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The problem is that Education is a soft science, and actually does not have a practical scientific base. Which education systems produce the best results and why? Ask that question, and you get a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

You could ask the question of Linux distributions, and eventually you would get answers depending on the user experience and the intended application, and the operational enviroment. You could determine what the best practices are. You could get expert answers that work every time.

You cannot do that in education. For example you could try to teach writing. But even today, the writers on the best seller lists do not study writing for four years of college, etc. They just sit down and write, and they figure out on their own how other writers did what they did. The teach themselves. The best way to ruin a writing career is to have a college education in it.

There are many other fields which are similar to this. Even in the Tech Review article, it sounds like what happens is that the teachers spark the kids interest, and then the kids really teach themselves at a rate that far outstrips the books.

Part of this problem is the very education system that produced these teachers. How many people here said "To heck with that subject! I will never use that!"? Plenty.

The problem is that if you have a data vacuum in something, it is very easy to fill it in with junk. Does anyone here know what happens when you process with junk data? Garbage in = garbage out. (and then you get folks like GWB)

Also, if you have a data vacuum, it is very easy to try to excuse this away, to try to justify this ignorance. "It was just a stupid subject anyhow. It was not cool." and then you have greased skids to a hostile attitude.

Real expertise in education would have a fix for this type of thing. A teacher would know how to get themselves effectively educated in science, or any other subject of choice. And could do this for the students as well. The you wouldn't have parents and administrators trying to fix and cheat the scores

Don't hold you breath waiting.

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Radio Free Nation
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and what is the response?

"We know that they are guilty because they were convicted of the crime, and we have no interest in helping a guilty man go free"

I have seen this on the news several times over the past few months. You can see the logic of it all. It is blind and arbitrary conviction to "principles" unencumbered by the thought process.

Now we transfer this to other areas of Law enforcement, and we can see how the lack of education and sheer strupidity can lead to the legal situations we face in the technology arena.

Yes, some of these people are in fact stupid, and to fix the problem would take several years of experience and education that you happen to have, but they don't.

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Radio Free Nation
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Actually, the worst situation would be if MS got control of their technology.

But not everyone is sympathetic to Sony. There was this comment earlier on slash, where the author lamented: Why, does everyone here want to spend their money on PS2s? When you buy a PS2, you give money to Sony, who is both a member of the MPAA and the RIAA.

This is one of the essential contradictions that geeks have to deal with. Games vs Politics. It can get confusing after awhile

It is like the old time monkey trap from India. You place a fruit into a jar where the hole in the top is just large enough for the fruit. When the monkey reaches in, the monkey's hand is then too big to take out while the monkey holds the fruit. To escape the Monkey has to let go of the fruit. The monkey, of course is too greedy, and the reactively holds on to the fruit while the hunter makes his approach. Bye, bye, monkey.

Now the right way for the Monkey to handle this would be to hack the jar by turning it over, spilling the fruit out. But there are no Monkey ackers that are smart enough to figure this out.

Fortunately, they do not have to deal with the monkey equivalent of the MPAA and RIAA. I think.

For Geeks, the choice is to either outsmart or avoid the trap.

It is a bloody mess when you start to mix your politics with your entertainments.

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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You have hit on the essential contradiction that geeks have to deal with. Games vs Politics

It is like the old time monkey trap from India. You place a fruit into a jar where the hole in the top is just large enough for the fruit. When the monkey reaches in, the monkey's hand is then too big to take out while the monkey holds the fruit. To escape the Monkey has to let go of the fruit. The monkey, of course is too greedy, and the reactively holds on to the fruit while the hunter makes his approach. Bye, bye, monkey.

Now the right way for the Monkey to handle this would be to hack the jar by turning it over, spilling the fruit out. But there are no Monkey hackers that are smart enough to figure this out.

Fortunately, they do not have to deal with the monkey equivalent of the MPAA and RIAA. I think.

For Geeks, the choice is to either outsmart or avoid the trap.

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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This should not be a problem.

After all Microsft has sold a version of NT that was claimed as being completely secure in compliance with some high level government standard. That particular configuration was one that had no network attached.

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Radio Free Nation
is a news site based on Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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Let's face it, probably the most fun most scientists have is in the middle of a war. If nothing else, it makes for great drinking stories, and it is often easier to get things done.

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Radio Free Nation
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This stuff drives me Schizo. I like the idea of better processors for games etc.

But I am getting tired of propping up the bloated performance and software design practices of certain very big software software companies.

Makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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If I recall correctly, the atmosphere of mars is one percent of that of earth. Which basically means that for the wind to have as much effect on you as a one mile an hour breeze, it has to be going one hundred miles an hour.

An example of this is the effect on dust in the atmosphere. The normal winds are simply not adequate to raise dust in any way. So the question then is, where do the famous martian dust storms come from? The answer seems to be meteor impacts, which would throw up enough junk into the atmosphere that it could take a while to clear out and settle down.

And so the red surface of the face of Mars makes more sense, when you imagine the impact of iron dust from the core thrown up and attracting all the free O2 in the atmosphere.

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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I'll pass on the obvious jokes.

In this situation of free email, the obvious point is that the folks who will be getting the email are folks with less education. This would be true if you imagine that personal income is generally proportional to education.

I can imagine the poor tech support flogs who have to help these folks out, Unless they make them go through a long and extended glass first. or have it at a city facility or a hall for a long time until the folks get certified that they are expert enough to have it set up at home.

It appears that the computer market has reached saturation in the US with maybe 60% of US homes having a computer. The other 40% may not be able to afford one, or the learning curve is a bit too steep.

I can see this. It can get really ugly.

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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But then, MS keeps messing with things.

maybe that's what they are doing. Not so much fixing bugs, but practicing security by randoming shifting the bugs around.

Sorta like Whack-a Mole

;-)

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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Max Headroom was brilliant, and totally did not see the advent of the Internet. They envisioned a world where TV was mandatory, and everything was run by TV conglomerates.

They missed the internet entirely. But aside from that, they were not all that bad.

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Radio Free Nation
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1. have a dotcom business plan. Original incestors get in, get rich, sell out.
2. Adopt the typical bean counter attitude of "Anything that is not a profit is an expense" Start cutting expenses. (I am reminded of an old cartoon where picture used to illustrate reducing everything to core elements was an apple with all of the meat of the apple eaten away, leaving just the core)
3. Have some competitors who are willing and able to help push you over the edge by being slow on service to your valued accounts
4. have a business plan that accumulates profits too far in the future.
5. etc.

(yes I see the typo. I was going to fix it, then thought better of it)

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Radio Free Nation
is a general news site based on Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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Take for example, a company that has 100 million dollars in sales in one year, with 20% of that as profit.

What the accounting types do is say that because sales could have been 200 million in a year, but were not because the speculative losses due to possible piracy, there is a loss of 100 million dollars.

Mind you this is purely speculative, undocumented, and paranoid.

But what this does is encourage various companies and organizations to persue legal remedies in a vain attempt to recover imagined losses. It provides a convenient scape goat for having a shit product in the first place.

That is why you have legal processes like this, and treaties that surrender the self rule of the member countries

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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Covad charges its customers less than the actual cost of setting up a new connection and makes that money back over time. McMinn says the company takes a bigger hit to set up business customers, but gets paid back more quickly than through its consumer business. So the company must strike a balancing act between its need to acquire customers, the cash it has to work with, and the time it takes to recoup its investment in new customers.

The times for telecom upstarts have become leaner as many companies across the industry have trouble building their networks

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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These days with digital actors, it might not be so much a problem.

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Radio Free Nation
is a news site based on Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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I don't thing that the comparison to XP is going to win many friends in the unix/linux community. Although I can see it as a Marketing Ploy for truly new users.

I think that it would be better to stay true to the origin of the system. Maybe even say that it is "better"

Tough call

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Radio Free Nation
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"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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Specifically, it didn't appeal to the shot'em up types, and the "gimmick" used for the plot was a little too pat for my taste.

So in some ways, it was typical Star Trek. I wonder how much the new graphics, and special effect enhancements can make up for the weakness of the original story.

To tell the truth, it would have been better to have a revisit from Harry Mudd, or something.

The common consensus was that the movie with Kahn was a much better story all around.

Still, should be interesting

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Radio Free Nation
is a general news site based on Slash Code
"If You have a Story, We have a Soap Box"
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I wonder how much disk space the 2 million plus messages take up.

Even at 1k per message, that 2 gig of data. I wonder if the broke down and got an IBM 100gig for the future.

I am glad to see the hall of fame, etc integrated to include everything since the dawn of time.

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Radio Free Nation
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Check out the Vinny the Vampire Comic Strip

Seems like there is a bunch of infighting going on

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Radio Free Nation
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Check out the Vinny the Vampire Comic Strip

I think that alot of consumer bad will is going to be generated with such an obvious grab for profits. [I know that I am going to spend some time heckling sales people on the Xbox over the holidays.]

It isn't like Microsoft doesn't have an image problem in this area to start with.

[heheheh]

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Radio Free Nation
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Check out the Vinny the Vampire Comic Strip

I need to have a cup of coffee in the morning before I post things

[smile]

Here is a quick sound timeline:

1987 AD-LIB soundcard released. Not widely supported until a software company, aito, released several games fully supporting AD-LIB - the word then spread how much the special sound effects and music enhanced the games. Adlib, a Canadian Company, had a virtual monopoly until 1989 when the SoundBlaster card was released.

1989 Release of Sound Blaster Card, by Creative Labs, its success was ensured by maintaining compatibility with the widely supported AD-LIB soundcard of 1987.

1989 World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee

1990 MPC (Multimedia PC) Level 1 specification published by a council of companies including Microsoft and Creative Labs. This specified the minimum standards for a Multimedia IBM PC. The MPC level 1 specification originally required a 80286/12 MHz PC, but this was later increased to a 80386SX/16 MHz computer as an 80286 was realised to be inadequate. It also required a CD-ROM drive capable of 150 KB/sec (single speed) and also of Audio CD output. Companies can, after paying a fee, use the MPC logo on their products.

1991 Linux is born

1992 Introduction of Windows 3.1

1992 Wolfenstein 3D released by Id Software Inc.

1992 Sound Blaster 16 ASP Introduced.

1993 MPC Level 2 specification introduced This was designed to allow playback of a 15 fps video in a window 320x240 pixels. The key difference is the requirement of a CD-ROM drive capable of 300KB/sec (double speed). Also with Level 2 is the requirement for products to be tested by the MPC council, making MPC Level 2 compatibility a stamp of certification.

1994 Doom II released - Command & Conquer released - Netscape 1.0 released - Linux Kernel. version 1.0 released

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duh