nerd rage - uncool

re: nerd rage - uncool

kfarmer@microsoft.com — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:20:18 GMT

What do you mean "probably going to hand this over to the police"? Absolutely you should. This stuff has no business being allowed to continue.

(Of course, I personally question publishing one's cell phone number to all-an-sundry, but that's just paranoid me.)

re: nerd rage - uncool

Thomas — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:43:45 GMT

Sorry to hear about the nerd backlash. Apparently some people have too much time, and anger on their hands.

There is a great comic by xkcd, that I posted on my blog about comments people make:

http://scissormonkey.wordpress.com/2007/05/27/how-to-waste-time/

There is something about the anonymity of the Internet that let's people think they can say anything they want, that they would never say to someone's face.

re: nerd rage - uncool

Tom — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:19:20 GMT

Good post, and I agree with a lot of what you say. Except for one thing - why does leaving one's contact information in a post immediately give it any credibility? In my view, a post should be judged on its own merit - whether it is sensible or not, useful, insightful, etc. - and the real name and contact information shouldn't enter into that.

Also, good luck getting the police involved. One time, a couple months after 9/11, I received a death threat on my voice mail from someone whose voice I didn't recognize and who had a middle-eastern accent. I did call the police, they came over and listened to it, and they told me it was probably a prank call. I was genuinely scared, but they pretty much told me there was nothing they could do. That's kind of the reality of the situation.

re: nerd rage - uncool

JohnGalt — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:13:35 GMT

What you're talking about is called "Basic human dignity" and it's fading in the rear view mirror quickly. Treating someone with basic respect and honour is foreign much of the time now-a-days. (and has nothing to do with age, so I'm not waxing notalgic!)

It goes along with the other aspect that I've been seeing lately. You take responsibility for something and are knowledgable, thus you are to blame for anything even remotely related even if you have no control over it.

I'm all for taking responsiblity for your actions, but I have a hard time believing that I deserve to be screamed at simply because I happened to help you with your virus problem one day as a gesture of good will, and now 2 months later, Microsoft Word isn't working on your computer.

It all comes down to ignorance and more fundamentally laziness.

re: nerd rage - uncool

ai — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:56:48 GMT

@kfarmer,

You're right... I've gotten things underway. We'll see what we see. At this time, the PD doesn't look too interested.

re: nerd rage - uncool

ai — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:57:20 GMT

@Thomas,

That was a funny comic! Too funny, in fact.

ai (back to leaving comments on youtube)

re: nerd rage - uncool

ai — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:00:05 GMT

@Tom,

> why does leaving one's contact information in > a post immediately give it any credibility?

Well, ok... its not so much that it adds credibility as much as it tells me that you (or whoever) is not hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and saying whatever you (or they) want. Leaving a name or your email or your blog address tells me that you are not picking a fight for the sake of picking a fight. And that if needed, you can be reached and we can talk about this beyond the comment spool here.

And yikes (about the call you received). That would've been scary.

Whatever Happened to Civility on The Internet?

Programming — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:41:59 GMT

In response to Wil Shipley's recent post about the lack of an iPhone SDK , a reader left this comment

the most bizarre call. ever.

Artificial Ignorance - Anand Iyer's Blog — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:26:19 GMT

I've received several several bizarre calls since I first put my phone number up on my blog. I've received