It is hard to quantify exactly how Slashdot and CmdrTaco has shaped my education within this world of computers and technology, but let's suffice to say that it's been incredible. Slashdot gave me a consistent and no-B.S. direct link to really important information that nobody else had back in my formative years, and I'm forever grateful.
I'm especially thankful for the vision and leadership of CmdrTaco who, despite the growing "corporateness" of the Internet as it raged on, insisted on keeping the same flavor going on at Slashdot because it worked, goddammit, and it got information in the hands of those who needed it.
I know I'm yet another drop in the pool of thousands, but Many, many thanks for your years of dedication and hard work on this project. I believe I speak for everyone on this site when I make a lifetime standing offer of buying you a beer (or ten) should we ever meet.
Good luck and keep your stick on the ice. We're all in this together.
I wish it WOULD pass. I'm in Iowa, the heart of ethanol country, and I can't stand the stuff and what it's done. Artificial inflation of corn prices, artificial money, artificial companies. Whole corporations and huge plants have been built up on the promise of ethanol and just as quickly have fell into bankruptcy because the dream failed to pay off. As people have slowly come to realize that the bang-for-buck of ethanol is so much lower than gasoline, even with subsidies, plus the corrosion factors on improperly-engineered cars, it's fallen by the wayside. E-85 was supposed to be the next big thing and it barely made a fart in the market at all. All we've ended up with is farmers who thought they had a huge market for their product and suddenly....don't.
I've heard a lot of arguments for things like switchgrass ethanol and so forth and, hey, I'm all for alternatives -- if they work. But the fact remains that despite whatever "green" intentions people may have, if you can't sell it to the general public without a crutch, you're going to lose in the end. Time to let ethanol stand -- and die gracefully -- on its own.
For the most part, unless you're a programming grunt and do nothing except hack code all day long, you're multi-tasking. Email, IM, a work order system, CVS system, perhaps ERP, CRM, DMS, etc. Any number of systems that may require constant or frequent monitoring. That is where developers (and most other computer jockeys) need a 2nd monitor.
Now...if you're lucky enough to be able to say, "Look, I'm coding this afternoon and I'll be unavailable entirely until I get done," and then you can close everything, open up your project, and hack/slash at it for a few hours interrupt-free, that's wonderful, and you probably only need one monitor. But I don't know of too many positions like that these days, where so many people are called to be Jack-of-all in most positions.
In the end, monitors are bloody cheap. If the developer wants one, GET HIM/HER ONE. The cost is extremely minor compared to the value it'll bring to their attitude if they think their needs are being met. It'll pay for itself easily.
Oh, right, because everything on the Internet takes about 5 years to come out. Everyone will wait for you, W3C. We've got Livejournals to keep us amused till then.
Seriously, though -- wouldn't we be that much better off if they would release the standard right now as, "final pending revisions for bugs", or similar, so the world can move on and not fall into 14 different camps of what is official and what isn't?
(I realize in a lot of ways this is all about terminology, but terminology matters, too. )
..don't they fix the parabolic action (or lack thereof) of the "bomber" birds' payload egg? I had gotten so used to the extremely satisfying physics of the game that when that one came along and didn't describe a curved trajectory upon release, it totally threw me off and still does to today.
To be honest, I was trying to be a dick to attempt some humor on the subject (perhaps poorly), although I do wonder what the spread of technical knowledge is on e-Readers. That's what *I* would use them for, if I had one.
I don't find Twilight all that offensive from a reading standpoint, although being a sci-fi/fantasy geek, it's far too scant of detail and background. That being said, as I said to someone who was protesting the books as being hackneyed vamp porn, if you're reading Twilight to read a good fantasy-vampire novel, you're reading it for the wrong reason.
TFA failed to mention that the bulk of the content found on the e-Readers surveyed was copies of the Twilight series and whatever's on O's list these days.
Somehow, I doubt it's the font that is making everyone stupid...
Look away from Iowa this morning; it has failed to be a bastion of rational thought and discourse, if it ever was.
We re-elected a governor who, in the 1980s and early 90s, managed to drive our state and especially our educational system straight into the ground, and has already stated plans to cut spending on education already. We kept such old-school dips such as Grassley and Latham, elected King, and gave the Secretary of State job to a guy who isn't sure what that position actually does. We ousted 3 Supreme Court judges for a single decision they handed down, declaring the ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional, thus introducing partisan politics into the judicial system (which will give us years of benefits, I don't doubt)...BUT! We managed to pass a constitutional amendment, no less, to permanently fund wildlife areas so hunters have more things to kill.
PALO ALTO, CA -- Millions of Internet users simultaneously threw up their hands in frustration and disgust Thursday afternoon as Facebook.com, a popular website providing distractions from productivity, inter-personal communication services, and a next-generation forum for thousands of misplaced USENET trolls, blinked off the Interwebs in a bright display of sparks and an anti-orgasmic groan.
Calls to Facebook headquarters were not answered but when the machine picked up, background noises included explosions, people screaming, and a burly man shouting DOS commands in a fierce staccato.
Authorities were put on alert status and reinforcements were called in to deal with the huge amount of LOLs and WTFs that had begun to pile up at intersections, due to the timing corresponding with the release of teenagers from school and their subsequent activities. Counselors were bracing themselves to deal with the myriad of relationships that have been thrust violently into limbo as users have been unable to hook up, break up, get married, or get "into a relationship" with their BFF.
Evan Williams, CEO of the popular sister-site Twitter, said in a statement that they were jumping in to help. "We've brought more servers online to deal with the influx of users who need to update their status, complain about a political party, or notify classmates that they are, 'skanky hors'." Williams also noted that they were partnering with TwitPic and other add-on services to ensure that the steady stream of photos of asses, children doing stupid things, and people drinking in semicircles would be preserved.
Ag secretary Vilsack presented a sober speech Thursday afternoon, lamenting the millions of dollars in crop and animal losses expected from the downtime of Facebook. "We know a lot of virtual farmers out there are hurting, " he stated. "You should know -- we will be here to help you rebuild."
Meanwhile, during the downtime, researchers discovered a rather large blue space available outside of their houses and middle age housewives were said to be seen in states of ecstasy from a natural phenomenon known as, "sunshine".
is there any GOOD reason why they simply didn't repair the blowout preventer, hook up a new dipstick, set up a new rig, and keep on a-pumpin'?
I mean, I realize that a half billion people would have descended on it in angry, wet mobs, but...it's an oil well. There's hundreds like it still in operation. If they could safely get it back in operation, rather than forgo all the effort to FIND oil and get it drilled, why not....simply continue pumping?
Maybe it was a lost cause on re-connecting everything, and maybe it was just a PR issue, but it always surprised me that they said they'd just kill it off.
We've already made the decision to upgrade organically -- as new hardware comes in with 7, we'll run it, but otherwise, we will not upgrade. There's absolutely ZERO benefit that we can see to our company and the potential for immense costs, so it's a no-brainer. It's a good product, there's just no increase in benefit.
I have yet to see a business analysis of Windows 7 citing the points that should make an upgrade appealing for a business -- stability? We have that with XP already. Rarely does it crash or have issues. Security? We're not open to the outside and we have good protection with a low infection rate. Hardware compatibility? Easily navigated for now -- none of the standard issue workstations require fancy hardware anyway. Flashy animated windows and icons? Yes, clearly we missed the ROI on that one.
Pfft. Wake me when there's something significant, hrm?
...and still just as useless. Well, ok -- non-realtime collaborative efforts, perhaps. Brainstormings. Things like that.
But after it takes you 3 years to get everyone on Google, set up, working right (damned ad-block), etc. and THEN you can start working together -- oh, but wait, half the people don't know how to use Wave, so you have to teach them how to use it -- yes, dammit, it's more than just IM, it's all sorts of...oh, read the docs, won't you? -- THEN you can finally get down to working on the pro....
What? You have to go? Oh, I guess we DID spend the entire 2-hour meeting setting this crap up. Fine, reschedule for another day. AND ON A PHONE THIS TIME.
Sounds like a Case of the Spostas
on
Flash Is Not a Right
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Why does this strike me that this is more about a bunch of so-called, "developers," who are getting all huffy about not being able to easily whack out Whack-A-Mole and Fart apps for the i(Pad|Touch|Phone), than about a true fight for a "right" to develop as you please? So develop stuff in Flash -- you just won't be able to publish it via these devices. Why is this a big surprise? It's not as if Apple's hidden the fact that Flash isn't supported. It's not like you USED to be able to use it and now you can't -- they've been VERY open about their dick-waving with Adobe.
Hey -- I want it to have Flash, too. I'd like to have a Ferrari, but it's just not in the cards, ya know?
A million baby entrepreneurs thought that the iPad would SURELY have to allow the use of Flash and they were already counting the stacks of bills in their minds garnered from the various apps they were going to whack out in a hurry using Flash; now that dream has been shattered and they're getting all surly about it. Wah.
These people have clearly not visited my house. Or any of the houses of the other geeks I hang with. Come back when you have 100+ machines in a single basement and we'll talk.
Pay less in taxes? No, but time is money, too, and a simplified system would allow me to do something -- anything -- else other than trying to make sure that I get back every penny of my money that I'm entitled to.
I stand by my statement, however; if it was financially beneficial for the government, they would make the tax code simpler. The fact is, it earns them more money through mistakes or people like yourself who don't care to try to grep out every cent they are owed, so it's a win. I never said it was more financially beneficial to the taxpayer -- but, as you did point out, it is...in certain ways. With our pet projects and pet exemptions, some of us make off with a lot more in our pockets than others.
A simplified code would probably mean that there'd be more evenness across the board; a person earning 100K in L.A. would pay the same as a person earning 100K in Iowa because there'd be no odd-this or special-that exemption.
A nice thought but most of the printouts/copies are secure data that is sent into the shred bin and doesn't get re-routed as scratch. Since I keep my particular office down to a minimum on printouts, there isn't much to have. Plus, sticky keeps it up off the desk where it might very well run away or get buried.:) I'm not anti-green, but it's not clearly obvious in my particular place of biz.
Well, it comes up quickly, but first I have to reach for the phone, press the home button to wake it up, slide to unlock, enter in my passcode, then swipe to the screen with the Notes application, touch that, and then read what my note is. By that point, I need to get a cup of coffee.:)
This beats shifting my eyes 6" to the left to read the post-it note without my hands leaving the keyboard/rodent. Win!
You're right as far as it applies to all "standard" deductions, but not to things like mortgage interest, charitable donations, itemized medical expenses, etc...the IRS knows none of that -- or not natively -- and THOSE are what people who are clueless will miss, resulting in more income for the government. In fact, I'd bet they count on it.
I'm saying this for the folks who look at the fees assessed by TurboTax and H&R and so forth and go, "No, I'm going to do it myself because I refuse to pay another $60+ to have my taxes done when I can do them on paper" and then promptly screw themselves without knowing it.
Maybe, maybe not...I have no numbers to back me up. But the government's not completely stupid -- if it was more beneficial, financially, to make the tax code simple, they would have done it years ago, IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
Does it have inside of it a baby Cat, baby Lister, baby Kryten, and baby holographic Rimmer?
It is hard to quantify exactly how Slashdot and CmdrTaco has shaped my education within this world of computers and technology, but let's suffice to say that it's been incredible. Slashdot gave me a consistent and no-B.S. direct link to really important information that nobody else had back in my formative years, and I'm forever grateful.
I'm especially thankful for the vision and leadership of CmdrTaco who, despite the growing "corporateness" of the Internet as it raged on, insisted on keeping the same flavor going on at Slashdot because it worked, goddammit, and it got information in the hands of those who needed it.
I know I'm yet another drop in the pool of thousands, but Many, many thanks for your years of dedication and hard work on this project. I believe I speak for everyone on this site when I make a lifetime standing offer of buying you a beer (or ten) should we ever meet.
Good luck and keep your stick on the ice. We're all in this together.
I wish it WOULD pass. I'm in Iowa, the heart of ethanol country, and I can't stand the stuff and what it's done. Artificial inflation of corn prices, artificial money, artificial companies. Whole corporations and huge plants have been built up on the promise of ethanol and just as quickly have fell into bankruptcy because the dream failed to pay off. As people have slowly come to realize that the bang-for-buck of ethanol is so much lower than gasoline, even with subsidies, plus the corrosion factors on improperly-engineered cars, it's fallen by the wayside. E-85 was supposed to be the next big thing and it barely made a fart in the market at all. All we've ended up with is farmers who thought they had a huge market for their product and suddenly....don't.
I've heard a lot of arguments for things like switchgrass ethanol and so forth and, hey, I'm all for alternatives -- if they work. But the fact remains that despite whatever "green" intentions people may have, if you can't sell it to the general public without a crutch, you're going to lose in the end. Time to let ethanol stand -- and die gracefully -- on its own.
Word is they were pretty hard to find at first, on account of them vibrating right off the slide.
For the most part, unless you're a programming grunt and do nothing except hack code all day long, you're multi-tasking. Email, IM, a work order system, CVS system, perhaps ERP, CRM, DMS, etc. Any number of systems that may require constant or frequent monitoring. That is where developers (and most other computer jockeys) need a 2nd monitor.
Now...if you're lucky enough to be able to say, "Look, I'm coding this afternoon and I'll be unavailable entirely until I get done," and then you can close everything, open up your project, and hack/slash at it for a few hours interrupt-free, that's wonderful, and you probably only need one monitor. But I don't know of too many positions like that these days, where so many people are called to be Jack-of-all in most positions.
In the end, monitors are bloody cheap. If the developer wants one, GET HIM/HER ONE. The cost is extremely minor compared to the value it'll bring to their attitude if they think their needs are being met. It'll pay for itself easily.
Despite all this, I *still* can't use it to realign the starboard plasma couplings. Dammit!
Oh, right, because everything on the Internet takes about 5 years to come out. Everyone will wait for you, W3C. We've got Livejournals to keep us amused till then.
Seriously, though -- wouldn't we be that much better off if they would release the standard right now as, "final pending revisions for bugs", or similar, so the world can move on and not fall into 14 different camps of what is official and what isn't?
(I realize in a lot of ways this is all about terminology, but terminology matters, too. )
..don't they fix the parabolic action (or lack thereof) of the "bomber" birds' payload egg? I had gotten so used to the extremely satisfying physics of the game that when that one came along and didn't describe a curved trajectory upon release, it totally threw me off and still does to today.
To be honest, I was trying to be a dick to attempt some humor on the subject (perhaps poorly), although I do wonder what the spread of technical knowledge is on e-Readers. That's what *I* would use them for, if I had one.
I don't find Twilight all that offensive from a reading standpoint, although being a sci-fi/fantasy geek, it's far too scant of detail and background. That being said, as I said to someone who was protesting the books as being hackneyed vamp porn, if you're reading Twilight to read a good fantasy-vampire novel, you're reading it for the wrong reason.
TFA failed to mention that the bulk of the content found on the e-Readers surveyed was copies of the Twilight series and whatever's on O's list these days.
Somehow, I doubt it's the font that is making everyone stupid...
We re-elected a governor who, in the 1980s and early 90s, managed to drive our state and especially our educational system straight into the ground, and has already stated plans to cut spending on education already. We kept such old-school dips such as Grassley and Latham, elected King, and gave the Secretary of State job to a guy who isn't sure what that position actually does. We ousted 3 Supreme Court judges for a single decision they handed down, declaring the ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional, thus introducing partisan politics into the judicial system (which will give us years of benefits, I don't doubt)...BUT! We managed to pass a constitutional amendment, no less, to permanently fund wildlife areas so hunters have more things to kill.
In recap:
Touché, pussycat.
It's the US of A -- we don't use the kilogram anyway. Change it as you like.
That being said, keep your filthy hands off my hogshead.
PALO ALTO, CA -- Millions of Internet users simultaneously threw up their hands in frustration and disgust Thursday afternoon as Facebook.com, a popular website providing distractions from productivity, inter-personal communication services, and a next-generation forum for thousands of misplaced USENET trolls, blinked off the Interwebs in a bright display of sparks and an anti-orgasmic groan.
Calls to Facebook headquarters were not answered but when the machine picked up, background noises included explosions, people screaming, and a burly man shouting DOS commands in a fierce staccato.
Authorities were put on alert status and reinforcements were called in to deal with the huge amount of LOLs and WTFs that had begun to pile up at intersections, due to the timing corresponding with the release of teenagers from school and their subsequent activities. Counselors were bracing themselves to deal with the myriad of relationships that have been thrust violently into limbo as users have been unable to hook up, break up, get married, or get "into a relationship" with their BFF.
Evan Williams, CEO of the popular sister-site Twitter, said in a statement that they were jumping in to help. "We've brought more servers online to deal with the influx of users who need to update their status, complain about a political party, or notify classmates that they are, 'skanky hors'." Williams also noted that they were partnering with TwitPic and other add-on services to ensure that the steady stream of photos of asses, children doing stupid things, and people drinking in semicircles would be preserved.
Ag secretary Vilsack presented a sober speech Thursday afternoon, lamenting the millions of dollars in crop and animal losses expected from the downtime of Facebook. "We know a lot of virtual farmers out there are hurting, " he stated. "You should know -- we will be here to help you rebuild."
Meanwhile, during the downtime, researchers discovered a rather large blue space available outside of their houses and middle age housewives were said to be seen in states of ecstasy from a natural phenomenon known as, "sunshine".
is there any GOOD reason why they simply didn't repair the blowout preventer, hook up a new dipstick, set up a new rig, and keep on a-pumpin'?
I mean, I realize that a half billion people would have descended on it in angry, wet mobs, but...it's an oil well. There's hundreds like it still in operation. If they could safely get it back in operation, rather than forgo all the effort to FIND oil and get it drilled, why not....simply continue pumping?
Maybe it was a lost cause on re-connecting everything, and maybe it was just a PR issue, but it always surprised me that they said they'd just kill it off.
We've already made the decision to upgrade organically -- as new hardware comes in with 7, we'll run it, but otherwise, we will not upgrade. There's absolutely ZERO benefit that we can see to our company and the potential for immense costs, so it's a no-brainer. It's a good product, there's just no increase in benefit.
I have yet to see a business analysis of Windows 7 citing the points that should make an upgrade appealing for a business -- stability? We have that with XP already. Rarely does it crash or have issues. Security? We're not open to the outside and we have good protection with a low infection rate. Hardware compatibility? Easily navigated for now -- none of the standard issue workstations require fancy hardware anyway. Flashy animated windows and icons? Yes, clearly we missed the ROI on that one.
Pfft. Wake me when there's something significant, hrm?
...and still just as useless. Well, ok -- non-realtime collaborative efforts, perhaps. Brainstormings. Things like that.
But after it takes you 3 years to get everyone on Google, set up, working right (damned ad-block), etc. and THEN you can start working together -- oh, but wait, half the people don't know how to use Wave, so you have to teach them how to use it -- yes, dammit, it's more than just IM, it's all sorts of...oh, read the docs, won't you? -- THEN you can finally get down to working on the pro....
What? You have to go? Oh, I guess we DID spend the entire 2-hour meeting setting this crap up. Fine, reschedule for another day. AND ON A PHONE THIS TIME.
Why does this strike me that this is more about a bunch of so-called, "developers," who are getting all huffy about not being able to easily whack out Whack-A-Mole and Fart apps for the i(Pad|Touch|Phone), than about a true fight for a "right" to develop as you please? So develop stuff in Flash -- you just won't be able to publish it via these devices. Why is this a big surprise? It's not as if Apple's hidden the fact that Flash isn't supported. It's not like you USED to be able to use it and now you can't -- they've been VERY open about their dick-waving with Adobe.
Hey -- I want it to have Flash, too. I'd like to have a Ferrari, but it's just not in the cards, ya know?
A million baby entrepreneurs thought that the iPad would SURELY have to allow the use of Flash and they were already counting the stacks of bills in their minds garnered from the various apps they were going to whack out in a hurry using Flash; now that dream has been shattered and they're getting all surly about it. Wah.
Beowulf cluster of Gopher servers, naturally. RAID-6 with 8" floppies.
These people have clearly not visited my house. Or any of the houses of the other geeks I hang with. Come back when you have 100+ machines in a single basement and we'll talk.
Clark: Where's Eddie? He usually eats these goddamn things.
Catherine: Not recently, Clark. He read that squirrels were high in cholesterol.
Pay less in taxes? No, but time is money, too, and a simplified system would allow me to do something -- anything -- else other than trying to make sure that I get back every penny of my money that I'm entitled to.
I stand by my statement, however; if it was financially beneficial for the government, they would make the tax code simpler. The fact is, it earns them more money through mistakes or people like yourself who don't care to try to grep out every cent they are owed, so it's a win. I never said it was more financially beneficial to the taxpayer -- but, as you did point out, it is...in certain ways. With our pet projects and pet exemptions, some of us make off with a lot more in our pockets than others.
A simplified code would probably mean that there'd be more evenness across the board; a person earning 100K in L.A. would pay the same as a person earning 100K in Iowa because there'd be no odd-this or special-that exemption.
A nice thought but most of the printouts/copies are secure data that is sent into the shred bin and doesn't get re-routed as scratch. Since I keep my particular office down to a minimum on printouts, there isn't much to have. Plus, sticky keeps it up off the desk where it might very well run away or get buried. :) I'm not anti-green, but it's not clearly obvious in my particular place of biz.
Well, it comes up quickly, but first I have to reach for the phone, press the home button to wake it up, slide to unlock, enter in my passcode, then swipe to the screen with the Notes application, touch that, and then read what my note is. By that point, I need to get a cup of coffee. :)
This beats shifting my eyes 6" to the left to read the post-it note without my hands leaving the keyboard/rodent. Win!
You're right as far as it applies to all "standard" deductions, but not to things like mortgage interest, charitable donations, itemized medical expenses, etc...the IRS knows none of that -- or not natively -- and THOSE are what people who are clueless will miss, resulting in more income for the government. In fact, I'd bet they count on it.
I'm saying this for the folks who look at the fees assessed by TurboTax and H&R and so forth and go, "No, I'm going to do it myself because I refuse to pay another $60+ to have my taxes done when I can do them on paper" and then promptly screw themselves without knowing it.
Maybe, maybe not...I have no numbers to back me up. But the government's not completely stupid -- if it was more beneficial, financially, to make the tax code simple, they would have done it years ago, IMHO.