Although your comments make sense, there's one problem with the auto 50%: You are reducing the depth of a failing grade but you are making it really easy to pass (only need an extra 10%).
A better solution would be, at the teacher's discretion, to boost a failing student's grade IF he/she puts a sufficient amount of effort into his/her work. I was failing a math class once and needed 103% in my last exam in order to get a passing grade, obviously that was impossible but the teacher told me that if I were to get at least 80% (no mean feat seeing my lousy performance so far) then he would re-adjust my grade so it would give me 60% and thus a passing grade.
That motivated me and made me work my butt off for grade and actually learn something. With this new system I would have still passed but with a minimum of effort and learning on my part.
What's the point of school? To learn something or just to pass classes?
Sheesh, stop pussy-footing around the subject and just implant everyone with gps id tags that you can read via satellite. You know that's what they really want, now they're just starting small: "Oh we just want to track cars to catch kidnappers and the like, not issue speeding tickets, think of the children!" and then later it's gonna be: "Oh, we just want to track our children, to protect them from kidnappers on foot! Think of the children!"
Don't even have to be that drastic... what happens when the user with part of your contents decides to leave the system, sell his computer, reformat his hard drive?
Will they be mirroring your data? If so that means my stuff will be on twice as many computers... yeah, thanks but no thanks. I'm perfectly happy backuping my data to my NAS with mirrored disks.
Just thought of something, you might want to read up of FDA regulation CFR Part 11 which talks about the use of electronic records. With that you can provide examples of what could bit you during an audit.
I also work for a biotech but we're lucky enough to have a CEO who's a computer scientist so he knew the importance of IT. As such we have a rather larger IT dept which includes a software development team.
In order to show the bossesses that proper software maintenance/creation/validation procedures are important just explain what would the FDA or some other regulatory agency do to your collective bung holes if they were to probe deeper into your practices.
Mission critical data being handled by non-validated/non-documented software is just like having untrained people working with samples in the lab, it's a big no-no.
You need paperwork that supports your claim, start with all the areas where un-validated software is used, then add to that a second section explaining the cost of poorly planned development iterations. We work using monthly iterations and when we told the people responsible for the software in the field that an iteration cost about 30 000$ just in labor costs they started paying attention and making the lists of demands count, i.e. removing the superflueous demands (ex: "it would look nicer in blue" was replaced with "The standard deviation calculation should be done with X+1, not just X.")
Actually, the union system in germany is not like the ones here. Here unions are of the opposition kind, they only work for the worker (as system which was perfect during the industrial revolution, but doesn't apply in the here and now). In Germany unions actually part of the board, they want the company to succeed and make as much money as they can because *gasp* with that money they can pay the workers more! What a concept, I know.
The local automakers are in deep financial ruin yet the unions still try to squeeze more out of the automakers.
You do realize that you're trying to defend yourself to someone (the controller) who has no f*cking clue about how the system is built and probably didn't know what COBOL was 5 mins prior to giving the interview, hell he still doesn't know he just added the word to his list of techie buzzwords and consequently, his resume.
The controller obviously opposes the change, probably because he is sucking up to people who's salary is affected, and has no idea what exactly should be done to the system to change it.
If he did talk to an engineer who knew enough about the system to accurately estimate (yes, I see the irony) the time to fix it then that engineer could indeed fix it and the controller is lying about not having competent people to update the system.
Maybe I missed it somewhere but, how exactly is CUIL going to make money? There aren't any ads on the search pages and, last I checked, I wasn't billed for pressing that search button.
Sounds to me like someone had a Cuil idea (see what I did there) and was charismatic enough to convince VCs to pour money into a business that doesn't have a plan to make money.
Either their plan was to blow through as much VC money as possible and have a blast doing it or they've got an ingenious plan to steal ad revenue from Google (good luck boys).
Honestly, I must be missing something...
How much is does a pair of nightvision googles and an usher's hourly wage cost?? Just have the usher routinely go from theater to theater with the googles and point the handicammers out to security... geez...
The above poster makes some good points about keyboards but one thing that most posters seem to forget is that keyboards aren't the only requirement for a workspace. A good chair and adequate desk height do count for a lot in a worker's comfort yet are overlooked by most companies (in my experience at any rate).
At the office I suffer from shoulder and wrist pain after a long day of typing and mousing, conditions which do not appear when I'm at home on a gaming marathon.
I find that a long gaming session puts more strain on my joints as I tend to get more engrossed and reflexively press harder on the keys when trying to avoid being shot. In theory this added strain should translate into more pain but it does not, why? My computer desk is at the perfect height for me and so is my chair, I also have a larger, clutter free, mousing surface whereas at work I don't have any of these.
Actually, it's the British that are following suit. The US declassified most of its UFO documentation years ago. Project Blue Book, Project Majestic, most of it is online in PDF format on the FBI and CIA websites. Archives of the documents have already been created, such as http://www.bluebookarchive.org/
It actually sounds like this new fad that the kids have where they hang themselves in order to suffocate but then unhook themselves at the last moment. Apparently the lack of oxygen gives you quite a buzz... and brain damage but that part isn't why they do it.
I can understand how someone can accidentally die from this and proving that it wasn't suicide would be complicated without some proof of the person practicing this. Such proof could be found in emails and such. Perhaps simply asking friends of the victim would yield answers, unless of course the victim was trying it out for the first time... then maybe browsing history could yield a clue but otherwise, good luck.
Tax us more? Why not?! Why waste time to better manage the money we have when we can just find a way to get more from the public?
The government is hemorrhaging money, pumping additional money into it is not going to plug the holes... if the government would put as much effort into finding ways to waste less money as they do in finding ways to tax us, they would do a lot more with what they currently steal *I mean get* from us.
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Although your comments make sense, there's one problem with the auto 50%: You are reducing the depth of a failing grade but you are making it really easy to pass (only need an extra 10%).
A better solution would be, at the teacher's discretion, to boost a failing student's grade IF he/she puts a sufficient amount of effort into his/her work. I was failing a math class once and needed 103% in my last exam in order to get a passing grade, obviously that was impossible but the teacher told me that if I were to get at least 80% (no mean feat seeing my lousy performance so far) then he would re-adjust my grade so it would give me 60% and thus a passing grade.
That motivated me and made me work my butt off for grade and actually learn something. With this new system I would have still passed but with a minimum of effort and learning on my part.
What's the point of school? To learn something or just to pass classes?
They are being honest! Most of the EQ screenshots I saw showed no obese avatars!
Oh, they were supposed to answer what their real physical state was... oops
Sheesh, stop pussy-footing around the subject and just implant everyone with gps id tags that you can read via satellite. You know that's what they really want, now they're just starting small: "Oh we just want to track cars to catch kidnappers and the like, not issue speeding tickets, think of the children!" and then later it's gonna be: "Oh, we just want to track our children, to protect them from kidnappers on foot! Think of the children!"
Don't even have to be that drastic... what happens when the user with part of your contents decides to leave the system, sell his computer, reformat his hard drive?
Will they be mirroring your data? If so that means my stuff will be on twice as many computers... yeah, thanks but no thanks. I'm perfectly happy backuping my data to my NAS with mirrored disks.
Just thought of something, you might want to read up of FDA regulation CFR Part 11 which talks about the use of electronic records. With that you can provide examples of what could bit you during an audit.
In order to show the bossesses
Yes, precious, we'll show those nassssty bossesses, yes, we'll shows them!
I'm surprised you didn't comment on the bung hole and probe deeper word play, although I admit it's not as deep (did it again) as the LoTR reference :)
I also work for a biotech but we're lucky enough to have a CEO who's a computer scientist so he knew the importance of IT. As such we have a rather larger IT dept which includes a software development team.
In order to show the bossesses that proper software maintenance/creation/validation procedures are important just explain what would the FDA or some other regulatory agency do to your collective bung holes if they were to probe deeper into your practices.
Mission critical data being handled by non-validated/non-documented software is just like having untrained people working with samples in the lab, it's a big no-no.
You need paperwork that supports your claim, start with all the areas where un-validated software is used, then add to that a second section explaining the cost of poorly planned development iterations. We work using monthly iterations and when we told the people responsible for the software in the field that an iteration cost about 30 000$ just in labor costs they started paying attention and making the lists of demands count, i.e. removing the superflueous demands (ex: "it would look nicer in blue" was replaced with "The standard deviation calculation should be done with X+1, not just X.")
Actually, the union system in germany is not like the ones here. Here unions are of the opposition kind, they only work for the worker (as system which was perfect during the industrial revolution, but doesn't apply in the here and now). In Germany unions actually part of the board, they want the company to succeed and make as much money as they can because *gasp* with that money they can pay the workers more! What a concept, I know.
The local automakers are in deep financial ruin yet the unions still try to squeeze more out of the automakers.
I can do all of that now with a projector, a clear screen and a Wii.
Just have one sensor in each hand (wiimote+nunchuk) and project on a transparent screen in front of you. How is this "new" technology exactly?
You do realize that you're trying to defend yourself to someone (the controller) who has no f*cking clue about how the system is built and probably didn't know what COBOL was 5 mins prior to giving the interview, hell he still doesn't know he just added the word to his list of techie buzzwords and consequently, his resume.
The controller obviously opposes the change, probably because he is sucking up to people who's salary is affected, and has no idea what exactly should be done to the system to change it.
If he did talk to an engineer who knew enough about the system to accurately estimate (yes, I see the irony) the time to fix it then that engineer could indeed fix it and the controller is lying about not having competent people to update the system.
Maybe I missed it somewhere but, how exactly is CUIL going to make money? There aren't any ads on the search pages and, last I checked, I wasn't billed for pressing that search button. Sounds to me like someone had a Cuil idea (see what I did there) and was charismatic enough to convince VCs to pour money into a business that doesn't have a plan to make money. Either their plan was to blow through as much VC money as possible and have a blast doing it or they've got an ingenious plan to steal ad revenue from Google (good luck boys).
Honestly, I must be missing something... How much is does a pair of nightvision googles and an usher's hourly wage cost?? Just have the usher routinely go from theater to theater with the googles and point the handicammers out to security... geez...
The above poster makes some good points about keyboards but one thing that most posters seem to forget is that keyboards aren't the only requirement for a workspace. A good chair and adequate desk height do count for a lot in a worker's comfort yet are overlooked by most companies (in my experience at any rate).
At the office I suffer from shoulder and wrist pain after a long day of typing and mousing, conditions which do not appear when I'm at home on a gaming marathon.
I find that a long gaming session puts more strain on my joints as I tend to get more engrossed and reflexively press harder on the keys when trying to avoid being shot. In theory this added strain should translate into more pain but it does not, why? My computer desk is at the perfect height for me and so is my chair, I also have a larger, clutter free, mousing surface whereas at work I don't have any of these.
Actually, it's the British that are following suit. The US declassified most of its UFO documentation years ago. Project Blue Book, Project Majestic, most of it is online in PDF format on the FBI and CIA websites. Archives of the documents have already been created, such as http://www.bluebookarchive.org/
It actually sounds like this new fad that the kids have where they hang themselves in order to suffocate but then unhook themselves at the last moment. Apparently the lack of oxygen gives you quite a buzz... and brain damage but that part isn't why they do it. I can understand how someone can accidentally die from this and proving that it wasn't suicide would be complicated without some proof of the person practicing this. Such proof could be found in emails and such. Perhaps simply asking friends of the victim would yield answers, unless of course the victim was trying it out for the first time... then maybe browsing history could yield a clue but otherwise, good luck.
Tax us more? Why not?! Why waste time to better manage the money we have when we can just find a way to get more from the public?
The government is hemorrhaging money, pumping additional money into it is not going to plug the holes... if the government would put as much effort into finding ways to waste less money as they do in finding ways to tax us, they would do a lot more with what they currently steal *I mean get* from us.