In other news, hundreds of thousands/millions of orphans and unwanted children continue to populate the Earth.
Money spent on IVF could be used to help them.
Egomaniacal yuppies continue to satisfy their own selfish desires. It's all about them. Never about the kids.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists continue to have the lowest adoption rates in the world.
Call me a troll, but I bring up some valid points worth discussing. These are the issues I never see discussed but would like to see an open and frank discussion about.
Hmmm. I posted facts. I posted my opinion. I thought that's what good citizens do. Unfortunately, my opinions and facts typically run contrary to the lemming-like mindset of punks like you.
My post is hardly a troll. You simply found that it rubbed you the wrong way and could think of only one name to call it.
Your definition of troll: "Anyone who mildly gets under my skin by inconsiderately making me rethink my view of the world."
I think you'd be surprised at the number of Americans afraid to travel long distances alone. I think you'd also be surprised by the number who would never go in an area that they either don't know or don't know somebody in. I suspect you possess a rather limited experience in non-business travel in the country. I've taken the road less traveled in America and Canada, and I wouldn't recommend it to a foreigner.
It's insane. From issues with weather to various regional issues regarding "vagrants" or whatever, he will have problems. Just check the climate variability in any fairly mid-western or the top northern half of the country. Quite a bit different than most of the world. I think he will be most pleasantly surprised by the types he runs into along the way in the less densly populated area (and highway rest stops...). There are a lot more "bad" areas to accidently bump into even once you hit the urban areas as compared to Europe or Australia.
Yes. There is a certain fantasy to all of this, but the reality will be much more mind numbing. It's not like Europe, which has close urban centers and has much less wildly open space. Europe is do-able in the manner this gentleman describes. A vast, inexpensive US/Canada trip must be better planned in terms of travel arrangements and overnight stays. He will spend all his time on nuances and just getting by, as opposed to "cool science stuff".
Mod me down again for trying to save this guy's time and money.
You're going to backpack across a continent? You know how long that will take? Hitchhiking is illegal, so don't go there.
What are you going to do? Pitch a tent in downtown Boston? Riiiiight. If you want big ticket items, then you have to stay in a metropolitan area. NASA. Universities. Labs (Argonne, Fermi, etc.).
It sounds like a good plan, but falls apart when you wake up from the dream. Do you have any idea how vast the distances are between some metropolitan area? We are talking about weeks worth of walking just to get from point A to point B. Think Australia, and then multiply it by 3. Then, add the fact that it's probably a bit more dangerous out there than in Australia.
I think you're insane and will be sadly disappointed.
I do several 4-5 minute rounds a day of sit ups, push ups, and some small weights. You can easily get up to 50 push ups and 200 sit ups in a matter of weeks.
Keeps me buff and I can do it any time and anywhere.
For heart health, I jog several times a week on my own time, which at most takes an hour from start to end of shower.
Being in shape will pay off when the revolution comes.
Try fitting in more. Not happy with how you were born?
Trying to different by being the same as every other hair-coloring-know-it-all out there? (troll, troll, troll...)
People who make themselves stand out for no reason have a history of getting beat up for thousands of years, regardless of the law. And you think things have changed for what reason? Don't count on big brother to save your butt and not mock you. Ain't gonna happen. They're just people. 95% of people are jerks. Maybe 4000 years ago it was only 93%. But you get the point.
Next time they ask you, don't answer. Remember the whole "constitution" thing. Let them do what they want. Lawyer up whenever you are being questioned. They know how to play the game infinitely better than you do.
Not that I try to be pain in the ass with law enforcement. I have great respect for them all. But, sometimes, there are other forces in their professional lives which cause them to act in ways that are not in your best interest.
Each institution or body tracks me uniquely. I hope... Hey, we do what we can, right?
It is much more difficult for them to cross reference me with other institutions' databases. By other institutions, you may subsitute the word "government" or "big brother" or what-have-you.
That said, I successfully had my ssn purged from an insurance company who obtained my ssn through other means. Why is it so important for them to have my ssn that they had to break the law? When you answer that for yourself, you are on your way to a much more paranoid existence, much like my own...
All doctors I deal with are cool about privacy. I think any doctor is. Most docs don't like the "system" more than you think. If you ask them to keep something "off the record" and a nurse or bunch of interns aren't around, they will. They won't write it up in their records etc. If they say no, that's fine. Just find another doc. And, no, you aren't going to be able to do that for major surgery (or minor surgery). But for diagnostic tests, blood tests, office visits, it is no problem. And no, don't ask them to censor your records, just make it clear up front that "no matter what the results on this XXX, all of this stays off the record".
I have submitted to a DNA test to a doc and I am confident that it was kept completely confidential and off the "record". You (now) have the right to go through and check your own medical records at any time.
I think you're a weak lemming who is too scared to stand up for your rights and for common sense. I think you compensate for your insecurities by making unfounded, stupid claims about people you know nothing about. Grow up, dude.
I've used at least 4 insurance companies in the past 6 years (keep changing for better rates).
None have required an SSN. Yes, some of the clerks and agents think otherwise. But a simple phone call to the home office always confirms that you don't need it.
They can track you in the national shared insurance databases by past addresses, name, etc. I'm sure that they've assigned me some random number.
You just don't. Period. I never have had to, even when pressed.
Doctors, hospitals, big insurance companies, big teaching hospitals. I've dealt with them all. I'm self employed, so I get my own insurance (which is a real bitch, mind you). I've never had a problem with the SSN thing. All you have to do is ask.
The whole "paranoia" argument is what these privacy-killing freaks toss at you the most. No matter how many past examples of slippery slopes we have slipped down, they still can't come up with a more coherent argument.
Only the paranoid survive. This is not just a mantra of the uber-successful, but also a fact of life in nature and business alike.
No. I'm self employed. But thanks for asking. I have had my many years of experience in the corporate and small business world.
But, I have turned down 2 jobs that required the screening. It's not like I think about it. In the first situation, we went through the whole thing, I accepted the job, got a start date, and then they threw the blood test at me. The donation of bodily fluids for a job just seemed pretty important to me. To them, it was beyond routine. This is the mindset that disturbs me the most.
The thing that REALLY irks me is that they just ask for the blood. They don't even bother to ask you if you use drugs or ever did. Seems that asking would help to build some trust and would be professional and courteous. Instead, they just skip asking, sort of assuming that you are going to lie anyway.
I would never, ever give a sample for a DNA analysis to anyone but a doctor. And even then, with specific knowledge about the rules and where it was going and for how long. Even then, I make sure that an insurance company never knows anything about it. Never give your SSN to a doctor or insurance company.
I have and never will submit to drug/alcohol screening for a job or insurance.
Yes, we got a "good" result in this particular case. But the end does not justify the means.
Ok. I see your point. But can you ask CNN to at least wrap the story on this undramatic ending with some Aerosmith in the background?
Give me something here. It's a slow news summer. Shark attacks are down. And even the Kennedy's are relatively under control. I need a story that we can unfold and wrap up by Labor day.
Most geeks I know use Outlook. Sorry to burst your bubble. I've used both and Mozilla is still lacking significantly, especially with regard to calendaring.
However, some wanna-be-geeks define "geek" as "someone who uses the same software as me". In that case, you are still wrong as your percentage would have been 100%, not 99%.
I use TCI. I love TCI. TCI resells Qwest. I don't like Qwest.
TCI answers their phones, and has empowered customer service folks. A couple quirks on billing early on where they were not doing the auto-credit card if your bill was under $6 or something. But, now they do the charge no matter what. They are dirt cheap and they don't have any stupid fees, no matter how little you use.
I simply don't understand why people aren't using them more.
Alright, I'm going to stop griping about this story getting boring. I'm just going to watch it unfold over the summer like the "Summer of the Shark" 2 years ago. I love a good summer time dramatic story. Let's hope they can wrap things up by Labor day.
Let's see if they can make the cover of Time and Newsweek. Maybe some aerial shots of Santa Cruz and Linus's house on CNN. Greta can do a special on Fox News and link it to Laci Peterson somehow.
Grab a bowl of popcorn! And, for god's sake, don't go in the water!!
I hate reruns....
on
A Mighty Wind
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Let the slashdot bashing of MS begin yet again. This move makes complete and total sense. Any bashing of this move would just be childish. It makes total sense from a marketing, technology, and overall business point of view. I don't see the inside-info-on-the-OS claim as whining. It is just fact. MS is simply stating it as a valid reason to leave that market (OK, technically, it's not a market because it's a free product).
Should the headline of the story be "MS Makes Smart Move: Leaves Low Margin Market to Focus on Windows Platform". I guess I just can't wait to see how the slashdot crowd turns this into some sort of conspiracy or sign of weakness for MS.
Let me reiterate some key points that may help you reconsider...
1) There are some great intro textbooks for QBASIC for very, very beginner students. This helps to drive the market for teaching it. VB changes so much and so often that it is hard for text book writers to write a decent enough book and keep up with the IDE changes. Consider that not only do they have to keep up with language changes so often, they must keep exercises and other ancillary material up to date as well. With a steady target in QBASIC, the books were able to become more solid in the fundamentals.
2) The instructors do not want to teach, nor do the students want, a programming language for the workplace. They want to teach/learn an intro to programming when they've never done programming before. For example, this is sometimes dones as a couple week segment in a business class, algebra class, logic, intro to computers class, etc.
3) It is a pretty concise, readable, and sweet languate.
4) Some profs are famous/well known on campus for one particular course that they have nailed in terms of instruction. Sometimes, students still flock to it even years after it is "unfashionable".
No, I don't use it. Yes, I did use it. If I wanted to teach a 4th or 5th grader about programming fundamentals, I'd consider QBASIC as a choice.
I don't think that neither I nor the reviewer stated that BASIC was an option in CS. I went out of my way to EXCLUDE CS from consideration in my post.
What was your point?
If you are in CS, they assume that you should be taught the basics with a language that will put you on the path to deeper meaning. BASIC is a good business language (don't argue, this has been clearly proven in at least the past 12 years), but is a dead-end for getting deeper into systems (drivers, OS coding, etc.)
Slashdot Mirror
In other news, hundreds of thousands/millions of orphans and unwanted children continue to populate the Earth.
Money spent on IVF could be used to help them.
Egomaniacal yuppies continue to satisfy their own selfish desires. It's all about them. Never about the kids.
Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists continue to have the lowest adoption rates in the world.
Call me a troll, but I bring up some valid points worth discussing. These are the issues I never see discussed but would like to see an open and frank discussion about.
Double "Huh?"
Hmmm. I posted facts. I posted my opinion. I thought that's what good citizens do. Unfortunately, my opinions and facts typically run contrary to the lemming-like mindset of punks like you.
My post is hardly a troll. You simply found that it rubbed you the wrong way and could think of only one name to call it.
Your definition of troll: "Anyone who mildly gets under my skin by inconsiderately making me rethink my view of the world."
I think you'd be surprised at the number of Americans afraid to travel long distances alone. I think you'd also be surprised by the number who would never go in an area that they either don't know or don't know somebody in. I suspect you possess a rather limited experience in non-business travel in the country. I've taken the road less traveled in America and Canada, and I wouldn't recommend it to a foreigner.
It's insane. From issues with weather to various regional issues regarding "vagrants" or whatever, he will have problems. Just check the climate variability in any fairly mid-western or the top northern half of the country. Quite a bit different than most of the world. I think he will be most pleasantly surprised by the types he runs into along the way in the less densly populated area (and highway rest stops...). There are a lot more "bad" areas to accidently bump into even once you hit the urban areas as compared to Europe or Australia.
Yes. There is a certain fantasy to all of this, but the reality will be much more mind numbing. It's not like Europe, which has close urban centers and has much less wildly open space. Europe is do-able in the manner this gentleman describes. A vast, inexpensive US/Canada trip must be better planned in terms of travel arrangements and overnight stays. He will spend all his time on nuances and just getting by, as opposed to "cool science stuff".
Mod me down again for trying to save this guy's time and money.
You're going to backpack across a continent? You know how long that will take? Hitchhiking is illegal, so don't go there.
What are you going to do? Pitch a tent in downtown Boston? Riiiiight. If you want big ticket items, then you have to stay in a metropolitan area. NASA. Universities. Labs (Argonne, Fermi, etc.).
It sounds like a good plan, but falls apart when you wake up from the dream. Do you have any idea how vast the distances are between some metropolitan area? We are talking about weeks worth of walking just to get from point A to point B. Think Australia, and then multiply it by 3. Then, add the fact that it's probably a bit more dangerous out there than in Australia.
I think you're insane and will be sadly disappointed.
I do several 4-5 minute rounds a day of sit ups, push ups, and some small weights. You can easily get up to 50 push ups and 200 sit ups in a matter of weeks.
Keeps me buff and I can do it any time and anywhere.
For heart health, I jog several times a week on my own time, which at most takes an hour from start to end of shower.
Being in shape will pay off when the revolution comes.
Try fitting in more. Not happy with how you were born?
Trying to different by being the same as every other hair-coloring-know-it-all out there? (troll, troll, troll...)
People who make themselves stand out for no reason have a history of getting beat up for thousands of years, regardless of the law. And you think things have changed for what reason? Don't count on big brother to save your butt and not mock you. Ain't gonna happen. They're just people. 95% of people are jerks. Maybe 4000 years ago it was only 93%. But you get the point.
Next time they ask you, don't answer. Remember the whole "constitution" thing. Let them do what they want. Lawyer up whenever you are being questioned. They know how to play the game infinitely better than you do.
Not that I try to be pain in the ass with law enforcement. I have great respect for them all. But, sometimes, there are other forces in their professional lives which cause them to act in ways that are not in your best interest.
Each institution or body tracks me uniquely. I hope... Hey, we do what we can, right?
It is much more difficult for them to cross reference me with other institutions' databases. By other institutions, you may subsitute the word "government" or "big brother" or what-have-you.
That said, I successfully had my ssn purged from an insurance company who obtained my ssn through other means. Why is it so important for them to have my ssn that they had to break the law? When you answer that for yourself, you are on your way to a much more paranoid existence, much like my own...
All doctors I deal with are cool about privacy. I think any doctor is. Most docs don't like the "system" more than you think. If you ask them to keep something "off the record" and a nurse or bunch of interns aren't around, they will. They won't write it up in their records etc. If they say no, that's fine. Just find another doc. And, no, you aren't going to be able to do that for major surgery (or minor surgery). But for diagnostic tests, blood tests, office visits, it is no problem. And no, don't ask them to censor your records, just make it clear up front that "no matter what the results on this XXX, all of this stays off the record".
I have submitted to a DNA test to a doc and I am confident that it was kept completely confidential and off the "record". You (now) have the right to go through and check your own medical records at any time.
I think you're a weak lemming who is too scared to stand up for your rights and for common sense. I think you compensate for your insecurities by making unfounded, stupid claims about people you know nothing about. Grow up, dude.
I've used at least 4 insurance companies in the past 6 years (keep changing for better rates).
None have required an SSN. Yes, some of the clerks and agents think otherwise. But a simple phone call to the home office always confirms that you don't need it.
They can track you in the national shared insurance databases by past addresses, name, etc. I'm sure that they've assigned me some random number.
You just don't. Period. I never have had to, even when pressed.
Doctors, hospitals, big insurance companies, big teaching hospitals. I've dealt with them all. I'm self employed, so I get my own insurance (which is a real bitch, mind you). I've never had a problem with the SSN thing. All you have to do is ask.
The whole "paranoia" argument is what these privacy-killing freaks toss at you the most. No matter how many past examples of slippery slopes we have slipped down, they still can't come up with a more coherent argument.
Only the paranoid survive. This is not just a mantra of the uber-successful, but also a fact of life in nature and business alike.
No. I'm self employed. But thanks for asking. I have had my many years of experience in the corporate and small business world.
But, I have turned down 2 jobs that required the screening. It's not like I think about it. In the first situation, we went through the whole thing, I accepted the job, got a start date, and then they threw the blood test at me. The donation of bodily fluids for a job just seemed pretty important to me. To them, it was beyond routine. This is the mindset that disturbs me the most.
The thing that REALLY irks me is that they just ask for the blood. They don't even bother to ask you if you use drugs or ever did. Seems that asking would help to build some trust and would be professional and courteous. Instead, they just skip asking, sort of assuming that you are going to lie anyway.
I would never, ever give a sample for a DNA analysis to anyone but a doctor. And even then, with specific knowledge about the rules and where it was going and for how long. Even then, I make sure that an insurance company never knows anything about it. Never give your SSN to a doctor or insurance company.
I have and never will submit to drug/alcohol screening for a job or insurance.
Yes, we got a "good" result in this particular case. But the end does not justify the means.
Ok. I see your point. But can you ask CNN to at least wrap the story on this undramatic ending with some Aerosmith in the background?
Give me something here. It's a slow news summer. Shark attacks are down. And even the Kennedy's are relatively under control. I need a story that we can unfold and wrap up by Labor day.
I love a happy ending.
But the story could have used a bit more drama. And maybe even its own Aerosmith song.
We all know coders shouldn't actually be paid to code. Now, there is that much more order to the world.
Go Free Stuff!
Most geeks I know use Outlook. Sorry to burst your bubble. I've used both and Mozilla is still lacking significantly, especially with regard to calendaring.
However, some wanna-be-geeks define "geek" as "someone who uses the same software as me". In that case, you are still wrong as your percentage would have been 100%, not 99%.
I use TCI. I love TCI. TCI resells Qwest. I don't like Qwest.
TCI answers their phones, and has empowered customer service folks. A couple quirks on billing early on where they were not doing the auto-credit card if your bill was under $6 or something. But, now they do the charge no matter what. They are dirt cheap and they don't have any stupid fees, no matter how little you use.
I simply don't understand why people aren't using them more.
Alright, I'm going to stop griping about this story getting boring. I'm just going to watch it unfold over the summer like the "Summer of the Shark" 2 years ago. I love a good summer time dramatic story. Let's hope they can wrap things up by Labor day.
Let's see if they can make the cover of Time and Newsweek. Maybe some aerial shots of Santa Cruz and Linus's house on CNN. Greta can do a special on Fox News and link it to Laci Peterson somehow.
Grab a bowl of popcorn! And, for god's sake, don't go in the water!!
This is a REALLY old story.
Next?
No. He's talking about Ellen DeGeneres on "When Liberals Attack".
Let the slashdot bashing of MS begin yet again. This move makes complete and total sense. Any bashing of this move would just be childish. It makes total sense from a marketing, technology, and overall business point of view. I don't see the inside-info-on-the-OS claim as whining. It is just fact. MS is simply stating it as a valid reason to leave that market (OK, technically, it's not a market because it's a free product).
Should the headline of the story be "MS Makes Smart Move: Leaves Low Margin Market to Focus on Windows Platform". I guess I just can't wait to see how the slashdot crowd turns this into some sort of conspiracy or sign of weakness for MS.
Let me reiterate some key points that may help you reconsider...
1) There are some great intro textbooks for QBASIC for very, very beginner students. This helps to drive the market for teaching it. VB changes so much and so often that it is hard for text book writers to write a decent enough book and keep up with the IDE changes. Consider that not only do they have to keep up with language changes so often, they must keep exercises and other ancillary material up to date as well. With a steady target in QBASIC, the books were able to become more solid in the fundamentals.
2) The instructors do not want to teach, nor do the students want, a programming language for the workplace. They want to teach/learn an intro to programming when they've never done programming before. For example, this is sometimes dones as a couple week segment in a business class, algebra class, logic, intro to computers class, etc.
3) It is a pretty concise, readable, and sweet languate.
4) Some profs are famous/well known on campus for one particular course that they have nailed in terms of instruction. Sometimes, students still flock to it even years after it is "unfashionable".
No, I don't use it. Yes, I did use it. If I wanted to teach a 4th or 5th grader about programming fundamentals, I'd consider QBASIC as a choice.
I don't think that neither I nor the reviewer stated that BASIC was an option in CS. I went out of my way to EXCLUDE CS from consideration in my post.
What was your point?
If you are in CS, they assume that you should be taught the basics with a language that will put you on the path to deeper meaning. BASIC is a good business language (don't argue, this has been clearly proven in at least the past 12 years), but is a dead-end for getting deeper into systems (drivers, OS coding, etc.)