Why do people think things like the Bechdel test are worth more than a fart in the breeze/

For the same reason they think "the lack of qualified people to fill 500,000 U.S. tech jobs" has anything to do with "how STEM careers have been presented in film and television" instead of the fact that the primary "qualification" being looked for is H1-B eligibility.

There is nothing fundamentally different from spoken languages in programming languages

Well, there is the matter of ambiguity. Most human languages have scope for ambiguity in the syntax. A piece of computer code means one thing and one thing only. If it doesn't, it's a bug.

Also computer languages evolve differently from spoken ones. Spoken languages may have a precise syntax, but the speakers are free of ignore or adapt it and the meaning can still be carried across. If you try and get creative with the syntax of a computer language, the computer either doesn't understand (if you'll pardon the anthropomorphism) or worse, it misunderstands and does something other than what you wanted. If you want to evolve a computer language, it needs a change to the language spec and to conforming compilers.

I'm sure there are other differences as well.

Would you mind giving me some examples, please?

NB: My asking isn't about Clinton or Trump, it's about being a fan of Snopes and wondering if there's a reason I should reassess that position.

Not sure where you got the "back of the head" from - the post you're responding to never used the word "head" anywhere - he did use "heart" though, which can theoretically be reached through the part of the body commonly referred to as "the back."

It doesn't lend your criticism of his logic a lot of credibility when you fumble your own counters so badly.

How's the Slashdot demographic looking these days? Is it even likely we've got more than a handful old enough to remember the spelling bee gaffe?

And if there are no worthwhile 3rd party candidates, either? Then what?

> I had some sort of computing device since the TI99-4a

Oh gods. As soon as I read that, I heard those two-tone startup beeps in my head...

The "average user" ditched FF for Chrome a long time ago.

Not at all. The whole dark matter thing was based on the presumption that there is mass that we can't see and this matter that we can't see was called "dark matter".

Others may have read more into it, but the name itself betrays the real, original intent behind describing this matter that we can't see or identify.

To be fair, while this latest idiocy is the USOC, the IOC is even worse about this same sort of bullshit.

Unfortunately, Google and Amazon are still having their little dick-waving contest, so Amazon Video (and the prime "bonus") is pretty much useless on way too many devices that Netflix works (at least passably - they're too stingy with the HD device blessing, IMO) on.

A browser cell phone doesn't need to be a calculator, a word processor, a typing instructor, a device manager, etc.

A browser/cell phone/Desktop Environment/etc doesn't need to be anything but what people want it to be. I want my cell phone to be a calculator, word processor, typing instructor, etc. And I'm perfectly happy with my browser extensions that share screens and do other stuff that is useful.

People don't buy minimalism, they buy features.

Problem is, you just locked yourself into Windows PCs

Sure, but that is 95% of the world... I didn't pick it, the world did, I'm just using what everyone else uses...

Have you ever considered a career as a Lemming?

And this, boys and girls, is what "cognitive dissonance" feels like. I had a whole 30 seconds of feeling like this had to be one of those stupid "quote troll" memes, since I couldn't imagine Trent Reznor dribbling out that kind of mealy mouthed corporate crap. Then it finally clicked that I was working off an image that is over 25 years out of date...

Man, fuck getting old. Happy freakin' birthday.