I think the point is to give access to the tools that they could use in real life while ensuring that they can still work independently. After all, it would be far too easy for them to look up prior solutions (most courses use similar sets of questions on examinations because the students don't have enough experience to solve novel problems). Even if you could come up with unique questions, you still have a situation where they could hire someone else to answer the questions for you.
My suggestions: only let http through and use a white-list for acceptable websites. Choose those websites carefully so that they cannot be used to communicate with other students or outsiders. It is only a taste of real life, but it should be enough to prepare them.
I live in a big city, so there are better options nearby. But if I lived in a smaller city which didn't offer options, then I'd hit up the shack a couple of times a year. There are too many cheap fixes, even with Radio Shacks prices.
"Big Brother" doesn't give a damn about your driving habits. In the few cases that they want to track a person, they will be more than happy to stick a GPS unit in your car for you. Gratis, and in such a way that it won't affect your aesthetic tastes.
The far greater threat are business interests, because they have the most to gain from such practices. After all, they are the ones who are scraping off hard currency and get to do what they please with it.
Uh, this is an Apple product we're talking about. Of course they will be touting it in battle. And the enemy forces will probably kill the American soldiers to put an end to the Apple evangelism.
This sounds like the cost of being an early adopter. The infrastructure isn't in place yet, so you have to expend more power establishing and maintaining a signal. Assuming that 4G goes mainstream, things will probably be significantly better in a few years.
Remember, these critters are radios and omnidirectional ones at that. Halving the distance to a tower will roughly quarter the required transmit power.
What counts as counterfeit goods? They always offer up fairly big numbers to justify these raids, but they rarely offer up enough details for the public to judge the real value of what they're doing.
I'm bringing this up because I saw a news story that showed some counterfeit goods a few years ago. While some of them were pretty convincing, a lot of the stuff involved questionable cases of trademark infringement. One such example were batteries that used the colour scheme from a popular brand of batteries, yet everything else was distinguishable from the "genuine" goods (e.g. it went under a completely different product name). Claiming that they were counterfeit would be like claiming that Monopoly money was counterfeit.
Here's a newsflash: Flash is going to be harder to kill than IE6 because too many people depend upon it. In case you've failed to notice this, Firefox has been trending in the same direction as IE lately. Also in case you haven't noticed this: mobile browsing has been trending upwards for a while.
I guess what I'm saying is this: Firefox is losing it's market due to unpopular decisions. Failing to recognise an emerging market that will probably end up replacing most desktop computer use is another way to lose market share.
Taking care of your users, rather than prattling on about ideology, is one way to reverse that trend and ensure a place in a changing world.
I realize that it isn't a very popular around these parts, but quite a few websites still use this critter and are unlikely to stop using it in the near future. Meanwhile they're implementing antialiasing for WebGL and OpenGL ES acceleration, features that aren't in common use yet.
Hum...
This is the web we're talking about. It should be access to content first, then the frills.
I would like to see a study that compares various technologies and the social behaviour of children. The reason is simple enough: there have always been children with poorly developed social skills. The difference is the technology that they bury themselves in.
Today, it seems to be telecommunications technology and social networking. That's what this study is about. In the 80's and 90's, kids buried themselves in computers and video games. In the 60's and 70's, there was the TV epidemic. Throughout the whole time, less social children have been engrossed in the most insidious technology of all: books.
So my question is this: is this 'desocialization' of children remaining at the same levels historically, or is it actually getting worse? Somehow, I suspect there has been little if any change because I suspect that children who are less social migrate to these technologies as an outlet. And if that is the case, can the new technologies improve socialization skills. After all, we are talking about communications technology these days. You use SMS or Facebook to converse with people. If you alienate people using those media, you are cut off. That should incentivize better social behaviour.
But all of this is speculation, since I have questions but not the tools to investigate it.
If you're looking to work for someone else, then you need to prove yourself to them. Sometimes you do that through portfolios. Sometimes you do that through work experience. Sometimes you do that through references. And yes, sometimes you do that through accreditation.
If you're the type of person who wants to start their own business though, these forms of independent learning can be nearly as good as schooling. Of course you would have to go a little beyond hitting the books, since there is definitely a human element to learning.
Of course, the people who are most successful at learning this way are probably self-starters to begin with and probably already know that.
They are certainly acting within their rights, but I do wish that they would see news aggregators as a business opportunity. That article title and choice sentence or two represent prime advertising that pulls people into their advertising laden sites.
Of course, they probably don't see it that way. They probably see their story summaries posted right next to the story summaries of their competitors and really can't have that. After all, it means their content and the quality of their work may be judged based upon merit. And we really can't have that, now can we?
As a general rule, you do NOT criticize a foreign nation while you are in it. This is even true if you are visiting a country with a strong respect for freedom and due process. The reason is simple enough: even though you are expected to obey their laws, you are almost never given the same legal protection as a citizen.
So yes, bring your issues up. Yet you should demonstrate enough patience to protect yourself and the people who you associated with in that country.
I look for three things in a classroom: can the students collaborate, can I freely move around the class to work with each student, and can I present information to the entire class. The lecture hall layout with the rows widely spaced is the easiest way to do that.
When the desks are in rows, the students can work with their peers to the left and the right. They can see each other's monitor and talk face-to-face.
Widely spaced rows allow the teacher to move around the classroom to assist students, and offers the teacher a clear sight-line to other rows to monitor progress.
Finally, the students are always facing the front of the room when you need to present information to the class.
The only real problem with the lecture hall layout is that it is stigmatized: it is old school schooling, therefore bad. That attitude is silly. Modern teaching methodologies are about human interactions. As long as the teacher has the freedom to move around the classroom and students have the ability to work with each other face to face, you are facilitating those human interactions.
(Note: I usually use a different layout, but I teach children. Their small bodies allow me to use "L" shaped pods with clearly defined groups for activities.)
Some of us actually think that using a web browser is more important than compiling a web browser.
Seriously. My resource usage rarely goes about 1 GB with multiple applications open. These days, the hard drive is a far bigger bottle neck than RAM. Well, unless you're compiling Firefox it appears.
Don't get me wrong, I love these bundles and have picked up the last four. They provide solid entertainment at a good price, allow me to try out different types of games without breaking the wallet, it's great that most of the games work under both Linux and Windows (because I'm kinda moody when it comes to operating systems), and it's wonderful that we have some control over where our contributions go. It's also kinda cute that they have created a business model that actually makes these games move. (I don't know if I'm typical, but I wouldn't have spent a dime on these games otherwise.)
Yet, at the end of the day, posting each new release on Slashdot results in little more than an orgy of free advertising. And yeap, I think of pretty much every product release that's posted here in the same way.
So keep up the great work Humble Bundle salesmen and indie developers, but please find more appropriate places to advertise.
Sure we were stuck with bugs and we wouldn't get wonderful whiz-bang features, but at least we wouldn't have to worry about the vendor modifying the device that we purchased after the fact. (Even though I wasn't hit by the PS3 fiasco, TI did something on their calculators quite a few years back.)
For what it's worth, I think one of the arguments made in favour of Sony was that you didn't have to upgrade your PS3's firmware. Which may be true, but it doesn't negate the fact that the firmware updates are required for newer games and people also expect to buy newer games when they get a PS3.
The only way that I'll accept ads is if they're hosted by the site that I'm visiting.
Sure pop-up, pop-under, flash, and all of the other obnoxious forms of advertising that advertisers have come up with are annoying. Yet I am willing to put up with the inconvenience if there was some guarantee of privacy. And advertising (as it stands today) is one of the multitude of ways that users can be tracked across the multitude of sites that they visit.
The bigger problem is that shares are not equivalent to cash. First you have to sell them. To sell them, you need buyers. Any significant sell off will reduce the value of the shares.
Of course trickle down economics doesn't work anyway. Someone with 5 or 6 million has 10 times the median family income. That doesn't mean that they spend ten times as much as that median family. The situation becomes even more absurd if you have tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Rich people have the benefit of saving simply on the merit that it's almost impossible to honestly spend it.
The inability to explain something simply means that you are unable to explain something. It doesn't make you special. This mentality makes me think of the "god of gaps" arguments, except that the god is statistics instead of a personified deity.
Actually, the statistics part doesn't work out either. Our sample size is extraordinarily small since you can't include the extrasolar planets in it (the data we have on them is insufficient and, even more important, there is significant observational biases). When you look at that extraordinarily small sample, you will find that each of the planets will be a statistical anomaly in at least some respect.
Yeap. Some customers deserve the axe. The problem is when you give too many customers the axe: people interpret it as bad customer service either from direct experience or word of mouth. If enough people get that impression, it will be reflected in the company's ability to retain the good customers. So firing the customer doesn't really make sense unless it is a very exceptional case.
There is probably some email that you need to keep, but chances are that you don't need to keep most of your email. So just read, respond, then purge (when appropriate).
As others have pointed out, disk space isn't really a concern this day in age. But managing data that you don't need is a concern. A minute spent filing, backing up, etc. of unnecessary data is a minute wasted. Add enough of those seconds together, and it may amount to a good chunk of your life spent doing more interesting/productive things.
As a side note, I notice that people sometimes get attached to things that don't really matter to them. I've known people who have lost all of their data due to circumstances beyond their control, then they became very distressed about that loss of data. The problem is that only a tiny fraction of that data was actually valuable, but they were worrying about all of the data. In some cases it was so traumatic to them that they spent more time worrying about the irrelevant stuff than the stuff that they would need to continue on in the future. So if you don't keep the irrelevant stuff, you can focus on what is relevant.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the point is to give access to the tools that they could use in real life while ensuring that they can still work independently. After all, it would be far too easy for them to look up prior solutions (most courses use similar sets of questions on examinations because the students don't have enough experience to solve novel problems). Even if you could come up with unique questions, you still have a situation where they could hire someone else to answer the questions for you.
My suggestions: only let http through and use a white-list for acceptable websites. Choose those websites carefully so that they cannot be used to communicate with other students or outsiders. It is only a taste of real life, but it should be enough to prepare them.
I live in a big city, so there are better options nearby. But if I lived in a smaller city which didn't offer options, then I'd hit up the shack a couple of times a year. There are too many cheap fixes, even with Radio Shacks prices.
"Big Brother" doesn't give a damn about your driving habits. In the few cases that they want to track a person, they will be more than happy to stick a GPS unit in your car for you. Gratis, and in such a way that it won't affect your aesthetic tastes.
The far greater threat are business interests, because they have the most to gain from such practices. After all, they are the ones who are scraping off hard currency and get to do what they please with it.
Uh, this is an Apple product we're talking about. Of course they will be touting it in battle. And the enemy forces will probably kill the American soldiers to put an end to the Apple evangelism.
They may use iPads, but they may end up being heavily modified for security, durability, and longevity (e.g. battery life).
This sounds like the cost of being an early adopter. The infrastructure isn't in place yet, so you have to expend more power establishing and maintaining a signal. Assuming that 4G goes mainstream, things will probably be significantly better in a few years.
Remember, these critters are radios and omnidirectional ones at that. Halving the distance to a tower will roughly quarter the required transmit power.
it's better not to admit to believing in God, or to following any religion.
It's also better not to admit to not believing in God, or to not following any religion.
There is always someone who will attack others for not believing the same things that they believe. Religion, politics, operating system of choice, ...
For the most part, I agree with you. Thing is though, he's not going to have as much in the bank should something happen and he can't work any more.
What counts as counterfeit goods? They always offer up fairly big numbers to justify these raids, but they rarely offer up enough details for the public to judge the real value of what they're doing.
I'm bringing this up because I saw a news story that showed some counterfeit goods a few years ago. While some of them were pretty convincing, a lot of the stuff involved questionable cases of trademark infringement. One such example were batteries that used the colour scheme from a popular brand of batteries, yet everything else was distinguishable from the "genuine" goods (e.g. it went under a completely different product name). Claiming that they were counterfeit would be like claiming that Monopoly money was counterfeit.
Here's a newsflash: Flash is going to be harder to kill than IE6 because too many people depend upon it. In case you've failed to notice this, Firefox has been trending in the same direction as IE lately. Also in case you haven't noticed this: mobile browsing has been trending upwards for a while.
I guess what I'm saying is this: Firefox is losing it's market due to unpopular decisions. Failing to recognise an emerging market that will probably end up replacing most desktop computer use is another way to lose market share.
Taking care of your users, rather than prattling on about ideology, is one way to reverse that trend and ensure a place in a changing world.
I realize that it isn't a very popular around these parts, but quite a few websites still use this critter and are unlikely to stop using it in the near future. Meanwhile they're implementing antialiasing for WebGL and OpenGL ES acceleration, features that aren't in common use yet.
Hum ...
This is the web we're talking about. It should be access to content first, then the frills.
I would like to see a study that compares various technologies and the social behaviour of children. The reason is simple enough: there have always been children with poorly developed social skills. The difference is the technology that they bury themselves in.
Today, it seems to be telecommunications technology and social networking. That's what this study is about. In the 80's and 90's, kids buried themselves in computers and video games. In the 60's and 70's, there was the TV epidemic. Throughout the whole time, less social children have been engrossed in the most insidious technology of all: books.
So my question is this: is this 'desocialization' of children remaining at the same levels historically, or is it actually getting worse? Somehow, I suspect there has been little if any change because I suspect that children who are less social migrate to these technologies as an outlet. And if that is the case, can the new technologies improve socialization skills. After all, we are talking about communications technology these days. You use SMS or Facebook to converse with people. If you alienate people using those media, you are cut off. That should incentivize better social behaviour.
But all of this is speculation, since I have questions but not the tools to investigate it.
If you're looking to work for someone else, then you need to prove yourself to them. Sometimes you do that through portfolios. Sometimes you do that through work experience. Sometimes you do that through references. And yes, sometimes you do that through accreditation.
If you're the type of person who wants to start their own business though, these forms of independent learning can be nearly as good as schooling. Of course you would have to go a little beyond hitting the books, since there is definitely a human element to learning.
Of course, the people who are most successful at learning this way are probably self-starters to begin with and probably already know that.
They are certainly acting within their rights, but I do wish that they would see news aggregators as a business opportunity. That article title and choice sentence or two represent prime advertising that pulls people into their advertising laden sites.
Of course, they probably don't see it that way. They probably see their story summaries posted right next to the story summaries of their competitors and really can't have that. After all, it means their content and the quality of their work may be judged based upon merit. And we really can't have that, now can we?
As a general rule, you do NOT criticize a foreign nation while you are in it. This is even true if you are visiting a country with a strong respect for freedom and due process. The reason is simple enough: even though you are expected to obey their laws, you are almost never given the same legal protection as a citizen.
So yes, bring your issues up. Yet you should demonstrate enough patience to protect yourself and the people who you associated with in that country.
I look for three things in a classroom: can the students collaborate, can I freely move around the class to work with each student, and can I present information to the entire class. The lecture hall layout with the rows widely spaced is the easiest way to do that.
When the desks are in rows, the students can work with their peers to the left and the right. They can see each other's monitor and talk face-to-face.
Widely spaced rows allow the teacher to move around the classroom to assist students, and offers the teacher a clear sight-line to other rows to monitor progress.
Finally, the students are always facing the front of the room when you need to present information to the class.
The only real problem with the lecture hall layout is that it is stigmatized: it is old school schooling, therefore bad. That attitude is silly. Modern teaching methodologies are about human interactions. As long as the teacher has the freedom to move around the classroom and students have the ability to work with each other face to face, you are facilitating those human interactions.
(Note: I usually use a different layout, but I teach children. Their small bodies allow me to use "L" shaped pods with clearly defined groups for activities.)
Some of us actually think that using a web browser is more important than compiling a web browser.
Seriously. My resource usage rarely goes about 1 GB with multiple applications open. These days, the hard drive is a far bigger bottle neck than RAM. Well, unless you're compiling Firefox it appears.
Don't get me wrong, I love these bundles and have picked up the last four. They provide solid entertainment at a good price, allow me to try out different types of games without breaking the wallet, it's great that most of the games work under both Linux and Windows (because I'm kinda moody when it comes to operating systems), and it's wonderful that we have some control over where our contributions go. It's also kinda cute that they have created a business model that actually makes these games move. (I don't know if I'm typical, but I wouldn't have spent a dime on these games otherwise.)
Yet, at the end of the day, posting each new release on Slashdot results in little more than an orgy of free advertising. And yeap, I think of pretty much every product release that's posted here in the same way.
So keep up the great work Humble Bundle salesmen and indie developers, but please find more appropriate places to advertise.
Sure we were stuck with bugs and we wouldn't get wonderful whiz-bang features, but at least we wouldn't have to worry about the vendor modifying the device that we purchased after the fact. (Even though I wasn't hit by the PS3 fiasco, TI did something on their calculators quite a few years back.)
For what it's worth, I think one of the arguments made in favour of Sony was that you didn't have to upgrade your PS3's firmware. Which may be true, but it doesn't negate the fact that the firmware updates are required for newer games and people also expect to buy newer games when they get a PS3.
There are two types of laws that engineers have to consider, and I'm pretty sure that corporations and governments cannot violate the laws of physics.
The only way that I'll accept ads is if they're hosted by the site that I'm visiting.
Sure pop-up, pop-under, flash, and all of the other obnoxious forms of advertising that advertisers have come up with are annoying. Yet I am willing to put up with the inconvenience if there was some guarantee of privacy. And advertising (as it stands today) is one of the multitude of ways that users can be tracked across the multitude of sites that they visit.
So blocking it shall be.
The bigger problem is that shares are not equivalent to cash. First you have to sell them. To sell them, you need buyers. Any significant sell off will reduce the value of the shares.
Of course trickle down economics doesn't work anyway. Someone with 5 or 6 million has 10 times the median family income. That doesn't mean that they spend ten times as much as that median family. The situation becomes even more absurd if you have tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Rich people have the benefit of saving simply on the merit that it's almost impossible to honestly spend it.
The inability to explain something simply means that you are unable to explain something. It doesn't make you special. This mentality makes me think of the "god of gaps" arguments, except that the god is statistics instead of a personified deity.
Actually, the statistics part doesn't work out either. Our sample size is extraordinarily small since you can't include the extrasolar planets in it (the data we have on them is insufficient and, even more important, there is significant observational biases). When you look at that extraordinarily small sample, you will find that each of the planets will be a statistical anomaly in at least some respect.
Yeap. Some customers deserve the axe. The problem is when you give too many customers the axe: people interpret it as bad customer service either from direct experience or word of mouth. If enough people get that impression, it will be reflected in the company's ability to retain the good customers. So firing the customer doesn't really make sense unless it is a very exceptional case.
There is probably some email that you need to keep, but chances are that you don't need to keep most of your email. So just read, respond, then purge (when appropriate).
As others have pointed out, disk space isn't really a concern this day in age. But managing data that you don't need is a concern. A minute spent filing, backing up, etc. of unnecessary data is a minute wasted. Add enough of those seconds together, and it may amount to a good chunk of your life spent doing more interesting/productive things.
As a side note, I notice that people sometimes get attached to things that don't really matter to them. I've known people who have lost all of their data due to circumstances beyond their control, then they became very distressed about that loss of data. The problem is that only a tiny fraction of that data was actually valuable, but they were worrying about all of the data. In some cases it was so traumatic to them that they spent more time worrying about the irrelevant stuff than the stuff that they would need to continue on in the future. So if you don't keep the irrelevant stuff, you can focus on what is relevant.