I'm doing the same thing, except without a college degree of any sort.
I started as Tech Support for a small software company, who plucked me out of the retail/admin assistant ether, and I got that because I put together a resume they really liked with my writing skills. (First hobby is writing, computers is my second). I highlighted my enthusiasm for computers, presented myself in a groovy way, and got hired. Once I was in, the small company environment forced me to wear several hats and pick up new things, which gave me the experience that I could put on my resume, which is the most valuable thing to have. From there on you just keep teaching yourself and observing things and finding opportunites that will be good for you--lots of job postings say they will let you substitute X amount of years in lieu of a CS degree. Eventually if you never stop learning you can climb somewhere. The key though is getting your foot in the door, and a desire to keep on learning things that will help you get wherever you want to go in the industry.
Oh, and certificates are good. Lots of places want certificates at the very least even if you don't have a CS-related degree. It's hard to get them to consider you without the certificates (I know, I don't have any).
In fact, I seriously get irritated by women on IRC, because 90% of the time, they make it a severe point that EVERYONE must know they are female
Two things:
A) If I judged the male population by the trolls, I'd think you were all sex-crazed vulgar boozing morons with an IQ of -2. But I don't. Hopefully some males can return the favor and not judge women by the poorest examples.
B) If everyone assumed you were a girl online, and you weren't, and you didn't want to pass as one, wouldn't you get irritated? Maybe yes, maybe no, depends on your temperment. People differ.
Being a text-based medium, things have different impacts. Choosing an overtly feminine nick and immediately announcing being female is the real-life equivalent of wearing pasties. Don't get offended when guys start stuffing dollar bills in your panties.
That's an absurd statement. I see plenty of people with masculine names, such as "Lord", or "Mike". Heck, even your "Senator" could be taken for masculine. Should I start jeering at you because you have male bits? Is putting "Commander" or "John" in your nick the same as putting on speedos and strutting your stuff as a gigalo? I would never harass a guy because his nick was masculine, even on the forums where the population is almost exclusively female and a real, live male is rare. Why should I expect that a male WOULD with me because I have a female nick?
Basically, it's a respect thing. Lots of casual disrespect, even if it's in jest, gives a community a bad flavor, and makes the ones that would be jested about go underground, or not even join the community to begin with. In this case, women are often jested about in the computer geek community. And it's all in the open, for any lurkers to see. So any smart* neophyte geeky women would come across that, and say, "Screw you! This isn't worth my time." Then they join another group of people or find a hobby that's not as filled with moronic people. There's plenty of geeky things to do outside of IT that a brainy woman can pick up.
(* Obviously, I'm not one of the smart ones, as I'm standing here with a virtual lightning rod on my head.)
Anyway, this post's topic is mutating back to my original post, and I highly suspect I'm trying to build a castle on wave wet sand.::pushes submit::
"Necessary"? Who knows. Good? Yes. I don't think you fellows realize/understand it, but women are indeed pretty social; social programs such as message boards and the like are what got me into IT in the first place, and it's really very irritating to make a post with a nick that's obviously female like mine and get some nitwit going, "Liar! You're not a girl, you're a 40 old man in your parents' basement!" or "Show me your boobies!" or whatever. A group for females provides a place for us to be girly geeks without the BS that's occasionally (sometimes more than occasionally) flung around here.
And that's not to say we can't "take the heat" or whatever, any more then I could say you men ph34r the unicorns, and are wusses because of it;) , just that it's nice to collaberate with girls occasionally, and I find there are more female geeks in social geekery settings, such as fan sites, message boards, etc. I'm working on website right now with one woman who is in the astronomy field.
I know several other female geeks, too. They're not as rare as you think. We find one another.
Anyway, social geeky things tend to draw more women. Therefore, groups for women developers could very well be a good thing, as it would provide a community, which is alluring. You guys talk about beer and sports and whatever while you work; why can't we crush on fictional book characters, squee when we're happy, and do whatever girlish things we want to do when we work?:p
Of course, I'm only one woman, and all these opinions are my own. I only know my own motivations for working with computers. Any other women out there?
Ok, who the hell stole the Mattel Marketer's Design Palette for the 5-9 age group? Because I realize all you dudes are looking for females, but I never thought you'd stoop to using the same schemes toy makers use to attract the tots.
Lots of power outlets. Consider them when you design or something so they don't look horrible, ie, get nice/unique wall plates, but put 'em everywhere. I wouldn't be against every 3 feet.
Network infrastructure. cat5, something else, whatever. Make them accesible too so if the next great thing comes out you don't have to fool around inside the walls...just open a panels in each room to get at most of them. Put jacks everywhere, and make them relatively easy to open too in case connectors change. This way if someone wants electronic home stuff, the infrastructure is there, they just need to figure out what they want attach.
If it's more than one story, laundry and garbage chutes (sp?) between all floors, and also a dumbwaiter that's pretty big and can carry a good load. (think small-dresser-sized furniture) Put a locks on all of them in case a family every buys the place and these are a hazard to the small toddling kids. (I'm a small woman, so it's hard for me to carry things up and down stairs. I can get myself up and down fine, but lots of common household objects are just slightly too heavy for me to get up or down stairs, particularly if the stairs don't have any landings where I can rest. No, I don't have anyone to help me. Having things to take that burdan off are nice, particularly if they are low-maintainance--ie, things that will last, which is why I said "dumbwaiter" rather than "elevator").
Built in bookshelves.:p My books are never gonna go digital!
A dedicated shower (I don't take baths, I jump in the shower instead)
Those network jacks I mentioned? Put a few outside near the outside electrical sockets so I can hook up external cameras or extrenal somethings if I want to.
Storage space. Lots of storage space.
Room in the garage for things other than cars, such as a workshop.
Large door to the basement, if there is one, and stairs that make it easy to carry large things down. Also, dumbwaiter going down here as well.
You're obviously not a girl. Girls are fucking vicious to anyone they percieve as different, especially at the pre-teen and early teen middle-school stage, when they're still young enough to be casually cruel and "not know" (some do, some don't) they're out of line, but old enough to have the knowledge to think up things that really cut.
I know, I am a girl, I went through it all.:p High school wasn't hell, people became somewhat civilized (in a small sort of way) when the top grade was composed of 18 year olds instead of 13/14 year olds, but middle school was.
If you never need to use special characters, then it might be eye-candy.
I'm a writer, though--and it's a pain in the ass to go to Insert => Special Character or to memorize all the ALT + 1234 codes for each "special" letter. I can think of so many ways I'd use even the 3-key, and the full keyboard would be that much more useful. I could also clear icons out of my quick start in windows, so I have more task-bar space. I keep thinking of new things I could do with these.
I think anyone who's bilingual will like the full version too, particularly if their other language doesn't use the Latin character set. Translators would probably jump all over it, and anyone who has to do business internationally and has need of, say, the pound sign, the yen sign, etc.
Then as someone else mentioned, this'd be good for store kiosks.
And I bet coders would get a kick out of the full keyboard--all I know is HTML, but I'd love to map things like a href=" etc. to a single key, so I wouldn't have to keep copy and paste and then manually type the closing tags.
I enjoyed the Fifth Element. Most TV/Movie Sci-Fi out there tries to be serious, but ends up being so stupid it's funny. The Fifth Element was purposely hokey, and somehow ended up being freakin' cool. Probably because it didn't take itself too seriously, so the parts that had something to say shone through, instead of drowning in accidental bullshittiness.
Is evolution the same hot topic in other nations, ones with predominantly (sp) non-Christian religions? Does anybody know what they have to say on the issue? For example, the Japanese...modern nation, but not Christian (AFAIK). Is there any ID-like theory among them?
I'm just curious now how other religions interact with the idea of evolution. What about India's Hindu population? What do they think?
Sort of off topic, I guess. But hey. Maybe someone here who's bilingual will know.
I'm 22, and I can hear the annoying high-pitched noise of cheap TVs.
It's annoying when you're going TV shopping; I was looking for a small, cheap TV so I could catch Battlestar Galactica (otherwise I don't watch TV) and the SOUND in one electronics department drove me batty, and gave me a headache.
Must be the same frequency this device is working on.
Have you actually ever read his work? Lots of fascinating ideas in there. Some are getting dated...ie, in Ender's Game there's a scene where Ender fools the other kids by basically signing up for a second account and IMing everyone, and while that stuff didn't exist when the book was written, it's common nowdays so probably doesn't have the same effect as it did not 10 years ago...but others are still interesting.
His feuding brothers are getting annoying, though. For some reason half of his brothers like to hate the other halfs' guts. But that's another topic alltogether...
and inane social commentary
Well, I find it nice that he's so involved with his community. Perhaps you find contributing to community inane, but I respect it.
The man is a racist homophobic bigot
Racist? Obviously you've never read his stuff. As for homophobic...perhaps, I don't like his opinions there myself. I don't think he's a bigot, though. A bigot is someone who never considers anyone else's view. I think he's someone who has thought about it, and has chosen his path, much like I've considered things, and I've chosen my path. Not everyone who is not all for gay rights or who supports Bush is a narrow-minded bigot, as much as I'd like to jump on that bandwagon myself and say they are. (wouldn't that be a form of bigotry itself?)
who deserves scorn and scrutiny
In that order? The scorn before the scrutiny?::grin:: Perhaps reverse that...take a good look at what he's saying, then decide if you want to scorn everything, or not.
I'm not saying everyone should lovy-dovy-love him, just that I've found in my own following of his columns that he has more interesting, worthwhile ideas than not, and I've found I respect someone who contributes to his communties--SFF literature, and his local hometown--more than someone who bitches and complains but doesn't try to pitch in to help in their own communities. I do find his views on homosexuality to be a shame, though. And Bush. Bleh. I don't read his political columns anymore, because I know I don't agree.
(Heh, I'm such a moderate...damned because I'm not left-wing enough, damned because I'm not right-wing enough.)
I don't agree with OSC's politics either, but he's a very talented writer, and he also knows how to spot good writing (and other forms of art too). Like someone else said, everyone's flawed, and if you let it limit the artists you patronize, you'll be missing out on a lot of good things.
OSC also is very active compared to other SFF writers in teaching the next generation to write. He's taught creative writing classes (and he's much more qualified than most who teach those usually worthless classes). He's written a book on how to write SFF, and a book on characterization. And, believe it or not, both books have solid advice...I taught myself how to write before I picked up his books on characterization and SFF, and I pretty much was nodding, going, "Yes, this is right...I do that already...yep, he's got it right..." What I had learned independantly on my own was confirmed in them. They're the only books on writing I've read so far that actually know what they're talking about...I've laughed a few others out the window for being absurdly incorrect on a lot of points.
I have the feeling that the new webzine is just another step in making a high-quality market for the next generation of writers. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned into the next, oh, I don't know...Azimov's, or something like Marion Zimmer Bradley's anthologies, or other SFF 'zine that was backed by a highly talented author, back in the "Good 'ol days".
1. I *do* complain (or whine; your pick how you wish to label it) a lot about things I observe in the world around me.
What she says is different from how you interpreted it.
I'm a female geek. Actually, I'm an introverted loner first, geek second. I was also emotionally abused (actual abuse by a family member, and school bullying) as a teen. I discovered when I was 17, 18, around there, I had this horrible whiny/bitter attitude about some things, that I felt was justified because of this and this and this reason. And because I had such a sucky past, people tended not to knock my reasons.
In reality, being bullied/abused only gives you so much leeway. After a while, if said person keeps complaining about everything, it becomes apparant that the person whining is not just venting or trying to discuss something, but that they are whining without trying to fix what they are complaining about, or feeling as if they have the right to bash something without trying to help fix it themselves because they were "bullied" when they were younger, or whatever. It becomes obvious that they are not healing, that something is wrong with them and they are more content to let things just happen to them than to make an effort to better their own situations. It makes them look lazy at the least. It's very unattractive, and is often a sign of an emotionally immature geek/nerd. (Or, alternately, it's a sign that they have a temper, and low tolerance for things they decide they don't like--which is funny, because nerds are bullied sometimes merely because of intolerance from others, you'd think that would build tolerance, but that's not always the case.)
I had a bit of it myself, probably still do, and due to lack of socialization, and some form of past bullying or abuse, lots of nerds/geeks have it too--you know how it takes one to know one? Just as athletic prowness doesn't excuse a jock if they're dumb as rocks, being really smart doesn't excuse a nerd from aquiring a balanced worldview that doesn't revolve around them. It's easy to pretend your past woes excuse your present bad behavior, but in reality you are not helping yourself then if you make excuses for yourself, no matter how legitimate those excuses may be.
Everyone complains to some extent. But if you observe people for a while, it becomes apparant that there are more than the fair share of geeks who complain excessively, and don't do a damn thing to correct or make better the things they are complaining about. As I said before, when it's excessive complaining, it becomes very, very unattractive--for me it's a sign of any one of a number of personal problems, from immaturity to laziness, to a hot temper, to low tolerance for 'annoying' things, etc.
I'm a would-be SFF writer, and I've been having the same problem the original poster has--a simple word processor that does its one thing well. A word processor that's not paper-and-pen or cobbled together with my non-existant crafting skills. For one, my handwriting is horrible and slow, and two, I hate tiny floppy not-durable keyboards. And I'm a small woman--it's not like I even have as much trouble with them as big-fingered men and women do. I still hate 'em.
Alphasmart was reccomended to me--I've not had a chance to get one, but it looks like the best bet so far. Or actually Dana--because it has wireless abilities, something that will be useful getting my data back onto my home machine.
I don't want a PDA with keyboard--I want something durable that's one piece with a full sized keyboard that I can carry around like a keyboard in my backpack. I don't want it SMALL. I don't want a fancy shiny PDA thingie. I want it sturdy and durable, and to last for a few years.
I don't want all the features of a laptop--else I'd get a laptop!
I want something I can transfer data into and out of easily to common word processing programs.
Thus far, Alphasmart looks like the best bet for authors.:)
Agreed, I'm from the area and actually have been to one of the Naperville libraries, and Naperville is one of the more wealthy Chicago suburbs--upper middle class, lower upper class, something like that, at least. (Beautiful downtown too, but that's off topic).
Glad you put the disclaimor in, else I'd have to flame ya since I'm 22 and not at all ashamed to be a HP fan.;)
~*~Tangent:~*~ Anyone who thinks sci-fi and fantasy is something to be put away upon entence to adulthood never really understood what the genre is all about (the book one at least, I have my doubts about the movie/tv genre) and the reasons authors write in it.
Seriously, what's up with everyone going, "Oh, since we're hardly advanced, the super-advanced aliens will never take notice of us!" I don't get the logic behind that. Just because you have a superiority complex over those stupider than you are, being a smart nerd and all (ha), doesn't mean aliens, if there are any out there, feel the same way...that is, if we are stupider than them in the first place.
Of course, it also doesn't mean you might not be right, maybe we are the dummies of the universe, but I think it's more that some of you guys have been watching too much bad sci-fi tv. Go read some book sci-fi...it's a lot better, or at least a lot more thoughtful.
If life is so scarce in the universe, and the alien species was social and tool-making like us, I think they might be very curious about us. Undoubtedly if we ever get to the stars our xenobiologists will be fascinated by alien life. How that curiosity would interact with their social and cultural and political bonds, I don't know...they as a species might take a stance to ignore us much like the USA has decided to war in Iraq even though some citizens of the USA might not want that, but individualy...it should be interesting.
Alien life will probably be weird and wild, as their ancient ancient ancestors will have diverged, or risen independantly, from ours (their very cells may be very different), but all life is driven to reproduce, and you will have parallel behaviors that are understandable by us that help the alien life reproduce and carry on living. So it's not like everything will be uncomprehendable by mere human mortals. It will be different, yes. But not utterly beyond our comprehension like something god-like.
The biggest hurdle will be if their primary senses are ones we don't have...take some types of snakes--they have pits on their faces that sense heat. Our skin senses hot and cold, but not specifically. Or if their senses don't sense the same wavelengths as we do--ie, if they speak and hear vastly higher or lower sounds than we do, we might miss a few times before we realize that (or they might miss a few times with us) they are saying or hearing something. Same for vision--if they see infrared or ultraviolet instead of visible light, there will have to be some adjustments made to understand things. These are the way we take in information, and there are some very basic things built into all human societies around our specific senses and how much we rely on each one. It's not a stretch to think alien society will act in part based on their main senses and ways of taking in info from their environment.
But our scientists detect things they can't hear with their original senses unaided, using instruments to color-code things and record things they can't see or hear, so it's safe to say (I think) that alien society should be able to do the same, else they wouldn't be anywhere scientifically.
So...I guess I'm saying it's not as big a hurdle or problem as people think it will be. Alien life won't be some mystical voodoo like people are making out. (Seriously, lay off the sci-fi tv and think for yourselves.) There's a lot of factors to think about here, that would change depending on what sort of aliens you're trying to communicate with. But assuming that we are face-to-face with them, you just apply the scientific method. Or get some good animal behaviorists and human anthropologists to work together on it. The details will depend on the specific alien encounter.
I could say a lot more on this, I've not covered nearly everything that would be involved in this and have made broad assumptions that I know someone will pounce on saying, "Nuh uh! What if--", but whatever.:)
The aliens-as-gods thoughts were starting to annoy me.
(I just got a good idea for my sci-fi novel, though. Thanks, Slashdot!)
Firefox has been failing to block some popups suddenly for me, too.
Oddly enough, my first thought was to go find a fix, see if there's an update, as if the browser suddenly broke. Or submit a bug report, or something.
How many people use cordless phones in public? Chances are if you're inside, you or the owner of the house already knows if they have a cordless phone and/or wireless, and if you're outside downtown, you'll probably won't be around homes.
Or would cellphones interfere too? I'm a bit of a phone-phobe...I dislike using a phone.
Slashdot Mirror
These aren't normal chickens...these are cylon chickens!
I'm doing the same thing, except without a college degree of any sort.
I started as Tech Support for a small software company, who plucked me out of the retail/admin assistant ether, and I got that because I put together a resume they really liked with my writing skills. (First hobby is writing, computers is my second). I highlighted my enthusiasm for computers, presented myself in a groovy way, and got hired. Once I was in, the small company environment forced me to wear several hats and pick up new things, which gave me the experience that I could put on my resume, which is the most valuable thing to have. From there on you just keep teaching yourself and observing things and finding opportunites that will be good for you--lots of job postings say they will let you substitute X amount of years in lieu of a CS degree. Eventually if you never stop learning you can climb somewhere. The key though is getting your foot in the door, and a desire to keep on learning things that will help you get wherever you want to go in the industry.
Oh, and certificates are good. Lots of places want certificates at the very least even if you don't have a CS-related degree. It's hard to get them to consider you without the certificates (I know, I don't have any).
In fact, I seriously get irritated by women on IRC, because 90% of the time, they make it a severe point that EVERYONE must know they are female
Two things:
A) If I judged the male population by the trolls, I'd think you were all sex-crazed vulgar boozing morons with an IQ of -2. But I don't. Hopefully some males can return the favor and not judge women by the poorest examples.
B) If everyone assumed you were a girl online, and you weren't, and you didn't want to pass as one, wouldn't you get irritated? Maybe yes, maybe no, depends on your temperment. People differ.
Being a text-based medium, things have different impacts. Choosing an overtly feminine nick and immediately announcing being female is the real-life equivalent of wearing pasties. Don't get offended when guys start stuffing dollar bills in your panties.
That's an absurd statement. I see plenty of people with masculine names, such as "Lord", or "Mike". Heck, even your "Senator" could be taken for masculine. Should I start jeering at you because you have male bits? Is putting "Commander" or "John" in your nick the same as putting on speedos and strutting your stuff as a gigalo? I would never harass a guy because his nick was masculine, even on the forums where the population is almost exclusively female and a real, live male is rare. Why should I expect that a male WOULD with me because I have a female nick?
Basically, it's a respect thing. Lots of casual disrespect, even if it's in jest, gives a community a bad flavor, and makes the ones that would be jested about go underground, or not even join the community to begin with. In this case, women are often jested about in the computer geek community. And it's all in the open, for any lurkers to see. So any smart* neophyte geeky women would come across that, and say, "Screw you! This isn't worth my time." Then they join another group of people or find a hobby that's not as filled with moronic people. There's plenty of geeky things to do outside of IT that a brainy woman can pick up.
(* Obviously, I'm not one of the smart ones, as I'm standing here with a virtual lightning rod on my head.)
Anyway, this post's topic is mutating back to my original post, and I highly suspect I'm trying to build a castle on wave wet sand. ::pushes submit::
"Necessary"? Who knows. Good? Yes. I don't think you fellows realize/understand it, but women are indeed pretty social; social programs such as message boards and the like are what got me into IT in the first place, and it's really very irritating to make a post with a nick that's obviously female like mine and get some nitwit going, "Liar! You're not a girl, you're a 40 old man in your parents' basement!" or "Show me your boobies!" or whatever. A group for females provides a place for us to be girly geeks without the BS that's occasionally (sometimes more than occasionally) flung around here.
And that's not to say we can't "take the heat" or whatever, any more then I could say you men ph34r the unicorns, and are wusses because of it ;) , just that it's nice to collaberate with girls occasionally, and I find there are more female geeks in social geekery settings, such as fan sites, message boards, etc. I'm working on website right now with one woman who is in the astronomy field.
I know several other female geeks, too. They're not as rare as you think. We find one another.
Anyway, social geeky things tend to draw more women. Therefore, groups for women developers could very well be a good thing, as it would provide a community, which is alluring. You guys talk about beer and sports and whatever while you work; why can't we crush on fictional book characters, squee when we're happy, and do whatever girlish things we want to do when we work? :p
Of course, I'm only one woman, and all these opinions are my own. I only know my own motivations for working with computers. Any other women out there?
The Jewel stores in the Chicago area have this already. I haven't touched it. ;)
Get a tongue piercing to hold the thing in place, and hope you can speak with wires dangling out your mouth?
Talk about the lows of desperation. ;) :p
I know, I am a girl, I went through it all. :p High school wasn't hell, people became somewhat civilized (in a small sort of way) when the top grade was composed of 18 year olds instead of 13/14 year olds, but middle school was.
I'm a writer, though--and it's a pain in the ass to go to Insert => Special Character or to memorize all the ALT + 1234 codes for each "special" letter. I can think of so many ways I'd use even the 3-key, and the full keyboard would be that much more useful. I could also clear icons out of my quick start in windows, so I have more task-bar space. I keep thinking of new things I could do with these.
I think anyone who's bilingual will like the full version too, particularly if their other language doesn't use the Latin character set. Translators would probably jump all over it, and anyone who has to do business internationally and has need of, say, the pound sign, the yen sign, etc.
Then as someone else mentioned, this'd be good for store kiosks.
And I bet coders would get a kick out of the full keyboard--all I know is HTML, but I'd love to map things like a href=" etc. to a single key, so I wouldn't have to keep copy and paste and then manually type the closing tags.
I enjoyed the Fifth Element. Most TV/Movie Sci-Fi out there tries to be serious, but ends up being so stupid it's funny. The Fifth Element was purposely hokey, and somehow ended up being freakin' cool. Probably because it didn't take itself too seriously, so the parts that had something to say shone through, instead of drowning in accidental bullshittiness.
I'm just curious now how other religions interact with the idea of evolution. What about India's Hindu population? What do they think?
Sort of off topic, I guess. But hey. Maybe someone here who's bilingual will know.
It's annoying when you're going TV shopping; I was looking for a small, cheap TV so I could catch Battlestar Galactica (otherwise I don't watch TV) and the SOUND in one electronics department drove me batty, and gave me a headache.
Must be the same frequency this device is working on.
Have you actually ever read his work? Lots of fascinating ideas in there. Some are getting dated...ie, in Ender's Game there's a scene where Ender fools the other kids by basically signing up for a second account and IMing everyone, and while that stuff didn't exist when the book was written, it's common nowdays so probably doesn't have the same effect as it did not 10 years ago...but others are still interesting.
His feuding brothers are getting annoying, though. For some reason half of his brothers like to hate the other halfs' guts. But that's another topic alltogether...
and inane social commentary
Well, I find it nice that he's so involved with his community. Perhaps you find contributing to community inane, but I respect it.
The man is a racist homophobic bigot
Racist? Obviously you've never read his stuff. As for homophobic...perhaps, I don't like his opinions there myself. I don't think he's a bigot, though. A bigot is someone who never considers anyone else's view. I think he's someone who has thought about it, and has chosen his path, much like I've considered things, and I've chosen my path. Not everyone who is not all for gay rights or who supports Bush is a narrow-minded bigot, as much as I'd like to jump on that bandwagon myself and say they are. (wouldn't that be a form of bigotry itself?)
who deserves scorn and scrutiny
In that order? The scorn before the scrutiny? ::grin:: Perhaps reverse that...take a good look at what he's saying, then decide if you want to scorn everything, or not.
I'm not saying everyone should lovy-dovy-love him, just that I've found in my own following of his columns that he has more interesting, worthwhile ideas than not, and I've found I respect someone who contributes to his communties--SFF literature, and his local hometown--more than someone who bitches and complains but doesn't try to pitch in to help in their own communities. I do find his views on homosexuality to be a shame, though. And Bush. Bleh. I don't read his political columns anymore, because I know I don't agree.
(Heh, I'm such a moderate...damned because I'm not left-wing enough, damned because I'm not right-wing enough.)
OSC also is very active compared to other SFF writers in teaching the next generation to write. He's taught creative writing classes (and he's much more qualified than most who teach those usually worthless classes). He's written a book on how to write SFF, and a book on characterization. And, believe it or not, both books have solid advice...I taught myself how to write before I picked up his books on characterization and SFF, and I pretty much was nodding, going, "Yes, this is right...I do that already...yep, he's got it right..." What I had learned independantly on my own was confirmed in them. They're the only books on writing I've read so far that actually know what they're talking about...I've laughed a few others out the window for being absurdly incorrect on a lot of points.
I have the feeling that the new webzine is just another step in making a high-quality market for the next generation of writers. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned into the next, oh, I don't know...Azimov's, or something like Marion Zimmer Bradley's anthologies, or other SFF 'zine that was backed by a highly talented author, back in the "Good 'ol days".
Having been a cashier at several places, most registers I've seen run Windows (like, Windows 95), except for one which was OS/2.
What she says is different from how you interpreted it.
I'm a female geek. Actually, I'm an introverted loner first, geek second. I was also emotionally abused (actual abuse by a family member, and school bullying) as a teen. I discovered when I was 17, 18, around there, I had this horrible whiny/bitter attitude about some things, that I felt was justified because of this and this and this reason. And because I had such a sucky past, people tended not to knock my reasons.
In reality, being bullied/abused only gives you so much leeway. After a while, if said person keeps complaining about everything, it becomes apparant that the person whining is not just venting or trying to discuss something, but that they are whining without trying to fix what they are complaining about, or feeling as if they have the right to bash something without trying to help fix it themselves because they were "bullied" when they were younger, or whatever. It becomes obvious that they are not healing, that something is wrong with them and they are more content to let things just happen to them than to make an effort to better their own situations. It makes them look lazy at the least. It's very unattractive, and is often a sign of an emotionally immature geek/nerd. (Or, alternately, it's a sign that they have a temper, and low tolerance for things they decide they don't like--which is funny, because nerds are bullied sometimes merely because of intolerance from others, you'd think that would build tolerance, but that's not always the case.)
I had a bit of it myself, probably still do, and due to lack of socialization, and some form of past bullying or abuse, lots of nerds/geeks have it too--you know how it takes one to know one? Just as athletic prowness doesn't excuse a jock if they're dumb as rocks, being really smart doesn't excuse a nerd from aquiring a balanced worldview that doesn't revolve around them. It's easy to pretend your past woes excuse your present bad behavior, but in reality you are not helping yourself then if you make excuses for yourself, no matter how legitimate those excuses may be.
Everyone complains to some extent. But if you observe people for a while, it becomes apparant that there are more than the fair share of geeks who complain excessively, and don't do a damn thing to correct or make better the things they are complaining about. As I said before, when it's excessive complaining, it becomes very, very unattractive--for me it's a sign of any one of a number of personal problems, from immaturity to laziness, to a hot temper, to low tolerance for 'annoying' things, etc.
Old fossils and the like do not always have DNA that is recoverable in any easy way. DNA degrades easily, breaks into bits, etc.
Cave Bears existed alongside modern (genetically speaking) man. Dinosaurs are much, much older and therefore that much harder to get DNA from.
Alphasmart was reccomended to me--I've not had a chance to get one, but it looks like the best bet so far. Or actually Dana--because it has wireless abilities, something that will be useful getting my data back onto my home machine.
I don't want a PDA with keyboard--I want something durable that's one piece with a full sized keyboard that I can carry around like a keyboard in my backpack. I don't want it SMALL. I don't want a fancy shiny PDA thingie. I want it sturdy and durable, and to last for a few years.
I don't want all the features of a laptop--else I'd get a laptop!
I want something I can transfer data into and out of easily to common word processing programs.
Thus far, Alphasmart looks like the best bet for authors. :)
Agreed, I'm from the area and actually have been to one of the Naperville libraries, and Naperville is one of the more wealthy Chicago suburbs--upper middle class, lower upper class, something like that, at least. (Beautiful downtown too, but that's off topic).
Nor have you seen my personal library of 300+ SFF books.
~*~Tangent:~*~ Anyone who thinks sci-fi and fantasy is something to be put away upon entence to adulthood never really understood what the genre is all about (the book one at least, I have my doubts about the movie/tv genre) and the reasons authors write in it.
Of course, it also doesn't mean you might not be right, maybe we are the dummies of the universe, but I think it's more that some of you guys have been watching too much bad sci-fi tv. Go read some book sci-fi...it's a lot better, or at least a lot more thoughtful.
If life is so scarce in the universe, and the alien species was social and tool-making like us, I think they might be very curious about us. Undoubtedly if we ever get to the stars our xenobiologists will be fascinated by alien life. How that curiosity would interact with their social and cultural and political bonds, I don't know...they as a species might take a stance to ignore us much like the USA has decided to war in Iraq even though some citizens of the USA might not want that, but individualy...it should be interesting.
Alien life will probably be weird and wild, as their ancient ancient ancestors will have diverged, or risen independantly, from ours (their very cells may be very different), but all life is driven to reproduce, and you will have parallel behaviors that are understandable by us that help the alien life reproduce and carry on living. So it's not like everything will be uncomprehendable by mere human mortals. It will be different, yes. But not utterly beyond our comprehension like something god-like.
The biggest hurdle will be if their primary senses are ones we don't have...take some types of snakes--they have pits on their faces that sense heat. Our skin senses hot and cold, but not specifically. Or if their senses don't sense the same wavelengths as we do--ie, if they speak and hear vastly higher or lower sounds than we do, we might miss a few times before we realize that (or they might miss a few times with us) they are saying or hearing something. Same for vision--if they see infrared or ultraviolet instead of visible light, there will have to be some adjustments made to understand things. These are the way we take in information, and there are some very basic things built into all human societies around our specific senses and how much we rely on each one. It's not a stretch to think alien society will act in part based on their main senses and ways of taking in info from their environment.
But our scientists detect things they can't hear with their original senses unaided, using instruments to color-code things and record things they can't see or hear, so it's safe to say (I think) that alien society should be able to do the same, else they wouldn't be anywhere scientifically.
So...I guess I'm saying it's not as big a hurdle or problem as people think it will be. Alien life won't be some mystical voodoo like people are making out. (Seriously, lay off the sci-fi tv and think for yourselves.) There's a lot of factors to think about here, that would change depending on what sort of aliens you're trying to communicate with. But assuming that we are face-to-face with them, you just apply the scientific method. Or get some good animal behaviorists and human anthropologists to work together on it. The details will depend on the specific alien encounter.
I could say a lot more on this, I've not covered nearly everything that would be involved in this and have made broad assumptions that I know someone will pounce on saying, "Nuh uh! What if--", but whatever. :)
The aliens-as-gods thoughts were starting to annoy me.
(I just got a good idea for my sci-fi novel, though. Thanks, Slashdot!)
Firefox has been failing to block some popups suddenly for me, too. Oddly enough, my first thought was to go find a fix, see if there's an update, as if the browser suddenly broke. Or submit a bug report, or something.
How many people use cordless phones in public? Chances are if you're inside, you or the owner of the house already knows if they have a cordless phone and/or wireless, and if you're outside downtown, you'll probably won't be around homes. Or would cellphones interfere too? I'm a bit of a phone-phobe...I dislike using a phone.