Social Security has long ago been reduced to a line on paper. Our Government currently cooks the books and manipulates the fund to make it appear as if it's not broke. Also, Social Security was never envisioned by our Founding Fathers, and knowing their disdain for Rome and its history of corruption, I doubt if they would have ever have voted for it. (the fall of Rome can be attributed to the same pattern of social and military over-spending and lack of leadership)
The largest single deduction on my paycheck is for Social Security. What really happens is "You can buy into another retirement plan with that's left after The Government takes its pound of flesh" (and then wastes it, naturally)
The issue isn't any of that stuff that you posted. It's that Goverment Pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and Interest on the Debt account for almost 100% of our current budget. That leaves only 25 billion (less than 1.5%!) for our entire defense department, military, and, well, literally thousands and thousands of programs and agencies. Until we get rid of these four items, we're broke. We could cut the military to $0. Kill off every single social spending program. Get rid of student aid. Stop patrolling our borders. Stop foreign aid. Close down NASA. None of it would make any more difference than spitting on a bonfire. Those four items alone are literally killing our nation, and until we get rid of them entirely, we are doomed.
Now do the "slashdot geek" thing and head over to www.debtclock.org and add up the numbers yourself. Everyone should have that site bookmarked, since it's not only useful by itself, but it also helps with arguments and getting your statistics correct when you post here.
People originally wanted to escape the corruption, massive taxes, distant and uncaring government, and miles of paperwork and red tape that existed in Europe. We have become that which we fought so hard against.
Except that there is no place to escape to any more. I'm not trying to be fatalistic, so much as if there was a solution that easy, half of the people in the World would be trying to take advantage of it as well. So we have to start cleaning it up. And grabbing back power from the Federal Governemt and giving it back to the states is the only rational course.
Either that, or we have states simply leave and create their own nations in a few decades. Texas keeps talking about how they made a mistake in joining the U.S. And, while it used to be mostly crackpots talking about it, it's suddenly maybe not such a bad idea at this point. You actually hear normal people talking about it now. It's kind of scary that it's gotten that bad.
It's more of a FPS like GTA. I have a whole other theory on why this is happening which has to do with the fact that all games are now being dumbed-down for consoles that are using rapidly aging hardware and processors. To be honest, Borderlands if it had been developed only of the PC would look and feel better and have a dozen times more depth. I noticed this with Infamous as well. Good story, but honestly, it had almost zero replay value. I know the company tried, but it's somehow just more FPS fodder. Very nice graphics, though. Well, for a console.
Contrary to what Hollywood will have you believe, almost everyone who wakes up from a long-term coma (on the rare instances when they do) has significant brain damage as a result. It's not really that different than altering a mechanical brain would be. Or a really huge blow to the head could do that same thing, of course. "12" might not be "12". To assume that the human brain is any more or less robust than an artificial one is kind of silly. If anything, the mechanical one would likely be easier to protect from external forces.
Reading the article, it sounded like the developers were whining because it was too much effort to make a good game. Instead, they want to churn out quick as possible drivel and make as much money as quickly as possible. The programmers certainly don't feel this way - and in most cases, have to leave massive amounts of work out of the finished product because some pinhead doesn't understand.
GTA 3 (any of the series). How long did that take? 20+ hours. Best of the series was San Andreas, and it was 40+ hours. If you just did the missions and didn't go stealing and looting too much. Deus Ex. 20+ hours the first time through. Vampire Bloodlines: 20+ hours. Mostly because like Deus Ex, you had to sneak around a lot. More modern games: KOTOR 30+ hours. More if you do the side missions. Persona 3 or 4. 60+ hours, if not more. (my son has 120 hours on one of the Persona titles - ouch...) Final Fantasy. 50+ hours for most of them. Star Ocean. 50+ hours.
I could go on and on. The biggest, most epic games that shaped the industry and that are considered classics are also very long. (btw, longest FPS I ever played was Unreal, at 55 *long* levels including the expansion pack - worth downloading on Steam) The idea that 10 hours is too long is just the project manager and marketing pinheads thinking of it as a product-of-the-month that they are selling and not as true entertainment.
Actually, it's common practice in countries (ie - dictatorships) like China as well, to defend the system and blame the workers.
The reason we are going backwards so quickly is because if this, btw: (source - debtclock.org) Medicare - 819 Billion Social Security - 714 Billion Military - 700 Billion Total for these three items: 2.233 Trillion Total tax received: 2.195 Trillion Those three items take it all. If you got rid of NASA, money for roads, education, govt pensions, immigration, or all of the entire rest of the U.S. budget, which includes tens of thousands of departments and items, and millions of employees, AND unemployment and all social services.... It still would not be enough.
Medicare, Social Security, and Military spending account for 102% of our tax revenue, currently. We're broke because our leaders are morons who can't stop or reign in these three items. note - this also doesn't include interest on the debt, which is another 211 billion or so every year.
To be honest, it matters more if you can run a CNC machine and operate machinery to *make* what you design than stuff you learn in a textbook or do on a computer. There are "engineers" and then there are people who can actually build and design things. One will always be shortchanged and out-done by cheap overseas labor and the other will always find a job doing something.
Of course, it doesn't have to be sexual in nature. You could have "rabid frogs" or "brittle soup" or something similar as a perfectly safe-to-view example in case it was ever found out.
One more thing to add: You should also consider a degree in EE. There are almost no people with engineering degrees that are unemplyed that I know of. They might not be making a lot of money, but there is always a company willing to hire them. There also is a huge shortage of engineers in this country. It's one of the few good degrees to have right now. And it requires that same 3 years in physics and math as prerequisites for the main core classes. You might as well get that all out of the way for a few hundred dollars a semester. (vs 10-15K a year for the same classes otherwise) I know you're probably itching to get out of your parent's house, but just suck it up and come out ahead for your peers.
My local JC when I went was referred to as "high school with ash trays" by the kids. They had no living expenses and the classes were hardly any harder than high school. There was no B.S. - just pay your fee, learn your material. Since you don't have to deal with living expenses and working to make ends meet, you also can devote 100% of your time to school. This means less stress and better grades overall.
All of this blather and banter aside, you have only two options open to you that result in a practical solution.
1: Get a degree at a trade or technical school. These bypass GE requirements for the most part, but are expensive and also are considered third-rate by most employers. But if all you need is a certificate to legally work in the state that you are in, this might be the quickest method to get employed. This does work best, though, when you need the skills or certification to work for yourself or start a business.
2: Get an AA degree first. If you get one in math or possibly physics, 80% of your coursework will be prerequisites for your main degree. There will be a few filler classes, but these can largely be filled with things like geology, astronomy, chemistry, and so on, which are always good to have alongside any technical degree. Also, an AA degree has to be accepted at any college as a waiver for G.E. If you switch schools or majors at some colleges, you can lose some of your G.E. courses or have to take extra ones. 90% of the time, it's those humanities courses that really ARE mostly junk that they force you to take over if this happens (as an example, even transferring between many state colleges will trigger this nonsense). The AA degree is cheap as dirt to get (my local JC charges $21 a unit) and essentially puts a "lock" on your transcript. Once it is out of the way, you can shop around for a four year college to finish up at or most around to and you'll only have to do the core classes in the major. If you want a second BS or BA degree later on, it allows you to repeat the process. Even if your classes were a decade ago or more. (otherwise most schools will cherry-pick courses they feel are acceptable if this happens). Lastly, it also means that you're protected if you change your major to something else part-way through. Some schools have different requirements for G.E. for BA vs BS degrees.
*** Now, a CS degree also is part of the problem. Simply put, a CS degree *is* full of filler and useless stuff. Yet it also will require that you take quite a bit of math and science in most cases. You are far better off getting your AA degree in math or physics because anything like Electrical Engineering (emphasis could be on computers, of course, if you wish) or similar is a lot more useful employment-wise. The standard prerequisites for any BS degree are pretty much the same now, as well: Calculus 2 or 3 and Physics 2 or 3. Since you are going to need it anyways, you should get it out of the way first. Taking a couple of extra math and physics classes won't hurt you, either, as it will mean that you are good to go for ANY BS degree. Math and Applied Physics are the Swiss Army knifes of degrees and are always useful for anything that you want to do at the Masters level. In fact, many employers would rather hire someone with one of those two degrees who knows some SQL (or whatever language/system they need at the time) than a CIS major.
Simply put, there are no idiots out there with Masters in physics or math. Since you don't know if the job situation in the U.S. will get better any time soon, this is a better option as it covers more bases. And employers simply want you for one of two things. A: SQL. B:C++ or a similar language. They couldn't give a rat's ass if you know your way around the inside of a computer or took a class in some nearly dead language like PERL. SQL is where the high paying jobs are right now. And those are specific things that you could learn on your own or add as electives into your main degree. Think of it as math plus specific programming and database courses. But this job might not last forever. In five years, you will likely be looking for work again, and might be interested in something else. CIS is awfully saturated and narrow at this point. At least, IMO.
Also, your money needs to be saved. with colleges gouging thousands per semester, and most serious jobs now requiring a Masters degree, your money shoul
You do have to remember that this is all in the context of children. The original article was saying that violent video games reduce crime. I think that it's because the kids are couch potatoes and are too sucked into games and videos and online gaming that they simply don;t have the desire or free time to get into trouble.
But it's also causing a serious brain-drain in the country. Never before have kids been so dumb and unready for life once they get out of high school. Or even college.
Precisely. Which is why you needn't do sports, hunting, or anything of the like. They, at best, are merely tools to make it more fun (depending on if the person actually thinks it is fun). It can be done directly, as you said, and with no arbitrary "rules" or games at work. But, again, not everyone needs such information.
Then those employers are either fools or are treating you like slave labor. The U.S. is suffering from a dramatic shortage of engineers and high-end technical workers currently. These jobs do require both skill sets to really do well. You can't innovate well if all you have in your head are some classes and a bunch of crap from various books. It's (as an example) why all of the cars lately are all the same jellybean designs. It's what the top half dozen design colleges teach them and the auto industry only likes to hire from those same schools. They can design. But can they really draw or paint or understand aesthetics? Almost every employer today wants people who can do some lateral thinking. But as you noted, most people don't seem to be able to do it. And it's precisely because they lack other skills. Skills that normally were learned while growing up for many of us in the past.
You mentioned hobbies as well. When I was growing up, I had over twenty hobbies. So did most of my friends. We didn't have Facebook or computers (shoot, even music videos were brand new) to distract us, so we have to try a bit of everything. And it all filters up into your brain with the result being better analysis, deduction, and instincts. Eventually we found a few that we kept as lifelong interests, but when I look ay my son, I worry. Despite my best efforts, he would rather spend time playing on his DS than learning to program or do electronics.(who didn't have a chemistry or electronics set when we were growing up?) This came to a rather painful conclusion when he recently lost his DS with all of his Pokemon games (6 of them - possibly stolen). Three years of his free time, off and on, essentially worth nothing. No skills learned, no hobbies or real world tie-ins. Once the game is too old to play or you've moved to another OS or system, all of that time is lost and worthless.
I loved playing Quake years ago. But the thousands of hours I spent on it back then didn't do a thing for me in any way. Shoot, if you wanted to talk about even tactics and teamwork and so on, or hand-eye coordination, 5 hours at the local paintball course is better than a thousand hours of video games. How does this possibly apply to a real job? Say, if you were in Hollywood - do you understand what it's like to be shot at or how it feels to be surrounded by enemies? Can you really understand what it's like to have time slow down in the heat of a firefight, or are you just making it up? This is invaluable experience for special effects people, writers, actors, and so on. I think it's a big reason most movies today come off as so shallow as well. They understand in their minds but not with their bodies.
It's not computers alone. It's that we've created a massive media monster that's essentially distracting us and our children from what we really need to be doing.
I've noticed the opposite. Many people I've met don't seem to be able to do either. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be the case as well. It's gotten so bad that they are even lacking the skills to learn properly.
Not true. Mint has two versions that are fully supported. One based entirely upon Ubuntu and one based entirely upon Debian. Chose your flavor. Both work out of the box worlds better than the basic builds of the same distros.
I guess you do have to do something to learn how to solve problems (but I doubt that playing sports would be very good at teaching someone how to do that in the first place when they could do something like reading about problem solving directly or playing chess).
Even the most basic problems in real life are helped by a better understanding of yourself and the physical world around you. As an example, if I took a simple gyroscope and tossed it to a typical kid, would they know what it was and how it worked?(note - this sort of thing is a great thing to do to potential employees, as you can request them to go deeper and deeper into the tech of it as required) Would they recognize the same forces at work, say, if there was a vibration in their car? Is the tire going flat? Is it an earthquake? Did I throw my tire weights? Is my drive shaft coming apart?
Theory and books are one thing, but any employer will tell you that all of that is worthless compared to hands-on experience with the job in question. (well, unless maybe you are teaching or doing pure research). Doubly so for Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, and many other highly technical fields.
We have a generation coming up that are awesome at taking tests and working out problems on paper, but are functional idiots otherwise. And it's that sort of application of real-world ideas into complex problems that is the basis of all real innovation.
Wait... People still use basic Ubuntu and not one of the vastly improved versions of it like Mint? And, yes, the standard package for Mint is on a DVD. It gives them tons of space for things most users want (like codecs and drivers and so on) and dead-simple means to make a copy, since DVDs are essentially the new CDs. CDs are getting hard to find, actually, as of late, since you can't even buy a CD-only drive any more. NewEgg as an example, doesn't sell a single CD only reader or burner. It's 100% DVD or Blu-Ray now.
I personally recommend Mint because for the average user, it's a whole lot easier to actually set up and use. And a lot of that is that they aren't trying to stuff it into such a painfully small space. (IIRC , it's close to 900mb with everything added)
If you use it for your own personal use (say as a background image on your computer screen), no. Though, few people are that anal to go to such lengths for such a minor thing. If you use it in any commercial way or in any manner that is shown to the public, yes. This is basic copyright 101, folks. You can't show it or make money off of it, directly or indirectly, unless you pay royalties.
This is exactly like removing the signature from a painting and passing it off as your own work. Of course they got reamed in court over it.
Lazy employee costs company millions in legal fees. News at 10...
I am making a real effort to try to teach him things, though. But most of his friends are so close to useless, at even their ages, that I really worry about our future. It's much worse (or will be in ten years) than most people can or want to imagine. We're churning out an entire generation of lumps without realizing it.
Thinking outside of the box isn't something you are born with, either. It's largely a product of having hundreds of smaller experiences and skills to draw upon.
Luck is the residue of design. Creativity is the product of knowledge. Analysis is based upon real life experience.
Sitting in front of a monitor or TV all day long just turns you into a drone, at best.
But you are not 12, quite obviously. At some point in time you learned enough about computers and programming to know about all of that and those technical terms. Most of it all, though, was designed and built by people that are now likely older than you are. The huge gap in technical degrees in the U.S. that is forming is a very real sign that something awful is happening to our kids. And those that do get them are often barely usable as workers as they essentially have to be trained for several years and brought up to speed. It used to be manageable, but its now reaching a critical point where kids are emerging from school with so little skills and analytical skills that all they really are fit for is a McJob. Employers want and need these positions filled and that means either moving overseas or importing workers.
Of course, it's not *just* technical degrees, either, at this point. If you ask the average 18 year old how to make a fire or how to replace a broken lock(in a typical door), or where the circuit breakers in their house are, they simply have no clue as they never bothered to learn any of that. Sure, some do, but that number is shrinking quickly.
Unfortunately, I am no stranger to that, either. I used those as examples of physical skills and analytical thinking. Training your mind and body to do things that are physical and connected to the real world is critical and it used to be a normal part of growing up. Now you have kids essentially sitting and watching a screen or cell phone instead or learning even the most basic real-world skills. Kids are incredibly hard to motivate to even go over to their friend's house or do any physical activity. I mean, why bother when you can just chat with them instead? Or learn any hobby at all? Or read anything that's not assigned by the school? If they get bored, they can simply go online. If they have a problem, they can find something to distract or get their mind off of it. There's no need to invent or work out a real solution to life's problems as it's easier to avoid it all.
That's fine (it is their life after all), but there's no real skills being learned that matter or that will carry over to real life. Kids are fatter, less motivated, less ethical (the vast majority seem to have no qualms at all with cheating or bending the truth as they see fit), have miserably short attention spans, and have a vastly smaller skill set than at any time in U.S. history.
Now, this does sound like the age-old argument against video games, but it's now spread across dozens of areas that are connected to commercial media. It's not just video games. It's your cell phones and texting, it's online chat rooms that serve no real purpose. It's mindless wastes of time and distraction instead of getting back to your work. So while there's less crime (getting back to the original topic), you have to ask yourself is it due to a psychological aspect of video games themselves, or is it due to the overall effect that media in general is causing on our younger generations?
It could be almost anything. I used those as examples. Physical skills of any kind, be it writing, playing sports, reading a book, or some hobby are important to learn as they set up your mind and body for the task of solving real-world problems as an adult. The major issue that I see with today's entertainment is that it teaches kids almost no actual physical or analytical skills. And it's so much easier to be distracted by it all than to actually spend the time doing things that matter.
Something awful is happening to the U.S. in the last decade as commercial media has grown, and it's having a real effect of diluting the skill sets of our newest generations at exactly the time when we're about to face the worst crisis in our nation's history.
No, it's far worse than at any time in human history. The real sad thing about video games and modern media (internet and all of the rest) is that the major effect of them seems to be that it causes a lack of focus in life due to the incredible ease by which one can escape from reality. I notice this with my 12 year old son. He wants to be online and talk and chat and play games instead of doing anything that is actually connected to real people or that requires that he use his actual skills or body. And I'm severely limiting his access as it is. He's essentially powerless to avoid it as it's just too powerful. I hear him complain about how all of his friends have Black Ops at least once a week. Shoot, even most adults now are completely sucked into it all. Distraction and eye-candy is everywhere and is as easy to obtain as a click or the time that it takes to load a game up on your screen.
Considering that the idea of the "American Dream" that you go to school, get a degree, work for an employer or two, and then retire is essentially dead at this point and that everyone will be forced to innovate and find a way to make it work without any safety net in the near future, we're facing a real problem of an entire generation that will simply lack the skills to deal with it all.
The actual cause is not merely that it servers as an outlet for aggression, but that it also serves to dilute the overall effect of social anger. That is, you give enough sparkly lights and distractions and toys to even the most frustrated person and they will largely stop doing bad things.
In other words, your kids are learning to play video games instead of doing things like camping and hunting and so on - so even if they wanted to do anything, they largely would lack the tools and knowledge to do so. And with their pre-programmed miserably short attention spans, it's too much work to, say, figure out how to make a weapon. They just give up after five minutes and decide to vent their anger by shooting zombies.
But I do fear that our kids won't have those same skills that are possibly going to be necessary at some point in the future. Basic skills like camping, hunting, doing repairs, electronics, basic chemistry, and so on led to the last couple of generations that were much more prepared for anything that the world threw at them. Then we hit the current kids... And you can just see the acres of vapid drones on any college campus. For all of that anger that was displaced, it seems that much of the ambition, drive, and self-sufficiency was also taken away with it.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow. You are so off-base with reality.
Social Security has long ago been reduced to a line on paper. Our Government currently cooks the books and manipulates the fund to make it appear as if it's not broke. Also, Social Security was never envisioned by our Founding Fathers, and knowing their disdain for Rome and its history of corruption, I doubt if they would have ever have voted for it. (the fall of Rome can be attributed to the same pattern of social and military over-spending and lack of leadership)
The largest single deduction on my paycheck is for Social Security. What really happens is "You can buy into another retirement plan with that's left after The Government takes its pound of flesh" (and then wastes it, naturally)
The issue isn't any of that stuff that you posted. It's that Goverment Pensions, Social Security, Medicare, and Interest on the Debt account for almost 100% of our current budget. That leaves only 25 billion (less than 1.5%!) for our entire defense department, military, and, well, literally thousands and thousands of programs and agencies. Until we get rid of these four items, we're broke. We could cut the military to $0. Kill off every single social spending program. Get rid of student aid. Stop patrolling our borders. Stop foreign aid. Close down NASA. None of it would make any more difference than spitting on a bonfire. Those four items alone are literally killing our nation, and until we get rid of them entirely, we are doomed.
Now do the "slashdot geek" thing and head over to www.debtclock.org and add up the numbers yourself. Everyone should have that site bookmarked, since it's not only useful by itself, but it also helps with arguments and getting your statistics correct when you post here.
And so it comes full circle.
People originally wanted to escape the corruption, massive taxes, distant and uncaring government, and miles of paperwork and red tape that existed in Europe. We have become that which we fought so hard against.
Except that there is no place to escape to any more. I'm not trying to be fatalistic, so much as if there was a solution that easy, half of the people in the World would be trying to take advantage of it as well. So we have to start cleaning it up. And grabbing back power from the Federal Governemt and giving it back to the states is the only rational course.
Either that, or we have states simply leave and create their own nations in a few decades. Texas keeps talking about how they made a mistake in joining the U.S. And, while it used to be mostly crackpots talking about it, it's suddenly maybe not such a bad idea at this point. You actually hear normal people talking about it now. It's kind of scary that it's gotten that bad.
Well, the good part about this is that they don't have any kids any more. Let's hope they went to responsible people instead.
It's more of a FPS like GTA. I have a whole other theory on why this is happening which has to do with the fact that all games are now being dumbed-down for consoles that are using rapidly aging hardware and processors. To be honest, Borderlands if it had been developed only of the PC would look and feel better and have a dozen times more depth. I noticed this with Infamous as well. Good story, but honestly, it had almost zero replay value. I know the company tried, but it's somehow just more FPS fodder. Very nice graphics, though. Well, for a console.
Contrary to what Hollywood will have you believe, almost everyone who wakes up from a long-term coma (on the rare instances when they do) has significant brain damage as a result. It's not really that different than altering a mechanical brain would be. Or a really huge blow to the head could do that same thing, of course.
"12" might not be "12". To assume that the human brain is any more or less robust than an artificial one is kind of silly. If anything, the mechanical one would likely be easier to protect from external forces.
Put someone on enough drugs or in a coma and they forget what 12 is as well.
Reading the article, it sounded like the developers were whining because it was too much effort to make a good game. Instead, they want to churn out quick as possible drivel and make as much money as quickly as possible. The programmers certainly don't feel this way - and in most cases, have to leave massive amounts of work out of the finished product because some pinhead doesn't understand.
GTA 3 (any of the series). How long did that take? 20+ hours. Best of the series was San Andreas, and it was 40+ hours. If you just did the missions and didn't go stealing and looting too much.
Deus Ex. 20+ hours the first time through.
Vampire Bloodlines: 20+ hours. Mostly because like Deus Ex, you had to sneak around a lot.
More modern games:
KOTOR 30+ hours. More if you do the side missions.
Persona 3 or 4. 60+ hours, if not more. (my son has 120 hours on one of the Persona titles - ouch...)
Final Fantasy. 50+ hours for most of them.
Star Ocean. 50+ hours.
I could go on and on. The biggest, most epic games that shaped the industry and that are considered classics are also very long. (btw, longest FPS I ever played was Unreal, at 55 *long* levels including the expansion pack - worth downloading on Steam) The idea that 10 hours is too long is just the project manager and marketing pinheads thinking of it as a product-of-the-month that they are selling and not as true entertainment.
Sounds like a perfect recipe for a biological disaster. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
Actually, it's common practice in countries (ie - dictatorships) like China as well, to defend the system and blame the workers.
The reason we are going backwards so quickly is because if this, btw:
(source - debtclock.org)
Medicare - 819 Billion
Social Security - 714 Billion
Military - 700 Billion
Total for these three items: 2.233 Trillion
Total tax received: 2.195 Trillion
Those three items take it all. If you got rid of NASA, money for roads, education, govt pensions, immigration, or all of the entire rest of the U.S. budget, which includes tens of thousands of departments and items, and millions of employees, AND unemployment and all social services.... It still would not be enough.
Medicare, Social Security, and Military spending account for 102% of our tax revenue, currently. We're broke because our leaders are morons who can't stop or reign in these three items. note - this also doesn't include interest on the debt, which is another 211 billion or so every year.
Simulations are crap.
To be honest, it matters more if you can run a CNC machine and operate machinery to *make* what you design than stuff you learn in a textbook or do on a computer. There are "engineers" and then there are people who can actually build and design things. One will always be shortchanged and out-done by cheap overseas labor and the other will always find a job doing something.
Of course, it doesn't have to be sexual in nature. You could have "rabid frogs" or "brittle soup" or something similar as a perfectly safe-to-view example in case it was ever found out.
One more thing to add: You should also consider a degree in EE. There are almost no people with engineering degrees that are unemplyed that I know of. They might not be making a lot of money, but there is always a company willing to hire them. There also is a huge shortage of engineers in this country. It's one of the few good degrees to have right now. And it requires that same 3 years in physics and math as prerequisites for the main core classes. You might as well get that all out of the way for a few hundred dollars a semester. (vs 10-15K a year for the same classes otherwise) I know you're probably itching to get out of your parent's house, but just suck it up and come out ahead for your peers.
My local JC when I went was referred to as "high school with ash trays" by the kids. They had no living expenses and the classes were hardly any harder than high school. There was no B.S. - just pay your fee, learn your material. Since you don't have to deal with living expenses and working to make ends meet, you also can devote 100% of your time to school. This means less stress and better grades overall.
All of this blather and banter aside, you have only two options open to you that result in a practical solution.
1: Get a degree at a trade or technical school. These bypass GE requirements for the most part, but are expensive and also are considered third-rate by most employers. But if all you need is a certificate to legally work in the state that you are in, this might be the quickest method to get employed. This does work best, though, when you need the skills or certification to work for yourself or start a business.
2: Get an AA degree first. If you get one in math or possibly physics, 80% of your coursework will be prerequisites for your main degree. There will be a few filler classes, but these can largely be filled with things like geology, astronomy, chemistry, and so on, which are always good to have alongside any technical degree. Also, an AA degree has to be accepted at any college as a waiver for G.E. If you switch schools or majors at some colleges, you can lose some of your G.E. courses or have to take extra ones. 90% of the time, it's those humanities courses that really ARE mostly junk that they force you to take over if this happens (as an example, even transferring between many state colleges will trigger this nonsense). The AA degree is cheap as dirt to get (my local JC charges $21 a unit) and essentially puts a "lock" on your transcript. Once it is out of the way, you can shop around for a four year college to finish up at or most around to and you'll only have to do the core classes in the major. If you want a second BS or BA degree later on, it allows you to repeat the process. Even if your classes were a decade ago or more. (otherwise most schools will cherry-pick courses they feel are acceptable if this happens). Lastly, it also means that you're protected if you change your major to something else part-way through. Some schools have different requirements for G.E. for BA vs BS degrees.
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Now, a CS degree also is part of the problem. Simply put, a CS degree *is* full of filler and useless stuff. Yet it also will require that you take quite a bit of math and science in most cases. You are far better off getting your AA degree in math or physics because anything like Electrical Engineering (emphasis could be on computers, of course, if you wish) or similar is a lot more useful employment-wise. The standard prerequisites for any BS degree are pretty much the same now, as well: Calculus 2 or 3 and Physics 2 or 3. Since you are going to need it anyways, you should get it out of the way first. Taking a couple of extra math and physics classes won't hurt you, either, as it will mean that you are good to go for ANY BS degree. Math and Applied Physics are the Swiss Army knifes of degrees and are always useful for anything that you want to do at the Masters level. In fact, many employers would rather hire someone with one of those two degrees who knows some SQL (or whatever language/system they need at the time) than a CIS major.
Simply put, there are no idiots out there with Masters in physics or math. Since you don't know if the job situation in the U.S. will get better any time soon, this is a better option as it covers more bases. And employers simply want you for one of two things. A: SQL. B:C++ or a similar language. They couldn't give a rat's ass if you know your way around the inside of a computer or took a class in some nearly dead language like PERL. SQL is where the high paying jobs are right now. And those are specific things that you could learn on your own or add as electives into your main degree. Think of it as math plus specific programming and database courses. But this job might not last forever. In five years, you will likely be looking for work again, and might be interested in something else. CIS is awfully saturated and narrow at this point. At least, IMO.
Also, your money needs to be saved. with colleges gouging thousands per semester, and most serious jobs now requiring a Masters degree, your money shoul
You do have to remember that this is all in the context of children. The original article was saying that violent video games reduce crime. I think that it's because the kids are couch potatoes and are too sucked into games and videos and online gaming that they simply don;t have the desire or free time to get into trouble.
But it's also causing a serious brain-drain in the country. Never before have kids been so dumb and unready for life once they get out of high school. Or even college.
Precisely. Which is why you needn't do sports, hunting, or anything of the like. They, at best, are merely tools to make it more fun (depending on if the person actually thinks it is fun). It can be done directly, as you said, and with no arbitrary "rules" or games at work. But, again, not everyone needs such information.
Then those employers are either fools or are treating you like slave labor. The U.S. is suffering from a dramatic shortage of engineers and high-end technical workers currently. These jobs do require both skill sets to really do well. You can't innovate well if all you have in your head are some classes and a bunch of crap from various books. It's (as an example) why all of the cars lately are all the same jellybean designs. It's what the top half dozen design colleges teach them and the auto industry only likes to hire from those same schools. They can design. But can they really draw or paint or understand aesthetics? Almost every employer today wants people who can do some lateral thinking. But as you noted, most people don't seem to be able to do it. And it's precisely because they lack other skills. Skills that normally were learned while growing up for many of us in the past.
You mentioned hobbies as well. When I was growing up, I had over twenty hobbies. So did most of my friends. We didn't have Facebook or computers (shoot, even music videos were brand new) to distract us, so we have to try a bit of everything. And it all filters up into your brain with the result being better analysis, deduction, and instincts. Eventually we found a few that we kept as lifelong interests, but when I look ay my son, I worry. Despite my best efforts, he would rather spend time playing on his DS than learning to program or do electronics.(who didn't have a chemistry or electronics set when we were growing up?) This came to a rather painful conclusion when he recently lost his DS with all of his Pokemon games (6 of them - possibly stolen). Three years of his free time, off and on, essentially worth nothing. No skills learned, no hobbies or real world tie-ins. Once the game is too old to play or you've moved to another OS or system, all of that time is lost and worthless.
I loved playing Quake years ago. But the thousands of hours I spent on it back then didn't do a thing for me in any way. Shoot, if you wanted to talk about even tactics and teamwork and so on, or hand-eye coordination, 5 hours at the local paintball course is better than a thousand hours of video games. How does this possibly apply to a real job? Say, if you were in Hollywood - do you understand what it's like to be shot at or how it feels to be surrounded by enemies? Can you really understand what it's like to have time slow down in the heat of a firefight, or are you just making it up? This is invaluable experience for special effects people, writers, actors, and so on. I think it's a big reason most movies today come off as so shallow as well. They understand in their minds but not with their bodies.
It's not computers alone. It's that we've created a massive media monster that's essentially distracting us and our children from what we really need to be doing.
I've noticed the opposite. Many people I've met don't seem to be able to do either.
Unfortunately, this is turning out to be the case as well. It's gotten so bad that they are even lacking the skills to learn properly.
Not true. Mint has two versions that are fully supported. One based entirely upon Ubuntu and one based entirely upon Debian. Chose your flavor. Both work out of the box worlds better than the basic builds of the same distros.
I guess you do have to do something to learn how to solve problems (but I doubt that playing sports would be very good at teaching someone how to do that in the first place when they could do something like reading about problem solving directly or playing chess).
Even the most basic problems in real life are helped by a better understanding of yourself and the physical world around you. As an example, if I took a simple gyroscope and tossed it to a typical kid, would they know what it was and how it worked?(note - this sort of thing is a great thing to do to potential employees, as you can request them to go deeper and deeper into the tech of it as required) Would they recognize the same forces at work, say, if there was a vibration in their car? Is the tire going flat? Is it an earthquake? Did I throw my tire weights? Is my drive shaft coming apart?
Theory and books are one thing, but any employer will tell you that all of that is worthless compared to hands-on experience with the job in question. (well, unless maybe you are teaching or doing pure research). Doubly so for Engineers, Doctors, Lawyers, and many other highly technical fields.
We have a generation coming up that are awesome at taking tests and working out problems on paper, but are functional idiots otherwise. And it's that sort of application of real-world ideas into complex problems that is the basis of all real innovation.
Wait... People still use basic Ubuntu and not one of the vastly improved versions of it like Mint? And, yes, the standard package for Mint is on a DVD. It gives them tons of space for things most users want (like codecs and drivers and so on) and dead-simple means to make a copy, since DVDs are essentially the new CDs. CDs are getting hard to find, actually, as of late, since you can't even buy a CD-only drive any more. NewEgg as an example, doesn't sell a single CD only reader or burner. It's 100% DVD or Blu-Ray now.
I personally recommend Mint because for the average user, it's a whole lot easier to actually set up and use. And a lot of that is that they aren't trying to stuff it into such a painfully small space. (IIRC , it's close to 900mb with everything added)
If you use it for your own personal use (say as a background image on your computer screen), no. Though, few people are that anal to go to such lengths for such a minor thing. If you use it in any commercial way or in any manner that is shown to the public, yes. This is basic copyright 101, folks. You can't show it or make money off of it, directly or indirectly, unless you pay royalties.
This is exactly like removing the signature from a painting and passing it off as your own work. Of course they got reamed in court over it.
Lazy employee costs company millions in legal fees. News at 10...
I am making a real effort to try to teach him things, though. But most of his friends are so close to useless, at even their ages, that I really worry about our future. It's much worse (or will be in ten years) than most people can or want to imagine. We're churning out an entire generation of lumps without realizing it.
Thinking outside of the box isn't something you are born with, either. It's largely a product of having hundreds of smaller experiences and skills to draw upon.
Luck is the residue of design.
Creativity is the product of knowledge.
Analysis is based upon real life experience.
Sitting in front of a monitor or TV all day long just turns you into a drone, at best.
But you are not 12, quite obviously. At some point in time you learned enough about computers and programming to know about all of that and those technical terms. Most of it all, though, was designed and built by people that are now likely older than you are. The huge gap in technical degrees in the U.S. that is forming is a very real sign that something awful is happening to our kids. And those that do get them are often barely usable as workers as they essentially have to be trained for several years and brought up to speed. It used to be manageable, but its now reaching a critical point where kids are emerging from school with so little skills and analytical skills that all they really are fit for is a McJob. Employers want and need these positions filled and that means either moving overseas or importing workers.
Of course, it's not *just* technical degrees, either, at this point. If you ask the average 18 year old how to make a fire or how to replace a broken lock(in a typical door), or where the circuit breakers in their house are, they simply have no clue as they never bothered to learn any of that. Sure, some do, but that number is shrinking quickly.
Unfortunately, I am no stranger to that, either. I used those as examples of physical skills and analytical thinking. Training your mind and body to do things that are physical and connected to the real world is critical and it used to be a normal part of growing up. Now you have kids essentially sitting and watching a screen or cell phone instead or learning even the most basic real-world skills. Kids are incredibly hard to motivate to even go over to their friend's house or do any physical activity. I mean, why bother when you can just chat with them instead? Or learn any hobby at all? Or read anything that's not assigned by the school? If they get bored, they can simply go online. If they have a problem, they can find something to distract or get their mind off of it. There's no need to invent or work out a real solution to life's problems as it's easier to avoid it all.
That's fine (it is their life after all), but there's no real skills being learned that matter or that will carry over to real life. Kids are fatter, less motivated, less ethical (the vast majority seem to have no qualms at all with cheating or bending the truth as they see fit), have miserably short attention spans, and have a vastly smaller skill set than at any time in U.S. history.
Now, this does sound like the age-old argument against video games, but it's now spread across dozens of areas that are connected to commercial media. It's not just video games. It's your cell phones and texting, it's online chat rooms that serve no real purpose. It's mindless wastes of time and distraction instead of getting back to your work. So while there's less crime (getting back to the original topic), you have to ask yourself is it due to a psychological aspect of video games themselves, or is it due to the overall effect that media in general is causing on our younger generations?
It could be almost anything. I used those as examples. Physical skills of any kind, be it writing, playing sports, reading a book, or some hobby are important to learn as they set up your mind and body for the task of solving real-world problems as an adult. The major issue that I see with today's entertainment is that it teaches kids almost no actual physical or analytical skills. And it's so much easier to be distracted by it all than to actually spend the time doing things that matter.
Something awful is happening to the U.S. in the last decade as commercial media has grown, and it's having a real effect of diluting the skill sets of our newest generations at exactly the time when we're about to face the worst crisis in our nation's history.
No, it's far worse than at any time in human history. The real sad thing about video games and modern media (internet and all of the rest) is that the major effect of them seems to be that it causes a lack of focus in life due to the incredible ease by which one can escape from reality. I notice this with my 12 year old son. He wants to be online and talk and chat and play games instead of doing anything that is actually connected to real people or that requires that he use his actual skills or body. And I'm severely limiting his access as it is. He's essentially powerless to avoid it as it's just too powerful. I hear him complain about how all of his friends have Black Ops at least once a week. Shoot, even most adults now are completely sucked into it all. Distraction and eye-candy is everywhere and is as easy to obtain as a click or the time that it takes to load a game up on your screen.
Considering that the idea of the "American Dream" that you go to school, get a degree, work for an employer or two, and then retire is essentially dead at this point and that everyone will be forced to innovate and find a way to make it work without any safety net in the near future, we're facing a real problem of an entire generation that will simply lack the skills to deal with it all.
The actual cause is not merely that it servers as an outlet for aggression, but that it also serves to dilute the overall effect of social anger. That is, you give enough sparkly lights and distractions and toys to even the most frustrated person and they will largely stop doing bad things.
In other words, your kids are learning to play video games instead of doing things like camping and hunting and so on - so even if they wanted to do anything, they largely would lack the tools and knowledge to do so. And with their pre-programmed miserably short attention spans, it's too much work to, say, figure out how to make a weapon. They just give up after five minutes and decide to vent their anger by shooting zombies.
But I do fear that our kids won't have those same skills that are possibly going to be necessary at some point in the future. Basic skills like camping, hunting, doing repairs, electronics, basic chemistry, and so on led to the last couple of generations that were much more prepared for anything that the world threw at them. Then we hit the current kids... And you can just see the acres of vapid drones on any college campus. For all of that anger that was displaced, it seems that much of the ambition, drive, and self-sufficiency was also taken away with it.