My point is that writing code for Slashdot is much harder then saying "I don't like zoo and I think it should do this and that".
I fully agree with that. And I may just get involved. Or at least peruse it to see if it's too scary.:-)
We love patches. But especially for anything relating to the homepage display time generation, and moderation, we need to really be careful. Besides our hardware limitations, you have to think of security, and the potential for gaming of the system.
It's very tricky and we screw up a lot. But I gotta admit, I find it frusterating when people say they don't like something and propose something that clearly would be better... but there's no way we could computationally do it given our hardware limitations.
Do you tell people this? Do you test this? Just curious on the feedback when this is the case.
I've done that, for a long time. I stopped more recently though. Instead of saying something like "Thanx for meta moderating", I started having to meta moderate twice daily. I also got little feedback on if the meta-moderation did anything. So, it felt like I wasn't even doing anything, and after a long while I stopped.
Another issue with meta-modding is lack of context. To say if something is actually "funny" or not, or off-topic, the context must be there. And much more, there was little way to filter what I see. Some of the comments moderated as off-topic could be offensive, and meta-modding those requires seeing them first, something I may not be comfortable with.
Post Good Comments
I think I did. I mean, I just posted one and got the editor to respond.:-)
Posting good comments takes time. I have posted comments that have taken me hours to formulate. Though I shudder at the thought being my browser may crash. So, I have to save long comments in emacs or notepad, but that limits me to posting the comment where I am. If I could save draft comments (maybe only one at a time) I would be more willing to take the time to respond where a long response was appropriate, knowing that I won't lose too much of it in a crash.
Submit Good Stories
Now, that's in the eye of the beholder. But, obviously, this is the *most* important aspect of slashdot. The first time I read slashdot after being linked to it years ago, I saw it and immediately knew that I wanted to see the stories here. And, I think I've read every posting since (except for a 45-day interim). Without Slashdot I'd be behind on recent developments. Thanx man.
Moderate and use all 5 points up when you get 'em
This is the least important to me. Especially since I recently unchecked the Willing to Moderate checkbox. Whether for good or bad, seeing my karma score made me care about it, and then with meta-moderation affecting karma, I stopped moderating anything except over/underrated. Then, the want to read good comments, and the need to see all comments conflict. All comments are not as good, and thus hardly any need moderation, and the ones that need moderation are usually already moderated, unless I get to a story very early on, or find a story that noone is interested in.
Because of that I started to only mod in journals. But that is silly, being it doesn't matter since most people read all the comments anyway, and the poster's karma was usually already at 50, since they are the only jounals worth reading anyway. Then I got bored and unchecked it. I guess moderating wasn't my thing after all.
Post intelligent journals
That is something that I hope I already do. But the lack of ability to moderate the comments within them is annoying. Also, if I find someone else's journal as interesting, and I only get notified if there is a reply to my reply, but not a reply to the journal itself. That makes it hard to keep up with as I have to wonder "did I already read that?"
On another note, I'd love it if there was another section on slashdot for journals. Just have some journals make it to the top. If I try searching for journals, I get too many to look at, and most title's are non-descriptive. If journals are to be intelligent, the writer has to expect an audience. But there is little audience. A couple journals a week modded up somehow, would be nice. That way more people can see what the rank and file think, and not have to wade through too much noise to get there.
I doubt we'll ever offer direct DB access. Besides security issues, the potential for huge queries makes it a messy proposition at best.
True. But I wonder how many queries are actually different. I'd guess most queries would actually be in the DB cache, but it would be interesting. If anything, maybe we could submit queries to be run and maybe someone would get around to running them? A weekly or monthly run of a few queries with an associated JE/Story ought to be interesting. Hmm... I'll have to think more about this one.
We have a nice stats system in place that we could potentially make more public. Maybe someday we'll have the time to do so.
That would be cool.
As for better ways to rate comments and friends, I'm always open to suggestions and/or patches.
Well, basically, I don't like the current system. What are friend's and foes for? To moderate their comments and journal related items. But, the problem is, I can only rate people as a group, either all friends or all foes. I want to rate up some people's comments, even though I care little for their journals. And the opposite is very true as well.
Take for example, the case where I find someone's journals offensive, but not their comments. In that case I unfriend them. This way their journals don't show up, but their comments are not hit by my foe modifier. Well, the issue is that I don't remember that I unfriended them, and I sometimes end up re-friending them. I guess a history would answer that, but it just seems to point a flaw in the system itself.
Hmm.. a good question would be to find out how many people use the system, and what they use it for. Then maybe something that directly does that would be good.
The code is all available from the SourceForge project page.
Very true. You've got me on that one.:-)
Unfortunately, writing code to work on 2.2 million pages a day, a third of a million users, and our hugely limited hardware resources is a lot harder than it sounds;)
Now, that could only come by working with it. How could I even know?
One of the most stupid names I have seen is Unwise.exe. Basically, it's the uninstaller program for the Wise Installation program. Being probably the second most common installer (next to InstallShield) you ought to find a copy of it on most Windows computers.
Anyway, if you don't know what it is, many people seem to think it's a virus or something (and it didn't help when Norton identified it as one).
Mozilla block ads from this server is much cheaper than a slashdot subscription. And seeing the stories early is nice, but how many articles do I actually read anyway? At best I skim them, and most of the time they are not slashdotted.
What I'd really like to see is being able to submit real queries to the slashdot DB for real statistics (I.E. to figure this, or to keep drafts of stories submitted, comments, and the like, or to have a better way to rate comments and friends.
If programmers are told to make something work, and there is little design, the entire program is a black box, and not understood until it is looked at completely.
With proper design, the program is understood before it is coded, and the appropriate modules or sections can be looked at easily. Of course testing plays a significant role, but at this point design is far more important.
Unfortunately, most programmers don't want design (probably Ps) and most designers want too much control (probably Js). There needs to be a general respect for the other's gifts for everything to work, and have people want each other's help.
Unless you take into account the translation and retranslation of the bible,
Could be, if you deal with translations. We are dealing here with Christians belief, and (I assume that) they believe that the Bible was transmitted by G-d in Hebrew to the Jews, and that Moses wrote it down right then. With that, and the abundancy of Hebrew texts, this should not be an issue.
mistakes made by scribes during transcription, and other associated errors.
All Bible scrolls are checked for errors before use. And, considering that there are hardly any differences between the traditions (except one letter which does not change the meaning of the word) it is unlikely that any mistakes ever made it in.
Plus, the bible itself was written at some point, but are we guaranteed that was exactly when the events occured?
From the Chrisitan belief, that the Jews got it from G-d and it was written just then, yes, it is in agreement.
Because if not, there could be errors during the writing down of these events, not to mention observer bias, etc.
That much is true. However, not possible form a Judao-Christian vantage point.
"While the Bible may have originally been the Word of God, it was orally passed down by people for centuries, written down by a person, and later translated by other people. As such it is not necessarily accurate."
For your consideration:
Jewish Law forbids its oral communication to written source. That is, that when writing the Bible, it *must* be written from a written source. The Bible has always been written, and never transmitted orally. As such, I cannot understand how the associate pastor can be correct.
While space management may be a good idea, allowing the UN to do it is a very bad idea.
IMO, there is not really anything the UN ever did that was good. I don't mind nations getting together for large scale projects such as this, but the UN is a waste of money. I blew of some steam in a journal entry.
In my experience techie departments are made up of all 4 NTs, INFPs, and ISTPs. The reason for the ISTP, is of course that thinking is dominant. So, the one's who S/N preference are close, can become programmers.
The NFs, only need to be F when around people. Around projects they are just as good as the NTs. Though, as a career choice, NFs would rather work with people. But, for some reason, I have noticed INFPs in the field.
In the last techie department I worked in, it consisted of ESTP (CTO, and horrid programmer) , ISTP (network, scripter), two INTPs (one report writer (complex SQL), one UI), ENTP (interfaced with other systems), INFP (lead programmer), INTJ (DBA, and general design).
ISTJs do not make good programmers because they have a hard time seeing what isn't practical. My brother, and ISTJ, can program. But nowhere nearly as well as an N.
Ps are sloppy programmers. But they get the job done quickly, and mold to the situation. However, with their neglect of design, their systems cannot grow too far without a rewrite. Js, on the other hand, design much better, but can make slow programmers. Their systems will work well into the future, and not need rewrites, but they rarely take reality into consideration, and may be difficult to work with.
Thus, when it comes to UI, the Ps are probably better. Thye'll listen to other people. However, don't let them design the project, or it'll fall apart. And if it isn't small, the P will likely not tell others what to do, and various parts of the program will be incompatible. So, let the Ps design the UI, and let the Js design the backend.
Being on the Internet can be a part of your life. Some people can get away, and others cannot. In their mind, turning the computer off would be akin to closing their eyes for a day. I'd assume being away from the Internet at first was hard. But then there were years to get used to it, and you probably won't "jump in" right away. Taking it slowly and comfortably instead. My question is, how long did it take for it to set in, and being away from it for so long, what do you have to say about it?
Using the MBTI, I assume that IT is better done by Ts than Fs. Approximately 70% of men are T, and approximately 70% of women are F. Further, the minorities (30% men, 30% women) are usually brought up around the majority, and used to that. Thus, it is unlikely that women would enjoy the work.
Heirarchical file systems are used simply because they are the best systems. Similar to a binary tree, it is the fastest way to find anything. The problem is that most people put way too many things in any one directory. That's bad. Instead, stick to these rules.
In any one directory there should never be:
More than five to six directories
Both directories and files
Two or more versions of the same file, when other files are also in that directory.
I learnt this at the office where I used Windows. I couldn't stand a cluttered "Start Menu", so I broke everything up basically as I said, and voilia, I could find any items within three or four menus. Since they were split logically according to usage, it took me seconds to find anything, if that long.
On my computer, I like to do this with my home directory. Everything becomes so easy to find. I really can't understand why people don't use it properly.
I thought the 2600 was bad. I played defender for about 6 hours and I couldn't move my hands. The hand that was holding the stick was openable after a bit. My other hand, however, which grasped the bottom and hit the button, was not as lucky. For a while there I could only move my thumb, and then only up and down.
Slashdot Mirror
Signing up on the mailing list sounds easy, and like an intro.
Kewl, thanx for all the comments. I appreciate it.
I expect the "do you really want to uninstall this?" dialog box to add "That would be unwise!"
Heh. And that may be on the top ten comments, right under We're Wise guys.
My point is that writing code for Slashdot is much harder then saying "I don't like zoo and I think it should do this and that".
:-)
I fully agree with that. And I may just get involved. Or at least peruse it to see if it's too scary.
We love patches. But especially for anything relating to the homepage display time generation, and moderation, we need to really be careful. Besides our hardware limitations, you have to think of security, and the potential for gaming of the system.
It's very tricky and we screw up a lot. But I gotta admit, I find it frusterating when people say they don't like something and propose something that clearly would be better... but there's no way we could computationally do it given our hardware limitations.
Do you tell people this? Do you test this? Just curious on the feedback when this is the case.
Subscribe
:-)
Did that. Though I don't use pages.
Meta Moderate
I've done that, for a long time. I stopped more recently though. Instead of saying something like "Thanx for meta moderating", I started having to meta moderate twice daily. I also got little feedback on if the meta-moderation did anything. So, it felt like I wasn't even doing anything, and after a long while I stopped.
Another issue with meta-modding is lack of context. To say if something is actually "funny" or not, or off-topic, the context must be there. And much more, there was little way to filter what I see. Some of the comments moderated as off-topic could be offensive, and meta-modding those requires seeing them first, something I may not be comfortable with.
Post Good Comments
I think I did. I mean, I just posted one and got the editor to respond.
Posting good comments takes time. I have posted comments that have taken me hours to formulate. Though I shudder at the thought being my browser may crash. So, I have to save long comments in emacs or notepad, but that limits me to posting the comment where I am. If I could save draft comments (maybe only one at a time) I would be more willing to take the time to respond where a long response was appropriate, knowing that I won't lose too much of it in a crash.
Submit Good Stories
Now, that's in the eye of the beholder. But, obviously, this is the *most* important aspect of slashdot. The first time I read slashdot after being linked to it years ago, I saw it and immediately knew that I wanted to see the stories here. And, I think I've read every posting since (except for a 45-day interim). Without Slashdot I'd be behind on recent developments. Thanx man.
Moderate and use all 5 points up when you get 'em
This is the least important to me. Especially since I recently unchecked the Willing to Moderate checkbox. Whether for good or bad, seeing my karma score made me care about it, and then with meta-moderation affecting karma, I stopped moderating anything except over/underrated. Then, the want to read good comments, and the need to see all comments conflict. All comments are not as good, and thus hardly any need moderation, and the ones that need moderation are usually already moderated, unless I get to a story very early on, or find a story that noone is interested in.
Because of that I started to only mod in journals. But that is silly, being it doesn't matter since most people read all the comments anyway, and the poster's karma was usually already at 50, since they are the only jounals worth reading anyway. Then I got bored and unchecked it. I guess moderating wasn't my thing after all.
Post intelligent journals
That is something that I hope I already do. But the lack of ability to moderate the comments within them is annoying. Also, if I find someone else's journal as interesting, and I only get notified if there is a reply to my reply, but not a reply to the journal itself. That makes it hard to keep up with as I have to wonder "did I already read that?"
On another note, I'd love it if there was another section on slashdot for journals. Just have some journals make it to the top. If I try searching for journals, I get too many to look at, and most title's are non-descriptive. If journals are to be intelligent, the writer has to expect an audience. But there is little audience. A couple journals a week modded up somehow, would be nice. That way more people can see what the rank and file think, and not have to wade through too much noise to get there.
Presumably the thinking is "it would be UNWISE to uninstall this app"... anyway that's how I interpret it, and it's often good for a laugh.
Cute.
Though I actually asked the creator (I used to work there) and it was much more simplew, wise/unwise.
However we hope that enough of our users will think beyond that and try to support us. Programmers, Editors, OC3s and Racks of web servers cost money.
Yeah, that's why I bought a subscription, for support, not for the prizes. Just a way of saying thanx.
Are there any other ways we can help?
I doubt we'll ever offer direct DB access. Besides security issues, the potential for huge queries makes it a messy proposition at best.
:-)
;)
True. But I wonder how many queries are actually different. I'd guess most queries would actually be in the DB cache, but it would be interesting. If anything, maybe we could submit queries to be run and maybe someone would get around to running them? A weekly or monthly run of a few queries with an associated JE/Story ought to be interesting. Hmm... I'll have to think more about this one.
We have a nice stats system in place that we could potentially make more public. Maybe someday we'll have the time to do so.
That would be cool.
As for better ways to rate comments and friends, I'm always open to suggestions and/or patches.
Well, basically, I don't like the current system. What are friend's and foes for? To moderate their comments and journal related items. But, the problem is, I can only rate people as a group, either all friends or all foes. I want to rate up some people's comments, even though I care little for their journals. And the opposite is very true as well.
Take for example, the case where I find someone's journals offensive, but not their comments. In that case I unfriend them. This way their journals don't show up, but their comments are not hit by my foe modifier. Well, the issue is that I don't remember that I unfriended them, and I sometimes end up re-friending them. I guess a history would answer that, but it just seems to point a flaw in the system itself.
Hmm.. a good question would be to find out how many people use the system, and what they use it for. Then maybe something that directly does that would be good.
The code is all available from the SourceForge project page.
Very true. You've got me on that one.
Unfortunately, writing code to work on 2.2 million pages a day, a third of a million users, and our hugely limited hardware resources is a lot harder than it sounds
Now, that could only come by working with it. How could I even know?
One of the most stupid names I have seen is Unwise.exe. Basically, it's the uninstaller program for the Wise Installation program. Being probably the second most common installer (next to InstallShield) you ought to find a copy of it on most Windows computers.
Anyway, if you don't know what it is, many people seem to think it's a virus or something (and it didn't help when Norton identified it as one).
Mozilla block ads from this server is much cheaper than a slashdot subscription. And seeing the stories early is nice, but how many articles do I actually read anyway? At best I skim them, and most of the time they are not slashdotted.
What I'd really like to see is being able to submit real queries to the slashdot DB for real statistics (I.E. to figure this, or to keep drafts of stories submitted, comments, and the like, or to have a better way to rate comments and friends.
It's all about design.
If programmers are told to make something work, and there is little design, the entire program is a black box, and not understood until it is looked at completely.
With proper design, the program is understood before it is coded, and the appropriate modules or sections can be looked at easily. Of course testing plays a significant role, but at this point design is far more important.
Unfortunately, most programmers don't want design (probably Ps) and most designers want too much control (probably Js). There needs to be a general respect for the other's gifts for everything to work, and have people want each other's help.
Unless you take into account the translation and retranslation of the bible,
Could be, if you deal with translations. We are dealing here with Christians belief, and (I assume that) they believe that the Bible was transmitted by G-d in Hebrew to the Jews, and that Moses wrote it down right then. With that, and the abundancy of Hebrew texts, this should not be an issue.
mistakes made by scribes during transcription, and other associated errors.
All Bible scrolls are checked for errors before use. And, considering that there are hardly any differences between the traditions (except one letter which does not change the meaning of the word) it is unlikely that any mistakes ever made it in.
Plus, the bible itself was written at some point, but are we guaranteed that was exactly when the events occured?
From the Chrisitan belief, that the Jews got it from G-d and it was written just then, yes, it is in agreement.
Because if not, there could be errors during the writing down of these events, not to mention observer bias, etc.
That much is true. However, not possible form a Judao-Christian vantage point.
"While the Bible may have originally been the Word of God, it was orally passed down by people for centuries, written down by a person, and later translated by other people. As such it is not necessarily accurate."
For your consideration:
Jewish Law forbids its oral communication to written source. That is, that when writing the Bible, it *must* be written from a written source. The Bible has always been written, and never transmitted orally. As such, I cannot understand how the associate pastor can be correct.
Nope, "then" is correct, being it is not comparative.
However, with the comma, the word "then" could have been omitted.
While space management may be a good idea, allowing the UN to do it is a very bad idea.
IMO, there is not really anything the UN ever did that was good. I don't mind nations getting together for large scale projects such as this, but the UN is a waste of money. I blew of some steam in a journal entry.
Using less accurate clocks allows this to happen with corespondingly greater frequency.
I second the notion that this is a minute problem facing our day, and before the issue at hand goes decadent, we must work around the clock to fix it.
Be alert, the world needs more lerts.
-
You will pay for your sins!
If you have already paid, please disregard this message.
-
Be aloof, there's been a sudden population explosion of lerts.
-
A chicken, a bear, and a programmer walked into a bar. And the bartender said, "What is this, a joke?"
-
Posted by pudge?
Who's pudge?
And where'd you get these statistics?
I think you have not done enough research.
In my experience techie departments are made up of all 4 NTs, INFPs, and ISTPs. The reason for the ISTP, is of course that thinking is dominant. So, the one's who S/N preference are close, can become programmers.
The NFs, only need to be F when around people. Around projects they are just as good as the NTs. Though, as a career choice, NFs would rather work with people. But, for some reason, I have noticed INFPs in the field.
In the last techie department I worked in, it consisted of ESTP (CTO, and horrid programmer) , ISTP (network, scripter), two INTPs (one report writer (complex SQL), one UI), ENTP (interfaced with other systems), INFP (lead programmer), INTJ (DBA, and general design).
ISTJs do not make good programmers because they have a hard time seeing what isn't practical. My brother, and ISTJ, can program. But nowhere nearly as well as an N.
Ps are sloppy programmers. But they get the job done quickly, and mold to the situation. However, with their neglect of design, their systems cannot grow too far without a rewrite. Js, on the other hand, design much better, but can make slow programmers. Their systems will work well into the future, and not need rewrites, but they rarely take reality into consideration, and may be difficult to work with.
Thus, when it comes to UI, the Ps are probably better. Thye'll listen to other people. However, don't let them design the project, or it'll fall apart. And if it isn't small, the P will likely not tell others what to do, and various parts of the program will be incompatible. So, let the Ps design the UI, and let the Js design the backend.
That's why we use "unofficial" debs. Sometimes very scary, such as in Ximian. But, for mplayer this site does well.
Being on the Internet can be a part of your life. Some people can get away, and others cannot. In their mind, turning the computer off would be akin to closing their eyes for a day. I'd assume being away from the Internet at first was hard. But then there were years to get used to it, and you probably won't "jump in" right away. Taking it slowly and comfortably instead. My question is, how long did it take for it to set in, and being away from it for so long, what do you have to say about it?
Just a thought.
Using the MBTI, I assume that IT is better done by Ts than Fs. Approximately 70% of men are T, and approximately 70% of women are F. Further, the minorities (30% men, 30% women) are usually brought up around the majority, and used to that. Thus, it is unlikely that women would enjoy the work.
In any one directory there should never be:
I learnt this at the office where I used Windows. I couldn't stand a cluttered "Start Menu", so I broke everything up basically as I said, and voilia, I could find any items within three or four menus. Since they were split logically according to usage, it took me seconds to find anything, if that long.
On my computer, I like to do this with my home directory. Everything becomes so easy to find. I really can't understand why people don't use it properly.
I thought Daniel Jackson died and was some form of deity now.
I thought the 2600 was bad. I played defender for about 6 hours and I couldn't move my hands. The hand that was holding the stick was openable after a bit. My other hand, however, which grasped the bottom and hit the button, was not as lucky. For a while there I could only move my thumb, and then only up and down.
Ah....the memories....
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
===
Grr... Oh well, slashdot does it again. I posted my reply here.