Everything in moderation, eh? I'm working for a startup, and it has been made abundantly clear that days off, holidays and vacation time means no contact. None.
I've brought a laptop on one vacation so far, and it was just to have something to dump the digital camera into. I allow myself *no* net access on the road.
Who knows how long this tech bonanza is going to continue... It may be 5 years, it may be ten, or it may pay at these ludicrous rates for the rest of our lives, although that's doubtful.
The point is that if you're going to be in this field for a long time, don't burn yourself out. It's bad enough that there are so few people with genuine experience already... If you have people killing themselves 24/7 on tech, in 4 or 5 years they're going to need to do something completely different just to remain sane.
Unplug once in a while. Take a month off from IRC and watch your RL relationships get back to a normal level. Turn off the machines at home and listen to the lack of hum... I'm willing to bet you'll actually physically notice your heart rate slowing. I know mine does.
Your heart has a specific number of beats it's going to complete before you kack. Try to savor a few of them:]
Wouldn't have been better to post this when there was actually news to report? Simply because someone has an idea and backs it up with a webpage does not a headline make.
I've seen this happen many times now, where a headline states that something cool is *going* to happen, but no posts when the thing *actually* happens.
It never ceases to amaze me (but then again, old versions of Slashdot did the same thing, so who am I to judge?)
you're someone with experience as a webmaster of a high-profile website. you're under more criticism than any of the companies you criticize. you've learned what people want and what works. (you are missing a few things... why is the search box all the way at the bottom? an empty white box in the left-hand side would break up the menu nicely, adding some white space and some functionality...oh yeah, criticism. right. it keeps you on your toes, though.)
generally, companies care more about graphic design than function. they like splash, and don't understand the web user's habits... and web use is definitely a habit. capturing the user is the worst thing you can do to someone with the habit.
it's a young industry, and it's earliest denizens are getting older. there's a major emphasis on young guys who will burn for the big bucks, but there's nothing as valuable as experience.
Coincidentally, the European Parliament is due to decide in Strasbourg Wednesday whether to set up a commission to investigate whether Echelon infringes the rights of European citizens and industries.
Anyone know of any investigations on how it infringes on the rights of US citizens?
Transmeta showed off its cool-running TM 5400 Crusoe chip for notebook PCs at its "Gilligan's Island"-style booth
Crusoe? Robinson Crusoe? Anyone? Anyone? Island? Company theme?
Fucking GILLIGAN?
It just bugs me when people overlook symbolism as blatant as the Crusoe thing because some inane pop-culture reference like freaking Bob Denver vehicles overshadow literary references.
They left her pants? How can you tell, she never seems to wear any.
From her recent appearances it would seem that she's been left with nothing but undergarments.
Good story to hear, though. You gotta wonder why you don't ever read things like this in the mainstream press.... oh, wait, who owns the media outlets?
Thank GOD for the web.
Once, back when Jann gave a shit, something like this might have appeared in Rolling Stone. Of course, Jann's been bought and sold so many times that the devil would have to lease his soul at this point...
Microsoft and DirecTV as well as Tivo and DirecTV are releasing combined units this year, toward Christmas.
I want a digital video recorder, but i don't want to pay $299 for a computer to hook up to the TV that does nothing else. Maybe someone will come out with software for the PSX2 and Dreamcast to handle digital video recording (with their already-announced hard drives), but I see nothing announced so far. That would be the ideal situation for me and I'm sure a lot of other consumers as well.
Who was it that said that the most secure computer is one that is not connected in any way to anything (including power), that has no periferals, and that is burried 8 feet down - and even this level is arguably insufficient....
I once had a technologically-unaware boss (owner of an ISP [sigh]) who suddenly freaked out and decided that I was hacking every system he owned.
At one point he was telling people that I had edited his autoexec.bat file on a machine in his home that wasn't turned on and had no modem.
I was also supposedly running DNS servers that circumvented Internic, Quake servers for all my friends, and also stomped.com on office machines, all on a 33.6 modem.
Ah, paranoia and ignorance, what a blend of ambrosia you meld.
Subscribe to the mailing list and sit back and watch your inbox. Dig through the archives if you're a new user. You'll be amazed at the sheer volume of security issues that floats through on a daily basis.
What makes you more knowledgable than they about what they need or want?
Do they have enough love? Food? Water? Pleasure? Pain? How can you possibly make such a statement with a straight face?
Love, food, water, pleasure and pain are totally different things from global economic and political power.
We're stepping into unheard or realms of individuals controlling other individuals. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm saying that we should be cautious. When governments are trying to stop people from having their say in the goings on, when individual voices are no longer heard because the BIG suits don't care what they have to say when it comes to global regulation, I think it's fair to say that those people have too much wealth.
Wealth not meaning cash, assets or beach houses, wealth meaning control over resources.
You probably gain the support of likeminded people in the first world, but the third world almost certainly sees it differently.
Well, this is information that is almost impossible to find here. It's definitely good to know. All of the coverage of the WTO meetings has been about vilifying the protestors, and it's hard to come across any info about what the meetings are about or what other nations think of the whole thing.
It would also be good to know how much the people expecting the cushy factory jobs know about what exactly is going on.
The only real info I've heard of so far pertains to unfair trade agreements, wherein somtimes harsh stipulations are made to nations that are trying to get involved in global trade.
I've heard horror stories of countries that were formerly self-sufficient running into problems because they're required to purchase x amount of, say, grain before they can export x amount of, say, coffee.
And this is different from the rest of history in what way? Would you perhaps prefer feudalism?
I'd prefer the best balance of power possible. I'd prefer to see progression toward empowering individuals over greedy corporate interests. Again, we're somewhat in agreement, and I totally agree with you on the Web/Internet's ability to let more of us have our voices heard.
I'm trying hard to stay away from the standard rhetoric, but it's not easy to do. The last 16 years of government legislation have been bulding toward protecting businesses rather than individuals. Well-funded lobbyists speak louder than the rest of us.
That's part of the reason that the U.S. government was set up with so many checks and balances, and it's also the reason why our founding fathers wanted to make sure that the citizenry had the right to bear arms.
It's "We the People," not "We the Corporate Entities." I have yet to see anything the WTO has done so far, or tried to do so far, that wasn't meant to bring more wealth to those who already have enough. I haven't seen anything that's meant to benefit anyone other than the already powerful.
People that join causes without understanding why these causes are important are inevitably being duped. Chances are good that they are even serving the cause of some of the same people that they hate.
Theoretically, I can see your point. I just don't think it's the case with this current argument. I certainly don't think that the people portrayed as modern hippies were serving or helping the cause of the WTO by protesting in the streets. These people weren't *that* uninformed.
Another thing to keep in mind here is that it's the WORLD Trade Organization. These protests weren't jsut viewed in the US, you have to remember that TV stations all over the world are just as keen to show disquiet and riots in the US as we are of showing the riots in other countries.
In other words, these demonstrations made more noise than just about any website imaginable. Footage was viewed in more homes than Yahoo and AOL can ever hope to invade.
And it's especially poignant that these demonstrators weren't out for their own personal interests, or for US interests, they were out for basic human rights on a global scale.
I think it was key that people in other nations got a chance to see the side of America that isn't all about self-interest and ending up on the better end of every business deal we get involved in.
I'm glad everyone saw Americans standing up for global human rights. Do I wish that those had been Americans who had showered that day? Maybe. Do I wish they had all had solid arguments, or better ideas, or better capabilities of expressing them to the (entirely corporate owned)media? Sure. Do I think that there were probably mroe focused, clean-shaven folk there? I saw a lot of them in the background shots, but ery few interviewed.
During this last meeting that was held in DC, government agencies raided a building that was storing necessary first-aid kits for the protesters. The protesters were organizing, and getting prepared for the media and for general FIRST AID.
The raiders arrested over 20 people who were breaking no laws, and who were never convicted of breaking any. They were just detained, beaten and "oppressed." The first aid items were confiscated. Freaking TAMPONS were confiscated.
Power has always had the tendency to consolidate in the hands of few people.
This is true, and will continue to be. The US Government has loads of checks and balances, some of which still even work. But that's another story...:]
The issue is, during these early, formative stages of the inevitable global governing body, shouldn't we try to build in some checks and balances? Because the entities with a controlling interest so far have shown no interest is such things.
So, we're sort of on the same page, just in different contexts.
The original statement was about the people that appeared on TV during the WTO protests. This brings up more "power held by a few" issues, since we can't trust the TV editor's selection of individuals to present.
Even still, if I had a full understanding of all of the issues involved and someone from a local TV station came up to me and asked why I was protesting, my answer would be swayed by:
a) brevity in the hopes that it would get on the air b) the fact that there was a camera in my face and a possible TV audience watching c) that my mom might be watching d) trying to cram all of the ideas into a 5-second sound byte that they might actually use.
I don't agree that the main issue is the people having a full understanding of the issues, I think it is at least as important to have large numbers of people protesting. If there had been 10 uber-intelligent people protesting outside you wouldn't have seen it on TV.
The thing that raises awareness is NOISE. You need to make a big noise to be heard in this society, and I think that even though the most intelligible people weren't the ones whose voices were heard, a lot of awareness was created.
I like to believe that everyone is capable of understanding the basics of the issues involved in even fairly esoteric debates.
The basic issue is power. Too much power in the hands of a few. There are offshoots of details and individual instances of harm, but these people had a basic understanding. They probably had a much better understanding than those of us who weren't there know.
Social change requires huge numbers of people and a basic, commonly understood cause. I think that's what we had, and I can only hope that the number of people involved increases.
I honestly believe that this basic function of growth is what will lead to a better understanding.
So you're saying that it's not enough that people have a basic understanding that too much power in the hands of a few is a bad thing, each individual involved must grasp all aspects ofevery issue involved...
It doesn't take a genius or an eloquent, articulated speaker to understand that WAY too much power is consolidating into too few hands.
But seriously, enjoy your elitism and sneer at people less intelligent than you all you want. It's helping the situation immensely.
I don't feel differently. I think slashdot should be a dotcom, and I would think the.org should be put back into the pool if I didn't know it would get absed beyond measure.
Hell, CNet would probably register it.
TLDs are different for a reason. This is theoretical, in actual practice they serve no purpose. They could be.cow and.goat for all they really mean these days.
OMG, I almost made a.grits joke. I've been here too long....
Slashdot Mirror
Everything in moderation, eh? I'm working for a startup, and it has been made abundantly clear that days off, holidays and vacation time means no contact. None.
:]
I've brought a laptop on one vacation so far, and it was just to have something to dump the digital camera into. I allow myself *no* net access on the road.
Who knows how long this tech bonanza is going to continue... It may be 5 years, it may be ten, or it may pay at these ludicrous rates for the rest of our lives, although that's doubtful.
The point is that if you're going to be in this field for a long time, don't burn yourself out. It's bad enough that there are so few people with genuine experience already... If you have people killing themselves 24/7 on tech, in 4 or 5 years they're going to need to do something completely different just to remain sane.
Unplug once in a while. Take a month off from IRC and watch your RL relationships get back to a normal level. Turn off the machines at home and listen to the lack of hum... I'm willing to bet you'll actually physically notice your heart rate slowing. I know mine does.
Your heart has a specific number of beats it's going to complete before you kack. Try to savor a few of them
Wouldn't have been better to post this when there was actually news to report? Simply because someone has an idea and backs it up with a webpage does not a headline make.
/. -- like the Ogg Vorbis open-source audio compression posts... They posted that a beta was scheduled, but submissions when the beta was actually released were declined.
This is one of the weirder things about
I've seen this happen many times now, where a headline states that something cool is *going* to happen, but no posts when the thing *actually* happens.
It never ceases to amaze me (but then again, old versions of Slashdot did the same thing, so who am I to judge?)
:]
you're someone with experience as a webmaster of a high-profile website. you're under more criticism than any of the companies you criticize. you've learned what people want and what works. (you are missing a few things... why is the search box all the way at the bottom? an empty white box in the left-hand side would break up the menu nicely, adding some white space and some functionality...oh yeah, criticism. right. it keeps you on your toes, though.)
generally, companies care more about graphic design than function. they like splash, and don't understand the web user's habits... and web use is definitely a habit. capturing the user is the worst thing you can do to someone with the habit.
it's a young industry, and it's earliest denizens are getting older. there's a major emphasis on young guys who will burn for the big bucks, but there's nothing as valuable as experience.
so screw 'em. judge.
Coincidentally, the European Parliament is due to decide in Strasbourg Wednesday whether to set up a commission to investigate whether Echelon infringes the rights of European citizens and industries.
Anyone know of any investigations on how it infringes on the rights of US citizens?
Or do we supposedly still not know about it?
(as he is thrown into the Gorge of Eternal Peril)
Which is not to be confused with the Bog of Eternal Stench.
IIRC, the carrying capacity of our atmosphere is about 12.
Is that an African Atmosphere or a European atmosphere?
check out http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=links....
Transmeta showed off its cool-running TM 5400 Crusoe chip for notebook PCs at its "Gilligan's Island"-style booth
Crusoe? Robinson Crusoe? Anyone? Anyone? Island? Company theme?
Fucking GILLIGAN?
It just bugs me when people overlook symbolism as blatant as the Crusoe thing because some inane pop-culture reference like freaking Bob Denver vehicles overshadow literary references.
The reason why these things are everywhere is that to a certain degree, they do work. So does spam.
I mean, I'd love to see the web logs for www.dragontails.com just to see the refer stats from slashdot because of your post...
Don't forget that if you want the database tools, you must purchase the Enterprise Edition.
They actually pulled this with VisualStudio 6.
You know, the one that had the next version of InterDev 1.0, called InterDev 6.0
Well, the whole thing was a joke. You, know, jest, that sort of thing.
Skin tones, eh? I would imagine that they're mainly, shall we say, "caucasian" skin tones.
It'd be fun to see this turn into the biggest lawsuit since Crayola's whole "Flesh" colored crayon debacle.
Anyone know if they're still making "Indian Red"?
Hooray!
:]
That one needs to be posted again
I don't know why it's funny. It just is.
I hope slashdot allows the [s] tag. I notice that [div] is allowed. seems a bit mad for posting, really.
They left her pants? How can you tell, she never seems to wear any.
From her recent appearances it would seem that she's been left with nothing but undergarments.
Good story to hear, though. You gotta wonder why you don't ever read things like this in the mainstream press.... oh, wait, who owns the media outlets?
Thank GOD for the web.
Once, back when Jann gave a shit, something like this might have appeared in Rolling Stone. Of course, Jann's been bought and sold so many times that the devil would have to lease his soul at this point...
It does the whole Tivo thing.
Microsoft and DirecTV as well as Tivo and DirecTV are releasing combined units this year, toward Christmas.
I want a digital video recorder, but i don't want to pay $299 for a computer to hook up to the TV that does nothing else. Maybe someone will come out with software for the PSX2 and Dreamcast to handle digital video recording (with their already-announced hard drives), but I see nothing announced so far. That would be the ideal situation for me and I'm sure a lot of other consumers as well.
Of course, you haven't denied cheating either...
Who was it that said that the most secure computer is one that is not connected in any way to anything (including power), that has no periferals, and that is burried 8 feet down - and even this level is arguably insufficient....
I once had a technologically-unaware boss (owner of an ISP [sigh]) who suddenly freaked out and decided that I was hacking every system he owned.
At one point he was telling people that I had edited his autoexec.bat file on a machine in his home that wasn't turned on and had no modem.
I was also supposedly running DNS servers that circumvented Internic, Quake servers for all my friends, and also stomped.com on office machines, all on a 33.6 modem.
Ah, paranoia and ignorance, what a blend of ambrosia you meld.
Great, this will really help the first-time users of Linux.
Nothing helps a newbie secure a box quite like someone telling him he should already know how.
No NT Admin should ever be without NT Bugtraq.
Subscribe to the mailing list and sit back and watch your inbox. Dig through the archives if you're a new user. You'll be amazed at the sheer volume of security issues that floats through on a daily basis.
What makes you more knowledgable than they about what they need or want?
Do they have enough love? Food? Water? Pleasure? Pain? How can you possibly make such a statement with a straight face?
Love, food, water, pleasure and pain are totally different things from global economic and political power.
We're stepping into unheard or realms of individuals controlling other individuals. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm saying that we should be cautious. When governments are trying to stop people from having their say in the goings on, when individual voices are no longer heard because the BIG suits don't care what they have to say when it comes to global regulation, I think it's fair to say that those people have too much wealth.
Wealth not meaning cash, assets or beach houses, wealth meaning control over resources.
You probably gain the support of likeminded people in the first world, but the third world almost certainly sees it differently.
Well, this is information that is almost impossible to find here. It's definitely good to know. All of the coverage of the WTO meetings has been about vilifying the protestors, and it's hard to come across any info about what the meetings are about or what other nations think of the whole thing.
It would also be good to know how much the people expecting the cushy factory jobs know about what exactly is going on.
The only real info I've heard of so far pertains to unfair trade agreements, wherein somtimes harsh stipulations are made to nations that are trying to get involved in global trade.
I've heard horror stories of countries that were formerly self-sufficient running into problems because they're required to purchase x amount of, say, grain before they can export x amount of, say, coffee.
And this is different from the rest of history in what way? Would you perhaps prefer feudalism?
:]
I'd prefer the best balance of power possible. I'd prefer to see progression toward empowering individuals over greedy corporate interests. Again, we're somewhat in agreement, and I totally agree with you on the Web/Internet's ability to let more of us have our voices heard.
I'm trying hard to stay away from the standard rhetoric, but it's not easy to do. The last 16 years of government legislation have been bulding toward protecting businesses rather than individuals. Well-funded lobbyists speak louder than the rest of us.
That's part of the reason that the U.S. government was set up with so many checks and balances, and it's also the reason why our founding fathers wanted to make sure that the citizenry had the right to bear arms.
It's "We the People," not "We the Corporate Entities." I have yet to see anything the WTO has done so far, or tried to do so far, that wasn't meant to bring more wealth to those who already have enough. I haven't seen anything that's meant to benefit anyone other than the already powerful.
People that join causes without understanding why these causes are important are inevitably being duped. Chances are good that they are even serving the cause of some of the same people that they hate.
Theoretically, I can see your point. I just don't think it's the case with this current argument. I certainly don't think that the people portrayed as modern hippies were serving or helping the cause of the WTO by protesting in the streets. These people weren't *that* uninformed.
Another thing to keep in mind here is that it's the WORLD Trade Organization. These protests weren't jsut viewed in the US, you have to remember that TV stations all over the world are just as keen to show disquiet and riots in the US as we are of showing the riots in other countries.
In other words, these demonstrations made more noise than just about any website imaginable. Footage was viewed in more homes than Yahoo and AOL can ever hope to invade.
And it's especially poignant that these demonstrators weren't out for their own personal interests, or for US interests, they were out for basic human rights on a global scale.
I think it was key that people in other nations got a chance to see the side of America that isn't all about self-interest and ending up on the better end of every business deal we get involved in.
I'm glad everyone saw Americans standing up for global human rights. Do I wish that those had been Americans who had showered that day? Maybe. Do I wish they had all had solid arguments, or better ideas, or better capabilities of expressing them to the (entirely corporate owned)media? Sure. Do I think that there were probably mroe focused, clean-shaven folk there? I saw a lot of them in the background shots, but ery few interviewed.
During this last meeting that was held in DC, government agencies raided a building that was storing necessary first-aid kits for the protesters. The protesters were organizing, and getting prepared for the media and for general FIRST AID.
The raiders arrested over 20 people who were breaking no laws, and who were never convicted of breaking any. They were just detained, beaten and "oppressed." The first aid items were confiscated. Freaking TAMPONS were confiscated.
Power has always had the tendency to consolidate in the hands of few people.
This is true, and will continue to be. The US Government has loads of checks and balances, some of which still even work. But that's another story...
The issue is, during these early, formative stages of the inevitable global governing body, shouldn't we try to build in some checks and balances? Because the entities with a controlling interest so far have shown no interest is such things.
So, we're sort of on the same page, just in different contexts.
The original statement was about the people that appeared on TV during the WTO protests. This brings up more "power held by a few" issues, since we can't trust the TV editor's selection of individuals to present.
Even still, if I had a full understanding of all of the issues involved and someone from a local TV station came up to me and asked why I was protesting, my answer would be swayed by:
a) brevity in the hopes that it would get on the air
b) the fact that there was a camera in my face and a possible TV audience watching
c) that my mom might be watching
d) trying to cram all of the ideas into a 5-second sound byte that they might actually use.
I don't agree that the main issue is the people having a full understanding of the issues, I think it is at least as important to have large numbers of people protesting. If there had been 10 uber-intelligent people protesting outside you wouldn't have seen it on TV.
The thing that raises awareness is NOISE. You need to make a big noise to be heard in this society, and I think that even though the most intelligible people weren't the ones whose voices were heard, a lot of awareness was created.
I like to believe that everyone is capable of understanding the basics of the issues involved in even fairly esoteric debates.
The basic issue is power. Too much power in the hands of a few. There are offshoots of details and individual instances of harm, but these people had a basic understanding. They probably had a much better understanding than those of us who weren't there know.
Social change requires huge numbers of people and a basic, commonly understood cause. I think that's what we had, and I can only hope that the number of people involved increases.
I honestly believe that this basic function of growth is what will lead to a better understanding.
So you're saying that it's not enough that people have a basic understanding that too much power in the hands of a few is a bad thing, each individual involved must grasp all aspects ofevery issue involved...
It doesn't take a genius or an eloquent, articulated speaker to understand that WAY too much power is consolidating into too few hands.
But seriously, enjoy your elitism and sneer at people less intelligent than you all you want. It's helping the situation immensely.
I don't feel differently. I think slashdot should be a dotcom, and I would think the .org should be put back into the pool if I didn't know it would get absed beyond measure.
.cow and .goat for all they really mean these days.
.grits joke. I've been here too long....
Hell, CNet would probably register it.
TLDs are different for a reason. This is theoretical, in actual practice they serve no purpose. They could be
OMG, I almost made a