Truth be told, there have been times in the past when he has hauled stuff for me for free. But when I'm on vacation, the last thing I want to do is to sit in front of a computer for hours. Likewise the last thing he would want to do when he's on vacation is to sit behind the wheel.
These days I just get out of it by saying I know nothing about PCs, I never use them. I've been telling them for the last ten years that I'm a web developer, not a PC support person, and I expect the message to start sinking in in a few more years.
My brother, who isn't averse to saying "you can fix my computer", is a truck driver. Next time he comes to visit me while on vacation I'm going to get him to haul some furniture for me. I wonder if that will be enough to make him get the point.
I used to get annoyed by this homeless dude in the San Francisco public library at the Civic Center who would sit muttering to himself out loud constantly.
Equally annoying was the nicely dressed guy having an argument with his bank over his cellphone at the top of his lungs.
Moral: Homeless people haven't cornered the market on bad or annoying behaviour.
Yeah, who needs all that high-falutin edumication stuff? All this talk of having an educated population is just an excuse for wasteful spending to fund the fat cat librarians. Think of how that $39.5 million would have plugged the state's budget hole.
The mewling idiots complain about "religion" being a danger.
Ah, the old "Pol Pot, Stalin Hitler were atheists" fallacy again.
Read my lips. Only a religious nutjob would conduct a suicide mission and blow himself up in a crowded mall or crash a jetliner into a building because he thinks he's going to be rewarded for it in the afterlife. An atheist would not.
Oh really? So when your kid refuses to eat his oatmeal are you going to "respect his rights not to be force fed" or are you going to teach the little twerp to do what he's told for his own good?
...deterrence is obsolete. If people are so brainwashed by their religion that they think that they're going to be greeted by 17 virgins and everything will be better once this life is over, all bets are off.
Religion is the biggest threat to the survival of our species, folks. Time to wake up. Time to stand up to the "let's not offend the Muslims" crowd. Every time they claim to be offended by people in the western world exercising their western rights (whether it's to draw cartoons or write novels) we should tell them to go fuck themselves.
Scenario 1: Johnny and Mark gets into a fight after school. 1970 - Crowd gathers. Johnny wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best mates for life. 2010 - Police called, arrests Johnny and Marko. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Mark started it. Both children go to anger management programs for 3 months. School board hold meeting to implement bullying prevention programs
That's great. You've been watching The Bells of St Mary's where the bullied kid learns how to box and beats his opponent in a David and Goliath struggle and it all worked out beautifully. Congratulations.
Now here's how it really happened in 1970. Mark picks a fight with Johnny who doesn't want to fight. Mark insists and instead of the good guy winning, Mark kicks the crap out of Johnny anyway. Johnny is left bleeding, bruised, dazed, stunned, crying and traumatised. Johnny goes on to have problems in later life because he was bullied in school.
It wasn't all a bed of roses. God forbid if nostalgia for a non-existent golden age ever forms the basis of policy.
The seeds of yet another encroachment on human rights by the UK
Kids are not adults.
It's a good thing they are called "Human Rights", not "Adult Rights" then, isn't it?
Ah, another./ pedant.
Kids do not have the same rights as adults. It's okay to tell kids what to do and force the issue on certain things whether they like it or not. There, happy now?
The seeds of yet another encroachment on human rights by the UK
Kids are not adults.
I remember when I was about 9 one of my mates drew some caricatures of the teachers in a notebook and passed them around. The teacher noticed us all giggling at it and demanded to see the notebook.
I've just been scrolling through some of the comments above. "Why bother?" "Spend money on hospitals!" "What are we going to learn from this?" "This isn't really a car because the power isn't going through the wheels." "Waste of money!" "There are cooler projects to spend money on!"
You know what? Get over yourselves!
Every time I see a cool story posted on/. I find myself bracing for the impact of a squillion know-it-all comments about how useless it is from the usual armchair "I call bullshit" merchants who think they have all the answers to all the world's problems. Oftentimes it's American commenters from the "not invented here" lobby who want to pull a World Cup defence and say "Well it's a bullshit competition anyway so we don't care if we get whipped!" Grow the fuck up! The Brits have made the land speed record their own and I for one tip my hat to them. It's a great way to inspire kids to get involved in engineering, just like your toy with the heavy wings and expensive heat shield up there at the minute.
So the UK government is pushing a sponsorship-funded R&D project that doesn't have immediate commercial payoff. Big deal! What would you prefer to spend the money on? Another day in Iraq?
Jesus wept! Can we not have a story posted on here anymore without having to wade through all this obnoxious crap?
Oh, and I have karma to burn, so knock yourself out if you don't like a bit of straight talking.
That's a good use our our civilization's precious natural resources. Sorry, but I hate cars, and I hate spending money maintaining the infrastructure that makes them practical (e.g. without tons of Gov't funds for roads, oil subsidies, etc cars wouldn't have caught on).
I don't deny that climate change exists; the climate on Earth has been changing since the Earth began and continues to do so. What wasn't been definitively established is to what extent this change is due to the activities of man versus to what extent it is due to the Earth's natural cycles and was going to happen anyway.
Psst! You see that article about people who haven't been following the science? I think he's talking about you!
Attention slashdotters; Listen very carefully because this bears repeating:
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
From TFA:
Students who routinely skip school are prime candidates to join gangs, police say.
This is the real world, folks. It's full of shady people and negative influences that can change the course of a young person's life for the worst if they're not steered away from them.
This isn't some Hollywood flick where the child starts miraculously talking like an adult and knows all the right things to do and all the right things to say. This isn't some TV drama where the kid always says no to drugs, always hangs with the right people, doesn't get involved in substance abuse or petty crime as part of some 'dare' or gang initiation rite. Kids are unpredictable, vulnerable, immature, and need structure, rules, discipline, and enforcement of the rules. People who think of the children as just regular "consumers" or citizens with the same "rights" as grown-ups are the ones who end up having to call Nanny 911 for help in sorting their little shits out because they're out of control.
If any kids of mine had more than four unexcused absences and were ducking out of school behind my back I can assure you there would be hell to pay. I for one think this is a natural evolution of the old truant officer who used to get paid to go around and catch kids in the act of bunking off lessons. Hell I remember what it was like in my day. The school role call system was so full of loopholes that the lower achieving "students" could game the system and skip lessons secure in the knowledge that they had a slim to zero chance of getting caught. They wouldn't get away with it now. My sister's a principal at a comprehensive school in England and they have an intranet system that lets them do role call in every class at the start of every period. If anyone's missing in one lesson who was present earlier, they're reported as missing to their parents, and if the parents can't track them down then the police are called. Proper order.
Think of it this way. You send your kid to school and you trust that the school is going to "hand them back" to you at the end of the day. How would you like it if your kid went missing from school, you called the school up and complained about it and their attitude was "well I don't know, we assumed he was with you"? Fuck that shit! If schools are using new technology to keep tabs on children then I'm all for it.
"Violating rights of children" my ass! Children have a right to be protected from the dangers in society, and that is exactly what this system ensures.
A little shit who doesn't go to class on a regular basis and is off getting up to god-knows-what without adult supervision does not deserve the title "student".
He talks about us heading towards a dictatorship in the most spoiled-brat country in the world and you expect me to believe that he might not be a Fox-watching mad hatter? Gimme a fucking break! I've listened to these pricks for long enough now that I can smell them a mile away.
My comment was a reference to the general tone of the discussion in the west where new media is cited as being the sole cause of the uprising.
Without the internet (or atleast the near-instant exchange of information over long distances) would joe sixpack even know of unrest in Egypt?
Yes. Newspapers and television are quite capable of disseminating information.
Would muhammed sixpack in egypt have known about the unrest in tunisia and other areas?
I'm pretty sure he would. If he didn't get it from Al Jazeera he'd have gotten it from somewhere.
Would we have any other sources of information other than official government mouthpieces?
Yes. Western news agencies are actually pretty good at getting into the thick of it and getting the information out. Just because American broadcasters don't give a shit about the outside world doesn't mean nobody else does.
Or, to take examples from history, would 1989 Tiananmen Square or 1970 Kent State have turned out differently if the military forces were aware that the protesters had a direct connection to the ear of international media?
This may have escaped your attention, but the Tiananmen Square massacre was actually covered by the world's media long before the internet became popular. The forces knew full well that the world was watching and they opened fire regardless.
It's like a doctor saying to wait till your appendix explodes before surgery, or for that cancer to spread a little bit more before you get treatment.
No, it's like waiting for your doctor to say that there actually is any indication that you need surgery before going in for surgery. Going under the knife when there's fuck all wrong with you is the act of a hypochondriac. People like you are political hypochondriacs who think they're in the same boat as the Warsaw Jews just because a black dude got elected President.
Recognizing that the US is heading for a totalitarian dictatorship with all the abuses you mentioned is not a partisan or divisive act in of itself.
I think "deluded paranoia" would be a better description.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for all the replies.
Truth be told, there have been times in the past when he has hauled stuff for me for free. But when I'm on vacation, the last thing I want to do is to sit in front of a computer for hours. Likewise the last thing he would want to do when he's on vacation is to sit behind the wheel.
These days I just get out of it by saying I know nothing about PCs, I never use them. I've been telling them for the last ten years that I'm a web developer, not a PC support person, and I expect the message to start sinking in in a few more years.
My brother, who isn't averse to saying "you can fix my computer", is a truck driver. Next time he comes to visit me while on vacation I'm going to get him to haul some furniture for me. I wonder if that will be enough to make him get the point.
I used to get annoyed by this homeless dude in the San Francisco public library at the Civic Center who would sit muttering to himself out loud constantly.
Equally annoying was the nicely dressed guy having an argument with his bank over his cellphone at the top of his lungs.
Moral: Homeless people haven't cornered the market on bad or annoying behaviour.
Illinois is broke dot com
Space age libraries. Woohoo.
Yeah, who needs all that high-falutin edumication stuff? All this talk of having an educated population is just an excuse for wasteful spending to fund the fat cat librarians. Think of how that $39.5 million would have plugged the state's budget hole.
The mewling idiots complain about "religion" being a danger.
Ah, the old "Pol Pot, Stalin Hitler were atheists" fallacy again.
Read my lips. Only a religious nutjob would conduct a suicide mission and blow himself up in a crowded mall or crash a jetliner into a building because he thinks he's going to be rewarded for it in the afterlife. An atheist would not.
"Mewling idiots" indeed!
Isn't violating his right to be fed?
As long as I get to make fun of the Xtians, I'm OK with that.
Knock yourself out. I'm an equal opportunity make-fun-ofer.
Oh really? So when your kid refuses to eat his oatmeal are you going to "respect his rights not to be force fed" or are you going to teach the little twerp to do what he's told for his own good?
...deterrence is obsolete. If people are so brainwashed by their religion that they think that they're going to be greeted by 17 virgins and everything will be better once this life is over, all bets are off.
Religion is the biggest threat to the survival of our species, folks. Time to wake up. Time to stand up to the "let's not offend the Muslims" crowd. Every time they claim to be offended by people in the western world exercising their western rights (whether it's to draw cartoons or write novels) we should tell them to go fuck themselves.
That was when you were 9. Times have changed.
Scenario 1:
Johnny and Mark gets into a fight after school.
1970 - Crowd gathers. Johnny wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best mates for life.
2010 - Police called, arrests Johnny and Marko. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Mark started it. Both children go to anger management programs for 3 months. School board hold meeting to implement bullying prevention programs
That's great. You've been watching The Bells of St Mary's where the bullied kid learns how to box and beats his opponent in a David and Goliath struggle and it all worked out beautifully. Congratulations.
Now here's how it really happened in 1970. Mark picks a fight with Johnny who doesn't want to fight. Mark insists and instead of the good guy winning, Mark kicks the crap out of Johnny anyway. Johnny is left bleeding, bruised, dazed, stunned, crying and traumatised. Johnny goes on to have problems in later life because he was bullied in school.
It wasn't all a bed of roses. God forbid if nostalgia for a non-existent golden age ever forms the basis of policy.
The seeds of yet another encroachment on human rights by the UK
Kids are not adults.
It's a good thing they are called "Human Rights", not "Adult Rights" then, isn't it?
Ah, another ./ pedant.
Kids do not have the same rights as adults. It's okay to tell kids what to do and force the issue on certain things whether they like it or not. There, happy now?
The seeds of yet another encroachment on human rights by the UK
Kids are not adults.
I remember when I was about 9 one of my mates drew some caricatures of the teachers in a notebook and passed them around. The teacher noticed us all giggling at it and demanded to see the notebook.
Was that an "encroachment on human rights?"
I've just been scrolling through some of the comments above. "Why bother?" "Spend money on hospitals!" "What are we going to learn from this?" "This isn't really a car because the power isn't going through the wheels." "Waste of money!" "There are cooler projects to spend money on!"
You know what? Get over yourselves!
Every time I see a cool story posted on /. I find myself bracing for the impact of a squillion know-it-all comments about how useless it is from the usual armchair "I call bullshit" merchants who think they have all the answers to all the world's problems. Oftentimes it's American commenters from the "not invented here" lobby who want to pull a World Cup defence and say "Well it's a bullshit competition anyway so we don't care if we get whipped!" Grow the fuck up! The Brits have made the land speed record their own and I for one tip my hat to them. It's a great way to inspire kids to get involved in engineering, just like your toy with the heavy wings and expensive heat shield up there at the minute.
So the UK government is pushing a sponsorship-funded R&D project that doesn't have immediate commercial payoff. Big deal! What would you prefer to spend the money on? Another day in Iraq?
Jesus wept! Can we not have a story posted on here anymore without having to wade through all this obnoxious crap?
Oh, and I have karma to burn, so knock yourself out if you don't like a bit of straight talking.
That's a good use our our civilization's precious natural resources. Sorry, but I hate cars, and I hate spending money maintaining the infrastructure that makes them practical (e.g. without tons of Gov't funds for roads, oil subsidies, etc cars wouldn't have caught on).
What use is a baby?
Ah, the old "plague on both your houses" fallacy.
Sorry, but the GOP is waaaaaay more scientifically illiterate than the Democrats.
I don't deny that climate change exists; the climate on Earth has been changing since the Earth began and continues to do so. What wasn't been definitively established is to what extent this change is due to the activities of man versus to what extent it is due to the Earth's natural cycles and was going to happen anyway.
Psst! You see that article about people who haven't been following the science? I think he's talking about you!
Wasn't marriage almost a pre-requisite for being an astronaut on the Mercury program?
What exactly do you achieve while keeping them in class?
Oh. My. God.
Most people in the civilised world have gotten it into their heads that children belong in school. Not in chimneys, factories, gangs, etc.
I started doing drugs because I had no way of blowing off steam with all those motherfucking classes.
Sounds like you haven't stopped taking them. It explains a great deal.
Attention slashdotters; Listen very carefully because this bears repeating:
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
Children are not adults.
From TFA:
Students who routinely skip school are prime candidates to join gangs, police say.
This is the real world, folks. It's full of shady people and negative influences that can change the course of a young person's life for the worst if they're not steered away from them.
This isn't some Hollywood flick where the child starts miraculously talking like an adult and knows all the right things to do and all the right things to say. This isn't some TV drama where the kid always says no to drugs, always hangs with the right people, doesn't get involved in substance abuse or petty crime as part of some 'dare' or gang initiation rite. Kids are unpredictable, vulnerable, immature, and need structure, rules, discipline, and enforcement of the rules. People who think of the children as just regular "consumers" or citizens with the same "rights" as grown-ups are the ones who end up having to call Nanny 911 for help in sorting their little shits out because they're out of control.
If any kids of mine had more than four unexcused absences and were ducking out of school behind my back I can assure you there would be hell to pay. I for one think this is a natural evolution of the old truant officer who used to get paid to go around and catch kids in the act of bunking off lessons. Hell I remember what it was like in my day. The school role call system was so full of loopholes that the lower achieving "students" could game the system and skip lessons secure in the knowledge that they had a slim to zero chance of getting caught. They wouldn't get away with it now. My sister's a principal at a comprehensive school in England and they have an intranet system that lets them do role call in every class at the start of every period. If anyone's missing in one lesson who was present earlier, they're reported as missing to their parents, and if the parents can't track them down then the police are called. Proper order.
Think of it this way. You send your kid to school and you trust that the school is going to "hand them back" to you at the end of the day. How would you like it if your kid went missing from school, you called the school up and complained about it and their attitude was "well I don't know, we assumed he was with you"? Fuck that shit! If schools are using new technology to keep tabs on children then I'm all for it.
"Violating rights of children" my ass! Children have a right to be protected from the dangers in society, and that is exactly what this system ensures.
A little shit who doesn't go to class on a regular basis and is off getting up to god-knows-what without adult supervision does not deserve the title "student".
Yeah but that's in Holland where, to quote Bill Maher, you can smoke weed in church and Janet Jackson's nipple is on the national flag.
In the US it's okay to slice guy's heads off but god forbid if you show anyone giving head.
The blackboard brigade belong in an asylum. They are paranoid delusional idiots. It's okay to say that.
He talks about us heading towards a dictatorship in the most spoiled-brat country in the world and you expect me to believe that he might not be a Fox-watching mad hatter? Gimme a fucking break! I've listened to these pricks for long enough now that I can smell them a mile away.
"fuel democracy" != "sole cause of uprising"
My comment was a reference to the general tone of the discussion in the west where new media is cited as being the sole cause of the uprising.
Without the internet (or atleast the near-instant exchange of information over long distances) would joe sixpack even know of unrest in Egypt?
Yes. Newspapers and television are quite capable of disseminating information.
Would muhammed sixpack in egypt have known about the unrest in tunisia and other areas?
I'm pretty sure he would. If he didn't get it from Al Jazeera he'd have gotten it from somewhere.
Would we have any other sources of information other than official government mouthpieces?
Yes. Western news agencies are actually pretty good at getting into the thick of it and getting the information out. Just because American broadcasters don't give a shit about the outside world doesn't mean nobody else does.
Or, to take examples from history, would 1989 Tiananmen Square or 1970 Kent State have turned out differently if the military forces were aware that the protesters had a direct connection to the ear of international media?
This may have escaped your attention, but the Tiananmen Square massacre was actually covered by the world's media long before the internet became popular. The forces knew full well that the world was watching and they opened fire regardless.
It's like a doctor saying to wait till your appendix explodes before surgery, or for that cancer to spread a little bit more before you get treatment.
No, it's like waiting for your doctor to say that there actually is any indication that you need surgery before going in for surgery. Going under the knife when there's fuck all wrong with you is the act of a hypochondriac. People like you are political hypochondriacs who think they're in the same boat as the Warsaw Jews just because a black dude got elected President.
Recognizing that the US is heading for a totalitarian dictatorship with all the abuses you mentioned is not a partisan or divisive act in of itself.
I think "deluded paranoia" would be a better description.