When I got here, every single thing was run via macro enabled spreadsheets, because their database system was so bad, and the users needed something.
Every month I chip away at the pile of spreadsheets. Bringing in the necessary pieces of information into the database. Giving people a method to upload their data in the current spreadsheets, etc. etc.
It's a battle I'm determined to win. I think I'm about 80% done, with all of the main spreadsheets retired. But every once in a while I hear of another that hasn't been converted yet...so I go visit the 'owners' find out what they need, how they need it, etc.
The good thing is that every piece of data I touch is exportable to fairly robust spreadsheets. Because people LIKE to view data in Excel. But the functionality is gone. Spreadsheets are now just reports, and if something isn't right, then download a new one.
But the interactivity is gone. Thank god. Because when someone's desktop is the storage center for a 'super important spreadsheet' it totally changes the dynamic of "who cares if your computer crashed...this is available everywhere".
That's it...a fan of spreadsheets for viewing, but I avoid users using them for processing.
You can probably tell me a thousand reasons why it's bad. But I've been doing code work for about 30 years, and Visual Studio Code is as good as anything else I've used.
I'm almost 50 years old. I have zero interest in being part of some robotic future. I can wipe my own ass thank you very much. I'd rather live in the woods and make jam. I think a huge number of people feel this way.
Offer services to a farmer....sounds like a feudal system. No thanks. I'd probably just crawl away and die.
Don't have kids...too late! I am part of this problem, and honestly, I really hope my kids reach adulthood before the shit hits the fan. But yes, this will be the best advice in the future.
If there were laws and policies in place that specifically protected those individuals, I would feel the same way.
I work at a University. Title IX is real, and everything that goes with it. If you don't think that women as a protected class (yes, literally, yes, factually) is not an issue, then you have no idea what goes on at Universities.
Yes, men are capable of all kinds of stupid shit. But men don't have the ability to end an interpersonal problem with, "She was harassing/intimidating me". Because men are not a protected class.
So it doesn't really matter how I sound to you. What matters is that the policies in place, and SERIOUSLY enforced, go one direction on this subject.
Do you understand this? Do you take the training each year that reinforces this exact position?
Thanks for your input though. It points out the fact that many people do NOT understand the situation as it is. As it is written in law, and policy. You should read up on it.
If you think that corporate jobs are unfair to women, just wait until these same laws and policies apply to the private sector. If you think it's no big deal, you have no idea how these things are written.
About 3.5 years ago, when this wave of feminism was kicking off, I had a good friend who was a woman.
She and some of her comrades in arms decided to circle the wagons around feminism, and I was one of the victims.
Victim in the sense that they lodged a complaint against me. BUT- it was unfounded, and that was the outcome of all investigations.
Do you know how little good that did me? The fact that I didn't harass, but they 'felt as though they were being harassed' was all it took. Exactly as the poster said, lost my job, my friends, etc.
Why? Because I am part of the patriarchy, and they want to smash that...and it doesn't matter who gets in the way. Because here's the plan...men don't matter. We are less. Damaging a few men to get what you want is like stepping on ants. (Read the byline on the website that is linked.)
Women are not the problem by themselves. The problem is that we throw so much sympathy at them, that we don't pay attention to the facts. And this article that we are commenting on is a really good example of that. Some jackass out there is going to take this at face value, and start an affirmative action campaign to 'correct' the situation.
I hate working with women now. I view each of them as a time-bomb that will go off, pretty much independent of my own actions. It's happened before, it will probably happen again.
Will I actively work against them? Nope. But I will never again get into that trap...and now overall productivity is way down, because I spend my time avoiding getting on the wrong side of someone who one day will wake up, get a pixie cut, and decide that men are her problem- not the fact that she just hates her job like the rest of us.
The guy you responded to is experienced. And more and more men are gaining this experience of women using the laws/sympathy to get what they want.
To the ladies who don't do this. Sorry..but that's the way it goes. Same way you won't meet me in a dark parking lot. I am not a rapist, but you need to be careful- I understand that- so you act as though I might be a rapist. Sure, you are not the type to lodge a bullshit complaint, but I need to be wary, because the other women don't identify themselves ahead of time. So you all get tagged with the, "She will file a complaint against you" label.
I created it about 15 years ago, when security was different. It would allow me to upload new code and have it working immediately- so I didn't need to login to a server, go through the dev->test->production cycle.
I got screwed over on that job and left about 3 years ago- not happy at all.
I spent about a week planning the complete destruction.
Then I realized I would spend the next 10 years watching my back, because eventually someone would figure it out.
I sent an email to an old co-worker and said, "Hey...you need to block this backdoor."
It was more for my own good than theirs. Very glad it is gone.
Lots of comments here from people who want this to be bad, but don't know what they are talking about.
I signed up for this yesterday- had no idea it was 'Launch Day'. I have already downloaded and started playing some of the games. In my mind, this will be worth the $10/month no problem.
I won't mention which games I've downloaded, because that will just elicit a list of 'problems' like, "That was free in December 2016" or, "That's an 8 year old game", etc. etc.
I will say that I signed up and it started working immediately. One game I will mention is Halo 5. Previously a friend had loaned this to me, so I had it on my Xbox- including the massive update. I was happy to see that it instantly recognized that it was part of the Game Pass, and activated it for me. No additional download (or worse- re-download).
I was able to go through the games list with my kids, and say "Yep, you can get whichever ones you want..." that was nice. And you know what? They don't care that a lot of the games are 360 backwards compatible...they are/were still good games! (Okay, another mention...Lego Batman. Still a great game!)
I had previously signed up for EA Access, and that wasn't bad. Loved the Plants vs. Zombies shooters. But that library was too limited. The Xbox Game Pass has a larger and more varied library.
99% of people complaining about this service haven't actually seen it, or used it. You can listen to those yokels if you want...but my experience (less than 48 hours) is that this seems like a pretty good deal and super convenient.
Reminds me of a video I saw about organic food at Walmart.
Some guy had an organic food company (Stony Mountain?) and he started selling through Walmart. He said that all of his colleagues were really putting him down. Telling him that Walmart was the devil, and he shouldn't do business with them.
I believe they went on to be the biggest supplier of organic food in the country.
His question for the rest of the industry was basically, "Do you want to support organic food, and do something good for the world? Or do you want to sit there on your high horse and sell organic butter to rich people in Marin? Because if you want to get organic food out to people, Walmart is a good way to do it."
He made a huge difference (depending upon your view of organics) because he thought that to make the biggest impact, you work with everyone even if you disagree with them.
Imzy was a place for people who already agreed with each other. The bubble was pretty strong, and when people 'told all their friends about Imzy', they were all just telling each other. Harvesting users from Tumblr wasn't going to make it grow, they should have reached out to people who didn't agree with them (!!!!) on every point.
But they pretty much cupped your crotch at the door, checking to make sure you fit the mold of a proper Imzurian.
I've been wondering about the racism on Slashdot. I've been here since 2003 (hence the username) and it has gotten pretty bad lately. On some posts about 1/2 the posts are absolute trash. I do remember when the GN(whatever the rest were) started, and and first it was at least unique, and impressive that they got so many first posts. Now though, it's sifting through garbage to find the decent stuff.
But, I do find that Slashdot feeds trolls less than most places, so that is nice.
Imzy can absolutely suck it. They are a bunch of hypocritical jagoffs.
I was on Imzy for the exact purpose it was created- to be a bit nicer. So tired of the Twitter and Reddit trolls. Imzy is nice, great!
I posted for a while and had fun. Then someone with the username of 'FuckGringos' commented on a few of my posts. Okay, this is supposedly not welcome here, so I emailed the admins. "Hey, umm...the user with the name 'FuckGringos' violates your terms of service".
That was elevated to 'Jessica' (Dan's SO I believe) who said, "We do not consider that username to be offensive, because it calls out the group who holds the power and therefore is not racist."
Oh...it's one of those.
So I figured, "Okay, evidently Imzy is not the place for me, so I will delete my account. Not a big deal..." I go through the stupid-complicated account deletion process- which is basically you posting to their admin board explaining why you want to delete your account. It's public, but that was their process. One of the questions is basically, "Please explain in detail why you want to leave." Well, it's because FuckGringos is not considered offensive, but 'FuckXXXX' (any other group) is offensive.
That caused a shit-storm because evidently I was 'calling out another user' blah blah blah. As far as Imzy was concerned, me complaining about 'Fuck Gringos' was offensive, but the username wasn't.
Essentially Imzy was a frigging hypocritical circle-jerk of 'progressive' people against hate...unless you happen to be white. Evidently I was supposed to allow my white guilt to over-ride all of their terms of service or something and embrace the idea that I was bad and should accept the shame that comes with being white.
I've been waiting for a while to hear this news about them shutting down, and I'm happy. Because they (Thanks Jessica) were absolute liars when they told everyone, "This is a nice place."
No- it's not. It's a place where the new rules where white/CIS/men are all bad things, and everyone else is good.
Personally, I have no problem with any people based on their demographics, but I really hate the people who are full of shit and misrepresent what they do as good...when they are as bad as it gets.
Good riddance. I hope they wasted a lot of their own money. And yeah, now I'm 'not being nice' on Slashdot...because rather than make the Internet a better place, they made it worse.
Does anyone know of anything good to come out of Imzy?
I work at a place that gets inspected by APHIS. APHIS also puts our material into quarantine.
We have permits for all kinds of things that sound icky and salacious. If someone read the reports they might think, "Wait, something bad is going on here- why are they doing this? Let's follow the trail and find out what they are doing!"
They would be very disappointed to find out what is really going on- that it is all part of 'normal' business. That the icky sounding stuff would be absolutely pedestrian if you understood it.
APHIS is a prettyboring place once you get over the idea of 'quarantine'. My guess is that these records would be boring at first glance, andpretty much just spreadsheet data regardingregular inspections once you have an understanding of what they are doing.
I create/run a fair number of web applications. Anything with a password associated with it runs https- if there is no password, then it runs insecure.
You want a picture of a peach? I'll serve up thousands- and let every man-in-the-middle know that you're looking at peaches.
You want to send me your email and password (that is probably the same you use on 10 other sites)? Now it is secure.
Asking a real question- why should we encrypt non-sensitive data?
Microsoft has been pretty public about their dropping support for Windows Phone.
They may come with a new phone- but for now they are pretty much in the, "Okay, that didn't work" mode. It's not a secret.
I have been using Windows Phone for a long time. I actually like it. Though now it seems like every month another feature dies on my phone. I just tell people, "My phone is full-on retarded."
They've also been very public about their plan to follow the customers to where they are- which is NOT on Windows Phone. Essentially my phone gets about zero support now. It's a shame, but not the end of the world.
You know what? You're on the right track...and sadly, this is the first comment I've seen regarding this. (I don't blame the others- this hadn't crossed my mind either)
Yes, there are real people losing jobs. That is a complete bummer. I feel bad for them.
But I still hate Twitter, and I hope they just go out of business entirely. Maybe the techies there can land a good job in some other company- I hope so. I don't want tech to die...just the garbage that is social media.
A millisecond of silence for the fallen techies of Twitter. For real...hate to see that happen.
Obviously you are being funny/sarcastic...but this is exactly why I left Twitter.
I made the mistake of calling the Twitter attack on a man a 'witch hunt'. Some poor guy made the mistake of defending the land-a-spacecraft-on-a-comet-guy during the whole shirtgate incident. Hundreds of level-headed concerned citizens went after that guy, including doxxing him. I believe my comment was, "Hey...this is turning into a witch hunt. Posting his personal details is not cool."
Which evidently was the worst thing I could have said. The attacks on me were fairly relentless...because 'witch hunt' is an attack on women, blah blah blah.
Twitter is a cesspool of bullshit. Where the more far out into safe space you get, the more popular you are.
'Real Interest' whether it is through internal, external, intrinsic, etc. factors...it does not matter. Those 'outside factors' you speak of are probably parents, counselors, peers, etc. Whatever the reason and influence...Your dictionary definition did nothing to explain what you think those outside factors are.
What matters is- do they have a real interest? Is programming something they WANT to do?
I honestly don't really care if a girl was told that 'computers are for boys' when she was 8 years old. She was also told a million other things that led her to become the person that she is. Maybe she is a nurse now. Or a marketing director.
If that previous counseling caused her not to have an interest in programming- then move along. Devote your time to what your interests are and become successful. Your parents may or may not have made a good choice in which direction to steer you.
It is not the responsibility of those currently in the industry to attempt to cultivate an interest in programming within those people who were not encouraged earlier in life. In that case, we'd probably end up getting 1 in 500 or so of these unfortunates who actually develops an interest after our experiment with exposure.
I don't go around to other industries knocking on their doors demanding to be let in...despite the fact that I was never given an opportunity to develop an interest. In some cases I was dissuaded from entering into highly paid careers.
My grandfather was a big influence on my life. He hated two groups of individuals: the rich and the highly educated. My late-in-life and substandard education can be traced back to the conversations he and I would have in the afternoon after school. "If a doctor is so smart, why does it take them 10 years to get through school?" I was programmed not to become a doctor- one of the highest paid and most respected professions.
This doesn't mean that society owes me a foot in the door toward a medical career. I don't think we need to be concerned about these nebulous reasons that females don't prefer programming as a career. We don't need to go back in time and right the wrongs of our ancestors.
Moving forward? Sure, that is a different story. Treat the kids equally. But by the age of 25, I had spent at least 10,000 hours on computer programming. Yes, I had an advantage over a person who was not encouraged in that direction. That doesn't mean we need to be stupid and erase that history and put me on the same footing as someone who started programming in the 3rd year of college. I had an interest, and I exploited it.
I started programming about 37 years ago at the age of 9. Did it for a hobby.
During these 37 years, I've maybe spent 9 where programming was not a primary focus of my life.
Yes, I like the fiddly crap. I enjoy it. Give me a problem and I'm happy. My employer can talk about a business process, and in my mind I'm thinking data organization- it's just how my brain works. My employer benefits from this greatly.
I can't imagine what it would be like if I entered into this career because someone told me that "It's a good job that pays well". I think I'd just absolutely hate every day. This is the most abstract, arcane, tedious job I can imagine. But luckily, I love it.
I have absolutely no problem working with someone else, male or female, who has an interest in this. But if I was partnered with someone who didn't have the interest, I'd know in a few hours. And I'd hate working with them.
Obviously you are going to define this as a problem that society has foisted upon women. No matter what the other arguments may be.
The opportunity is there. There are tons of programs to support women in IT. If there has been some boogeyman out there keeping women from programming, then we can't really do anything about that.
My daughters have had their interests supported as much as my sons. Even more so. I have never seen a 'get your BOYS interested in STEM' while my daughters have been exposed to many of those programs.
Those 'outside factors' you speak of are the boogeymen. You are putting the entire burden on us proving that women don't have these factors. But if the goal is to have equal access to these careers, it exists now.
I feel very, very bad for the people who are 'encouraged' to go into programming, if it was not their real interest. That is a person being set up for a very dis satisfactory career.
Programming is insanely boring to people who do not have a very high drive/interest in it. I can't think of many worse ways to spend your day, if you are not truly interested.
I work at a University. 70% female enrollment. Female chancellor, female leadership, etc. etc. If the computer science department is 85% men this is not a case of a 'boys club', this is a case of people being drawn to what they are interested in.
The Gender Studies department is about 95% female. They are very active and visible on campus. They spend a lot of time on 'outreach', yet they still can't crack 6% on male involvement. The computer science department also does outreach, and their numbers remain the same, year after year. The women's resource center has special programs to assist women in STEM...as does the computer science department. There is so much support for women in technology it is amazing.
Yet still they have a hard time getting women to graduate with a degree in computer science.
I wouldn't push the males into gender studies, and I wouldn't push the females into computer science. I would push them to study what truly interests them, and where they think they will excel.
At this point, on this campus, women are not avoiding computer science because they are being treated poorly. They are avoiding computer science because they don't have an interest. Pretending otherwise is avoiding the truth.
I'm a Microsoft flag waver- for the last 20 years. It's been core to my career.
I absolutely hate Sharepoint, and I hate the way they are integrating it into everything.
Recently I had someone come to me saying that they kept sending out files, and nobody outside of our organization could access them.
Their files were saved to Sharepoint (the default, not their intention) and when they 'attached' the file to an email, Outlook went ahead and sent a link, rather than attaching the file. The link went to our internal Sharepoint, which people on the outside could not access.
I understand all the reasoning for this to happen. But the problem was that this was just a naive user clicking 'Sure, save it there, that is cool' then being stuck in this problem. I told them to save the file elsewhere...but now they had two versions of the file and confusion ensued.
Please, please, please don't make 'further integration with Microsoft products' the default!
And no...nobody has ever wanted to use Sharepoint more. I've been around it for a long time, and I don't understand what the heck it is supposed to be. Ignoring all Sharepoint is a valuable skill.
Slashdot Mirror
Except for the fact that men are at greater risk of being victims of violent crime. (According to the US Department of Justice)
I've been at my current job about 3.5 years.
When I got here, every single thing was run via macro enabled spreadsheets, because their database system was so bad, and the users needed something.
Every month I chip away at the pile of spreadsheets. Bringing in the necessary pieces of information into the database. Giving people a method to upload their data in the current spreadsheets, etc. etc.
It's a battle I'm determined to win. I think I'm about 80% done, with all of the main spreadsheets retired. But every once in a while I hear of another that hasn't been converted yet...so I go visit the 'owners' find out what they need, how they need it, etc.
The good thing is that every piece of data I touch is exportable to fairly robust spreadsheets. Because people LIKE to view data in Excel. But the functionality is gone. Spreadsheets are now just reports, and if something isn't right, then download a new one.
But the interactivity is gone. Thank god. Because when someone's desktop is the storage center for a 'super important spreadsheet' it totally changes the dynamic of "who cares if your computer crashed...this is available everywhere".
That's it...a fan of spreadsheets for viewing, but I avoid users using them for processing.
Visual Studio Code. Its pretty nice.
You can probably tell me a thousand reasons why it's bad. But I've been doing code work for about 30 years, and Visual Studio Code is as good as anything else I've used.
I like some of your ideas...
Buy some land and start a homestead...
I'm almost 50 years old. I have zero interest in being part of some robotic future. I can wipe my own ass thank you very much. I'd rather live in the woods and make jam. I think a huge number of people feel this way.
Offer services to a farmer....sounds like a feudal system. No thanks. I'd probably just crawl away and die.
Don't have kids...too late! I am part of this problem, and honestly, I really hope my kids reach adulthood before the shit hits the fan. But yes, this will be the best advice in the future.
I have no interest in this future society....
Sure, the Original Xbox One isn't available.
But the Xbox One S is.
Nothing lost (except for Kinect) but a LOT gained.
The article makes it seem like Xbox One is not a going concern. No...they just replaced the bigger/bulkier model with something better.
If there were laws and policies in place that specifically protected those individuals, I would feel the same way.
I work at a University. Title IX is real, and everything that goes with it. If you don't think that women as a protected class (yes, literally, yes, factually) is not an issue, then you have no idea what goes on at Universities.
Yes, men are capable of all kinds of stupid shit. But men don't have the ability to end an interpersonal problem with, "She was harassing/intimidating me". Because men are not a protected class.
So it doesn't really matter how I sound to you. What matters is that the policies in place, and SERIOUSLY enforced, go one direction on this subject.
Do you understand this? Do you take the training each year that reinforces this exact position?
Thanks for your input though. It points out the fact that many people do NOT understand the situation as it is. As it is written in law, and policy. You should read up on it.
If you think that corporate jobs are unfair to women, just wait until these same laws and policies apply to the private sector. If you think it's no big deal, you have no idea how these things are written.
No...that poster was dead on.
About 3.5 years ago, when this wave of feminism was kicking off, I had a good friend who was a woman.
She and some of her comrades in arms decided to circle the wagons around feminism, and I was one of the victims.
Victim in the sense that they lodged a complaint against me. BUT- it was unfounded, and that was the outcome of all investigations.
Do you know how little good that did me? The fact that I didn't harass, but they 'felt as though they were being harassed' was all it took. Exactly as the poster said, lost my job, my friends, etc.
Why? Because I am part of the patriarchy, and they want to smash that...and it doesn't matter who gets in the way. Because here's the plan...men don't matter. We are less. Damaging a few men to get what you want is like stepping on ants. (Read the byline on the website that is linked.)
Women are not the problem by themselves. The problem is that we throw so much sympathy at them, that we don't pay attention to the facts. And this article that we are commenting on is a really good example of that. Some jackass out there is going to take this at face value, and start an affirmative action campaign to 'correct' the situation.
I hate working with women now. I view each of them as a time-bomb that will go off, pretty much independent of my own actions. It's happened before, it will probably happen again.
Will I actively work against them? Nope. But I will never again get into that trap...and now overall productivity is way down, because I spend my time avoiding getting on the wrong side of someone who one day will wake up, get a pixie cut, and decide that men are her problem- not the fact that she just hates her job like the rest of us.
The guy you responded to is experienced. And more and more men are gaining this experience of women using the laws/sympathy to get what they want.
To the ladies who don't do this. Sorry..but that's the way it goes. Same way you won't meet me in a dark parking lot. I am not a rapist, but you need to be careful- I understand that- so you act as though I might be a rapist. Sure, you are not the type to lodge a bullshit complaint, but I need to be wary, because the other women don't identify themselves ahead of time. So you all get tagged with the, "She will file a complaint against you" label.
Yay for women in tech...
Ha ha...I had a backdoor like this at my old job.
I created it about 15 years ago, when security was different. It would allow me to upload new code and have it working immediately- so I didn't need to login to a server, go through the dev->test->production cycle.
I got screwed over on that job and left about 3 years ago- not happy at all.
I spent about a week planning the complete destruction.
Then I realized I would spend the next 10 years watching my back, because eventually someone would figure it out.
I sent an email to an old co-worker and said, "Hey...you need to block this backdoor."
It was more for my own good than theirs. Very glad it is gone.
Lots of comments here from people who want this to be bad, but don't know what they are talking about.
I signed up for this yesterday- had no idea it was 'Launch Day'. I have already downloaded and started playing some of the games. In my mind, this will be worth the $10/month no problem.
I won't mention which games I've downloaded, because that will just elicit a list of 'problems' like, "That was free in December 2016" or, "That's an 8 year old game", etc. etc.
I will say that I signed up and it started working immediately. One game I will mention is Halo 5. Previously a friend had loaned this to me, so I had it on my Xbox- including the massive update. I was happy to see that it instantly recognized that it was part of the Game Pass, and activated it for me. No additional download (or worse- re-download).
I was able to go through the games list with my kids, and say "Yep, you can get whichever ones you want..." that was nice. And you know what? They don't care that a lot of the games are 360 backwards compatible...they are/were still good games! (Okay, another mention...Lego Batman. Still a great game!)
I had previously signed up for EA Access, and that wasn't bad. Loved the Plants vs. Zombies shooters. But that library was too limited. The Xbox Game Pass has a larger and more varied library.
99% of people complaining about this service haven't actually seen it, or used it. You can listen to those yokels if you want...but my experience (less than 48 hours) is that this seems like a pretty good deal and super convenient.
Reminds me of a video I saw about organic food at Walmart.
Some guy had an organic food company (Stony Mountain?) and he started selling through Walmart. He said that all of his colleagues were really putting him down. Telling him that Walmart was the devil, and he shouldn't do business with them.
I believe they went on to be the biggest supplier of organic food in the country.
His question for the rest of the industry was basically, "Do you want to support organic food, and do something good for the world? Or do you want to sit there on your high horse and sell organic butter to rich people in Marin? Because if you want to get organic food out to people, Walmart is a good way to do it."
He made a huge difference (depending upon your view of organics) because he thought that to make the biggest impact, you work with everyone even if you disagree with them.
Imzy was a place for people who already agreed with each other. The bubble was pretty strong, and when people 'told all their friends about Imzy', they were all just telling each other. Harvesting users from Tumblr wasn't going to make it grow, they should have reached out to people who didn't agree with them (!!!!) on every point.
But they pretty much cupped your crotch at the door, checking to make sure you fit the mold of a proper Imzurian.
I've been wondering about the racism on Slashdot. I've been here since 2003 (hence the username) and it has gotten pretty bad lately. On some posts about 1/2 the posts are absolute trash. I do remember when the GN(whatever the rest were) started, and and first it was at least unique, and impressive that they got so many first posts. Now though, it's sifting through garbage to find the decent stuff.
But, I do find that Slashdot feeds trolls less than most places, so that is nice.
Imzy can absolutely suck it. They are a bunch of hypocritical jagoffs.
I was on Imzy for the exact purpose it was created- to be a bit nicer. So tired of the Twitter and Reddit trolls. Imzy is nice, great!
I posted for a while and had fun. Then someone with the username of 'FuckGringos' commented on a few of my posts. Okay, this is supposedly not welcome here, so I emailed the admins. "Hey, umm...the user with the name 'FuckGringos' violates your terms of service".
That was elevated to 'Jessica' (Dan's SO I believe) who said, "We do not consider that username to be offensive, because it calls out the group who holds the power and therefore is not racist."
Oh...it's one of those.
So I figured, "Okay, evidently Imzy is not the place for me, so I will delete my account. Not a big deal..." I go through the stupid-complicated account deletion process- which is basically you posting to their admin board explaining why you want to delete your account. It's public, but that was their process. One of the questions is basically, "Please explain in detail why you want to leave." Well, it's because FuckGringos is not considered offensive, but 'FuckXXXX' (any other group) is offensive.
That caused a shit-storm because evidently I was 'calling out another user' blah blah blah. As far as Imzy was concerned, me complaining about 'Fuck Gringos' was offensive, but the username wasn't.
Essentially Imzy was a frigging hypocritical circle-jerk of 'progressive' people against hate...unless you happen to be white. Evidently I was supposed to allow my white guilt to over-ride all of their terms of service or something and embrace the idea that I was bad and should accept the shame that comes with being white.
I've been waiting for a while to hear this news about them shutting down, and I'm happy. Because they (Thanks Jessica) were absolute liars when they told everyone, "This is a nice place."
No- it's not. It's a place where the new rules where white/CIS/men are all bad things, and everyone else is good.
Personally, I have no problem with any people based on their demographics, but I really hate the people who are full of shit and misrepresent what they do as good...when they are as bad as it gets.
Good riddance. I hope they wasted a lot of their own money. And yeah, now I'm 'not being nice' on Slashdot...because rather than make the Internet a better place, they made it worse.
Does anyone know of anything good to come out of Imzy?
White male here.
Coincidentally, I left my last 2 jobs for the exact same reason (perceived mistreatment). I think it is a 'thing', and not just for protected classes.
That's why people leave their jobs. Were they expecting to hear, "I just lost interest in my job?"
No...people don't say that. They blame the job, and those assholes they left behind.
I work at a place that gets inspected by APHIS. APHIS also puts our material into quarantine.
We have permits for all kinds of things that sound icky and salacious. If someone read the reports they might think, "Wait, something bad is going on here- why are they doing this? Let's follow the trail and find out what they are doing!"
They would be very disappointed to find out what is really going on- that it is all part of 'normal' business. That the icky sounding stuff would be absolutely pedestrian if you understood it.
APHIS is a prettyboring place once you get over the idea of 'quarantine'. My guess is that these records would be boring at first glance, andpretty much just spreadsheet data regardingregular inspections once you have an understanding of what they are doing.
But...maybe that's all just a conspiracy...
I pretty much agree with you.
I create/run a fair number of web applications. Anything with a password associated with it runs https- if there is no password, then it runs insecure.
You want a picture of a peach? I'll serve up thousands- and let every man-in-the-middle know that you're looking at peaches.
You want to send me your email and password (that is probably the same you use on 10 other sites)? Now it is secure.
Asking a real question- why should we encrypt non-sensitive data?
Well, here is one really good reason: CHOICE.
People may prefer Google Now. But if you have no other choice- that sucks. Microsoft is trying to provide an option.
I can't imagine they are hoping for a big uptake on Cortana on Android. Google Now is so tightly integrated.
But for everyone complaining about this, or saying, "This is dumb, I don't want it!" - Better to have a choice than not.
So you don't like one of the choices. Cool. But it's always nice to have options.
Microsoft has been pretty public about their dropping support for Windows Phone.
They may come with a new phone- but for now they are pretty much in the, "Okay, that didn't work" mode. It's not a secret.
I have been using Windows Phone for a long time. I actually like it. Though now it seems like every month another feature dies on my phone. I just tell people, "My phone is full-on retarded."
They've also been very public about their plan to follow the customers to where they are- which is NOT on Windows Phone. Essentially my phone gets about zero support now. It's a shame, but not the end of the world.
You know what? You're on the right track...and sadly, this is the first comment I've seen regarding this. (I don't blame the others- this hadn't crossed my mind either)
Yes, there are real people losing jobs. That is a complete bummer. I feel bad for them.
But I still hate Twitter, and I hope they just go out of business entirely. Maybe the techies there can land a good job in some other company- I hope so. I don't want tech to die...just the garbage that is social media.
A millisecond of silence for the fallen techies of Twitter. For real...hate to see that happen.
Obviously you are being funny/sarcastic...but this is exactly why I left Twitter.
I made the mistake of calling the Twitter attack on a man a 'witch hunt'. Some poor guy made the mistake of defending the land-a-spacecraft-on-a-comet-guy during the whole shirtgate incident. Hundreds of level-headed concerned citizens went after that guy, including doxxing him. I believe my comment was, "Hey...this is turning into a witch hunt. Posting his personal details is not cool."
Which evidently was the worst thing I could have said. The attacks on me were fairly relentless...because 'witch hunt' is an attack on women, blah blah blah.
Twitter is a cesspool of bullshit. Where the more far out into safe space you get, the more popular you are.
I for one would like to see Twitter burn down.
I wasn't being facetious.
'Real Interest' whether it is through internal, external, intrinsic, etc. factors...it does not matter. Those 'outside factors' you speak of are probably parents, counselors, peers, etc. Whatever the reason and influence...Your dictionary definition did nothing to explain what you think those outside factors are.
What matters is- do they have a real interest? Is programming something they WANT to do?
I honestly don't really care if a girl was told that 'computers are for boys' when she was 8 years old. She was also told a million other things that led her to become the person that she is. Maybe she is a nurse now. Or a marketing director.
If that previous counseling caused her not to have an interest in programming- then move along. Devote your time to what your interests are and become successful. Your parents may or may not have made a good choice in which direction to steer you.
It is not the responsibility of those currently in the industry to attempt to cultivate an interest in programming within those people who were not encouraged earlier in life. In that case, we'd probably end up getting 1 in 500 or so of these unfortunates who actually develops an interest after our experiment with exposure.
I don't go around to other industries knocking on their doors demanding to be let in...despite the fact that I was never given an opportunity to develop an interest. In some cases I was dissuaded from entering into highly paid careers.
My grandfather was a big influence on my life. He hated two groups of individuals: the rich and the highly educated. My late-in-life and substandard education can be traced back to the conversations he and I would have in the afternoon after school. "If a doctor is so smart, why does it take them 10 years to get through school?" I was programmed not to become a doctor- one of the highest paid and most respected professions.
This doesn't mean that society owes me a foot in the door toward a medical career. I don't think we need to be concerned about these nebulous reasons that females don't prefer programming as a career. We don't need to go back in time and right the wrongs of our ancestors.
Moving forward? Sure, that is a different story. Treat the kids equally. But by the age of 25, I had spent at least 10,000 hours on computer programming. Yes, I had an advantage over a person who was not encouraged in that direction. That doesn't mean we need to be stupid and erase that history and put me on the same footing as someone who started programming in the 3rd year of college. I had an interest, and I exploited it.
You might wish to consider how outside factors must necessarily influence what your real interest is.
Before you go further, define "outside factors".
I started programming about 37 years ago at the age of 9. Did it for a hobby.
During these 37 years, I've maybe spent 9 where programming was not a primary focus of my life.
Yes, I like the fiddly crap. I enjoy it. Give me a problem and I'm happy. My employer can talk about a business process, and in my mind I'm thinking data organization- it's just how my brain works. My employer benefits from this greatly.
I can't imagine what it would be like if I entered into this career because someone told me that "It's a good job that pays well". I think I'd just absolutely hate every day. This is the most abstract, arcane, tedious job I can imagine. But luckily, I love it.
I have absolutely no problem working with someone else, male or female, who has an interest in this. But if I was partnered with someone who didn't have the interest, I'd know in a few hours. And I'd hate working with them.
Obviously you are going to define this as a problem that society has foisted upon women. No matter what the other arguments may be.
The opportunity is there. There are tons of programs to support women in IT. If there has been some boogeyman out there keeping women from programming, then we can't really do anything about that.
My daughters have had their interests supported as much as my sons. Even more so. I have never seen a 'get your BOYS interested in STEM' while my daughters have been exposed to many of those programs.
Those 'outside factors' you speak of are the boogeymen. You are putting the entire burden on us proving that women don't have these factors. But if the goal is to have equal access to these careers, it exists now.
You are asking us to prove a negative.
I feel very, very bad for the people who are 'encouraged' to go into programming, if it was not their real interest. That is a person being set up for a very dis satisfactory career.
Programming is insanely boring to people who do not have a very high drive/interest in it. I can't think of many worse ways to spend your day, if you are not truly interested.
I work at a University. 70% female enrollment. Female chancellor, female leadership, etc. etc. If the computer science department is 85% men this is not a case of a 'boys club', this is a case of people being drawn to what they are interested in.
The Gender Studies department is about 95% female. They are very active and visible on campus. They spend a lot of time on 'outreach', yet they still can't crack 6% on male involvement. The computer science department also does outreach, and their numbers remain the same, year after year. The women's resource center has special programs to assist women in STEM...as does the computer science department. There is so much support for women in technology it is amazing.
Yet still they have a hard time getting women to graduate with a degree in computer science.
I wouldn't push the males into gender studies, and I wouldn't push the females into computer science. I would push them to study what truly interests them, and where they think they will excel.
At this point, on this campus, women are not avoiding computer science because they are being treated poorly. They are avoiding computer science because they don't have an interest. Pretending otherwise is avoiding the truth.
I'm a Microsoft flag waver- for the last 20 years. It's been core to my career.
I absolutely hate Sharepoint, and I hate the way they are integrating it into everything.
Recently I had someone come to me saying that they kept sending out files, and nobody outside of our organization could access them.
Their files were saved to Sharepoint (the default, not their intention) and when they 'attached' the file to an email, Outlook went ahead and sent a link, rather than attaching the file. The link went to our internal Sharepoint, which people on the outside could not access.
I understand all the reasoning for this to happen. But the problem was that this was just a naive user clicking 'Sure, save it there, that is cool' then being stuck in this problem. I told them to save the file elsewhere...but now they had two versions of the file and confusion ensued.
Please, please, please don't make 'further integration with Microsoft products' the default!
And no...nobody has ever wanted to use Sharepoint more. I've been around it for a long time, and I don't understand what the heck it is supposed to be. Ignoring all Sharepoint is a valuable skill.