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Comment Chess club does have responsibility to investigate (Score 1) 97

It isn't a chess club's responsibility to investigate crime.

I would disagree. It is absolutely the responsibility of the chess club to investigate crime/potential crime that is committed by someone operating under the auspices of that chess club. Same with any other organization, no matter how far removed from law enforcement. At the least, there is an obligation to contact the appropriate authorities who do investigate crime.

In this particular case, the potential criminal may have access to more victims of abuse because the victims sign up for events due to endorsement by the chess club.

In a similar vein, it would be as silly to say, "Our church doesn't have the resposibility to investigate whether our priests are abusing minors, because it is not the place of a church to investigate crime."

Comment US Chess and STLCC, not just the introverts (Score 1) 97

The point of this protest action and the news story is that no action was taken. Even if "a bunch of autists, people with underdeveloped social skills, and emotional growth delays.... are having trouble with social behavior and personal boundaries", their actions need to be looked into, and this wasn't done. If being socially underdeveloped gives a free pass to unquestioned sexual assault, people would live in fear of the socially underdeveloped.

In this case, victims came forward in private to accuse chess grandmasters, and nothing happened. They made public their allegations, and there was a slap on the wrist, and then things went back to the way they were.

By contrast, imagine if someone privately accused some company of making insecure software, and nothing happened. Then they made public the software vulnerability. The company said, "Oh, okay, well it's fixed now. That vulnerability won't be a problem any more." (And also hinted that the fault was the accuser's in making public the vulnerability.) We would be tearing that company to bits in forums like Slashdot. We'd support the accuser even if the accuser didn't have to make sacrifices to his reputation or withdraw from the tech field because of the vulnerability he brought to light.

I'd say alleged victims of sexual assault deserve at least that much, if not more. (Yes, even just "alleged" victims -- they at least deserve a chance to be considered "victims" and not just "alleged victims".)

Comment Beware of false dichotomy: why no investigation? (Score 3, Insightful) 97

I think the main thing seems to be that no one did investigating; e.g. the STLCC said "This is not our concern."

It would be one thing to have several people claim to be victims, and then the alleged perpetrator is immediately castigated. I don't think anyone is suggesting that.

It would be an entirely different thing to have several people claim to be victims, and then people say, "Well, there was this case where the accusations were false. So every such case must be due to false accusations," and not investigate anything.

The fact that people are willing to come forward despite having to go through the distress and shame of making their ordeal public lends weight to the fact that they must have a strong motivation to do so. The fact that Jennifer Shahade was a public chess figure, but no longer, does not seem to be because she chose to malign someone else in cooperation with other chess players.

Here on Slashdot, we support people who go through as simple ordeals as losing an YouTube account without adequate explanation. I would say that people who admit details of being victim of a sexual assault, supported by a WSJ article, are more credible than this.

Comment I like the font, including the braces (Score 1) 96

I read vitrectomy as vasectomy and wondered how badly the surgery must have went to cause eye damage. Maybe I too should have my eyes checked.

See, you wouldn't have read that wrong if you had installed the Intel Mono One font, where the letters are unmistakeably distinct, and also the emoji for vasectomy and vitrectomy are so different.

Okay, all kidding aside, I'll weigh in on this too. I love the curly braces. Clear, distinct, and stylish.

But when I install the font on GVim, the lines are spaced a bit too far apart. If only I could get it to vertically squeeze out more empty space between the lines, that would be great. It's probably just a GVim thing and not necessarily the font. But I love being able to zoom out and still read the font clearly.

I think the debate about the curly braces will end up rather like I.M.Pei's ultramodern glass pyramid in the middle of Renaissance-era French architecture. It's not what people expected, so people complained, but now the Louvre is iconic for its avant-garde juxtaposition.

Comment Re:Just choose the same server as these celebritie (Score 1) 28

I mean, I don't think Jeri Ryan or Mark Ruffalo are particularly more computer-savvy than us Slashdotters, and they managed to find a server.

It's not about being computer-savvy, it's about users' very low tolerance for complexity (the very reason Twitter succeeded in the first place).
The fact is that Mostodon had it's big moment and it quickly fizzled. Maybe it is the enduring network effect of Twitter, in which case Bluesky is in trouble, or it's that extra bit of complexity that Mastodon has.

Hmm. I guess I should address your point.
s/computer-savvy/tolerant of extra complexity/g

I mean, I don't think Jeri Ryan or Mark Ruffalo are particularly more tolerant of extra complexity than us Slashdotters, and they managed to find a server.

There we go.

Comment Just choose the same server as these celebrities (Score 1) 28

Choosing a server is easy. You can pick the same server as Mark Ruffalo, @MarkRuffalo@mastodon.social
Or you can choose the server with Jeri Ryan, @JeriLRyan@mastodon.world
Or you can choose Morgan Fairchild, @morgfair@newsie.social
Or maybe Bradley Cooper, @bradleycooper@stranger.social
Or George Takei, @georgetakei@universeodon.com

In case it wasn't obvious, the servers they use are the part after the @ sign that comes after their name, so they are using mastodon.social, mastodon.world, newsie.social, stranger.social, or universeodon.com

I mean, I don't think Jeri Ryan or Mark Ruffalo are particularly more computer-savvy than us Slashdotters, and they managed to find a server.

Comment Varicella and zoster are caused by the same virus. (Score 1) 215

Erm?
Seriously?
Why do you post this?
What have chicken pox and shingles to do with each other?

Nothing?

What a snarky reply. Though it contributes nothing to the discussion, you poke fun at the writer.

Unfortunately, it just showcases your ignorance. You are saying, "Hey, people, I don't know what causes varicella (chickenpox) and zoster (shingles)!"

It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you are dumb, than to open it and prove them right.

Meanwhile, your homework is to read about the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles. And adjust your attitude.

Comment disagree: we need non-corporate clouds (Score 1) 10

A lot of what he does is marketing and pushing for ways to utilize cloud platforms. This is a very corporate friendly approach since you have to pay to use cloud platforms. I wouldn't be surprised if they begin moving all emphasis toward everything cloud. It seems like a step backwards as far as enabling people to control their software as you now rely on some corporate entity to allow you to access or manipulate your software.

To the contrary, I think the situation is that the world is moving toward cloud-based platforms, which till now have been synonymous with large corporations who can afford the big infrastructure needed. I welcome the opportunity to have clouds that are run by the masses for the masses.

Comment Re:And Why... (Score 1) 48

Except for the women. ;-)

How many women on Slashdot??

Enough to make a difference, I'd say.
While this is not meant to be some call-to-arms for cancel culture, and I am not a woman who is out to rage against male tyranny, I think recent social trends should act as a reminder to question our own assumptions about the status quo.
Yes, I have no doubt that there are more men than women on Slashdot, but a rather dismissive comment implying that we can ignore women is a step in the wrong direction.
In the past there have been a few Slashdot topics on women in the nerdly world of computers and high-tech where a number of female Slashdotters have posted comments, leading me to think that there must be quite a number of Slashdotters who never mention their own gender, don't make it obvious from their Slashdot handle, and whom we might easily, but mistakenly, assume that they must be male.
I mean, imagine if some other minority was being dismissed, like:
"[insert news item here] This is great news, except for people who work at Oracle." "Well, how many people work for Oracle??"
or
"[insert comments about some software bug] This only affects you if your birthdate is on the first of the month." "Well, how many people are born on the first of the month??"
Yes, I know you probably meant it as a light-hearted comment, but unquestioned assumptions are the basis of systemic discrimination and microaggression .
Despite great variability in the maturity level of Slashdotters, I view the Slashdot community, as a whole, as having a more enlightened view of the world, our society, and ourselves, and I'd like to see us move past these self-defeating assumptions.

Comment Here's why I think people voted for Trump (Score 4, Insightful) 958

Yes, I think we must not lose sight of the fact that just about half of the country voted for Trump. In fact, one of my family members supports Trump, although he is not American and did not get to vote. I asked him why, but he refused to explain.

I can't figure it out. It seems irrational, but all these people voting for Trump. I think the best guess for it is this: although overall Trump is very bad as a president, he does something or other that fulfills one of our fantasies, whether it is telling China off, whether it is being direct and crude, or otherwise doing something that we secretly wish people in high office could do but would be unprofessional and which we think would probably never happen. But Trump does it, and doesn't really care that it breaks decorum, he just goes ahead and does it. And he would be the only president unprofessional enough and rude enough to do it. so somehow or other some sort of need is fulfilled in Trump.

That's the only thing I can think of to explain why all these people are voting for Trump.

Comment here's your answer: 25-person limit (Score 1) 121

There are much better solutions for online schooling than a video conference suite.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vedamo.com%2F
Beats them by mile. Shared whiteboards. Teacher controls. Specifically designed for classroom and remote learning.
My daughter's weekend language school has been using it for some of the lessons since Xmas and has switched to it completely after the lockdown.

I checked the web site for Vedamo. The maximum number of users in a conference is 25.

My child has also been attending school remotely, and yesterday (which would be typical) there were 39 participants on the meeting.

I don't know what fraction of schools have class sizes under the 25-person limit implemented by Vedamo -- I suppose private schools for the well-to-do would have a lower student-to-teacher ratio -- but it is not surprising at all that people don't use Vedamo, especially since they pretty much tell you that it's only free for a while before you have to start paying for it. (Not saying that paying would be wrong or bad, only that it explains why people don't choose Vedamo over Zoom.)

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Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. - Paul Tillich, German theologian and historian

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