Irony is a user with a six-digit uid complaining that the site went to shit. Everyone knows that the site went to shit before uid 2000 was claimed.

Ranting until someone's ears fall off is the only real way to respond.

Yeah sure, like that doesn't take time to do properly either. "F--- off d00d U suck" is not a proper rant.

/me wonders if you got modded "insightful" due to your observation of the administrator's... uh... well.

Yeah, but if you can't focus your attention long enough to remember the capital of Nebraska is, what good are you going to be as an employee? The best indicator of future performance is past performance. It isn't fair, but it has been proven. Yes, people can and do change, but most of the time they don't. Every job involves some degree of doing stupid stuff that has no immediate point to you. If you can't play the game at school, it doesn't bode well for your employment history.

Seriously?

Cars today have more horsepower, more traction, better safety, and more braking power than cars 20-30 years ago.. Yet, our speed limits have decreased.. Why?

Because the monkey behind the wheel hasn't improved any, is now distracted by his cell phone, GPS, and on-board DVD players, and statistically is older than the monkey behind the wheel was 20-30 years ago.

Basically, the monkey is the critical part in the system, and it just isn't getting any better.

(Well except for you. You are a MAGNIFICENT driver, and we should all just stay the hell out of your way when you drive.)

I was hoping to see them install rack-mount computers. Sure, it isn't as fiddly, but when you have 40 of them to do all at once... you tend to get good at it.

My doucheness is inflicted on my by my giant douche corporation, you insensitive clod!

Right, I get hit by my own irony stick. I deserved that. "we we" indeed.

Come on, guys, it's not "in lieu of". "In lieu of" means "instead; in place of; as a substitute for". So that description makes absolutely no sense. The submitter probably means "in light of".

I know this is just slashdot, but we we have computers and the internet where all the grammar nazis have left us neat hints how to use language correctly, if not effectively. Articles like this make us all look like gibbering chimps.

My policy always was, my pager compensation was proportional to the potential impairment of my own agenda.

What I mean is, if you expect me to reply to you within a certain time frame, then I have to be near a phone or within cell coverage. This restricts where I can go. If you expect me to connect in remotely, I have to be near internet connectivity, and most of the time be carrying my laptop with me. This further restricts where I can go, and what I can do when I go there. If you want me to be on site within a certain time frame, that even further restricts where I can go.

If I can watch TV, go to the movies, or out for dinner and still be on call, that's not going to cost you as much as if I have to be within 30 minutes of being on-site from the moment you call me.

Historically, I have been lucky. One employer paid us $500/week to carry the pager with a 90-minute call-back SLA (and then hilariously lost the pager number and refused to admit it, so was unable to call us for 8 months). One customer was quoted something stupid like $5K/week for 7x24, 60-minute on-site (plus hourly when we got there). Any call time was billed back to the client, and we (theoretically) got time-for-time in exchange for that. My current employer has a pager our customers to call, but since it is 7x24 it is optional to be in the rotation and for various reasons I've opted out. In addition to receiving money for your week on the pager here, time is tracked very strictly and we get time-for-time for any pager-call time served.

IT is, and always has been, the high-tech equivalent of the maintenance guys who keep the lights on and the toilets flowing. We are under appreciated when everything works, blamed for every failing, and hailed like gods for fifteen seconds after we do the impossible.

Face it. We are a well paid trade, and most of the time don't have to get our hands as dirty.

This is good advice, and gives me an opportunity to speak to the community at large: some of us who go to cons and are in a position to shake tons of hands politely decline. It's not because we're being dicks, it's because we know it's a good way to substantially decrease our chances of catching and spreading any germs.

I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].

I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.

Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.