[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I've done this with screamers. There doesn't seem to be any other way to deal with them. At heart, they are schoolyard bullies, trying to pick on people that they think are "weaker" than they. Usually one good shriek back works, but I did have an employer/client that required an additional step. I think I'll pass on explaining that in detail, as I'm pretty sure it makes me sound like a loon.

More of a loon than the employer/client?

Agreed. It's pretty inexcusable. I have all of my rats' nest occupants labled and bundled, but it's also true that they DO seem to have a mind of their own, somehow--SOMEHOW--getting jumbled up.

I dream of a cable free environment, but it won't happen near term. I do try to tidy things with wire ties and Velcro, and label what various cables connect to. The biggest PITA is the chargers for various things, each of which has it's own idea of a power connector. I have a parts drawer full of such things, and in some cases I no longer recall just what they charge.

Hell, I name mine. Cute little buggers. I do find, however, that they are difficult to tell apart, darn it. Perhaps I ought to get them color-coded collars...hmmmm.

A favorite on line comic is User Friendly, set at a Canadian ISP. One of the characters is Dust Puppy. He appeared in the server room, but unlike others, he has eyes and feet. He uses the feet like hands, to write code and play Quake. Another character is Erwin, a snarky AI that normally resides in a Mac.

Dust Puppy wrote him. Erwin was introduced by Dust Puppy to Sid, the old time hacker who is the ISP's tech director.

Sid: "Whoa! That's impressive, little guy! What language did you write Erwin in?"

Dust Puppy: "COBOL"

Erwin: "I'm not your friend any more..."

User Friendly offered plush Dust Puppy toys, and I got one.

GMTA! That's what I tell people all the time (the slush pile comment), nearly verbatim. And, after 7 years of this now, I've come to have FAR more sympathy for editors and slush-pile readers than I ever did before. OTOH, let's be honest--you can rule out a bunch just by reading the cover letter/inquiry; and my theory is, if the book doesn't show decent promise by the time you've slogged through 5-10K words, it never will. I don't mean the oft-discussed "hook;" I just mean that unmistakable ebb and flow of a GOOD writer. The mastery of the word, the phrase, dialogue, etc. I can tell in one page if a book is worth even trying. That's a skill I'm sure we've all honed through Amazon's LITB.

I suspect experienced slush pile readers can tell in the first page or so.

For that matter, you can tell by the online blurbs. For instance, I can't wait for Zombies to be "so last year". Part of my problem is that I read SF/fantasy, and have for five decades. New writers often simply haven't read enough to know what was done to death 30 years ago, and won't get why folks like me say "Oh, no! Not Yet Another One of X!"

Hooooooooo, no. You're not gonna get me plastered with that one. I've been around websites for so many years now that I've SEEN all those promised but grossly-undocumented platforms, programs, and the like. BTDT.

I can offer you some tasty single malt...

The Easter-Egg Hunt for destructions or information or ANYTHING is certainly part of it with Joomla! (J!). But that's not the biggest issue I have with J!.
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I'll take your word for it, but since that's the case, why use it in the first place?

Yes. I'm simply accustomed to a completely different client base, and TYPE of client base. I've been lucky, working with some of the top hotel companies, RE Developers, architects, et al, in the WORLD, much less just here. My clients were always some of the sharpest guys in the room. Obviously, that's a pretty far piece from what I'm doing now, although we've been very lucky in clientele for this line of work, too.

I'm accustomed to dealing with sharp people too.

The former editor I mentioned earlier and I had a discussion at one point about the issues involved in communicating publishing reality to aspiring writers and readers. She said "The problem is, we're smart, and we surround ourselves with people who are smart. We tend to forget most people aren't smart until we have to deal with them. They just don't get things that are obvious to us." She was quite right.
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Dennis