A geek is a side show freak that eats live animals or non food objects as part of his/her act. I'm an IT Professional and didn't spend two decades in constant study and certification to be compared to a side show act.
Why we continue to use this word to describe ourselves as professionals or accept it is beyond me. When confronted with it, I make a point of educating people who use it that it is offensive.
We really need to stop using this word. You wouldn't tell a friend you are going to refer him to your Plastic Surgery "Quack" or your Personal Injury "Shyster".
There are ways of wording it so that you are open to an *unsolicited* bid.
Tom, could you elaborate a bit? If I was to run into the situation again, I'd appreciate your insight - I may do the same thing, but I'd like to know that I at least had alternatives.
I ran into a similar situation a few years ago. I was the co-author of some add ons for the open source program Joomla! that were for the educational market - we created the apps and gave them away for free. I bought the domain "schoolastech.com" and after running it for a year or two, I received a cease and desist notice from the lawyers for large publisher of k-12 education books that has a similar sounding name (no need to start this again, as I still hold the domain!). It turns out they wanted the domain, and they weren't offering anything for it but further threats. I offered an olive branch, saying that if they would make a reasonable donation of books to an inner city school that I donated my time to on occasion, we'd shut the site down.
However I also state that while we felt that we were not infringing on their trademarks, if they wanted to pursue it further I would be very happy to publicize the fact that they were leaning on a couple of guys who wanted nothing more than to provide free tools to the people that they directly market to, and that they should consider whether it was worth it turning into a very public PR situation.
I never heard from them again, and I still own the domain. I am still left to wonder how much of this was the law firm looking to make a few bucks as opposed to the corporation itself.
Speak for yourself. Perhaps you like being referred to as a 'geek', maybe for you it's a sign of 'outsider cred'. As for me, I find it offensive and a slur.
I really have a problem with this, and maybe I'm alone in it. A "Geek" is: a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual, or a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
I am a computer professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry and a successful business owner. I find the use of "geek" to refer to me and my colleagues as highly offensive; for me it's like the N-word. And before I get flamed for hyperbole, there's a lot of despicable history and divisiveness that go with both slurs.
When are we going to stand up and stop submitting to this as 'good natured' jibes?
You're missing the point. If no accomodation is possible, like with driving a car, that doesn't stop those without handicaps from doing so. You're perfectly free to deny a man in a wheelchair a job as a construction worker.
You're kidding, right? You are *not* perfectly free to deny a man in a wheelchair, it is in fact against federal law! http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada18.html And the point wasn't that having a touchscreen was a violation, the point is that having ONLY a touchscreen is a violation - not to mention cutting off an appreciable percentage of a banks potential cleintele.
I can only believe you are joking, as the alternative is unthinkable.
I don't see any braile on my car's headlight switch, either. Just because a handicapped person can't do something because of his disability doesn't mean that nobody else can do it either; you have to make accomodations where possible.
You don't see braille on your car's headlight switch because blind people aren't legally able to drive. (Come to think of it, you don't *see* braille, you feel it..) Firstly your analogy is faulty at best, secondly making accomodations is what the braille labelled keypads are all about. They're not making accomodations for *you*; they're for blind folks.
...I have yet to encounter an ATM where the PIN entry was on the touch screen. I live in the NE US; can anyone confirm if they have actually run into ATMs where the only input device was a touch screen? - I believe (at least in the US) that this would be against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Shortly after being elected to his second full term in 1978, he was aboard a private jet that went down at Anchorage International Airport, killing his first wife, Ann.
Pollsters who use MySpace as a cross section of the public and then make generalities about their results tend to be useless as statisticians. Of course, I could be wrong but I only sampled articles in Slashdot...
A few of their SERVICE stock for a single motherboard showed signs of malware code on the embedded server management firmware. Dell reacted quickly and appropriately. You can read the forum posting that started this all here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19339458.aspx
Of course this is disturbing, but it's quite a leap to say a 'hardware trojan' is 'shipping with Dell Servers'. Once again, a good example why you should never blindly trust "anonymous posters' on Slashdot... RTFA yourself.
I can already send any data through email, so what exactly makes Wave worth my time?
Real-time collaboration.
I already have two options for this: a face to face meeting and a phone.
What's with this increased distancing we're doing to each other with technology, anyway? It's just like Facebook turning the meaning of 'friend' into some perverse economy of your status.
I thought tech was supposed to bring us together; now it seems we're using it to become more isolated from each other. I can see the application may be useful for remote, widely distributed individuals working in teams who absolutely need real time feedback - but that need is more hype than actual IMHO and Google keeps pushing Waves as if we *all* need it..NOW.
..why is it that no one has a better idea or alternative; just rants on how it won't work. I'm not saying this just to flame bait - personally I think/. has some of the most intelligent folks I've read posts from. So how about coming up with some better alternatives? I'd just like to see some of the creative and experienced people here suggest some ideas rather than just bemoan the stupidity of others.
I'd have to agree, especially from the point of web development. While I'm not a browser fanatic and use IE, FF and Opera, my tendencies are towards FF. I find it hard to fathom doing web design and development without my FF plugins. YSlow and Web Developer are indispensable to me on a daily basis.
Compatibility and open standards are not the real issue here; the real issue is who will own the lucrative ebook market.
There are two competing standards for eBooks -- one owned by Adobe and the other while not owned by Apple it is at least in a version that is the more fully developed. While Steve may not feel the need to own the eBook standard, he sure as hell doesn't want Adobe to own it, either. Flash is but collateral damage in this war. The next killer app - which Steve desperately needs to justify sales of iPads, which aren't burning the barn like the iPhone did - will be digitized books.
Slashdot Mirror
A geek is a side show freak that eats live animals or non food objects as part of his/her act. I'm an IT Professional and didn't spend two decades in constant study and certification to be compared to a side show act.
Why we continue to use this word to describe ourselves as professionals or accept it is beyond me. When confronted with it, I make a point of educating people who use it that it is offensive.
We really need to stop using this word. You wouldn't tell a friend you are going to refer him to your Plastic Surgery "Quack" or your Personal Injury "Shyster".
I don't know about you, but if I'm sitting naked on a plane I am sure I'll find something to do.
Great advice, Tom and I appreciate you sharing it. I'll definetely keep that in mind with a few other domains I have been keeping. Thanks.
There are ways of wording it so that you are open to an *unsolicited* bid.
Tom, could you elaborate a bit? If I was to run into the situation again, I'd appreciate your insight - I may do the same thing, but I'd like to know that I at least had alternatives.
Thanks
I ran into a similar situation a few years ago. I was the co-author of some add ons for the open source program Joomla! that were for the educational market - we created the apps and gave them away for free. I bought the domain "schoolastech.com" and after running it for a year or two, I received a cease and desist notice from the lawyers for large publisher of k-12 education books that has a similar sounding name (no need to start this again, as I still hold the domain!). It turns out they wanted the domain, and they weren't offering anything for it but further threats. I offered an olive branch, saying that if they would make a reasonable donation of books to an inner city school that I donated my time to on occasion, we'd shut the site down.
However I also state that while we felt that we were not infringing on their trademarks, if they wanted to pursue it further I would be very happy to publicize the fact that they were leaning on a couple of guys who wanted nothing more than to provide free tools to the people that they directly market to, and that they should consider whether it was worth it turning into a very public PR situation.
I never heard from them again, and I still own the domain. I am still left to wonder how much of this was the law firm looking to make a few bucks as opposed to the corporation itself.
Speak for yourself. Perhaps you like being referred to as a 'geek', maybe for you it's a sign of 'outsider cred'. As for me, I find it offensive and a slur.
I really have a problem with this, and maybe I'm alone in it. A "Geek" is: a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual, or a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.
I am a computer professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry and a successful business owner. I find the use of "geek" to refer to me and my colleagues as highly offensive; for me it's like the N-word. And before I get flamed for hyperbole, there's a lot of despicable history and divisiveness that go with both slurs.
When are we going to stand up and stop submitting to this as 'good natured' jibes?
You're missing the point. If no accomodation is possible, like with driving a car, that doesn't stop those without handicaps from doing so. You're perfectly free to deny a man in a wheelchair a job as a construction worker.
You're kidding, right? You are *not* perfectly free to deny a man in a wheelchair, it is in fact against federal law! http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada18.html And the point wasn't that having a touchscreen was a violation, the point is that having ONLY a touchscreen is a violation - not to mention cutting off an appreciable percentage of a banks potential cleintele.
I can only believe you are joking, as the alternative is unthinkable.
I don't see any braile on my car's headlight switch, either. Just because a handicapped person can't do something because of his disability doesn't mean that nobody else can do it either; you have to make accomodations where possible.
You don't see braille on your car's headlight switch because blind people aren't legally able to drive. (Come to think of it, you don't *see* braille, you feel it..) Firstly your analogy is faulty at best, secondly making accomodations is what the braille labelled keypads are all about. They're not making accomodations for *you*; they're for blind folks.
Buttons are tactile and can include braille. I don't know of any braille touchscreens...
...I have yet to encounter an ATM where the PIN entry was on the touch screen. I live in the NE US; can anyone confirm if they have actually run into ATMs where the only input device was a touch screen? - I believe (at least in the US) that this would be against the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Shortly after being elected to his second full term in 1978, he was aboard a private jet that went down at Anchorage International Airport, killing his first wife, Ann.
Amnesty International condemning the release of information and Verizon pushing for open networks.
Did I miss the memo that April Fools was going to run a few months late??
Or maybe that wasn't a screwdriver he was handing him....
A euphemism for "test subjects caught fire".
Pollsters who use MySpace as a cross section of the public and then make generalities about their results tend to be useless as statisticians. Of course, I could be wrong but I only sampled articles in Slashdot...
A few of their SERVICE stock for a single motherboard showed signs of malware code on the embedded server management firmware. Dell reacted quickly and appropriately. You can read the forum posting that started this all here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19339458.aspx
Of course this is disturbing, but it's quite a leap to say a 'hardware trojan' is 'shipping with Dell Servers'. Once again, a good example why you should never blindly trust "anonymous posters' on Slashdot... RTFA yourself.
Did you mean 192.168.0.1? 192.168/16 is the private address. 192.160/16 is not.
Stealth... You're doing it wrong.
I can already send any data through email, so what exactly makes Wave worth my time?
Real-time collaboration.
I already have two options for this: a face to face meeting and a phone.
What's with this increased distancing we're doing to each other with technology, anyway? It's just like Facebook turning the meaning of 'friend' into some perverse economy of your status.
I thought tech was supposed to bring us together; now it seems we're using it to become more isolated from each other. I can see the application may be useful for remote, widely distributed individuals working in teams who absolutely need real time feedback - but that need is more hype than actual IMHO and Google keeps pushing Waves as if we *all* need it..NOW.
an old WANG algorhythm...
Nothing but bait for lame "buy the President" puns and a flood of partisan counterattacks. Nice work, editors.
I knew someone would say that..
..why is it that no one has a better idea or alternative; just rants on how it won't work. I'm not saying this just to flame bait - personally I think /. has some of the most intelligent folks I've read posts from. So how about coming up with some better alternatives? I'd just like to see some of the creative and experienced people here suggest some ideas rather than just bemoan the stupidity of others.
I'd have to agree, especially from the point of web development. While I'm not a browser fanatic and use IE, FF and Opera, my tendencies are towards FF. I find it hard to fathom doing web design and development without my FF plugins. YSlow and Web Developer are indispensable to me on a daily basis.
..but thiunk about this, maybe they're just telling the roundeyes that they're "life sized models"
Compatibility and open standards are not the real issue here; the real issue is who will own the lucrative ebook market.
There are two competing standards for eBooks -- one owned by Adobe and the other while not owned by Apple it is at least in a version that is the more fully developed. While Steve may not feel the need to own the eBook standard, he sure as hell doesn't want Adobe to own it, either. Flash is but collateral damage in this war. The next killer app - which Steve desperately needs to justify sales of iPads, which aren't burning the barn like the iPhone did - will be digitized books.