there's nothing in the consistition saying that the courts are where laws are deemed to be constitutional. The Supreme Court took this power upon itself, way back when (sorry, I forget the case where they decided it).
OK, now we have conflicting stories between an AC who claims it's the same, and you who say they are not removable. Anybody else want to comment?
*Dang* another business opportunity gone down the toilet - I've been thinking of this for a few years, but I was thinking of a few different models
Mount them 'flat' rather than emulating current Christmas lights. This wouldn't be as good for a tree, but would be better for houses, as you could put them up as a strip.
Get rid of the !@#@$# "friction-and-two-thin-bent-wires" scheme at any rate
Put a simple programmer, and some programs to different colored lights. Some conventional lights do this, so you could make it blue, then red, then green, etc. Definitely make it "hackable".
I understand the concept all too well. The responsible and ethical thing to do would be to say "Thanks so much, but giving children laptops is not a productive use of $2k or so per student."
If you would bother to read the previous comments, you would find that it isn't $2k/student, but rather $300/student. That, to me, is tremendous value.
As a taxpayer, I don't really care whether the money spent comes from my state or federal tax return. I care first whether it's something government even has any business being involved in, and second, if they're performing their role responsibly and with at least some semblance of efficiency. You don't have to be perfect, but you'd better not buy $800 hammers. Kindly stop looking at this as government money. It isn't. It's the money of thousands of hardworking taxpayers who had numerous productive uses they could have put the money to had it not been taken from them for this wasteful pet project.
OK, it's paid for by Maine's taxpayers, and approved by Maine's legislators who are responsible to Maine's taxpayers. If you don't like it, you should have written your state legislator. Oh, you're not from Maine? Then I guess it's none of your business anyway, huh? (And, for the record, neither am I, so I have no right to complain either.)
[Further misconceptions about cost deleted] I care when it happens elsewhere because other unwise politicians will emulate it.
That all depends on whether or not it works. If they propose such a thing at the state level in YOUR state, call and complain. If they try to do this at the national level I'll call and complain, too (because it's not something the federal government should be doing).
Schools are not vocational education centers. They should teach you the academics. In other words, here's how to write a quality paper, not here's how to type in Word.
While you're absolutely right that schools aren't vo-techs and shouldn't be treated as such, the fact is that just about everyone will need to understand at least some technology. When you go to have your car fixed, have you noticed how they get your complaints from you to the mechanic, and then from the mechanics diagnosis/repair to your bill? That's right, these unskilled laborers are using computers. I have a PalmOS handheld in my pocket. Anybody want to vote that technology will become less prevalent in the next 5-10 years?
How do you write a paper now? With paper? This is real world, not vo-tech. You seem to be confusing the two. Real world is "here's what a computer can do, and help you be more productive". Vo-tech is "here's how to run Word".
You're still missing the point. It isn't about dollars, its about effective use of a limited resource.
Then you and I seem to be at odds about whether this would be effective. At $2000, probably not, since you can buy a lot of notebook for $1100 or $1200. At $300, this is VERY effective use of school funds.
Books remain a more friendly medium.
Speak for yourself. I prefer reading on my Palm to reading a dead-tree version. I can carry several books in my pocket, and read some when I have unexpected waits. A laptop is not as suited for this as a Palm, but still, if you can have ALL your books in this nice, neat little package no bigger than a single book...
It's easier to read a book, you won't get repetitive motion problems from a book, you won't get a headache from staring at a book all day.
...and they're inconvenient.
...and you can't write papers on them.
...and you can't search the Internet with them.
Now that you mention it, I've been arguing a point you've raised, that isn't necessarily the case. The previous poster said they MAY (as in "sometime in the future") replace books. There was nothing in this proposal that addresses this. Replacing books isn't the driving force behind the proposal; access to technology is. So don't knock over this straw man just yet, OK?
We have a nice, long history of students learning effectively from books. If you want to throw them out in favor of something else, PROVE (do a peer reviewed study) that something else works at least as well FIRST. Once you've shown that, only then do I even care whether it costs more or less.
But by the same token, you can't "PROVE" that books are more effective, either.
Let me give you a couple of quotes:
First, from the 1815 Principals Association Conference: "Students today depend on paper too much. They don't know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?"
Second, from the 1928 Rural Association of Teachers: "Students of today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education."
This is what I mean about being in the real world.
I just set all my computers at work (~300) to have their startup page load a frame from my personal website, and refresh it once a second. By the time anybody catches on, I'll be retired.
I have no problems with unions per se, however I do have a real problem with the way they are implemented. "Scabs" should be part of the free market, too. And if you walk off the job to strike, and the business can fill your position, too freaking bad.
AMD Durons work in multiprocessor mode as well, and they're very, very close to Athlons in terms of performance (and obviously cheaper.)
Not so obviously. I upgraded my brother's PC two weeks ago, buying parts from my favorite online vendor. He's not a power user by any stretch (and in fact only upgraded from his K6-200 because it died on him). I spec'd a 900 MHz Duron (for the good price/performance) for $61. Before I finalized the order, I thought I'd check on what the T-Birds were going for. 900 MHz T-Bird: $59. I thought it was screwy, but I didn't complain.
1. Battery life. Not having a color display, 16mb ROM, 32mb RAM, 200+mhz CPU, etc. means that the batteries last a lot longer in the Palm.
I have a Palm IIIc (bought after my Palm III mysteriously quit turning on last year). The batteries in it last a couple of weeks between recharging, unless I'm doing a lot of reading, so the battery life isn't too bad there either.
3. Price...
Agreed. Even my color version was less than $300.
And you probably won't need color, either.
I bought the color Palm for one reason only - I have three preschool age children and people were telling me what a horrible father I was not to have photos of my kids in my wallet. Now I do. Also, I have to say the backlit screen is very easy on the eyes for reading (I've read several Project Gutenberg books courtesy bibelot).
--
Guess what? The U.S. isn't "most countries". The U.S. is not a democracy - it's a republic. The electoral college is a prime example of this. I personally am glad that someone can't promise "no taxes for anybody living in a city of over 1 million people" and win overwhelmingly.
I heard someone posit not so long ago I would submit that not only can the majority be wrong, but that the majority is always wrong. Think about the ramifications of that one. --
I hadn't heard about the Canadian Keno problem, but I had heard about the Texas Hold-em Poker problems a couple of years ago. (That's http://www.cigital.com/news/gambling-tech.html for the goatse.cx paranoid)
--
Sure its the desktop of choice for geeks and techheads alike, but imagine installing a fresh copy of Debian on a Pentium, and giving it to your grandmother?
I actually considered doing this. Why not? At least I could show her what the pretty icons do, and wouldn't have to worry about the "I didn't know what this was, so figured I must not need it, and deleted it" effect (particularly with DLL's).
I have plenty more comments about support and webpages not working, but it seems that other readers have done it for me.
--
We had a small office (during previous employment c. 1997) that didn't want to "trust" our NetWare server with their financial data (despite my protests that it was much better than their PC's). So I helped them setup a small NetBeui network to share Lotus files amongst their 3 PC's.
This is about as "P2P" as you can get without using "the Internet", and definitely a valid use of the technology.
(Note: I'm sure there are thousands of us that have done similar things, but this article asked for a specific example, and I gave one). --
Slashdot Mirror
That would be Marbury vs. Madison
You phrased it better than I would have, anyway.
You are under arrest for the illegal distribution of Microsoft copyrighted material. Please stay at your seat and wait for the FBI.
*Dang* another business opportunity gone down the toilet - I've been thinking of this for a few years, but I was thinking of a few different models
If you would bother to read the previous comments, you would find that it isn't $2k/student, but rather $300/student. That, to me, is tremendous value.
As a taxpayer, I don't really care whether the money spent comes from my state or federal tax return. I care first whether it's something government even has any business being involved in, and second, if they're performing their role responsibly and with at least some semblance of efficiency. You don't have to be perfect, but you'd better not buy $800 hammers. Kindly stop looking at this as government money. It isn't. It's the money of thousands of hardworking taxpayers who had numerous productive uses they could have put the money to had it not been taken from them for this wasteful pet project.
OK, it's paid for by Maine's taxpayers, and approved by Maine's legislators who are responsible to Maine's taxpayers. If you don't like it, you should have written your state legislator. Oh, you're not from Maine? Then I guess it's none of your business anyway, huh? (And, for the record, neither am I, so I have no right to complain either.)
[Further misconceptions about cost deleted] I care when it happens elsewhere because other unwise politicians will emulate it.
That all depends on whether or not it works. If they propose such a thing at the state level in YOUR state, call and complain. If they try to do this at the national level I'll call and complain, too (because it's not something the federal government should be doing).
Schools are not vocational education centers. They should teach you the academics. In other words, here's how to write a quality paper, not here's how to type in Word.
While you're absolutely right that schools aren't vo-techs and shouldn't be treated as such, the fact is that just about everyone will need to understand at least some technology. When you go to have your car fixed, have you noticed how they get your complaints from you to the mechanic, and then from the mechanics diagnosis/repair to your bill? That's right, these unskilled laborers are using computers. I have a PalmOS handheld in my pocket. Anybody want to vote that technology will become less prevalent in the next 5-10 years?
How do you write a paper now? With paper? This is real world, not vo-tech. You seem to be confusing the two. Real world is "here's what a computer can do, and help you be more productive". Vo-tech is "here's how to run Word".
You're still missing the point. It isn't about dollars, its about effective use of a limited resource.
Then you and I seem to be at odds about whether this would be effective. At $2000, probably not, since you can buy a lot of notebook for $1100 or $1200. At $300, this is VERY effective use of school funds.
Books remain a more friendly medium.
Speak for yourself. I prefer reading on my Palm to reading a dead-tree version. I can carry several books in my pocket, and read some when I have unexpected waits. A laptop is not as suited for this as a Palm, but still, if you can have ALL your books in this nice, neat little package no bigger than a single book...
It's easier to read a book, you won't get repetitive motion problems from a book, you won't get a headache from staring at a book all day.
...and they're inconvenient.
...and you can't write papers on them.
...and you can't search the Internet with them.
Now that you mention it, I've been arguing a point you've raised, that isn't necessarily the case. The previous poster said they MAY (as in "sometime in the future") replace books. There was nothing in this proposal that addresses this. Replacing books isn't the driving force behind the proposal; access to technology is. So don't knock over this straw man just yet, OK?
We have a nice, long history of students learning effectively from books. If you want to throw them out in favor of something else, PROVE (do a peer reviewed study) that something else works at least as well FIRST. Once you've shown that, only then do I even care whether it costs more or less.
But by the same token, you can't "PROVE" that books are more effective, either.
Let me give you a couple of quotes:
First, from the 1815 Principals Association Conference: "Students today depend on paper too much. They don't know how to write on a slate without getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can't clean a slate properly. What will they do when they run out of paper?"
Second, from the 1928 Rural Association of Teachers: "Students of today depend upon store bought ink. They don't know how to make their own. When they run out of ink they will be unable to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern education."
This is what I mean about being in the real world.
$5.15 / 4 = $1.28
GOOD High School labor? $6 by 5 minutes.
$6 / 12 = $0.50
So you're already up around $2. Right in the same ballpark.
(Incidentally, I get mine pre-made for less than $1 each from my favorite vendor.)
I still have the installer for Netscape 1.1N around somewhere. The standard at the time.
Anybody think the venerable Google Cache would survive this?
I just set all my computers at work (~300) to have their startup page load a frame from my personal website, and refresh it once a second. By the time anybody catches on, I'll be retired.
You mean the one that runs on Linux?
I figure most any SOHO could make these up with nothing more than Photoshop and a couple of hours.
I have no problems with unions per se, however I do have a real problem with the way they are implemented. "Scabs" should be part of the free market, too. And if you walk off the job to strike, and the business can fill your position, too freaking bad.
ASSuming they get caught, you could always "OJ" them.... take them to civil court after the criminal court is done with them.
Yes
Not so obviously. I upgraded my brother's PC two weeks ago, buying parts from my favorite online vendor. He's not a power user by any stretch (and in fact only upgraded from his K6-200 because it died on him). I spec'd a 900 MHz Duron (for the good price/performance) for $61. Before I finalized the order, I thought I'd check on what the T-Birds were going for. 900 MHz T-Bird: $59. I thought it was screwy, but I didn't complain.
Hmmm... Church bells playing John Williams tunes.
So N*Sync/N*Suck can't be copied. What's the problem?
Hmmm... Sounds like Jack Nicholson's mother.
Yeah, whatever.
As fast as Google is (even under the slashdot effect), I think I just visited Ditto for the last time.
--
I have a Palm IIIc (bought after my Palm III mysteriously quit turning on last year). The batteries in it last a couple of weeks between recharging, unless I'm doing a lot of reading, so the battery life isn't too bad there either.
3. Price...
Agreed. Even my color version was less than $300.
And you probably won't need color, either.
I bought the color Palm for one reason only - I have three preschool age children and people were telling me what a horrible father I was not to have photos of my kids in my wallet. Now I do. Also, I have to say the backlit screen is very easy on the eyes for reading (I've read several Project Gutenberg books courtesy bibelot).
--
I heard someone posit not so long ago I would submit that not only can the majority be wrong, but that the majority is always wrong. Think about the ramifications of that one.
--
I hadn't heard about the Canadian Keno problem, but I had heard about the Texas Hold-em Poker problems a couple of years ago. (That's http://www.cigital.com/news/gambling-tech.html for the goatse.cx paranoid)
--
I actually considered doing this. Why not? At least I could show her what the pretty icons do, and wouldn't have to worry about the "I didn't know what this was, so figured I must not need it, and deleted it" effect (particularly with DLL's).
I have plenty more comments about support and webpages not working, but it seems that other readers have done it for me.
--
We had a small office (during previous employment c. 1997) that didn't want to "trust" our NetWare server with their financial data (despite my protests that it was much better than their PC's). So I helped them setup a small NetBeui network to share Lotus files amongst their 3 PC's.
This is about as "P2P" as you can get without using "the Internet", and definitely a valid use of the technology.
(Note: I'm sure there are thousands of us that have done similar things, but this article asked for a specific example, and I gave one).
--