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Have you noticed – The question is answered

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It’s been mentioned on numerous occasions by many different people (mostly complaining) about the “off-topic” discussions posted here, and whether or not they’re appropriate and/or if TechRepublic cares about it.

Has anyone noticed that on the TR main pages (Home, CIO, IT Manager, etc.) that TechRepublic has been calling attention to them?

Today on the TR Home page:

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Members fuel debate on hacker fate, metric system, and raises

Give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a kilometer

Among the non-IT related discussions cropping up in TechRepublic’s Discussion Center was a spirited debate about the metric system. As usual, members strongly argued their positions, although they occasionally wandered off topic to discuss things like the 55 MPH speed limit and encroaching world government.

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And a week ago was this one:

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Have you read the latest on Sobig, whaling, and UNIX?

Where do you stand on whaling?

As history proves with the devotion to things like Linux, OS/2 and the Amiga, IT professionals are a passionate and opinionated group when it comes to technology. In TechRepublic’s Discussion Center, you’ll quickly discover that same fervor extends to other things, like the resumption of whaling and the shuttle crash.

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And of course, links were provided by TR to those off-topic discussions.

So I guess we have our answer. Not only does it appear that TechRepublic doesn’t care, but they’re using it to their own advantage. Way to go – turn a potential lemon into lemonaide!

Topic

Yes I saw that

In reply to Have you noticed – The question is answered

I actually noticed that about ten minutes before your post.

Anything that creates popularity is in their best interests. If this turned in to a discussion group about Nuking Gay Whales for Jesus, they would just get a new URL to suit it. Anyone running a site such as this would be keen to see activity that equals TR discussions, people>clicks>advertising>money>people>clicks> advertising….

mmm….

In reply to Have you noticed – The question is answered

…. lemonade!

Free Exchange of Ideas

In reply to Have you noticed – The question is answered

Hi Max,

Well, isn’t it stated that the purpose of this forum is the free exchange of ideas between IT professional.

We can’t help it if some of our ideas are not directly related to IT topics.

I look at the TR discussion center as our virtual water cooler.
You can get an idea that helps solve a problem from the strangest places.

Chas

It goes to show….

In reply to Free Exchange of Ideas

We don’t all have our head buried inside our servers! There is a big wide world out there and sometimes even the most ‘dyed in the wool’ geek needs to mouth off about something other than M$ vs. Linux or pay vs. happiness!

Keep it up fellas…I can’t handle computers 24/7 without a little ‘variety’…after all, it is the spice of life!

So let’s talk imported beers… ;)

In reply to It goes to show….

I agree Guru, I enjoy my occupation and I like technology a great deal but I need some diversionary topics once in a while to remind me of the blood that flows through my veins.

001100 001 00111 00011…darn deversionary time over 001 turning 001111010101001 back 111000 to work mode…

😉

Imports

In reply to So let’s talk imported beers… ;)

A beer lover myself, I get confused by Imports.
Imports could mean such rare to North America brews such as Boddingtons or Harps. Guinness WAS but now can be found everywhere.

If I go across the border for gas (not so much anymore due to distance now)I can buy Imported Molson Canadian for less than it sells in Canada?!

You can buy Imported Labatts here, Labatts is one block from my development office in New Westminster. I guess to get it to Vancouver Island they consider it importing, even though it’s American beer brewed in Canada (in the same factory Budweiser and Coors [shudder]is brewed in).

Labatts also imports and bottles Scotch, Russian Vodka and Lambs Navy Rum [wino liquid].

So what is imported beer really? It’s brewed and bottled locally, distributed across Canada and carries an imported from the USA label?

ADDENDUM

In reply to Imports

After reading my last post it reads as if Labatts is American, what I meant is that Labatts can be bought here with the Imported from the USA label, even though it is Canadian beer, brewed down the road from my AD office.

Imported Beers

In reply to So let’s talk imported beers… ;)

As you will probably realise, this particular Guru is pretty well travelled. There aren’t many places I haven’t been, and there are a few places I’ve been that I’d rather not go to again (Israel springs to mind)!

When I was ten years old, back in the late 70’s, our family lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. The Old Man was working there for a year on a naval contract and there were about 20 British ex-pat families living in Rio. All the kids went to the British School, and at weekends we’d all head for the pool or the beach. The ‘wrinklies’ used to drink the local brew, which had the intriguing name ‘Brama Chop’ and for some reason this is one of the memories that has always stuck in my mind.

Near where I live, there is a company called The Beer Seller, who claim to be able to import ANY beer from ANYWHERE in the world. Now in my mid-30’s, I decided to give them a challenge…could they find me a few cans of Brama Chop?

Well, paste my balls with maple syrup and stick them to an ant-hill, a week later, I got a call asking me to come in and collect them. Off I went, paid my money and drove home to imbibe some nostalgia.

I’m not kidding….this stuff was God-awful! It even made Budweiser taste drinkable and up to now that has to be the worst attempt at beer I’ve ever sampled.

No wonder that when the British Antartic Expedition called in to Rio for a few days on HMS Endurance, there was a run on the ship’s bar when the ex-pat Brits were invited on-board! Worthington Party 7’s never tasted so good!

Yum

In reply to Imported Beers

Talk about a candy store ! I can’t belive thay got you a case. You sure they’re not just rebottling Coors (that tastes like shite too)?

I am off to the Isle of Wight soon and simply can’t wait to suck back a few in the Spyglass. I think the pub crawl on the IOW is probably the best in the world, you can literally CRAWL from pub to pub with little effort (good thing for me).

I will undoubtedly be bringing a rather vast collection back with me, just to make the fridge look pretty.

Godards Fuggle-Dee-Dum, Ale of Wight and Duck’s folly and Ventnor’s Oyster Stout, maybe a little Holy Joe from the Undercliff. I can hardly wait, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!

Don’t forget…

In reply to Yum

Burts Island Ales…brewed in Ventnor! Lovely drop!

Let me know when you’re over…if I can find time and the wife lets me, I’ll hop over on the ferry from Southampton and have a jar with you 🙂

Will be over in Dec/Jan

In reply to Don’t forget…

I;m coming over on Dec 17th but will be headed straight for Grmany. I am doing dome bedtrack work with Massacre records and then back to London/St.Albans area to help another group with development and label presentation.

I will be on the IOW HOPEFULLY by June/July but I’d rather wait til Cowes week. A lot of relatives around then.

My permanent move plans keep getting delayed because of other offers here. Just when I think the market is drying up, a new group finds me or a client calls for a network support contract.

I really miss the winkles, fish and chips and brews! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, brews beer better!

If only GuruOf Dos

In reply to It goes to show….

It just goes to show what some people thing that us “Computer Geeks” should be doing 24/7 doesn’t it?

I have seen postings on some off topic discussions asking “Whats this got to do with computers?” It almost as if we’re not expected to have a life outside of our own small area of work and somehow we’re suspose to be completly devoted to it at the expence of all else.

I really don’t know where thsi strange idea comes from but I put it down to some CEO’s and the like believing that the job is all that’s important and we should think of nothing else.

Haven’t they ever heard of burnout?

If we all spent 24/7 talking computers and the like we would soon get sick and tired of it and leave the industry or at the very least get some much needed holiday time as often as posible.

[Author]

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