
Re: If people don't get paid enough money...
1% this, 1% that...
you're STILL doing that 'Occupy' crap? That's SO lame...
'Scuse me, your "envy politics" is showing.
10515 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
"If all you do is manage a team of coders then you need to earn less than those coders."
hold on there, that's a bad generalization to make [though I'm sure there are a lot of UNproductive 'managers' out there].
Management done properly makes it look as though the manager isn't doing anything at all.
It's the manager's job to divvy up the work assignments so that things get done. It's the manager's job to make sure that interactions happen in a SANE way. If that means "Scrum meeting" then it's probably being done WRONG. if it means individual 1-on-1 meetings (as simple as "how are things going") followed up by some kind of a policy decision, then it's probably being done right. If your problems with 'management' are being dealt with [or there aren't any] it's being done right. if you're constantly getting jerked around and following whatever Sales wants done, it's probably being done wrong.
I would think that departmental productivity should be the #1 factor in determining how much a manager is paid. And SOME managers might be worth 10 times the wage of the average developer, just on the fact that developers become so much more productive when "that guy" is running the show.
So YMMV on management salary. But yeah, a proper measuring device is in order.
"the old capitalism is the only way that works argument"
"relies heavilly on defning "all" to exclude the brown people" (etc.)
"Is that the system you are promoting?"
thanks for tossing in the 'emotion bomb' of racism into an otherwise sane discussion, like a Hand Grenade.
I officially downvote the HELL out of your comment, on that basis.
"people making minimum wage put in minimum wage effort." "You get what you pay for"
This is converging closer to reality, now.
You can make economic criticism from both the right and left, talk about effective take-home wage vs what you're actually paid (in which case, tax cuts are an obvious stimulus to the economy from a 'consumption' point of view), or the 'widening gap between rich and poor' in which case there's apparent exploitation going on [as has happened in the past, ca "robber baron" era].
But each of these is an inadequate explanation on its own, as they're interrelated. When the employees don't have enough $ to live on comfortably, it screws with their psyche, and when this causes a perception of "have vs have not" envy, making things worse. [keep in mind that high tax rates on 'the rich' are actually on upper middle class WAGE EARNERS, and tend to WIDEN that gap, because it keeps upper middle class from BECOMING 'the rich' - prior to last December, 'the rich' were getting away with paying LOWER taxes because the income wasn't WAGE income - but I digress].
Here are some of the negative aspects that create productivity problems, in my view:
1. Hiring the wrong person. This is ALWAYS expensive. There are many reasons why, from race/sex/whatever quotas [gummint mandates and lawsuits] to HR incompetence. "What Color is your Parachute" talks about this, from what I recall.
2. Actual collusion to pay people less - this happened in Silly Valley a while back.
3. Inefficient management - too many meetings, for example, or focus on "social" instead of "work output". You can 'feel good' about it all damn day and NOT get a damn thing done! This isn't helping anybody.
4. Punishing achievement and rewarding mediocrity. This is a complex issue, because it happens in the tax code [work more/harder, less effective $ per hour], and seeing promotions based on something OTHER than merit (like race/sex/whatever quotas). Productivity and quality must be rewarded, or else you get "who gives a flying FEEL any more" with dead-end jobs and looking to go elsewhere all the time.
5. "Process of the week" involving the latest new, shiny way to do engineering work, like "Agile" done wrong by everyone that attempts it. Scrum meetings in which "the junior guy" gets an equal say, for example, and management going along with it because it FEELS good to let 'the newbie' get a chance to contribute.
Anyway, that's my $.10 on it. You basically can't point at a single thing, but when you look at ALL of it, there could be a pattern...
distance from gravitational center of the universe as "a factor" - how's that?
as I understand it, we're pretty close to that gravitational center (which should be the place the big bang happened). At least, that's what it looks like from our perspective.
/me wonders if the big bang made a mushroom cloud... thus, icon choice [ok it didn't because 'ground' and 'gravity' are needed to make a proper mushroom cloud, but it's still lame-funny]
"(see new paper to be released around April)"
I can't wait to read it!
You know, like RFC8140 and its predecessors.
"taking two days to travel from Los Angeles, CA to San Antonio, TX"
Highway 8 through "the Zone" (Arizona) is wide open and empty space. Lots of it.
Doesn't part of that trip go through Mexico? But you're British and you already had your passports [it's just that rental car companies don't really like it when you do that, you have to get Mexican car insurance at the border, yotta yotta]. Anyway there's a way around but it takes WAY longer.
"Post Brexit they need a new variable yurrupean one."
yeah what WAS it with all the science-re-namey things. The first time I heard 'Sieverts' I was all "what the hell?" and then I googled and found out that someone changed the name AND 1 Sv became 100 REM which is like "thanks a LOT for making me do more math in my head".
New 'SI' units meant "we were not very busy at that moment, so we did some make-work and appeared like we were doing something important for a while".
So why NOT come up with something more 'European' than 'Hubble Constant'? You can't have British or American scientist names in things any more, after all...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble
Let's call it "Lemaître's constant" from now on, then. He's a Belgian [that's EU enough, right?]
and we also assume that TIME is constant and/or follows our current predictions of relativity, and that light isn't somehow "lensing" due to the combined gravity of everything in the universe. If light traveled kind of "curvish" towards us (due to combined gravitational effects, let's say), we'd see distances as being farther than they actually are, through parallax and other means. And the farther away, the more curving you'd get, and really distant objects are hard enough to measure correctly, so is a 9% error THAT unexpected?
Need a better ruler, that's all.
/me imagines the sky through a sort of fish-eye lense, where the position of really distant luminous objects is slightly distorted from gravitational effects. that might do it, yeah. In that case, radio telescopes with finely tuned measurements _might_ be able to detect this.
'dark energy' may simply be trying to explain something that's a bit more elegant, sort of like the way geocentrists tried to explain planetary motion. In their model, each planet revolved on an invisible disk around a center point, and the center point revolved about the earth. it worked in mechanical representations, since each of the 'disks' was basically earth's orbit. And it "explained" motion by predicting planetary positions mechanically. but it was WAY wrong.
One model I've seen may coincide with the observations a bit better. it would mean the universe is a bit smaller, though [or maybe way bigger?]. it's a non-linear way of looking at light propogation. The thought is that light travels "faster" over a distance. In under a few light years, the actual time it takes for light to travel from star to observer is roughly the same as the distance in, well, light years. But according to THIS model, vast distances travel FASTER because light is traveling in curved space. So in that model, the light seems to 'accelerate'. It explains a lot of the red shifting [not all of it] and the apparent acceleration of the expansion of the universe. It's also 'cool' in that something nonlinear is happening.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. I forget where I read about this, I just remember reading it back in the 80's or 90's. Is it true? Idunno. Is it a rectally extrapolated attempt to prove the universe isn't created by the big bang? That's a distinct possibility [it seems to have been a somewhat liked idea amongst the creationists to counter 'big bang', though I doubt it proves a 6,000 year old earth]. But the idea that light does not travel "linearly" through space has other implications that might revolutionize physics, if it's actually true...
(and we COULD be staring at the proof, right now!)
" it now appeared 4 trained law enforcement officers did not feel able to rake on a shooter with an AR15 rifle. Quite how a teacher with a concealed carry handgun is expected to do more bemuses me."
__I__ would have done it, WITHOUT hesitation, if for no other reason, for the LULZ. "A shooter - IT'S MY CHANCE!!!"
And, your (condescending?) attitude towards teachers disturbs me.
A teacher who is former military, or who may even be a volunteer cop or deputy, and has gone through police and/or military firearms training, would be MORE than capable. And a teacher with some NRA training would be ok, too. Keep in mind, NOT EVERYONE is a simpering COWARD. A number of us are into martial arts, and wouldn't hesitate to defend ourselves or another human being from an EVIL PERPETRATOR. And consider how one of the PE coaches acted as a HUMAN SHIELD (apparently tossing students through open doorways, etc.) and died a hero, saving the lives of as many students as he could. If he'd had a PISTOL, I bet he would have SHOT THE PERP! And, THAT is what _I_ am talking about! It's the kind of bravery that stops a criminal from causing a MASSACRE.
Those 4 cops you mentioned should be *FIRED*. One of them quit on his own.
I think nothing would make me happier, if I had a concealed carry permit, than being able to USE MY WEAPON to defend against something like that. "This is what I've TRAINED for, PRACTICED for, endured the rectal exam to get my concealed-carry permit for! MY CHANCE! W00T!"
And there are enough people like ME in the USA that there's no shortage of volunteers who would say the same *KINDS* of things, and actually *MEAN* it.
(and yes, I'm ex-military, and I know how to shoot).
Now consider this: if schools weren't labeled as "gun free zones", would the school shooter STILL have tried this? because, if it's "gun free" then ONLY a criminal will have one...
"A few are accidents, some are suicides, the vast majority are murders"
not true. the vast majority are SUICIDES:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html
"More than 60 percent of people in this country who die from guns die by suicide"
And that is the NY Times, and not Fox News, though Hannity has been talking about this kind of thing all week.
FYI - it's my understanding that murder statistics with KNIVES are several times that of guns (3 or 4 times I think), and even MORE murders are with BARE HANDS! (or feet, part of the same statistic).
So... anti-gun people, get your FACTS STRAIGHT before you go off on your emotion-filled manipulative tirade against SELF-DEFENSE, simply because YOU have issues with guns in the hands of LAW ABIDING CITIZENS for the purpose of DEFENDING THEMSELVES. You can't have a cop everywhere to protect everyone against "the bad guys". And even if you do, SOME of those cops may even cower behind cover until the bullets stop flying! (this REALLY happened a week ago, a sherrif's deputy hid for 4 of the 6 minutes' worth of shooting, instead of putting his life on the line to save at least SOME of the students that were shot by the (allegedly) psychopathic school shooter - firing in the air would've at least distracted the perpetrator and caused him to focus on YOU instead, or maybe hide, or whatever, ANYTHING to disrupt his 'fish in a barrel' shooting spree)
In any case, if you want PROTECTION, it's gotta by SELF protection! You can't trust law enforcement, they can't be everywhere, and if you can protect YOURSELF, you're better off.
"There is no doubt that Ajit Pai is clueless on net neutrality and wrong to have killed it."
I have _LOTS_ of doubt, about that statement in particular. Ajit Pai de-regulated by killing off something that the FCC shouldn't have been trying to regulate in the FIRST place.
And stop calling those regulations "net neutrality" please. It's such a "wrong descriptive" name. 'Net Neutrality' makes it SOUND like it protects people. The truth is, it restricts what services you can get, by ensuring that EVERYBODY is EQUALLY "mediocre", and NOBODY can pay extra for a 'fast lane'.
That's right. We'll all just FLY COACH. On 'Spirit Air'. No more 1st class, no more business class, just "cram 'em all into a can" coach. This analogy is similar to how so-called "net neutrality" is implemented.
well, it's difficult to trace your real IP address via Tor. Lots of strategies exist, like monitoring 'exit points' and whatnot, but the best one (probably) is to effectively load some kind of malware onto the client's computer using some known flaw in his Tor browser, or flash [another reason NOT to use flash].
Malicious javascript executing in the browser might be able to get information onto a server of choice, via a simple 'GET' request using an alphabet-soup URL that embeds your information in it, that retrieves a graphic that looks benign [or is even a 'classic' 1x1 transparent GIF like the ones sometimes used by ad trackers].
Then the 'alphabet soup' URL is simply logged, and after reviewing the logs, then "they" _KNOW_ it's YOU.
"They have the legal right to hack into any computer they want, anywhere in the world."
Only under U.S. law would it be "legal". In theory, if one of them ever showed up in another country where such alleged hacking took place, the FBI guy responsible for the hacking could STILL be arrested for it, "over there".
And the country where the server hack took place could STILL file for extradition, etc. if they wanted to.
Yeah, like it would ever happen...
"Meltdown is not a processor microcode issue"
that may not actually be true. In the case of meltdown, it's a serious design flaw in which a memory access is being done during 'out of order' execution, that bypasses normal tests. "At some point" the page fault or protection fault will occur, but not until AFTER the memory location was actually read in.
The problem here might be fixable with microcode if the microcode can be modified to avoid actually reading any memory location until after all "leading up to it" read operations have been access checked.
As I understand it, Meltdown crafts code to execute 'out of order' by first reading a kernel memory location into a register, and then uses that value as an index into an array. The 'out of order execution' model ends up calculating the correct memory offset (even though there should have been an access violation) and then 'hits' the memory location within the array [and you use the side-channel technique of measuring which block of your array is now 'cached' after that]. A page fault or some kind of access violation occurs too long AFTER the kernel memory was accessed, and (specifically) NOT before reading the memory location within the array indexed by the kernel memory location's byte value, which is what makes this attack possible. [the array would be specifically designed for this and deliberately flushed from all caches before doing this, one byte at a time].
Fixing this would involve determining that the initial access into kernel space was not valid, and thereby STOP the rest of the 'out of order / hyperthreading execution' stuff from happening. This assumes it's microcode, and not flawed silicon causing this. It also explains why Intel is vulnerable, and not AMD, because [apparently] the AMD people figured out that this was a BAD thing beforehand.
And then I have to wonder if there's a slight performance hit by doing this in the silicon or in the microcode, therefore implying that Intel 'cheated' by allowing the flaw to be there to ge a slight boost in speed over AMD. This last part is pure speculation of course. It could have been accidental, too.
So yeah, MAYBE Meltdown can be patched in microcode. Unless you've heard different from Intel... ?
"These security holes are a direct result of using caching and speculative execution together"
an interesting point. So a mitigation MIGHT be to NOT physically access anything that isn't in the L0 cache during speculative execution? And, of course, to NOT physically access any memory address for which memory flags would cause a protection fault or page fault [aka 'Meltdown']
Doing these things in microcode would END the vulnerabilities as I understand them, with only a limited effect on execution speed.
To mitigate those changes, a serious increase in L0 cache size would also help.
compilers might need also need updating to help minimize the number of RAM pages that a "tight little loop" would need in order to function efficiently with out-of-order and speculative execution.
and that 'ret-poline' mitigation COULD become an option, for people who want to do that.
thinking of that last part, I've used 'ret-poline' techniques before. It's the easiest way to jump to a 'long' address on an ATXMega processor (and probably an ATMega also, specifically the ones with >64k of NVRAM). The alternative actually takes more assembly instructions. So you push 3 bytes and do a 'ret' instead. Yeah, Arduinos and microcontrollers. But not a new idea for a "ret-poline".
"I don't think they'd bother when they've got the management engine"
ack
Seriously, though, there should be a jumper for enabling or disabling the 'management engine' or its equivalent - ONLY allow it when the jumper is set to allow it, so it can be disabled electrically. even a BIOS setting to disable it could theoretically be circumvented.
home users don't need this. Only large organizations that have an IT department with tools that can leverage 'management engine' MIGHT actually need it. But the NSA _can_ use it. That's the problem.
And I doubt Meltdown/Spectre would be something the NSA would want anyway. side channel attacks are too inefficient.
"Explained the benefit of revealing the fault as soon as it was discovered."
Here's the alternate universe timeline that I think should have happened:
1. Intel and AMD announce that they have discovered some flaws in their CPU design that could lead to "side channel' attacks, something that is difficult to anticipate, and NOT disclose the details.
2. Intel and AMD work out fixes for this problem, and share 'mitigations' with all operating system vendors.
3. Intel and AMD release new CPUs that are designed NOT to have these flaws, and provide well tested working microcode for older systems.
4. After all of the fixes are in place, the details are released so people understand what happened.
This would result in Intel and AMD looking VERY good. Initially they get a small hit, but being THAT HONEST about the cock-up will eventually turn around to help them. And NOT disclosing the details helps prevent 0-days from emerging.
The thing about Meltdown and Spectre is that it's not intuitively obvious since they're side-channel attacks [for the most part]. So exploiting them without a really good explanation of what the flaw is would be "hard to guess", a sort of 'security by obscurity' that can last long enough to patch it.
So if Intel and AMD had simply bitten the bullet and and admitted the existence of the flaw the moment it was discovered, they MIGHT have INCREASED THEIR SALES overall as a direct result, as people replace old hardware [which was previously considered 'good enough'] to avoid any slowdowns or potential un-patched vulnerabilities.
In any case, this "alternate universe" scenario didn't happen. That made the original cock-up WORSE.
Well, according to the article, the 'insiders' comprised "Google, AMD, Arm, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft."
Apple has at least SOME connection with FreeBSD, but there's no motive to let any of the BSD engineers know about something in the KERNEL.
And, there MAY be a 'profit motive' in which "ONLY THEY" have fixes available, so if you don't want a vulnerable system, you "go to them" [specifically Micro-shaft and Apple].
Had IBM been involved, I think we'd have seen more efforts in Linux, and being open source, it would 'trickle' into the BSD's pretty quickly.
The better path is to be as open about this problem as possible. "We F'd up" is a better path than scrambling for the hills and covering your tracks.
"How much did you pay for your copy of Edge? How much did you pay MS to patch it?"
indirect payment: you have to run Win-10-nic to be able to run Edge.
You have to endure the slurp, tracking, and ads jammed up your as down your throat, "the Metro" [because We know better how You need to use your computer], and FORCED UPDATES [even if they brick, it's better than NOT accepting the "new, shiny", getting your custom settings reset periodically, and wasting INFINITE BANDWIDTH and YOUR time waiting for infinite updates to load, install, and potentially BRICK *your* computer]. THAT is "payment" (more than) *ENOUGH*.
I think you should've used the 'black helicopter' icon.
I have a suggestion: do not store anything in the cloud, and make sure you are well aware that anything that ends up on "teh intarwebs" can be snooped, snarfed, collected, "meta-data'd", and potentially submitted as evidence, regardless of where in the world it's stored, and hopefully NOT by criminals [though it's more likely to be the case].
icon, because, should've been there already.
"what will do then US Govt?"
hopefully, REAL police work. Not lazy 'metadata' searches, but the kind that can take a while and usually involves irrefutable evidence collected legally without violating the rights of U.S. citizens [or any international agreements with respect to non-citizens]. THAT is the way it is SUPPOSED to be done.
but yeah, it sounds like the cops are lazy, doesn't it?
"You're a failed state America, face it"
No, not until the point where "they" get their way while the sheeple watch (or fail to watch) without interest. That's really not happening, at least not yet. [what concerns ME is when 'due process' is perverted for the same kinds of reasons, and it seems THAT HAPPENED somewhat recently, from top levels of the FBI, via the FISA court].
"How long would a person spend in jail before law enforcement was satisfied you are correct"
There are limits on how long you can be held for contempt of court (though it may not be apparent). if you are held without bail (and that requires a hearing before a judge to have that happen) then you can be held until you get a not guilty verdict. but that's not likely with a contempt hearing first.
The length of time for being held for contempt would vary based on the jurisdiction. However, it's theoretically possible it could be "forever" if you keep being in contempt.
An example:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123137263059962659
The jail stops the moment you submit to the court's authority. It would take some pretty large gonads to stay in jail for YEARS like that, based entirely on principle.
It's what can happen in a society that's ruled by law. I guess you could ask a similar question in the UK, how long will it take before Julian Assange can 'walk free' in the streets of London? Exactly.
" What's to stop the US subpoenaing data held on a UK campus?"
Uh, "due process" ?
Actually there's an existing way to manage that: simply own controlling interest in a U.S. based company that's a separate entity from you. Sometimes they call that a "shell corporation". So what. Corporations have a level of legal protection built into them [which is why they exist, really].
"Uncle Sam can Go Shoulder deep into your data and pull anything out he wants."
I think there is going to be a REAL legal process involved, or that's how it should be written. 'Due Process'. Yeah, I know the FISA court is supposed to be that, too, and we have a current investigation going on AGAINST THE FBI (by Congress) regarding THAT kind of abuse, and so there must be "oversight" to make sure the abuses do NOT happen.
I'm not sure what would change if the FBI were to go before an Irish judge in the Microsoft case (where they try and make themselves immune to an existing subpoena) and why the FBI hadn't already done that. But whatever.
What this should NEVER become: a license to conduct a "fishing expedition" to violate the privacy of anyone that has any kind of data stored on a U.S. company's computers, regardless of the physical location. I don't think this is going to happen.
What U.S. based companies should do: make sure the data is stored ENCRYPTED, the key belongs to the client, the company doesn't have access to the key [when this is possible], and it's only kept for as long as necessary [and purged after that].
What users are probably going to have to do: don't keep data "in the cloud" for longer than is necessary.
I think if I were using gmail or hotmail with IMAP I'd be moving all of the archived e-mail into LOCAL ONLY storage about now... [shouldn't be too hard to do that, either]. make sure 'sent items' is moved locally, too.
"the genie however is out of the bottle"
celebrity impersonations already exist. I wonder if the tech could EVER compete...
There's that one Futurama episode when the prof's young clone built a voice impersonator using his father's voice - "Good news everyone! I'm a horse's butt" (episode 'The Route of All Evil' as far as I can tell)
And someone like Ferris Bueller could use this kind of tech to call in sick, and sound a lot more convincing.
All of the examples of Siri and Alexa that I've heard sound like robots (and vocaloids, too, unfortunately). Watson seems less so, but still 'robotish'. you can just "tell".
So I'd guess that impersonation tech may have the same kind of flaw for YEARS, maybe even DECADES, when "legit" tech can't even get it right. Genie out of the bottle? yeah, but he's a robot-sounding genie.
"Also, a case of ADHD"
~groan~
I'll avoid acting like an easily offended snowflake and simply state that, like "Ass-burgers", AD[H]D (aka non-linear mindedness) is actually an ADVANTAGE for engineers, artists, musicians, and other 'creative' types. Thom Hartman's "Hunter/Farmer" model explains it pretty well.
no downvote from me, either. just a groan. your ignorance is forgiven.
"highly optimized code targeting specific processor"
in the open source world, this is often dealt with by proper software design and the use of 'autotools' (aka the 'configure' script) when compiling.
I guess this might be a problem if there are too many variations in the ARM world, though. you'd need a different binary for every architecture permutation. Given how floating point might be implemented/emulated on the different ARM platforms, this is NOT unrealistic.
oh, one more thing I just found out.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Architectural_features
apparently in 64-bit mode (which they call "long" mode) you can have 16-bit protected mode processes (which actually surprises me quite a bit). However, you can't have 'real mode' nor 'virtual 8086' mode. Interesting.
So maybe dumping WOW16 had something to do with legacy 16-bit applications and 64-bitness i the kernel. Because, in theory, a "well behaved" 16-bit application SHOULD be possible to run in 64-bit mode...
WOW16 can't work in x64 because it doesn't have 16-bit support. that's just the way the architecture is.
NTVDM - there's no Virtual 8086 mode any more on x64. hence, can't have that, either.
As I recall, in 32-bit mode, a code selector is marked as 'USE16' or 'USE32' with a bit. I haven't looked, but I suspect in 64-bit mode, it switches between 'USE32' and 'USE64' in a similar way. To understand how the GDT and LDT work, you can start HERE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Descriptor_Table
(it's incomplete and oversimplified but you'll get the 'gist' and there are links to better resources)
I used to play with selectors and call gates and stuff like that "back in the day", even wrote a program for Win 3.x and '9x that would dig into the guts of the 'virtual DOS' (aka VxD) stuff and even make calls into the kernel via the interface. You could find out useful stuff about running processes, figure out what VxD's were loaded, dump the global and local descriptor tables, read the page tables, stuff like that, by playing with "all that" and then list it conveniently in a simple Windows application. But naturally it had to be a 16-bit application to do it's magic, and only worked with '9x and 3.x (because they had VxDs).
"Such as Android Studio."
well if you're emulating ARM on ARM, maybe it will RUN FASTER now? but yeah it probably means a re-write of the ARM emulation. You should expect any kind of virtualization and/or emulation to be like that. It's probably a lot of assembly code, and uses virtualization registers and other hardware-specific stuff.
I wish I understood Spectre better so I could make a snarky comment about it, but from what I can tell, it's hard to see how branch prediction COULD have been leveraged "that way" in the first place, ya know?
So maybe it was just "great minds thought alike" only they all missed something, too...
"Personally, I do not give a rats ass about the so-called code of conduct. I will continue doing what I am doing which has worked for me for years: Treat people with respect until you have a reason not to. To quote one forum member 'If a Joe wants to be called Jane, then call him Jane.' Simple common sense."
thanks for that. I'm encouraged that sanity and common sense still exist in the project, despite the (apparent) attempt at some kind of takeover by a handful of SJW's.
In the SJW world, Jane wouldn't say a thing about being called 'Joe'. Jane would just GET YOU BANNED to SILENCE you, instead... unless Jane liked you, in which case it would never matter. [like on Micro-shaft's forums - I! KID! YOU! NOT! - *THESE* are the kinds of immature head-games these manipulative idiots play! I guess being 'queen bee' in High School wasn't enough]
We need more projects with people like Linus at the helm. THAT would fix it!
you know, I may know the origin of the phrase "It's not rocket surgery" from a radio talk show host (a lady) a few years back, Ladonna Harvey. [she's currently on the morning show on KOGO in San Diego]
That being said, if you EVAR listened to her show, saying something about how 'incredibly weird' a virtual hug is would be ironic, at the very least.
In any case, what isn't "rocket surgery" is how WRONG these easily offended "bully snowflakes" are, that want to FORCE everyone else around them into making "safe spaces" for them (and all of their SJW targets), most likely because THEY (the 'bully snowflakes') will FEEL so much better about themselves FEEL important, FEEL like they're "doing something good" yotta yotta.
In other words, it's ALL about *FEEL* and *SELFISHNESS* and *SMUGNESS* and being a SOCIAL IRRITANT SJW.
They can *ALL* BITE MY HAIRY NAKED ASS! [that works best when said in 'Bender's voice from Futurama]
"understand the nuances"
It seems that no matter what you say/write, a bunch of the readers will see nuances where none exist. So I just don't give a rat's ass HOW people might interpret things, and just say what I want.
Given that techno-geeks are probably the ones saying/doing the allegedly 'offensive' things, consider this: Geek and 'sciencey' types typically aren't "feelies". AND, early in THEIR lives someone (a feelie) probably tried to force-feed them Ritalin or diagnosed them with 'Ass-burgers' or treat them like OUTCASTS and blame THEM for how they were treated, and were amateur-diagnosed as having some kind of autism-spectrum disorder, and were told ALL OF THEIR LIVES that "something was wrong with them".
In other words, the SMARTEST people in the world simply REALIZE that all of this "emotional quotient" *CRAP* is nothing more than the RESULT of a bunch of SELF-CENTERED WIMPS telling the REST of the world to "not offend THEM", and SHIFTING THE BLAME out of SELFISHNESS or something worse. I guess it makes them ('teh offended') *FEEL* important by being such a SJW about it. [feelings are SUCH a selfish thing, ya know?]
Regarding the expected downvotes: thank you. In my world, you're proving my point.
"People shouldn't be intentionally and gratuitously offensive"
I disagree with THIS part. I *REFUSE* to go around *AFRAID* to be myself because some FEELING SNOWFLAKE is always passive-aggressive-bullying EVERYONE ELSE AROUND HIM to "not offend".
Joke 'em if they can't take a FEEL! They can BITE MY HAIRY NAKED ASS!!! I mean, what're they gonna DO about it, "beat me up"? Good luck with THAT. I'd probably invite their fair-weather "friends" to watch, and even PARTICIPATE! I haven't beaten on a gang in quite some time... might be fun! [I use THIS comparisons because they're just acting like wimpy kids on the playground, so if you confront them with it, it's fun to watch the meltdown].
It's a fair bet that these over-sensitive easily offended snowflake types have *NEVER* been through *ANYTHING* even *REMOTELY* resembling a *REAL* *CRISIS*. Or even BOOT CAMP, like having a drill sergeant screaming that classic phrase 2 inches from your nose: "What is your MAJOR MALFUNCTION, NUMB-NUTS?" Because, if you can't handle THAT, you can't handle combat. You can't handle a crisis without melting down. That's why they do that to you in boot camp. It weeds out the 'snowflakes'.
and...
"there's also a responsibility not to be over-sensitive or to look for offence where it wasn't intended, and certainly not to take offence on behalf of someone else."
For THAT, sir, YOU deserve a BEER! Hence, icon.
ah, yes, the flame warriors.
I'm usually Evil Clown like at LEAST half of the others who post comments on El Reg.
CLEARLY, there is a bunch of way-too-vocal WIMPS out there who "FEEL" too much and waste time with these 'codes of conduct' when they should be WRITING CODE.
I use FreeBSD because it's a developer's OS. But Snowflakes gotta act like overly senstive self-focused navel-gazers wanting their safe spaces because they can't handle ANY amount of stress. They need a nice BOOT CAMP and a REAL crisis or two to adjust their attitudes. Once they realize that their own personal feelings aren't the most important thing on the planet, they'll GROW THE HELL UP and stop acting like CRY-BABIES!
"Replacing Windows with Linux is still paying for Windows"
apparently NOT in this case, as including a 'recovery disk' was apparently a license violation. That sort of implies that the license key is no longer valid for the "junk" computer. But rather than just ship a machine that has no recovery disk, it would have been better (from a legal standpoint, especially) to put Linux on it and let people re-install windows later [using the key that's printed on the label] if they really wanted to.
So there ya go.