So glad you pointed that out. I'm Jewish, and consider myself religious, but I in no way believe the world was created in 6 days, and have never been taught that this is a literal story of the creation of the world.
It reminds me of a question and answer panel I attended with 3 rabbis, one reform, one conservative, and one orthodox. The orthodox rabbi, an elderly gentleman in his early 80's, was asked how he felt about the difference in the Hebrew calendar (which supposedly counts years from creation) and the scientifically accepted age of the earth and how he reconciled that with his religious beliefs. His response: "Do you really think that I believe the world is 6000 years old?".
This is one reason I dislike the term Judeo-Christian. No offense to christians, it's just an inaccurate term in my opinion. There are more differences in philosophy and how the world is viewed than there are similarities, especially amongst the evangelicals.
So, by your logic, intolerance is unavoidable then?
If I am of one particular religion, I am intolerant of every other religion because, by professing faith in my religion, I'm saying the others are wrong.
If I choose to be an atheist, I'm intolerant of most every religious person, since, by being an atheist I am saying their belief in a deity is wrong.
I think you are confusing intolerance with disagreement. One can tolerate something or someone without being in agreement.
Maybe not upon release, but sometime down the line when the price drops (after Playstation 4 is released) someone might actually pick up an extra console. I guess. Maybe.
By that same philosophy, if you get cancer, you shouldn't seek treatment because, apparantly, God wants you to die or you wouldn't have gotten cancer (or some other life-threatening disease) in the first place. After all, the world is already overpopulated, so instead of spending thousands of dollars researching and treating diseases, we should just allow the sick to die, as God intended.
Yeah, I agree, I don't think they're shy about carding for stupid items. I was carded once for buying pipe cleaners. They treated it as a tobacco product. Even the cashier thought it was stupid (the computer prompted her to check my id when the pipe cleaners were scanned.)
Now, if you were Feynman material, we could find it in our hearts to forgive you.
I hope you meant "I" and "my" instead of "we" and "our". If you're going to be anonymous, don't also be presumptuous. I forgive the parent for his grave sins.
I remember reading something a short while back (might've been on Slashdot) about a study to determine ways language changes the way we think and perceive the world. I can't remember all the details, but it was someting like this: the more words for specific colors in a language actually had the effect of causing people to be able differentiate between colors. For example language A had one word for all shades of green, so speakers of language A had a difficult time noticing that two objects of two different shades of green were in fact not the exact same color, where speakers of language B had no such difficulty.
Language is indeed an interesting monster, and goes beyond just communication.
Absolutely, especially parent apathy. When I was in school, I really didn't give a damn about grades or studying. I didn't see the importance at the time. My parents sure did though, and they made damn sure I at least put forth the effort. I'm glad they did, and I now (in my 30's) definitely understand the importance of an education and owe a great deal of thanks to my parents for not being my friend, and actually doing some parenting. Thanks to them, I buckled down in college (I'd saw the light by then).
I've seen smart kids (nephews, friends' children) fail simply because lack of discipline from the parents. And of course, along with that lack of discipline comes the sense of entitlement you mentioned. Without support from the parents, the teachers' hands are pretty much tied. If mom and dad don't say I have to do this crap, why should I listen to Mr. Teacherman?
My brother recently allowed his son to drop out of high school because he said "he just isn't cut out for school." This poor kid had absolutely no encouragement from home, and the parents (my brother and his wife) would even go so far to argue with school officials and get school imposed punishments (detentions, etc.) removed. They even shopped around for doctors that would find a medical reason why he did so poorly, aiming for ADD. Amazingly, they were unable to find one. The boy faced no consequences for not doing homework, ditching school, or disrupting class at all. And he knew it. I for one, do NOT believe there is anything wrong with the boy (and my brother and his wife are the only people in my family that do) other than not being held responsible for his own actions.
I don't know. I live in America too, and I see road signs like "No thru street" or "no thru traffic" all the time, probably to save space on the sign. Unless "thru" is an actual word in this context and I just don't have a large enough vocabulary.
Other than the signs though, I agree, "thru" is not accepted as standard spelling in American English. At least not yet.
Agreed, training is an all too often overlooked aspect of user problems (and it is the company's responsibility to provide that training). My point in my original post was this particular person was not only highly trained (he holds Masters degree in Computer Science) but was the one doing the training for new users. As I stated, I do not serve as tech support for my company (I'm a developer) and am not required to help users with desktop support issues. In fact, developers are discouraged from doing so, not because we're somehow "better", but because it's not our job. I also am not responsible, nor do I have the authority or time alotted to train users in anything except applications we develop in-house (there are others, such as the co-worker in my original post that are tasked with general user training). Furthermore, my being a developer means I am specialized in development tools and oftentimes the users know more (sometime much more) about some of the applications they use day to day, so I would not be much use to them in that aspect. I, for instance, am not an expert in MS Office applications, therefore, unless it's something relatively simple, am not much help with Office related problems.
Also, in this particular case, there was no reason the extensions needed to be there at all for the task he was performing, which was copying files off a cd into a directory on a server. He simply wanted them there for whatever reason. He spent a great deal of time and effort changing these files, and was angry that someone had gotten on "his" server and removed them (which is when he finally came to me to see if I knew who removed them).
I absolutely agree arrogant IT staff can be a big problem, especially in tech support, and regret I came accross that way. Believe me, I do not equate lack of training to level of intelligence. But this was not an example of a poorly trained user.
And for the record, the phrase "stupid user" was not in my original post.
Yeah, and maybe had I actually designed said UI, I would deserve such contempt, and had "this guy" not actually been charged with teachingnew users how to usesaid UI, you may have a point. I have never been accused of being an "arrogant" by anyone I have worked with, but it's great to see somebody with such insight being able to gleam that off of a single post.
As far as the esteem my collegue holds me in, we work together every day, and he has not been shy of coming to me for help (although I do not work in a tech/desktop support capacity), exaclty because I understand every user doesn't need to know everything about a computer, and this lack of knowledge does not make one stupid. We both respect and even like on another.
I undestand one doesn't have to know how to rebuild a transmission to be able to drive a car, but I would hope if one taught an introductory course in automotive mechanics, he'd at the very least know how to pump gas.
Just a couple of months ago, I had a co-worker come in and complain that one of the machines (windows) he was working on had the file extensions removed from all the files, so he went in and renamed around 100 files so that they would have the proper extensions, but soon found this tiresome. He asked me if there was a reason the file extensions were gone and if I had a quick fix so he wouldn't have to rename the files. I went to the machine, went to folder options, unchecked the "hide extensions for known file types" and voila! a directory full of files with names like "filename.doc.doc" or "something.pdf.pdf". Of course now he had to go through and rename all the files again. To top it off, this guy teaches an "intro to computers" class at the Army base we work on.
Wow, does nobody understand his point? He's not a windows fanboy, he openly admits he doesn't know Linux well enough to use it properly.
His point is, for those who either won't read the whole post or simply cannot comprehend, that it is just as wrong for him to BLAME Linux for his lack of knowledge as it is for some that BLAME Windows for their lack of knowledge.
He's not REALLY saying Windows is better than Linux (nor is he saying Linux is better than Windows). He was just making a (valid) point.
Did Bill shoot your mother? MS business practices are not any worse than many others, and I'm sure people being helped by Bill's charity donations don't give a damn about drm, anti-trust, or any of ms business practices as long as they have a roof over their head. The way I see it, most people just can't stand to say anything positive about Gates, regardless of what he does. He could give away his entire fortune and vow a life of poverty and still be tagged evil. Yeah, sure, Gates and MS have been party to questionable practices, but comparing that to shooting someone's mother in the face, is a bit of a stretch.
It depends on what one believes "image of God" means. Jewish belief is God is without physical form at all, so "image of God" doesn't mean "looks like God" to most Jews and when the Bible mentioins physical attributes of God, it's simply metaphorical. Perhaps it's meant man is a sentient being, making him different from animals in that he is aware of his own existence and can do the very thing Hawking and others do: study and at least attempt to understand the universe around them. None of this means man cannot evolve physically over time, just like every other form of life on earth, or no longer be in the image of God.
Hell, forget comic books, plain old novels can dominate some people's time. My wife has been known to read for 12 hours straight, foregoing sleep, to finish a good book. The only reason she stops is because she runs out of pages. Where's the detox center for that?
Mapquest has given me directions to go the wrong way on a one way street and Google maps has sent me down back woods roads just off the main interstate. I typically don't trust computer generated driving directions and use them as a rough guide only, not as a literal algorithm of my trip.
Slashdot Mirror
So glad you pointed that out. I'm Jewish, and consider myself religious, but I in no way believe the world was created in 6 days, and have never been taught that this is a literal story of the creation of the world. It reminds me of a question and answer panel I attended with 3 rabbis, one reform, one conservative, and one orthodox. The orthodox rabbi, an elderly gentleman in his early 80's, was asked how he felt about the difference in the Hebrew calendar (which supposedly counts years from creation) and the scientifically accepted age of the earth and how he reconciled that with his religious beliefs. His response: "Do you really think that I believe the world is 6000 years old?". This is one reason I dislike the term Judeo-Christian. No offense to christians, it's just an inaccurate term in my opinion. There are more differences in philosophy and how the world is viewed than there are similarities, especially amongst the evangelicals.
Isn't that cruel and unusual punishment?
Wasn't Joseph Stalin an atheist? Granted, that's just one example.
So, by your logic, intolerance is unavoidable then?
If I am of one particular religion, I am intolerant of every other religion because, by professing faith in my religion, I'm saying the others are wrong.
If I choose to be an atheist, I'm intolerant of most every religious person, since, by being an atheist I am saying their belief in a deity is wrong.
I think you are confusing intolerance with disagreement. One can tolerate something or someone without being in agreement.
Actually, I think that's 2 seperate icons. The hat, briefcase, and cellphone are the "Business" icon. The alt text for the IBM logo is "IBM".
Maybe not upon release, but sometime down the line when the price drops (after Playstation 4 is released) someone might actually pick up an extra console. I guess. Maybe.
Think of all the un-opened jars and spiders running amok.
By that same philosophy, if you get cancer, you shouldn't seek treatment because, apparantly, God wants you to die or you wouldn't have gotten cancer (or some other life-threatening disease) in the first place. After all, the world is already overpopulated, so instead of spending thousands of dollars researching and treating diseases, we should just allow the sick to die, as God intended.
Yeah, I agree, I don't think they're shy about carding for stupid items. I was carded once for buying pipe cleaners. They treated it as a tobacco product. Even the cashier thought it was stupid (the computer prompted her to check my id when the pipe cleaners were scanned.)
. . . cookies or biscuits, aluminum or aluminium, elevator or lift. . .
Interesting post.
I remember reading something a short while back (might've been on Slashdot) about a study to determine ways language changes the way we think and perceive the world. I can't remember all the details, but it was someting like this: the more words for specific colors in a language actually had the effect of causing people to be able differentiate between colors. For example language A had one word for all shades of green, so speakers of language A had a difficult time noticing that two objects of two different shades of green were in fact not the exact same color, where speakers of language B had no such difficulty.
Language is indeed an interesting monster, and goes beyond just communication.
Damned dictionary.com!
It seems "thru" is as yet still informal but, nevertheless, is accepted. I stand corrected!
Absolutely, especially parent apathy. When I was in school, I really didn't give a damn about grades or studying. I didn't see the importance at the time. My parents sure did though, and they made damn sure I at least put forth the effort. I'm glad they did, and I now (in my 30's) definitely understand the importance of an education and owe a great deal of thanks to my parents for not being my friend, and actually doing some parenting. Thanks to them, I buckled down in college (I'd saw the light by then).
I've seen smart kids (nephews, friends' children) fail simply because lack of discipline from the parents. And of course, along with that lack of discipline comes the sense of entitlement you mentioned. Without support from the parents, the teachers' hands are pretty much tied. If mom and dad don't say I have to do this crap, why should I listen to Mr. Teacherman?
My brother recently allowed his son to drop out of high school because he said "he just isn't cut out for school." This poor kid had absolutely no encouragement from home, and the parents (my brother and his wife) would even go so far to argue with school officials and get school imposed punishments (detentions, etc.) removed. They even shopped around for doctors that would find a medical reason why he did so poorly, aiming for ADD. Amazingly, they were unable to find one. The boy faced no consequences for not doing homework, ditching school, or disrupting class at all. And he knew it. I for one, do NOT believe there is anything wrong with the boy (and my brother and his wife are the only people in my family that do) other than not being held responsible for his own actions.
I don't know. I live in America too, and I see road signs like "No thru street" or "no thru traffic" all the time, probably to save space on the sign. Unless "thru" is an actual word in this context and I just don't have a large enough vocabulary. Other than the signs though, I agree, "thru" is not accepted as standard spelling in American English. At least not yet.
Agreed, training is an all too often overlooked aspect of user problems (and it is the company's responsibility to provide that training). My point in my original post was this particular person was not only highly trained (he holds Masters degree in Computer Science) but was the one doing the training for new users. As I stated, I do not serve as tech support for my company (I'm a developer) and am not required to help users with desktop support issues. In fact, developers are discouraged from doing so, not because we're somehow "better", but because it's not our job. I also am not responsible, nor do I have the authority or time alotted to train users in anything except applications we develop in-house (there are others, such as the co-worker in my original post that are tasked with general user training). Furthermore, my being a developer means I am specialized in development tools and oftentimes the users know more (sometime much more) about some of the applications they use day to day, so I would not be much use to them in that aspect. I, for instance, am not an expert in MS Office applications, therefore, unless it's something relatively simple, am not much help with Office related problems.
Also, in this particular case, there was no reason the extensions needed to be there at all for the task he was performing, which was copying files off a cd into a directory on a server. He simply wanted them there for whatever reason. He spent a great deal of time and effort changing these files, and was angry that someone had gotten on "his" server and removed them (which is when he finally came to me to see if I knew who removed them).
I absolutely agree arrogant IT staff can be a big problem, especially in tech support, and regret I came accross that way. Believe me, I do not equate lack of training to level of intelligence. But this was not an example of a poorly trained user.
And for the record, the phrase "stupid user" was not in my original post.
Yeah, and maybe had I actually designed said UI, I would deserve such contempt, and had "this guy" not actually been charged with teaching new users how to use said UI, you may have a point. I have never been accused of being an "arrogant" by anyone I have worked with, but it's great to see somebody with such insight being able to gleam that off of a single post.
As far as the esteem my collegue holds me in, we work together every day, and he has not been shy of coming to me for help (although I do not work in a tech/desktop support capacity), exaclty because I understand every user doesn't need to know everything about a computer, and this lack of knowledge does not make one stupid. We both respect and even like on another.
I undestand one doesn't have to know how to rebuild a transmission to be able to drive a car, but I would hope if one taught an introductory course in automotive mechanics, he'd at the very least know how to pump gas.
Just a couple of months ago, I had a co-worker come in and complain that one of the machines (windows) he was working on had the file extensions removed from all the files, so he went in and renamed around 100 files so that they would have the proper extensions, but soon found this tiresome. He asked me if there was a reason the file extensions were gone and if I had a quick fix so he wouldn't have to rename the files. I went to the machine, went to folder options, unchecked the "hide extensions for known file types" and voila! a directory full of files with names like "filename.doc.doc" or "something.pdf.pdf". Of course now he had to go through and rename all the files again. To top it off, this guy teaches an "intro to computers" class at the Army base we work on.
Wow, does nobody understand his point? He's not a windows fanboy, he openly admits he doesn't know Linux well enough to use it properly. His point is, for those who either won't read the whole post or simply cannot comprehend, that it is just as wrong for him to BLAME Linux for his lack of knowledge as it is for some that BLAME Windows for their lack of knowledge. He's not REALLY saying Windows is better than Linux (nor is he saying Linux is better than Windows). He was just making a (valid) point.
Did Bill shoot your mother? MS business practices are not any worse than many others, and I'm sure people being helped by Bill's charity donations don't give a damn about drm, anti-trust, or any of ms business practices as long as they have a roof over their head. The way I see it, most people just can't stand to say anything positive about Gates, regardless of what he does. He could give away his entire fortune and vow a life of poverty and still be tagged evil. Yeah, sure, Gates and MS have been party to questionable practices, but comparing that to shooting someone's mother in the face, is a bit of a stretch.
Very well put, and I think you had it spot on with our "inflated sense of self-importance". I'd mod you up if I could.
Why was parent modded troll???
It depends on what one believes "image of God" means. Jewish belief is God is without physical form at all, so "image of God" doesn't mean "looks like God" to most Jews and when the Bible mentioins physical attributes of God, it's simply metaphorical. Perhaps it's meant man is a sentient being, making him different from animals in that he is aware of his own existence and can do the very thing Hawking and others do: study and at least attempt to understand the universe around them. None of this means man cannot evolve physically over time, just like every other form of life on earth, or no longer be in the image of God.
Hell, forget comic books, plain old novels can dominate some people's time. My wife has been known to read for 12 hours straight, foregoing sleep, to finish a good book. The only reason she stops is because she runs out of pages. Where's the detox center for that?
Mapquest has given me directions to go the wrong way on a one way street and Google maps has sent me down back woods roads just off the main interstate. I typically don't trust computer generated driving directions and use them as a rough guide only, not as a literal algorithm of my trip.