There's more than one reason we geeks like the dark. I prefer darker rooms - the darker the better. I notice that anything else makes my eyes and head start to hurt. I've had a computer for more than 20 years with better than 20/20 vision, and stare at a monitor for at least 10 hours a day. I also think the carpal tunnel thing is b/s and think more that keyboards aggravate an existing condition, not cause it.
People have speculated on the progress of science in the United States vs. the rest of the world. Do you think that science in the United States is hindered?
Where is Harlan Ellison? Not only did I consider his stories "geeky", but half of them made me question my own existence, and the other half ("I have no mouth but I must scream") about made me wet my pants.
Whoa... what kind of HR management seminar did you pull that crap from?
I'm afraid that one of the issues with IT these days is that some manager/HR types are trying to pull into their IT departments people that aren't "geeks". In other words, people that understand and abide by the above load of crap. Just as other specialties require certain personality types (politicians, mechanics, construction workers, physics professors) so does IT, and companies will be a lot better off hiring the "geek" over Mr. Friendly Team Player.
That being said it's important to note that we geeks like to be treated differently. There are several comments that have already been said that I agree with, but would also like to throw in for my own ego's sake that - much of the business now relies on IT. Doubt it? Take the email server down and see how long it takes your manager to come say "hi" and ask how long it's going to take. That engineering project that has been ongoing for two years and failed is brushed aside and a new one is started, without any screaming whatsoever. We're extremely important, smart, and yes, we're different. Respect it and work with it, and we'll keep the money flowing.
I can understand the work being under the author's control, and them wanting to go back and fix things. However, you can't make a bad movie good, and you really can't make a good movie better. The changes they made to Star Wars are really... unnecessary. I like the way it was done the first time. I don't watch movies for special effects, or to catch flaws, or anything but the story. If I like the story - good movie. That's why I watched episode one without complaining about Jar-Jar. Well... not too much anyway.
If I want to buy something, I'll go looking for it. Granted advertisements sometimes give me a heads up, but most of the time, I'm not online to make a purchase. If I was, I might turn off ad blocking.
Microsoft will stop caring about patents under two circumstances:
1. When there aren't any patents left.
OR
2. When the patent office is so overwhelmed with patents declaring the effects of holding the left mouse button down for 3.5 seconds they can't process anyone else's patent applications.
It's really quite simple. It's because the Chinese want to put a person on the moon. And the Europeans do. And the Indians do. And we do. But rather than collaborating and sending 7 or 8 different nationalities in one ship, we're each going to redesign the damn wheel, and spend billions of dollars in a new space race because no one country will play nice in the sandbox with the other countries.
As an additional rant, screw the ships. Invest the money into technology that doesn't require us to use an assload of rocket propellant to get us off the planet. What happened to a space elevator by 2015?
So... are they counting the number of paying individuals or are these the millions worldwide that have been winning songs off their bottle cops, free two-week trials, etc.?
I for one, suspect the statistical analysis.
*When all else fails, manipulate the data.*
Whose to blame for a lack of new ideas? And isn't the market providing consumers with what they want? While I won't go so far as to say that there aren't very many "completely new untouched ideas that people will love" out there to be tapped, I will admit that perhaps some new/better stories need to be written and gameplay can always be improved. And frankly, the whole dog you can talk to and pet thing sounds like the typical Japanese popcorn game that will sell really well there, but not here. Just give me a game with a decent story and lots of challenge and I will buy it.
What a horrible survey, and to some extent, shame on/. for posting the tag the way it did. I blog. And given those same questions, I'd have responded the same way. Chock full of statistical errors and misrepresentations.
I don't know if this has been said yet, but being forced to blog anonymously out of fear of backlash is EXACTLY what the Constitution was trying to protect. Granted, it could be argued this only applies to political speech, but the rest is basically implied, with the regular exceptions. If I can't get on my personal website, and blog about what I consider to be a bunch of idiots running the country, or that I make my own wine, or that I prefer certain sexual positions, where is my freedom? I do understand that there are consequences from shouting on the rooftops, but that doesn't make it right, and we shouldn't be forced into hiding simply because we don't want to shout generic half-truths to the world.
Reading the comments, it appears as though ya'll don't have kids. Yes, I would not let my kid even watch me play GTA. Or LOTR. Or anything to that effect until much much later in life.
However, most people are morons, and think that GTA is good fun driving entertainment for their 3 year olds.
Of course I have a secure password. It's long, random, and makes use of every possible type of character. Now if I can just find the paper I wrote it down on...
I'm a little late in seeing this, and I'm sure I'll repeat things others have said, but Blogs are not the great literary works. Nor do we have time these days to know everything, as there is too much to know, nor is there time to head to the library every time I want to need to know the distance conversion from Kilometers to Miles. My boss wants the data yesterday, so I need it now.
And yes, if he does not promote new and technology advanced methods for just about anything, he is borderline Antitechnologist. One of those who thinks we should not explore space, reinvent the toaster, or have a computer in every room connected to the net. Where we could digitally download any book we wanted to read.
Welllllll depending upon how you look at it, I have four different email accounts (one work, two personal, one throwaway). Three of them get no spam, or one piece of spam every other week. One of them is my "sure I'd like to d/l this trial software here's an email account" account that gets hit with, on average, 50 pieces of mail a day.
It's more about intelligent handling of the addy than just having an inbox.
You all relate this to the "digital age". Let's compare this to products that aren't digital. If you walked into a video store, placed a movie in your jacket pocket, then walked out without paying, that would be theft. It does not matter that you do not watch it. Same thing with a candy bar. It is still legally theft if you walk out with the candy bar without paying for it, don't eat it, but pay for it later when you do eat it.
To argue even further, in the case of buying the movie later, a convenience store could prosecute you for theft for filling a soda and taking a few sips before you reach the counter. You haven't paid for the product yet, but you are using it, even though you intend to pay for it later.
I won't get into this much more, as I agree with most of the statements about the RIAA/MPAA/etc. But you can not sit there and argue that file-sharing, p2p, ftp'ing, d/l whatever music and movies you haven't paid for is legal and right. Everyone else that sees the movie/hears the music is paying for it.
I'm actually all for this. With the caveat that some day very soon we'll all have air-powered hovercars, that drive us to our destinations for us, following all the rules, with notifications that beep us at the last possible minute to leave and get there on time, with areas where we are allowed to drive manually if we so desire (just for fun). It's a lot to ask, but otherwise there isn't an insurance company on earth that will continue to insure me after watching me drive for 5 minutes in a car equipped with one of those things.
Ahh exploration. Perhaps the problem is that it's being done incorrectly? Or that there is still a space race, when everyone should just pool their money. I don't know, but let's not stop. There's still too much that we don't know, and whether or not space will be the best classroom, let's not rule it out as a possibility.
This brings back memories. The last boss I interviewed wanted to express her superiority over me (nice grandmotherly type while we interviewed her), and it ended with HR wanting to send me to a class to learn how to deal with her personality type. Dilbert in action...
I'd stick with "Do you prefer yes (sir or ma'am) or do you like to be called (mr. or ms.) last name?"
Gee, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. While I agree with redundancy, my choice of words was not exactly correct. This is duplication of services, which can be good as well. However, I tend to look towards science to be a realm for testing, unification, and diversification. Having China attempt (well, maybe not anymore) to travel to the moon using old technology is wasteful. Having two competing (possibly compatable?) systems in orbit telling you where you are is wasteful. Is it really going to excite people to be able to have their GPS units defualt to kilometers rather than miles? I would just be happy with something that works.
Yes. I personally see nothing better than another nation putting up their own GPS system. In fact, I think every nation should have their own system. And while they're at it, everyone should have their own Internet that no other nation can access. But why stop there? Everyone should make their own space agency that has the exact agenda that everyone else's space agency has and... oh... wait... nevermind...
"The Great Dying"? We pay our scientists how much and the best they can come up with is "The Great Dying"? "The Big Bang"? I can't wait for the "Super-huge Thingamajigger"!
Slashdot Mirror
There's more than one reason we geeks like the dark. I prefer darker rooms - the darker the better. I notice that anything else makes my eyes and head start to hurt. I've had a computer for more than 20 years with better than 20/20 vision, and stare at a monitor for at least 10 hours a day. I also think the carpal tunnel thing is b/s and think more that keyboards aggravate an existing condition, not cause it.
People have speculated on the progress of science in the United States vs. the rest of the world. Do you think that science in the United States is hindered?
Where is Harlan Ellison? Not only did I consider his stories "geeky", but half of them made me question my own existence, and the other half ("I have no mouth but I must scream") about made me wet my pants.
Whoa... what kind of HR management seminar did you pull that crap from?
I'm afraid that one of the issues with IT these days is that some manager/HR types are trying to pull into their IT departments people that aren't "geeks". In other words, people that understand and abide by the above load of crap. Just as other specialties require certain personality types (politicians, mechanics, construction workers, physics professors) so does IT, and companies will be a lot better off hiring the "geek" over Mr. Friendly Team Player.
That being said it's important to note that we geeks like to be treated differently. There are several comments that have already been said that I agree with, but would also like to throw in for my own ego's sake that - much of the business now relies on IT. Doubt it? Take the email server down and see how long it takes your manager to come say "hi" and ask how long it's going to take. That engineering project that has been ongoing for two years and failed is brushed aside and a new one is started, without any screaming whatsoever. We're extremely important, smart, and yes, we're different. Respect it and work with it, and we'll keep the money flowing.
I can understand the work being under the author's control, and them wanting to go back and fix things. However, you can't make a bad movie good, and you really can't make a good movie better. The changes they made to Star Wars are really... unnecessary. I like the way it was done the first time. I don't watch movies for special effects, or to catch flaws, or anything but the story. If I like the story - good movie. That's why I watched episode one without complaining about Jar-Jar. Well... not too much anyway.
If I want to buy something, I'll go looking for it. Granted advertisements sometimes give me a heads up, but most of the time, I'm not online to make a purchase. If I was, I might turn off ad blocking.
Microsoft will stop caring about patents under two circumstances:
1. When there aren't any patents left.
OR
2. When the patent office is so overwhelmed with patents declaring the effects of holding the left mouse button down for 3.5 seconds they can't process anyone else's patent applications.
It's really quite simple. It's because the Chinese want to put a person on the moon. And the Europeans do. And the Indians do. And we do. But rather than collaborating and sending 7 or 8 different nationalities in one ship, we're each going to redesign the damn wheel, and spend billions of dollars in a new space race because no one country will play nice in the sandbox with the other countries. As an additional rant, screw the ships. Invest the money into technology that doesn't require us to use an assload of rocket propellant to get us off the planet. What happened to a space elevator by 2015?
So... are they counting the number of paying individuals or are these the millions worldwide that have been winning songs off their bottle cops, free two-week trials, etc.? I for one, suspect the statistical analysis. *When all else fails, manipulate the data.*
Whose to blame for a lack of new ideas? And isn't the market providing consumers with what they want? While I won't go so far as to say that there aren't very many "completely new untouched ideas that people will love" out there to be tapped, I will admit that perhaps some new/better stories need to be written and gameplay can always be improved. And frankly, the whole dog you can talk to and pet thing sounds like the typical Japanese popcorn game that will sell really well there, but not here. Just give me a game with a decent story and lots of challenge and I will buy it.
What a horrible survey, and to some extent, shame on /. for posting the tag the way it did. I blog. And given those same questions, I'd have responded the same way. Chock full of statistical errors and misrepresentations.
I don't know if this has been said yet, but being forced to blog anonymously out of fear of backlash is EXACTLY what the Constitution was trying to protect. Granted, it could be argued this only applies to political speech, but the rest is basically implied, with the regular exceptions. If I can't get on my personal website, and blog about what I consider to be a bunch of idiots running the country, or that I make my own wine, or that I prefer certain sexual positions, where is my freedom? I do understand that there are consequences from shouting on the rooftops, but that doesn't make it right, and we shouldn't be forced into hiding simply because we don't want to shout generic half-truths to the world.
Reading the comments, it appears as though ya'll don't have kids. Yes, I would not let my kid even watch me play GTA. Or LOTR. Or anything to that effect until much much later in life. However, most people are morons, and think that GTA is good fun driving entertainment for their 3 year olds.
Of course I have a secure password. It's long, random, and makes use of every possible type of character. Now if I can just find the paper I wrote it down on...
I'm a little late in seeing this, and I'm sure I'll repeat things others have said, but Blogs are not the great literary works. Nor do we have time these days to know everything, as there is too much to know, nor is there time to head to the library every time I want to need to know the distance conversion from Kilometers to Miles. My boss wants the data yesterday, so I need it now. And yes, if he does not promote new and technology advanced methods for just about anything, he is borderline Antitechnologist. One of those who thinks we should not explore space, reinvent the toaster, or have a computer in every room connected to the net. Where we could digitally download any book we wanted to read.
Welllllll depending upon how you look at it, I have four different email accounts (one work, two personal, one throwaway). Three of them get no spam, or one piece of spam every other week. One of them is my "sure I'd like to d/l this trial software here's an email account" account that gets hit with, on average, 50 pieces of mail a day.
It's more about intelligent handling of the addy than just having an inbox.
You all relate this to the "digital age". Let's compare this to products that aren't digital. If you walked into a video store, placed a movie in your jacket pocket, then walked out without paying, that would be theft. It does not matter that you do not watch it. Same thing with a candy bar. It is still legally theft if you walk out with the candy bar without paying for it, don't eat it, but pay for it later when you do eat it. To argue even further, in the case of buying the movie later, a convenience store could prosecute you for theft for filling a soda and taking a few sips before you reach the counter. You haven't paid for the product yet, but you are using it, even though you intend to pay for it later. I won't get into this much more, as I agree with most of the statements about the RIAA/MPAA/etc. But you can not sit there and argue that file-sharing, p2p, ftp'ing, d/l whatever music and movies you haven't paid for is legal and right. Everyone else that sees the movie/hears the music is paying for it.
no no... remember the pirated Sound Forge software? Not even Microsoft pays for it's licenses...
Forward shields at full stregth captain.
I'm actually all for this. With the caveat that some day very soon we'll all have air-powered hovercars, that drive us to our destinations for us, following all the rules, with notifications that beep us at the last possible minute to leave and get there on time, with areas where we are allowed to drive manually if we so desire (just for fun). It's a lot to ask, but otherwise there isn't an insurance company on earth that will continue to insure me after watching me drive for 5 minutes in a car equipped with one of those things.
Ahh exploration. Perhaps the problem is that it's being done incorrectly? Or that there is still a space race, when everyone should just pool their money. I don't know, but let's not stop. There's still too much that we don't know, and whether or not space will be the best classroom, let's not rule it out as a possibility.
This brings back memories. The last boss I interviewed wanted to express her superiority over me (nice grandmotherly type while we interviewed her), and it ended with HR wanting to send me to a class to learn how to deal with her personality type. Dilbert in action... I'd stick with "Do you prefer yes (sir or ma'am) or do you like to be called (mr. or ms.) last name?"
Gee, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. While I agree with redundancy, my choice of words was not exactly correct. This is duplication of services, which can be good as well. However, I tend to look towards science to be a realm for testing, unification, and diversification. Having China attempt (well, maybe not anymore) to travel to the moon using old technology is wasteful. Having two competing (possibly compatable?) systems in orbit telling you where you are is wasteful. Is it really going to excite people to be able to have their GPS units defualt to kilometers rather than miles? I would just be happy with something that works.
Yes. I personally see nothing better than another nation putting up their own GPS system. In fact, I think every nation should have their own system. And while they're at it, everyone should have their own Internet that no other nation can access. But why stop there? Everyone should make their own space agency that has the exact agenda that everyone else's space agency has and... oh... wait... nevermind...
"The Great Dying"? We pay our scientists how much and the best they can come up with is "The Great Dying"? "The Big Bang"? I can't wait for the "Super-huge Thingamajigger"!