Slashdot Mirror

http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/02/18/enginneers-vs-sociologists/

http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/02/18/enginneers-vs-sociologists/

Wish this wasn't so late, but this is the first thing I thought of: http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2007/05/27/the-truth-about-wireless-devices/

Ya this seems pretty damned sad though the great grandparents strip-gaming thing sounds absolutely awesome for parties.

Every time you get fragged you have to take an item of clothing off.

For best effect a game with a moderate kill rate would be best and with a few seconds respawn time so you have time to get the clothing off.

combine with some kind of drinking game and you'd be on to a winner- model it on alcoholic chess
http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/01/06/alcoholic-chess/
where say every time you get 2 kills in a row you have to take a drink.

http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/02/18/enginneers-vs-sociologists/

I think it's not a matter of political correctness, but truth. The US isn't the best at a whole lot of things, a lot of things the US has or does is now ranked 15th to 40th, depending on what it is.

This illustrates that point:
http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/10/26/were-not-number-one/

It isn't to say that the US does everything terribly, I just don't like it when people say things on just blind faith. Often times those people hadn't even visited another developed country.

I like beck. Perhaps you are too educated for your own good.

I hate this new trend of people who are too "intellectual"; like it is somehow bad for you! When did being smart in the U.S. become associated as a negative trait. Illustrated aptly here http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2008/10/05/elect-a-president-just-like-me/

Here you go,

http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2007/08/27/wellington-grey-gets-married/

Seems exactly the sort of thing you are looking for.

Surely we all know the truth about wifi?! Wifi eats babies!!

Here:
http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2007/05/27/the-truth-about-wireless-devices/

But...but...but what about the baby eating WiFi routers?

Do away with the babies, then we don't need baby monitors anymore. Voila! Better wi-fi. I'm willing to sacrifice all your babies for better wi-fi.

It's a self-solving problem: http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2007/05/27/the-truth-about-wireless-devices/

Great, between this and the looming threat of wireless routers, http://miscellanea.wellingtongrey.net/2007/05/27/the-truth-about-wireless-devices/ we're all doomed.

Don't want to have people seeing your private shit? Don't keep it out in the open, in public view. Don't want interlopers driving through your community? Make it gated and pay for your own maintenance instead of expecting the local government to take care of it for you.

No kidding. Britain's response to Google's Street View has been crazy.

What is the practical difference between science and religion with respect to determining truth?
Observe this handy flowchart.

After an entire generation of all males I think the stigma against females will evaporate rather rapidly.

I think they'll just keep the stigma and develop sex bots instead.

Don't forget, wifi also eats babies!

New Zealand was on the top of my non-crazy countries to move to list (here - NSFW, maybe) in nine months. Any other suggestions out there?

The idea that all naked images of children are child porn is crazy.

Orange user here -- your second link to the image was viewable earlier this morning but is now giving the same "Object not found" error as the wikipedia page itself. Someone is busy updating the lists...

-Grey

Conservatives are more about responsibility, working hard, living below your means

Bwah ha ha! You've seen the size of the national debt, right? If we're going to spend that kind of money, we might as well spend it on something good.

Elitism is bad.

Yes, but actually being elite is a good thing.

For example, watching footage from Spore will bring up a link to purchase the actual game through Amazon

Ouch. Amazon might not be the best place to try and sell spore...

-Grey

Why not let it give the user the option of telling the web site some arbitrary location?

No kidding. I'd love to be able to do this just to get around those damn you're-not-from-America-so-can't-watch-this-video-clip messages. I particularly hate it when (Adobe Flash Player, I'm looking at you) they let me install the program, WATCH THE AD, then give me the message.

Grey

REsult? Top speed on AMTRAK's rails is 180 KM/hr and only on some routes

And those routes are terrible -- the greyhound bus is faster in many cases.

The FBI thinks there are 200,000 terrorists here!!??

well, they have a one million terrorist list, so why not? :)

A child with Downs Syndrome is "defective"? I'd love to see you say that to some parents who have kids with Downs Syndrome just so I could watch them curbstomp your ass.

Just because the parents of a Downs Syndrome child would attack someone who calls their child 'defective' doesn't mean it isn't defective. Downs Syndrome is a genetic error -- also known as a defect.

-Grey

As a Rational Christian

I think you misunderstand the essential nature of religion.

how are we going to recognise all those terrorists now?
it may have been a good idea, but the implementation was horrible, come on....

For those interested: the size of the terror watchlist compared to US cities and States.

He's not only a heretic. He's going up against irrefutable Data. http://wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-07-25--pirates-vs-ninjas/pages/2007-07-25--pirates-vs-ninjas-30.html/

to summarize:
science vs. faith :)

So a route which was cancelled because of low ridership... is getting the most expensive trainset in the country?

I can't speak for maths, but I'm a physics teacher in a London school and am disgusted with what the exams have become. The government introduced some changes last year that have made the subject into a touchy-feely environmental subject. There's also almost no math. No math! Who heard of a physics class without calculations? If you're interested, I wrote an article about the downfall last year.

-Grey

Paying people more won't make people more competent. We are stuck with the incompetent idiots that are teaching wrong things to children and an increase in pay isn't going to solve that. It also won't bring in any more competent people, just people who are looking for a high pay/skills needed ratio. This is a very bad thing.

What is actually needed is to increase the standards significantly for that teacher certificate and the curriculum. The sad part is that the standards from several decades ago meet this criteria. Another sad part is that the incompetence shown with today's teachers tells of a group of so-called educators that wouldn't be capable of teaching such a curriculum.

I'll also point out that the teachers unions wouldn't have any of this.

But, it isn't completely the teachers fault. It's hard to be a good teacher, teaching good things, when one has his/her hands tied:

http://www.wellingtongrey.net/

Administration surely must take the lions share of the blame for the past decade or so of the degradation of the education system.

Then you have mark mercenary students with parents to match. It's hard to give out grades that properly reflect the students achievements with all that crap breathing down your neck. The average teacher will fall in line quickly, whereas the teacher with actual integrity will last longer or just get fired. The end is the same though, the teacher leaves the teaching "profession" or they become just like everyone else.

What is needed is teachers with competence in teaching as well as competence with there subject matter not to mention a spine, and administration that will back them up and not mess around with curriculum that they don't understand. On the other side, parents must realise that there kids will lie from time to time and aren't the best at everything, and that teachers typically aren't vindictive bastards that are "out to get" your kids.

None of this can be accomplished by a micro-chance like increase in wages. It takes long term planning and a fair bit of sacrifice. But, in an age where the people with the power to make these changes can't see beyond there couple year terms, do you think any of this will happen?

Quite frankly, if I have kids and the education situation remains even remotely the same, it'll be home-schooling if I can swing it. That way (s)he actually learn something.

Why not? I don't know how Dell compares to other companies for service, but it's not exactly like the bar is set very high. Since I just started reading wellingtongrey the other day, I'll link to this: http://wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2008-03-31-the-trouble-with-tech-support.html

Wellington Grey sums it up nicely:

The Truth About Wireless Devices

People fear that which they don't understand. The news media doesn't understand ANYTHING. This leads to blind fear-mongering.

I'm allergic to stupidity. Can we ban these people?

Are they allergic? Let's not let data get in the way of a good argument: No they're not.

Wow, even Wikipedia agrees.

As Captchas get harder more humans will fail them.

I think there's a good reason they don't want people from other fields.

Can't think of any witty comments, so I'll just link to a related webcomic.

And so continues the software circle of life.

The Truth About Wireless Devices

As told by Wellington Grey.

WiFi signals are as harmless as any other radio signal

It's not the WiFi you should worry about, but the routers...

What would Richard Feynman do?

You just broadly communicated a method to circumvent a copy protection device

You mean like this?

As if the DMCA isn't dumb enough.

I mean, shouldn't the government designate an area childfree in each state that these guys can live?

I'm shocked. Just shocked. No one saw this at the time.

flowchart

'Psychologically, we are "distant" from the person we're talking to and less focused on our own identity. As a result we're more prone to aggressive behavior' says one psychologist, who also cites research showing messages received by email are always perceived more negatively than on the phone.

Or maybe you're just a JERK!

-Grey