Regarding the blurring of lines, where you do homeschool with other parents: there are some minor advantages over public school, in that you would have more control over (1) the teachers, and (2) the class sizes.
My high school (private) was really small. Having the two things mentioned above (teachers who were passionate about what they taught, and lots of one-on-one time with them) was really awesome for me. I got along really well with my computer and math teachers, and I ended up doing some side projects with their guidance (not for credit, just for learning/fun). The experience probably put me a year or two ahead of my classmates once I got to college.
You can get that experience with homeschooling or without. But either way, the parents need to be involved.
I would like to second this. I'm a programmer in my 20s, and my preferences run against the limos-and-clubbing stereotype. We do exist!
Chances are that there are some people who really like to go out on the town, some people who are indifferent, and some people who stay behind. And if this company employees great people, they will (1) treat you well no matter which group you're in, and (2) make it easy to tag along for the occasional thing that you actually want to attend. My coworkers are this way, and they are awesome.
As for the employees at the unnamed startup, it all depends on their personalities.
In 2002, researchers for another project — the replacement of the Alaskan Way viaduct — drilled down into the ground to take water samples.
The tunnel that Bertha's digging isn't another project — the whole reason for digging the tunnel is to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. See here.
The wells were drilled in 2002 to study the ground after the 2001 Nisqually quake. But that's a related project, because the Nisqually quake is the reason why we got to thinking about a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Am I making sense? I hope I'm making sense. At any rate, the story summary needs updating.
Most fusion reactions will also create waste, and any reaction that creates copious neutrons will be a proliferation risk.
I might be behind on my knowledge of fusion, but both of those statements sound suspect to me. Fusion waste consists of low-atomic-number elements, like Helium. And the radiation in a fusion reaction mainly occurs during the reaction, but not after, IIRC. The waste products do not constantly emit neutrons.
I have a hunch that she has an empathy for children which is what drove her to pursue the education thing. While it might be more practical to choose a different career, it is unlikely that she would ever be happy with anything less than engaging young minds.
Oh, how I wish I had mod points right now. This is an excellent point that is missing from almost all of the comments here.
If you're just implementing a MP3 decoder (which is all Firefox would need to do to play MP3 files) then you might not have patent issues even today: http://lwn.net/Articles/166346/
It's a shame the Slashdot article didn't link to any sources.
Variable-lifetime patents already exist to a certain extent (utility patents vs. design patents). But it would be interesting to extend the idea further.
As long as we can make arbitrary changes to patent law, I think the most valuable thing you could do is to mandate a periodic investigation into whether or not the current policies encourage innovation. Are algorithm patents slowing down innovation? Shorten their duration by a few years/be stricter about what you accept.
Frivolous lawsuits would be severely discouraged. And I mean severely.
The patent process now involves wrestling with a live bear. Anyone who successfully survives the experience is awarded the patent.
I can only imagine the punishment you have in mind for a frivolous lawsuit.
Off topic, but the aegidian.org link in your sig seems to be down. http://www.oolite.org/ appears to be the current webpage (fellow fan of oolite here).
* speaking of plugins, they are not considered GPL-able software despite many of them existing with GPL licenses - I suggested adding it during v3 ratification, but they did not feel there was a need (there are several clauses that make them not applicable), so if you write GPL plugins, I suggest moving to another license because the one you're using is not valid.
Could you explain this further? I'm not sure if you're saying that licensing a plugin under the GPL is (1) a legal mess, (2) a potential legal mess, (3) an impossibility,or (4) something else entirely.
Have the patents been released? I was under the impression that the irrevocable thing was the license to use the patents specifically for VP8 implementations. Google still owns the patents and can still sue if you use them in non-VP8 applications.
I remember reading that Google might want patent defense, so that if someone goes after VP8, Google can fire a salvo right back at H.264 (i.e., Google supposedly knows of VP8 patents that cover H.264 and could sink them).
Your computer may already contain child porn and other illegal numbers, thanks to stegonography. There are ways to store arbitrary data in images, and you're currently running a program which can download and store images from arbitrary sources — unless, of course, you're browsing with images off.
Now, running a Freenet node will change the probability that your computer stores illegal numbers, and those numbers would be encrypted and stored in a standard format. But the only way to guarantee that your computer is clean involves wiping it (preferably using a degausser instead of a software program) and keeping it away from all untrusted data sources.
Previously there haven't been such Windows tracking measures attempted by Microsoft.
I probably would react differently, because the above means that I would live in an alternate universe where Microsoft didn't pull all their DRM tricks yet and doesn't come up with names like Windows Genuine Advantage.
Someone mod parent up. This reminds me of the automated mathematician: if it's given rules that encourage discovering the Goldbach conjecture, and you spend enough time tuning it, then it's no surprise that it will eventually discover the Goldbach conjecture.
Some debate whether AM actually discovered anything, or just found the stuff it was designed to discover (seeing as it stopped finding interesting conjectures after rediscovering all the known ones). But that's getting into philosophy.
Slashdot Mirror
Regarding the blurring of lines, where you do homeschool with other parents: there are some minor advantages over public school, in that you would have more control over (1) the teachers, and (2) the class sizes.
My high school (private) was really small. Having the two things mentioned above (teachers who were passionate about what they taught, and lots of one-on-one time with them) was really awesome for me. I got along really well with my computer and math teachers, and I ended up doing some side projects with their guidance (not for credit, just for learning/fun). The experience probably put me a year or two ahead of my classmates once I got to college.
You can get that experience with homeschooling or without. But either way, the parents need to be involved.
I would like to second this. I'm a programmer in my 20s, and my preferences run against the limos-and-clubbing stereotype. We do exist!
Chances are that there are some people who really like to go out on the town, some people who are indifferent, and some people who stay behind. And if this company employees great people, they will (1) treat you well no matter which group you're in, and (2) make it easy to tag along for the occasional thing that you actually want to attend. My coworkers are this way, and they are awesome.
As for the employees at the unnamed startup, it all depends on their personalities.
The tunnel that Bertha's digging isn't another project — the whole reason for digging the tunnel is to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. See here.
The wells were drilled in 2002 to study the ground after the 2001 Nisqually quake. But that's a related project, because the Nisqually quake is the reason why we got to thinking about a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
Am I making sense? I hope I'm making sense. At any rate, the story summary needs updating.
I might be behind on my knowledge of fusion, but both of those statements sound suspect to me. Fusion waste consists of low-atomic-number elements, like Helium. And the radiation in a fusion reaction mainly occurs during the reaction, but not after, IIRC. The waste products do not constantly emit neutrons.
I'm curious, what would eat away the aluminum?
I have a hunch that she has an empathy for children which is what drove her to pursue the education thing. While it might be more practical to choose a different career, it is unlikely that she would ever be happy with anything less than engaging young minds.
Oh, how I wish I had mod points right now. This is an excellent point that is missing from almost all of the comments here.
The war is over. We lost.
You leave the World Health Organization out of this.
You're thinking of Oobi?
Still really cool, but my original reality was much more awesome. I would have loved to break the sound barrier when I was 11.
I'd like to question the constitutionality of a lot more than just how it was signed.
0100010001010011 = DS? I don't get it (DropShip?), but it doesn't seem like coincidence (multiple of 8 bits, both uppercase ASCII chars).
If you're just implementing a MP3 decoder (which is all Firefox would need to do to play MP3 files) then you might not have patent issues even today: http://lwn.net/Articles/166346/
It's a shame the Slashdot article didn't link to any sources.
As long as we can make arbitrary changes to patent law, I think the most valuable thing you could do is to mandate a periodic investigation into whether or not the current policies encourage innovation. Are algorithm patents slowing down innovation? Shorten their duration by a few years/be stricter about what you accept.
I can only imagine the punishment you have in mind for a frivolous lawsuit.
They're only giving credibility to the tinfoil hat (underwear?)-wearing crowd.
Off topic, but the aegidian.org link in your sig seems to be down. http://www.oolite.org/ appears to be the current webpage (fellow fan of oolite here).
* speaking of plugins, they are not considered GPL-able software despite many of them existing with GPL licenses - I suggested adding it during v3 ratification, but they did not feel there was a need (there are several clauses that make them not applicable), so if you write GPL plugins, I suggest moving to another license because the one you're using is not valid.
Could you explain this further? I'm not sure if you're saying that licensing a plugin under the GPL is (1) a legal mess, (2) a potential legal mess, (3) an impossibility,or (4) something else entirely.
Have the patents been released? I was under the impression that the irrevocable thing was the license to use the patents specifically for VP8 implementations. Google still owns the patents and can still sue if you use them in non-VP8 applications. I remember reading that Google might want patent defense, so that if someone goes after VP8, Google can fire a salvo right back at H.264 (i.e., Google supposedly knows of VP8 patents that cover H.264 and could sink them).
Your computer may already contain child porn and other illegal numbers, thanks to stegonography. There are ways to store arbitrary data in images, and you're currently running a program which can download and store images from arbitrary sources — unless, of course, you're browsing with images off.
Now, running a Freenet node will change the probability that your computer stores illegal numbers, and those numbers would be encrypted and stored in a standard format. But the only way to guarantee that your computer is clean involves wiping it (preferably using a degausser instead of a software program) and keeping it away from all untrusted data sources.
Full disclosure: I like Freenet.
I probably would react differently, because the above means that I would live in an alternate universe where Microsoft didn't pull all their DRM tricks yet and doesn't come up with names like Windows Genuine Advantage.
Someone mod parent up. This reminds me of the automated mathematician: if it's given rules that encourage discovering the Goldbach conjecture, and you spend enough time tuning it, then it's no surprise that it will eventually discover the Goldbach conjecture. Some debate whether AM actually discovered anything, or just found the stuff it was designed to discover (seeing as it stopped finding interesting conjectures after rediscovering all the known ones). But that's getting into philosophy.
You could print the mirror-image of the text on the inside of the shirt.
Mod up. Not for the author, but for the content.
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ga/1992/ga921211.gif