...lounging on the couch with a section of the paper.
It's hard to do that with a computer. You'd worry if you spilt your coffee. And you can't trade sections with your sweetie.
I don't read the dailies much (and more often online when I do) but I am totally addicted to Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald. They have a good review of the week's news, with more in-depth articles than you get during the week.
OK, so people who can write are needed. Personally I can write. I code during the day at work. I'm also busy and I don't have time to trawl through pile of documents trying to think up a project to write something about.
So how about adding a "Coder seeks Writer" / "Writer seeks Coder" section? Match us up. We can email each other with suggestions and drafts and questions, and hopefully get stuff much better documented.
I wonder if this decline is in any way related to American feminism.
I'm serious. As a child/teenager I was deeply into science. Went to summer schools, won high scool maths competitions. Yet was told by teachers, peers, comedy shows, news, books, etc (aka "society") that real women didn't do maths and science. It was unladylike, women weren't logical etc. It was cute not to be able to balance your checkbook.
So basically I thought "fuck you" and got my physics degree (1st class homours in nuclear physics; minors in pure & applied maths, with logic and stats in there too.) And also got involved in some minor ways with the feminist movement which was at the time busy with equal pay, equal rights, anti-discrimination etc.
Excellent stuff. All humans are worthy of equal dignity. And I got to be a brave and noble pioneer. (Yes I know Ada beat me to it by a long way, but nobody told you about that back then. That sort of rediscovery was part of what the feminist movement was doing back then.)
It took about 10 years before the feminist movement seemed to be taken over by ratbags talking about how "patriarchal" logic and maths and reason were, and that women were somehow morally superior beings who didn't need that dull linear masculine style of thought.
I cannot express how utterly pissed off that makes me. And how depressing for girls now to be called unfeminine and unwomanly by so-called feminists.
It's just like prohibition - after women got the vote, the suffragists drifted off elsewhere leaving only the crackpots behind. That time it turned into the temperance movement. This time it seems to be censorship. Fuck fuck fuck.
First time I've seen this attitude expressed in real life for quite a while...
Apparently you also don't believe in maintenance, or collaboration. Or perhaps are trying for job security through indispensability. Or have no job.
This is not a perl vs python issue, either. I wish the python coders whose work I have to maintain or interface with had bothered to comment their code. It is NOT true that you don't need to comment python. Who came up with that nonsense? I keep hearing it.
As to the original post: well, I found that when I was learning I wrote those sorts of comments. And when I looked at the code 6 months later I took out the comments that explained syntax, and left the general functionality ones. Don't sweat it.
It may not be heavy duty enough for your needs, and it has the occasional bug, but the calendar works very nicely to keep our mixed workgroup of 40 assorted Linux, Windows and Mac users coordinated.
It has quite decent meeting and task scheduling. I guess you could also use Netscape mail if you liked. (Personally I just keep an Xterm open for pine).
It's hard to know where to start with this post since it is so wrong in so many ways. And the debate is nearting its end for the day, so I don't want to waste too much time saying things that are already available elsewhere.
Here are a few selected examples.
Your post is full of discrepancies!! "It would be impossible to generate a complete list, for the same reason that it is impossible to develop a blocking strategy that works." This is a loaded statement, and uses poor logic. Only so many sites are blocked by the software, it is not an infinite amount. It CAN be determined.
No, it is not infinite. That is not the same as possible. Think about the size of usenet for a moment, and its rate of growth. All the search engines there are cannot maintain a complete index. If AltaVista and Yahoo can't keep up with the size of the web and usenet, how can any individual or small organisation?
Also, you say all blocking strategies fail. Based on what criteria? Simple: they let through explicit pornongraphy and they ban innocuous sites.
I believe the common consensus is that although they do have their faults, they do in fact work rather well And your references are? I have found no evidence of this "consensus" and plenty in the other direction. Which many other people in this discussion have cited
"Some claim to have their black lists reviewed by humans. They lie. " And you would know this how... Because a) they don't have the company size required (considerably larger that Yahoo, remember) and b) they ban innocuous sites. Hence impossiblity. They do claim to do the impossible, hence the lie.
Filtering Facts -- a site recommending SurfWatch and other blocking programs for libraries
World Power Systems, an electrical engineering company
A Common Bond and Support Group for Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses -- two sites criticizing the Jehovah's Witnesses' position against homosexuality.
Jay Earley's home page, a Web site maintained by a Ph.D. psychologist
Automation 2000 -- another site about the Y2K problem
Surrogate Mothers Online, a site whose "purpose is to provide information and support to individuals who are interested in pursuing a surrogacy arrangement"
Belarus Internet Java Users Group
WorldSocialism.org -- The "World Socialist Movement". While some more conservative school districts (and parents) may want this type of site blocked, it still does not fall under any of SurfWatch's criteria (sexual explicitness, drugs, gambling, violence and hate speech).
"In fact, the number of sites wrongfully blocked is incredibly large, and kept secret. " And if it's kept a secret, you would know how...? OK, you got me for poor English. There is no number that is kept secret. The LIST is kept secret. Only NetNanny allows their blacklist to be seen. The other vendors do not.
Yes, it's all one big conspiracy, isn't it. As even the author of the article admitted, as soon as the makers of SurfWatch become aware of sites that have been blocked that didn't need to be, they unblock those sites and release it in a free update to the program. I would hardly call this a secret.
So if they are reviewing them all, how did they get blocked in the first place? Hmmmm?
The author did not claim it was a complete list. It would be impossible to generate a complete list, for the same reason that it is impossible to develop a blocking strategy that works. There is just too much out there.
Check out the censorware site in the article for reviews of the major blocking software. It all fails. Some claim to have their black lists reviewed by humans. They lie. In fact, the number of sites wrongfully blocked is incredibly large, and kept secret.
Arguably the worst way that censorware fails is that it lets an enormous amount of porn right through. So it induces a false sense of security in those who would rather not take the trouble to mind their own children.
How many people want their daughters to be cute and charming? And want their mothers to do their laundry?
I agree with the encouragement. Not with the summary advice - that assumes you treat your female relatives with respect (as buckrogers probably does). Sadly, many people don't.
I believe Guppy is right - corporations don't care who you are at all. There is no humane or personal interest there, which is at least partly why they behave so badly. They deal with numbers, (OK, consumption units), not people.
And Jon - yes, what I read buy and see is at least partly who I am, and if I read too much Ralph Nader & Noam Chomsky and watch too much John Pilger, or subscribe to the Socialist Workers Party magazine, maybe one day some bloated and poweful corporation will label me a troublemaker and cut off my internet access.
But you should not make the same mistake of depersonalising people.
Remind your pet politicians that small children need to be protected from EEEVILLL pr0n, and so all ISPs have to do lots of filtering, and everybody has to use censorware.
This not only effectively blocks out all those naughty hacker sites like geocities or yahoo, it makes running an ISP more expensive so that your big corporation can control the market. And when you control the ISPs, you can control what people post there.
If people are intimidated by flamers; that means only that. They are intimidated. Not that they don't want to do something.
I think it's quite likely that women are more intimidated by flamers than men - on the whole girls are brought up to be less self-confident and to seek external validation more than boys.
And also women are rightly worried by random flamage in Real Life. In RL someone yelling harrassing comments at you may well follow it up with aggressive behaviour. Especially if you're alone and vulnerable. Sexual comments are the worst & most dangerous.
I also think this is dumb and it sucks, but there it is. It took me about 10 seconds to figure out that on usenet a flamer isn't about to come over and point a gun at me and grab my arse. But I'm not inclined to blame others for not losing their defensive reflexes.
From the site in the article: http://www.penguins.org.au/chat/index.html
there is now a link near the top to a form for online donations by credit card. If you don't want to look at the news and chat page on the penguin site, you can go direct to https://www.penguins.org.au/medi a/helpinghand.html
Slashdot Mirror
- don't even try to use Java unless you're sure it's quite small. (I seem to be OK with small applets)
- Exit and restart every couple of hours. Check for leftover processes and kill them to get the memory back.
I'm an intensive user (web developer) so YMMV on the time needed between restarts.
...lounging on the couch with a section of the paper.
It's hard to do that with a computer. You'd worry if you spilt your coffee. And you can't trade sections with your sweetie.
I don't read the dailies much (and more often online when I do) but I am totally addicted to Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald. They have a good review of the week's news, with more in-depth articles than you get during the week.
OK, so people who can write are needed. Personally I can write. I code during the day at work. I'm also busy and I don't have time to trawl through pile of documents trying to think up a project to write something about.
So how about adding a "Coder seeks Writer" / "Writer seeks Coder" section? Match us up. We can email each other with suggestions and drafts and questions, and hopefully get stuff much better documented.
I've always assumed they were real - but hey, maybe not. If they are real, they're just proving the point, which is amazingly stupid.
/.ers out there trying to make it look like there is a problem.
Maybe there is a conspiracy of female
(Yes, Shirley, I jest. Or anyay, they haven't invited me to join...)
I wonder if this decline is in any way related to American feminism.
I'm serious. As a child/teenager I was deeply into science. Went to summer schools, won high scool maths competitions. Yet was told by teachers, peers, comedy shows, news, books, etc (aka "society") that real women didn't do maths and science. It was unladylike, women weren't logical etc. It was cute not to be able to balance your checkbook.
So basically I thought "fuck you" and got my physics degree (1st class homours in nuclear physics; minors in pure & applied maths, with logic and stats in there too.) And also got involved in some minor ways with the feminist movement which was at the time busy with equal pay, equal rights, anti-discrimination etc.
Excellent stuff. All humans are worthy of equal dignity. And I got to be a brave and noble pioneer. (Yes I know Ada beat me to it by a long way, but nobody told you about that back then. That sort of rediscovery was part of what the feminist movement was doing back then.)
It took about 10 years before the feminist movement seemed to be taken over by ratbags talking about how "patriarchal" logic and maths and reason were, and that women were somehow morally superior beings who didn't need that dull linear masculine style of thought.
I cannot express how utterly pissed off that makes me. And how depressing for girls now to be called unfeminine and unwomanly by so-called feminists.
It's just like prohibition - after women got the vote, the suffragists drifted off elsewhere leaving only the crackpots behind. That time it turned into the temperance movement. This time it seems to be censorship. Fuck fuck fuck.
Ah, what joy, if only the code I'm working on had docstrings...
BTW, there is Perldoc too. Once again you can choose to do good or evil in either language...
WaaaH! I WANNA PYTHON!
Sod the boring jewelry, give me something animate and interesting that will scare Mormons and eat cockroaches...
First time I've seen this attitude expressed in real life for quite a while...
Apparently you also don't believe in maintenance, or collaboration. Or perhaps are trying for job security through indispensability. Or have no job.
This is not a perl vs python issue, either. I wish the python coders whose work I have to maintain or interface with had bothered to comment their code.
It is NOT true that you don't need to comment python. Who came up with that nonsense? I keep hearing it.
As to the original post: well, I found that when I was learning I wrote those sorts of comments. And when I looked at the code 6 months later I took out the comments that explained syntax, and left the general functionality ones. Don't sweat it.
Re point 3:
It may not be heavy duty enough for your needs, and it has the occasional bug, but the calendar works very nicely to keep our mixed workgroup of 40 assorted Linux, Windows and Mac users coordinated.
It has quite decent meeting and task scheduling. I guess you could also use Netscape mail if you liked. (Personally I just keep an Xterm open for pine).
Hey. It's funny. And kinda cool in a daft way. And slashdot has always had articles like this.
It's nothing to do with VALinux. It is entirely to do with CmdrTaco's sense of humour.
Lighten up.
It's hard to know where to start with this post since it is so wrong in so many ways. And the debate is nearting its end for the day, so I don't want to waste too much time saying things that are already available elsewhere.
Here are a few selected examples.
Your post is full of discrepancies!! "It would be impossible to generate a complete list, for the same reason that it is impossible to develop a blocking strategy that works." This is a loaded statement, and uses poor logic. Only so many sites are blocked by the software, it is not an infinite amount. It CAN be determined.No, it is not infinite. That is not the same as possible. Think about the size of usenet for a moment, and its rate of growth. All the search engines there are cannot maintain a complete index. If AltaVista and Yahoo can't keep up with the size of the web and usenet, how can any individual or small organisation?
Also, you say all blocking strategies fail. Based on what criteria? Simple: they let through explicit pornongraphy and they ban innocuous sites.
I believe the common consensus is that although they do have their faults, they do in fact work rather well And your references are? I have found no evidence of this "consensus" and plenty in the other direction. Which many other people in this discussion have cited
"Some claim to have their black lists reviewed by humans. They lie. " And you would know this how... Because a) they don't have the company size required (considerably larger that Yahoo, remember) and b) they ban innocuous sites. Hence impossiblity. They do claim to do the impossible, hence the lie.
Here is SurfWatch claiming to do the impossible: http://www1.surfwatch.com/about/body-filter.html
Here are some sites they blocked (Source here):
- Filtering Facts -- a site recommending SurfWatch and other blocking programs for libraries
- World Power Systems, an electrical engineering company
- A Common Bond and Support Group for Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses -- two sites criticizing the Jehovah's Witnesses' position against homosexuality.
- Jay Earley's home page, a Web site maintained by a Ph.D. psychologist
- Automation 2000 -- another site about the Y2K problem
- Surrogate Mothers Online, a site whose "purpose is to provide information and support to individuals who are interested in pursuing a surrogacy arrangement"
- Belarus Internet Java Users Group
- WorldSocialism.org -- The "World Socialist Movement". While some more conservative school districts (and parents) may want this type of site blocked, it still does not fall under any of SurfWatch's criteria (sexual explicitness, drugs, gambling, violence and hate speech).
"In fact, the number of sites wrongfully blocked is incredibly large, and kept secret. " And if it's kept a secret, you would know how...? OK, you got me for poor English. There is no number that is kept secret. The LIST is kept secret. Only NetNanny allows their blacklist to be seen. The other vendors do not.Yes, it's all one big conspiracy, isn't it. As even the author of the article admitted, as soon as the makers of SurfWatch become aware of sites that have been blocked that didn't need to be, they unblock those sites and release it in a free update to the program. I would hardly call this a secret.
So if they are reviewing them all, how did they get blocked in the first place? Hmmmm?
As a final little amusement, have a play with this site: http://www.prairie-dog.net/filtering.htm and best of all, check this link for collateral damage for sites that would get censored. Unfortunately the author doesn't say the source for the word list. I've seen it before; it is one of the popular censorware products, but I have no time to look it up now - I'm runnning late...
That was a small list to illustrate the point.
The author did not claim it was a complete list. It would be impossible to generate a complete list, for the same reason that it is impossible to develop a blocking strategy that works. There is just too much out there.
Check out the censorware site in the article for reviews of the major blocking software. It all fails. Some claim to have their black lists reviewed by humans. They lie. In fact, the number of sites wrongfully blocked is incredibly large, and kept secret.
Arguably the worst way that censorware fails is that it lets an enormous amount of porn right through. So it induces a false sense of security in those who would rather not take the trouble to mind their own children.
An excellent further reference is PeaceFire
Check their "blocked site of the day" link. Today it is "The Blind Children's Center of Los Angeles". Dangerous stuff...
They also have links to reviews of most blocking software products.
Because they are blocking other things that are not pornography. Such as information on breast cancer, for one.
Why did you ask? Didn't you read the article?
... on how you'd treat your mother & daughter.
How many people want their daughters to be cute and charming? And want their mothers to do their laundry?
I agree with the encouragement. Not with the summary advice - that assumes you treat your female relatives with respect (as buckrogers probably does). Sadly, many people don't.
Some of us have thicker skins that that.
Oh, wait. I guess we're already here. If you want more, maybe you will need to cater more for the easilt intimidated...
PS can I have Ewan McGregor naked and petrified please?
Very interesting points on both sides.
I believe Guppy is right - corporations don't care who you are at all. There is no humane or personal interest there, which is at least partly why they behave so badly. They deal with numbers, (OK, consumption units), not people.
And Jon - yes, what I read buy and see is at least partly who I am, and if I read too much Ralph Nader & Noam Chomsky and watch too much John Pilger, or subscribe to the Socialist Workers Party magazine, maybe one day some bloated and poweful corporation will label me a troublemaker and cut off my internet access.
But you should not make the same mistake of depersonalising people.
Remind your pet politicians that small children need to be protected from EEEVILLL pr0n, and so all ISPs have to do lots of filtering, and everybody has to use censorware.
This not only effectively blocks out all those naughty hacker sites like geocities or yahoo, it makes running an ISP more expensive so that your big corporation can control the market. And when you control the ISPs, you can control what people post there.
No worries, mate.
Through the magic of timezones, little grasshopper.
Oh, that one's not fair at all.
If people are intimidated by flamers; that means only that. They are intimidated. Not that they don't want to do something.
I think it's quite likely that women are more intimidated by flamers than men - on the whole girls are brought up to be less self-confident and to seek external validation more than boys.
And also women are rightly worried by random flamage in Real Life. In RL someone yelling harrassing comments at you may well follow it up with aggressive behaviour. Especially if you're alone and vulnerable. Sexual comments are the worst & most dangerous.
I also think this is dumb and it sucks, but there it is. It took me about 10 seconds to figure out that on usenet a flamer isn't about to come over and point a gun at me and grab my arse. But I'm not inclined to blame others for not losing their defensive reflexes.
Yeah, true, _now_ - but think history, man.
She was an actress in the 1930s-50s, and that's what they said back then.
Not sure where I read this, but PTerry did an interview in which he said he'd never, Never, NEVER again work with Neil Gaiman.
Not that he dislikes Neil, or disrespects him - just that their working styles and personalities were so utterly irreconsilable.
Sure they do. But that's no reason not to help the penguins.
Do you have any specific suggestions for helping people, or were you just having a whinge?
The Hunger Site is a good one for lazy geeks.
From the site in the article:
http://www.penguins.org.au/chat/index.html
there is now a link near the top to a form for online donations by credit card. If you don't want to look at the news and chat page on the penguin site, you can go direct to
https://www.penguins.org.au/medi a/helpinghand.html
Ah. Thanks. I understand now.
Actually it's Thursday here, but who am I to criticise...
My scripts didn't break.
No further comment.