So somebody took the time to write an article stating that geeks scare away females? I thought everybody knew that already. Lets check the wiki:
"a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked" "A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream" "A derogatory term for one with low social skills" "A person who rejects society, yet is involved in it -- unlike and in contrast to a hermit." "a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized..." "...many of the classic eccentricities associated with geeks has been due to their social awkwardness..."
so yeah, i think this was pretty common knowledge.
But seriously, this is like complaining about hanging out with joggers because they run too much. Geeks have rather strange behaviors, it's part of how our brain works. The male and female brains do NOT operate the same way. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that they are different. A geeks brain works in an even "more different" way. Always figuring, calculating, imagining, obsessing. Studies even show strong similarities with certain diseases like Aspergers and Adult Autism. While the article specifies females, I would be willing to bet that it applies to males who do not show the "geek" traits, but do have an interest in technology. They just don't get counted because there are already so many male "geeks" in the tech industry.
Sorry, but the shows i'm looking at are longer than that.
This is just the shows i can check the time on right now
Episodes 14, 15, and 16 of American Dad: 21:10 with no closing credits Season 6 episode 6 of scrubs: 22:58 Robot Chicken Star wars Special: 22:49
Generally the shows i watch average about 22 minutes. I've never watched a show that was only 18 minutes. (well ATHF is less than that i think, but it's only in a 15 minute time slot)
Now the first episode of Heroes doesn't use the 75% rule, but it was ran with "limited commercial interruption" but the episodes after that seem to be about 45 min each.
I have noticed the increase in ads. And I noticed it more back when i would watch movies on a sunday morning. Seems like the prime time stuff isn't *as* bad about filling in with too many commercials. And checking the time on dvd and avi copies of tv shows that i have access too looks like they average about 7-8 min of commericals for 30 min and 15-16 min of commercials for 60 min shows in prime time. The running time on Japanese shows seems to be slightly longer, they appear to average 5-6 min of commercials for a 30 minute show. I'll admit it is getting out of control and I should probably get pissed off about it. But the time seems to be running about 75% content, 25% commercials. That is something I can deal with, but that's about the limit. They get any longer, and i'll probably give up TV altogether. I don't watch that much to begin with, so dropping it, probably wouldn't be too hard for me.
What really pisses me off is the little animated banners at the bottom of the screen, even more so when they make noise. How far away are we from watching shows like in Idiocracy, where we have a huge screen, but 8 inches all the way around is dedicated to advertisements. That movie should be placed in the horror section, I know it scared the piss out of me.
What's so bad about commercials? I actually enjoy commercial breaks. Gives me a chance to go to the bathroom, listen to whatever the wifey was trying to tell me when the show was on, grab a beer from the fridge, whatever. That's actually what I don't like about the dvd version. If it's really good (and it usually is because why would i watch something that wasn't?) I have trouble bringing myself to stop it. But I only have a handful of shows I actually want to watch, I'm not gonna watch the commercials even if they are there, so it doesn't really matter to me either way.
Tho "withbeerandhookers" may be my favorite tag ever used on/..
I currently use a whitelist to make sure my 6yr old stays off the "bad sites" but that's because shes six and could accidentally stumble onto something she's not ready to see. So i'm not worried about my children. However, I do a lot of repair work for friends and family. And recently have been given a laptop to work on that is so full of spyware and malware that I'm going to have to reinstall. But while trying to get it cleaned up, I've found quite a bit of porn, and i know it was the son that got it (and filled the laptop up with malware) How much do i reveal to the parents. Generally, I ignore anything i find on someone else's computer (unless it's really good, then i keep it for myself.) But this kid is 14 or 15, should I tell his parents or just let it slide? I've been leaning towards letting it slide, since it was just plain old porn. What does/. think?
This is a real problem, and it is criminal there is no good solution, such as an xxx domain.
So you want a domain for all porn sites. Who decides what's porn? The internet covers the planet. Some countries don't have a problem with a womans breasts, while others say you can't look at a womans body at all. Can you define porn? Would you say images of genitalia? What about the statue of David? Where do you draw the line between porn and art? What would happen to someone who posted porn on a non-xxx domain? Who do you want to police the internet?
Why can't I buy internet service from some provider that blocks at least 99.9% if not 100% of porn? Why hasnt the 'free market' given me that choice? There is something wrong here. There is a market for this type of service yet it doesnt exist. Why not? Is it because Comcast relies on porn for their profits? It would seem to be so, judging by their cable line-up.
Comcast doesn't "rely on porn for their profits." They simply provide a service. Internet Access. Nothing is going to block 100% of porn, and that's why they don't offer it as an option. What do you think would happen the first time some holy roller walked in on their son rubbin' one out to some porn that managed to get through the filter? They'd get sued. So they don't try. They leave it up to parents to make sure the kids don't surf inappropriate material.
And the snide remark about their cable lineup? What the hell? They just pick what stations to broadcast in their packages, and that's mostly driven my consumer demand. The stations create the content, Comcast just makes those stations available to you. You want them to drop Fox because there are too many adult situations? Or are you referring to actual porn channels? because last time i checked those had to be requested, they weren't exactly part of basic cable./rant
MS gets criticized because when they implement it, it hogs system resources and requires bleeding edge hardware to run. My 6 yr old computer will run Beryl with no effect on system performance, but i can't turn on the effects in Vista without my computer slowing to a crawl. (i tried to run it for 30 days so when i said how horrible it was, i could give examples from personal experience. i only made it 10 days, but i got plenty to bitch about.)
I would like to take this time to apologize for my previous post. I think I may have over medicated this morning.
As for the goggles, real time ASCII could be interesting. I remember seeing a website a while back that had the entire movie Debbie Does Dallas in ASCII. I can't imagine looking around and seeing the whole world like that.
I do have to wonder if it would be like looking at an image of what was in front of you, or if it would look more 3d like in the end of the matrix movie... either way, it would be interesting to get to play with them.
Movies like Speed, and The Devils Advocate are a mixed bag
He was excellent in Speed. Delivering one liners like "Yeah, but i'm taller" and applying his matrix powers to bend the laws of physics, and allow a bus to jump a bridge! and that was before he even knew he was "The One"!
Didn't one critic with fighting experience try to apply to fight him and he refused? Seems like i read that somewhere. The guy met all the requirements, but after uwe talked to him he refused to do it. I think that's how it went anyway.
I don't feel sorry for him at all. Without him i wouldn't have seen the last star wars movie. I could really use that 2 hours of my life back.
for government agencies that might be monitoring this discussion: this is slashdot, and that was a joke. i did pay hard earned cash to watch the last star wars movie. After turning my g/f into a star wars fanatic, i had no choice but to plunk down my $14 so the two of us could sit through that torturous piece of film making. Although, she did love it and i did get laid, i think i'd still rather have my $14 back.
What has never made sense to me, is walmart will sell unedited movies with all the tits, ass, and f-bomb's in their full frontal glory, but they edit the albums (even the sound tracks to these same movies.) I can't find any logic behind that at all. Any ideas?
Assume for a second you are from Texas. I'd say that a rep in Portland would have trouble understanding your accent if you have thick southern drawl.
Or you can try ordering a 'pie' from a pizza place in Valdosta, GA.
This is actually much less of a problem than you would imagine. I worked in a call center for a while doing internet tech support for the evilest of the evil. I talked to people all over the country, and we RARELY had problems understanding each other. The biggest obstacle was communicating specific letters. I'm from Ky, so there is a slight drawl in my speech, so usually letters had to be stated as "A as in Apple", "B as in Boy", etc.
That should not have a bearing on the issue. Although I am from India (and ESL country)english was the first language I learnt. My spoken english is quite good and most people I meet are surprised that I "don't have an accent".
I'm sure your English is above par, if not excellent. I can already see you use it in the written form better than some people I know. But try staffing a call center in the Philippines with 800 people that speak it as well as you do. Even if you could, the problem he complained about was not that they didn't understand English, it's that they don't comprehend the inflection, the expressions, or the more common English phrases.
2. They are reading exclusively from a script Again, they hire the wrong people.
This is more of a management problem. Call centers often demand that the agents read from a script and will fire anyone who deviates from it. It is one of the major problems I have with call centers. The scripted dialog hurts the "feel" of the call. Call centers should work more like "Boost Mobile" (the support part, not the rob you of every penny you have with hidden fees part) The agents there were instructed to match the customers tone. If it was a little old lady being prim and proper the agent is expected to do the same.
Before we start bashing J&J, notice that they haven't done anything about it for 120 years. Only after "the ARC has begun licensing the symbol to third parties to use on fund-raising products such as home emergency kits." did they file this suit. I don't think they ever wanted to sue the ARC, just after they started licensing it out, did they have a problem with it.
Though suing the ARC is a pretty stupid idea, (look at the hate(~mail) messages, it's already generated here on slashdot.)
But seriously. Am I to understand that this guy did something thats amazingly hard to do, and fraudulently claimed he did something else that was easier than what he really did. And if that's so, what is wrong with this guy? Does he even understand the field he claims to work in?
LMAO, I know exactly what you mean. Between Linux, the natural k/b and a trackball the only people who use my computer are my close friends that know enough about computers that i dont mind them being on it.
Another thing I've found that works for stupid people who just wont get out of your home office/computer area/whatever is keep strange films (Ichi the Killer works really well, they don't wanna read it, and they just see the rape and gore.) Somebody comes around that wont go away, just hit play. They'll get freaked out and leave quick enough. Plus it's an excellent movie to have anyway.
That's my dirty little secret. As much as I loath Microsoft products. The trackball explorer is something they managed to get right. I've been using one for years now. Even bought two extra while i was in Seattle from the Microsoft store (friend of mine contracts for them, so he got us in. I may hate Microsoft, but I'll let them pay for my mini-vacation any day.) I've tried the logitech ones, and they just don't feel right. They don't have the area to rest your palm like the MS trackball.
And if your looking for one, the last two I bought were on E-Bay. They were buy one, get one half off or something, so i ended up getting both for ~$20. Even though I've purchased 5, they were all for computers i use on a regular basis. I've only had one die on me, and that was after being repeatedly dropped on a tile floor.
So my question is: With all the things Microsoft does wrong, how come when they finally getting something right they drop the product?
Now, they might be liable if discarding the attachment caused some sort of damages.
I'm pretty sure that the TOS says you can't use it for business, they don't guarantee you'll get any mail, and they aren't liable for damages. Basically they can bounce all your emails to abu dhabi, and you can't really do much about it. But my hotmail is just for spam and signups, so i can't really bring myself to care.
That's why i went back to the 1.0 system. It wouldn't expand everything. I like reading it on -1 with the comments nested and the new system likes to collapse everything. Plus the css is causing the little box to overlap the comments and it's really annoying me. but then again, i surf slashdot with the window as small as possible, since i'm at work and shouldn't be on it in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
Since everybody is freakin' out about "minus", i might as well ask. isn't it "Dog eat dog" not "doggy dog"?
So somebody took the time to write an article stating that geeks scare away females? I thought everybody knew that already. Lets check the wiki:
"a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked"
"A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream"
"A derogatory term for one with low social skills"
"A person who rejects society, yet is involved in it -- unlike and in contrast to a hermit."
"a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized..."
"...many of the classic eccentricities associated with geeks has been due to their social awkwardness..."
so yeah, i think this was pretty common knowledge.
But seriously, this is like complaining about hanging out with joggers because they run too much. Geeks have rather strange behaviors, it's part of how our brain works. The male and female brains do NOT operate the same way. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that they are different. A geeks brain works in an even "more different" way. Always figuring, calculating, imagining, obsessing. Studies even show strong similarities with certain diseases like Aspergers and Adult Autism. While the article specifies females, I would be willing to bet that it applies to males who do not show the "geek" traits, but do have an interest in technology. They just don't get counted because there are already so many male "geeks" in the tech industry.
Sorry, but the shows i'm looking at are longer than that.
This is just the shows i can check the time on right now
Episodes 14, 15, and 16 of American Dad: 21:10 with no closing credits
Season 6 episode 6 of scrubs: 22:58
Robot Chicken Star wars Special: 22:49
Generally the shows i watch average about 22 minutes. I've never watched a show that was only 18 minutes. (well ATHF is less than that i think, but it's only in a 15 minute time slot)
Now the first episode of Heroes doesn't use the 75% rule, but it was ran with "limited commercial interruption" but the episodes after that seem to be about 45 min each.
I have noticed the increase in ads. And I noticed it more back when i would watch movies on a sunday morning. Seems like the prime time stuff isn't *as* bad about filling in with too many commercials. And checking the time on dvd and avi copies of tv shows that i have access too looks like they average about 7-8 min of commericals for 30 min and 15-16 min of commercials for 60 min shows in prime time. The running time on Japanese shows seems to be slightly longer, they appear to average 5-6 min of commercials for a 30 minute show. I'll admit it is getting out of control and I should probably get pissed off about it. But the time seems to be running about 75% content, 25% commercials. That is something I can deal with, but that's about the limit. They get any longer, and i'll probably give up TV altogether. I don't watch that much to begin with, so dropping it, probably wouldn't be too hard for me.
What really pisses me off is the little animated banners at the bottom of the screen, even more so when they make noise. How far away are we from watching shows like in Idiocracy, where we have a huge screen, but 8 inches all the way around is dedicated to advertisements. That movie should be placed in the horror section, I know it scared the piss out of me.
What's so bad about commercials? I actually enjoy commercial breaks. Gives me a chance to go to the bathroom, listen to whatever the wifey was trying to tell me when the show was on, grab a beer from the fridge, whatever. That's actually what I don't like about the dvd version. If it's really good (and it usually is because why would i watch something that wasn't?) I have trouble bringing myself to stop it. But I only have a handful of shows I actually want to watch, I'm not gonna watch the commercials even if they are there, so it doesn't really matter to me either way.
/..
Tho "withbeerandhookers" may be my favorite tag ever used on
I've read to much of the "like, totally" posts. I read that as "But it is like totally going to be Diablo 3."
Everything I read on this page sounds "valleygirl" in my head. Please make it stop.
I currently use a whitelist to make sure my 6yr old stays off the "bad sites" but that's because shes six and could accidentally stumble onto something she's not ready to see. So i'm not worried about my children. However, I do a lot of repair work for friends and family. And recently have been given a laptop to work on that is so full of spyware and malware that I'm going to have to reinstall. But while trying to get it cleaned up, I've found quite a bit of porn, and i know it was the son that got it (and filled the laptop up with malware) How much do i reveal to the parents. Generally, I ignore anything i find on someone else's computer (unless it's really good, then i keep it for myself.) But this kid is 14 or 15, should I tell his parents or just let it slide? I've been leaning towards letting it slide, since it was just plain old porn. What does /. think?
So you want a domain for all porn sites. Who decides what's porn? The internet covers the planet. Some countries don't have a problem with a womans breasts, while others say you can't look at a womans body at all. Can you define porn? Would you say images of genitalia? What about the statue of David? Where do you draw the line between porn and art? What would happen to someone who posted porn on a non-xxx domain? Who do you want to police the internet?
Comcast doesn't "rely on porn for their profits." They simply provide a service. Internet Access. Nothing is going to block 100% of porn, and that's why they don't offer it as an option. What do you think would happen the first time some holy roller walked in on their son rubbin' one out to some porn that managed to get through the filter? They'd get sued. So they don't try. They leave it up to parents to make sure the kids don't surf inappropriate material.
And the snide remark about their cable lineup? What the hell? They just pick what stations to broadcast in their packages, and that's mostly driven my consumer demand. The stations create the content, Comcast just makes those stations available to you. You want them to drop Fox because there are too many adult situations? Or are you referring to actual porn channels? because last time i checked those had to be requested, they weren't exactly part of basic cable.
ug, you made me defend comcast. i feel dirty.
MS gets criticized because when they implement it, it hogs system resources and requires bleeding edge hardware to run. My 6 yr old computer will run Beryl with no effect on system performance, but i can't turn on the effects in Vista without my computer slowing to a crawl. (i tried to run it for 30 days so when i said how horrible it was, i could give examples from personal experience. i only made it 10 days, but i got plenty to bitch about.)
i thought it was you don't talk about slashdot...
I would like to take this time to apologize for my previous post. I think I may have over medicated this morning.
As for the goggles, real time ASCII could be interesting. I remember seeing a website a while back that had the entire movie Debbie Does Dallas in ASCII. I can't imagine looking around and seeing the whole world like that.
I do have to wonder if it would be like looking at an image of what was in front of you, or if it would look more 3d like in the end of the matrix movie... either way, it would be interesting to get to play with them.
He was excellent in Speed. Delivering one liners like "Yeah, but i'm taller" and applying his matrix powers to bend the laws of physics, and allow a bus to jump a bridge! and that was before he even knew he was "The One"!
Didn't one critic with fighting experience try to apply to fight him and he refused? Seems like i read that somewhere. The guy met all the requirements, but after uwe talked to him he refused to do it. I think that's how it went anyway.
I think so, Brain. But where will we find rubber pants our size?
I don't feel sorry for him at all. Without him i wouldn't have seen the last star wars movie. I could really use that 2 hours of my life back.
for government agencies that might be monitoring this discussion: this is slashdot, and that was a joke. i did pay hard earned cash to watch the last star wars movie. After turning my g/f into a star wars fanatic, i had no choice but to plunk down my $14 so the two of us could sit through that torturous piece of film making. Although, she did love it and i did get laid, i think i'd still rather have my $14 back.
What has never made sense to me, is walmart will sell unedited movies with all the tits, ass, and f-bomb's in their full frontal glory, but they edit the albums (even the sound tracks to these same movies.) I can't find any logic behind that at all. Any ideas?
This is actually much less of a problem than you would imagine. I worked in a call center for a while doing internet tech support for the evilest of the evil. I talked to people all over the country, and we RARELY had problems understanding each other. The biggest obstacle was communicating specific letters. I'm from Ky, so there is a slight drawl in my speech, so usually letters had to be stated as "A as in Apple", "B as in Boy", etc.
I'm sure your English is above par, if not excellent. I can already see you use it in the written form better than some people I know. But try staffing a call center in the Philippines with 800 people that speak it as well as you do. Even if you could, the problem he complained about was not that they didn't understand English, it's that they don't comprehend the inflection, the expressions, or the more common English phrases.
This is more of a management problem. Call centers often demand that the agents read from a script and will fire anyone who deviates from it. It is one of the major problems I have with call centers. The scripted dialog hurts the "feel" of the call. Call centers should work more like "Boost Mobile" (the support part, not the rob you of every penny you have with hidden fees part) The agents there were instructed to match the customers tone. If it was a little old lady being prim and proper the agent is expected to do the same.
Before we start bashing J&J, notice that they haven't done anything about it for 120 years. Only after "the ARC has begun licensing the symbol to third parties to use on fund-raising products such as home emergency kits." did they file this suit. I don't think they ever wanted to sue the ARC, just after they started licensing it out, did they have a problem with it.
Though suing the ARC is a pretty stupid idea, (look at the hate(~mail) messages, it's already generated here on slashdot.)
Unfortunately, they dont even need us for cars or lifting anymore.
And since us average slashdot readers weren't good for either anyway. what are we gonna do???
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
But seriously. Am I to understand that this guy did something thats amazingly hard to do, and fraudulently claimed he did something else that was easier than what he really did. And if that's so, what is wrong with this guy? Does he even understand the field he claims to work in?
They had them last time i was out there. been a year or so. Not sure if they still carry them or not. couldn't hurt to check.
You mean a Mac is the General Lee?
:)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
LMAO, I know exactly what you mean. Between Linux, the natural k/b and a trackball the only people who use my computer are my close friends that know enough about computers that i dont mind them being on it.
Another thing I've found that works for stupid people who just wont get out of your home office/computer area/whatever is keep strange films (Ichi the Killer works really well, they don't wanna read it, and they just see the rape and gore.) Somebody comes around that wont go away, just hit play. They'll get freaked out and leave quick enough. Plus it's an excellent movie to have anyway.
That's my dirty little secret. As much as I loath Microsoft products. The trackball explorer is something they managed to get right. I've been using one for years now. Even bought two extra while i was in Seattle from the Microsoft store (friend of mine contracts for them, so he got us in. I may hate Microsoft, but I'll let them pay for my mini-vacation any day.) I've tried the logitech ones, and they just don't feel right. They don't have the area to rest your palm like the MS trackball.
And if your looking for one, the last two I bought were on E-Bay. They were buy one, get one half off or something, so i ended up getting both for ~$20. Even though I've purchased 5, they were all for computers i use on a regular basis. I've only had one die on me, and that was after being repeatedly dropped on a tile floor.
So my question is: With all the things Microsoft does wrong, how come when they finally getting something right they drop the product?
I'm pretty sure that the TOS says you can't use it for business, they don't guarantee you'll get any mail, and they aren't liable for damages. Basically they can bounce all your emails to abu dhabi, and you can't really do much about it. But my hotmail is just for spam and signups, so i can't really bring myself to care.
That's why i went back to the 1.0 system. It wouldn't expand everything. I like reading it on -1 with the comments nested and the new system likes to collapse everything. Plus the css is causing the little box to overlap the comments and it's really annoying me. but then again, i surf slashdot with the window as small as possible, since i'm at work and shouldn't be on it in the first place.