I don't know what city you live in, but apparenlty you think that, like where you probably live, the places Qwest services have broadband "options."
Sorry, but Qwest services the upper-midwest. Do you know what broadband options are up here? Qwest. That's it. If you wanted broadband (and it was a pretty good deal too), you had to go with Qwest. North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado...there aren't any other options for most of this region.
MSN and Qwest are taking advantage of a regional monopoly. Don't get me wrong, this isn't hate mail towards Microsoft...I think that it's absolutely bogus that AOL and Time Warner are trying to do the same crap.
Here's the problem: Big Businesses KNOW that broadband IS the future. The internet is the future, and the faster the internet, the larger business potential. Just like the telco back in the 1930's, businesses ARE TRYING TO MAKE A MONOPOLY out of broadband. That's what wrong. That's what I want stopped.
We've been with them for a year and a half for dial-up. They've been GREAT in being a reliable dial-up ISP (49 out of 50 calls go through, have averaged a 45.6 kbps connection, never a busy signal), and payment's cheap ($15 flat).
We finally decided to go broadband...640k ADSL line, and service has been just fine (aside from no support for Linux with their internal modem). As for support, they suck (not even their managers know what G.Lite is, and it took the head manager to diagnose a problem that a line technician could have fixed in two minutes, or so he said). But the line's just been fine.
But I'm sorry, I'm not going to be dragged around like some schmuk who's forced to go where they drag us. It is completely bogus that they feel that because they have a regional monopoly, they can do crap like this. I'm not a cable fan, and quite frankly, I don't want to have to dish out $220 for a bloody cable modem, but I don't want to be a corporate pawn either (besides, I'm sure the cable company here would love to offer a "anti-Microsoft" deal for about 1,000 DSL customers who don't want to be pulled around in such a way...the regional guys will actually go out of their way to do stuff like that).
Phone companies are not allowed to "buy out customers" and inform them that they have to conform to the new bell. ISPs shouldn't follow suit.
Apparently you're unfamiliar with school politics. Granted, yes, the father (if he knew about the harassment) should have helped out his son by complaining to the school district.
Would anything have been done about it? Nope.
Schools, to AVOID confrontation with parents (being as how they do pay the taxes) will try their darndest to limit the number of parents that get involved in "issues." By saying that there are ten kids...five kids...even ONE kid who's harassing the student, that would involve confronting more than one set of parents. By ignoring the problem, you (AT MOST) anger one set of parents.
We had a problem two years ago in our school district. Two years ago at our local middle school, a student got confronted after school by others who had in the past been harassing him. They started again in their harassment, and he got so angry that he pushed one of them. After that, they punched him a couple times before a school official saw the scuffle and stopped the fight. Because the student who had been harassed began the physical fight, he was suspended by the school district for three days, while the other kids got one day of in-school suspension.
That was that...until the mother of the student went to the news and reported her son's side of the story. SUDDENLY, other parents (unrelated to the incident) started calling in and complaining about how the school handled the incident. The school district folded and dropped the last two days of the student's suspension. With this leverage, the mother filed a formal harassment complaint on behalf of her son to the school district against some of her son's tormentors.
Things were looking on the up-side, until the newspaper dropped the coverage. The school district then rejected the claim of harassment, saying that there was "equal harassment" on both ends during the incident and completely ignored any claim of previous harassment.
If you want to complain to the school district over the incident, don't just have your family complain. Flood the school with as many complaints as you can muster up from other parents of students who attend the school, as well as any possible news agencies. When it comes to the politics of the school system, unless there's pressure in NUMBERS, the administration won't budge.
Lets narrow it down to the last 115 years or so. Major "innovations" according to your definition would be: the Automobile, airplanes, radio, TV, Nuclear Power, Computer, PC, Internet.... can you think of anything else? No, and neither can I.
Oh, wait, let's see here. Name something invented in the past hundred years which is now one of the things most taken for granted and yet is IMPOSSIBLE to live in this modern world without.
Give up?
Plastics.
That's just the 20th century. Name the most revolutionary product of the 19th century.
I would lay my money down on Steel.
I can't believe that everyone here is trying to think about things that move, that work, that entertain us. Is that all anyone can think about nowdays? When I look at a great modern invention, I don't think about the computer. Heck, the computer was invented back in China around 800BC with the abacus. We've just improved it to suit our needs. Let's praise for a second the transistor (or vacuum tube if you like). Or silicon. Things we BUILD, not things we use.
Just try to think for a second what we have built, not what we use daily. Someone who praises the microwave as a technological breakthrough has a pretty narrow mind. Don't think about current "technology." It's how it's built. You want major innovations? Well, if you want technological revelations, I'd say wait another hundred years. Most things we honor right now not going to be used in a hundred years. I'd lay my money down on the elmination of the radio and of the Microwave, and who knows how "safe" airplanes will be compared to other means of travel 100 years from now (or how efficient). I mean, Trains were a popular means of travel 100 years ago, and now Amtrack is struggling to stay alive. Ask someone 100 years ago about what they would think is a wonderful invention, and I'm sure many would say the train.
We don't use the train much for personal travel anymore. But we still use it's steel.
So we have as many genes as a corn plant. So our genome matches 99% of the genome of an arangatang. Here's something to chew on:
Two tall buildings in downtown Minneapolis are probably made of 95% of the same material, mainly, steel, concrete, glass, and a little bit of plaster. Yet, they are designed differently, have different shapes, and different functions.
So nature found "instructions" that worked well to create different animals. The same digestive juice that works in a dog would probably work in a human, so why not leave the instructions there on how to make it for the both of them?
Granted, what they found supports their claim, but it doesn't completely eliminate all others.
Now, it has been revealed that data as to kids' surfing habits is being sold to advertisers.
Here's your edge. No one's going to listen to you complain about having censorwear in the high school. Granted, we all know of its drawbacks and its dubious legality issues, but you don't have the power as a minor to fight back. But where there's profit involved, there's power.
There's one thing that you haven't made clear yet, and there's two paths to take depending on the situation.
1) The school district has set up a contract with N2H2 over the profiteering mess where the district shares in the profits.
2) The school district does not profit from N2H2 and N2H2 did this on their own account.
Situation 1 is going to be the most difficult to counteract, because it's going to involve numbers. First off, for both situations, LET YOUR STUDENTS KNOW...EVERY ONE OF THEM. Power is in numbers. Then, let your parents know that you as students are being profited against your own free will by a corporation. Bypass the school district and write letters (with AS MANY signatures -- in ink -- as possible...yourselves and your parents) to your state/country legislatures and your govenor and let them know what's going on. Also, write a brief synopsis of what is going on and send it to news broadcasters, local and national (it's a lot easier now with the internet, although I suggest you send it both by internet and also by formal snail-mail).
The problem with the first situation is that you can't counteract it by yourselves. Since you are minors, you lack the legal rights (which are in the hands of the school board) over a situation such as this.
If the second situation is what's occuring, it's much easier to deal with. You can do everything I listed in situation one, but you should begin though with the school board instead. At the next school board meeting, get the biggest herd of students you can muster (believe me, when two hundred+ kids show up for a school meeting, PEOPLE WILL HEAR, especially the news) and introduce this problem at the meeting, or call in early to get it on the agenda and have a student leader address the problem. Having your parents there as well would help.
Again, it's ethically wrong that a corporation is profiting on your behalf without your authorization, but because you're a minor, this authorization lies in the hands of the school board and your parents. But belive me, the power is in numbers.
Last spring, a nearby town's principal decided that it was in the school's best interest, due to a drop in the budget, to fire five teachers while giving himself a payraise over the next five years. Once the students heard about it, THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL (about 900 students) held a rally during the schoolday in the gym. The principal showed up to defend his position (of which he had none, but he tried to defend it anyway). At the next school board meeting, the principal was neglected his payraise in the budget proposal.
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to purchase from Best Buy (first big mistake) 16 MB SIMMs for $15 ($30 minus the $15 mail in rebate). After clearly asking the sales rep and clearly getting a response of being clearly showed on the rebate slip that there was no limit to how many I could buy with the rebate, I purchased four of them, figguring I'd get a $60 rebate.
After finding out that there were no more rebate slips in the store, I was told to call a phone number and one would be mailed out to me. I called the phone number, waited three weeks, and got nothing. Afraid that the offer was expired, I went back to Best Buy to find another rebate slip, only to discover that the offer was expired and no more were available. I gave my predicament to them, and basically got the, "We can't help you...you're screwed," shoulder shrug.
Finally, one more week passes and I get the mail-in rebate slip. After singing praises to myself, I found out that there was only one day left where I could mail in the rebate slip before the offer was invalid. After hurrying to try and find the original boxes and putting the envelope together and squeezing in time with everything else, I rushed to the Post Office at 11:55 PM and asked them to make sure it was postmarked for that night. I thought that was the end.
Another month and a half go by before I receive the rebate. Expecting a nice $60 deposit into my Bank Account, I discover that I got a lousy $15. Angry, I called up the company, only to receive what very much sounded like a secretary that was working out of a dead-end office in some corner-closet basement in the office building, telling me that, "Alright, I'll jot your complaint down here and will get back to you." After telling her that she had yet to even find out my name or my phone number, she gave a small sigh and grudgingly asked what my contact info was. Any hopes of seeing the other $45 dollars were shot to pieces at that point, but I waited an extra 60 days in grave hopes that I would get a call back or another check (before the original rebate check expired). After three and a half months passed from my original purchase of the RAM, I gave up.
All I see in mail-in rebates is an opportunity for a company to make a sale without having to fully explain their unwillingness to uphold their end of the bargain. I mean, it's kind of like holding a "parking-complex deal" where you and your dealer both stand in the shadows, one with the suitcase of money, the other with the goods. If you're dumb enough to pass the suitcase over to your partner without bothering to BE ABSOLUTELY SURE that he's not going to run with the money, you're going to lose the money.
They jip you, and unless you get some big-name consumer advocate to help you out, you're going to get the bum-rap.
You want to feel paranoid, here's paranoia for you:
It says right in the Constitution that the president is the "Commander in Chief" of the armed forces, right? That means that he has the full ability to take the armed forces, order them to march into the House and Senate floors while they're in session, and kill every single congressional leader in the country, leaving him dictator (well, he'd have to take out the Supreme Court justices too, but you get the jist of it). No one could stop him, and he'd become dictator.
So far, no president that we've had has "exercised" this "power" to it's full extent.
This is a country that you're responsible for, because you have the ability to take part in it. If you want to preserve whatever integrity's left in the system, you have to take the iniative. If you whine and complain yet at the same time do nothing about it except skip the country, you're as guilty as the ignorant who do nothing.
What they're doing is complying with French law (which is the right thing to do, probably), but they're not doing this because it's the Right Thing To Do.
This in a way relates back to the Singapore story of the early 90's where that one American committed a crime in Singapore and recieved the "Singapore punishment" of a lashing. America begged and pleaded to stop the "cruel and unusual" punishment, but it was carried out.
Too many people believe in American imperealism. So far, everyone feels it's a good thing when it comes to the internet (since America pioneered the internet, they should have the right to put their foot down in whatever country they want, right?). So, when one country finally says that they're tired of American imperealism (I'm not the least bit surprised that it's the French), we feel offended?
Yahoo's a business. They realize that if they want to run a business in a different country in a different part of the world, they'll need to conform to another country's rules and regulations. Here's the best example I can come up with: Say Columbia began a web page where one could purchase cocaine from their website at "Rock-bottom warehouse prices and shipping to anywhere in North and South America!" I guarantee you that the US would try their darndest to stop that website from being able to opporate here in the United States. Or what if some other country believed so whole-heartedly in free speech that child pornography was legal there? Even though it might offend that country's "democratic principles," the US would try to make sure it would be blocked out here in the US.
If our military wasn't enough, we're now spreading our entire English culture to the rest of the world. We can pay 50 million dollars to get a potentially-worth billion dollar suffix (.tv) from a country that's expected to be entirely underwater in 50 years. When we want something we can buy it. Of course, too many people don't understand that even though we're the most economically powerful country in the world, but we contain less than 5% of the world's population. Maybe we should respect the rest of the people that live on this Earth?
D. Page Creators reserves the right to revise its policies at any time without notice. It is the customer's responsibility to monitor pagecreators.net/contract for policy changes.
Excuse me? It's my responsibility to monitor changes in a contract? BZZZZ! Wrong. You sign and agree to a contract, that's legit. But to create a clause that says NOT ONLY that the contract can be modified without notice BUT ALSO that one must adhere to the contract reguardless of whether or not the participant/s agreed to it without proper closure is not legal BY ANY MEANS.
One signs the TOS agreement. Legal. TOS agreement modified. Legal. Direct or written notification of change in TOS. Legal. (Why do you think banks, insurance agencies, credit card companies, and all other businesses write letters to you giving "Notification" over some business transaction?) If participant is not happy with TOS modification, the service can be terminated. Legal. But to modify a TOS without express notification to participants is not.
...and find someplace to land with Linux before it's too late.
Networking scalability and redundancy, optimisation and facilities for database systems (as the jfs has started) or systems management applications?
Try and understand this from a business model. IBM has been around for an EXTREMELY long time (in computer years, I mean). They've survived longer than many computer companies (Packard Bell, for instance), and outlasted many.com's. For you to hand them an OS and say, "We want this and this and this and this and this and this and this..., oh, and while you're at it, throw in a nice screen saver or two as well!", you'll get a simple reply of "Why?"
IBM doesn't want Linux just so it can become part of the "basement programmer Linux movement." The last thing they want is an anarchal OS that's being developed for EVERYTHING. Anything that's aimed for everything is looked on by a business as 1) Egotistical, and 2) Doomed to fail. (Yes, MS Windows is an exception, but there are always exceptions to the rule.)
IBM is going to want a target to shoot for. They want to get Linux and have someone tell them, "Market it towards the office. Here's why: It's free. Offices love free. All we need from you is to make it into a scalable office OS and you'll make money." Or..."Market it towards the Enterprise Server. It has remarkable scalability, is a Network OS, and all we need from you is..."
IBM's knocking on Linux's door. Don't let the opportunity get shot down. IBM's a business, while Linux was NOT developed under a business model. Find a bridge, and Linux will have the oportunity to join up with one of the biggest names in the computer industry.
So, what does that mean? You put a request in at your local seaport to have them "download" to you www.yahoo.com, then wait two weeks for the shipment to come?
Man, I'd hate to figure out what it'd be like to download games!
GWB's case has transferred a significant amount of power from the States to the Federal Government.
If you read the Supreme Court ruling, this case did NOT transfer states rights to the federal government. In fact, it reaffirmed a piece of states rights.
The problem lies here: Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states that the authority of electing electors for a presidential election lies with STATE LEGISLATURES. The US Supreme Court said that the ruling by the Florida Supreme Court ursurped the Florida Legislature's authority in conducting the election for the electors.
So, here's the best outline for the steps of the problem:
I. Election [eventually] concludes that Bush is the winner, as directed by FL state law
II. FL Supreme Court declares that FL state law is bad
Here's where the confliction comes in. The FL SC has the right to overrule FL state law, except when federal law comes into play.
III. US Constitution says that FL state law holds power over electing electors for federal election.
Normally, the FL SC would hold the authority in its opinion, but because it ursurped power that is directly granted to FL state law by Federal law, it's unconstitutional.
The opinion for this case gave state legislatures quite a bit of power in how they conduct their elections for electors. What it ceased was the state supreme courts' ability to overturn a federal grant of power to the states.
Technically, the real conclusion you can draw from this case is that if State Law has a discrepency over it's law for electing electors, it can only be overturned by the US Supreme Court (since the law is a direct link between the state and federal governments).
Finally, I think the Electoral College needs a second look. Majority rules, and the popular vote should be the determining factor.
There's a load of bull. Majority rules, but "minority rights." The popular vote be the determining factor? I think you really need to know...if it was, there would be a demand for a recount from the Bush campain in the entire United States, because a difference of less than 200,000 votes is less than 1/10 of one percent! That's a pretty slim margin for any national election.
Course, another pathetic argument is that "each vote would then count more." ERRRRHHHH! Wrong again. If the popular vote would be used in this election, Palm Beach county wouldn't even exist in the news media, and neither would Florida. One reason why there's so many people protesting is because they love it that everyone's eyes are on them!
The electoral college may appear to be archaic, but it's amazing, and it forces canidates to listen to EVERYBODY, not just "the majority."
This can be directly equated to a situation where you hear about a liquor store that got robbed so, as a curious citizen, you drive by and take a look. Being that you left some small piece of evidence that you were there at all, the FBI or whoever comes back to your house, confiscates your car and questions you. Anyone see anything wrong with this?? Anyone???
Not at all, but let me make a better example, based on what he said:
...I returned to my IRC client, said "Looks like a dns hack...", and and the conversation went elsewhere. The entire thing lasted possibly five minutes, and occupied no more than 3 or 4 lines on IRC.
Say you were walking down the street and happen to notice the evidence of a break-in, with a policeman standing there. So, if you tell your friend, "Hmm, looks like they broke the window open with a brick," the police would be able to thoroughly question you about your knowledge of break-ins, how you obtained the knowledge, and take any property that you own that could be considered to be "break-in material"?
It's been quite obvious that under the Clinton administration, the prosperity of our country has risen dramatically, with praise being spread across the board (to Clinton, Alan Greenspan, the media, the citizens of the US, etc.). A thought in my mind remains though: who (or what) is responsible for the prosperity of this country? But in thinking about that, here's the question I want to propose:
What do you feel is the SINGLE (aka: one and only one) most imporant person, event, or situation that will maintain the prosperity of the United States into the next presidental term? Please be specific and direct here; don't just say "a good economy" or "a strong military." Place credit where you think credit is due.
I'm patenting a new keyboard that has one new key on it. The new key is the sig key, and it's such a revolutionary idea, I NEED a patent just to stop others from copying this idea.
Here's the deal. After seeing the degredation of english grammar as we know it on the web, I thought to myself, "Why do we even need that big long key at the bottom of the keyboard?" I mean, no one uses it anymore on the web, right? Everyonejusttypeslikethis, becauseit'smoreconvenient, right? So, I spent countless hours calculating what would be the best way to utilize that waste of spac! My revolutionary new idea: the sig key.
There are never any hastles with the sig key! Within that one little key lies your complete private life! On Microsoft's web site? Need to access the help manuals but aren't "registered?" Worry no more! As soon as it asks for your registration, just hit the sig key, and Microsoft will have access to your social security number, all your credit card numbers, your bank account number, birth date, domestic information, marital status, health insurance records, high school and college transcripts, crime records, and the name of the dog you owned when you were 8 years old who got run over by your dad by accident one day after he purchased his brand new SUV. Microsoft will gladly give you access to any part of their website with just one click of the keyboard! There's no hastle and no need to worry with the sig key!
The sig key is a revolutionary new idea that makes one-click shopping obselete. You won't have any problems with Amazon.com. If you see something you like, hit the sig key, and Amazon.com has the right to bill your credit card for millions of dollars and ships to you a bunch of crappy merchandise! The way I figure it, you know you want it, but all to often your mind says no before your fingers say yes! So, heck, let this key make up your mind for you! There isn't even a need to worry over what you want, cause you'll get it all!
Companies across the web are so excited, they'll offer deals if you hit the sig key while on their webiste! Who needs privacy when you can get a free CueCat for hitting the sig key while on Radio Shack's website! Want that brand new computer on WalMart's website? With one flick of the finger, not only will WalMart be ecstatic over giving you a new computer, they'll bill thousands of dollars of other merchandise to you that they're certain you may not have wanted but need anyway! You'll have SO MUCH merchandise at your fingertips, you'll never be able to part with your keyboard! You can't even begin to imagine what you'll receive in using the sig key on government websites!
But that's not all! Right now, we're having a great promotional with this new keyboard! Order today, and you'll get with it a free AOL CD to just give you a taste of the merchandise that will flow to your fingertips after using this new keyboard! To set up AOL, just pop the CD into your CD-ROM drive, run the setup program, then when the program connects you to AOL, just hit the sig key to go online! If you want more time, just hit the sig key a few more times. Heck, hit it as many times as you want, and watch your available time online skyrocket!
As another added bonus, order today, and you'll receive the option of a second and third sig key on your keyboard! We feel that with the decline of the shift key's popularity on the web, why waste space on the keyboard when you'll have a wider range of location to hit the sig key! Perfect for those of us who just cannot find a key to press when we need it! Supplies are limited, order today!
You wish it were that easy. Really, look at reality for a second.
Problem 1: That said, it would probably also help to put the terminals in a position where the contents of the screen are prominently visible to other patrons of said laundromat. Public embarassment can be a reasonably good deterrent.
Do you think kids really care what other people think about what they're looking at? As long as their parents aren't around, they're just going to goof off, much to the dismay of the patrons.
Problem #2) It's a public facility, and there's no more obligation to censor/filter material for minors than a magazine store that happens to sell copies of Playboy and Penthouse.
This isn't your local convenience store. Even if it were, Playboys are packaged and wrapped. Besides, Playboys are pretty tame to the blatent pornogrophy you can get anywhere online. This is a public laundromat (possibly mom'n'pop), and the last thing they're going to want is a million dollar sexual harrassment LAWSUIT on their hands because a woman was disturbed from seeing pornogrophy being accessed in a public laundromat.
Unfortunately, reality says that it's much more cost efficient to eliminate a little free speech to prevent any possible lawsuit.
This isn't just about Microsoft making it harder for their users to run alternative operating systems; it's about Microsoft closing off direct access to a user's own system to the point of forcing the OS to crash before giving the user a command prompt.
Uhhh, who said anything about forcing the OS to crash? Where the hell did that come from? And by the way, someone else pointed out that you can still get to a command prompt by (surprise!) opening a command prompt window.
It sounds like you've never had Windows crash on you before. Here's a pop quiz for you then:
You turn on your computer to find an error message by Windows saying, "An error has been found in your kernel. Click OK to boot from an existing backup kernel or Cancel to attempt to load the kernel." Do you:
A) Click on Cancel and cross your fingers?
B) Click OK and hope your backup kernel boots?
C) Restart the computer, push F8, go into DOS mode, and restore the kernel from a backup copy?
or D) Stick in your Emergency Win9x Boot Disk?
Well, according to you, you might as well trash C, since you don't like the command prompt. And D? Well, you want a "faster, cheaper, more efficient" motherboard that doesn't have a floppy drive hookup, so scratch that. I guess you'll just want to cross your fingers, huh?
Windows ME is being promoted with a new bundle of system tools called "PC Health." What it does is keeps records of your system's settings by creating backups of the kernel each day, so technically, if you want to go back to the way your computer looked, say, 10 days ago, you could restore the copy of the kernel that existed 10 days ago, and *POOF*, everything's fine and dandy, right? But from my five years of experience with the Windows 9x kernel, if thing's aren't working the way they should, you can NEVER rely on being able to boot to the GUI. Something always gets in the way...Blue Screen of Death, system freeze, "Cannot find 'fortheloveofgoddonotforgettoloadthis.dll'. System Halted.", etc. But you know what? Whenever I've been in a mess, I've ALWAYS been able to get to the command prompt.
If Linux/BSD doesn't boot of the kernel, you can always go into debug mode and boot from either the backup or the Generic, and at least that will get you back into your system. For any and every system technician, there needs to be a back door into the system in case there ever is a problem. That back door shouldn't be having to reinstall Windows or reformatting your hard drive.
It's a little hard to come up with advice, since I really don't know how far and smart your students are, but here's some brainstorms:
1) Obtain donations from your community (or ask all your students to bring in their computer if they have one) and set up a LAN in your classroom. Teach them the basics of networking, TCP/IP, and wiring different OS's to a network. For more fun, make a Linux/BSD server and hook it up. Set up a web page for your class by setting up Apache, and have them create their own webpages w/ HTML (NOT some GUI interface like FrontPage).
2) Teach the students how external prepherials communicate with the system by setting up a Linux machine (you could try it with a Win machine too, but I would think that more people would know how to program in C if you say your class is at the AP level) and building a driver for the joystick. This one might be a little difficult to undertake though, especially if no one has had any programming experience in C or has never learned logic trees for drivers.
3) This one I think everyone would love. Design a new mouse. This one doesn't have too much technology behind it, but you could really teach them some marketing and sales lessons by assigning them to get a whole bunch of different mouses together and go around in their school asking kids what designs they like, which feel better on the hand, and which are easier to use. Gather the results and have the students brainstorm different designs that they think would work based on what they learned. Create a design for a prototype.
Now, if you live in a big city, you might be able to have a company actually design a working prototype for you, and if it's REALLY good (now, I'm not making any promices here...), you could try to market it to some company like Logitech and see what they think. For a big company like Logitech to evaluate (or even better, see if they could participate) in such an event would really give a good experience to the students.
My father works for the USPS, and there's a few things I've learned about how mail advertisements work and how this e-mail system will work.
The USPS will not be revealing ANY information in your usps.gov e-mail address. You will have the opportunity to choose what ID you want to use for your e-mail, although the ask that you use your name in some way rather than something like pornstar@usps.gov.
Mail bombs? Early morning phone calls? How do you get that? If some Joe Smoe has some vandetta against you and he knows your e-mail address does NOT mean he's going to know your physical address. Look at his options:
1) You set up your usps.gov mail to forward mail to some hotmail account. So you get e-mails. Darn. Delete them. That could happen with any e-mail account anyway.
2) You receive in paper form all your usps.gov e-mail. It's going to cost him 41 cents per message. Why would he pay 41 cents to send you threatening? Even if he did, it's got a return address. Fake? Not likely, because he had to pay 41 cents to send that mail. Trust me, you'll have a way to trace him.
3) Even if the letter is threatening, it's a federal offense to send threatening mail, and whoever sent the mail will have an identity. And the USPS has quite a large, nation-wide fraud center that is being equipped to deal with those kinds of issues.
And, no matter how he sends it, whether from his computer or physically going to the post office to mail the message, he can't get anything more than your name from the post office. They aren't allowed by federal law to reveal any private information such as your phone #, SS#, etc.
And if you're worried about spam, don't be. It costs about 21 cents per letter for advertisers to send you a two page message via snail mail (2 cents for the paper and envelope, 6 cents labor to print the form letter, stuff it, and print the envelope, and 13 cents for bulk-rate mailing), which is still quite cheaper than 41 cents to mail a two page message via USPS e-mail. And for credit card companies who have to mail all those pamphlets and forms in the message? It would take about 9 pages of e-mail ASCII text to reveal all the information they're required to disclose for a credit card application, which will cost them around, I believe, 60 cents, to send via USPS e-mail, much more than to send snail-mail.
Oh, and for the highly paranoid, no one, neither businesses nor an everyday Joe Smoe, will just be able to walk into the USPS and say "Hey, I got this e-mail address of someone, could you please give me his name/snail address/phone number please?"
You know, when you're dragging a corporation's name around through the news and the court systems, it's free advertising.
That's how it always is! What, do you think hackers like to hack just because it gives them an excuse to destroy their vision by staring at a computer screen for eight hours straight? That Monika had a few nights on the town with Bill Clinton just to be able to brag to her friends that the president offered her a cigar? That Darva decided to marry Rick just because she was having a great time in Vegas? It's all for publicity. Americans are ravageous pitbulls when it comes to dirt. We crave it. So, when someone's involved in something dirty, everyone hears about it.
There was an interesting poll I read a while back that showed percentages of people who knew who the current president of the United States was. Suddenly, after the Lewinsky affair, 8% more Americans knew who their president was. Sorry to say, but the only news source for many Americans is the tabloid rack next to a grocery store's checkout counter.
an attention-oriented UI that will use cameras and mics as well as software to monitor where a user's attention is focused and query other software
Has anyone else given any thought to this? I got Big Brother circulating in my computer! Granted, it doesn't hurt if it stays in my computer, but who says that this information couldn't be leaked out, like through IE? I could be playing some flight sim, and the next thing I know when I switch over to my web browser, there's a web pop-up add advertising Microsoft Flight Simulator!
The software would monitor what I am doing at my computer, both by camera and by mouse clicks. The moment this information leaves my computer (Microsoft innovation, anybody?), my privacy goes up in smoke.
Slashdot Mirror
Phone companies are not allowed to "buy out customers" and inform them that they have to conform to the new bell. ISPs shouldn't follow suit.
What, you didn't notice Qwest buying out US West last year? Funny, seemed like you were familiar with Qwest there for a second. My mistake.
Apparently you're not noticing the difference. Qwest bought USWest. They bought the whole company. One company bought another company.
This deal isn't Qwest's deal with USWest. MSN bought THE CUSTOMERS, not the business.
I don't know what city you live in, but apparenlty you think that, like where you probably live, the places Qwest services have broadband "options."
Sorry, but Qwest services the upper-midwest. Do you know what broadband options are up here? Qwest. That's it. If you wanted broadband (and it was a pretty good deal too), you had to go with Qwest. North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado...there aren't any other options for most of this region.
MSN and Qwest are taking advantage of a regional monopoly. Don't get me wrong, this isn't hate mail towards Microsoft...I think that it's absolutely bogus that AOL and Time Warner are trying to do the same crap.
Here's the problem: Big Businesses KNOW that broadband IS the future. The internet is the future, and the faster the internet, the larger business potential. Just like the telco back in the 1930's, businesses ARE TRYING TO MAKE A MONOPOLY out of broadband. That's what wrong. That's what I want stopped.
Alright, here's a Qwest.net customer for you.
We've been with them for a year and a half for dial-up. They've been GREAT in being a reliable dial-up ISP (49 out of 50 calls go through, have averaged a 45.6 kbps connection, never a busy signal), and payment's cheap ($15 flat).
We finally decided to go broadband...640k ADSL line, and service has been just fine (aside from no support for Linux with their internal modem). As for support, they suck (not even their managers know what G.Lite is, and it took the head manager to diagnose a problem that a line technician could have fixed in two minutes, or so he said). But the line's just been fine.
But I'm sorry, I'm not going to be dragged around like some schmuk who's forced to go where they drag us. It is completely bogus that they feel that because they have a regional monopoly, they can do crap like this. I'm not a cable fan, and quite frankly, I don't want to have to dish out $220 for a bloody cable modem, but I don't want to be a corporate pawn either (besides, I'm sure the cable company here would love to offer a "anti-Microsoft" deal for about 1,000 DSL customers who don't want to be pulled around in such a way...the regional guys will actually go out of their way to do stuff like that).
Phone companies are not allowed to "buy out customers" and inform them that they have to conform to the new bell. ISPs shouldn't follow suit.
Apparently you're unfamiliar with school politics. Granted, yes, the father (if he knew about the harassment) should have helped out his son by complaining to the school district.
Would anything have been done about it? Nope.
Schools, to AVOID confrontation with parents (being as how they do pay the taxes) will try their darndest to limit the number of parents that get involved in "issues." By saying that there are ten kids...five kids...even ONE kid who's harassing the student, that would involve confronting more than one set of parents. By ignoring the problem, you (AT MOST) anger one set of parents.
We had a problem two years ago in our school district. Two years ago at our local middle school, a student got confronted after school by others who had in the past been harassing him. They started again in their harassment, and he got so angry that he pushed one of them. After that, they punched him a couple times before a school official saw the scuffle and stopped the fight. Because the student who had been harassed began the physical fight, he was suspended by the school district for three days, while the other kids got one day of in-school suspension.
That was that...until the mother of the student went to the news and reported her son's side of the story. SUDDENLY, other parents (unrelated to the incident) started calling in and complaining about how the school handled the incident. The school district folded and dropped the last two days of the student's suspension. With this leverage, the mother filed a formal harassment complaint on behalf of her son to the school district against some of her son's tormentors.
Things were looking on the up-side, until the newspaper dropped the coverage. The school district then rejected the claim of harassment, saying that there was "equal harassment" on both ends during the incident and completely ignored any claim of previous harassment.
If you want to complain to the school district over the incident, don't just have your family complain. Flood the school with as many complaints as you can muster up from other parents of students who attend the school, as well as any possible news agencies. When it comes to the politics of the school system, unless there's pressure in NUMBERS, the administration won't budge.
Lets narrow it down to the last 115 years or so. Major "innovations" according to your definition would be: the Automobile, airplanes, radio, TV, Nuclear Power, Computer, PC, Internet.... can you think of anything else? No, and neither can I.
Oh, wait, let's see here. Name something invented in the past hundred years which is now one of the things most taken for granted and yet is IMPOSSIBLE to live in this modern world without.
Give up?
Plastics.
That's just the 20th century. Name the most revolutionary product of the 19th century.
I would lay my money down on Steel.
I can't believe that everyone here is trying to think about things that move, that work, that entertain us. Is that all anyone can think about nowdays? When I look at a great modern invention, I don't think about the computer. Heck, the computer was invented back in China around 800BC with the abacus. We've just improved it to suit our needs. Let's praise for a second the transistor (or vacuum tube if you like). Or silicon. Things we BUILD, not things we use.
Just try to think for a second what we have built, not what we use daily. Someone who praises the microwave as a technological breakthrough has a pretty narrow mind. Don't think about current "technology." It's how it's built. You want major innovations? Well, if you want technological revelations, I'd say wait another hundred years. Most things we honor right now not going to be used in a hundred years. I'd lay my money down on the elmination of the radio and of the Microwave, and who knows how "safe" airplanes will be compared to other means of travel 100 years from now (or how efficient). I mean, Trains were a popular means of travel 100 years ago, and now Amtrack is struggling to stay alive. Ask someone 100 years ago about what they would think is a wonderful invention, and I'm sure many would say the train.
We don't use the train much for personal travel anymore. But we still use it's steel.
So we have as many genes as a corn plant. So our genome matches 99% of the genome of an arangatang. Here's something to chew on:
Two tall buildings in downtown Minneapolis are probably made of 95% of the same material, mainly, steel, concrete, glass, and a little bit of plaster. Yet, they are designed differently, have different shapes, and different functions.
So nature found "instructions" that worked well to create different animals. The same digestive juice that works in a dog would probably work in a human, so why not leave the instructions there on how to make it for the both of them?
Granted, what they found supports their claim, but it doesn't completely eliminate all others.
...when you're all minors.
Now, it has been revealed that data as to kids' surfing habits is being sold to advertisers.
Here's your edge. No one's going to listen to you complain about having censorwear in the high school. Granted, we all know of its drawbacks and its dubious legality issues, but you don't have the power as a minor to fight back. But where there's profit involved, there's power.
There's one thing that you haven't made clear yet, and there's two paths to take depending on the situation.
1) The school district has set up a contract with N2H2 over the profiteering mess where the district shares in the profits.
2) The school district does not profit from N2H2 and N2H2 did this on their own account.
Situation 1 is going to be the most difficult to counteract, because it's going to involve numbers. First off, for both situations, LET YOUR STUDENTS KNOW...EVERY ONE OF THEM. Power is in numbers. Then, let your parents know that you as students are being profited against your own free will by a corporation. Bypass the school district and write letters (with AS MANY signatures -- in ink -- as possible...yourselves and your parents) to your state/country legislatures and your govenor and let them know what's going on. Also, write a brief synopsis of what is going on and send it to news broadcasters, local and national (it's a lot easier now with the internet, although I suggest you send it both by internet and also by formal snail-mail).
The problem with the first situation is that you can't counteract it by yourselves. Since you are minors, you lack the legal rights (which are in the hands of the school board) over a situation such as this.
If the second situation is what's occuring, it's much easier to deal with. You can do everything I listed in situation one, but you should begin though with the school board instead. At the next school board meeting, get the biggest herd of students you can muster (believe me, when two hundred+ kids show up for a school meeting, PEOPLE WILL HEAR, especially the news) and introduce this problem at the meeting, or call in early to get it on the agenda and have a student leader address the problem. Having your parents there as well would help.
Again, it's ethically wrong that a corporation is profiting on your behalf without your authorization, but because you're a minor, this authorization lies in the hands of the school board and your parents. But belive me, the power is in numbers.
Last spring, a nearby town's principal decided that it was in the school's best interest, due to a drop in the budget, to fire five teachers while giving himself a payraise over the next five years. Once the students heard about it, THE ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL (about 900 students) held a rally during the schoolday in the gym. The principal showed up to defend his position (of which he had none, but he tried to defend it anyway). At the next school board meeting, the principal was neglected his payraise in the budget proposal.
Here's what happened to me:
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to purchase from Best Buy (first big mistake) 16 MB SIMMs for $15 ($30 minus the $15 mail in rebate). After clearly asking the sales rep and clearly getting a response of being clearly showed on the rebate slip that there was no limit to how many I could buy with the rebate, I purchased four of them, figguring I'd get a $60 rebate.
After finding out that there were no more rebate slips in the store, I was told to call a phone number and one would be mailed out to me. I called the phone number, waited three weeks, and got nothing. Afraid that the offer was expired, I went back to Best Buy to find another rebate slip, only to discover that the offer was expired and no more were available. I gave my predicament to them, and basically got the, "We can't help you...you're screwed," shoulder shrug.
Finally, one more week passes and I get the mail-in rebate slip. After singing praises to myself, I found out that there was only one day left where I could mail in the rebate slip before the offer was invalid. After hurrying to try and find the original boxes and putting the envelope together and squeezing in time with everything else, I rushed to the Post Office at 11:55 PM and asked them to make sure it was postmarked for that night. I thought that was the end.
Another month and a half go by before I receive the rebate. Expecting a nice $60 deposit into my Bank Account, I discover that I got a lousy $15. Angry, I called up the company, only to receive what very much sounded like a secretary that was working out of a dead-end office in some corner-closet basement in the office building, telling me that, "Alright, I'll jot your complaint down here and will get back to you." After telling her that she had yet to even find out my name or my phone number, she gave a small sigh and grudgingly asked what my contact info was. Any hopes of seeing the other $45 dollars were shot to pieces at that point, but I waited an extra 60 days in grave hopes that I would get a call back or another check (before the original rebate check expired). After three and a half months passed from my original purchase of the RAM, I gave up.
All I see in mail-in rebates is an opportunity for a company to make a sale without having to fully explain their unwillingness to uphold their end of the bargain. I mean, it's kind of like holding a "parking-complex deal" where you and your dealer both stand in the shadows, one with the suitcase of money, the other with the goods. If you're dumb enough to pass the suitcase over to your partner without bothering to BE ABSOLUTELY SURE that he's not going to run with the money, you're going to lose the money.
They jip you, and unless you get some big-name consumer advocate to help you out, you're going to get the bum-rap.
You want to feel paranoid, here's paranoia for you:
It says right in the Constitution that the president is the "Commander in Chief" of the armed forces, right? That means that he has the full ability to take the armed forces, order them to march into the House and Senate floors while they're in session, and kill every single congressional leader in the country, leaving him dictator (well, he'd have to take out the Supreme Court justices too, but you get the jist of it). No one could stop him, and he'd become dictator.
So far, no president that we've had has "exercised" this "power" to it's full extent.
This is a country that you're responsible for, because you have the ability to take part in it. If you want to preserve whatever integrity's left in the system, you have to take the iniative. If you whine and complain yet at the same time do nothing about it except skip the country, you're as guilty as the ignorant who do nothing.
...what's the "Right Thing To Do?"
What they're doing is complying with French law (which is the right thing to do, probably), but they're not doing this because it's the Right Thing To Do.
This in a way relates back to the Singapore story of the early 90's where that one American committed a crime in Singapore and recieved the "Singapore punishment" of a lashing. America begged and pleaded to stop the "cruel and unusual" punishment, but it was carried out.
Too many people believe in American imperealism. So far, everyone feels it's a good thing when it comes to the internet (since America pioneered the internet, they should have the right to put their foot down in whatever country they want, right?). So, when one country finally says that they're tired of American imperealism (I'm not the least bit surprised that it's the French), we feel offended?
Yahoo's a business. They realize that if they want to run a business in a different country in a different part of the world, they'll need to conform to another country's rules and regulations. Here's the best example I can come up with: Say Columbia began a web page where one could purchase cocaine from their website at "Rock-bottom warehouse prices and shipping to anywhere in North and South America!" I guarantee you that the US would try their darndest to stop that website from being able to opporate here in the United States. Or what if some other country believed so whole-heartedly in free speech that child pornography was legal there? Even though it might offend that country's "democratic principles," the US would try to make sure it would be blocked out here in the US.
If our military wasn't enough, we're now spreading our entire English culture to the rest of the world. We can pay 50 million dollars to get a potentially-worth billion dollar suffix (.tv) from a country that's expected to be entirely underwater in 50 years. When we want something we can buy it. Of course, too many people don't understand that even though we're the most economically powerful country in the world, but we contain less than 5% of the world's population. Maybe we should respect the rest of the people that live on this Earth?
Check this out from the TOS:
IX. Disclaimer
D. Page Creators reserves the right to revise its policies at any time without notice. It is the customer's responsibility to monitor pagecreators.net/contract for policy changes.
Excuse me? It's my responsibility to monitor changes in a contract? BZZZZ! Wrong. You sign and agree to a contract, that's legit. But to create a clause that says NOT ONLY that the contract can be modified without notice BUT ALSO that one must adhere to the contract reguardless of whether or not the participant/s agreed to it without proper closure is not legal BY ANY MEANS.
One signs the TOS agreement. Legal. TOS agreement modified. Legal. Direct or written notification of change in TOS. Legal. (Why do you think banks, insurance agencies, credit card companies, and all other businesses write letters to you giving "Notification" over some business transaction?) If participant is not happy with TOS modification, the service can be terminated. Legal. But to modify a TOS without express notification to participants is not.
No doubt this is a scam.
...and find someplace to land with Linux before it's too late.
.com's. For you to hand them an OS and say, "We want this and this and this and this and this and this and this..., oh, and while you're at it, throw in a nice screen saver or two as well!", you'll get a simple reply of "Why?"
..."
Networking scalability and redundancy, optimisation and facilities for database systems (as the jfs has started) or systems management applications?
Try and understand this from a business model. IBM has been around for an EXTREMELY long time (in computer years, I mean). They've survived longer than many computer companies (Packard Bell, for instance), and outlasted many
IBM doesn't want Linux just so it can become part of the "basement programmer Linux movement." The last thing they want is an anarchal OS that's being developed for EVERYTHING. Anything that's aimed for everything is looked on by a business as 1) Egotistical, and 2) Doomed to fail. (Yes, MS Windows is an exception, but there are always exceptions to the rule.)
IBM is going to want a target to shoot for. They want to get Linux and have someone tell them, "Market it towards the office. Here's why: It's free. Offices love free. All we need from you is to make it into a scalable office OS and you'll make money." Or..."Market it towards the Enterprise Server. It has remarkable scalability, is a Network OS, and all we need from you is
IBM's knocking on Linux's door. Don't let the opportunity get shot down. IBM's a business, while Linux was NOT developed under a business model. Find a bridge, and Linux will have the oportunity to join up with one of the biggest names in the computer industry.
...seemed quite perplexing...
Bringing the Internet to Borneo -- By Sea
So, what does that mean? You put a request in at your local seaport to have them "download" to you www.yahoo.com, then wait two weeks for the shipment to come?
Man, I'd hate to figure out what it'd be like to download games!
GWB's case has transferred a significant amount of power from the States to the Federal Government.
If you read the Supreme Court ruling, this case did NOT transfer states rights to the federal government. In fact, it reaffirmed a piece of states rights.
The problem lies here: Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 states that the authority of electing electors for a presidential election lies with STATE LEGISLATURES. The US Supreme Court said that the ruling by the Florida Supreme Court ursurped the Florida Legislature's authority in conducting the election for the electors.
So, here's the best outline for the steps of the problem:
I. Election [eventually] concludes that Bush is the winner, as directed by FL state law
II. FL Supreme Court declares that FL state law is bad
Here's where the confliction comes in. The FL SC has the right to overrule FL state law, except when federal law comes into play.
III. US Constitution says that FL state law holds power over electing electors for federal election.
Normally, the FL SC would hold the authority in its opinion, but because it ursurped power that is directly granted to FL state law by Federal law, it's unconstitutional.
The opinion for this case gave state legislatures quite a bit of power in how they conduct their elections for electors. What it ceased was the state supreme courts' ability to overturn a federal grant of power to the states.
Technically, the real conclusion you can draw from this case is that if State Law has a discrepency over it's law for electing electors, it can only be overturned by the US Supreme Court (since the law is a direct link between the state and federal governments).
Finally, I think the Electoral College needs a second look. Majority rules, and the popular vote should be the determining factor.
There's a load of bull. Majority rules, but "minority rights." The popular vote be the determining factor? I think you really need to know...if it was, there would be a demand for a recount from the Bush campain in the entire United States, because a difference of less than 200,000 votes is less than 1/10 of one percent! That's a pretty slim margin for any national election.
Course, another pathetic argument is that "each vote would then count more." ERRRRHHHH! Wrong again. If the popular vote would be used in this election, Palm Beach county wouldn't even exist in the news media, and neither would Florida. One reason why there's so many people protesting is because they love it that everyone's eyes are on them!
The electoral college may appear to be archaic, but it's amazing, and it forces canidates to listen to EVERYBODY, not just "the majority."
This can be directly equated to a situation where you hear about a liquor store that got robbed so, as a curious citizen, you drive by and take a look. Being that you left some small piece of evidence that you were there at all, the FBI or whoever comes back to your house, confiscates your car and questions you. Anyone see anything wrong with this?? Anyone???
...I returned to my IRC client, said "Looks like a dns hack...", and and the conversation went elsewhere. The entire thing lasted possibly five minutes, and occupied no more than 3 or 4 lines on IRC.
Not at all, but let me make a better example, based on what he said:
Say you were walking down the street and happen to notice the evidence of a break-in, with a policeman standing there. So, if you tell your friend, "Hmm, looks like they broke the window open with a brick," the police would be able to thoroughly question you about your knowledge of break-ins, how you obtained the knowledge, and take any property that you own that could be considered to be "break-in material"?
It's been quite obvious that under the Clinton administration, the prosperity of our country has risen dramatically, with praise being spread across the board (to Clinton, Alan Greenspan, the media, the citizens of the US, etc.). A thought in my mind remains though: who (or what) is responsible for the prosperity of this country? But in thinking about that, here's the question I want to propose:
What do you feel is the SINGLE (aka: one and only one) most imporant person, event, or situation that will maintain the prosperity of the United States into the next presidental term? Please be specific and direct here; don't just say "a good economy" or "a strong military." Place credit where you think credit is due.
I'm patenting a new keyboard that has one new key on it. The new key is the sig key, and it's such a revolutionary idea, I NEED a patent just to stop others from copying this idea.
Here's the deal. After seeing the degredation of english grammar as we know it on the web, I thought to myself, "Why do we even need that big long key at the bottom of the keyboard?" I mean, no one uses it anymore on the web, right? Everyonejusttypeslikethis, becauseit'smoreconvenient, right? So, I spent countless hours calculating what would be the best way to utilize that waste of spac! My revolutionary new idea: the sig key.
There are never any hastles with the sig key! Within that one little key lies your complete private life! On Microsoft's web site? Need to access the help manuals but aren't "registered?" Worry no more! As soon as it asks for your registration, just hit the sig key, and Microsoft will have access to your social security number, all your credit card numbers, your bank account number, birth date, domestic information, marital status, health insurance records, high school and college transcripts, crime records, and the name of the dog you owned when you were 8 years old who got run over by your dad by accident one day after he purchased his brand new SUV. Microsoft will gladly give you access to any part of their website with just one click of the keyboard! There's no hastle and no need to worry with the sig key!
The sig key is a revolutionary new idea that makes one-click shopping obselete. You won't have any problems with Amazon.com. If you see something you like, hit the sig key, and Amazon.com has the right to bill your credit card for millions of dollars and ships to you a bunch of crappy merchandise! The way I figure it, you know you want it, but all to often your mind says no before your fingers say yes! So, heck, let this key make up your mind for you! There isn't even a need to worry over what you want, cause you'll get it all!
Companies across the web are so excited, they'll offer deals if you hit the sig key while on their webiste! Who needs privacy when you can get a free CueCat for hitting the sig key while on Radio Shack's website! Want that brand new computer on WalMart's website? With one flick of the finger, not only will WalMart be ecstatic over giving you a new computer, they'll bill thousands of dollars of other merchandise to you that they're certain you may not have wanted but need anyway! You'll have SO MUCH merchandise at your fingertips, you'll never be able to part with your keyboard! You can't even begin to imagine what you'll receive in using the sig key on government websites!
But that's not all! Right now, we're having a great promotional with this new keyboard! Order today, and you'll get with it a free AOL CD to just give you a taste of the merchandise that will flow to your fingertips after using this new keyboard! To set up AOL, just pop the CD into your CD-ROM drive, run the setup program, then when the program connects you to AOL, just hit the sig key to go online! If you want more time, just hit the sig key a few more times. Heck, hit it as many times as you want, and watch your available time online skyrocket!
As another added bonus, order today, and you'll receive the option of a second and third sig key on your keyboard! We feel that with the decline of the shift key's popularity on the web, why waste space on the keyboard when you'll have a wider range of location to hit the sig key! Perfect for those of us who just cannot find a key to press when we need it! Supplies are limited, order today!
...but whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
You wish it were that easy. Really, look at reality for a second.
Problem 1: That said, it would probably also help to put the terminals in a position where the contents of the screen are prominently visible to other patrons of said laundromat. Public embarassment can be a reasonably good deterrent.
Do you think kids really care what other people think about what they're looking at? As long as their parents aren't around, they're just going to goof off, much to the dismay of the patrons.
Problem #2) It's a public facility, and there's no more obligation to censor/filter material for minors than a magazine store that happens to sell copies of Playboy and Penthouse.
This isn't your local convenience store. Even if it were, Playboys are packaged and wrapped. Besides, Playboys are pretty tame to the blatent pornogrophy you can get anywhere online. This is a public laundromat (possibly mom'n'pop), and the last thing they're going to want is a million dollar sexual harrassment LAWSUIT on their hands because a woman was disturbed from seeing pornogrophy being accessed in a public laundromat.
Unfortunately, reality says that it's much more cost efficient to eliminate a little free speech to prevent any possible lawsuit.
This isn't just about Microsoft making it harder for their users to run alternative operating systems; it's about Microsoft closing off direct access to a user's own system to the point of forcing the OS to crash before giving the user a command prompt.
Uhhh, who said anything about forcing the OS to crash? Where the hell did that come from? And by the way, someone else pointed out that you can still get to a command prompt by (surprise!) opening a command prompt window.
It sounds like you've never had Windows crash on you before. Here's a pop quiz for you then:
You turn on your computer to find an error message by Windows saying, "An error has been found in your kernel. Click OK to boot from an existing backup kernel or Cancel to attempt to load the kernel." Do you:
A) Click on Cancel and cross your fingers?
B) Click OK and hope your backup kernel boots?
C) Restart the computer, push F8, go into DOS mode, and restore the kernel from a backup copy?
or D) Stick in your Emergency Win9x Boot Disk?
Well, according to you, you might as well trash C, since you don't like the command prompt. And D? Well, you want a "faster, cheaper, more efficient" motherboard that doesn't have a floppy drive hookup, so scratch that. I guess you'll just want to cross your fingers, huh?
Windows ME is being promoted with a new bundle of system tools called "PC Health." What it does is keeps records of your system's settings by creating backups of the kernel each day, so technically, if you want to go back to the way your computer looked, say, 10 days ago, you could restore the copy of the kernel that existed 10 days ago, and *POOF*, everything's fine and dandy, right? But from my five years of experience with the Windows 9x kernel, if thing's aren't working the way they should, you can NEVER rely on being able to boot to the GUI. Something always gets in the way...Blue Screen of Death, system freeze, "Cannot find 'fortheloveofgoddonotforgettoloadthis.dll'. System Halted.", etc. But you know what? Whenever I've been in a mess, I've ALWAYS been able to get to the command prompt.
If Linux/BSD doesn't boot of the kernel, you can always go into debug mode and boot from either the backup or the Generic, and at least that will get you back into your system. For any and every system technician, there needs to be a back door into the system in case there ever is a problem. That back door shouldn't be having to reinstall Windows or reformatting your hard drive.
It's a little hard to come up with advice, since I really don't know how far and smart your students are, but here's some brainstorms:
1) Obtain donations from your community (or ask all your students to bring in their computer if they have one) and set up a LAN in your classroom. Teach them the basics of networking, TCP/IP, and wiring different OS's to a network. For more fun, make a Linux/BSD server and hook it up. Set up a web page for your class by setting up Apache, and have them create their own webpages w/ HTML (NOT some GUI interface like FrontPage).
2) Teach the students how external prepherials communicate with the system by setting up a Linux machine (you could try it with a Win machine too, but I would think that more people would know how to program in C if you say your class is at the AP level) and building a driver for the joystick. This one might be a little difficult to undertake though, especially if no one has had any programming experience in C or has never learned logic trees for drivers.
3) This one I think everyone would love. Design a new mouse. This one doesn't have too much technology behind it, but you could really teach them some marketing and sales lessons by assigning them to get a whole bunch of different mouses together and go around in their school asking kids what designs they like, which feel better on the hand, and which are easier to use. Gather the results and have the students brainstorm different designs that they think would work based on what they learned. Create a design for a prototype.
Now, if you live in a big city, you might be able to have a company actually design a working prototype for you, and if it's REALLY good (now, I'm not making any promices here...), you could try to market it to some company like Logitech and see what they think. For a big company like Logitech to evaluate (or even better, see if they could participate) in such an event would really give a good experience to the students.
My father works for the USPS, and there's a few things I've learned about how mail advertisements work and how this e-mail system will work.
The USPS will not be revealing ANY information in your usps.gov e-mail address. You will have the opportunity to choose what ID you want to use for your e-mail, although the ask that you use your name in some way rather than something like pornstar@usps.gov.
Mail bombs? Early morning phone calls? How do you get that? If some Joe Smoe has some vandetta against you and he knows your e-mail address does NOT mean he's going to know your physical address. Look at his options:
1) You set up your usps.gov mail to forward mail to some hotmail account. So you get e-mails. Darn. Delete them. That could happen with any e-mail account anyway.
2) You receive in paper form all your usps.gov e-mail. It's going to cost him 41 cents per message. Why would he pay 41 cents to send you threatening? Even if he did, it's got a return address. Fake? Not likely, because he had to pay 41 cents to send that mail. Trust me, you'll have a way to trace him.
3) Even if the letter is threatening, it's a federal offense to send threatening mail, and whoever sent the mail will have an identity. And the USPS has quite a large, nation-wide fraud center that is being equipped to deal with those kinds of issues.
And, no matter how he sends it, whether from his computer or physically going to the post office to mail the message, he can't get anything more than your name from the post office. They aren't allowed by federal law to reveal any private information such as your phone #, SS#, etc.
And if you're worried about spam, don't be. It costs about 21 cents per letter for advertisers to send you a two page message via snail mail (2 cents for the paper and envelope, 6 cents labor to print the form letter, stuff it, and print the envelope, and 13 cents for bulk-rate mailing), which is still quite cheaper than 41 cents to mail a two page message via USPS e-mail. And for credit card companies who have to mail all those pamphlets and forms in the message? It would take about 9 pages of e-mail ASCII text to reveal all the information they're required to disclose for a credit card application, which will cost them around, I believe, 60 cents, to send via USPS e-mail, much more than to send snail-mail.
Oh, and for the highly paranoid, no one, neither businesses nor an everyday Joe Smoe, will just be able to walk into the USPS and say "Hey, I got this e-mail address of someone, could you please give me his name/snail address/phone number please?"
You know, when you're dragging a corporation's name around through the news and the court systems, it's free advertising.
That's how it always is! What, do you think hackers like to hack just because it gives them an excuse to destroy their vision by staring at a computer screen for eight hours straight? That Monika had a few nights on the town with Bill Clinton just to be able to brag to her friends that the president offered her a cigar? That Darva decided to marry Rick just because she was having a great time in Vegas? It's all for publicity. Americans are ravageous pitbulls when it comes to dirt. We crave it. So, when someone's involved in something dirty, everyone hears about it.
There was an interesting poll I read a while back that showed percentages of people who knew who the current president of the United States was. Suddenly, after the Lewinsky affair, 8% more Americans knew who their president was. Sorry to say, but the only news source for many Americans is the tabloid rack next to a grocery store's checkout counter.
an attention-oriented UI that will use cameras and mics as well as software to monitor where a user's attention is focused and query other software
Has anyone else given any thought to this? I got Big Brother circulating in my computer! Granted, it doesn't hurt if it stays in my computer, but who says that this information couldn't be leaked out, like through IE? I could be playing some flight sim, and the next thing I know when I switch over to my web browser, there's a web pop-up add advertising Microsoft Flight Simulator!
The software would monitor what I am doing at my computer, both by camera and by mouse clicks. The moment this information leaves my computer (Microsoft innovation, anybody?), my privacy goes up in smoke.