How freaky is it come from home from an appointment with the neurologist and see this at the top of the Slashdot?
So, some anecdotal evidence supporting this. My wife and I are foster parents. You have no idea how bad some kids have it until you see it first hand. We have a foster child with us that has been professionally diagnosed as being 'developmentally delayed'. This means not being able to do the things that a baby of his age should be able to do. Crawl, eat soft food, roll over, mimic a caregiver, make vowel sounds, sit without falling over. A month ago when this child arrived, he could do none of them. As of today, he can do all but crawl and roll over, but he's almost doing that now too.
The neurologist today examined him and feels strongly that all of his developmental delays are due to extreme neglect. Not feeding your child properly, not playing with him, not 'conversing' with him, leaving him in a car seat all day. These are all basic examples of neglect that add up to extreme neglect.
For those that commented "Isn't this well known already?", yes, it is. The therapist see the developmental delays. They get the child checked by a geneticist and neurologist, ruling out brain issues and things like down syndrome. This process of elimination points directly at extreme neglect.
Again, anecdotal evidence, but evidence just the same.
As soon as my early termination fee is low enough, I'm shitcanning AT&T and getting a pre-paid android. Probably going to go with Virgin Mobile. I've had success with them in the past.
Not that this is being perfectly implemented at the company I work at, (we're working on it) I suggest changing the rules for your prioritization.
Rule 1: Projects will be prioritized with numbers, not words. No more 'high', 'medium', 'low', 'if you have time'. Projects will be assigned a priority number. The lower the number, the higher the priority.
Rule 2: Projects cannot have the same priority number. Got five projects ranked 1? Somebody has to decide which one is really project 1, and which are really 2, 3, 4, and 5. It doesn't matter who makes the decisions, as long as someone makes them.
If you're IT department doesn't set rules for non-IT departments regarding priority, and enforce them, then you will have the standard chaos.
What people don't realize is that even with all the sanctions, hostility, and generally crazy behavior, Iran IS NOT Iraq or Afghanistan. Right now, American casualties are seen as unacceptable, which is leading our drive towards more drones. If we pick a fight with the Iranians, or let them pick a fight with the US, there will be American casualties. They have the ability to sink U.S. war ships. That have the support of Russia and China. Granted, they probably didn't ground that RQ-170, but that doesn't mean it isn't feasible in the near future.
We all know that quite a large chunk of the young adults in Iran don't like the current regime, but do you know what they like even less? The United States. Whether we start the fight or they do, it will cause Iran to solidify behind that common dislike of the U.S., and we will have a real fight on our hands.
Full disclosure: I work for a company that uses these types of ads.
We use Akamai to serve up these kinds of ads. Believe it or not, most internet traffic goes through Akamai at some point, so when they decide to cookie you, they can find you just about anywhere. From the advertiser's point of view, it makes sense. Only between 2% and 5% of visits result in sales. So, by hitting you with these ads, they're trying to get a second chance at that business.
But if the question whether is whether I'd rather see an ad for some random diet that doesn't work, or some other scam, or to see an ad for a website that I willingly chose to go to, I'll take the latter any day.
As for the particular case of that woman and the pair of shoes, I wouldn't advertise for a particular pair of shoes, but then again, being a shoe company, they may have a better insight into the shopping mind of a woman.
Just be glad that these ads are being served up based on some fact. The fact that you visited that site previously. I think that's better than them trying to build a profile of me based on sites I've visited, and then trying to sell me running gear or viagra.
simply for being the youngest and therefore least mature in their classes.
A million misdiagnosed just because they're younger? Wait until they start looking into how many kids are misdiagnosed because they're too smart and not being challenged by our schools that are set up to cater to the lowest common denominator.
I was misdiagnosed with ADD as a kid. Turns out, I was just bored out of my fucking skull. Second, third, and fourth grades were the hardest for me because the material should have been covered in one year, not three. Some schools have realized this and starting pulling the smart kids out of 'general population' and putting them in their own curriculum track which is much more challenging.
I'm going to have to disagree with this, caveats aside. Whether or not you can assume your web users have HTML5 and CSS3 depends on your website's specific traffic. For example, I work for a fairly popular e-commerce store. We averaged in excess of 100k+ visits a day in the past month. 20.1% of that traffic was using IE7 or IE6, and 5.2% of our traffic was specifically IE6. That's over half a million visits in the past month from users running IE6 or IE7. Can we assume that our users have HTML5 and CSS3? Only if we can tell them to fuck off and that we really don't want their money. IE6 and IE7 will have to be less than 1% combined of our traffic before we can start using HTML5 and CSS3, in our individual case.
I used to be a certified electronics calibration technician, and I've never noticed a difference between the analog and the digital.
If $2k is your budget, and not having any idea what you're going to be using it for, I highly recommend a handheld Fluke. They were just as reliable as the old analog ones, but with more features.
The answer to your question depends on your boss, actually. I've found that there are generally two types of bosses: The better kind that are intelligent, do things right, and get shit done; and the crap kind, whom are generally idiots, don't care about doing things right, and are only out to make themselves look good.
So, if you have an intelligent boss, here's your advice:
An intelligent boss respects good communication and honesty. If you inform your boss enough about the projects and solutions you are working on, he'll have a better idea of the status of whatever project you are working on. If he can answers basic questions from the 'customer' without having to bother you, you're doing it right. I find my boss greatly enjoys that I keep him informed enough about my projects that he lets me operate pretty much unsupervised. Second, always be honest, especially with your boss. If you're having a problem with someone's crap code, make sure he knows about your impediment. If you've run into a tricky problem that will take time to figure out, or you've made a mistake that's going to cause to take longer on your project, be honest with him. A late project with an honest explanation is so much better than a late project with no explanation or an on-time project that has subtle flaws that will inevitably cause problems. Lastly, be flexible. We all know it's difficult to drop what you're doing and work on something else, but your boss is generally not the one setting priorities. If he asks you to drop what you're doing, do it, and if the change of direction will cost time, let him know, politely.
Now, if you have a crap boss, here's some advice:
Keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, do what you're told, and if your boss hasn't been replaced with a better one after two years, get those resumes out. A shitty boss will do everything in his power to make sure you can't advance.
I'm a web developer for a top 100 online retailer. I hate IE6 like most of you. I realize that IE6 has caused millions of man-hours lost on a global scale. I also know that I was hired and paid well because of my expertise in working around IE6's many flaws. But it what boils down to is money.
In the past month, according to our Google Analytics, we have had 5,279,955 visits. That's visits, not pageviews. Of those 5.2m visits, 3,716,805, or 70.39% were users running some form of IE with javascript enabled. (no javascript, no countie) Of that 70.39%, 12.73% were running IE6. That's 473,168 visits from customers using IE6 in the past month. That's about 8.96% of our total traffic. Would we like to stop supporting IE6? Certainly. Would we like to encourage IE6 users to upgrade to a better browser? Certainly. Can we tell 473,168 users that we don't want their fucking money? Absolutely fucking not.
So, as much as we hate IE6, we'll make damn sure that our stores look good in IE6 because it's about the money.
You don't have to support IE? I must know what this job is. Please? I do not wish to become known as the IE Developer Serial Killer. What do you do for a living? Seriously. I would take a 20% pay cut to not have to support IE.
Aero
P.S. I can't believe anyone still uses table for layouts. GP is a troll.
Disclaimer: I 'do HTML' for a living and get paid well too.
I've always used 'Web Developer' or 'UI Developer' for a title, but 'UI Engineer' does have a nice ring to it. First off, no one is going to pay anyone to just 'do HTML'. Writing HTML, even well formed XHTML Strict compliant HTML is not that complicated. I wouldn't pay someone to just write HTML. It's the extras that count. CSS expertise, including cross browser incompatibilities and work-arounds, make a 'Web Developer'. Extensive knowledge of Javascript libraries, events, and cross-browser incompatibilities make a 'Web Developer'. Working knowledge of PHP, Perl, C#, Java, and a host of templating engines and content management systems make a 'Web Developer'. My little sister can 'do HTML'. You should see her MySpace page. You hire a 'Web Developer' or 'UI Engineer' when you want to have that professional appearance for your website, properly search engine optimized and 508 accessibility compliant. The website that works in all browsers, degrades nicely for the older browser crowd, and is still cutting edge enough to do all the fancier stuff that's now considered 'Web 2.0'. </rant>
So, being a web developer, the first thing I did after seeing this news was look for the standalone version of IE8, so that I can run it next to IE7 and test in both. No such luck. So I called their support line, and spoke to some guy in India with a fake American-sounding name, who told me that I couldn't run IE7 and IE8 at the same time. He's probably right, if you discount the Virtual PC option.
So can anyone out there point me at a free virtual PC image that runs IE7 or IE8 so that I can do my QA work? Or to a standalone version of IE8?
"Citizens of New York who prefer not to carry an identifying RFID chip can still get an old-style license."
Wait a second here.. the RFID licenses are $30 more expensive than regular licenses, yet the residents have the option to get the cheaper RFID-free license? Who's going to choose to willingly pay more to be tracked more effectively?
Let me guess. The state isn't telling them that they can choose to get the cheaper older style of license? Brilliant!
Regardless of who's suing who in this mess, there won't be any new precedent set about linking to a website. 2600 Magazine won a court case in 2001 when Ford Motor Company tried to stop 2600 from linking to their website. Not only that, but one of the original sites from the tussle is still up. Here is the original news announcement from 2600.
I have to second this one. I got hooked on programming in high school in a class where we had to program robotic Lego sets to do specific things using BASIC. Regardless of what you use to interest him, I would avoid projects longer than 3 months. If kids work at something too long without any reward, they're likely to lose interest.
Someone mod the parent as funny before too many more people miss the joke. One of the current replies to the parent is an idiot, and the other has no idea what sarcasm is. Discuss.
As a former Electronics Technician in the Navy, I have to agree with the parent. The Navy Electricity & Electronics Training Series (NEETS) is a great series of books that teach the basic of electronics. After studying these manuals, I successfully built a Superheterodyne receiver, also known as your basic radio receiver. You can find all of the NEETS modules online here in PDF format. I still have them on CD from when I went through the training in 1998.
As for your link to electricity misconceptions, all I can say is that I find the information there disagrees with what I was taught by the US Navy. It reminds me of the old electron flow vs hole flow arguments. The important part is that electric circuits work the same regardless of what you're philosophy is concerning the movement of electrons.
Best of luck with your search. Just remember that soldering irons are HOT. I've heard good things about the Art of Electronics as well.
I've just tried Slashdot's Feedburner Audio (the robotic overlord voice) for the first time, and it made my morning. Listening to the robots trying to say "Vzoooot. Cronk, cronk, cronk. Zip, zip. (Pause.) Gurlagurlagurla...zweeee." was just too funny.
Slashdot Mirror
How freaky is it come from home from an appointment with the neurologist and see this at the top of the Slashdot?
So, some anecdotal evidence supporting this. My wife and I are foster parents. You have no idea how bad some kids have it until you see it first hand. We have a foster child with us that has been professionally diagnosed as being 'developmentally delayed'. This means not being able to do the things that a baby of his age should be able to do. Crawl, eat soft food, roll over, mimic a caregiver, make vowel sounds, sit without falling over. A month ago when this child arrived, he could do none of them. As of today, he can do all but crawl and roll over, but he's almost doing that now too.
The neurologist today examined him and feels strongly that all of his developmental delays are due to extreme neglect. Not feeding your child properly, not playing with him, not 'conversing' with him, leaving him in a car seat all day. These are all basic examples of neglect that add up to extreme neglect.
For those that commented "Isn't this well known already?", yes, it is. The therapist see the developmental delays. They get the child checked by a geneticist and neurologist, ruling out brain issues and things like down syndrome. This process of elimination points directly at extreme neglect.
Again, anecdotal evidence, but evidence just the same.
They're calling it quits? Or did you mean the "latest" version of Firefox?
As soon as my early termination fee is low enough, I'm shitcanning AT&T and getting a pre-paid android. Probably going to go with Virgin Mobile. I've had success with them in the past.
Not that this is being perfectly implemented at the company I work at, (we're working on it) I suggest changing the rules for your prioritization.
Rule 1: Projects will be prioritized with numbers, not words. No more 'high', 'medium', 'low', 'if you have time'. Projects will be assigned a priority number. The lower the number, the higher the priority.
Rule 2: Projects cannot have the same priority number. Got five projects ranked 1? Somebody has to decide which one is really project 1, and which are really 2, 3, 4, and 5. It doesn't matter who makes the decisions, as long as someone makes them.
If you're IT department doesn't set rules for non-IT departments regarding priority, and enforce them, then you will have the standard chaos.
Nice, the Iranian version of the Ansari X-Prize.
What people don't realize is that even with all the sanctions, hostility, and generally crazy behavior, Iran IS NOT Iraq or Afghanistan. Right now, American casualties are seen as unacceptable, which is leading our drive towards more drones. If we pick a fight with the Iranians, or let them pick a fight with the US, there will be American casualties. They have the ability to sink U.S. war ships. That have the support of Russia and China. Granted, they probably didn't ground that RQ-170, but that doesn't mean it isn't feasible in the near future.
We all know that quite a large chunk of the young adults in Iran don't like the current regime, but do you know what they like even less? The United States. Whether we start the fight or they do, it will cause Iran to solidify behind that common dislike of the U.S., and we will have a real fight on our hands.
Full disclosure: I work for a company that uses these types of ads.
We use Akamai to serve up these kinds of ads. Believe it or not, most internet traffic goes through Akamai at some point, so when they decide to cookie you, they can find you just about anywhere. From the advertiser's point of view, it makes sense. Only between 2% and 5% of visits result in sales. So, by hitting you with these ads, they're trying to get a second chance at that business.
But if the question whether is whether I'd rather see an ad for some random diet that doesn't work, or some other scam, or to see an ad for a website that I willingly chose to go to, I'll take the latter any day.
As for the particular case of that woman and the pair of shoes, I wouldn't advertise for a particular pair of shoes, but then again, being a shoe company, they may have a better insight into the shopping mind of a woman.
Just be glad that these ads are being served up based on some fact. The fact that you visited that site previously. I think that's better than them trying to build a profile of me based on sites I've visited, and then trying to sell me running gear or viagra.
~Aero2600
A million misdiagnosed just because they're younger? Wait until they start looking into how many kids are misdiagnosed because they're too smart and not being challenged by our schools that are set up to cater to the lowest common denominator.
I was misdiagnosed with ADD as a kid. Turns out, I was just bored out of my fucking skull. Second, third, and fourth grades were the hardest for me because the material should have been covered in one year, not three. Some schools have realized this and starting pulling the smart kids out of 'general population' and putting them in their own curriculum track which is much more challenging.
That's what they should look into
Aero2600
This point arrived roughly eleven months ago..
I'm going to have to disagree with this, caveats aside. Whether or not you can assume your web users have HTML5 and CSS3 depends on your website's specific traffic. For example, I work for a fairly popular e-commerce store. We averaged in excess of 100k+ visits a day in the past month. 20.1% of that traffic was using IE7 or IE6, and 5.2% of our traffic was specifically IE6. That's over half a million visits in the past month from users running IE6 or IE7. Can we assume that our users have HTML5 and CSS3? Only if we can tell them to fuck off and that we really don't want their money. IE6 and IE7 will have to be less than 1% combined of our traffic before we can start using HTML5 and CSS3, in our individual case.
~Aero2600
I used to be a certified electronics calibration technician, and I've never noticed a difference between the analog and the digital.
If $2k is your budget, and not having any idea what you're going to be using it for, I highly recommend a handheld Fluke. They were just as reliable as the old analog ones, but with more features.
This is the model I'm referring to:
Fluke 125
Official Fluke 125 page
aero2600
The answer to your question depends on your boss, actually. I've found that there are generally two types of bosses: The better kind that are intelligent, do things right, and get shit done; and the crap kind, whom are generally idiots, don't care about doing things right, and are only out to make themselves look good.
So, if you have an intelligent boss, here's your advice:
An intelligent boss respects good communication and honesty. If you inform your boss enough about the projects and solutions you are working on, he'll have a better idea of the status of whatever project you are working on. If he can answers basic questions from the 'customer' without having to bother you, you're doing it right. I find my boss greatly enjoys that I keep him informed enough about my projects that he lets me operate pretty much unsupervised. Second, always be honest, especially with your boss. If you're having a problem with someone's crap code, make sure he knows about your impediment. If you've run into a tricky problem that will take time to figure out, or you've made a mistake that's going to cause to take longer on your project, be honest with him. A late project with an honest explanation is so much better than a late project with no explanation or an on-time project that has subtle flaws that will inevitably cause problems. Lastly, be flexible. We all know it's difficult to drop what you're doing and work on something else, but your boss is generally not the one setting priorities. If he asks you to drop what you're doing, do it, and if the change of direction will cost time, let him know, politely.
Now, if you have a crap boss, here's some advice:
Keep your mouth shut, keep your head down, do what you're told, and if your boss hasn't been replaced with a better one after two years, get those resumes out. A shitty boss will do everything in his power to make sure you can't advance.
That's all I got.
~Aero
I'm a web developer for a top 100 online retailer. I hate IE6 like most of you. I realize that IE6 has caused millions of man-hours lost on a global scale. I also know that I was hired and paid well because of my expertise in working around IE6's many flaws. But it what boils down to is money.
In the past month, according to our Google Analytics, we have had 5,279,955 visits. That's visits, not pageviews. Of those 5.2m visits, 3,716,805, or 70.39% were users running some form of IE with javascript enabled. (no javascript, no countie) Of that 70.39%, 12.73% were running IE6. That's 473,168 visits from customers using IE6 in the past month. That's about 8.96% of our total traffic. Would we like to stop supporting IE6? Certainly. Would we like to encourage IE6 users to upgrade to a better browser? Certainly. Can we tell 473,168 users that we don't want their fucking money? Absolutely fucking not.
So, as much as we hate IE6, we'll make damn sure that our stores look good in IE6 because it's about the money.
-- aero2600
Hold on.
You don't have to support IE? I must know what this job is. Please? I do not wish to become known as the IE Developer Serial Killer. What do you do for a living? Seriously. I would take a 20% pay cut to not have to support IE.
Aero
P.S. I can't believe anyone still uses table for layouts. GP is a troll.
More options is always a good thing.
But I can't imagine HTML 5 being capable of something like this.
Aero
The easy solution: Just use Google.
Aero
Disclaimer: I 'do HTML' for a living and get paid well too.
I've always used 'Web Developer' or 'UI Developer' for a title, but 'UI Engineer' does have a nice ring to it. First off, no one is going to pay anyone to just 'do HTML'. Writing HTML, even well formed XHTML Strict compliant HTML is not that complicated. I wouldn't pay someone to just write HTML. It's the extras that count. CSS expertise, including cross browser incompatibilities and work-arounds, make a 'Web Developer'. Extensive knowledge of Javascript libraries, events, and cross-browser incompatibilities make a 'Web Developer'. Working knowledge of PHP, Perl, C#, Java, and a host of templating engines and content management systems make a 'Web Developer'. My little sister can 'do HTML'. You should see her MySpace page. You hire a 'Web Developer' or 'UI Engineer' when you want to have that professional appearance for your website, properly search engine optimized and 508 accessibility compliant. The website that works in all browsers, degrades nicely for the older browser crowd, and is still cutting edge enough to do all the fancier stuff that's now considered 'Web 2.0'. </rant>
So what do call a people that 'do HTML'? Interns.
Aero
Interestingly enough Google Chrome is currently fighting it out with Safari as the #3 web browser on Slashdot.
According to who? Everyone has different numbers. I can pull some out my ass that make Firefox #1, or Firefox #4.
Who is the authority on browser percentages?
Aero
So, being a web developer, the first thing I did after seeing this news was look for the standalone version of IE8, so that I can run it next to IE7 and test in both. No such luck. So I called their support line, and spoke to some guy in India with a fake American-sounding name, who told me that I couldn't run IE7 and IE8 at the same time. He's probably right, if you discount the Virtual PC option.
So can anyone out there point me at a free virtual PC image that runs IE7 or IE8 so that I can do my QA work? Or to a standalone version of IE8?
Thanks in advance.
"Citizens of New York who prefer not to carry an identifying RFID chip can still get an old-style license."
Wait a second here.. the RFID licenses are $30 more expensive than regular licenses, yet the residents have the option to get the cheaper RFID-free license? Who's going to choose to willingly pay more to be tracked more effectively?
Let me guess. The state isn't telling them that they can choose to get the cheaper older style of license? Brilliant!
Aero
Regardless of who's suing who in this mess, there won't be any new precedent set about linking to a website. 2600 Magazine won a court case in 2001 when Ford Motor Company tried to stop 2600 from linking to their website. Not only that, but one of the original sites from the tussle is still up. Here is the original news announcement from 2600.
Aero
I apologize if I ruined the end of book that's been out for 23 years.
:)
Besides, I think it's required reading in order to take part in Slashdot discussions.
~Aero
Everyday, we closer to Ender's Game.
Apparently, the solution is to recruit kids and tell them it's just a video game.
~Aero
I have to second this one. I got hooked on programming in high school in a class where we had to program robotic Lego sets to do specific things using BASIC. Regardless of what you use to interest him, I would avoid projects longer than 3 months. If kids work at something too long without any reward, they're likely to lose interest.
Someone mod the parent as funny before too many more people miss the joke. One of the current replies to the parent is an idiot, and the other has no idea what sarcasm is. Discuss.
Aero
As a former Electronics Technician in the Navy, I have to agree with the parent. The Navy Electricity & Electronics Training Series (NEETS) is a great series of books that teach the basic of electronics. After studying these manuals, I successfully built a Superheterodyne receiver, also known as your basic radio receiver. You can find all of the NEETS modules online here in PDF format. I still have them on CD from when I went through the training in 1998.
As for your link to electricity misconceptions, all I can say is that I find the information there disagrees with what I was taught by the US Navy. It reminds me of the old electron flow vs hole flow arguments. The important part is that electric circuits work the same regardless of what you're philosophy is concerning the movement of electrons.
Best of luck with your search. Just remember that soldering irons are HOT. I've heard good things about the Art of Electronics as well.
Aero
I've just tried Slashdot's Feedburner Audio (the robotic overlord voice) for the first time, and it made my morning. Listening to the robots trying to say "Vzoooot. Cronk, cronk, cronk. Zip, zip. (Pause.) Gurlagurlagurla...zweeee." was just too funny.