After I heard that in California a man was convicted of rape because he hadn’t told the Jewish girl he’d slept with he was Palestinian, I lost all faith. I am a man and by definition, apparently, guilty of rape.
Once upon a time, there were heathens.
Then there were witches and heretics.
Then there were, depending on location, communists, Jews (OK, they’ve been a target all the time), counterrevolutionaries etc.
Then there were, at least here on the Balkans, Croats, Serbs, Bosnians and Albanians. (Other regions may have to substitute some or all ethnicities.)
A witch hunt is a witch hunt is a witch hunt. The methods have remained the same (plant the evidence, then accuse; if hysteria level is high enough, skip planting the evidence), only the target of hysteria changes.
Yes, it is easy to falsely accuse someone of possessing child porn. It is also easy to falsely accuse someone of rape. Or child molestation. Or anything you please.
And every time someone is proven to have been falsely accused, I force myself to doubt all subsequent accusations a little bit more. The little boy who cried wolf does not only harm himself; he harms anyone who could ever cry wolf again.
Re:Don't f* with the IT guy like at restaurant you
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
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· Score: 5, Insightful
About a decade ago, before the peak of current paedophile hysteria, I had a pen pal from Poland. A real pen pal. A girl, too. Yes, I know it sounds incredible, but there you go.
Anyway, we joked around about nude photos, so she sent me one of herself. When she was about four.
Nowadays, that kind of letter could land me in prison, given a hysterical enough judge.
Yet I don’t see the big deal anyway. I grew up in a nudist family. I am certain a number of people own my nude photos. Nude child photos, at that. I am even well aware of the risk that some paedophile, somewhere, wanks looking at my picture. And I cannot see any evil in it. In fact, if that helped that person defuse their urges, thus making them less prone to actually molest a child, good for them. And for the children left unmolested.
Re:Don't f* with the IT guy like at restaurant you
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Not surprising, the culprit is an MCSE.
That’s Microsoft Certified Solitaire Expert, right?
Tech isn't always needed, for example, my history lectures didn't need VTC, interactive quizzes, or blogs.
As someone who rather disliked history and several other subjects in high school, I must say I would have been a bit happier with interactive quizzes and suchlike.
Then again, my best history teacher did have interactive quizzes. She’d ask questions, we’d answer, and she’d write up the score on the blackboard.
Technology doesn't always need to be used.
Precisely so.
You can be a great teacher without even resorting to old tech, such as writing. I had a teacher in my university who taught linguistics; he would seldom write anything on the blackboard, and taking notes in his class was nearly harmful: if you took your time to take notes, you could have missed an important detail.
Technology can undoubtedly be useful. One of my university teachers went to the US on a scholarship, so she would pre-record her lectures for us to attend. My Chinese teacher uses Powerpoint masterfully to give us grammar and vocabulary exercises. A friend of mine teaches physics and uses Facebook for homework.
However, teaching is an art. Technology may offer some assistance to some teachers, but forcing teachers to use technology when it is incompatible with their style seems to me an inexcusable waste of effort. And while it is true that modern students expect and want and even need a different approach to teaching, different approaches yet have to evolve. I’d even go so far as to say it is more important for students to use technology than it is for teachers. It’s the students who need it more, who are usually more comfortable with it, and who are more likely to invent some practical use for it.
It is no wonder teachers use technology mostly for housekeeping. A lot of their work is bound in red tape, which they see as a hindrance. If technology can help them deal with red tape, it is the best use they can find for it.
I don't get it... he's complaining that an e-mail shouts "Danger Will Robbins!" because his AV subscription has expired? On Windows that's a situation to be concerned about. Of course, if he's switched security products or OS's then he doesn't care, but the vendor doesn't know that and he should out-out/unsubscribe to their notices.
The vendor doesn’t know?
Really?
How then does the vendor know that the software is still installed on his computer? It is what it says in the e-mail.
The only proper way to notify your user is through the software itself. At least in cases like this.
I'm not defending the ugly "your computer may actually be on fire Right NOW!" type of add, but doesn't an expired AV subscription warrant some sort of urgency being conveyed in the message?
Still, I’d bet anything you please that McAffee didn’t bother to check whether he really had their software installed. They could’ve; all it would take is the last update notify McAffee to send an upgrade offer.
But that takes more time and effort to program, and possibly decreases their income. So instead they resort to spammers’ techniques. Way to go.
As for Adobe's announcement, this is precisely why I, as a mac/linux user, was in favor of Jobs tell Adobe to go to hell. Flash has always sucked on anything non-windows, it's awful.
And I concur.
I use Mac, Linux and Windows. On Windows, Flash is rather awful. On anything else, it is unbearable.
Flash has got to be the worst piece of code since Windows Me and I for one can’t wait to see it die a quick but horrible death.
And while some Adobe fans (including some in the magazine I work in) praise Adobe and Flash and whatnot, I think Jobs’ decision to ditch Flash support is about as bold and visionary as the decision to use USB peripherals exclusively on the first iMac. That horror simply has to die, and this is the first nail in its coffin.
I just want to know what the stake through its heart will be.
First, it is not hate. It is disdain.
And competition is one thing; a rat race is another. I choose to compete on a personal level and to cooperate on a professional level. When I work, I tend to care about the final product, not climbing up and down the corporate ladder. I don’t ever want to care about it, in fact: a culture where people would take a better sounding job title before better pay, where climbing the corporate ladder is more important than the work you do, where people take pride not in their work but their title and status within the company, is not a culture I want to be a part of.
I do take pride in my work. I work well, and am valued for it at my workplace. There is virtually no room for promotion, though. However, there is little or no room for promotion in the whole company: it is a small firm, somewhat family-like, and the only seniority you get is the number of years you’ve been working there. So we do our jobs, and try to do them well. And since we’re the regional leader in our field (or niche, should you wish to put it like that), I guess we do them well indeed.
I got a 31.4% and I like to help people out when I come across someone in need. So much for needing 'empathy'.
The thing is, I think the biggest mistake in the survey is a too sloppy definition of empathy.
For instance, even though I am able to see things from someone else’s point of view, that alone does not mean I would feel sorry for their apparent misfortune. On the first count, I am empathetic; on the second, I am not. Which is all fine and dandy, but they are not the same thing. Adding them up together is apples and oranges all the way.
Understanding others’ points of view doesn’t mean accepting them. I understand the point of view of a radical Muslim or a born-again Christian, but that alone doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re complete dicks. I understand a compulsive gambler, but he’ll get no cuddly warm feelings from me along with a loan; the best he’ll get is a cab fare to the nearest asylum.
I would therefore say that the apparent decrease in empathy is a consequence of both poor planning on the researchers’ side and better overall education, where acting on our feelings is supplanted by acting upon reason.
PETA and the rest of warm, cuddly animal-saving veg(etari)an activists run on empathy. Their propaganda is a wonderful example of it. And I think it is a good thing at least some people tend not to let their thinking and actions get clouded by such things.
An Orthodox Jew teacher I once had explained that most anyone in the world could observe the kashrut (i.e. keep kosher) for their own rational reasons, but to the Jews it was commanded, so they have to do it and are better valued for it. My point of view is directly the opposite: if you do something because your religion or emotions compel you to, fine, whatever; but if you do something because you have reasonably concluded it was right, good and proper, and can argue your point, then I find that worthy of respect.
The corporate culture, such as it is, is that of a sociopath against a sociopath. Such behavior is expected, promoted and nurtured.
I would not like living in it one little bit. I do not want the stress of fending off those who are out to get me nor the effort of setting them up for failure. It seems like too large a waste of effort. And while I am and can be a complete and utter bastard, I like myself much more when I’m not being one.
I am well aware that in certain ways I will never be considered successful by the majority. I am fine with that.
After all, what I think of the majority isn’t something to be talked about during dinner.
Or in my own case look at Good Old Games where I have bought many games that would frankly be trivial to pirate. So why did I buy? Because the prices are low, they guarantee x64 support, and make it beyond simple to buy. In other words they have made their service less attractive than piracy by giving the customer what they want at acceptable prices.
You mean more attractive than piracy, I'd say.
Other than that, I wholly agree.
If you're not changing platforms frequently as a user then of course it's best to have the app consistent with other apps on that same platform.
Still - it's not like "Tools" is any kind of standard on Windows. I've seen Windows apps put preferences under View as well as under other locations (including File and Help... ).
Well, I do change platforms regularly, but this does not bother me. I also use different keyboard layouts on different platforms (Mac Croatian is QWERTY, while PC Croatian is QWERTZ, for one), but it takes very little time to adapt.
Now, if you want to bitch about the lack of standards under Windows, go right ahead; you won't get any opposition from me.
I now use a combination of Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Firefox for the general stuff, as I tend to have a million open tabs, sorted with Tree Style Tab (insert comparison with sliced bread here). Chrome I use for Flash content, and Safari out of habit for certain sites.
Firefox is getting too slow and annoying, but the extensions keep me stuck to it. Until there are stuff on other browsers like TST, a Chinese dictionary and all the other goodies I'm used to on Firefox, with Firefox I'll stay. But no longer, unless they improve.
Speaking of Linux, I wonder if they're finally going to change the menu item locations to be the same across platforms... ("Preferences..." I'm looking at you!)
There's nothing wrong here. Under Linux, you find Preferences under Edit. Under Windows, you find them under Tools. On a Mac, you find them under Firefox (or Cmd+,). The program needs to be consistent with the platform.
Xenophobic Xenu.
In other news, Ubuntu will be taken over by the Scientologists. There will be no major changes; just some web filtering. And the psychiatrist module will be dropped from Emacs, but who uses Emacs anyway?
Thanks, but it’s not as if I needed help finding it. There is an option in Avast’s preferences that turns it off. It’s just that I like my computer to keep quiet; if I want it to speak, it’ll be when I want it to.
Speaking of which, Mac’s “say” command is quite useful. (Someone else link to xkcd; I don’t need karma.);)
Teenagers are perfectly capable of understanding what sex is, and they can certainly figure out how it works. But are they capable of considering repercussions of those actions? Millions of unplanned teenage pregnancies (many of them followed by abortions or people dropping out of school, etc.) say otherwise.
Should teenagers have the freedom to send such pictures legally? Of course. But teenagers are also particularly bad at understanding long-term consequences -- like having a baby, or having your nude image plastered all over the internet because you sent it to the wrong person.
I'd warrant that teenagers would not be so bad at understanding long-term consequences if they weren't trapped in a parallel society where there are no long-term goals or consequences and if they weren't treated like children until they turn 18 at the very least.
You sure as hell *better* interfere with your 16-17 year old's sex life. Teenagers are stupid fuckers, and can get HIV or become pregnant as easily as 30-somethings.
You'd sure as hell better interfere with your 30-something-year-old's sex life. 30-something-year-olds are stupid fuckers and can get HIV as easily as teenagers. The chances of pregnancy are slightly reduced, though, but still.
Slashdot Mirror
It is said for a reason: if you are innocent, go for a bench trial; if you are guilty as hell, go for the jury and try to get their sympathy.
After I heard that in California a man was convicted of rape because he hadn’t told the Jewish girl he’d slept with he was Palestinian, I lost all faith. I am a man and by definition, apparently, guilty of rape.
Once upon a time, there were heathens.
Then there were witches and heretics.
Then there were, depending on location, communists, Jews (OK, they’ve been a target all the time), counterrevolutionaries etc.
Then there were, at least here on the Balkans, Croats, Serbs, Bosnians and Albanians. (Other regions may have to substitute some or all ethnicities.)
A witch hunt is a witch hunt is a witch hunt. The methods have remained the same (plant the evidence, then accuse; if hysteria level is high enough, skip planting the evidence), only the target of hysteria changes.
Yes, it is easy to falsely accuse someone of possessing child porn. It is also easy to falsely accuse someone of rape. Or child molestation. Or anything you please.
And every time someone is proven to have been falsely accused, I force myself to doubt all subsequent accusations a little bit more. The little boy who cried wolf does not only harm himself; he harms anyone who could ever cry wolf again.
About a decade ago, before the peak of current paedophile hysteria, I had a pen pal from Poland. A real pen pal. A girl, too. Yes, I know it sounds incredible, but there you go.
Anyway, we joked around about nude photos, so she sent me one of herself. When she was about four.
Nowadays, that kind of letter could land me in prison, given a hysterical enough judge.
Yet I don’t see the big deal anyway. I grew up in a nudist family. I am certain a number of people own my nude photos. Nude child photos, at that. I am even well aware of the risk that some paedophile, somewhere, wanks looking at my picture. And I cannot see any evil in it. In fact, if that helped that person defuse their urges, thus making them less prone to actually molest a child, good for them. And for the children left unmolested.
Not surprising, the culprit is an MCSE.
That’s Microsoft Certified Solitaire Expert, right?
Tech isn't always needed, for example, my history lectures didn't need VTC, interactive quizzes, or blogs.
As someone who rather disliked history and several other subjects in high school, I must say I would have been a bit happier with interactive quizzes and suchlike.
Then again, my best history teacher did have interactive quizzes. She’d ask questions, we’d answer, and she’d write up the score on the blackboard.
Technology doesn't always need to be used.
Precisely so.
You can be a great teacher without even resorting to old tech, such as writing. I had a teacher in my university who taught linguistics; he would seldom write anything on the blackboard, and taking notes in his class was nearly harmful: if you took your time to take notes, you could have missed an important detail.
Technology can undoubtedly be useful. One of my university teachers went to the US on a scholarship, so she would pre-record her lectures for us to attend. My Chinese teacher uses Powerpoint masterfully to give us grammar and vocabulary exercises. A friend of mine teaches physics and uses Facebook for homework.
However, teaching is an art. Technology may offer some assistance to some teachers, but forcing teachers to use technology when it is incompatible with their style seems to me an inexcusable waste of effort. And while it is true that modern students expect and want and even need a different approach to teaching, different approaches yet have to evolve. I’d even go so far as to say it is more important for students to use technology than it is for teachers. It’s the students who need it more, who are usually more comfortable with it, and who are more likely to invent some practical use for it.
It is no wonder teachers use technology mostly for housekeeping. A lot of their work is bound in red tape, which they see as a hindrance. If technology can help them deal with red tape, it is the best use they can find for it.
I don't get it ... he's complaining that an e-mail shouts "Danger Will Robbins!" because his AV subscription has expired? On Windows that's a situation to be concerned about. Of course, if he's switched security products or OS's then he doesn't care, but the vendor doesn't know that and he should out-out/unsubscribe to their notices.
The vendor doesn’t know?
Really?
How then does the vendor know that the software is still installed on his computer? It is what it says in the e-mail.
The only proper way to notify your user is through the software itself. At least in cases like this.
I'm not defending the ugly "your computer may actually be on fire Right NOW!" type of add, but doesn't an expired AV subscription warrant some sort of urgency being conveyed in the message?
Still, I’d bet anything you please that McAffee didn’t bother to check whether he really had their software installed. They could’ve; all it would take is the last update notify McAffee to send an upgrade offer.
But that takes more time and effort to program, and possibly decreases their income. So instead they resort to spammers’ techniques. Way to go.
I would add Cordwainer Smith’s The Lady Who Sailed The Soul to the list.
As for Adobe's announcement, this is precisely why I, as a mac/linux user, was in favor of Jobs tell Adobe to go to hell. Flash has always sucked on anything non-windows, it's awful.
And I concur.
I use Mac, Linux and Windows. On Windows, Flash is rather awful. On anything else, it is unbearable.
Flash has got to be the worst piece of code since Windows Me and I for one can’t wait to see it die a quick but horrible death.
And while some Adobe fans (including some in the magazine I work in) praise Adobe and Flash and whatnot, I think Jobs’ decision to ditch Flash support is about as bold and visionary as the decision to use USB peripherals exclusively on the first iMac. That horror simply has to die, and this is the first nail in its coffin.
I just want to know what the stake through its heart will be.
First, it is not hate. It is disdain.
And competition is one thing; a rat race is another. I choose to compete on a personal level and to cooperate on a professional level. When I work, I tend to care about the final product, not climbing up and down the corporate ladder. I don’t ever want to care about it, in fact: a culture where people would take a better sounding job title before better pay, where climbing the corporate ladder is more important than the work you do, where people take pride not in their work but their title and status within the company, is not a culture I want to be a part of.
I do take pride in my work. I work well, and am valued for it at my workplace. There is virtually no room for promotion, though. However, there is little or no room for promotion in the whole company: it is a small firm, somewhat family-like, and the only seniority you get is the number of years you’ve been working there. So we do our jobs, and try to do them well. And since we’re the regional leader in our field (or niche, should you wish to put it like that), I guess we do them well indeed.
I got a 31.4% and I like to help people out when I come across someone in need. So much for needing 'empathy'.
The thing is, I think the biggest mistake in the survey is a too sloppy definition of empathy.
For instance, even though I am able to see things from someone else’s point of view, that alone does not mean I would feel sorry for their apparent misfortune. On the first count, I am empathetic; on the second, I am not. Which is all fine and dandy, but they are not the same thing. Adding them up together is apples and oranges all the way.
Understanding others’ points of view doesn’t mean accepting them. I understand the point of view of a radical Muslim or a born-again Christian, but that alone doesn’t mean I don’t think they’re complete dicks. I understand a compulsive gambler, but he’ll get no cuddly warm feelings from me along with a loan; the best he’ll get is a cab fare to the nearest asylum.
I would therefore say that the apparent decrease in empathy is a consequence of both poor planning on the researchers’ side and better overall education, where acting on our feelings is supplanted by acting upon reason.
PETA and the rest of warm, cuddly animal-saving veg(etari)an activists run on empathy. Their propaganda is a wonderful example of it. And I think it is a good thing at least some people tend not to let their thinking and actions get clouded by such things.
An Orthodox Jew teacher I once had explained that most anyone in the world could observe the kashrut (i.e. keep kosher) for their own rational reasons, but to the Jews it was commanded, so they have to do it and are better valued for it. My point of view is directly the opposite: if you do something because your religion or emotions compel you to, fine, whatever; but if you do something because you have reasonably concluded it was right, good and proper, and can argue your point, then I find that worthy of respect.
The corporate culture, such as it is, is that of a sociopath against a sociopath. Such behavior is expected, promoted and nurtured.
I would not like living in it one little bit. I do not want the stress of fending off those who are out to get me nor the effort of setting them up for failure. It seems like too large a waste of effort. And while I am and can be a complete and utter bastard, I like myself much more when I’m not being one.
I am well aware that in certain ways I will never be considered successful by the majority. I am fine with that.
After all, what I think of the majority isn’t something to be talked about during dinner.
Or in my own case look at Good Old Games where I have bought many games that would frankly be trivial to pirate. So why did I buy? Because the prices are low, they guarantee x64 support, and make it beyond simple to buy. In other words they have made their service less attractive than piracy by giving the customer what they want at acceptable prices.
You mean more attractive than piracy, I'd say.
Other than that, I wholly agree.
If you're not changing platforms frequently as a user then of course it's best to have the app consistent with other apps on that same platform.
Still - it's not like "Tools" is any kind of standard on Windows. I've seen Windows apps put preferences under View as well as under other locations (including File and Help... ).
Well, I do change platforms regularly, but this does not bother me. I also use different keyboard layouts on different platforms (Mac Croatian is QWERTY, while PC Croatian is QWERTZ, for one), but it takes very little time to adapt.
Now, if you want to bitch about the lack of standards under Windows, go right ahead; you won't get any opposition from me.
I now use a combination of Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Firefox for the general stuff, as I tend to have a million open tabs, sorted with Tree Style Tab (insert comparison with sliced bread here). Chrome I use for Flash content, and Safari out of habit for certain sites.
Firefox is getting too slow and annoying, but the extensions keep me stuck to it. Until there are stuff on other browsers like TST, a Chinese dictionary and all the other goodies I'm used to on Firefox, with Firefox I'll stay. But no longer, unless they improve.
Speaking of Linux, I wonder if they're finally going to change the menu item locations to be the same across platforms... ("Preferences..." I'm looking at you!)
There's nothing wrong here. Under Linux, you find Preferences under Edit. Under Windows, you find them under Tools. On a Mac, you find them under Firefox (or Cmd+,). The program needs to be consistent with the platform.
A priest?
Xenophobic Xenu.
In other news, Ubuntu will be taken over by the Scientologists. There will be no major changes; just some web filtering. And the psychiatrist module will be dropped from Emacs, but who uses Emacs anyway?
And I once saw a Bigfoot fucking a mermaid.
I mean, since we’re telling tall tales...
I don’t know about Darwin, but I would.
Thanks, but it’s not as if I needed help finding it. There is an option in Avast’s preferences that turns it off. It’s just that I like my computer to keep quiet; if I want it to speak, it’ll be when I want it to. ;)
Speaking of which, Mac’s “say” command is quite useful. (Someone else link to xkcd; I don’t need karma.)
Teenagers are perfectly capable of understanding what sex is, and they can certainly figure out how it works. But are they capable of considering repercussions of those actions? Millions of unplanned teenage pregnancies (many of them followed by abortions or people dropping out of school, etc.) say otherwise.
Should teenagers have the freedom to send such pictures legally? Of course. But teenagers are also particularly bad at understanding long-term consequences -- like having a baby, or having your nude image plastered all over the internet because you sent it to the wrong person.
I'd warrant that teenagers would not be so bad at understanding long-term consequences if they weren't trapped in a parallel society where there are no long-term goals or consequences and if they weren't treated like children until they turn 18 at the very least.
You sure as hell *better* interfere with your 16-17 year old's sex life. Teenagers are stupid fuckers, and can get HIV or become pregnant as easily as 30-somethings.
You'd sure as hell better interfere with your 30-something-year-old's sex life. 30-something-year-olds are stupid fuckers and can get HIV as easily as teenagers. The chances of pregnancy are slightly reduced, though, but still.
I've read it. Does that count?
Yes, the registration process has been greatly simplified. If only I didn't have to dig through the options to disable voice announcements...