He calls the freaking secretary, who *CAN'T* say anything to the media because that'd cost her her job, and then mocks her for not knowing about what is, really, a pissant little website known only to geeks.
He gets *NO* information about the other side of the story. All we have is an extremely biased and, frankly, untruthful accounting of what happened.
Untruthful? Hell, yes, because the Sean's *perspective* of the story is not the truth of the story: it is distorted by his recollection, biases, self-interest and all that rot.
And, come now, is this at all *news*? Bullying has been a part of schooling since schools were invented. Hell, read the "Almanzo" book from Little House on the Prairie. Ask your grandparents: they went to school when teachers could be bullies. Ask your parents and uncles -- in my family, I've an uncle who was effectively the mob boss for the school!
And let's give the bullies some credit for having some smarts, okay? They were picking on Sean, sure -- and when push comes to shove, what's the biggest and baddest "pick" they can do? That's right: claim that he's a gun freak who's gonna kill everyone.
I mean, hell, what a triumphant bit of bullying that is! Harass the weak and dumb right out of the school!
Sorry, Sean, but you walked fully and cooperatively into a trap. Smart geek? I don't think so.
I'm not trying to excuse the bullies, but want to point out that there are two sides to the story, point out that Sean is not completely free of blame, and point out that this is generations-old news.
You-all want to make a difference to your school systems, then you better haul ass into the school board meetings, PTA, and run for a board position. Whinging on in Slashdot about how fucking unfair it all is, isn't going to make one goddamn bit of difference.
Quit being losers, and start taking power. Get involved.
WTF does "the human soul" have to do with learning? And since when were parents not "a third party"? And given the amount of cruelty in any Dickens book, which provides pretty decent insight into a era before formalized education, what's this "social development... did just fine" bullshit?
You are the one person least qualified to teach your children anything useful. Please, give them over to someone who knows how to think!
I hate to think they represent the masses. Surely they're elected in by a minority. It's one of the drawbacks to our electoral system: if we had vote-offs, the party that most people are willing to settle for would win, instead of the party that the largest block of the minority groups votes for.
Maybe you've been brainwashed about Greenpeace, but my suspicion is that a whole lot of folk in BC regard them with a degree of suspicion and dislike... and we are, if nothing else, a whale-luvin' sort of province.
That said, Greenpeace has been caught out in its lies about logging, and we're pissed. Oh, yah, we're well aware of how fubar'd the logging regulations are -- but we also know Greenpeace lies a whole lot about it all.
Go away, Greenpeace; we'll take care of the problem ourselves.
I don't believe you get charged interest and penalties, *if you pay before the deadline.* And, it does take some discipline to ensure that you've got the bucks at the end of the year to pay the taxes.
You should be able to find liquid money-market accounts that pay decent interest, and reasonably liquidable split stocks that pay very good interest with little risk.
Actually, I think it's people like Jacque Perizeau, Lucien Bouchard, Bernard Landry, and other Quebecois politicians of their ilk that create conflict. Their outrageous, insulting, stupid, and deceitful comments are shameful. The only times I've become upset enough to feel that Quebec should just fuck off and leave the country, is when those dumbass goons shoot off their mouths.
This isn't a TV license. It's a BBC fee, and it's mandatory, even if you *never* watch BBC!
And what sort of business is this, that can have the government make it a *law* to purchase their product? Damn fine sort of business to be in, I daresay. Any chance I can start up a, oooh, let's say a restaurant, and implement a dining license? You wanna eat, you gotta pay me. Doesn't matter if you don't eat at my restaurant...
You poor buggers are being hoodwinked, and you're *gladly* going to the gallows for it!
Britain: The land where if you're not suffering, you're not having fun...
You know, I'm afraid I just don't believe that the BBC, of all institutions, would be one to suck up to the government.
I say this, because we've got publicly funded television in Canada that pretty much pillages the government. I'm thinking, specifically, 22 Minutes, with Marj the Warrior Princess, threatening to smite our Prime Minister. To his face.
I live in the Okanagan, BC, and get BCTV, CHBC, and some French channel. Worth noting that BCTV and CHBC are now owned by the same mothercompany.
Canada collects a fee (we call it income tax) that pays for the signals broadcast over the airwaves (ie. CBC). But you knew this.
What I don't grok is why Britain expends a whole lotta resources demanding TV licenses and enforcing those licenses, when they've already got a tax system in place.
Would some kind Brit please explain the whys and wherefores of "Television Licensing?" Does it include televisions that aren't connected to cable? Televisions that are used only to watch videotapes, and never pull signal from the radiowaves? How about those 2" LCD televisions? Mega-sized ones? Are there different classes and payment schedules? And how long are you incarcerated if you're found without a license?
It's such an alien concept, for a Canadian who's used to getting several free, high-quality channels in almost any part of the country...
If I have the site "wallmartsucks.com" and it's filled with all sorts of content, that's okay. I think we can agree on that.
If "walmart.com" happens to come free, and I grab it, and I just redirect to "wallmartsucks.com," you think that's obvious abuse.
But if I grab it, and I *completely duplicate* the content of the original site, that wouldn't be abuse by your book. Because, after all, it would have real content: it's not just a redirection.
ding! Thanks for playing. Come back real soon now, y'hear?
And these self-same newbies are going to be able to download source, *inspect the code for trojans*, and compile?
Security is as security does. Downloading a binary from an untrusted source isn't a whole lot more risky than downloading an indecipherable source code to compile.
Unless you're some sort of Code Hero, you just gotta trust that people aren't out to screw ya. I'll take the convienence of binaries over the P.I.T.A. of source, any day...
Why is this marked up as an insightful comment? It's patently obvious -- to any moderator who did their job and actually *read* the article that was linked -- that the commentator did not read the article.
"Even if this guy does find the treasure, it doesn't even belong to Japan."
Well, no shit, sherlock: it's been found *in Thailand*, by a *Thai senator*, and the *Thai PM* says that, if true, the discovery would sure help Thailand get outta the debt hole.
Not a glimmer of a hint of a whimsy that anyone even remotely Japanese is thinking that they might benefit.
I suggest that the moderator who was responsible for giving points to the comment *quit* being a moderator. If you can't be bothered to make even the teensiest effort to be competent, gracefully bow out.
Intel has a market cap of 24x AMD, actually. INTC has 6.7B outstanding shares; AMD has only 314M.
But because Intel has more shares outstanding than there are greenbacks in North America, it has essentially devalued its share value:
AMD: basic income of $3.25 per share.
INTC: basic income of $1.57 per share.
Put quite simply, AMD's share is providing a better bang for your buck. AMD's share should, if one were to use Intel as the benchmark, be priced at $150...
For those who didn't click the link above, let me iterate it here: [why the P4 is a dog]. It's a well-written, accessible technical article that documents the development of x86 generations, and describes why the design choices in the P4 are sub-optimal (and why design choices in the K7 family have been optimal).
It's a pretty factual examination of things. Worth the read -- it might save you from pissing your money away on something that's not any good.
Why would you say Intel is likely to dominate the platform?
Fact: AMD now holds twenty- to thirty-percent marketshare.
Fact: AMD Duron and Athlon processors are now spec'd by all but one mainstream, brand name supplier.
Fact: The latest AMD processors outperform -- and are widely reported as such -- the latest Intel processors.
Fact: AMD K6-2 mobile processors have a 20% marketshare, and AMD K7-family processors are gaining marketshare.
Fact: Intel keeps fucking things up. And I mean *seriously* fucking up. From backing Rambus to failing chipsets to bolloxing up its relationship with their customers... oh, gahd, the list is endless.
So, how do you foresee Intel dominating the platform war? What I foresee is a an ungainly beast of a has-been chip design and manufacturing company, shooting itself in the foot and chopping its own legs off, while an upstart executes cleanly and quickly, soon to overtake it...
For those who don't regularly read "Good Morning Silicon Valley," there is an [interview] with several of the BountyQuest bigwigs.
I'm discouraged by their answers. I asked what I considered a fairly hard-hitting question, basically accusing them of pandering to lazy lawyers for lazy companies that want to saddle their competition with research and development costs, by stealing their patents.
Naturally, the boys blew sunshine and roses up our collective asses, completely ignoring the potential consequences of discouraging companies from doing their own research and development.
In all honesty, I think BountyQuest is just as sleazy as the grubbing patent lawyers. They're using the geek (chem geek, electronic geek, bio geek, etc) communities as dupes for lawyers. Shameless!
You're inconsistent: "Considering the amount of teenage pregnancies and abortions..." followed by "...in the latter [16yr olds] case the participants are able to oversee the consequences..."
Apparently they either don't see the consequences, or they don't give a flying, er, fuck.
Both my car manual ('91 Nissan) and motorcycle ('00 Kawasaki) explicitly and emphatically state that gasahol mixtures in excess of 10% ethanol, or 5% methanol, will cause grievious harm to the engine.
How do you guys avoid destroying your vehicle engines? Are you using some special production models, or do you dispose your cars yearly?
In reply to all those that say that using methodical, systematized approaches to software is overwhelming expensive:
Bullshit.
The cost of fixing your own goddamn mistakes, and the cost of maintaining your P.O.S. application is far, far, *FAR* higher than the cost of taking the time to do it right. And the cost to your users is even greater, in terms of downtime, data loss, rework, and inefficiency.
Every naysayer needs to pull his head out of his ass. Go buy some quality education and/or books on software project management.
There has been extensive, exhaustive, and rigorous research on software project management methodologies, software programming methodologies, and software maintenance practices.
They all consistently come up with the same conclusions: the more time spent in planning and design, the less time spent in programming, debugging, maintenance, and end-user failures.
There are NO excuses for the shoddy practices in use today. Better ways have been clearly identified. Your ignorance or slothfulness is an embarassment to the profession.
Slashdot Mirror
Katz is such a moron.
He calls the freaking secretary, who *CAN'T* say anything to the media because that'd cost her her job, and then mocks her for not knowing about what is, really, a pissant little website known only to geeks.
He gets *NO* information about the other side of the story. All we have is an extremely biased and, frankly, untruthful accounting of what happened.
Untruthful? Hell, yes, because the Sean's *perspective* of the story is not the truth of the story: it is distorted by his recollection, biases, self-interest and all that rot.
And, come now, is this at all *news*? Bullying has been a part of schooling since schools were invented. Hell, read the "Almanzo" book from Little House on the Prairie. Ask your grandparents: they went to school when teachers could be bullies. Ask your parents and uncles -- in my family, I've an uncle who was effectively the mob boss for the school!
And let's give the bullies some credit for having some smarts, okay? They were picking on Sean, sure -- and when push comes to shove, what's the biggest and baddest "pick" they can do? That's right: claim that he's a gun freak who's gonna kill everyone.
I mean, hell, what a triumphant bit of bullying that is! Harass the weak and dumb right out of the school!
Sorry, Sean, but you walked fully and cooperatively into a trap. Smart geek? I don't think so.
I'm not trying to excuse the bullies, but want to point out that there are two sides to the story, point out that Sean is not completely free of blame, and point out that this is generations-old news.
You-all want to make a difference to your school systems, then you better haul ass into the school board meetings, PTA, and run for a board position. Whinging on in Slashdot about how fucking unfair it all is, isn't going to make one goddamn bit of difference.
Quit being losers, and start taking power. Get involved.
--
WTF does "the human soul" have to do with learning? And since when were parents not "a third party"? And given the amount of cruelty in any Dickens book, which provides pretty decent insight into a era before formalized education, what's this "social development... did just fine" bullshit?
You are the one person least qualified to teach your children anything useful. Please, give them over to someone who knows how to think!
--
"Opera's smooth scroll is just like, well, is this a family web site?"
:-)
Wow.
Now *that* is an endorsement!
--
"And people are just figgering out that this widget is in there?"
Ah, no. I've been using it since it first appeared in the beta releases several months ago.
It's just *Hemos* that's finally figured out that it's there.
For me, I find it frustrating using other applications. I keep expecting to use gestures in wordprocessing...
--
I hate to think they represent the masses. Surely they're elected in by a minority. It's one of the drawbacks to our electoral system: if we had vote-offs, the party that most people are willing to settle for would win, instead of the party that the largest block of the minority groups votes for.
--
Maybe you've been brainwashed about Greenpeace, but my suspicion is that a whole lot of folk in BC regard them with a degree of suspicion and dislike... and we are, if nothing else, a whale-luvin' sort of province.
That said, Greenpeace has been caught out in its lies about logging, and we're pissed. Oh, yah, we're well aware of how fubar'd the logging regulations are -- but we also know Greenpeace lies a whole lot about it all.
Go away, Greenpeace; we'll take care of the problem ourselves.
--
I don't believe you get charged interest and penalties, *if you pay before the deadline.* And, it does take some discipline to ensure that you've got the bucks at the end of the year to pay the taxes.
You should be able to find liquid money-market accounts that pay decent interest, and reasonably liquidable split stocks that pay very good interest with little risk.
--
Actually, I think it's people like Jacque Perizeau, Lucien Bouchard, Bernard Landry, and other Quebecois politicians of their ilk that create conflict. Their outrageous, insulting, stupid, and deceitful comments are shameful. The only times I've become upset enough to feel that Quebec should just fuck off and leave the country, is when those dumbass goons shoot off their mouths.
--
Waaaaaiitttasec...
This isn't a TV license. It's a BBC fee, and it's mandatory, even if you *never* watch BBC!
And what sort of business is this, that can have the government make it a *law* to purchase their product? Damn fine sort of business to be in, I daresay. Any chance I can start up a, oooh, let's say a restaurant, and implement a dining license? You wanna eat, you gotta pay me. Doesn't matter if you don't eat at my restaurant...
You poor buggers are being hoodwinked, and you're *gladly* going to the gallows for it!
Britain: The land where if you're not suffering, you're not having fun...
--
You know, I'm afraid I just don't believe that the BBC, of all institutions, would be one to suck up to the government.
I say this, because we've got publicly funded television in Canada that pretty much pillages the government. I'm thinking, specifically, 22 Minutes, with Marj the Warrior Princess, threatening to smite our Prime Minister. To his face.
--
Heck, and if you can figure a way to end up owing the revenue folk each year, *DO IT.*
Otherwise, you're basically floating them an interest-free loan. And that's just senseless.
--
I live in the Okanagan, BC, and get BCTV, CHBC, and some French channel. Worth noting that BCTV and CHBC are now owned by the same mothercompany.
Canada collects a fee (we call it income tax) that pays for the signals broadcast over the airwaves (ie. CBC). But you knew this.
What I don't grok is why Britain expends a whole lotta resources demanding TV licenses and enforcing those licenses, when they've already got a tax system in place.
Let's hear it from a real Limey.
--
Would some kind Brit please explain the whys and wherefores of "Television Licensing?" Does it include televisions that aren't connected to cable? Televisions that are used only to watch videotapes, and never pull signal from the radiowaves? How about those 2" LCD televisions? Mega-sized ones? Are there different classes and payment schedules? And how long are you incarcerated if you're found without a license?
It's such an alien concept, for a Canadian who's used to getting several free, high-quality channels in almost any part of the country...
--
Back to the time when men were Stallman!
Sorry. Couldn't resist the pun.
--
"obviously," eh?
If I have the site "wallmartsucks.com" and it's filled with all sorts of content, that's okay. I think we can agree on that.
If "walmart.com" happens to come free, and I grab it, and I just redirect to "wallmartsucks.com," you think that's obvious abuse.
But if I grab it, and I *completely duplicate* the content of the original site, that wouldn't be abuse by your book. Because, after all, it would have real content: it's not just a redirection.
ding! Thanks for playing. Come back real soon now, y'hear?
--
And these self-same newbies are going to be able to download source, *inspect the code for trojans*, and compile?
Security is as security does. Downloading a binary from an untrusted source isn't a whole lot more risky than downloading an indecipherable source code to compile.
Unless you're some sort of Code Hero, you just gotta trust that people aren't out to screw ya. I'll take the convienence of binaries over the P.I.T.A. of source, any day...
--
Why is this marked up as an insightful comment? It's patently obvious -- to any moderator who did their job and actually *read* the article that was linked -- that the commentator did not read the article.
"Even if this guy does find the treasure, it doesn't even belong to Japan."
Well, no shit, sherlock: it's been found *in Thailand*, by a *Thai senator*, and the *Thai PM* says that, if true, the discovery would sure help Thailand get outta the debt hole.
Not a glimmer of a hint of a whimsy that anyone even remotely Japanese is thinking that they might benefit.
I suggest that the moderator who was responsible for giving points to the comment *quit* being a moderator. If you can't be bothered to make even the teensiest effort to be competent, gracefully bow out.
--
Intel has a market cap of 24x AMD, actually. INTC has 6.7B outstanding shares; AMD has only 314M.
:-)
But because Intel has more shares outstanding than there are greenbacks in North America, it has essentially devalued its share value:
AMD: basic income of $3.25 per share.
INTC: basic income of $1.57 per share.
Put quite simply, AMD's share is providing a better bang for your buck. AMD's share should, if one were to use Intel as the benchmark, be priced at $150...
Guess I should buy some.
--
For those who didn't click the link above, let me iterate it here: [why the P4 is a dog]. It's a well-written, accessible technical article that documents the development of x86 generations, and describes why the design choices in the P4 are sub-optimal (and why design choices in the K7 family have been optimal).
It's a pretty factual examination of things. Worth the read -- it might save you from pissing your money away on something that's not any good.
--
Why would you say Intel is likely to dominate the platform?
Fact: AMD now holds twenty- to thirty-percent marketshare.
Fact: AMD Duron and Athlon processors are now spec'd by all but one mainstream, brand name supplier.
Fact: The latest AMD processors outperform -- and are widely reported as such -- the latest Intel processors.
Fact: AMD K6-2 mobile processors have a 20% marketshare, and AMD K7-family processors are gaining marketshare.
Fact: Intel keeps fucking things up. And I mean *seriously* fucking up. From backing Rambus to failing chipsets to bolloxing up its relationship with their customers... oh, gahd, the list is endless.
So, how do you foresee Intel dominating the platform war? What I foresee is a an ungainly beast of a has-been chip design and manufacturing company, shooting itself in the foot and chopping its own legs off, while an upstart executes cleanly and quickly, soon to overtake it...
--
For those who don't regularly read "Good Morning Silicon Valley," there is an [interview] with several of the BountyQuest bigwigs.
I'm discouraged by their answers. I asked what I considered a fairly hard-hitting question, basically accusing them of pandering to lazy lawyers for lazy companies that want to saddle their competition with research and development costs, by stealing their patents.
Naturally, the boys blew sunshine and roses up our collective asses, completely ignoring the potential consequences of discouraging companies from doing their own research and development.
In all honesty, I think BountyQuest is just as sleazy as the grubbing patent lawyers. They're using the geek (chem geek, electronic geek, bio geek, etc) communities as dupes for lawyers. Shameless!
--
I've been told that I'm wise (I just think I'm sensible), and I need a million dollars.
Indeed, I need several *billion* dollars.
Because, dammit, I need to give it away. I think I could do a bang-up job of helping a *lot* of people if I had a lot of money.
(Sure, I can help even without the money -- but the money would mean I could do so much more!)
--
You're inconsistent: "Considering the amount of teenage pregnancies and abortions..." followed by "...in the latter [16yr olds] case the participants are able to oversee the consequences..."
Apparently they either don't see the consequences, or they don't give a flying, er, fuck.
--
Both my car manual ('91 Nissan) and motorcycle ('00 Kawasaki) explicitly and emphatically state that gasahol mixtures in excess of 10% ethanol, or 5% methanol, will cause grievious harm to the engine.
How do you guys avoid destroying your vehicle engines? Are you using some special production models, or do you dispose your cars yearly?
--
In reply to all those that say that using methodical, systematized approaches to software is overwhelming expensive:
Bullshit.
The cost of fixing your own goddamn mistakes, and the cost of maintaining your P.O.S. application is far, far, *FAR* higher than the cost of taking the time to do it right. And the cost to your users is even greater, in terms of downtime, data loss, rework, and inefficiency.
Every naysayer needs to pull his head out of his ass. Go buy some quality education and/or books on software project management.
There has been extensive, exhaustive, and rigorous research on software project management methodologies, software programming methodologies, and software maintenance practices.
They all consistently come up with the same conclusions: the more time spent in planning and design, the less time spent in programming, debugging, maintenance, and end-user failures.
There are NO excuses for the shoddy practices in use today. Better ways have been clearly identified. Your ignorance or slothfulness is an embarassment to the profession.
Do it right, or get the hell out.
--