Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: Victims of technological change - why haters gotta hate. 54
Curiosity works for a lot of us. We're willing to turn aside from the tools that work for us for a bit, even build up some technical debt in our area of expertise, to explore some new technology that might in the long run prove beneficial, or at least interesting (and if you're a curious person, poking around stuff that's interesting is FUN).
And yet, we probably all have areas where we're a bit of an iconoclast. And technology is littered with people who just refused to accept change, and became irrelevant. We don't code everything in assembler, or c, or c++. Even I use java (gasp) on occasion. But what happens when the computing environment becomes so user-centric (a GOOD THING) that people are free to choose what works for them without having to seek the advice of self-anointed gurus whose advice is no longer relevant?
We should ask ourselves why "haters gotta hate"
Sometimes those "gurus" fail to move on, becoming more shrill with every passing year. It's a personal thing for them - they cling to what used to work because that's all they have. They become trollish, haters, because if they're forced to realize that their life's work is now worthless, what will they have left? What WILL they do? They know in the back of their mind that they're too far behind to catch up, so this fear drives them to become even more rigid in their views.
Which brings us to Alexander P Kowolski, the HOSTS file troll.
Here's a guy who posts up to 100 anonymous responses a day, going through my posting history to crap-flood every discussion. I think this response sums up the problem pretty well, at least from my perspective:
Well, since you FINALLY asked how you are absurd:
1st definition of absurd from google: Ab-surd: (of a person or a person's behavior or actions) foolish; unreasonable.
Going through every post I make in every thread, posting multiple responses (up to 100 posts a day) attacking me based on my gender (including in a thread about sexual harassment) - I think that most people would qualify your behaviour as both foolish and unreasonable.
Getting all bent out of shape when someone exposes your bullying tactics and then tells other people how to do the same to you - both your original bullying and your response when you get it thrown right back at you are foolish, unreasonable, and just plain childish.
Saying I'm stalking you when it's obvious you're the one doing the stalking - foolish, unreasonable, and more than a bit delusional. Oh, and your paranoia is showing.
Thinking that attacking me because I'm transsexual is going to get you anywhere on a tech site, when tech attracts a higher-than-average number of people in the LGBT community, as well as sympathizers, is foolish. Continuing it day after day when it doesn't work is not just unreasonable, it's stupid and/or insane.
Clinging to arguments for your HOSTS file that are completely orthogonal to today's reality, and that obviously the vast majority don't care about and don't need because they have found better ways to solve their own problems, is foolish on it's face and unreasonable to those looking on, who use their computers just fine without your "solution."
Going on about how "taking estrogen is rotting your brain", that "you're crazy to have cut your balls off" (btw - I'm not a surgeon, and I don't pretend to be one on the innnertubes), when I'm following expert medical advice that has a proven track record of success, well, that's both foolish and ridiculous.
The problem isn't your hosts file - it's your behaviour, which certainly is absurd, and probably disturbed as well.
That leads to another question - why? What is it about me in particular that sets you off worse than anyone else? Is it me, or do you have a problem with women in general (I seem to recall some attacks you made on other women who have challenged you that would indicate that this may be the case)? Do you think that men are superior to women, and that anyone who willingly "trades in" to become a woman is stupid because you have a low opinion of women?
And that, of course, brings us back on-topic - the "science has a sexual assault problem". You don't seem to be capable of the introspection necessary to realize how absurd your behaviour is. How many other women have you felt it's your right to attack, and still continue years later, about their sex, gender, or sexual identity, just because you disagreed with their opinion on a technical issue of absolutely no import to anyone but you?
He has time and again failed to realize that people who use alternatives that work for them, such as adblock, don't give a damn about his stupid hosts file and the supposed benefits. It's THEIR computer, and they're free to use what works for them - and it's NOT going to be his HOSTS file. And crap-flooding discussions with challenges to enter some useless "pissing contest" of the benefits of one over the other is irrelevant to pretty much everyone except him. So why do it? Perhaps because he is so psychologically invested in his world view that any alternative is just too scary.
So why "feed the troll" by posting a journal entry about him?
That's a valid question, for sure. But if you see him as a victim of technological change instead of just a troll, it might help put some of the other "wars" on slashdot into perspective. We get comfortable with our niche, change happens, and we have to, once again, learn a whole new slew of technologies. The prospect can be daunting, sometimes it's just a feeling of "oh heck, here we go again, change for the sake of change yadda yadda yadda
It can happen to any of us. Did it happen to APK? Or was he always like this? I don't know, and I don't really care. Either way, the lessons to be learned are the same. Haters gotta hate, because if you take that away from them, they have nothing to fall back on. They are more to be pitied, same as many of the opponents of same-sex marriage, now that they can't bolster their own sense of self-worth by hating gays and lesbians, are feeling a bit lost.
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You once again miss the whole point ... the "meta argument" ... that people don't care. We've moved on, and you haven't. We don't need to use a hosts file to block ads (adblock does it better), we don't need a hosts file to stop user tracking (hosts files fail in doing that anyway), we don't care about using a few more cpu cycles to do a better job overall (the rest of us aren't stuck in a single-cpu world - we paid for those quad cores and gigabytes of ram and we're damn well going to get the maximum be
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I've not gone anywhere, AlecStaar. Not down the memory hole, or anyplace else.
Glad you're back, Barbara... (Score:1)
You were missing all the fun [slashdot.org].
Warm regards,
T4HF
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Another lie. I have NEVER made a penny off of any ads on any site. Ever.
The only banners I ran on ANY sites (not all of them) were freebies on some sites to promote OpenOffce and stuff like that, back before it became LibreOffice, or Firefox, to encourage people to switch, back when it wasn't all that popular. Again, not a penny.
And self-hosted banners that are directly in-lined such as those can't be hidden by a hosts file, so why would I have anything to fear?
I worked at several places that did
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Good insight (Score:2)
Interesting insight. Would explain much of the anti-Apple, anti-Microsoft around here and elsewhere on teh webz.
Regarding apk, didn't someone do some searches and judging by his reputation ca. 2000 determine that he was a nut even then?
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QUESTION:
Are you a psychiatric pro with a license to practice & years of hands on professional experience in it too with a formal examination of my alleged mental state according to you the "SiDeWaLk-ShRiNk of /."?
NO?
Of course not - So yes: That's libel of myself from YOU, gmhowell...
Damned by your own words. How many times a DAY do you post [slashdot.org] "Barb - you're obviously a mentally troubled sick individual (being a transsexual makes that obvious)". Thanks for confessing that you've libeled me what, over 100 times, in the last few weeks. Hypocrite much?
Also, you're out of touch with current medical thinking. The classification of "Gender Identity Disorder" was removed from the DSM, gender dysphoria is now considered a medical condition, not a mental disorder. Gender dysphoria applies o
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Calling me a transsexual isn't libel. Saying I'm "Obviously a mentally troubled sick individual (being a transsexual makes that obvious)" is not just libel - here it's classified as hate speech.
Even the AMA now admits that transsexualism is a medical condition, not a mental disorder. And this brings me back to the topic of my journal entry - that we're going to see many more people who resort to anti-social behavior as a maladjustment to technological (or any other) change that leaves them behind (a fa
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Personally, I think it's funny that nobody shows up to defend you when you post your crap. And not just on slashdot either ...
And no, you posting pretending to be yet another Anonymous Coward doesn't count.
Please allow me to introduce you to a new concept - "society" - where good people come to each others' defense to fight the anti-social jerks.
Look, nobody hates you. We just see you wasting your life defending the indefensible, the obsolete, and the absurd. Now, on occasion I'm sure everyone's d
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Thanks. We've had a section of the population who, beyond a certain point, can't adapt to change. When change was slower and people didn't live as long, this didn't cause too many problems, since the overall amount of change they'd encounter in a lifetime was small.
Today? They're lost. They can't even use a flip phone without getting into trouble (I kid you not). They've lived at the same address for 3 decades and don't know much of the surrounding neighborhood. Mp3? USB key? Computer? Inaccessib
Holy shit (Score:2)
Wow, I had no idea what a nutcase this APK guy was. I kind of thought it was all just some grand in-joke - that posting his hosts nonsense in every entirely-unrelated thread was a goofy game for him.
Ah well Barb, you keep being you! <3
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Don't worry, it's not the real APK (Score:1)
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Or, he actually did use his hosts file to block slashdot
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The new attacks are a stylistic match for the old ones, even though they incorporate the new material, after a 2-1/2 year gap. When I left, he was still confused as to exactly what my gender status/situation was. Now he's not.
He's also included one or two little things from our previous encounters that even I had forgotten about, but that in retrospect ... someone would have had to go through pretty much every post of our previous entanglements. Not too likely.
But now that he knows he can't get a rise