How do we know that this person was part of Al Qaeda? Because the Bush administration says so?
If he isn't part of a foreign army, what recourse does he have?
This isn't an academic exercise. There are reports that a dozen or so Kuwaiti nationals, who were in Afghanistan doing Peace Corps-type work, are currently incarcerated in Camp X-Ray as suspected members of Al Qaeda. Diplomacy has thus far failed, and they can't even talk to a lawyer in order to clear their names.
Now, I agree in principle: if someone is a part of Al Qaeda, they should be locked up. Hell, as far as I'm concerned, they should be torn to pieces and thrown to the sharks. The tricky part is establishing who's actually in Al Qaeda and who isn't.
The thing about this that really stinks is that the Bush administration basically has carte blanche to lock up anyone they want, as an "enemy combatant." Who's to say they won't do this to particularly vocal political dissidents, such as antiwar or environmental activists, or militias?
This is a classic fencing tactic called feinting: you pretend that your attack is in one place (on the PR front) and cause your opponent to react, thus opening them up for an attack in another place (the Technology front). We're very good at generating our own PR. Now we have to respond to the technology threat of Palladium, or kiss all compatibility with the Microsoft world (even at the web and email level) goodbye.
I have a handcoded html resume since I am a web designer. However, most of the headhunter type firms request Microsoft word format so that they can make edits and then send them to companies. HTML or PDF is fine if you are going to send resumes on your own, but.doc is necessary if you want to go through employment firms.
Every headhunter I've worked with has been able to copy my resume from their web browser and paste it to a Word document. At least, they've stated as much.
One other note. Many companies that I have seen advertise jobs also specify Word format. If you send them HTML or PDF, you do not look as good as if you actually complied with their request.
This is a problem, I agree. However, I've gotten interviews with companies that specified Word format, after sending them an HTML document instead. When I explained that this was because I ran Linux at home and would have trouble with Word format for this reason, the HR person seemed understanding enough. It also helped slightly that the HTML was hand-coded. YMMV, as always.
I agree that we have to see if Gaak does this again. If it does do it again, however, then that means that Gaak has formed an interesting rule: the best way to survive the game is not to play. That strikes me as a pretty big research result; how big depends upon the robot's architechture.
If a boycott is good when we do it (don't buy MS, they're scum) why is a boycott bad when Walmart does it? It's a fundamentally democratic action, it's spending your money on products you wish to support.
I think you may be comparing apples to oranges. In the former case, you're talking about individual customers (thousands or millions of individuals) making the choice. In the latter case, you're talking about a few Wal-mart employees (the people who decide what products go on the shelves) making the choice. In fact, you may even find that Wal-mart's relatively few decision makers have significantly greater power than all but the largest grass-roots efforts. This does not strike me as democratic, at least not strictly speaking.
Respectfully, you are downplaying Wal-Mart's influence.
They don't just dictate what goes on the magazine covers; sometimes they dictate what goes in the magazine itself.
They don't just change the album covers; they sometimes change the lyrics, censor lyrics (excuse me, "make distribution of the album conditional upon a change of lyrics"), or remove songs entirely.
Don't even get me started on the whole women's health thing.
In a lot of very real ways, Wal-mart doesn't just offer consumers a choice, it determines what consumers can choose, in and out of its stores. Is this what capitalism is meant to support?
It's not like cars where they've been around since your grandfather was a child.
You don't actually know that. A fifteen or twenty year old Slashdotter could have a fourty year old mom or dad and a sixty year old granddad.. putting ol' granddad's childhood right about the dawn of the computer age.
But that's me being anal about terms; it's obvioiusly true that personal computers were not around, or in widespread use, during the childhood of anyone old enough to be the grandfather of a slashdotter. And even if they were, the user interfaces have changed a lot in the last twenty years.
Now that you mention it, it is kinda cool that a "cheap" UNIX box has seen a ten fold drop in price, a ten fold increase in processor speed, a thousand fold increase in storage, a twenty fold increase in memory, and a huge leap in user friendliness, since I went looking for one back in 1991.
A Mandrake user who installs Ximian GNOME on their computer can upgrade their machine automatically using Red Carpet. I'm 90% sure that this includes necessary Mandrake upgrades.
I own a copy of these (actually, they're old, paper back, knock-off copies). These are great algorithms books, but the first volume is almost totally inpenetrable for me; I got more mileage out of Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et. al. Maybe it's because I'm too math-oriented; maybe it's because I'm a total retard. Each seems to me as likely a better explanation as the other.
I guess what I'm asking is this: I'm working on one job, which doesn't eat up a lot of my resources and energy; in order to keep some of my skills sharp, I work on open-source software and do some moonlighting. Do the skills that I use to write OSS get considered if I put them on my resume? How about skills that I use while moonlighting?
And fyi, no, there isn't a regular job out there that matches my skill set better. I looked for a long time to find one, and I'm goddamn glad to get the one I have now instead.
This book is still handy if you're learning how to use Delphi (for Windows) or its (in some versions, GPL'd) cousin Kylix (for Linux). There are a lot of differences between the Pascal of Oh! Pascal and the Pascal of Delphi/Kylix (e.g., Pascal proper does not have objects), but the core is still Pascal. There are employers out there who look for Pascal skills.
And of course, there's always the Free Pascal compiler, which only supports some of the syntactical candy of Delphi/Kylix.
What kind of consideration do HR persons, hiring for programmers, give to people who work on open-source software? How about persons who moonlight as consultants? Anyone know?
If it's such a "simple minded view", then why did the US Congress write a bill legalizing an invasion of the Netherlands in case the proposed International Court tries to hold American citizens for war crimes?
Actually, considering the persons who wrote the bill (Tom DeLay, among others), that only reinforces the case that it's a simple-minded view.
I don't like the World Court either, because it's lacking such principles as trial-by-jury and habeas corpus. But giving the President carte blanchenever strikes me as a good idea.
Slashdot Mirror
How do we know that this person was part of Al Qaeda? Because the Bush administration says so?
If he isn't part of a foreign army, what recourse does he have?
This isn't an academic exercise. There are reports that a dozen or so Kuwaiti nationals, who were in Afghanistan doing Peace Corps-type work, are currently incarcerated in Camp X-Ray as suspected members of Al Qaeda. Diplomacy has thus far failed, and they can't even talk to a lawyer in order to clear their names.
Now, I agree in principle: if someone is a part of Al Qaeda, they should be locked up. Hell, as far as I'm concerned, they should be torn to pieces and thrown to the sharks. The tricky part is establishing who's actually in Al Qaeda and who isn't.
The thing about this that really stinks is that the Bush administration basically has carte blanche to lock up anyone they want, as an "enemy combatant." Who's to say they won't do this to particularly vocal political dissidents, such as antiwar or environmental activists, or militias?
Yep, slashdotted. The GNOME.org sysadmins are popping the Tums right about now...
Wil? You there? Does your employment contract with Paramount allow you to geek out on this topic?
This is a classic fencing tactic called feinting: you pretend that your attack is in one place (on the PR front) and cause your opponent to react, thus opening them up for an attack in another place (the Technology front). We're very good at generating our own PR. Now we have to respond to the technology threat of Palladium, or kiss all compatibility with the Microsoft world (even at the web and email level) goodbye.
It might soon.
Hope this helps.
Every headhunter I've worked with has been able to copy my resume from their web browser and paste it to a Word document. At least, they've stated as much.
This is a problem, I agree. However, I've gotten interviews with companies that specified Word format, after sending them an HTML document instead. When I explained that this was because I ran Linux at home and would have trouble with Word format for this reason, the HR person seemed understanding enough. It also helped slightly that the HTML was hand-coded. YMMV, as always.
Seinfeld is comedy?
I agree that we have to see if Gaak does this again. If it does do it again, however, then that means that Gaak has formed an interesting rule: the best way to survive the game is not to play. That strikes me as a pretty big research result; how big depends upon the robot's architechture.
If a boycott is good when we do it (don't buy MS, they're scum) why is a boycott bad when Walmart does it? It's a fundamentally democratic action, it's spending your money on products you wish to support.
I think you may be comparing apples to oranges. In the former case, you're talking about individual customers (thousands or millions of individuals) making the choice. In the latter case, you're talking about a few Wal-mart employees (the people who decide what products go on the shelves) making the choice. In fact, you may even find that Wal-mart's relatively few decision makers have significantly greater power than all but the largest grass-roots efforts. This does not strike me as democratic, at least not strictly speaking.
Respectfully, you are downplaying Wal-Mart's influence.
They don't just dictate what goes on the magazine covers; sometimes they dictate what goes in the magazine itself.
They don't just change the album covers; they sometimes change the lyrics, censor lyrics (excuse me, "make distribution of the album conditional upon a change of lyrics"), or remove songs entirely.
Don't even get me started on the whole women's health thing.
In a lot of very real ways, Wal-mart doesn't just offer consumers a choice, it determines what consumers can choose, in and out of its stores. Is this what capitalism is meant to support?
It's not like cars where they've been around since your grandfather was a child.
You don't actually know that. A fifteen or twenty year old Slashdotter could have a fourty year old mom or dad and a sixty year old granddad .. putting ol' granddad's childhood right about the dawn of the computer age.
But that's me being anal about terms; it's obvioiusly true that personal computers were not around, or in widespread use, during the childhood of anyone old enough to be the grandfather of a slashdotter. And even if they were, the user interfaces have changed a lot in the last twenty years.
Excuse me .. I should have said, a 90% drop in price. My mistake.
Now that you mention it, it is kinda cool that a "cheap" UNIX box has seen a ten fold drop in price, a ten fold increase in processor speed, a thousand fold increase in storage, a twenty fold increase in memory, and a huge leap in user friendliness, since I went looking for one back in 1991.
Plus I can get one at Wal-Mart. Wow.
A Mandrake user who installs Ximian GNOME on their computer can upgrade their machine automatically using Red Carpet. I'm 90% sure that this includes necessary Mandrake upgrades.
Thanks a ton for your reply. It is most helpful.
I own a copy of these (actually, they're old, paper back, knock-off copies). These are great algorithms books, but the first volume is almost totally inpenetrable for me; I got more mileage out of Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et. al. Maybe it's because I'm too math-oriented; maybe it's because I'm a total retard. Each seems to me as likely a better explanation as the other.
There is a Linux version of this book, although it's outdated by now.
I guess what I'm asking is this: I'm working on one job, which doesn't eat up a lot of my resources and energy; in order to keep some of my skills sharp, I work on open-source software and do some moonlighting. Do the skills that I use to write OSS get considered if I put them on my resume? How about skills that I use while moonlighting?
And fyi, no, there isn't a regular job out there that matches my skill set better. I looked for a long time to find one, and I'm goddamn glad to get the one I have now instead.
And of course, there's always the Free Pascal compiler, which only supports some of the syntactical candy of Delphi/Kylix.
What kind of consideration do HR persons, hiring for programmers, give to people who work on open-source software? How about persons who moonlight as consultants? Anyone know?
Maybe somebody should inform Mike Eisner that it CBDTPA passes, their Linux software will become illegal.
Except that all the good DVD playing software for Linux is illegal.
Actually, considering the persons who wrote the bill (Tom DeLay, among others), that only reinforces the case that it's a simple-minded view. I don't like the World Court either, because it's lacking such principles as trial-by-jury and habeas corpus. But giving the President carte blanche never strikes me as a good idea.