Some of the documents have parts "blurred" out, rather than deleted. I assume it is just some photoshop blur algorithm. Anyone know if that algorithm is reversible? Or is the data really gone? I'm sure the guy running the blog site doesn't know the answer. If you are going to black out sensitive info, you should be absolutely sure you aren't doing it in a reversible way. Just turn all those pixels the same color. Just be careful an attacker can't get any information from the width/height of the area blanked out.
Well, it is cheaper to hire people to review the software than it is to hire people to write _and_ review the software. Either way you have to audit each line of code. The government hires more mathematicians than anyone else, so math rich C, while daunting to the average coder, should be no problem. The money you save on not hiring coders you can spend on really really smart auditors.
I just saw a report about someone who just put a card reader up with a sign "Clean your ATM Card here" or something like that. People who thought their magnetic strip was getting dirty swiped their card.
Probably not, with one being named Sandeep and the other being named Samir. Do they look the same on your screen? If so perhaps you are using SCO software.
Most people aren't constantly ordering new computers, so there are a lot, probably most, home systems that don't meet those specs. You're surprised the requirements for Doom don't exceed the specs of new computers? They wouldn't sell many games if they did that.
Well, it's a view of Maven users. I don't know what maven is, and I still don't after reading that. It was kind of funny for the first paragraph though.
The funniest part was where they said slashdot articles were professionally edited. I guess that makes me a brain surgen because I can clip my toenails.
The current people in charge of the FCC have shown over and over again that they don't listen to, and actually have contempt for the public they serve. But you should complain anyway.
The funny thing is, I've read some of your posts, and it appears we actually agree with each other about everything except what our posts say. So really this has become a meta-thread. People can probably just read the actual thread. But, since I have a lot of free time...
You said: "The original post didn't use "diversity""
The original post said: "I don't know how it is in more diverse places, but it often seems like I'm the only gay man majoring in Computer Science..."
The response by Andy55 clearly mis-understood or ignored the type of diversity the original post referred to, and minimized an important meaning of the original post. I thought it was important to point that out, given the daily minimizations of minority issues in our society.
I replied to andy55 "Diversity means a mix of people from different privilege levels in society." I grant you I should have said "Diversity, as I understand the parent post, means...". Of course I know diversity has many meanings.
Then you replied to me saying there are many types of diversity. That's fair given how I just admitted I should have worded my post.
But then you say: "The context that was relevant to the post was *obviously* not the context of social status."
I explained, with a link even, that the original post obviously does refer to social status, and not crayons in a box or different ways of thinking about math and science.
Then you said "You were speaking of privileged upbringing. I can't imagine how being rich makes someone more or less likely to be gay." implying that type type of privilege I was talking about was wealth.
I never mentioned wealth or upbringing in any of my posts up to this point. (that was your strawman, btw)
Then I explained (perhaps ranted) what I mean by privilege. A lot of people (perhaps not you) don't know what privilege really means. Since this is a public forum I thought I would elaborate a bit in hopes that maybe it would make someone think about it. Even though I doubt anyone is still reading this thread.
You said: "You're a fanatic because of your tendency to turn everything into the topic you want to rail over, even when it's a very tenuous link to do so."
I didn't turn this thread into a thread about diversity and privilege. The first two posts did that (both by what they said and implied).
If you look at every post I've ever made on slashdot you'll see this is the only thread where I talk about diversity and privilege because it is on topic here. I'm pretty sure almost all my posts are on topic (this post excepted). Thus your assertion that I "turn everything into the topic you want to rail over" is another strawman.
While I didn't turn this into a topic about diversity, I think it is a topic worth railing over. While I am privileged enough to never _need_ to think about these issues (I could go through life fat dumb and happy) I believe my privilege at least obligates me to bring them up where the opportunity exists.
Really? There are gay men in computers? Funny that, I've been in the industry for 6 years now. I walk around the halls and constantly hear people proclaim their heterosexuality. "My husband dropped me off today." says one woman. "I need to leave early to get my kids because my wife is working late." says a man. "I'm meeting my girlfriend for dinner." says another man. There's a group right wing white males where I used to work (IBM) who carry bibles on their palm pilots and bitch about how diversity training is infringing on _their_ rights. Their right to do what? Be stupid Klansman I suppose. Corporate diversity training is a sick joke anyway - designed to appease lawyers and not offend the straight white male work force at the same time. Never have I heard a man say "I'm meeting my boyfriend for dinner." or a woman say "I have to get the kids because Julie has to work late." or "Damn, this government is infringing on my constitutional right to equality!" So where are they gay people?
Hmm. Maybe they have to constantly censor themselves, watch what they say. One slip and suddenly the management has you on the slow track. Suddenly some coworkers don't want to pair program with you anymore.
Congrats on your choice of major. Hopefully after you graduate in four or five (or six or seven... the university is a fun place) years society will have evolved to the point where you can be yourself and have the same opportunities at work as your straight coworkers.
Thanks for your flame. Learn about your own oppression. You might start by reading my other posts in this thread.
You're confusing privileged with rich. Rich is one form of privilege. But there are many others.
From dictionary.com - privilege: A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste.
I give an example of how being straight is a privilege in the post you just replied to. I'll re-print it here for you:
The white straight male never has to worry that his accomplishments will be minimized or ignored due to prejudice against his race, sex, orientation, or different way of thinking about math and science.
Privilege doesn't just mean rich. Take the case of two fabulously wealthy white men, one straight, one gay. Both are equally privileged with wealth. But the straight man has an additional privilege. He doesn't have to worry on a daily basis if someone is going to judge him on his sexuality and treat him unfairly.
Privilege doesn't just mean straight. Imagine two poor straight American men, one white, one black. Both will find economically privileged people of any race will have special advantages over both of them in many ways. The white man still has additional privileges the black man does not. It will be easier for the white man to rent an apartment. The white man will be less likely to go to jail, or have the crap kicked out of him by the cops, LA style.
Privilege doesn't just have to do with race, wealth, or sexual orientation. It also has to do with sex. If you are a female in America there is a 31% chance you have been or will be abused by a boyfriend or husband. A male never has to worry that someone who claims to love them is going to come home one day and kick the crap out of him. And if you are a woman and you find yourself in such a relationship (there is no way to know when you meet someone if they are going to abuse you) you are _more_ likely to be severely beaten or killed if you try and leave that person. A woman who kills her abusive husband is probably going to get a lot more jail time than a man who kills his non-abusive wife. If you work at a company with more than a few females that means odds are at least one of them is enduring abuse at home, and _still_ coming in to work every day and somehow managing to do their job as well as everybody there who isn't being abused. If you go back to the definition of privilege you'll see men have an immunity to domestic violence that women do not have.
What does all this have to do with the original post in this thread? Remember from the original post: "...it was such a relief to find that arguably the most recognized name in the field was gay."? Why would a gay CS student feel great relief to know that gay man made it to the top of his field, and is recognized in every computer science class for his accomplishments? It would be great to hear the original poster answer that question. But maybe because, even in the face of all the adversity that a gay male faces in society, nobody can tell him a gay man cannot be a great computer scientist. The U.S. government tells him gay men cannot serve their country. The U.S. government tells him gay men might not be fit parents. The president of the U.S. says gay men threaten all the married straight people in the country. A good portion of the religious leaders in the U.S. say gay men are not fit to be in their churches or in their "heaven". Nobody can tell him a gay man cannot be a great computer scientist.
What does this have to do with my original post? My post was explaining that the kind of diversity the original post mentioned wasn't about people who think differently and creatively about math and science. It was about hope that there is a real place in science for people from any privilege level. The hope that, unlike so many places in our society, here, among scientists, one doesn't need to worry that they will be ignored, banned, demeaned, or abused because of who they are. The hope that among scientists it is the merit of our thinking and creativity that matters.
If this hope is fanaticism I'm proud to be called a fanatic.
I don't need to do a lot of research. You know the majority of your coworkers are straight because the majority of people are straight. And don't tell me none of your male coworkers never even mention their wives or girlfriends (well, this is slashdot, so maybe they just mention their desire for a girlfriend/wife:), and you female coworkers never talk about their husbands or boyfriends (even if they don't actually have one - to keep the drooling slashdotters off their backs:) . That makes their orientation pretty clear (usually).
That's one element of privilege by the way: being able to casually mention your significant other without fear of prejudice.
Another element is to be able to sit back and say "gee, is there really disparity out there? Show me the research." If you are a minority you experience the disparity every day. You don't need yet another damn study.
Being a member of a privileged class isn't "bad" or "evil". But it is important to recognize when one is a member and do what one can from that position of power to help bring real equality to society. Like posting (hopefully) thought provoking things like this to slashdot.
The first post in this thread was in the context of social status. The subsequent post was a typical response of the privileged - "No, there's plenty of diversity here. We all think about math and science in different ways." A statement like that unfairly minimizes the weight of the first post's message. The message is "Hey - there is hope that I can achieve something in my chosen field and my accomplishment will not be overshadowed by prejudice against my sexual orientation." The white straight male never has to worry that his accomplishments will be minimized or ignored due to prejudice against his race, sex, orientation, or different way of thinking about math and science. That is a tremendous privilege.
Diversity means a mix of people from different privilege levels in society. Engineers are from the most privileged class in the world - middle and upper class straight white males. To suggest there is diversity because some people think slightly differently than others in this field is to ignore the problem, shirk responsibility, and contribute to the continued oppression of non-straight non-white non-male people.
I would say greens want to keep the planet in the current state, or maybe the state it was in 200 or so years ago. That is a valid definition of "saving." Just like you put left over food in the fridge to "save" it. It will still be around if you don't put it in the fridge, just not in the state you want.
Do we really think that we, with a few fossil fuels and other environmental crap we throw into the air and water over the past 150 year, can really change the Earth?
Believe it or not, that probably wasn't a troll. The U.S. is falling at warp speed into a dark age of ignorance, superstition and fear. The guy who made the post you responded to probably really actually believes what he wrote.
Unfortunately "skill set" is a horrible way of gauging a programmer's ability. Understanding the theory behind programming is what makes a valuable programmer. Someone can have 20 years of experience in a few different languages and not be a "good" programmer in any of them. But someone who really understands programming can pick up any language in a week or so. There aren't that many different programming paradigms and once you know a paradigm you pretty much know every language built around that style. So it is easy to have lots of languages with little experience in any of them and still be a better programmer than the guy with 20 years of experience in three languages who can't switch to another language because he doesn't understand the underlying theory.
Asking a programmer if they have x years of experience in any specific language is a lot like asking a carpenter how many years of experience he has with a certain brand of hammer. It is a stupid question and doesn't help you understand that programmer's ability at all. Saying you need a programmer with any more than 4 years of experience in a particular paradigm is also as stupid as asking a carpenter if he's had years of experience using a hammer. Just as a person can master a hammer in a day or two, any competent programmer can master a paradigm in 3 or 4 years. If it takes them any longer you don't want them.
Unfortunately this concept is beyond most catberts and hiring managers. It is best to just tell the non-technical person you talk to at a company that you are an expert in the inflated skill set they say they need (but never do, it has to do with H1B stuff...), and then let the real programmers who really know what they need do the technical interview and decide if you are a "good fit" for the job.
Your premise is: because the Earth's temperature fluctuates over time humans cannot have an impact on Earth's temperature.
Your premise is false, so your argument is invalid.
Then you go and cite a bunch of sources that say that the Earth's temperature fluctuates over time. Duh. We already know that, and it doesn't support your premise at all. You need to cite evidence that human activity doesn't cause the Earth's temperature to change.
It is true the Earth's temperature fluctuates over time. It is also theorized, and back by strong evidence, that human activity can affect the global climate.
Finally, you confuse theory with fact. Let's not "just drop it" (funny the way you say it, as though you are member of the community of people who are actually studying this issue). It is a theory, with supporting evidence. You can go ahead and drop it, but I suggest people who actually understand the issue and study it continue to work on it. That's what people do with supported theories. They work on proving or disproving them.
You should probably take a few basic logic and science classes before posting any more comments to threads dealing with scientific theories. And, given your +4 rating, the moderators should take some of those classes as well.
I'll never again explain to a client who doesn't have unit tests how important unit tests are. Nothing is worse than writing a zillion unit tests for someone else's piss poor code that wasn't designed to be tested.
Slashdot Mirror
Ugh. Not hot. Dig a little further and there are much hotter chicks.
Some of the documents have parts "blurred" out, rather than deleted. I assume it is just some photoshop blur algorithm. Anyone know if that algorithm is reversible? Or is the data really gone? I'm sure the guy running the blog site doesn't know the answer. If you are going to black out sensitive info, you should be absolutely sure you aren't doing it in a reversible way. Just turn all those pixels the same color. Just be careful an attacker can't get any information from the width/height of the area blanked out.
Well, it is cheaper to hire people to review the software than it is to hire people to write _and_ review the software. Either way you have to audit each line of code. The government hires more mathematicians than anyone else, so math rich C, while daunting to the average coder, should be no problem. The money you save on not hiring coders you can spend on really really smart auditors.
I just saw a report about someone who just put a card reader up with a sign "Clean your ATM Card here" or something like that. People who thought their magnetic strip was getting dirty swiped their card.
So what you are saying is that it is OK to make law outlawing something as long as it only adversely affects a minority of people.
QED
Probably not, with one being named Sandeep and the other being named Samir. Do they look the same on your screen? If so perhaps you are using SCO software.
Most people aren't constantly ordering new computers, so there are a lot, probably most, home systems that don't meet those specs. You're surprised the requirements for Doom don't exceed the specs of new computers? They wouldn't sell many games if they did that.
Well, it's a view of Maven users. I don't know what maven is, and I still don't after reading that. It was kind of funny for the first paragraph though.
The funniest part was where they said slashdot articles were professionally edited. I guess that makes me a brain surgen because I can clip my toenails.
Michael.Powell@fcc.gov
Hey, at least you'll make some wanker at the FCC waste their time deleting email, rather than finding more stuff to censor.
Personally, I told him I know of another group that gets pissed off when a woman shows too much skin. They are called the Taliban.
I can't show the IRS my records, because they'll vanish if I access them. But trust me, I've paid all my taxes.
Hmm. I thought Voyager was pretty good. But then, unlike most slashdotters, I'm not afraid of women.
Hmm. Maybe they have to constantly censor themselves, watch what they say. One slip and suddenly the management has you on the slow track. Suddenly some coworkers don't want to pair program with you anymore.
Congrats on your choice of major. Hopefully after you graduate in four or five (or six or seven... the university is a fun place) years society will have evolved to the point where you can be yourself and have the same opportunities at work as your straight coworkers.
Thanks for your flame. Learn about your own oppression. You might start by reading my other posts in this thread.
From dictionary.com - privilege: A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste.
I give an example of how being straight is a privilege in the post you just replied to. I'll re-print it here for you:
The white straight male never has to worry that his accomplishments will be minimized or ignored due to prejudice against his race, sex, orientation, or different way of thinking about math and science.
I explain it more here.
Privilege doesn't just mean rich. Take the case of two fabulously wealthy white men, one straight, one gay. Both are equally privileged with wealth. But the straight man has an additional privilege. He doesn't have to worry on a daily basis if someone is going to judge him on his sexuality and treat him unfairly.
Privilege doesn't just mean straight. Imagine two poor straight American men, one white, one black. Both will find economically privileged people of any race will have special advantages over both of them in many ways. The white man still has additional privileges the black man does not. It will be easier for the white man to rent an apartment. The white man will be less likely to go to jail, or have the crap kicked out of him by the cops, LA style.
Privilege doesn't just have to do with race, wealth, or sexual orientation. It also has to do with sex. If you are a female in America there is a 31% chance you have been or will be abused by a boyfriend or husband. A male never has to worry that someone who claims to love them is going to come home one day and kick the crap out of him. And if you are a woman and you find yourself in such a relationship (there is no way to know when you meet someone if they are going to abuse you) you are _more_ likely to be severely beaten or killed if you try and leave that person. A woman who kills her abusive husband is probably going to get a lot more jail time than a man who kills his non-abusive wife. If you work at a company with more than a few females that means odds are at least one of them is enduring abuse at home, and _still_ coming in to work every day and somehow managing to do their job as well as everybody there who isn't being abused. If you go back to the definition of privilege you'll see men have an immunity to domestic violence that women do not have.
What does all this have to do with the original post in this thread? Remember from the original post: "...it was such a relief to find that arguably the most recognized name in the field was gay."? Why would a gay CS student feel great relief to know that gay man made it to the top of his field, and is recognized in every computer science class for his accomplishments? It would be great to hear the original poster answer that question. But maybe because, even in the face of all the adversity that a gay male faces in society, nobody can tell him a gay man cannot be a great computer scientist. The U.S. government tells him gay men cannot serve their country. The U.S. government tells him gay men might not be fit parents. The president of the U.S. says gay men threaten all the married straight people in the country. A good portion of the religious leaders in the U.S. say gay men are not fit to be in their churches or in their "heaven". Nobody can tell him a gay man cannot be a great computer scientist.
What does this have to do with my original post? My post was explaining that the kind of diversity the original post mentioned wasn't about people who think differently and creatively about math and science. It was about hope that there is a real place in science for people from any privilege level. The hope that, unlike so many places in our society, here, among scientists, one doesn't need to worry that they will be ignored, banned, demeaned, or abused because of who they are. The hope that among scientists it is the merit of our thinking and creativity that matters.
If this hope is fanaticism I'm proud to be called a fanatic.
That's one element of privilege by the way: being able to casually mention your significant other without fear of prejudice.
Another element is to be able to sit back and say "gee, is there really disparity out there? Show me the research." If you are a minority you experience the disparity every day. You don't need yet another damn study.
Being a member of a privileged class isn't "bad" or "evil". But it is important to recognize when one is a member and do what one can from that position of power to help bring real equality to society. Like posting (hopefully) thought provoking things like this to slashdot.
The first post in this thread was in the context of social status. The subsequent post was a typical response of the privileged - "No, there's plenty of diversity here. We all think about math and science in different ways." A statement like that unfairly minimizes the weight of the first post's message. The message is "Hey - there is hope that I can achieve something in my chosen field and my accomplishment will not be overshadowed by prejudice against my sexual orientation." The white straight male never has to worry that his accomplishments will be minimized or ignored due to prejudice against his race, sex, orientation, or different way of thinking about math and science. That is a tremendous privilege.
Diversity means a mix of people from different privilege levels in society. Engineers are from the most privileged class in the world - middle and upper class straight white males. To suggest there is diversity because some people think slightly differently than others in this field is to ignore the problem, shirk responsibility, and contribute to the continued oppression of non-straight non-white non-male people.
Do we really think that we, with a few fossil fuels and other environmental crap we throw into the air and water over the past 150 year, can really change the Earth?
Yes. There is good evidence that this is so.
Believe it or not, that probably wasn't a troll. The U.S. is falling at warp speed into a dark age of ignorance, superstition and fear. The guy who made the post you responded to probably really actually believes what he wrote.
Asking a programmer if they have x years of experience in any specific language is a lot like asking a carpenter how many years of experience he has with a certain brand of hammer. It is a stupid question and doesn't help you understand that programmer's ability at all. Saying you need a programmer with any more than 4 years of experience in a particular paradigm is also as stupid as asking a carpenter if he's had years of experience using a hammer. Just as a person can master a hammer in a day or two, any competent programmer can master a paradigm in 3 or 4 years. If it takes them any longer you don't want them.
Unfortunately this concept is beyond most catberts and hiring managers. It is best to just tell the non-technical person you talk to at a company that you are an expert in the inflated skill set they say they need (but never do, it has to do with H1B stuff...), and then let the real programmers who really know what they need do the technical interview and decide if you are a "good fit" for the job.
Your premise is false, so your argument is invalid.
Then you go and cite a bunch of sources that say that the Earth's temperature fluctuates over time. Duh. We already know that, and it doesn't support your premise at all. You need to cite evidence that human activity doesn't cause the Earth's temperature to change.
It is true the Earth's temperature fluctuates over time. It is also theorized, and back by strong evidence, that human activity can affect the global climate.
Finally, you confuse theory with fact. Let's not "just drop it" (funny the way you say it, as though you are member of the community of people who are actually studying this issue). It is a theory, with supporting evidence. You can go ahead and drop it, but I suggest people who actually understand the issue and study it continue to work on it. That's what people do with supported theories. They work on proving or disproving them.
You should probably take a few basic logic and science classes before posting any more comments to threads dealing with scientific theories. And, given your +4 rating, the moderators should take some of those classes as well.
Well, if data is accumulated in the woods, and no one is around to interpret it, is it still data?
I'll never again explain to a client who doesn't have unit tests how important unit tests are. Nothing is worse than writing a zillion unit tests for someone else's piss poor code that wasn't designed to be tested.
PEBKAC. The article isn't about AdWords.