Look, this is slashdot. Anyone here can be expected to know who Ashton Kucher is, and the meaning of common pop phrases like "punk'd". We don't need to clutter every summary with explanations for these. The occasional story that talks about kernel "headers", GCC (wtf is that?) or EFF (double wtf), yeah, those should be linked.

Honestly, I think you might be on the wrong site.

When you admin the server, this is great. I usually do these days, but do still occasionally deploy on shared servers, or servers that are severely locked down. Sure, it's kind of a bullshit restriction, but it's one of the reasons a poor, but ubiquitous, technology sometimes wins out.

As an aside, we were recently approached by a large organization to redevelop their website. One of the things they want is to move away from Ruby on Rails because they were having too hard a time finding qualified developers. I know - you can find them - but when you are a non-tech company making these kinds of decisions, you do want to make sure you can find qualified devs without *too* much fuss.

I guess just a point in the "not about the technology" department :/

This is exactly it. I write nearly all my code in PHP, and it is not for a love of the language. I switched to PHP from perl (after taking a good, long (and longing) look at python) for two simple reasons:

• * it was deployed everywhere
• * enough of the basics were included that I didn't need to worry about whether a database library would be on the server, or some form of image manipulation, etc. There is too much crap in PHP, but at least I don't have to spend weeks convincing some sysadmin that, yes, I really do need to query a db, and would you please compile the extension?

It pains me to no end that my bread and butter is made with a language I don't particularly care for, but in the end, I can at least get things done with it.

I would prefer that. My second favourite use of flashblock is to keep videos from playing until I'm ready for them.

You are supposed to report what jobs you are applying for. If you're not showing evidence of a productive job search, you'll be cut off. You could theoretically not report that one job you knew you were going to get but really didn't want, but if you get caught doing it, benefits will be terminated.

The new bill will mandate anything up to and including an hour's commute.

Gas alone will run you $600 - 800 a month, never mind extra wear and tear on your vehicle. So you could well be expected to take a job at 2/3 what you were making, and increase your expenses by as much as $1000 a month while doing it. Because if you're not willing to do that, you're a bum living off hard-working Canadians.

I had all but forgotten these! I loved them when I was about that age.

It's pretty easy to forget what being eight was like. I stumbled on Jules Verne and HG Wells, and a few other books in this thread at a reasonably young age, but not eight. At that time of life, just a couple years makes a big difference.

One other series I was reading about the same time was The Mad Scientist's Club. A bit of science, a bit of DIY, a bit of getting one over on the adults, and just the right amount of adventure. Might not be typically thought of as science fiction, but is in it's best tradition, and the kind of thing that lit my imagination on fire at that age.

Which is ultimately what cured me of that bit of brainwashing. I eventually realized all religions had equivalent truth claims, and there was no way to make a distinction.

I actually heard this explanation growing up. And the related "God put them there to test our faith."

One of the more contorted bits of apologetics I remember.

I'm curious - have you listened to this recording? The Goldberg Variations have been on my must-listen list for a long time, but it looks like this is going to be my first exposure to it. (It's just waiting until I have time to properly listen.) I don't have the finest ear for classical, but I have heard the same piece by different performers, and was surprised at how much of a difference it can make. How is this one?

At any rate, I'm pretty excited about this project. As someone with only a passing knowledge of classical, this is a great learning experience.

I know someone that got scammed by them, so I have at least one data point: pensioner with little computer knowledge, uses facebook to keep up with the grand kids, not as jaded as I am.

By no means feeble minded, just from a different era, and it pisses me off to no end that there are people out there that will happily scam people living on fixed income.

It's true you can just unfriend people, or sort through Facebooks lists (which are, frankly, a UI abomination.) The main thing, I think, is that by their design they encourage different modes of behaviour. As I mentioned above, even people that followed from Facebook to G+ (myself included) adopted different posting patterns on G+.

Facebook encourages broadcasting of small chunks of data as widely and frequently as possible. G+ has adopted a more tailored approach that, in my experience, also encourages more connected and thoughtful discourse.

Frankly, I don't even really see them as competitors. They occupy very different spaces.

Oh, yeah, part of it was that I let too many "friends" hang on on Facebook. But Facebook is very much geared towards large, loose associations. I've noticed that my friends that moved from Facebook to G+ changed their posting style a bit when they moved. (Not sure if there's been a reciprocal change as I've not been on FB in almost a year.)

I tend to think of Facebook as a noisy bar, and G+ a pub with a good magazine rack. Not the same thing, both are fine, but I prefer the latter.

I ditched Facebook very shortly after G+ opened up. Comparisons to Facebook and post-counting completely miss the point. The experience on G+ is entirely different. Facebook was a continual stream of "If you don't repost this link, you are a jerk", "Look how much bacon I ate!!!!" and "I am having the worst day ever!"

On G+ I have a (comparatively) small circle of friends and we discuss music, politics, art, keep up with each other's families. I follow a few science bloggers, geeky personalities and a few generic music and science related searches. All of it gets fed into different streams, I can keep up with the important stuff and dip into something random that will almost certainly interest me if nothing else is going on.

G+ seems very well designed for encouraging more thoughtful content and discussion. The total throughput might not look as active, but I get one hell of a lot more signal. Not to mention that FB's interface makes my eyes bleed. G+ is almost relaxing.

Ah, a man of taste and careful consideration!

Which just makes me wonder why you're here :)