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boboblong

No one's pointing a gun to this Mauro person's head and forcing him to interact with Linus. I doubt Linus ever took a vow to love, honor, or respect Mr. Mauro. If someone with whom I am only interacting by choice says something mean to me, you know what I do? I take my ball and go home.

You are being an idiot and should get the fuck over this nonissue.

Re:Women in Tech and Empathy Work on Thursday January 24, 2013 @12:56AM (#5107752)
>I‘ve written here before about the ongoing puzzle of improving the ratio of women to men in the tech sector.

That's nice, but when are we going to address the real barriers faced by women? Women are vastly outnumbered by men in many sectors, including workplace injuries and fatalities, acute and chronic homelessness, suicides, mental illness including schizophrenia, violent crime victimization, recruitment into gangs and child armies at a young age, legal genital mutilation, false imprisonment, unfair estrangement from children, involuntary celibacy, and a host of other exciting fields. When are we going to stop pussyfooting around and demand a better ratio of women to men in the really important sectors? If we work together, I know we can do it.

Re:Actual Facebook Graph Searches on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @11:50AM (#5103871)
But what about free ponies?
Re:Actual Facebook Graph Searches on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @11:43AM (#5103828)
>People are stupid, so when warned, the will still act stupid. Despite this it is still the responsibility of whoever is able, to protect them, even against themselves.

Is this really a mainstream political philosophy on HN?

Re:Actual Facebook Graph Searches on Wednesday January 23, 2013 @11:38AM (#5103796)
Wait, then what's the problem?
Re:Quantum gas goes below absolute zero on Thursday January 03, 2013 @05:44PM (#5005192)
But isn't that just as fascinating (as long as you know what it means)? I just finished my first college-level physics course a few weeks ago and I'm already fuzzy on the thermodynamics stuff, but the entropy of this gas shouldn't decrease with increasing energy, should it?
Re:St: Simple terminal implementation for X on Sunday December 30, 2012 @01:18PM (#4986563)
Maybe people will start to refactor the worst offenders. It takes more than a slight improvement to displace software that's widely used, but I'm sure there are things that we use that could be an order of magnitude better (according to some metric). Gmail was able to win converts because it was an order of magnitude better than the competition.
Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:31PM (#4980989)
I'm confused. Isn't that page supposed to be holding those statements up for ridicule? I'm saying that although the person who made that page thinks that the statements are bullshit, they seem perfectly reasonable to me.
Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:23PM (#4980962)
Uh...no?
Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:21PM (#4980951)
Are you saying that crpyto is not available to people who aren't white guys?
Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:17PM (#4980941)
>By using the phrase "big bad men" you are engaging in precisely the sort of gender-oriented down-talking that she is complaining about.

But that's absurd. He only used that phrase in response to a claim that men in tech are incorrigibly sexist and hostile.

Re:Dear Hacker Community – We Need To Talk on Friday December 28, 2012 @10:08PM (#4980912)
I just glanced at several of the headings, and it looks like that page is just a list of reasonable things to say.
Re:Half the Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @05:06PM (#4971161)
In addition to the point made by the other two users who responded to you, the overwhelming majority of car mechanics are men.
Re:Half the Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong on Wednesday December 26, 2012 @06:15AM (#4968869)
>You don't really understand how a car works, only that most of the time you can get in it and go places. When it doesn't work, you take it to another person. She may also not understand what's wrong.

Oh, please! "She"? Let's all ruin the flow of our prose in an attempt at social engineering that probably isn't even worthwhile, shall we? I suppose you didn't bat an eyelash at Denzel Washington as savant pilot Whip Whitaker either.

Re:US Birth Rate Hits New Low – A Nation of Singles on Tuesday December 25, 2012 @08:10AM (#4965912)
I think his comment was more along the lines of, "Who will dig the ditches?" I'm sure HN's response is, "Robots, if all goes as planned."
Re:Scientific American’s gun error on Sunday December 23, 2012 @09:15PM (#4961554)
>Next, violent crime is not murder or death. It can be robbery or assault.

Many gun deaths are gang-related or otherwise criminal-on-criminal. Also, with less strict gun control a robber is more likely to be shot dead by their intended victim, which is a good thing. Yes, I mean that; I'm not equivocating: it is a Good Thing when an attempted robbery fails because the would-be robber is shot dead. (Minor assailants should of course not be shot, but it's also a Good Thing when an assault bordering on attempted murder ends with the death of the assailant.) Hell, it's a Good Thing when gangbangers shoot one another dead. There's a Tupac line that goes "[something something something] give 'em guns, step back, watch 'em kill each other". Bearing in mind that I'm referring to gangsters ONLY and in no way black people in general, Tupac's darkly humorous suggestion is actually a good one.

To put it bluntly, if I could push a button and reduce violent crime by 75% across the board but it meant that gun deaths would quadruple--but 80% of those new deaths would be violent criminals--I would do it.

>So, Americans should keep their guns, but equally not complain about other freedoms being compromised to compensate.

I don't even own a gun and have only fired a gun a few times (when I went trap shooting just for the hell of it). Still, I wish you would try to take some freedoms from the "gun nuts" as "compensation" just so I could watch you get your ass handed to you.

Re:Scientific American’s gun error on Sunday December 23, 2012 @09:52AM (#4959570)
No, that's wrong. The distinction is between continuous and discrete, not quantitative and qualitative.
Re:IV: Don't Mind Our 2000 Shell Companies, That's Totally Normal on Saturday December 22, 2012 @05:38AM (#4956314)
Disclaimer: I have never been sued and don't know who any IV executives actually are, and I'm speaking purely hypothetically.

Hypothetically, if a legal firm is engaging in clearly predatory behavior, can a point be reached at which it is morally justifiable to retaliate against said firm in an extralegal manner? Perhaps law firms that walk the line of ethical behavior but are clearly behaving immorally by any reasonable standard present a sort of edge case. Usually, a moral person should settle his disputes in a civilized manner by going through the proper legal channels. However, if a moral person is being abused by a law firm that is capable of outmaneuvering him in all or almost all legal proceedings, what recourse does that person have? A good analogy is a battered wife who is reasonably certain that going to the police will result in her husband murdering her. In such cases, courts have ruled that a wife may initiate force against her husband and yet be acting in self-defense.

Another analogy is the idea that it's possible for the US government to become so corrupt and/or abusive that revolution becomes justified. If the people of the US were ever to attempt a revolution, however, they would certainly be labeled terrorists by the US government, and their actions would be considered treasonous. Nevertheless, there is a point at which revolution is theoretically justifiable, despite being treasonous. That point is when it becomes impossible to participate in the political process. The actions of an oppressive government amount to legal abuse, much like the actions of a predatory law firm.

I'm not trying to rile anyone up here, but all I see are comments that come off as totally defeatist. We tell our kids to use their words, but no one can be bullied forever. Eventually, something's gotta give.

Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Tuesday December 18, 2012 @06:05PM (#4940155)
8500 out of nearly 350 million is 1 in 40000 people. And how many of those 8500 were gangsters or robbers anyway? 50%? 90%? In any event, I'm having a hard time getting worked up over here.
How is that any different?
Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Tuesday December 18, 2012 @12:38AM (#4936208)
If a particular gun owner is threatening you, you can take legal action against him or her.
Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Monday December 17, 2012 @11:50PM (#4936095)
He said:

>Also, all the rights listed in the first ten amendments are limited to the point at which you're infringing on someone else's rights. The threat of death or injury, such as it is, would seem to be a pretty clear reason to limit that right.

Apparently, if someone legally owns a gun, this presents a "threat of death or injury" to others. Of course, if the gun weren't legally owned by an individual but still existed, it would either be illegally owned by an individual or be legally owned by the government or by some other exempted institution. You might feel safer with only the government and criminals owning guns, but many others would feel less safe. What makes your fear more legitimate than theirs? Other rights are restricted only when exercising them would directly infringe on the rights of others. You can't demonstrate that you would be safer if a particular gun owner with no criminal record were forced to turn in his gun. You can't even demonstrate that you would be safer if all law-abiding gun owners were forced to turn in their guns. Even if you could, you couldn't demonstrate that your increased safety wouldn't be more than offset by the decreased safety of the gun owner(s).

The comparison between gun ownership and first-amendment rights is not a good one, because there are already restrictions on gun ownership comparable to the restriction on first-amendment rights. True, you don't have the right to practice human sacrifice--you also don't have the right to murder people with your legally owned guns. True, you can be prosecuted for incitement--and also for waving your gun around in public. True, you can be sued for libel--and you can be prosecuted for brandishing.

Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Monday December 17, 2012 @05:45PM (#4934913)
When the second amendment was written, "well-regulated" essentially meant "properly functioning".
Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Monday December 17, 2012 @05:32PM (#4934831)
You sound like a parody of the left. "Your rights end where my feelings begin!" Is that really your stance?
Re:Mass Shootings, Political Correctness, and Magical Thinking on Monday December 17, 2012 @05:11PM (#4934708)
Opponents of gun control feel exactly the same way: they don't want to have to live in fear.
Re:Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk on Sunday December 16, 2012 @08:04PM (#4930339)
What major open source project is the harshest on newbies? I want to try to contribute to it.
Re:Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk on Sunday December 16, 2012 @07:52PM (#4930299)
> If a lot of other people are talking about the negative consequences of something you personally haven't experienced, generalizing outwards from your own experiences to conclude that something a lot of other people have experienced doesn't exist is a pretty wrongheaded way to approach life.

You're wrong. Generalizing from your personal experience and from verifiable facts while paying little attention to vague whining and anonymous accusations (of unnamed alleged perpetrators, no less!) is an excellent way to approach life.

Re:Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk on Sunday December 16, 2012 @07:47PM (#4930285)
>When the goal is to change behavior as a whole it helps to not point anyone out.

Has it ever occurred to you that many people strongly dislike it when others attempt to change their legal, nonviolent behavior? It's nosy, condescending, self-righteous, and creepy.

Re:Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk on Sunday December 16, 2012 @07:42PM (#4930270)
>it's just that you think toxic behavior is acceptable.

You think that calling someone's idea crappy is unacceptable? In what sense of the word? Are you saying that it should be illegal to make fun of someone's ideas?

Re:Dear Open Source Project Leader: Quit Being A Jerk on Sunday December 16, 2012 @07:38PM (#4930251)
>Once your project is entrenched, you can feel like you have the power to say whatever you want because your community is vast. That's a problem.

How is that a problem? What do you propose we do about it? Should be fine people for saying mean things? I don't follow, sorry.

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