I don't think "maximization" really makes sense there.

Here's the definition of minimization I was using there (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/minimization):

Further, from my post it was pretty clear what my meaning was. Just like GM's meaning was clear - and it certainly had nothing to do with 'acceptable' ways for other people to deal with their suicide related grief.

Wow excellent post gaming_mouse. Nails my thoughts on a lot of things exactly.

The thing is, these discussions only happen on the internet or some weird social science college class study group. In the real world no one gives a damn about you or your micro-problems. If you can't handle this minor stuff how do you even manage the real world or like a trip to the grocery store?

One group was raised on racist and gay puppets on Sesame Street; the other was raised by Barney the Dinosaur.

If I worked with someone who had been traumatized by a department store Santa and got freaked out at the very mention of Santa I would do what I could to make sure that I didn't freak that person out. That's just not being a dick. But not mentioning the word Santa because there could be someone, somewhere who might get offended by it is wrong. I don't think anyone has a "right" to not be offended, I think being offended is largely a choice that is made by an individual. I sometimes get a twinge when talking about masters and slaves in the DB environment, then I remember we're talking about hardware not people.

I actually don't think this is it at all. I think in real life people are actually quite sensitive to the people around them. I'm quite willing to bet that the majority of people would avoid using 'suicide' in their code if a co-worker had recently lost someone important to them through suicide and was having a hard time.

It just doesn't scale though. On the internet you know less about individual people and you're addressing a much wider audience. Two things that make it impossible/impractical/unreasonable to be sensitive to each individuals feelings/situation.

I agree with this.

To add one more thing, I think absurdities like that suicide thread do damage to people with legitimate complaints about things like subtly racist or otherwise discriminatory language. In exactly the same way that every false accusation of date rape makes it more difficult for real victims.

I stopped using mongo because the name is offensive.
[lol at that suicide github link...some people. Let me quickly alias kill to peacefully_negotiate_to_stop]

I strongly disagree with the bolded part. Happy with all the rest.

Innocent until proven guilty is, in my eyes, one of the key cornerstones of a free society. "Free" as in "free of oppression".

Taking any victim's claims very seriously and doing as much as you can to substantiate them? Now that is perfectly fine and should be the norm.

I have seen several cases where (as it turned out) false claims led to the marginalization of others.
In those cases, especially the high profile ones, the public is quick to dismiss the version from the accused and side with the perceived victim.
The consequences for the accused are severe and, to make matters worse, the judicial system takes years to clear that up. And at that point, hardly anyone takes notice.
More often than not, there is no notable public coverage of having the accused's name(s) cleared. Instead, the stigma of the initial accusation sticks stubbornly.

that is what i meant. i definitely wasn't advocating for a guilty until proven innocent in the legal sense. i just meant that victims should be treated as if they are telling the truth until evidence to the contrary comes up.

In a perfect world I don't think you name things Master/Slave, use terms such as "kill, suicide, murder, rape, etc." but here we are and trying to change everything is a utility calculation that seems to be incredibly one-sided against wholesale change.

this is why you should program in machine code

I'm offended you think code monkeys are machines!

You just made me google "binary penis" on my work computer...

to cleanse your mind, enjoy this picture of a christian science church

Some of those words are perfectly fine in the right context.

Saying "You can use the 'kill' command to permanently stop processes in linux" isn't offensive. However, saying "I am going to kill you" is.

I think kill is probably fine, but kinda speaks to a living thing in a way. HOW CAN YOU KILL THAT WHICH HAS NO LIFE!?

just use the -9 signal

Hah. I was helping my Dad clean out the garage one time and he had an old nativity scene box that said "WISEMEN SET" wrapped around a corner with the corner right between the 'I' and first 'S'. He couldn't figure out why I burst out laughing and pulled out my phone to take a picture of it.

OMG at the staggering level of incompetence from a $500B company or w/e Amazon is.




Just got the email above, I figured it had to be a scam as a) I've never heard of Synchrony Bank b) one of the links doesn't even work and c) the second link leads to this:




Why would a site that isn't amazon.com demand my Amazon password? Obvious phishing scam right? I mean that's the biggest no-no in the book.

But nope it's real. Apparently Synchrony used to be GE capital (which means my BofA bill pay will get even more confusing since I can't just name the thing Amazon then sort by that - but that's another gripe).

But Holy cow let's just send out a shady looking-email, with broken links, then immediately ask people for a password to another site when they get there. See old people - totally safe - feel free to do this all the time, then have your adult children unravel the mess for you.

I'm still not 100% sure it's not a phishing scam.

...unless you're talking to the process

and if you are, you might have some larger issues

Suzzer,

That is outrageous if real.

I am about 50% thinking it is a phishing scam atm.

It appears that Amazon is not the first party in any of this but in the best case it is Synchrony being allowed to use Amazon's logos and likeness (in a way that seems shockingly unintended by Amazon) and they are the incompetent party.

Likely Amazon has no idea what exactly is happening on this campaign but is allowing Synchrony to do it, which is still bad, but they are likely unaware of the details of this incompetence.

How can I test my SQLServer compatible sql locally on a mac, without connecting to a real database? Looking for something light and ideally in memory.

Essentially, I want a local version of http://sqlfiddle.com/, where I can build sample tables with sample data, and then write unit tests about what a certain query is supposed to be return.

The Alt keys on my laptop are no longer working. I'm thinking this may indicate the beginning of other problems?

As you can imagine, I'm having some difficulty using emacs. :|