It sounds like there's a lot of armchair dissidents here. It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and rail about one's rights being trampled on, but how many people here have actually attended rallies or organised protests or pestered their congresspeople to lobby for changes? Just curious:)
And where on earth did you get the idea that America is still a democracy? From what I can gather, your last two elections have been fixed (Florida vote counts, anyone?). How is it that the most powerful man on earth, who has the lowest rating of any president EVER, is still running the show?
Actually: just move to South Africa, where bandwidth prices are way more expensive than they are in the US, and providers cap your downloads because the monopolistic telco has told them to. That future is already here.
Telling someone to "toughen up" or "learn to fight back" is often a waste. It was back then, and it is now. People have to actually LEARN to do it themselves, telling them is no good.
That being said: you can toughen up, learn to fight, whatever. But what do you do when you kick the bully's ass, and he comes back later with ten of his assclown mates? For some of them it's a "matter of honour" for him not to have his ass handed to him, and to have them hold you while he beats on you (again). Been on the receiving end of that one more than once (tho that was 15+ years ago).
The problem is worse these days simply because there's fewer repercussions. Back then, if you beat the snot out of someone, with 50 people standing around watching, there was a fairly good chance that that would be the end of it. Sure, there were a Malfoy types who would ensure that they'd catch you alone, afterwards, behind the bike sheds, with 5 hulking neanderthals to back them up, but it wasn't often.
These days, if you beat the crap out of someone, or even just annoy them, they'll come gunning for you, literally. I often cannot reconcile the apparent 'offence' with the seriousness of the reaction that it generates. This is particularly true in South Africa (where I live). SA has pretty much the highest violent crime rate in the world. Johannesburg has the unenviable reputation of having the most aggressive and road-rage prone drivers in the country (and thus, the world). And I've noticed that the dumber (or more wrong) they are, the angrier they get if they are confronted.
Case in point: I was involved in an incident the other day. Young Joe Wife-beater (you know the type: mid-twenties, bullet head, stubble-goatee, sunglasses, wannabe bouncer) came flying up behind me in his car. He wasn't watching what we was doing, going way too fast, veering in and out of traffic. I think he was more interested in scaring the girl in the passenger seat into believing what a legend he was than actually driving somewhere specific. Just then, a car pulled out in front of me, from a side-street. I braked, not too sharply, and I heard this screech of tyres behind me, and heard someone leaning on their hooter. I had been fully aware of him, but he was a good way back, and I thought he'd seen me slow down. Any halfway decent driver watches at least TWO cars ahead, anyway, not just the one in front. He obviously hadn't been watching anything, other than his gf. I looked in my rear-view mirror, and he was waving his arms, making flashing signs with his hands, and obviously swearing at me. The vapid-looking female in the passenger seat next to him was also glaring at me.
I looked at him in my mirror, raised my hands, with a confused look on my face, as in "dude? wtf?!". He made one final rude gesture, stopped waving his arms, and I thought that was the end of it. A few minutes later, I'm in the suburbs, and he's still following me. He follows me right into the housing complex where I live, and at this point I start getting a bit worried. I'm not aggressive, and I don't want to get into it with this guy, so I take some random turns, just to check, and yeah, he's still following me. So I drive around a bit more, until I find someone who's working in their yard, next to the road. I figure that if I stop and it turns nasty, at least there would be a witness. At this point I am not intending on their being any fisticuffs:).
I got out of my car, did the whole arms out, hands open, the whole "relax, there's no problem here" body language thing, and said loudly (and curiously), "why are you following me?". He came at me, head jutting forward, chest and shoulders puffed up, nostrils flared, fists bunched, wife-beater vest flapping, the whole "I am SO going to fuck you up!" attitude. I thought "ah shit, I thought I left this crap back in high-school". Luckily he stopped short. I think he realised he didn't really have enough reason to immediately take a swing (and I sure as shit wasn
So you don't use a gun with a barrel only a few metres long. If you're going to be launching a satellite, or something containing a satellite, then there's places on the earth's surface that are better than others for launch pads. You could potentially accelerate the satellite vehicle slowly over a distance of hundreds or thousands of metres, which would easily be survived by the electronics on board. Of course the heat generated by friction with the air still needs to be taken into account, there's orbital mechanics to take into account, and I am sure there are other factors, but you don't need to "shoot" the satellite into orbit at all.
...and does no one think that a lot of women won't get involved in engineering-type stuff because they think they'll have to constantly deal with people like the stereotypical slashdotter? Either that, or the sterotypical knuckle-dragging construction worker? We're not just talking computer-based engineering here. Or that maybe they'd just prefer sitting in a nice, air-conditioned office, rather than crawling around under a desk in 30C heat because some luser has kicked their network lead out for the 50th time?:)
Women are social creatures. They like to talk and interact. I am sure they can think of lots better things to be doing than working with guys who are convinced that they are a lot smarter, and/or who have limited social skills and/or spend all their time trying to get into said woman's pants. Well, ok, I guess all of those happen anyway, anywhere.
Google for it. In a nutshell:
Planned Change: Create a conflict. Then create opposition to conflict; eg, fear, panic, hysteria. Then offer the solution to the problem created by step one. Change, which would have been impossible without the proper conditioning (steps one and two), is achieved.
It could also be that the ISP is 'shaping' their bandwidth, providing higher priority to web and email than to P2P applications. Here in South Africa, this is the norm. You actually have to tell the ISP that you want 'unshaped' bandwidth if you're planning on using it for P2P file transfer.
Now if we could just get our monopolist telco to provide something faster than 1Mb/s ADSL, we could actually use teh intarwebs for something useful...
to paraphrase Agent Smith - "...in an attempt to classify your species...you move to an area, and you multiply, until you consume all the available resources, then you move to another area..."
Granted they'd probably be weathered off from the exposed surfaces, but they should still be there on protected surfaces.
surely several thousand years of rainwater seeping down into tiny little cracks would cause some melting/recrystallisation, thus smoothing/removing a lot of this evidence, even on 'protected' surfaces? I'm thinking the same principle as stalactites/stalagmites here...
There's another one called 'spam poison' that traps and directs an web email harvester robot into the seven levels of robot hell:
http://spampoison.com/
I get these too, sometimes. I suspect it's to try and poison some of your spam/Bayesian filters or something like that. Either that or it's a test to see whether the email gets accepted for that account or bounced.
I'd definitely recommend some basic business courses, some economics and maybe even some basic accounting. That way, graduates who have been paying attention will understand the bigger picture. That, and some practical courses in customer relationship manangement and support. Trust me, after they've dealt with 50 people in a row, all complaining about the same lost-data bug, they'll learn PDQ how to program defensively!:)
M$ to offer free installs of gigabit ethernet connections into the home of every XP user, to allow for super-speedy install of every.single.freakin.kbfile that's come out since SP2 was released.
Meh. I'll stick to autopatcher...
just look at Paris Hilton... a classic example of wealth reaching critical mass, no matter what she does, the money rolls in. Maybe one day she can afford to have that eyelid lifted:)
That being said, there's also a lot to be said for 'cover your ass' emails. I find myself having to do this a lot with certain customers of mine, because some of them have extremely selective memories. And as we know, the customer is always right. Having a paper trail has pulled MY ass out of the fire a number of times. Sure, follow up with a phone call, or make the call and follow up or send a confirmation email later on if you think the situation might get sticky, but the paper trail can be invaluable!
Slashdot Mirror
ODFmentation... Open Document Fermentation? Is that like doing your documentation while drunk?
It sounds like there's a lot of armchair dissidents here. It's easy to sit behind a keyboard and rail about one's rights being trampled on, but how many people here have actually attended rallies or organised protests or pestered their congresspeople to lobby for changes? Just curious :)
:)
And where on earth did you get the idea that America is still a democracy? From what I can gather, your last two elections have been fixed (Florida vote counts, anyone?). How is it that the most powerful man on earth, who has the lowest rating of any president EVER, is still running the show?
Just my 0.02
mmmm... but who chooses the 10,000?
quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Actually: just move to South Africa, where bandwidth prices are way more expensive than they are in the US, and providers cap your downloads because the monopolistic telco has told them to. That future is already here.
Personally I think that as long as I have never done it before, it's interesting. It's how I learn.
Telling someone to "toughen up" or "learn to fight back" is often a waste. It was back then, and it is now. People have to actually LEARN to do it themselves, telling them is no good.
:).
That being said: you can toughen up, learn to fight, whatever. But what do you do when you kick the bully's ass, and he comes back later with ten of his assclown mates? For some of them it's a "matter of honour" for him not to have his ass handed to him, and to have them hold you while he beats on you (again). Been on the receiving end of that one more than once (tho that was 15+ years ago).
The problem is worse these days simply because there's fewer repercussions. Back then, if you beat the snot out of someone, with 50 people standing around watching, there was a fairly good chance that that would be the end of it. Sure, there were a Malfoy types who would ensure that they'd catch you alone, afterwards, behind the bike sheds, with 5 hulking neanderthals to back them up, but it wasn't often.
These days, if you beat the crap out of someone, or even just annoy them, they'll come gunning for you, literally. I often cannot reconcile the apparent 'offence' with the seriousness of the reaction that it generates. This is particularly true in South Africa (where I live). SA has pretty much the highest violent crime rate in the world. Johannesburg has the unenviable reputation of having the most aggressive and road-rage prone drivers in the country (and thus, the world). And I've noticed that the dumber (or more wrong) they are, the angrier they get if they are confronted.
Case in point: I was involved in an incident the other day. Young Joe Wife-beater (you know the type: mid-twenties, bullet head, stubble-goatee, sunglasses, wannabe bouncer) came flying up behind me in his car. He wasn't watching what we was doing, going way too fast, veering in and out of traffic. I think he was more interested in scaring the girl in the passenger seat into believing what a legend he was than actually driving somewhere specific. Just then, a car pulled out in front of me, from a side-street. I braked, not too sharply, and I heard this screech of tyres behind me, and heard someone leaning on their hooter. I had been fully aware of him, but he was a good way back, and I thought he'd seen me slow down. Any halfway decent driver watches at least TWO cars ahead, anyway, not just the one in front. He obviously hadn't been watching anything, other than his gf. I looked in my rear-view mirror, and he was waving his arms, making flashing signs with his hands, and obviously swearing at me. The vapid-looking female in the passenger seat next to him was also glaring at me.
I looked at him in my mirror, raised my hands, with a confused look on my face, as in "dude? wtf?!". He made one final rude gesture, stopped waving his arms, and I thought that was the end of it. A few minutes later, I'm in the suburbs, and he's still following me. He follows me right into the housing complex where I live, and at this point I start getting a bit worried. I'm not aggressive, and I don't want to get into it with this guy, so I take some random turns, just to check, and yeah, he's still following me. So I drive around a bit more, until I find someone who's working in their yard, next to the road. I figure that if I stop and it turns nasty, at least there would be a witness. At this point I am not intending on their being any fisticuffs
I got out of my car, did the whole arms out, hands open, the whole "relax, there's no problem here" body language thing, and said loudly (and curiously), "why are you following me?". He came at me, head jutting forward, chest and shoulders puffed up, nostrils flared, fists bunched, wife-beater vest flapping, the whole "I am SO going to fuck you up!" attitude. I thought "ah shit, I thought I left this crap back in high-school". Luckily he stopped short. I think he realised he didn't really have enough reason to immediately take a swing (and I sure as shit wasn
"be nice to nerds, you'll probably end up working for one" :)
So you don't use a gun with a barrel only a few metres long. If you're going to be launching a satellite, or something containing a satellite, then there's places on the earth's surface that are better than others for launch pads. You could potentially accelerate the satellite vehicle slowly over a distance of hundreds or thousands of metres, which would easily be survived by the electronics on board. Of course the heat generated by friction with the air still needs to be taken into account, there's orbital mechanics to take into account, and I am sure there are other factors, but you don't need to "shoot" the satellite into orbit at all.
...and does no one think that a lot of women won't get involved in engineering-type stuff because they think they'll have to constantly deal with people like the stereotypical slashdotter? Either that, or the sterotypical knuckle-dragging construction worker? We're not just talking computer-based engineering here. Or that maybe they'd just prefer sitting in a nice, air-conditioned office, rather than crawling around under a desk in 30C heat because some luser has kicked their network lead out for the 50th time? :)
Women are social creatures. They like to talk and interact. I am sure they can think of lots better things to be doing than working with guys who are convinced that they are a lot smarter, and/or who have limited social skills and/or spend all their time trying to get into said woman's pants. Well, ok, I guess all of those happen anyway, anywhere.
Google for it. In a nutshell:
Planned Change: Create a conflict. Then create opposition to conflict; eg, fear, panic, hysteria. Then offer the solution to the problem created by step one. Change, which would have been impossible without the proper conditioning (steps one and two), is achieved.
So what are 'they' trying to achieve?
It could also be that the ISP is 'shaping' their bandwidth, providing higher priority to web and email than to P2P applications. Here in South Africa, this is the norm. You actually have to tell the ISP that you want 'unshaped' bandwidth if you're planning on using it for P2P file transfer.
Now if we could just get our monopolist telco to provide something faster than 1Mb/s ADSL, we could actually use teh intarwebs for something useful...
to paraphrase Agent Smith - "...in an attempt to classify your species...you move to an area, and you multiply, until you consume all the available resources, then you move to another area..."
surely several thousand years of rainwater seeping down into tiny little cracks would cause some melting/recrystallisation, thus smoothing/removing a lot of this evidence, even on 'protected' surfaces? I'm thinking the same principle as stalactites/stalagmites here...
A sudden recent increase in the homing pigeon population has experts at a loss...
That, or someone's trying to make a name for themselves, or justifying their existence.
There's another one called 'spam poison' that traps and directs an web email harvester robot into the seven levels of robot hell:
http://spampoison.com/
I get these too, sometimes. I suspect it's to try and poison some of your spam/Bayesian filters or something like that. Either that or it's a test to see whether the email gets accepted for that account or bounced.
I'd definitely recommend some basic business courses, some economics and maybe even some basic accounting. That way, graduates who have been paying attention will understand the bigger picture. That, and some practical courses in customer relationship manangement and support. Trust me, after they've dealt with 50 people in a row, all complaining about the same lost-data bug, they'll learn PDQ how to program defensively! :)
M$ to offer free installs of gigabit ethernet connections into the home of every XP user, to allow for super-speedy install of every.single.freakin.kbfile that's come out since SP2 was released. Meh. I'll stick to autopatcher...
just look at Paris Hilton... a classic example of wealth reaching critical mass, no matter what she does, the money rolls in. Maybe one day she can afford to have that eyelid lifted :)
in fact marriage is the chief cause of divorce! :)
Windows ate my homework.
Hopefully this story will have a Happy Ending :)
I can hear it now: 100-odd people in the same cube farm, all logging on roughly simultaneously when they arrive for work.
:)
Monday can't get any better than that
That being said, there's also a lot to be said for 'cover your ass' emails. I find myself having to do this a lot with certain customers of mine, because some of them have extremely selective memories. And as we know, the customer is always right. Having a paper trail has pulled MY ass out of the fire a number of times. Sure, follow up with a phone call, or make the call and follow up or send a confirmation email later on if you think the situation might get sticky, but the paper trail can be invaluable!