I was recently a first-time home buyer. I totally agree with your comments.
The MLS that the realtors use is updated much more frequently than the web sites. I imagine that it will be that way for a long time to come. Realtors pay a lot to have access to the MLS database. There are many homes you will never see (especially in the entry-level price ranges) if you only surf the web.
I think the biggest problem is the confusion between computer programming and computer science. A surgeon must know how to cut open the body and stitch it back together. These are very important skills for a surgeon to have. Learning how to cut and stitch the body does not make you a surgeon.
Java, in my humble opinion, is not a good core learning language for computer science. Lisp (or Scheme, as used at my school) is a good choice. As a language to teach object oriented programming, it's not bad. Neither is C++, or several other languages.
I never took the AP computer science course (my high school didn't have AP classes). If the goal is to teach computer science, then I think Java is a bad choice. I would argue that you could design a high school introductory computer science course that could be done entirely with paper and pencil.
The problem is the computer science/programming confusion. Teachers, parents, and kids think that they want to learn programming. They demand that the courses use current programming languages so that they're not "wasting their time" with something like BASIC. They don't understand (and, perhaps, don't care) that they're not learning computer science, just a single programming language.
Cross-platform games aren't necessarily a good thing. Every system has its strengths and weaknesses. The reason console games can look so good with such, relatively, weak hardware is that they are highly optimized for that system.
Just before the big crash of the 1980s, a lot of games were produced for multiple systems (Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc). Companies streamlined the process and didn't take advantage of each system's strengths. The result was was generally crappy games.
Check out the history of Kool-Aid Man from Mattel. It describes the battles between marketing and programmers over developing for multiple systems.
Yes, the US does have destructive lasers. On June 7 of last year, the US Army shot down a missile using a laser. Here's a SpaceDaily.com story on the test. Here's a Slashdot story on equipping a 747 with a laser to shoot down missiles.
Fair enough. I guess I wasn't trying to imply that people should only play with friends. I was just trying to point out that there are a lot of hassles with playing online, cheating included.
As far a tournaments and leagues, cheating (in any form) is a major issue. Having Asus remove a driver feature doesn't solve it. I think the real effort should be to devise ways to ensure people are not cheating while playing online. While the drivers may had made it easy for script kiddies, the serious cheater already has tools.
There will always be people who want to cheat. If they can't use the Asus drivers then they'll find some other method. It was a neat feature of the drivers that has been removed because people complaint that it would be used to cheat.
I agree with CmdrTaco's comments on the original article. People are going to cheat anyway. I tend to play online games against people I know. I used to spend up to eight hours a day (hey, I work for a university!) playing Rise of Rome online. It seemed that for every "good" game, you'd have to put up with about four "bad" games (people whining about options, then dropping, immature kids, etc). It just wasn't worth it. I'd rather play against people I know and I don't have to worry about them cheating.
The key is to track the receipient of the information, not the sender. If I know that Bob is a terrorist, I will monitor all communication that Bob receives. It's not that difficult to track all the email he sees and web sites he visits.
The harder part is sorting through it to find the stuff that is interesting. This is where steganography comes in. Bob is trying to get me to ignore a piece of data (like a banner ad) that has a hidden message.
I don't know much about stego, but if Bob can decrypt the message, the algorithms must exist. This is where the listener would need supercomputers to crunch through all of Bob's incoming data to look for hidden information.
You are correct that some messages (like the timing of a ping) could be nearly impossible to decrypt on its own. The other side of the coin is that such messages transmit very little information. Its meaning had to be pre-arranged, and that is the listener's opportunity.
I think Katz has overstated the ability for steno to keep communications secret. In contrast to what he said, it doesn't hide the act of communications. It hides data within the communications
If two terrorist groups are sending emails to each other then they are communicating. The fact that there is some extra data hidden in a JPG doesn't eliminate the fact that they are communicating. If their network has been tapped, whoever is monitoring the situation knows of their communications.
The question is does the listener (1) know that there is communications hidden in the JPG and (2) do they know how to crack it? It is basically a digital version of using disappearing ink to write a second message on a letter.
The CNN article is reporting that the requests for internet wiretaps is up since 1997. The EPIC information is showing the actual number of taps for each year. It also indicates that the number of taps is increasing (except for state taps, which are down from 1998 to 1999, but up from 1997 to 1999).
Not to go on some Katz-like rant or anything, but...
Can you imagine how much a kid would get picked on in school once the other children learned they were genetically modified? Or even the reaction from adults?
I'm not arguing about this particlar experiment. I have no expertise in genetics. From what I understand, this didn't seem to be some huge step (it's not like they were alterted for more IQ).
I'm just saying in a world that hasn't even overcome racism or religious intolerance, these kids could have a hard time.
I work 40 hours a week. My contract says that I work 40 hours a week, I get paid for working 40 hours a week. I, therefore, work 40 hours a week.
I know people who work 60+ hours a week. I even can think of one or two who get a lot done.
For the most of them, however, they are just unorganized. They don't make efficient use of their time at work. They don't have any sort of plan to indicate what they hope to do and how it will be accomplished. They are in the office until 8 PM or later and wear it like some badge of honor.
They can have that "honor" all to themselves. I rather like going home at 5 to have dinner with my fiancee, play with my dog, and whatever else seems interesting at the time. I doubt I'll be on my deathbed wishing I spent more time at this desk.
Exactly. The problem here is that they don't explain why all these people without computers would want to buy one (even if it is cheap).
The web surfing and email ability is mentioned, provided you have access to a phone line (and, presumably, some sort of ISP). How many of these people have telephones? Can they afford ISP service? There's more to getting "online" than simply having the hardware.
If they're not online, what are they going to do with these things? A better solution may be to load them up with e-text (core government documents, classic books, etc) and using them as a method of providing knowledge to the masses.
You're jumping to conclusions. You assume that being on-call was part of the existing contract. I work for a major university and the civil service union does the bargaining for my job. The rules are very specific.
I would guess that the previous contract said people had to work 40 hours per week and then got x% for overtime. Then the need for on-call employees arrived (relatively new- before pagers/cell phones you had night shifts for critical tasks). The union tried to define rules for working on-call. The management rejected it and therefore, people still only have to work 40 hours per week.
I agree that unions can abuse their power. People, however, don't unionize for the fun of it. Unions exist where management got greedy and screwed up big time.
The "Jedi as a religion" issue is not true. It was already tried in New Zealand and, more recently, in the UK. Even if everyone in the country claims it, it still won't be a religion.
It would be much harder, however, to spam a directory structure, especially if most search engines limited the amount of directories a page could specify to, say, two or three.
The idea is that you only get listed under a few entries.
Of course, a search engine could use this type of protection with keywords by only using the first two or three keywords listed.
I would say that the bigger problem with this scheme is limiting the entries to only the "top" page of a site. The directory would be useless if, under Dr Strangelove, it listed each of the dozen or so imdb pages related to the movie instead of only the overview page.
Co-op employees are typically students who work at a company for credit (instead of taking a class). It gives the student some "real world" experience in a particular field.
Here's a
description from the University of Michigan.
Not to sound too cynical, but a whole lot of jobs can be tedious and repetitive (or have aspects that are that way). Are you now working with different people, or is this the boring part of the job?
Of course, some companies are just clueless about how to use people. Where I work, the lab director had a flight simulator programmer scanning photos for his PowerPoint presentations.
I'm not saying that it should be that way. It's supposed to be an educational experience. If this is the boring part of the job, then I would say it's fair game. If it's completely unrelated work, however, then that is not appropriate.
The truck uses DGPS and navigation databases that were created specifically for that purpose (I work with these guys).
Having to create these databases, however, can be a lot of work. Other systems being developed include metal strips implated in the road (used in California, but not in Minnesota because of temperature extremes) and a magnetic striping tape on the lanes.
She offers web design services. Maybe it has something to do with the beer I've been drinking, but seeing anyone who creates a page this ugly offer web design services is really funny.
Of course it would cause huge population problems. I guess we'd better speed up research on terraforming.
On the other hand, there's a whole lot we don't know about life. We have made great strides in advancing life expectancy, but the quality of those extra years may not be all that great. If this technology could let people live to be 100 without nursing homes and hospitals it could have huge benefits for society.
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The MLS that the realtors use is updated much more frequently than the web sites. I imagine that it will be that way for a long time to come. Realtors pay a lot to have access to the MLS database. There are many homes you will never see (especially in the entry-level price ranges) if you only surf the web.
Java, in my humble opinion, is not a good core learning language for computer science. Lisp (or Scheme, as used at my school) is a good choice. As a language to teach object oriented programming, it's not bad. Neither is C++, or several other languages.
I never took the AP computer science course (my high school didn't have AP classes). If the goal is to teach computer science, then I think Java is a bad choice. I would argue that you could design a high school introductory computer science course that could be done entirely with paper and pencil.
The problem is the computer science/programming confusion. Teachers, parents, and kids think that they want to learn programming. They demand that the courses use current programming languages so that they're not "wasting their time" with something like BASIC. They don't understand (and, perhaps, don't care) that they're not learning computer science, just a single programming language.
Just before the big crash of the 1980s, a lot of games were produced for multiple systems (Atari, Colecovision, Intellivision, etc). Companies streamlined the process and didn't take advantage of each system's strengths. The result was was generally crappy games.
Check out the history of Kool-Aid Man from Mattel. It describes the battles between marketing and programmers over developing for multiple systems.
Yes, the US does have destructive lasers. On June 7 of last year, the US Army shot down a missile using a laser. Here's a SpaceDaily.com story on the test. Here's a Slashdot story on equipping a 747 with a laser to shoot down missiles.
As far a tournaments and leagues, cheating (in any form) is a major issue. Having Asus remove a driver feature doesn't solve it. I think the real effort should be to devise ways to ensure people are not cheating while playing online. While the drivers may had made it easy for script kiddies, the serious cheater already has tools.
I agree with CmdrTaco's comments on the original article. People are going to cheat anyway. I tend to play online games against people I know. I used to spend up to eight hours a day (hey, I work for a university!) playing Rise of Rome online. It seemed that for every "good" game, you'd have to put up with about four "bad" games (people whining about options, then dropping, immature kids, etc). It just wasn't worth it. I'd rather play against people I know and I don't have to worry about them cheating.
The harder part is sorting through it to find the stuff that is interesting. This is where steganography comes in. Bob is trying to get me to ignore a piece of data (like a banner ad) that has a hidden message.
I don't know much about stego, but if Bob can decrypt the message, the algorithms must exist. This is where the listener would need supercomputers to crunch through all of Bob's incoming data to look for hidden information.
You are correct that some messages (like the timing of a ping) could be nearly impossible to decrypt on its own. The other side of the coin is that such messages transmit very little information. Its meaning had to be pre-arranged, and that is the listener's opportunity.
If two terrorist groups are sending emails to each other then they are communicating. The fact that there is some extra data hidden in a JPG doesn't eliminate the fact that they are communicating. If their network has been tapped, whoever is monitoring the situation knows of their communications.
The question is does the listener (1) know that there is communications hidden in the JPG and (2) do they know how to crack it? It is basically a digital version of using disappearing ink to write a second message on a letter.
The CNN article is reporting that the requests for internet wiretaps is up since 1997. The EPIC information is showing the actual number of taps for each year. It also indicates that the number of taps is increasing (except for state taps, which are down from 1998 to 1999, but up from 1997 to 1999).
Can you imagine how much a kid would get picked on in school once the other children learned they were genetically modified? Or even the reaction from adults?
I'm not arguing about this particlar experiment. I have no expertise in genetics. From what I understand, this didn't seem to be some huge step (it's not like they were alterted for more IQ).
I'm just saying in a world that hasn't even overcome racism or religious intolerance, these kids could have a hard time.
I know people who work 60+ hours a week. I even can think of one or two who get a lot done.
For the most of them, however, they are just unorganized. They don't make efficient use of their time at work. They don't have any sort of plan to indicate what they hope to do and how it will be accomplished. They are in the office until 8 PM or later and wear it like some badge of honor.
They can have that "honor" all to themselves. I rather like going home at 5 to have dinner with my fiancee, play with my dog, and whatever else seems interesting at the time. I doubt I'll be on my deathbed wishing I spent more time at this desk.
The web surfing and email ability is mentioned, provided you have access to a phone line (and, presumably, some sort of ISP). How many of these people have telephones? Can they afford ISP service? There's more to getting "online" than simply having the hardware.
If they're not online, what are they going to do with these things? A better solution may be to load them up with e-text (core government documents, classic books, etc) and using them as a method of providing knowledge to the masses.
What? You'd rather have all your garbage pile up around your house?
I would guess that the previous contract said people had to work 40 hours per week and then got x% for overtime. Then the need for on-call employees arrived (relatively new- before pagers/cell phones you had night shifts for critical tasks). The union tried to define rules for working on-call. The management rejected it and therefore, people still only have to work 40 hours per week.
I agree that unions can abuse their power. People, however, don't unionize for the fun of it. Unions exist where management got greedy and screwed up big time.
The "Jedi as a religion" issue is not true. It was already tried in New Zealand and, more recently, in the UK. Even if everyone in the country claims it, it still won't be a religion.
Of course, a search engine could use this type of protection with keywords by only using the first two or three keywords listed.
I would say that the bigger problem with this scheme is limiting the entries to only the "top" page of a site. The directory would be useless if, under Dr Strangelove, it listed each of the dozen or so imdb pages related to the movie instead of only the overview page.
That's one of the best replies I've seen in a long time. Damn funny.
Most courses have web sites (at most schools). It will often have homework, tests, notes, etc.
Here's a description from the University of Michigan.
Of course, some companies are just clueless about how to use people. Where I work, the lab director had a flight simulator programmer scanning photos for his PowerPoint presentations.
I'm not saying that it should be that way. It's supposed to be an educational experience. If this is the boring part of the job, then I would say it's fair game. If it's completely unrelated work, however, then that is not appropriate.
Having to create these databases, however, can be a lot of work. Other systems being developed include metal strips implated in the road (used in California, but not in Minnesota because of temperature extremes) and a magnetic striping tape on the lanes.
The truck is being developed by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute at the University of Minnesota. Some more information is here.
She offers web design services. Maybe it has something to do with the beer I've been drinking, but seeing anyone who creates a page this ugly offer web design services is really funny.
The whole story is a bit silly because it doesn't have any data from formal research and relies heavily upon two anecdotes.
On the other hand, there's a whole lot we don't know about life. We have made great strides in advancing life expectancy, but the quality of those extra years may not be all that great. If this technology could let people live to be 100 without nursing homes and hospitals it could have huge benefits for society.
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