) greed.
ESR will tell you that you must be like him. He says one should play a musical instrument, enjoy (and preferably write) science fiction.
Actually, it just sounds like he advocates outside interests rather than obsessively focusing on Hacking or Programming or Whatever. How you got a dogmatic rule of conformity out of that, I will never know.
A throwaway character in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age had his eye-implants hacked, resulting in adware scrolling incessantly across his field of vision. The character killed himself shortly thereafter.
Living in NYC has it's own advantages. Here, I can go Tango Dancing every day of the week, see the best museums
You pay dearly for those events, or you attend a free event with 149,782 other people in one room. Every room in the worthwhile musuems are carefully watched by dour-faced security guards;
never have to drive the death machine we call an automobile,
Take a look at the air-pollution levels for Manhattan. Take a look at asthma and cancer rates. You have not avoided the death machines after all;
can go out drinking without worrying about how I am getting home
But if you shake your hips to a song in an unlicensed venue, the entire bar can and will get shut down. Ditto that if you smoke. Or if the music/crowd is loud and the neighbors complain;
Living in Canada would be a marked decrease in my Life Style.
Try Vancouver. Most films pretend it is New York, anyway. There is more *actual* culture there, with a lot less attitude. You won't waste $90 on a night of drinks, either.
The more money and power the government has, the more people rely on it, the more it will control our lives. Once the government gets too large and people become too reliant then not even democracy will help since those in power can simply use that reliance to defeat anyone who wishes to change things.
Massive countries that contain hundreds of millions of interconnected people are going to need a higher level of collective organization than a neolithic village (like celluar organisms, come to think of it). Small government is pure fantasy in this modern age, unless we want to turn back the clock on all progress, as certain fundamentalist groups advocate...
We stand with two choices. A big and nasty government, or a big and pseudo-considerate government. Please, stop pining for Utopia.
Journalists get far too much slack already ...what the kids SHOULD have done was to...ask for permission.
So let me get this straigt; the authors behind the Pentagon Papers were remiss in not asking for permission to publish the leaked findings? Should reporters delving into, say, corporate fraud, politely ask the company in question to show them the books?
You illogically equate all journalists with paparazzi. A very dangerous assumption, and one that makes you particularly unfit to live in a democracy.
How does one VNC into a server over a dial-up (VPN!) connection or a Blackberry? Many businesses run stock Microsoft products -- no ssh, and no command line. Your suggestions amount to little more than notifcation -- no problem will be solved with the tools you mention.
It's not "dot-bomb" sophistry; professionals require professional tools. Which are never cheap.
I don't know why you feel the need to badmouth UPS.
Here's a reason for you. A big box of family Christmas presents is delivered to a completely different address in another borough of NYC. Signed over to a complete stranger, signature viewable on the web. UPS refused to accept responsibility until the end of January, at which point they refunded the sender $100. No admission of wrongdoing, just a "fsck off, shit happens at Christmas, go buy yourself a toy."
So yes, they do suck. I applaud the badmouthing and will repeat it every chance i get..
I doubt many corporation's IS managers fancy sending their staff on any trips that go anywhere near the H word.
Agreed! Any organization that used 'IS' or 'MIS' to mean 'IT' is so behind the times that they will definately not understand the proper definition of "the H word." Chances are their systems run like shit, too.
Last time I checked, greedy corporations taking billions from inefficiently-run funds does not constitute "socialism." Sounds more like a pluocracy to me.
America *used* to be a shining light for freedom in our world. We used to fight for the rights of oppressed people
Shining Light? Tell that to the Indians that marched the Trail of Tears. Or the ones that were given smallpox-infected blankets. Or the ones who were just shot and killed outright. Of course, these actions were spoken of in the context of "uplifting the red savages" so the general public saw no problem with this.
No, America has not changed much at all. You are just waking up to the truth.
You can't train a group men and women to kill and then expect them to act like police. Look at our police force, they aren't trained to kill people.
Everyone in the military has a specialization outside of "killing people." You can be a technician, or a cook, or a military policeman . The MPs are specifically trained to deal with prisoners. The court-martialled soldiers are members of the military police.
That skanky woman in the infamous photographs is a reservist who work(ed) in the US prison system. These people knew damn well what they were doing: they just didn't give a fuck because they were Arabs. Just like we don't give a fuck about prisoners when we joke about what goes on in US prisons.
and I say it shouldn't extend to organizations that deceive people into believe existence on Earth is some kind of training ground for the nice place they go to afterwards. The criminal lies have incited zealots to kill billions of people throughout human history. That is the real definition of 'heinous,' especially when you look at the amount of gold in the Vatican.
Would you agree that all religious propaganda should be banned from public discourse? We would not want them to continue spreading their lies...
I am a 20-something sysadmin in work, and I know lots of overgraduated students without prospects (many living in my Columbia-area neighborhood, others through social contacts). Consider this illustrative example:
When Rutgers University advertised a faculity position in the English department, they received over one thousand PhD-carrying applicants. One job, thousands of Ph.Ds....that is easily equivalent to the response I receive for tech job postings on the Internet.
but I can promote helpdesk technicians to fill Tier 2 slots *snip*
If working a helpdesk is being neck-deep in shit, then Tier 2 support is merely being waist-deep in it. Frankly, anyone with a college degree is too good for this kind of manager-dependent dronework for extended periods of time. Most people get Bachelor's degrees to avoid repair work, not to qualify for it. What you offer would be incentive to only the lowest levels of American employee.
Are your hiring practices so pragmatic when it comes to degree-less support technicans, I wonder?
If you really want to be a useful member of society, you'd start making phone calls, setting up some training, helping all those people about to be let go line something else up.
Now get back to work.
So sayeth Bartleby,the world's most dedicated Scrivner. Listen to his wisdom, young Slashdotters, and you to may have the priviledge of dying at your desk one day, just like him.
The expectation of reaction is how the predator operates. Present behaviors that do not in any way match those of a potential target. In the wisdom of both Chris Rock and Neal Stephenson, acting genuinely crazy -- twitchy, muttery, squinty, lurching, or the like, will prevent all but the most unlucky of incidents. Heavy persperation and a "crazy eye" that is bulging and/or glazed, whistling a simply nursery rhyme in a psychotically repetative fashion...trully be inspirationally. Just avoid acting intoxicated, you want to be vaguely perplexing.
Basically, act like one of those hallucinogenic frogs that every creature in the jungle knows better than to touch. The only trouble I've ever had was with truly insane vagrants, but you can always see them coming, and avoid them. Which is the whole point.
Anyone who charges for plumbing work is pure evil, and plain greedy. All plumbing should be done for free.
If you could duplicate pipes in your toolbox, on demand and at no cost then I would certainly not expect to be charged for them. But I would pay the plumber to put all of the pipe sections together into a cohesive system, and then keep it in working order. Alternately...
...since we are talking of pipes, can I interest you in upgrading that tired PVC (or worse!) piping currently installed in your home? Perhaps the new, titanium-alloy self-cleaning pipe system might appeal to you? It will never clog again, don't you know...
Back in the 80's, the only people who could appreciate Ewoks were =10 too.
I was less than 10 at that point, and appreciated the nuances of Stormtrooper armor types far more than the antics of Ewoks. I can't imagine who they were made for.
Slashdot Mirror
That about explains it, yes?
Maybe the universe isn't old enough. Seriously! Stuff like carbon, iron took multiple generations of stars (birth-to-supernova) to produce. Intelligent life that appeared approximately before the existence of Sol/Earth would have lived and died without the means to forge swords, much less spaceships. I believe our star is a fifth-generation, although my head is fuzzy on that number.
Human beings may just be the first creatures who have the chance at interstellar civilization. Either that, or we are going to be part of the first wave, developing simultaneously.
It has been my observation that German sites are the worst offenders of meta tag spam. Many a Google search is ruined by pages upon pages of their scripty garbage. I often resort to blocking .de from search results, just to maintain some sanity.
David Shanks
Address correspondence to his office, or better yet, send an additional CC: to him.
But then the short-term mindset of 'populist' investors is the only other option. The more people you include, the lower you must go to find common ground; in this case, that common ground is ignorant (rather than informed) greed.
Actually, it just sounds like he advocates outside interests rather than obsessively focusing on Hacking or Programming or Whatever. How you got a dogmatic rule of conformity out of that, I will never know.
===---===
====---====
Living in NYC has it's own advantages. Here, I can go Tango Dancing every day of the week, see the best museums
You pay dearly for those events, or you attend a free event with 149,782 other people in one room. Every room in the worthwhile musuems are carefully watched by dour-faced security guards;
never have to drive the death machine we call an automobile,
Take a look at the air-pollution levels for Manhattan. Take a look at asthma and cancer rates. You have not avoided the death machines after all;
can go out drinking without worrying about how I am getting home
But if you shake your hips to a song in an unlicensed venue, the entire bar can and will get shut down. Ditto that if you smoke. Or if the music/crowd is loud and the neighbors complain;
Living in Canada would be a marked decrease in my Life Style.
Try Vancouver. Most films pretend it is New York, anyway. There is more *actual* culture there, with a lot less attitude. You won't waste $90 on a night of drinks, either.
====---====
Massive countries that contain hundreds of millions of interconnected people are going to need a higher level of collective organization than a neolithic village (like celluar organisms, come to think of it). Small government is pure fantasy in this modern age, unless we want to turn back the clock on all progress, as certain fundamentalist groups advocate...
We stand with two choices. A big and nasty government, or a big and pseudo-considerate government. Please, stop pining for Utopia.
===---===
...what the kids SHOULD have done was to...ask for permission.
So let me get this straigt; the authors behind the Pentagon Papers were remiss in not asking for permission to publish the leaked findings? Should reporters delving into, say, corporate fraud, politely ask the company in question to show them the books?
You illogically equate all journalists with paparazzi. A very dangerous assumption, and one that makes you particularly unfit to live in a democracy.
===---===
It's not "dot-bomb" sophistry; professionals require professional tools. Which are never cheap.
===---===
Here's a reason for you. A big box of family Christmas presents is delivered to a completely different address in another borough of NYC. Signed over to a complete stranger, signature viewable on the web. UPS refused to accept responsibility until the end of January, at which point they refunded the sender $100. No admission of wrongdoing, just a "fsck off, shit happens at Christmas, go buy yourself a toy."
So yes, they do suck. I applaud the badmouthing and will repeat it every chance i get..
===---===
Agreed! Any organization that used 'IS' or 'MIS' to mean 'IT' is so behind the times that they will definately not understand the proper definition of "the H word." Chances are their systems run like shit, too.
===---===
===---===
Shining Light? Tell that to the Indians that marched the Trail of Tears. Or the ones that were given smallpox-infected blankets. Or the ones who were just shot and killed outright. Of course, these actions were spoken of in the context of "uplifting the red savages" so the general public saw no problem with this.
No, America has not changed much at all. You are just waking up to the truth.
====--====
Everyone in the military has a specialization outside of "killing people." You can be a technician, or a cook, or a military policeman . The MPs are specifically trained to deal with prisoners. The court-martialled soldiers are members of the military police.
That skanky woman in the infamous photographs is a reservist who work(ed) in the US prison system. These people knew damn well what they were doing: they just didn't give a fuck because they were Arabs. Just like we don't give a fuck about prisoners when we joke about what goes on in US prisons.
Your rationialization has failed.
===---====
Would you agree that all religious propaganda should be banned from public discourse? We would not want them to continue spreading their lies...
===-===
When Rutgers University advertised a faculity position in the English department, they received over one thousand PhD-carrying applicants. One job, thousands of Ph.Ds....that is easily equivalent to the response I receive for tech job postings on the Internet.
So who has more slant, your version or my own?
===---===
If working a helpdesk is being neck-deep in shit, then Tier 2 support is merely being waist-deep in it. Frankly, anyone with a college degree is too good for this kind of manager-dependent dronework for extended periods of time. Most people get Bachelor's degrees to avoid repair work, not to qualify for it. What you offer would be incentive to only the lowest levels of American employee.
Are your hiring practices so pragmatic when it comes to degree-less support technicans, I wonder?
===---===
He is going to count that comment as eight death threats from open-source zealots, you know. It will also be referenced in his next publication.
Office 2003 will only install on Windows 2000 and above. You know, the purportedly modern, stable versions?
===---===
Now get back to work.
So sayeth Bartleby,the world's most dedicated Scrivner. Listen to his wisdom, young Slashdotters, and you to may have the priviledge of dying at your desk one day, just like him.
===---===
Basically, act like one of those hallucinogenic frogs that every creature in the jungle knows better than to touch. The only trouble I've ever had was with truly insane vagrants, but you can always see them coming, and avoid them. Which is the whole point.
===--====
If you could duplicate pipes in your toolbox, on demand and at no cost then I would certainly not expect to be charged for them. But I would pay the plumber to put all of the pipe sections together into a cohesive system, and then keep it in working order. Alternately...
===---===
I was less than 10 at that point, and appreciated the nuances of Stormtrooper armor types far more than the antics of Ewoks. I can't imagine who they were made for.
===---===