It makes me wonder if all the hysteria about children seeing sex or violence isn't actually increasing the chances that they'll grow up violent perverts.
I very much believe this to be true. Children always want to do/try/experience what they're prevented from doing. It's part of being a kid and exploring your world. Why does every kid seem to touch the hot stove at least once? (metaphorically, but you get the point)
Another example - in germany where the drinking age is...what, 16? And not especially enforced from what I remember either. I went in high school as part of an exchange program. We went out drinking a few times and guess who were the ones that got really drunk and did stupid things? The american kids. The german kids still drank but... less frantically and they ALWAYS had a designated driver for each car. Why? Well because next week they could swap off and someone else would drive. Alcohol was just there, not a big deal. Not something to take to excess at every opportunity. It was a really eye-opening experience.
Fair enough - i didn't mean to imply that drugs are the bane of society. I really don't care what people do in private honestly. Get high with your dog while watching gay porn in your wife's heels while sitting in a pool of fake blood and pudding for all I care.
I was more driving home the point that I'm fairly in line with what they consider a "good person" despite the horrific exposure to 'dangerous' lyrics and 'violent' cartoons in my youth.
The really funny thing is...I hear kids cursing much more often and much openly than I ever dared to when I was young.
I've been saying for years that the easy piracy of older windows (particularly win95) is a huge part of the reason that windows is the standard today. Everyone got used to it, familiar with the layout, etc. and when companies built infrastructure they bought what their employees were most familiar with.
So...what's funny is that for all it's anti-piracy nonsense to help 'increase sales' they turn it all upside-down with this beta. They give it out for free to get people used to it just like piracy of early windows versions did. Did someone at MS grow a brain?!
Oh, and what's even funnier is i'm typing this while in a MS training class:)
The real irony is that the violent cartoons our parents (read the 40-60 year old generation that are our world's decision makers today) watched as kids didn't seem to corrupt them too badly. They turned out 'all right' by their own standards apparently. Heck, I'm still quite a few years from 40 and still played cops and robbers, watched "violent" roadrunner cartoons, and pretended to "shoot" people with my finger in elementary school. All things that supposedly that are "harmful" yet i'm a productive member of society, don't do drugs, have a steady job, good education...and so on.
Or maybe they're turning all the kids today into pussies.
That's awesome. I really love the part at the end where they blame 9/11 for putting a guy in shackles because the retarded clerk, manager, store employees, and cops didn't know what a $2 bill is.
Minutes away? Really so? How about some references on that one.
Pure dumb luck had nothing to do with the containment vessel wrapped around the reactor vessel at TMI. Even though the core actually didn't melt out if the reactor vessel, the containment vessel was ready to explode al la chernobyl (where, mind you, there WAS no containment vessel).
You're right about an 'ignorant of the facts' tag. I nominate you as the example.
I mean, if you want to do solar vs. nuclear vs. whatever - solar loses hands down.
Nuclear power contributes several orders of magnitude more power (especially in places like france) than solar to the grid. If solar was so great, everyone would be using it. Instead, it's a developing niche technology right now. Call it mainstream when it develops 1% of the power in the USA (and i'm being generous)...get back to me on that ok?
Or maybe we should say 'unless we have a solution to the high cost/low adoption/variable output/low efficiency/uselessness on cloudy days solar problem, then it's all a bit moot really.
Why, exactly, must we wait 100 years (heck, even 10) after a reactor is shut down to decommission it? They removed the *damaged* core, fuel, and radioactive material from 3MI and were DONE with the work in under 15 years. No, it's not a full decomm - they're waiting do to that with reactor #1 when it's license expires - but they've already removed the gutts. FUD
THEN - once a plant is decommed somehow you need to maintain cooling systems? Are you serious?
Decommission 'energy cost'? So what? Why not talk about the energy cost to mine and transport 4 zillion tons of coal per year? Gah...
Now you're blaming the shuttle crashes on a LACK of red tape? NASA, even BEFORE the first accident, produced enough documentation, BS, and red tape to rival the military. I'm not saying run a FBR with interns at the helm, but forcing people to fill out MORE paperwork and waste MORE time just to check on something... like your water filters... makes them less likely to. There's a balance in there and i think we're already well on the side of too much.
Wow, you've entirely fallen victim to FUD. I'm not one to generally trust big comanies, government, etc. but you've really got to look at things in perspective here. UNDERSTAND, don't merely listen. In no particular order:
1) PA has the 7th highest cancer rates - so 6 other states that DID NOT HAVE NUCLEAR MELT-DOWNS have *HIGHER* cancer rates? This couldn't have anything to do with...other things like pollution perhaps? Maybe chemical factories in the state? How about the fact that a 2005 study has noted that the counties surrounding TMI have the highest natural radon concentrations in the United States. Yet another case of taking unrelated information and calling in difinitive.
2) Radioactive elements accumulate in the food chain - true. Coal releases radioactive *particles* - bits of things like uranium - into the air. These can accumulate. A nuclear reactor releases heat. A small amount of radiation (less than you get when sun tanning) too, perhaps, but understand that radiation itself does not accumulate in the food chain. Two different things.
3) All the released elements - how about stating quantities and isotopes? Yes, there was a significant release of krypton but Kr-85 in a beta emitter so presents very little danger outside the body. Also, being a nobel gas, is highly unlikely to combine to form any elements nor does your body naturally update krypton. But it's much more scary to say "oh noes, radioactive release" isn't it? Tritium is more of a concern, but again, quantity? Keep in mind tritium is also naturally occurring and your stated 'findings' are barely above the accepted safe level of 20,000 pCi/L.
4) Your radiation "release" when the accident began was from the a pressure relief valve on the primary coolant loop - except this was WITHIN the containment vessel. Furthermore, the coolant (water!) only remains radioactive for a short time outside the core. That's why evaporating it was considered safe during cleanup.
I could go on, but instead suggest you understand what you're talking about instead of just puppeting what others said.
See now...i agree with the mandatory reporting of such things, but the actual risk of radiation release was very very small. Even catastrophic failure of the core cooling did not come anywhere near breaching the containment vessel. Had chernobyl's reactor been so encased, that too would have been a reasonably minor incident.
Oh, please. EVERYONE that knows what a breeder reactor is knows that breeder reactor = enriched plutonium = nuclear proliferation = WW III ^^^^^^ i mean terrorism/sarcasm
I'd trust the big power corporations to do an accurate profit/loss on a nuclear reactor...since it's their money (or their investors) they're betting on it.
You'll note that the number of planned/requested (NRC has to approve/license each one) nuclear reactors in the US went from preciscely zero to enough that there's essentially a waiting list for parts in the past couple years. I'm guessing they're profitable - enough so that companies were willing to risk the wrath of public opinion to build them in face of the retarded oil prices. Now that the ball is rolling, i doubt the short-term price drop in oil will stop them either.
They did deliberately turn off the safety mechanisms, raise more control rods for a test then should have ever been, and i think did a couple lines of coke for good measure in between chugging vodka during the meltdown.
BUT... the design was very very VERY faulty. All other arguments and debate aside, one design fault represented the majority of difference between a 3 mile island incident (other reactor at 3MI operates at full capacity to this day) and chernobyl (death, doom and gloom): A reactor containment vessel.
Except nuclear power can provide baseload capacity. Solar can not. Regardless of cost, solar is NOT the solution to replace power plants for anything more than small scale.
Furthermore, you simply assume solar power is set-it-and-forget-it forever? Solar cells degrade over time, need to be cleaned, panels can be broken by hail, trees need to be trimmed... It's not especially high cost or time consuming but there IS some maintenance to be done even for such a tiny amount of power. Factor in deep-cycle batteries if you want to provide power at night, during cloudy days...more up-front cost and maintenance.
To say the cost of nuclear power is not understood shows your obvious unwarranted prejudice. Nuclear reactors are operated as a business - fairly sure the costs are understood. Furthermore, the lifetime cost is much more stable than coal/oil, the power output is MUCH more predictable than solar/wind/wave and appropriate for baseload generation.
3MI - since you want to talk about it - certainly DOES produce power. Instead of fear-mongering I suggest you actually learn about what happened. Learn about CURRENT nuclear power too while you're at it.
FYI 3MI has TWO reactors. The second one had a partial meltdown that WAS CONTAINED within the reactor core. Mind you this is technology from 30+ years ago and it was still safe even in a worst-case situation. Reactor #1 is still running today and generating power. But hey, it's easier to point to an accident, mumble about "scary nukes" and claim that nuclear power is a Bad Thing.
Oh, and solar? It's only as cheap as it is because of all the rebates, government funding, tax breaks and so on. Even so, i priced a system that would cover ~90% of my electric bill and even after all the kick-backs and low-cost financing it was still more expensive over the estimated 30 year life of the panels than buying our already extremely expensive electricity on long island.
People like you are the reason shoreham never opened and cost tax-payers $6billion.
Yup, my first big corporate job had building UPS and full generator backup. 3 times we lost power, 3 times it didn't work.
The one time it came close...we actually made it to generator but it was raining so hard (something like 4 inches in 45min) the air intakes swallowed so much water they flooded out.
His example perfectly illustrates why even a usable 'hack' can have bad consequences. Just because the designer knows the limits of a system does not mean it won't - through accident or lack of knowledge - be pushed beyond it's design.
The situation gets even worse when amateurs (no offense to GP, this is a general comment) start putting things together without basic safety features. It's a recipe for disaster. I'm not saying you need a $100/hr electrician to replace an outlet - but don't do it yourself if you don't understand what you're working with.
Bridging the phases...is yet another fantastic example of great intent with epic failure modes. Hig fat colorful sparks flying failure...failure that could easily kill someone or burn down a house.
While I understand that in true emergency conditions (power outage is not a true emergency in the short term) require creative solutions when a life is on the line - such as a power outage in a remote area during a blizzard - there are so many horrible ways for things to go wrong. A failure to properly prepare is not justification for endangering others.
If you really have so many critical appliances to power that you'd bridge the phases together, it's time to invest in a real generator and ATS that supports everything you need. If you're not willing to fork out that cash, then it's not important enough to warrant such risky actions.
Personally, i've looked into a generator/ATS a few times but the rarity of power outages on long island coupled with my wood fireplace mean it's simply a luxury and not cost effective. Do it right or don't do it at all. Some of the things suggested on here could be OK if done by someone with the experience, knowledge, and patience to get it right...however offering it as general advice is bad bad bad. The layperson could easily get dead trying most of the ideas on here. Electricity isn't like a hot stove where you can pull your hand away quickly and get hurt too badly. By the time you realize what went wrong there's jack-all you can do besides hope the safety features you're working around still manage to prevent death.
Pretty sure there's more to the constitution than the preamble.
Besides that, laws "for teh childrenz" are far less likely to be challenged, so they stand as precedent for other stupidity. Because really, who's going to stand up and say "yes, my 12 year old should be able to download asian midget+donkey fisting porn on their school purchased laptop". End of political career, do not pass go, forget stealing the 200 million dollars. The very vocal minority screams bloody murder, points to a few "studies", rants about "common sense" and stirs up a tizzy. Then the lock things down tighter because of that "example".
I still believe in educating children - you know, explain what a penis is before they discover where to put it from the 6 grader who got left back a year.
Or another thought - offer a few options for locking down the computers and let the PARENTS decide AND enforce it.
Heck, how about a restore CD, hard drive swap, etc. etc. etc. Most people here know that physical access = compromised system.
And it's really that simple. The more rules and restrictions you put around this, the more you will make "criminals" out of ordinary students. If you make it a suspend-able offense to tamper, kids will truecrypt a dual boot partition, swap drives for 'inspection time' or any one of a number of things. I guar-an-tee-ee that the student body will break whatever restrictions are put on the systems. While it's a good lesson to get them familiar with the computers, i doubt it's the kind of lesson you intend to teach.
I know there are some legal restrictions - i would do the bare minimum to meet those. THEN, set the expectation that students are responsible for the content of their laptops. If a student is caught showing or looking at porn *on school time/property*, they should be punished severely. Similar for wares, etc.
But let's be honest... Give a 16 year old boy a computer and his first private action is going to be to look for porn. If you try to prevent that entirely you're 1) fighting the inevitable B) not dealing with the reality of the situation and iii) wasting everyone's time.
Seriously, it's faster for me to hit those... or the space bar depending on your application than to move my hands off to the trackpad or mouse.
A trackpad is a comprimise for portability required by laptops and they've added some great features to it. No argument. But I can do all that with keyboard shortcuts or a "real" mouse. Probably faster too as I don't have to move my hands for half of it.
You've touched on my thoughts regarding touch screens. I have a tablet, iPhone, Storm, treo due to work. Also have a ATM card so more touch screen use there. Also have a few "real" laptops, blackberry curve, keyboards, etc.
What I've found is a touch screen is good for simple data input. Call it one-dimensional. Pick from this menu of choices. Manipulate this single object. Basically something you can do with one hand...usually 1-2 fingers. For this, it's quick.
Once you get more complex, call it two-dimensional, things slow to a crawl on a touch screen. Typing is either slow or error prone. Multi-hand manipulation? Well sure, but your eyes can't pick out enough detail over the area of two hands to be of much use. This is where a keyboard and/or mouse become much more efficient. They're faster and I equate faster with better.
So touch computing will grow somewhat. it will comtinue to be refined and useful for one-dimensional data input. Simple selection/manipulation. Good luck getting me to lift my hands off the keyboard to the screen just to do something i would with a mouse. Heck, i use keyboard shortcuts so I don't have to move my hand off to the mouse when possible. The time saved might be 1-3 seconds...but i do it a thousand times a day.
Inefficiency of electric heat? Granted there are delivery losses but there's transportation cost for any energy delivery method so including that is questionable.
Otherwise electric heat is 100% efficient.
And if you're talking about the inefficiency of the actual generation, build nuclear. There's still waste heat but you can scavenge that for home heating. And yes, i'm perfectly willing to live close enough to a plant.
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I very much believe this to be true. Children always want to do/try/experience what they're prevented from doing. It's part of being a kid and exploring your world. Why does every kid seem to touch the hot stove at least once? (metaphorically, but you get the point)
Another example - in germany where the drinking age is...what, 16? And not especially enforced from what I remember either. I went in high school as part of an exchange program. We went out drinking a few times and guess who were the ones that got really drunk and did stupid things? The american kids. The german kids still drank but ... less frantically and they ALWAYS had a designated driver for each car. Why? Well because next week they could swap off and someone else would drive. Alcohol was just there, not a big deal. Not something to take to excess at every opportunity. It was a really eye-opening experience.
Fair enough - i didn't mean to imply that drugs are the bane of society. I really don't care what people do in private honestly. Get high with your dog while watching gay porn in your wife's heels while sitting in a pool of fake blood and pudding for all I care.
I was more driving home the point that I'm fairly in line with what they consider a "good person" despite the horrific exposure to 'dangerous' lyrics and 'violent' cartoons in my youth.
The really funny thing is...I hear kids cursing much more often and much openly than I ever dared to when I was young.
I've been saying for years that the easy piracy of older windows (particularly win95) is a huge part of the reason that windows is the standard today. Everyone got used to it, familiar with the layout, etc. and when companies built infrastructure they bought what their employees were most familiar with.
So...what's funny is that for all it's anti-piracy nonsense to help 'increase sales' they turn it all upside-down with this beta. They give it out for free to get people used to it just like piracy of early windows versions did. Did someone at MS grow a brain?!
Oh, and what's even funnier is i'm typing this while in a MS training class :)
The real irony is that the violent cartoons our parents (read the 40-60 year old generation that are our world's decision makers today) watched as kids didn't seem to corrupt them too badly. They turned out 'all right' by their own standards apparently. Heck, I'm still quite a few years from 40 and still played cops and robbers, watched "violent" roadrunner cartoons, and pretended to "shoot" people with my finger in elementary school. All things that supposedly that are "harmful" yet i'm a productive member of society, don't do drugs, have a steady job, good education...and so on.
Or maybe they're turning all the kids today into pussies.
That's awesome. I really love the part at the end where they blame 9/11 for putting a guy in shackles because the retarded clerk, manager, store employees, and cops didn't know what a $2 bill is.
I hope he got a good settlement out of that one.
Minutes away? Really so? How about some references on that one.
Pure dumb luck had nothing to do with the containment vessel wrapped around the reactor vessel at TMI. Even though the core actually didn't melt out if the reactor vessel, the containment vessel was ready to explode al la chernobyl (where, mind you, there WAS no containment vessel).
You're right about an 'ignorant of the facts' tag. I nominate you as the example.
That's 'clear' ???
I mean, if you want to do solar vs. nuclear vs. whatever - solar loses hands down.
Nuclear power contributes several orders of magnitude more power (especially in places like france) than solar to the grid. If solar was so great, everyone would be using it. Instead, it's a developing niche technology right now. Call it mainstream when it develops 1% of the power in the USA (and i'm being generous)...get back to me on that ok?
Or maybe we should say 'unless we have a solution to the high cost/low adoption/variable output/low efficiency/uselessness on cloudy days solar problem, then it's all a bit moot really.
Wow, you again.
Why, exactly, must we wait 100 years (heck, even 10) after a reactor is shut down to decommission it? They removed the *damaged* core, fuel, and radioactive material from 3MI and were DONE with the work in under 15 years. No, it's not a full decomm - they're waiting do to that with reactor #1 when it's license expires - but they've already removed the gutts. FUD
THEN - once a plant is decommed somehow you need to maintain cooling systems? Are you serious?
Decommission 'energy cost'? So what? Why not talk about the energy cost to mine and transport 4 zillion tons of coal per year? Gah...
Now you're blaming the shuttle crashes on a LACK of red tape? NASA, even BEFORE the first accident, produced enough documentation, BS, and red tape to rival the military. I'm not saying run a FBR with interns at the helm, but forcing people to fill out MORE paperwork and waste MORE time just to check on something ... like your water filters ... makes them less likely to. There's a balance in there and i think we're already well on the side of too much.
Wow, you've entirely fallen victim to FUD. I'm not one to generally trust big comanies, government, etc. but you've really got to look at things in perspective here. UNDERSTAND, don't merely listen. In no particular order:
1) PA has the 7th highest cancer rates - so 6 other states that DID NOT HAVE NUCLEAR MELT-DOWNS have *HIGHER* cancer rates? This couldn't have anything to do with...other things like pollution perhaps? Maybe chemical factories in the state? How about the fact that a 2005 study has noted that the counties surrounding TMI have the highest natural radon concentrations in the United States. Yet another case of taking unrelated information and calling in difinitive.
2) Radioactive elements accumulate in the food chain - true. Coal releases radioactive *particles* - bits of things like uranium - into the air. These can accumulate. A nuclear reactor releases heat. A small amount of radiation (less than you get when sun tanning) too, perhaps, but understand that radiation itself does not accumulate in the food chain. Two different things.
3) All the released elements - how about stating quantities and isotopes? Yes, there was a significant release of krypton but Kr-85 in a beta emitter so presents very little danger outside the body. Also, being a nobel gas, is highly unlikely to combine to form any elements nor does your body naturally update krypton. But it's much more scary to say "oh noes, radioactive release" isn't it? Tritium is more of a concern, but again, quantity? Keep in mind tritium is also naturally occurring and your stated 'findings' are barely above the accepted safe level of 20,000 pCi/L.
4) Your radiation "release" when the accident began was from the a pressure relief valve on the primary coolant loop - except this was WITHIN the containment vessel. Furthermore, the coolant (water!) only remains radioactive for a short time outside the core. That's why evaporating it was considered safe during cleanup.
I could go on, but instead suggest you understand what you're talking about instead of just puppeting what others said.
See now...i agree with the mandatory reporting of such things, but the actual risk of radiation release was very very small. Even catastrophic failure of the core cooling did not come anywhere near breaching the containment vessel. Had chernobyl's reactor been so encased, that too would have been a reasonably minor incident.
Oh, please. EVERYONE that knows what a breeder reactor is knows that breeder reactor = enriched plutonium = nuclear proliferation = WW III ^^^^^^ i mean terrorism /sarcasm
I'd trust the big power corporations to do an accurate profit/loss on a nuclear reactor...since it's their money (or their investors) they're betting on it.
You'll note that the number of planned/requested (NRC has to approve/license each one) nuclear reactors in the US went from preciscely zero to enough that there's essentially a waiting list for parts in the past couple years. I'm guessing they're profitable - enough so that companies were willing to risk the wrath of public opinion to build them in face of the retarded oil prices. Now that the ball is rolling, i doubt the short-term price drop in oil will stop them either.
Wrong and right.
They did deliberately turn off the safety mechanisms, raise more control rods for a test then should have ever been, and i think did a couple lines of coke for good measure in between chugging vodka during the meltdown.
BUT ... the design was very very VERY faulty. All other arguments and debate aside, one design fault represented the majority of difference between a 3 mile island incident (other reactor at 3MI operates at full capacity to this day) and chernobyl (death, doom and gloom): A reactor containment vessel.
Except nuclear power can provide baseload capacity. Solar can not. Regardless of cost, solar is NOT the solution to replace power plants for anything more than small scale.
Furthermore, you simply assume solar power is set-it-and-forget-it forever? Solar cells degrade over time, need to be cleaned, panels can be broken by hail, trees need to be trimmed... It's not especially high cost or time consuming but there IS some maintenance to be done even for such a tiny amount of power. Factor in deep-cycle batteries if you want to provide power at night, during cloudy days...more up-front cost and maintenance.
To say the cost of nuclear power is not understood shows your obvious unwarranted prejudice. Nuclear reactors are operated as a business - fairly sure the costs are understood. Furthermore, the lifetime cost is much more stable than coal/oil, the power output is MUCH more predictable than solar/wind/wave and appropriate for baseload generation.
3MI - since you want to talk about it - certainly DOES produce power. Instead of fear-mongering I suggest you actually learn about what happened. Learn about CURRENT nuclear power too while you're at it.
FYI 3MI has TWO reactors. The second one had a partial meltdown that WAS CONTAINED within the reactor core. Mind you this is technology from 30+ years ago and it was still safe even in a worst-case situation. Reactor #1 is still running today and generating power. But hey, it's easier to point to an accident, mumble about "scary nukes" and claim that nuclear power is a Bad Thing.
Oh, and solar? It's only as cheap as it is because of all the rebates, government funding, tax breaks and so on. Even so, i priced a system that would cover ~90% of my electric bill and even after all the kick-backs and low-cost financing it was still more expensive over the estimated 30 year life of the panels than buying our already extremely expensive electricity on long island.
People like you are the reason shoreham never opened and cost tax-payers $6billion.
I object to your assumption that your DTE stock is more important than my generator and disaster recovery stock.
Yup, my first big corporate job had building UPS and full generator backup. 3 times we lost power, 3 times it didn't work.
The one time it came close...we actually made it to generator but it was raining so hard (something like 4 inches in 45min) the air intakes swallowed so much water they flooded out.
Stockpiling gas isn't such a great idea unless you use/replenish it often. Diesel/fuel oil otoh can sit pretty much indefinitely i believe.
Natural gas is still the best bet for anything more than a small generator.
No. Just don't do it at all. Ever.
His example perfectly illustrates why even a usable 'hack' can have bad consequences. Just because the designer knows the limits of a system does not mean it won't - through accident or lack of knowledge - be pushed beyond it's design.
The situation gets even worse when amateurs (no offense to GP, this is a general comment) start putting things together without basic safety features. It's a recipe for disaster. I'm not saying you need a $100/hr electrician to replace an outlet - but don't do it yourself if you don't understand what you're working with.
Bridging the phases...is yet another fantastic example of great intent with epic failure modes. Hig fat colorful sparks flying failure...failure that could easily kill someone or burn down a house.
While I understand that in true emergency conditions (power outage is not a true emergency in the short term) require creative solutions when a life is on the line - such as a power outage in a remote area during a blizzard - there are so many horrible ways for things to go wrong. A failure to properly prepare is not justification for endangering others.
If you really have so many critical appliances to power that you'd bridge the phases together, it's time to invest in a real generator and ATS that supports everything you need. If you're not willing to fork out that cash, then it's not important enough to warrant such risky actions.
Personally, i've looked into a generator/ATS a few times but the rarity of power outages on long island coupled with my wood fireplace mean it's simply a luxury and not cost effective. Do it right or don't do it at all. Some of the things suggested on here could be OK if done by someone with the experience, knowledge, and patience to get it right...however offering it as general advice is bad bad bad. The layperson could easily get dead trying most of the ideas on here. Electricity isn't like a hot stove where you can pull your hand away quickly and get hurt too badly. By the time you realize what went wrong there's jack-all you can do besides hope the safety features you're working around still manage to prevent death.
Pretty sure there's more to the constitution than the preamble.
Besides that, laws "for teh childrenz" are far less likely to be challenged, so they stand as precedent for other stupidity. Because really, who's going to stand up and say "yes, my 12 year old should be able to download asian midget+donkey fisting porn on their school purchased laptop". End of political career, do not pass go, forget stealing the 200 million dollars. The very vocal minority screams bloody murder, points to a few "studies", rants about "common sense" and stirs up a tizzy. Then the lock things down tighter because of that "example".
I still believe in educating children - you know, explain what a penis is before they discover where to put it from the 6 grader who got left back a year.
Or another thought - offer a few options for locking down the computers and let the PARENTS decide AND enforce it.
ROFL ... i *almost* replied without reading carefully.
If nothing else, that school will graduate many computer security experts :)
Heck, how about a restore CD, hard drive swap, etc. etc. etc. Most people here know that physical access = compromised system.
And it's really that simple. The more rules and restrictions you put around this, the more you will make "criminals" out of ordinary students. If you make it a suspend-able offense to tamper, kids will truecrypt a dual boot partition, swap drives for 'inspection time' or any one of a number of things. I guar-an-tee-ee that the student body will break whatever restrictions are put on the systems. While it's a good lesson to get them familiar with the computers, i doubt it's the kind of lesson you intend to teach.
I know there are some legal restrictions - i would do the bare minimum to meet those. THEN, set the expectation that students are responsible for the content of their laptops. If a student is caught showing or looking at porn *on school time/property*, they should be punished severely. Similar for wares, etc.
But let's be honest... Give a 16 year old boy a computer and his first private action is going to be to look for porn. If you try to prevent that entirely you're 1) fighting the inevitable B) not dealing with the reality of the situation and iii) wasting everyone's time.
WTS page-up and page-down keys. PST
Seriously, it's faster for me to hit those ... or the space bar depending on your application than to move my hands off to the trackpad or mouse.
A trackpad is a comprimise for portability required by laptops and they've added some great features to it. No argument. But I can do all that with keyboard shortcuts or a "real" mouse. Probably faster too as I don't have to move my hands for half of it.
You've touched on my thoughts regarding touch screens. I have a tablet, iPhone, Storm, treo due to work. Also have a ATM card so more touch screen use there. Also have a few "real" laptops, blackberry curve, keyboards, etc.
What I've found is a touch screen is good for simple data input. Call it one-dimensional. Pick from this menu of choices. Manipulate this single object. Basically something you can do with one hand...usually 1-2 fingers. For this, it's quick.
Once you get more complex, call it two-dimensional, things slow to a crawl on a touch screen. Typing is either slow or error prone. Multi-hand manipulation? Well sure, but your eyes can't pick out enough detail over the area of two hands to be of much use. This is where a keyboard and/or mouse become much more efficient. They're faster and I equate faster with better.
So touch computing will grow somewhat. it will comtinue to be refined and useful for one-dimensional data input. Simple selection/manipulation. Good luck getting me to lift my hands off the keyboard to the screen just to do something i would with a mouse. Heck, i use keyboard shortcuts so I don't have to move my hand off to the mouse when possible. The time saved might be 1-3 seconds...but i do it a thousand times a day.
Inefficiency of electric heat? Granted there are delivery losses but there's transportation cost for any energy delivery method so including that is questionable.
Otherwise electric heat is 100% efficient.
And if you're talking about the inefficiency of the actual generation, build nuclear. There's still waste heat but you can scavenge that for home heating. And yes, i'm perfectly willing to live close enough to a plant.