Perhaps the Editors could simply have a script post an article every week along these lines:
"Execudroids from Microsoft Corporation have again used public occasions and/or media interviews to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) about Open Office, Linux, open document formats, and/or open source software. If you are shocked, surprised, or alarmed by this, you really need to get out more."
>Can't the actual human employees at the head of the line make this determination and alert whomever has the authority to open another lane?
I fly a lot, and from personal ovbservation I can say that the answer to your question is, "No, they can't." There seem to be a number of reasons for this:
They don't give a shit. You are not a "customer", and they are not answerable to you in any way. How you feel about the way they treat you does not affect them at all, not in pay, job security, promotion, etc.
They are not very bright. I swear these people couldn't get a job flipping burgers. At one of the airports I fly through regularly, some of them take their breaks in an out of the way nook in the concourse where I like to wait. The conversations I have overheard lead me to the conclusion that many of them are among the world's truly stupid people. Really scary.
There's no one to call, anyway. Staffing decisions were made last week by some dork who isn't at work right now. The only way to open a new line is to start calling people at home and ask them to come into work. The fact that conditions have changed doesn't matter. In fact, the idea that conditions might possibly change doesn't seem to enter anyone's head.
The one exception to this, among airports I use regularly, is SFO. The TSA crews there are bright, energetic, efficient, and polite. The place is still a nightmare of delays, but that's down to the airlines, not TSA.
It would be nice if the FDA actually regulated two of the most dangerous drugs, nicotine and ethanol. (No, I don't smoke, but yes, I do drink.) Those are unfortunately consigned to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who pretty much focus on making sure the federal taxes are paid.
Imagine the sound and fury from Fox and the neocons if this was being done by President Hilary Clinton. They'd be screaming for impeachment, followed by hanging, drawing, and quartering.
People tend to use the same style in email as they do in some other forms of electronic communicatin, such as IM, IRC, or the never-ending falmewar that is Usenet. It's not. What TFA is about, is business communication. The same care should go into your email to a business associate as into a physical snail mail letter to the same person. After all, it may get shared on his end, it may get printed out and shoved in a contract file, or even shown to a jury. In the latter instance, do you want it to be something your attorney holds up to show how you are the good guy, or something the other sides attorney is only too glad to have the jury read.
Our county office of education is the ISP for most of the school districts in the county. Filtering is already required by law. Our filters block MySpace and other similar sites, because the computers are there to be used for school work. Social networking is to be done on your own time, not when you are supposed to be researching a history paper during class time.
Or at least Not Done to use your SSI number for any other purpose than (shock, gasp) identifying your Social Security Account. I had a seperate driver's license number, selective service (draft) number, university ID number, group health ID, and several others. For a history of its spread as a personal identification number, see this page from the Social Security Admin. The problem, of course, was the same as that of password security, people can't remember more than two ID numbers.
>Viewpoint Media Player collects usage information and forwards it to Viewpoint servers. Each installation of Viewpoint Media Player contains a unique alphanumeric identification number that can be used to uniquely identify an installation of the software.
It uniquely identifies my machine, collects information, and phones home. Q.E.D., it is spyware. Add in that it is installed surreptitiosly as part of something else, is a bitch to uninstall, apparently gets automatically reinstalled by its host app, and requires some third-party hack to make it stop spewing spamvertising, and you have genuine malware. What's to debate about this? This also brings up the question, why would anybody in their right mind use anyfuckingthing from AOL?
>FTA: With the new operating system, Microsoft is offering plenty of new graphics tricks, including translucent windows
nVidia drivers have been doing this trick in Windows for years. It's been kicking around in Linux for years in various programs and/or window managers. No one seems to care very much about it.
>animated flips between open programs
Now there's a great productivity tool.
>and "live icons" that show a graphical representation of the file in question.
KDE has done this for years. I'd be happy with a good solid core OS and leave the window manager tricks to the Enlightenment and IceWM fanatics.
That I can't expect a fix for the shit code that caused my XP box to crash dead (not BSOD, fucking dead, as in pull the plug dead) every single time I tried to start MS Word XP today? I haven't changed a damn thing on this machine for months, except I do allow it to auto update. It used to be you could count on a certain amount of stabililty around SP2 or so of your Win XX flavor. I guess we're done with that.
>It would cover the 20 years in the life of Luke Skywalker growing up that remains a mystery to most film-goers.
Episode Four starts out with Luke whining about what a crashing bore his life has been up to this point. Certainly fertile ground for thrilling stories: The paint drying episode, the evaporator rusting episode, the wanking in the desert episode. Wonderful stuff.
>just a government lawyer associated with the case
She has an affirmative duty to understand the court's instructions to the prosecution, if she is working for them. The prosecutors also have an affirmative duty to make sure that everyone working for them understands the court's instructions.
>She got hoodwinked by the airline's lawyers to supply information to witnesses.
In other words, she's a moron. I hire far better lawyers to defend school districts in six, seven, and eight figure tort claims. This is supposed to be the government's gold star, wave-the-flag, prime time show trial for the whole 9/11 tragedy. One would expect the A Team; not bumblers.
>look at what one lackluster prosecutor did with some ill-conceived e-mail
Jesus H. Armadillo! Are we going to drag our whole government operation down to the level of the least competent person in the organization? I have worked in companies that had the philosophy of creating new restrictions every time some idiot abused or misused some tool or benefit. This served to limit the ability of the competent to actually get things done.
After a while, I got so frustrated that I quit and found a better job. There is a better way to run things: Fire The Morons! This "lackluster prosecutor" has at least seven years of university education and a six-figure salary. Am I wrong to expect competence and accountability? It's not like there's a shortage of lawyers in this country. Fire the fool and hire someone that can follow simple instructions.
The FBI is supposed to have the best and the brightest cops in the country. If they can't be trusted not to send the case file on some mass murderer as an email attachment to the guy's uncle, we're just screwed anyway. If I hear one more time, that we can't get rid of some idiot, because we have all this time and money invested in his training, I'm going to scream. We may have spent a lot of time and money, but it didn't work. Fire The Morons! I guarantee we'll be better off.
Thank you for listening. I'm going to go take my medication now.
So Nike is tying into Brazil and the Samba Soccer - Beautiful Game style of play, that's cool. Maybe Addidas will start a site glorifying the German Smashmouth - Thugball style of play. Former German keeper Harold Schumacher could be featured with footage of his 1982 coma-inducing whack of French substitute Battiston.
>I like that commercial with Cantona, but am I must admit I wonder if he was thinking of skills, heart, HHHHonor, joy, and team spirit when he drop kicked that fan during the Crystal Palace game in 95.
Nowhere near his first offense either. Definitely the poster boy for the catch phrase that soccer is, "a gentleman's game played by hooligans." Footballer of the century my ass!
There are some Earth life forms with some pretty weird chemistry. One example is purple sulphur bacteria. Instead of using water as a reducing agent, they use hydrogen sulfide. This is oxidized to elemental sulphur and sometimes on to sulphuric acid. Heck with this water/oxygen thing. These are a very old group of organisms.
For those of us of a certain age, the Nixon Dictator Watch does not live up to the image conjured by the name. I was expecting something far more sinister; something even Dr. Evil wouldn't wear. [sigh]
>the 20 seconds save on the phone wont matter in the 20 minutes it will take to get there.
Actually it can. I managed self-insurance programs for school districts. We had an adverse jury verdict that hinged on just that issue. Fifteen seconds cost us $500,000.00. I don't agree with the decision, but juries decide questions of fact, which are almost never appealable.
>Imagine the lawsuit that results when there's a heart attack at a theater and 911 doesn't get there in time because they tried calling 911 and it didn't work, due to they panic they didn't think about running outside to call.
Using a cell phone to call 911 is a poor second choice to using a landline. The landline 911 call goes directly to the local emergency response center with instant info on the callers location. The response center is connected to police, fire, rescue, ambulance, and can get what is needed very quickly. At least where I live, 911 calls from a cell phone go to the Highway Patrol dispatcher; great for emergencies on the freeway, but not the best for a quick response in a downtown theatre.
Instead of running out of the threatre to use your cell phone, you should run into the lobby and get an employee to call 911 on a landline. The time difference might save someone's life.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps the Editors could simply have a script post an article every week along these lines:
"Execudroids from Microsoft Corporation have again used public occasions and/or media interviews to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) about Open Office, Linux, open document formats, and/or open source software. If you are shocked, surprised, or alarmed by this, you really need to get out more."
>Can't the actual human employees at the head of the line make this determination and alert whomever has the authority to open another lane?
I fly a lot, and from personal ovbservation I can say that the answer to your question is, "No, they can't." There seem to be a number of reasons for this:The one exception to this, among airports I use regularly, is SFO. The TSA crews there are bright, energetic, efficient, and polite. The place is still a nightmare of delays, but that's down to the airlines, not TSA.
It would be nice if the FDA actually regulated two of the most dangerous drugs, nicotine and ethanol. (No, I don't smoke, but yes, I do drink.) Those are unfortunately consigned to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, who pretty much focus on making sure the federal taxes are paid.
Imagine the sound and fury from Fox and the neocons if this was being done by President Hilary Clinton. They'd be screaming for impeachment, followed by hanging, drawing, and quartering.
People tend to use the same style in email as they do in some other forms of electronic communicatin, such as IM, IRC, or the never-ending falmewar that is Usenet. It's not. What TFA is about, is business communication. The same care should go into your email to a business associate as into a physical snail mail letter to the same person. After all, it may get shared on his end, it may get printed out and shoved in a contract file, or even shown to a jury. In the latter instance, do you want it to be something your attorney holds up to show how you are the good guy, or something the other sides attorney is only too glad to have the jury read.
The top of my list is Baron von Frankenstein... as portrayed by Gene Wilder.
Our county office of education is the ISP for most of the school districts in the county. Filtering is already required by law. Our filters block MySpace and other similar sites, because the computers are there to be used for school work. Social networking is to be done on your own time, not when you are supposed to be researching a history paper during class time.
Or at least Not Done to use your SSI number for any other purpose than (shock, gasp) identifying your Social Security Account. I had a seperate driver's license number, selective service (draft) number, university ID number, group health ID, and several others. For a history of its spread as a personal identification number, see this page from the Social Security Admin. The problem, of course, was the same as that of password security, people can't remember more than two ID numbers.
>Viewpoint Media Player collects usage information and forwards it to Viewpoint servers. Each installation of Viewpoint Media Player contains a unique alphanumeric identification number that can be used to uniquely identify an installation of the software.
It uniquely identifies my machine, collects information, and phones home. Q.E.D., it is spyware. Add in that it is installed surreptitiosly as part of something else, is a bitch to uninstall, apparently gets automatically reinstalled by its host app, and requires some third-party hack to make it stop spewing spamvertising, and you have genuine malware. What's to debate about this? This also brings up the question, why would anybody in their right mind use anyfuckingthing from AOL?"I am only an egg." - Valentine Michael Smith
>FTA: With the new operating system, Microsoft is offering plenty of new graphics tricks, including translucent windows
nVidia drivers have been doing this trick in Windows for years. It's been kicking around in Linux for years in various programs and/or window managers. No one seems to care very much about it.>animated flips between open programs
Now there's a great productivity tool.>and "live icons" that show a graphical representation of the file in question.
KDE has done this for years. I'd be happy with a good solid core OS and leave the window manager tricks to the Enlightenment and IceWM fanatics.That I can't expect a fix for the shit code that caused my XP box to crash dead (not BSOD, fucking dead, as in pull the plug dead) every single time I tried to start MS Word XP today? I haven't changed a damn thing on this machine for months, except I do allow it to auto update. It used to be you could count on a certain amount of stabililty around SP2 or so of your Win XX flavor. I guess we're done with that.
>It would cover the 20 years in the life of Luke Skywalker growing up that remains a mystery to most film-goers.
Episode Four starts out with Luke whining about what a crashing bore his life has been up to this point. Certainly fertile ground for thrilling stories: The paint drying episode, the evaporator rusting episode, the wanking in the desert episode. Wonderful stuff.
>just a government lawyer associated with the case
She has an affirmative duty to understand the court's instructions to the prosecution, if she is working for them. The prosecutors also have an affirmative duty to make sure that everyone working for them understands the court's instructions.
>She got hoodwinked by the airline's lawyers to supply information to witnesses.
In other words, she's a moron. I hire far better lawyers to defend school districts in six, seven, and eight figure tort claims. This is supposed to be the government's gold star, wave-the-flag, prime time show trial for the whole 9/11 tragedy. One would expect the A Team; not bumblers.
>look at what one lackluster prosecutor did with some ill-conceived e-mail
Jesus H. Armadillo! Are we going to drag our whole government operation down to the level of the least competent person in the organization? I have worked in companies that had the philosophy of creating new restrictions every time some idiot abused or misused some tool or benefit. This served to limit the ability of the competent to actually get things done.
After a while, I got so frustrated that I quit and found a better job. There is a better way to run things: Fire The Morons! This "lackluster prosecutor" has at least seven years of university education and a six-figure salary. Am I wrong to expect competence and accountability? It's not like there's a shortage of lawyers in this country. Fire the fool and hire someone that can follow simple instructions.
The FBI is supposed to have the best and the brightest cops in the country. If they can't be trusted not to send the case file on some mass murderer as an email attachment to the guy's uncle, we're just screwed anyway. If I hear one more time, that we can't get rid of some idiot, because we have all this time and money invested in his training, I'm going to scream. We may have spent a lot of time and money, but it didn't work. Fire The Morons! I guarantee we'll be better off.
Thank you for listening. I'm going to go take my medication now.
So Nike is tying into Brazil and the Samba Soccer - Beautiful Game style of play, that's cool. Maybe Addidas will start a site glorifying the German Smashmouth - Thugball style of play. Former German keeper Harold Schumacher could be featured with footage of his 1982 coma-inducing whack of French substitute Battiston.
>I like that commercial with Cantona, but am I must admit I wonder if he was thinking of skills, heart, HHHHonor, joy, and team spirit when he drop kicked that fan during the Crystal Palace game in 95.
Nowhere near his first offense either. Definitely the poster boy for the catch phrase that soccer is, "a gentleman's game played by hooligans." Footballer of the century my ass!>chemistry is very different from Earth's.
There are some Earth life forms with some pretty weird chemistry. One example is purple sulphur bacteria. Instead of using water as a reducing agent, they use hydrogen sulfide. This is oxidized to elemental sulphur and sometimes on to sulphuric acid. Heck with this water/oxygen thing. These are a very old group of organisms.Then let's get the mob together, light some torches, march up to the castle, and pound a stake through its fucking heart. That should do it.
>Messieurs, je ne vous félicite pas!
Pourquoi pas simplement les appeler stupides ?The opportunities seem boundless.
For those of us of a certain age, the Nixon Dictator Watch does not live up to the image conjured by the name. I was expecting something far more sinister; something even Dr. Evil wouldn't wear. [sigh]
>the 20 seconds save on the phone wont matter in the 20 minutes it will take to get there.
Actually it can. I managed self-insurance programs for school districts. We had an adverse jury verdict that hinged on just that issue. Fifteen seconds cost us $500,000.00. I don't agree with the decision, but juries decide questions of fact, which are almost never appealable.
>Imagine the lawsuit that results when there's a heart attack at a theater and 911 doesn't get there in time because they tried calling 911 and it didn't work, due to they panic they didn't think about running outside to call.
Using a cell phone to call 911 is a poor second choice to using a landline. The landline 911 call goes directly to the local emergency response center with instant info on the callers location. The response center is connected to police, fire, rescue, ambulance, and can get what is needed very quickly. At least where I live, 911 calls from a cell phone go to the Highway Patrol dispatcher; great for emergencies on the freeway, but not the best for a quick response in a downtown theatre.
Instead of running out of the threatre to use your cell phone, you should run into the lobby and get an employee to call 911 on a landline. The time difference might save someone's life.
>Who gives a flying fark about the name?
Right. Tell us the important stuff. Does it have chrome exhausts? Holographic paint? Threatening protuberances? In other words, is it cool?