3/26    I'm currently taking an approach to life that includes elimination
        of things which are both unecessary and unpleasant. I'm not quite sure
        whether rants on the MOTD qualify, but I'm leaning towards yes. In
        which case, do they exist only because of immaturity? This is not a
        troll, I'm interested in what people think. -jhs
        \_ Log off.  Go outside.  Repeat.
        \_ Posting them or reading them? :-)   I suspect most of them are
           posted from boredom and most reply out of boredom just to keep
           it going to give everyone something to do during the day.  If
           motd rants are that high on your list then either you're spending
           way too much time here or I envy the tiny unpleasantness in your
           life.  IMO, they're mostly harmless.
           \_ I have lots of awesome right now -jhs
           \_ Agreed, they're mostly harmless.  I don't take the motd too
              seriously, it's basically verbal jousting for me.
              Occasionally it includes useful information.  Once in a while
              there's a good, i.e. well reasoned, thoughtfully argued,
              discussion to be had, but, if the motd is representative, then
              most CS folk have poor rhetoric and debate skills.  It is a
              \- The Calif state high school debate champions for 1985 work
                 for for Cisco and Tivo. For 1986 champions, one did CS
                 undergrad at the 'Fraud (but then as with his partner,
                 went to law school). Half of the best team in 1984 [didnt win
                 state but won the berkeley tourney] is working for Sun.
                 Another of the mid-80s power pair has one half who made a
                 lot of $$$ early at oracle and then went through so-so
                 dot coms and his parner did cs undergrad at UCB and then
                 PHD at UIUC in compliers.
                 dot coms and his parner did cs undergrad at ucb and then
                 phd at uiuc in compliers.
                 \_ I don't have stories this impressive, but 1/2 of my
                    HS debate team (~10 ppl) went to Cal for some eng.
                    major (mostly EE/CS). Many, including myself, have
                    since moved on to law school.
                    Of the last 4 interns I've hired from Cal, all were
                    HS Varsity debate w/ a tourney win.
                    I always thought that HS debate was basically some-
                    thing that many engineers did in HS b/c it was one
                    of those activities like chess club or computer club
                    where you could hang out w/ other intelligent ppl
                    and talk about completely useless stuff that normal,
                    well adjusted kids couldn't care less about (like the
                    benefits of running a counterplan).
              reliable source for amusement in the form of trolling and
              trash-talking.  In my family, this was our after-dinner
              entertainment.  After we had a serious discussion about politics,
              ethics, current events, or whatever over dinner, my brothers and
              I would play a game of trash-talking top this.  Although it's
              crass, there is a real art to it and it takes creativity and
              intelligence to do it well.  If you find it unnecessary and
              unpleasant then the motd probably isn't the best place to spend
              your spare time.  The motd has a tradition of crass trolling and
              namecalling that predates both of us by easily a decade. -dans
        \_ I've rant'ed on the motd from time to time and I think it was
           helpful to have some people to talk to when things were going
           badly at work, &c. Its like calling up your brother and blowing
           off steam b/c QA can't get their fracking act together and you
           have to spend ya weekend at work b/c of their screwups.
           \_ Totally agree. And it's cheaper than therapy too!
        \_ Sorry, I mean the flame wars more than the rants -jhs
           \_ I guess flame wars are unpleasant, but I'm not sure
              they are unnecessary. Sometimes its better for people
              to work out their idiocy in a safe environment, like
              the motd, rather than irl. I've had to work w/ some
              real arses over the years; if they talked out of
              arse on the motd instead of in the hallways, the
              overall work env. would have been better. I'm guessing
              that some of the usual suspects re flaming on soda
              are probably nicer in person b/c they can get that
              stuff out of their system.
              Unless I'm really bored, I just skip the flame threads.
              Usually there is plenty of non-flame stuff on the motd.
           \_ Potato, potato.  They do appear to be correlated.  Perhaps a
              better solution is to write some code.  Imagine a motd viewing
              utility that allows you to mark threads you want to ignore.
              Voila, all the motd love, none of the flame wars.  I've got
              bigger irons in the fire, but I may right this some time.
              -dans
              \_ I am sure kchang has written this already.
                 \_ urlP
        \_ http://wigu.com/overcompensating/2006/03/misspent-leisure.html