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Comment Re:Don't give him a game (Score 1) 338

I've been playing video games since my dad brought a 2600 home at age three-four. In my adult years the gaming had waned but my interest in computers has never relaxed. For someone who never properly completed high school and college, I'd say I'm doing pretty well for myself now. I hate that kids these days hang out on skype, warcraft, and Facebook nowadays and don't do shit otherwise though; on the other hand, maybe a new market will open up for them in the future as it did for me...

Comment Re:boring (Score 1) 326

Linus may sound douchey at times but I agree he has earned that right. On the flipside if you had a project turn into such an ingrained day-to-day OS I bet you'd be a bit proud too. Pride is not douchey when it is well placed such as in Linus' case.

That said, I've seen some pretty crazy things come from RMS and he gets nowhere near as much flak for it. Remember, this is the guy who helped kick-off the free software movement and was involved in many of the lesser-appreciated userland tools we all know and love and/or hate (sorry emacs, I'm a vi guy). He deserves just as much respect too, but the way he carries that weight is far different.

Between Linus and Richard, they are probably the two iconoclasts who kicked off the whole free software movement. First there was Richard with the free userland tools and then Linus with the kernel which made them truly free from bottom-to-top. Back in the day when Linux wasn't "ready" and BSD was still in litigation Richard stepped up and gave us tools which could compile and run freely and just about any Unix platform. Back when dialing up to a Unix box was the only way to get internet, apps like screen gave me warm fuzzies.

I wouldn't call either a douche, even though they may do douchey things sometimes. They are allowed. We all do it to one degree or another.

Facebook

Submission + - Why are we so rude online? (wsj.com)

kodiaktau writes: An article reported by the WSJ discusses why online media users are more rude online than they are in person. The story discusses some of the possible reasons being lowered inhibitions because there is formal social interaction. Other theories include feeling like reporting on a phone or other device is simply communicating with a "toy" which dehumanizes the conversation. Submitter's note: A dehumanized conversation has never happened on Slashdot in the last 15 years.

Comment Re:Consider MSEE a "fix" for broken windows. (Score 1) 515

The Antitrust suit was all about Microsoft's anti-competitive practices, such as making you pay for Windows when you buy new PC and punishing vendors who sold PCs with anything else. Those days are over. Yes, they caught flak also for bundling IE but most importantly making sure other browsers ran like shit.

Bundling AV is not an anti-trust issue because you can always uninstall it and run whatever you want...

Science

Submission + - Scientists say that prejudice can cause depression (psychologicalscience.org)

keyblade5 writes: It's commonly known that many people have depression that is caused by persistent, automatic negative thoughts about themselves (e.g., "I'm stupid," "I'm ugly"). Some scientists recently put out an article elaborating on how these cognitions in depression are the same type of neurocognitive structure as the automatic negative stereotypes studied by prejudice researchers. Like these depressive thoughts, most automatic or "implicit" prejudice is caused by persistent, automatic negative stereotypes (e.g., "That Black guy is a criminal,"). "This depression caused by prejudice – which the researchers call deprejudice — can occur at many levels. In the classic case, prejudice causes depression at the societal level (e.g., Nazis’ prejudice causing Jews’ depression), but this causal chain can also occur at the interpersonal level (e.g., an abuser’s prejudice causing an abusee’s depression), or even at the intrapersonal level, within a single person (e.g., a man’s prejudice against himself causing his depression)." By identifying and elaborating the common neurocognitive cause of these very different phenomena, the scientists reveal that the past century of research on depression can be used to improve interventions against prejudice, and depression researchers can harness decades of prejudice research to improve treatments for depression. This work is an amazing reminder of how, sometimes, we as scientists can get caught up in our terminology and not realize that we may use different words to describe exactly the same underlying process.

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