Sex, not gender

Continued from here (where I seem to have reached the thread's size limit), regarding Disapora's choice to use a text field for Gender instead of a drop down for Sex:

I agree that sex is not a simple binary, although the vast majority of the human population is not hermaphrodite or neutered. But let's consider that n%, as I'm sure you'll agree it is the rights of the minority that are the most important when considering how to design a new society like Diaspora.

Are anyone's rights being infringed up by having a drop down for Sex (options being Male, Female, Other, ..) instead of a text box for Gender? You say such an approach would implicitly treat them as freaks- funny your usage of "implicitly" here, as though I am implying anything. I am not. If such a conclusion is reached, it is by inference, i.e., someone else is inferring it. In other words, it is their problem that they would think I am calling them a freak, not mine. Sorry to get tautological here, but if they are not male or female then they are not male or female, and as such should be given an option for neither. This says nothing about whether or not they are freaks. Any reading into it as such is just bringing one's own prejudices where they are not justified.

As far as denying their existence by giving them this option- um, no? Isn't giving them the option in fact recognizing their existence? Wouldn't it be a denial of their existence if the option wasn't given?

Think of it another way: gender is subjective. What is masculine in one culture may be feminine in another. What makes me manly in my eyes could make me womanly in yours. Sex on the other hand is objective. I either have a penis or vagina or neither or both. I may feel manly today and womanly tomorrow, but the sexual organs I have do not change on a daily basis. Male in Italy and Australia and 13th century France is male in America, today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

I want my user profile to reflect the fixed status of this aspect of my objective self. It seems other people want to have a non-fixed reflection of a subjective aspect of their self. Fine. How about this for a compromise: give users both the free-form text field for Gender and the drop down for Sex. This solution recognizes the validity of both our points, as I believe there both are. As it is right now, Diaspora is limiting its appeal by excluding people with preferences like mine, and I'm sure you'll agree that maximizing its appeal would be good for Diaspora.

Friend looking for employment

Anybody need pet-or-house sitting or house cleaning services? I have a friend who is in desperate need of funds. She has references and experience in these things.

testing 1

this is one of many test posts i'll be making today; these posts are only tests meant to debug an external system; had this been an actual post, you would not be encouraged to ignore this. this is only a test.

Why is my ASP:Image not accessible from the vb?

I just figured this out. Figured it might bite someone else someday.

Given this code in an aspx file:

      <table width="100%">
            <tr>
                  <td class="normaltxt10" colSpan="50">
                  <!--
                  <asp:DataGrid id="dgImage" runat="server" ShowHeader="False"
                                AutoGenerateColumns="False" TabIndex="5">
                        <Columns>
                              <asp:BoundColumn Visible="False" DataField="file"></asp:BoundColumn>
                              <asp:TemplateColumn>
                                    <ItemTemplate>
                                    -->
                              <asp:Image ID="screenShotImage" Runat="server"></asp:Image>
                                    <!--
                                    </ItemTemplate>
                              </asp:TemplateColumn>
                        </Columns>
                  </asp:DataGrid>
                  -->
                  </td>
            </tr>
      </table>

Why would screenShotImage be not accessible in the vb code behind?

Answer: because it's in the commented out DataGrid, and in my case, dgImage wasn't referenced at all in the vb.
Removing the commented out DataGrid will fix this.
Like so:

      <table width="100%">
            <tr>
                  <td class="normaltxt10" colSpan="50">
                        <asp:Image ID="screenShotImage" Runat="server"></asp:Image> 
                  </td>
            </tr>
      </table>

This is stupid in my opinion, but whatever. Now we know.

Far as a rental car can go

Gosh, I love driving the hell out of a rental car. I mean, it's not mine, and so long as I don't total it or get caught, no repercussions for me, right? I won't have to live with this car for very long, don't have to worry about any long term maintenance of it, so I can use it and abuse it with reckless abandon. The sheer acceleration that I'd never do in my car, knowing that it's all consequence-free because it's not my property that I'm fooling around with, there's simply No Comparison to that kind of thrill, is there?
If only I could live, constantly and henceforth, with the joy of non-ownership of that which I have: a house that I don't have to clean, friends that I don't have to be nice to, a body I can just totally let go of- that would be awesome. And if everybody else could do the same, surely that would be heaven.

Output from a friend's cool applet

From here to here.

Must come back later and fool around with this some more.
I think my nephew (who has shown interest in animation) would really enjoy this.

Heh

Working with XSL right now:

                               <xsl:choose>
                                 <xsl:when test="1=1">
                                   1=1
                                 </xsl:when>
                                 <xsl:otherwise>
                                   1=2
                                 </xsl:otherwise>
                               </xsl:choose>

prints out 1=1.
But

                               <xsl:choose>
                                 <xsl:when test="a=a">
                                   a=a
                                 </xsl:when>
                                 <xsl:otherwise>
                                   a=b
                                 </xsl:otherwise>
                               </xsl:choose>

prints out a=b.

So, a does not equal a, eh?