Was that really directed at me? It makes no sense if you read my first very short paragraph.
That LMGTFY as a reply to someone is being an asshole, I have never done it and it’s against board rules.
Another minor disagreement, but with regards to LMGTFY. Especially on a technical subject, you can google it, and get dozens of possible hits, even if you add other key words inferred from the rest of the post. That can make LMGTFY gripes less relevant.
A second note, that there’s a world of difference between dismissing a term or acronym with an grieved or entitled “explain this to me!” and asking politely for help with understanding. Context matters.
Sorry, I was making a joke - you brought up three words that don’t mean anything, obviously there’s no relevant results when you Google it, and yes the LMGTFY link is rather rude which was meant to be funny in combination with a link that is, in actuality, completely useless. I could have made that clearer!
Oh sorry, bro. I didn’t click on the link because I was so annoyed. My bad. I wonder how long before it becomes Googleable and links to my post.
But aren’t there other current threads where such a poll would get a more informed response?
No problem - the naked link shows what the search terms are but the preview doesn’t, so you’d have no way of knowing it was a link to search for Transcombulated Reticorous Diviniator in hindsight.
I’m thinking such a thread would be interesting and attract meaning discussion.
“Sure can. $50 an hour portal to portal.”
In the same vein, I tried so many times explaining to people the difference between Wifi at home and data over cell service, but it was almost always useless.
Venues objected to the protests and attention he was getting. And staff that wasn’t showing up in protest of his political positions. There actually was no message promoted in his shows; it was because he was labeled a Zionist.
Macklemore is an antisemite. Let’s just make clear: you don’t object to people promoting hate having pressure brought to not have venues available for them. It isn’t unAmerican to use the power you have to influence that: by protesting them; boycotting; or just not letting them use your stage.
This is not a free speech case. It is a case of Kraft being a clumsy idiot who created sympathy for an ass and ironically gave the performer greater amplification than letting him perform would have done. The speech was widely perceived as political only. I understand why some perceive it as more, even if I do not, but that’s not the story line out there. And the perception is the impact. An antisemite is being made the hero for free speech against a wealth Jewish billionaire. Great.
No need to belabor here, albeit this thread is more hijacks than anything else! 
Where I work, I support a lot of non-technical people with a lot of technical stuff. That’s probably the biggest part of my job. And I don’t generally want to seem like some kind of wizard performing arcane magic spells that mortals can’t possibly comprehend with their limited minds… I try to explain as best as I can, in clear terms, what the issue is, why it happened, how I fixed it, and how they can avoid the problem in the future. I also try to teach people how to use technology better and how to understand new tools they’re given in ways they can understand.
So, much of what I do is translating tech gibberish and difficult concepts to people with little-to-no background in the subject. I’m used to it. I’m decent at doing it; I should be since I’ve been doing it for close to 30 years now. I have no problem with translating things for non-techies. And I don’t consider it “dumbing down” things… There’s a huge difference between being dumb and just not knowing something. You can have the most brilliant person in the world who might just not happen to speak a language you know, and if you translate into a language you do know, you’re not “dumbing it down” for someone more intelligent than you. It’s just translation. That’s how I think of it, is translation.
So again, I have no problem doing it. But there are times when you just can’t. I have different kinds of conversations with fellow techs at my job than I have with other people, because we have to talk about highly technical concepts in ways that we know well, and it just makes no sense to do it in such a way that it would be comprehensible to a layman.
Let’s say I’m talking about a CMOS, do I spell it out to Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor? No, because if someone doesn’t know what CMOS is, they sure as fuck aren’t going to understand what the acronym is short for. There’s a difference between avoiding slang and having to give someone an entire lesson on computer hardware and software.
I don’t mind giving those lessons, and I have tried to do that here on occasion when it seems warranted, but the time to do so isn’t when people are debating technical issues or trying to do high level stuff. It’s just not appropriate. That’s not gatekeeping, that’s just sometimes how those discussions have to go in order for them to be productive.
That was a huge part of my job too and I followed the identical approach. I was very good at it. I’m happy to explain teach them how to do themselves next time if they’re open to it. I led a weekly meeting that was highly technical. Everyone was invited and random people would show up sometimes. We had shit to do in that hour and it would have been inappropriate to slow things down and explain what a FEAB is. Meet me afterwards and I’ll be happy to explain.
Why a person with no technical experience or education feels like they can tell us how to appropriately behave in or area of expertise is beyond me. It’s just silly.
That’s a great approach I also always tried to take when doing IT support. I’m a learned EE, I’m thinking technical, but I’m also a user, so I try to put myself in their shoes. I’ve also done computer lessons for beginners, and it’s not always easy for someone with my background to teach and help people who have no tech-affinity whatsoever.
But yeah, in support, it can sometime grate on your nerves.
I mean, the answer to “what does usb-c” mean is not to work out the acronym, it’s to say, “it’s a common cable type that you might use for [example]”. That’s exactly what you’d have said to someone who asked about “SSCI” back when it was likely to come up.
With the difference that when SCSI was king, the WWW didn’t exist. Now you google “USB-C” and have all the information you need.
Re the sheehan concert: my son just texted to tell me a concert he was going to has been cancelled. He was going to a concert by one of the other groups that quit in support of macklemore. This was a smaller concert, of just that group, but he assumes that without the Sheehan gig, they cancelled their tour. Maybe that was their transportation.
He says he’s surprised at how many people have heard of the controversy.
So, thanks sdmb, for helping me look like less of an idiot to my son.
Sorry, but the algorithms that decide what music I listen to never played that one for me. Maybe your algorithms choose more contemporary music.
It’s more like, everywhere you went it was playing, it was a big popular hit at its time.
Of course, that’s a USA-centric viewpoint. I don’t know if he has international appeal.
I’m also biased because he’s a local Seattle guy so I see him show up on TV all the time. He’s also a big supporter of local sports teams.
Maybe, but I’ve noticed very few threads that aren’t the dedicated poll thread even have polls. I wonder if it’s because of the thread in question…?
I am also disappointed that my GD thread went like it did. Should I have expected it? Is there a way to get to the general questions I was asking about without the wide ranging hijacks? I’ll have to think about it.