Hitchens says it best:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=...

Modern phones and tablets have thge same problem as PCs - they fall victim to loads of crap and bloatware. Don't burden your smartphone with shit and it will stay stable. If you're having trouble doing that use one with a smaller softewaremarket such as the Jolla. If you're unsure about which phone to take I'd actually recommend that one.

Brilliant, that's what!

Tech workers, especially engineers, should get paid more than lawyers since our skills actually create value.

Yeah, like really important stuff like the 20th instagram clone or cloud computing service.

What a load of shit. Luckily there are other MD's posting in the comments on just how biased this writer is. He's basically claiming ADHD is a kid's only issue, and all adults are just abusers. People like him must HATE people like myself...a doctor-monitored adderall prescription for several years now. With it, I'm able to more fully use my capabilities. Without it, people would always comment "your really smart, but..." due to all the random and chaotic things I would do and say. Honestly, without my prescription I'd probably either be dead or in jail. Even so, being unmedicated has already lead to the accidental death of someone VERY close to me...if I had been on it then I probably would have thought the situation through further. So this guy can go fuck himself, and I'd tell that to his face is ever given the chance.

My uncle tells me ADHD runs in our family. However, I consider the frictions in our family to be normal or based on psychological heritage brought down from a grandmother incapable of handling 4 children and having an immoral stance on her responsiblities. Plus living in an ending WW2 in Germany, including carpet bombings, fleeing Koenigsberg and Stetin to the Rhine area and being fugitives and 3rd class citizens as a result. Such things are passed down, no doubt.
I also think of my uncles ADHD fixation as an excuse for his alcoholism - he like to rag on how ADHD people work better with drugs. I would allot his problems to the regular beatings his generation received.

However, I do have character traits that some people would consider "ADHD".
I wouldn't. Or at least I would consider them to be a disability. I would appreciate the theory that my brain works differently due to me moving around roughly once a year during most of my childhood and said psychological heritage.

I'm basically a hunter-gatherer in a farmer-settlers world, or should I say: I'm adapted to hunter-gatherer mode in a world that is currently mostly adapted to farmer-settler mode. Yes, I'm one of those pretty much down with that theory.

While others have spent their entire childhood at one place, I had to move around a lot. I intimately and intuitively know things about this world and the people in them that others have to learn in hard lessons. I smell a con from 10 miles away, I can handle myself in a fight and I spot financial risks or flaws in complex systems (such as software architecture) in an instant. I find the usual vanity that comes with societies living in abundance strange, bizar, pointless, silly and sometimes flat-out repulsive. I recently re-read Paul Grahams Why Nerds are unpopular and I have to say the man once again pretty much hits home - read it if you can relate to what I am saying. That essay pretty much sums up my youth and the way I feel about the world and the people around me a lot of times. If I'm having ADHD it is not a disease, but a natural reaction to the at times bizar and backwords world around me.

However, there are things I struggle with that others have no problem dealing with. Regular chores or maintaining a home with more that two rooms. And who wouldn't? I'm just this week picking up Scala and starting a new company internal software project. A the side I'm keeping my mood by going out or doing some sort of contrast programm. I don't have *time* to do the laundry regularly.

I run up to speed when shit hits the fan. Basically I consider any other situation boring. Which, let's face it, it usually is.

I also see absolutely no point what so ever in performing in a job that is basically 90% pointless. I'm the lead developer in an agency and 90% of my work is politics and explaining to customers the difference between a client and a server and what the internet is and how it works. And the difference between Google and the Web - which very many people do not know or are aware of. And setting up WordPress and repairing the junkpile the last plugin-testing frenzy my project people left behind.

I do 25 hours a week for a feasible salary and that is just the right amount. In my spare time I help out my daughter, do to evening school, cook, dance (I'm big into Tango and the cute girls that come with it). The point is: I see no point in taking drugs so I can sit at the desk longer. I think its a healthy reaction when I get a headache after 5 hours of diving into LimeSurvey and its inner workings.

Note: This is my take on *my* situation. You may very well have a condition that requires drugs to function. However, I challenge you to question that assumption and perhaps try an alternate career or something. We are not built to sit at desks, and frankly, computers aren't built to be sat in front of. They are built to do the dirty work while humans do the stuff they enjoy and are good at.

Bottom line: I wouldn't want to take drugs to perform on my job. That's not a job for me and it shouldn't be for you either.
I'd rather switch the job or go on a world trip.

I am Groo!

Word.

Am I the only one having problems parsing that headline?

Water on my mill. I want to get into radio operating for that exact reason. However I'm not looking into HAM but into psk31 digital CB (11 Meter Band Euronorm). It's cheaper and more crisis-resistant AFAICT.

Does it now support HDDs larger than 2 GB? I'm not even joking here.

Last time I heard (like 10 years ago or so) it was a theorists wet dream but basically unusable.

What's the state of things with Hurd nwo? Is it usefull already?
What are big steps Hurd still needs to take to be ready for prime time?
What are the plans? When are we there?

Please note: I have no problem replacing Unix with something better, like ome coolDMI thing where everything isn't a file but an object and the system is cleanly designed from top to bottom and back. Top notch but everything modifiable. But it has to be real-world usable and useful. Until then I'm sticking with *nix derivates such as OS X on Apple hardware or some x86 Linux like Debian or Ubuntu on ThinkPads.

Could someone give some enlightenment on this issue?

Stephenson's books have gotten worse and worse as he's gotten older. Usually authors improve as they age, not put out dreck like Cryptonomicon.

Sorry, but I liked Cryptonomicon. As I did REAMDE. Both pretty good books.
The Baroque Cycle was a bit of a drag, that I admit.

EOM.

... he also does regular offsite backups.

And so should you.
Problem solved.

He is SEVEN! He want's to hear farytale stories, wander around, stop every 5 meters to look at something interesting.

He'll sit at a desk long enough in his life. I'd say 9-12 is the earliest to start progging - and only if he wants it/shows serious interest. He'll be a prodigy fast enough if that's his cup of tea.

You guys get it all wrong. We are way past both those szenarios already. You need neither the expensive IT guy nor some overpriced subscription cloud bullshit. You get a stack of NUC Micropcs, install Ubuntu and are done. If you can't spare the 500 euros for the student to do this you get Chromebooks which these days come at 150 a pop, new. Turn on, log in, use. The great Google is taking care of you. End of story.