"Grading is not, or should not be, about the grade"
I worked with Dr. Shermis back in the mid '90s on this (one of the professors quoted in the article) and we had our own software we were working on.
One of the very first things we had agreed upon was that grading and rating are two very different things. And when we worked on our software, it was designed to give back several scores that summarized why there was an overall score that was given.
Beyond this, *MOST* work in this area are not based around how to refine a research question or structure an argument. It was based around how to rate writing. From here, verbage could be created based around all the factors explaining why a particular metric was used as opposed to simply providing the metric. I left this field before it got that far, but its been a decade and I'm quite certain that this has happened because there were enough engines out there that could work in collaboration with one another to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback (at the time, too many researchers were working against each other and either closely guarding their secrets or blatantly looking down their nose at the works of others because it was approaching the idea with a different vision).
That said, the #1 way to become a better writer? Write more. Even without feedback, you become a better writer simply by exercising these skills. With plain metrics? You become a far better writer simply by seeing that the computer thinks your mechanics could be improved. Maybe work on your creativity (this was by far the hardest to calculate), maybe see how improving one area weakens another as there were proven links between different areas that were almost always inversely proportional to one another except in the hands of talented writers.
And the problem with writing more? Instructors, especially writing instructors, are overwhelmed as it is. I would GLADLY grade 100 undergrad psych essays as opposed to a technical writing course. In our studies, one of the ideas was to allow more writing assignments, while giving more quality to feedback by the instructor...allow the instructor to read every 3rd paper for instance and give in depth analysis. Or maybe give more time to students that were struggling with basic concepts by catching them earlier. Almost all of this was designed to find ways to help the instructors do more with less, which is the reality of higher education these days. And when we did this, students actually got far more support than they did without our software.
Will their be lazy professors that just phone it in? Probably...but most instructors I've worked with have been passionate about their jobs, and the ones that weren't? They got this way because they were overwhelmed with the lack of resources provided to them.
BTW...every time I write about these subjects some jackass mentions my writing style. I'm not writing for publication, I'm writing for conversation (and most likely not proof reading nor thinking much more than a few words ahead...the opposite of the academic writing I use to do).
I bet you'd get a completely different response on/. from people if the subject of the conspiracy were 9/11 instead of climate change. Climate Change is something that most liberals and libertarians agree on. However, you swap the conspiracy for one closer to home?
I pretty much stopped reading/. for a couple of years except the post here or there that I was referred to because this site started to get hijacked by wackjobs. Maybe it was a corporate thing. Who knows. Either way, the signal to noise was highly in the wackjob category with 'truthers' trying to prove how it was all an inside job. Unfortunately, I headed to Reddit to get away from it and it turned out to be worse there!
You'll always find wack jobs and dumb fucks that want to believe, if only because it goes to their beliefs that the other side is corrupt and they are the only side of truth, as if everything is black and white. I know a lot of conservatives that believe in climate change, but they also believe it has happened for natural causes in the past exactly the same and we survived. Or that pragmatically, there is no way to go back except to put on the Birkenstocks and start eating granola and that if science is so advanced, eventually it will catch up and fix things.
Either way, the fact that neither side wants to back down is going to cause a division that naturally leads us all to conspiracy theories...
It hampers his credibility because because he has no track record and saying the same crap everyone does -- that has no depth to it.
Its like the people that say they wish congress wasn't made up of 'professional politicians'...nice idea, but you need someone that has the understanding of how the system works...or throw out the ENTIRE system. Not just congress...EVERYTHING.
Back to the point, without a rack record someone can say all they want and have no standing. And outside can still be an outsider so long as they have some record. Stallman has absolutely nothing other than being a technologist that couldn't even bring his own works to market, had to rely on someone else, and ride on others coat tails...of whom, the biggest proponent of his philosophy tells us that it was a pragmatic choice only because it was available and he could have easily gone the way of other licenses out there but felt it was 'good enough' for what he was attempting.
As for cards, I wouldn't know what colors are supposed to be there. I'm familiar with these sorts of ideas in psychology...we use to do experiments like this in cog. However, no matter what, you almost always find a significant number of experts that do notice it is different. And often it is just that folks don't find any interest because they don't care. It is a great magic trick, and doing it for effect ends up taking more psychological know how to misdirect others than purely showing off the cards.
I also have ADHD and stimulants have what they call a paradoxical effect with someone with true ADHD. Your brain can focus for once and you can put your brain to sleep. Your body might not be having much of it...its an horrible achy sleep, but I can sleep.
However, at about 8 shots in an ice coffee, it starts to turn around...I've learned this the hard way...
Of course he is extreme. He is a programmer that somehow thinks he can dictate morality if someone wants to use his programs.
And now he has decided that even without a degree in economics, a basic understanding of capitalism, nor of normal human interaction...that he can fix society.
Even if he were right, he has no credibility in this world and as such, is spouting nothing but the most simplistic jargons and hoping it sticks. We all do that. I talk with my friends about how to fix the economy all the time...however, I'm quite certain if someone were to post my rants to the world, I'd be rightly be given the same criticism as I gave him above.
This is before throwing out personal attacks like Toe Fungus Eater. I'm certain most of us have done something disgusting, but the man has so little understanding of how others work that he does so in public, while on stage, while the cameras and spotlights are on him...again, I'm certain MOST of us have done something equally disgusting, but we know what is not good taste and wouldn't do it in public with tens of GNU fans watching. These sorts of things happen with him time in and time out, and thus his knowledge of how humans interact -- which is all business is -- is suspect. Again, I'm not attacking him for this...we've all done something like this to one extent or another. He just don't know its wrong (or at least decided to be wrong by society).
The security is one of these talking points that doesn't mean anything.
RIM was publicly asked to put backdoors into their phones at the US's request and did so. And then every other country in the world asked for them. And they gave them it so they could get into the market. Pretty much all they need to get into ANY Blackberry is to trick it into utilizing one of there servers, and it is magically unlocked for anyone that has one of two dozen encryption unlocks given to nerds in the third world.
So far, China is the only one with public access to the iPhone, and only on a specific model sold in China...Google so far as walked away from a deal with China because of these questions which I respect (sadly, I know the guy that got Apple into China). Here in America, both Apple and Google have denied the gov'ts requests as they are unconstitutional (but mostly because it would cost them money to do so) and thus the gov't has to try to get in through the AT&T's and Verizons.
Either way...the security on the iPhone is far greater than BB. Not sure about Android because I don't use it often enough to say.
Really? The corporation went against your recommendation?
They picked a phone that has almost any application that could be needed for the business on it, over one that has 10s of apps that all cost thousands of $$$s to put on there? And the fact that people might actually take their device with them instead of having to cart around 2 mobile devices because you have one that your people actually use for 99% of their mobile needs...and one that they have to cart around for their business.
I can't believe they went against your wishes. It is almost as if they listened to someone that knew how to run a business instead of the guy still debating VMS vs. UNIX as a platform for the business's computing needs.
Back in the day, I bought the Palm phones for everyone in my office and NO ONE carried them around. They were locked down, to the bosses order, and when ever the was an emergency, no one answered. Had to call their land lines. Most of the time if we called someone out of the office, their desk would ring.
So one day I decided fuck that...my boss is clueless, so I asked everyone to bring in their phones...I had an assortment of free games and would install them on their phone. Solitare, mine sweeper (it wasn't MS but very similar), poker...and over night...people started to pull them out of their desks and carry them with them.
It is always the power hungry asshole that thinks they know more about employees than they ever do...I was in IT as I put myself through grad school in psych. One of the first things we learn in any management course (this was undergrad) is that you can expect any educated 1st worlder to work about 60% of the time. 80% for a few weeks. 100% and they will burn out. Anyone that says they are working 40 hours a week is most likely putting in 60 hours to do so. That sort of thing. Want good employees...allow a little slop. Or ignore all the social sciences that study this sort of thing, tell the world how much you know about being a boss and watch your best talent move away.
6-digit is low? I'm still bitching about the fact that I asked Taco years ago to change my name because too many people associated me with someone else (having used that ID on BBS's in the '80s) and he just up and created a new account for me instead giving me a 5-digit account.
Actually, I would have done the exact same thing...and do on my own board...but it still pissed me off anyways!
But 6-digit is no where near low. Hell...5 digit isn't even low...
Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! Timeline! My posts are displayed in two lines instead of one!!!!!
Why is this free service that I don't pay for making me do things I don't want to do but I won't leave them.
Then again...honestly, people that talk about leaving facebook are fucking idiots. Either you leave or you don't...you don't talk about it (talking about the fucktard at the top of the pile waaaaahing about leaving). I left FB for a couple of months, and I realized the social connections were far more worth keeping the FB open. Then again, I have more than 3 friends and I have business crap that depends on me knowing tons of people (which is interesting because I post the most inappropriate and obscene stuff to my FB and most of the business relations find it funny).
"Meanwhile, the Iranian nuclear industry has no problems getting the equipment it needs (albeit with a few carefully targetted viruses)"
Some would say that the restrictions made it far easier to restrict what actually made it there than if they could just get anything they wanted wholesale. As such, the gov'ts of several enemies of Iran were able to specifically target the equipment and ensure that it was not able to make the nuclear loads they wanted without poisoning a significant amount to where it was unusable, as a result, delaying bad outcomes for a few years and giving time for diplomacy to maybe work (if we didn't have idiots on both sides).
Students and farmers are screwed because of their gov't. Even if their gov't has a legitimate reason to hate the US and Israel (anyone that knows the history of Iran understands why they don't like either country and would not want to negotiate with either in a civil way).
From what I understand, the term 'rape' is very broad in this country. To the point, people that have been actually raped elsewhere would feel violated.
The idea that one can be 'raped' after the fact of consensual sex doesn't make sense to me, but it isn't my culture. I'll use logic to show you how they feel about this (or at least how I think they understand this). Rape is any unwanted sexual activity. Would they have wanted to have sex with the man either woman knew that he was lying about being monogamous? It sounds like they both would say no. Would they want to have unprotected sex with someone that wasn't monogamous? Far bigger no. The fact that he had unprotected sex AND lied about who all he was sleeping with caused these women to reassess their willingness to have sex with him. If they had known the truth, they wouldn't have been cool with it.
Have you ever dated someone that you realized was a horrible person and lied about everything AFTER the fact? I have. Do I consider myself raped because of this? No. If I would have known everything about this person, I might not have had sex with her. At the time I was having sex with her, I really liked it and I told all my friends how cool she was. Apparently in some countries, you can change your mind about this and then consider it a form of rape.
Apparently, again from what I understand, this is considered a very low form of rape and is punishable by a fine and nothing more.
I don't know. I do feel that if you are a guest in another country, you follow the laws even if they are stupid -- or that you don't know about them.
That said, I agree with what Wikileaks has done...and I just wish it didn't have Assange as the head. Maybe they couldn't have done what they did without a douchebag like Assange in charge. I don't know. The biggest thing I believe is that I have faith in the Swedish gov't for this, and think that he should go back and answers the 'charges' (in quotes because he hasn't legally been charged yet).
And maybe a little part of me wants to see if the US would get him in custody because I think this would make the Occupy Wallstreet protests seem tame in comparison. I don't think we would...too much political ramifications for it...but if we did, I think it would be nearly unanimous that the youth and anyone that is even slightly liberal would rise up and do something about it. So maybe I'm hoping that this happens just to see actual real political change...not a black liberal that is in practice more conservative than Reagan, vs. a white conservative complaining about how unconstitutional it is to provide health care to everyone in a way that mirrors his own laws and policies in his own state 10 years before that he authored himself.
He hasn't been charged with a crime yet. However, he has been charged by others as having done something that might be a crime.
The words I used are sadly ambiguous and I apologize for the ambiguity.
I stand behind what Wikileaks has done. And I think Bradley is a great man for releasing the info...doesn't mean I don't think Assange is a douche that loves the publicity.
Hello someone that doesn't understand that the system of justice in one country isn't the same in another country.
In Sweden, it has been established over and over in these debates, one cannot be charged with a crime unless they have been questioned in person.
He left the country before he could be questioned in person. Yes, one prosecutor decided there wasn't enough evidence at the time...and another said there was enough to question him. Even in the US, this happens all the time. And it is rarely politically motivated...
I wouldn't be surprised if the US had a part in this...however, I think that Assange had a MUCH bigger part...and I believe Sweden may just be following their own rules, even if the US likes that they are. if someone pisses me off and I see them jaywalking while a cop had his back to my enemy...I might just walk over to the cop and mention how dangerous it is for that guy to be endangering the cars going by and encourage them to follow the laws already there, if nothing more than to piss the guy off a little.
I don't think it takes any conspiracy to note the US is probably enjoying this as they know it is destroying Wikileaks. However, I don't think there is any nefarious plan to extradite him...especially as we have extradition treaties with the UK as well and could just as easily asked to bring him over with the caveat that we'd have to promise not to kill him...that's the only thing the UK asks...and I don't think the US could do this legally...much easier to kill him right where he was in the first place and even if everyone knew it was the US, we'd still have plausible deniability. That's the problem with you conspiracy theorists...you don't think of the simplest solutions. Occam's Razor...
Apparently, they can't even officially charge someone with a crime until they have met in person with the prosecutors.
I personally think it is a good idea to not charge and convict someone in abstentia -- even if they agree to it. It isn't good for ANY open and honest judicial system.
Sweden is very liberal about the protection of women and what should constitute sexual abuse. He was a big name, and he broke the law to the point he used his influence to do things that would get other men arrested too. And then instead of answering the charges, he fled the country. Over something that might get him $1000 in fines and told not to come back to the country.
In most countries, what he did would be considered douchebaggery of the highest proportions. In Sweden, they find it criminal...even if it is pretty much a slap on the wrist. When a big name does it, they need to make an example...and the example is he pays a fine much smaller than he has wasted in lawyers so far and goes home. He could have taken care of this months ago, but he wanted to stay in the public eye and pretend that he was oppressed. I wish I could fuck one woman, convince her to drop me off at another woman's home. Fuck her without a condom after telling her I was wearing one, and then go back to the first and pull my condom off halfway through and brag about it...while having half the world look at me as if I'm a political prisoner for doing so...and probably fuck another dozen women in the process.
Gotta hand it to him...he knows how to play others. Are you so naive to think that a man so skilled at manipulation isn't manipulating you?
(BTW I think the US would LOVE to have him in custody, but we all know that he committed no crimes in the US. Treason is not a crime if you aren't a citizen...regardless of what Republicans would like to have you believe)
Oh wait, Dropbox has been on iOS and OSX for years...and integrates nicely into software sold through Apple's iStore and the Mac AppStore.
With the exception of having to follow the rules and not sell electronic access through the application unless Apple is handling the transaction (a rule from day one), Dropbox has long been accepted by Apple (when Apple lawyers dropped this rule on Dropbox after DB started the dropbox store in their API, they came to an agreement in a day...the agreement was to follow the rules that Dropbox had originally agreed to.)
So is that what you mean by believing that Apple would allow a third party to set up rival iCloud servers? Because there are several companies that do just this and give APIs and developer kits to integrate their software into apps. Off the top of my head, Dropbox, Box dot Net, Skydrive, Google (docs / Drive), and I know I'm forgetting a few more.
Yeah, Apple wouldn't allow this...oh wait...if they follow the rules, they don't care.
I designed a system like this years ago (the other large company doing essay scoring as part of their big college entrance exam)...and part of the methodology was that the other raters were never supposed to know what the computer rated the paper. If the computer and the humans were within 1 point (6 point scale...pretty much if they were within one standard deviation)...the essay was assigned the average score. If not, it went to two other humans, and the score was averaged.
The biggest thing we had to work with the raters was that they were NOT to rate content. They were to rate writing. This was an uphill battle because raters wanted to have their opinion built into the score, and after rating 5000 papers on specific subjects, they felt they were an expert on the field. However, I specifically had to tell them over and over that content was not to be rated. It could be gibberish...most of these essays were intended to have a student come in blind and write about a subject (or a choice between a few subjects) and may not know a damn thing about any of the subjects at hand. And yet were being rated on their knowledge by these people.
I know this was the instruction I heard most ignored from the Pearson team competing with us (this world is a small small world...most of us would talk about how ours worked and confident enough that ours world better that we didn't care what we said to others).
So yeah, as long as it was well written gibberish, the computer would rate these higher.
That said, I don't know any team that is intending computers to be the sole arbiter of the grade. Augmented rating, yes...sole rater? No.
And I know within my system, I had a 70%+ chance of my system in agreeance with the group mean (6 point scale...Pearson used a 4 point and bragged about the same agreeance rates). And close to a 90% of within a standard deviation. If you took any single rated from a 4 person team and put them against the mean? You'd realize the computer was more accurate than the humans.
In the end, I wanted to use out system to help educators assign more writings, and would allow students to submit their work to test it, and write against it. We also had a way that students could ask our experts to help with writing if they didn't like the ratings (we also had a much expanded scale for non-ratings purposes...the last model I trained it on was the 6+1 system -- http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/949 to allow for not just overall score, but subscores...in addition to all the boring spelling, grammar and all that bullshit). It allowed students to write more, and write in a more self-directed manner. It also allowed the teacher to grade with a scalpel as opposed to a hatchet and fix the writings before things were turned in for the final grade.
Back to the parent poster's message...your wife probably wasn't supposed to be rating content. Then again, I found entire teams over the years that had their own rules that had nothing to do with the carefully crafted directions I created...and I would imagine that other large assessment teams at different orgs would have found the same (especially when you are actually using these in a production setting as opposed to a sterile lab setting).
Wait? You don't buy from China? You buy from Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) and is the home of Foxconn? And even though Taiwan and China are separate gov'ts, they both treat their employees almost the same...and one can claim their products are made in Taiwan even if it is made on the mainland?
Here is news for you, HTC is primarily built AND DESIGNED by Foxconn. It isn't hard to look this up. Go on, I'll wait.
So while you are being snarky about how much above everyone else you are, you are buying a phone that actually has more to do with Foxconn than the Apple's do...
However, considering both paid for that space, and if one wants to be a dick and not negotiate over it, they have every right to be a dick.
I wouldn't want to be a roommate with this person either. I'm not arguing in ANY way that they are good people. I'm arguing that a shared space is free game for both participants unless they agree otherwise. I have exactly one dick roommate and I moved out. I complained for a day or two, and then realized he had just as much right to do whatever as I did, so long as it didn't infringe on my rights. Right to privacy is one you give up in a shared living arrangement, and its one I'm not willing to ever give up again.
"The guy is a dickhead who violated another persons very reasonable expectation of privacy and then spread it around. "
I may get vilified for this, but what the fuck expectation of privacy do you have when you sleep in the same room as someone else?
I lived in a shared dorm room 20 years ago and it was fucking brutal. I don't want my roommate watching me change, and I certainly didn't want my roommate seeing be getting my dick sucked, so I went elsewhere for both of these activities. I know some people believe you can do things like put signs up or otherwise, but that is just as fucking rude...if its my room, I come and go as I feel free. Anything that happens in that room, is fair game.
And again, it was fucking hell.
Personally, I don't think two people should ever have to share a single room together unless they are romantically involved. Why? Because you give up every expectation of ANY privacy. My girlfriend would come over if my roommate was gone and stay, but if he walked in...that was our problem. If he walked in with a dozen frat bros and they all made comments...that was also our problem...when someone else is paying for the same amount of access, you don't have a right to tell them to stay out of the place they live and sleep.
Beyond that, I find it absolutely reprehensible when people decide they can have sex in a shared room. I don't care if it is heterosexuals or homosexuals. I'm sorry if it is the only place you have private...go get a motel room. I didn't have my girlfriend come over for anything intimate if I knew my roommate was around at all...I found it to just be fucking rude. We got a motel room or stayed at a friends place that had a spare room. And then the next semester, I traded up to a single dorm room (the girl and I split the price even though she still had her own dorm room that was shared).
All this said, the guy that video'd it is a dick. I have no doubt he is a homophobic asshole. And regardless of how rude it is to have sex while a roommate is living with you, its a fucking dick move. In a shared space, nothing is private, but you still don't do shit like this. Being a dick is not a criminal act -- regardless how much you are. I find it horrible what happened to the kid that killed himself, and I think society needs to better help kids like him...and honestly, the schools honor code should kick out any little asshole that posts videos like this...but thats the schools code -- not the law. A school should be able to have rules against being an asshole, the gov't shouldn't.
Either that, or we realized that a lot of the shit that AT&T did sucked, but you could see that it sucked far less with AT&T and thus lifting both brands.
Honestly, what did Apple ever have to blame anyone else for? The signal strength? Ohes noes...I get shitty reception if I hold it wrong, how many millions of dollars can I spend to get this fixed. Oh wait...I can just hold it differently like using a different hand.
This is the only real PR fiasco Apple encountered with their product outside of the nerd crowd screaming BUT ITS DRMWARE!@!@!@! Which most of the pragmatic nerds like me just said Yup, I'll Jailbreak It and never thought twice about it (Ironically, the first person to help me break DRM on an Apple product is now an Apple VP.)
Why would you want to install something like computrace on a $400 tablet (thats how much my institution pays for them)? Get insurance and be done with it. If you are talking the Fire, its a $200 device. If its lost, its lost...on the iPad, you can do a remote wipe just as easily as you can Computrace if something is lost. However, not sure why you'd allow FERPA protected data on a tablet anyways, and thus its a moot point. With the Kindle, you can sideload almost anything you want. If you are with a school system, you most likely have access to a consortium that allows you to get etexts straight from the manufacturer at a huge discount without ever dealing with Amazon, and load it up from there.
As for AS, I'm assuming you mean Active Directory...who the fuck actually needs this except for managing PCs. Oh yeah, PC nerds that can't think outside of the Microsoft paradigm...I use to develop student testing software (as well as psychological testing) and it was amazing when I actually talked with any school techs. By and far, they were the most basement of dwellers I'd ever met. They weren't just nerds, but by and far they were MICROSOFT NERDS. I developed both the psychological side of things, as well as the technical backend, so I could actually address the needs of school nerds, but honest to god, I think most of them just made up rules and regulations because either they weren't smart enough to do anything new -- or they were the SYSOP FROM HELL and needed to protect their job so they kept things as byzantine as possible so no one could ever take their jobs away. Granted, the most computers I've ever had to manage myself (well, and two assistants) was about 1000, and these days, I only have about 100 to deal with...but really...off the shelf technology that really didn't take much time to deal with. For some reason school nerds never understood simplicity and everytime I heard any of them talk, it pretty much sounded exactly like you...EVERYONE ELSE IS SO RIGID, THEY WON'T FOLLOW MY RULES, FUCK THEM...I'M BUYING WINDOWS!!!
Ok, that was over the top...I don't know you and you may not be this bad. I realize I'm being an asshole, but your post brought back way too many bad memories.
Slashdot Mirror
Its almost like no one mentions Android on their phones anymore.
And the best selling Android tablet won't even mention it at all...
"Grading is not, or should not be, about the grade"
I worked with Dr. Shermis back in the mid '90s on this (one of the professors quoted in the article) and we had our own software we were working on.
One of the very first things we had agreed upon was that grading and rating are two very different things. And when we worked on our software, it was designed to give back several scores that summarized why there was an overall score that was given.
Beyond this, *MOST* work in this area are not based around how to refine a research question or structure an argument. It was based around how to rate writing. From here, verbage could be created based around all the factors explaining why a particular metric was used as opposed to simply providing the metric. I left this field before it got that far, but its been a decade and I'm quite certain that this has happened because there were enough engines out there that could work in collaboration with one another to provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback (at the time, too many researchers were working against each other and either closely guarding their secrets or blatantly looking down their nose at the works of others because it was approaching the idea with a different vision).
That said, the #1 way to become a better writer? Write more. Even without feedback, you become a better writer simply by exercising these skills. With plain metrics? You become a far better writer simply by seeing that the computer thinks your mechanics could be improved. Maybe work on your creativity (this was by far the hardest to calculate), maybe see how improving one area weakens another as there were proven links between different areas that were almost always inversely proportional to one another except in the hands of talented writers.
And the problem with writing more? Instructors, especially writing instructors, are overwhelmed as it is. I would GLADLY grade 100 undergrad psych essays as opposed to a technical writing course. In our studies, one of the ideas was to allow more writing assignments, while giving more quality to feedback by the instructor...allow the instructor to read every 3rd paper for instance and give in depth analysis. Or maybe give more time to students that were struggling with basic concepts by catching them earlier. Almost all of this was designed to find ways to help the instructors do more with less, which is the reality of higher education these days. And when we did this, students actually got far more support than they did without our software.
Will their be lazy professors that just phone it in? Probably...but most instructors I've worked with have been passionate about their jobs, and the ones that weren't? They got this way because they were overwhelmed with the lack of resources provided to them.
BTW...every time I write about these subjects some jackass mentions my writing style. I'm not writing for publication, I'm writing for conversation (and most likely not proof reading nor thinking much more than a few words ahead...the opposite of the academic writing I use to do).
Like I said, I rarely come here any more. Then again, I rarely go to my own site except to troll the people who still cling to it, so who knows!
But, most of what I read is pretty liberal here...
I bet you'd get a completely different response on /. from people if the subject of the conspiracy were 9/11 instead of climate change. Climate Change is something that most liberals and libertarians agree on. However, you swap the conspiracy for one closer to home?
I pretty much stopped reading /. for a couple of years except the post here or there that I was referred to because this site started to get hijacked by wackjobs. Maybe it was a corporate thing. Who knows. Either way, the signal to noise was highly in the wackjob category with 'truthers' trying to prove how it was all an inside job. Unfortunately, I headed to Reddit to get away from it and it turned out to be worse there!
You'll always find wack jobs and dumb fucks that want to believe, if only because it goes to their beliefs that the other side is corrupt and they are the only side of truth, as if everything is black and white. I know a lot of conservatives that believe in climate change, but they also believe it has happened for natural causes in the past exactly the same and we survived. Or that pragmatically, there is no way to go back except to put on the Birkenstocks and start eating granola and that if science is so advanced, eventually it will catch up and fix things.
Either way, the fact that neither side wants to back down is going to cause a division that naturally leads us all to conspiracy theories...
It hampers his credibility because because he has no track record and saying the same crap everyone does -- that has no depth to it.
Its like the people that say they wish congress wasn't made up of 'professional politicians'...nice idea, but you need someone that has the understanding of how the system works...or throw out the ENTIRE system. Not just congress...EVERYTHING.
Back to the point, without a rack record someone can say all they want and have no standing. And outside can still be an outsider so long as they have some record. Stallman has absolutely nothing other than being a technologist that couldn't even bring his own works to market, had to rely on someone else, and ride on others coat tails...of whom, the biggest proponent of his philosophy tells us that it was a pragmatic choice only because it was available and he could have easily gone the way of other licenses out there but felt it was 'good enough' for what he was attempting.
As for cards, I wouldn't know what colors are supposed to be there. I'm familiar with these sorts of ideas in psychology...we use to do experiments like this in cog. However, no matter what, you almost always find a significant number of experts that do notice it is different. And often it is just that folks don't find any interest because they don't care. It is a great magic trick, and doing it for effect ends up taking more psychological know how to misdirect others than purely showing off the cards.
Too much coffee makes me fall asleep too.
I also have ADHD and stimulants have what they call a paradoxical effect with someone with true ADHD. Your brain can focus for once and you can put your brain to sleep. Your body might not be having much of it...its an horrible achy sleep, but I can sleep.
However, at about 8 shots in an ice coffee, it starts to turn around...I've learned this the hard way...
Of course he is extreme. He is a programmer that somehow thinks he can dictate morality if someone wants to use his programs.
And now he has decided that even without a degree in economics, a basic understanding of capitalism, nor of normal human interaction...that he can fix society.
Even if he were right, he has no credibility in this world and as such, is spouting nothing but the most simplistic jargons and hoping it sticks. We all do that. I talk with my friends about how to fix the economy all the time...however, I'm quite certain if someone were to post my rants to the world, I'd be rightly be given the same criticism as I gave him above.
This is before throwing out personal attacks like Toe Fungus Eater. I'm certain most of us have done something disgusting, but the man has so little understanding of how others work that he does so in public, while on stage, while the cameras and spotlights are on him...again, I'm certain MOST of us have done something equally disgusting, but we know what is not good taste and wouldn't do it in public with tens of GNU fans watching. These sorts of things happen with him time in and time out, and thus his knowledge of how humans interact -- which is all business is -- is suspect. Again, I'm not attacking him for this...we've all done something like this to one extent or another. He just don't know its wrong (or at least decided to be wrong by society).
The man is both extreme and not credible.
The security is one of these talking points that doesn't mean anything.
RIM was publicly asked to put backdoors into their phones at the US's request and did so. And then every other country in the world asked for them. And they gave them it so they could get into the market. Pretty much all they need to get into ANY Blackberry is to trick it into utilizing one of there servers, and it is magically unlocked for anyone that has one of two dozen encryption unlocks given to nerds in the third world.
So far, China is the only one with public access to the iPhone, and only on a specific model sold in China...Google so far as walked away from a deal with China because of these questions which I respect (sadly, I know the guy that got Apple into China). Here in America, both Apple and Google have denied the gov'ts requests as they are unconstitutional (but mostly because it would cost them money to do so) and thus the gov't has to try to get in through the AT&T's and Verizons.
Either way...the security on the iPhone is far greater than BB. Not sure about Android because I don't use it often enough to say.
Really? The corporation went against your recommendation?
They picked a phone that has almost any application that could be needed for the business on it, over one that has 10s of apps that all cost thousands of $$$s to put on there? And the fact that people might actually take their device with them instead of having to cart around 2 mobile devices because you have one that your people actually use for 99% of their mobile needs...and one that they have to cart around for their business.
I can't believe they went against your wishes. It is almost as if they listened to someone that knew how to run a business instead of the guy still debating VMS vs. UNIX as a platform for the business's computing needs.
Back in the day, I bought the Palm phones for everyone in my office and NO ONE carried them around. They were locked down, to the bosses order, and when ever the was an emergency, no one answered. Had to call their land lines. Most of the time if we called someone out of the office, their desk would ring.
So one day I decided fuck that...my boss is clueless, so I asked everyone to bring in their phones...I had an assortment of free games and would install them on their phone. Solitare, mine sweeper (it wasn't MS but very similar), poker...and over night...people started to pull them out of their desks and carry them with them.
It is always the power hungry asshole that thinks they know more about employees than they ever do...I was in IT as I put myself through grad school in psych. One of the first things we learn in any management course (this was undergrad) is that you can expect any educated 1st worlder to work about 60% of the time. 80% for a few weeks. 100% and they will burn out. Anyone that says they are working 40 hours a week is most likely putting in 60 hours to do so. That sort of thing. Want good employees...allow a little slop. Or ignore all the social sciences that study this sort of thing, tell the world how much you know about being a boss and watch your best talent move away.
6-digit is low? I'm still bitching about the fact that I asked Taco years ago to change my name because too many people associated me with someone else (having used that ID on BBS's in the '80s) and he just up and created a new account for me instead giving me a 5-digit account.
Actually, I would have done the exact same thing...and do on my own board...but it still pissed me off anyways!
But 6-digit is no where near low. Hell...5 digit isn't even low...
Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! Timeline! My posts are displayed in two lines instead of one!!!!!
Why is this free service that I don't pay for making me do things I don't want to do but I won't leave them.
Then again...honestly, people that talk about leaving facebook are fucking idiots. Either you leave or you don't...you don't talk about it (talking about the fucktard at the top of the pile waaaaahing about leaving). I left FB for a couple of months, and I realized the social connections were far more worth keeping the FB open. Then again, I have more than 3 friends and I have business crap that depends on me knowing tons of people (which is interesting because I post the most inappropriate and obscene stuff to my FB and most of the business relations find it funny).
"Meanwhile, the Iranian nuclear industry has no problems getting the equipment it needs (albeit with a few carefully targetted viruses)"
Some would say that the restrictions made it far easier to restrict what actually made it there than if they could just get anything they wanted wholesale. As such, the gov'ts of several enemies of Iran were able to specifically target the equipment and ensure that it was not able to make the nuclear loads they wanted without poisoning a significant amount to where it was unusable, as a result, delaying bad outcomes for a few years and giving time for diplomacy to maybe work (if we didn't have idiots on both sides).
Students and farmers are screwed because of their gov't. Even if their gov't has a legitimate reason to hate the US and Israel (anyone that knows the history of Iran understands why they don't like either country and would not want to negotiate with either in a civil way).
From what I understand, the term 'rape' is very broad in this country. To the point, people that have been actually raped elsewhere would feel violated.
The idea that one can be 'raped' after the fact of consensual sex doesn't make sense to me, but it isn't my culture. I'll use logic to show you how they feel about this (or at least how I think they understand this). Rape is any unwanted sexual activity. Would they have wanted to have sex with the man either woman knew that he was lying about being monogamous? It sounds like they both would say no. Would they want to have unprotected sex with someone that wasn't monogamous? Far bigger no. The fact that he had unprotected sex AND lied about who all he was sleeping with caused these women to reassess their willingness to have sex with him. If they had known the truth, they wouldn't have been cool with it.
Have you ever dated someone that you realized was a horrible person and lied about everything AFTER the fact? I have. Do I consider myself raped because of this? No. If I would have known everything about this person, I might not have had sex with her. At the time I was having sex with her, I really liked it and I told all my friends how cool she was. Apparently in some countries, you can change your mind about this and then consider it a form of rape.
Apparently, again from what I understand, this is considered a very low form of rape and is punishable by a fine and nothing more.
I don't know. I do feel that if you are a guest in another country, you follow the laws even if they are stupid -- or that you don't know about them.
That said, I agree with what Wikileaks has done...and I just wish it didn't have Assange as the head. Maybe they couldn't have done what they did without a douchebag like Assange in charge. I don't know. The biggest thing I believe is that I have faith in the Swedish gov't for this, and think that he should go back and answers the 'charges' (in quotes because he hasn't legally been charged yet).
And maybe a little part of me wants to see if the US would get him in custody because I think this would make the Occupy Wallstreet protests seem tame in comparison. I don't think we would...too much political ramifications for it...but if we did, I think it would be nearly unanimous that the youth and anyone that is even slightly liberal would rise up and do something about it. So maybe I'm hoping that this happens just to see actual real political change...not a black liberal that is in practice more conservative than Reagan, vs. a white conservative complaining about how unconstitutional it is to provide health care to everyone in a way that mirrors his own laws and policies in his own state 10 years before that he authored himself.
He hasn't been charged with a crime yet. However, he has been charged by others as having done something that might be a crime.
The words I used are sadly ambiguous and I apologize for the ambiguity.
I stand behind what Wikileaks has done. And I think Bradley is a great man for releasing the info...doesn't mean I don't think Assange is a douche that loves the publicity.
Hello someone that doesn't understand that the system of justice in one country isn't the same in another country.
In Sweden, it has been established over and over in these debates, one cannot be charged with a crime unless they have been questioned in person.
He left the country before he could be questioned in person. Yes, one prosecutor decided there wasn't enough evidence at the time...and another said there was enough to question him. Even in the US, this happens all the time. And it is rarely politically motivated...
I wouldn't be surprised if the US had a part in this...however, I think that Assange had a MUCH bigger part...and I believe Sweden may just be following their own rules, even if the US likes that they are. if someone pisses me off and I see them jaywalking while a cop had his back to my enemy...I might just walk over to the cop and mention how dangerous it is for that guy to be endangering the cars going by and encourage them to follow the laws already there, if nothing more than to piss the guy off a little.
I don't think it takes any conspiracy to note the US is probably enjoying this as they know it is destroying Wikileaks. However, I don't think there is any nefarious plan to extradite him...especially as we have extradition treaties with the UK as well and could just as easily asked to bring him over with the caveat that we'd have to promise not to kill him...that's the only thing the UK asks...and I don't think the US could do this legally...much easier to kill him right where he was in the first place and even if everyone knew it was the US, we'd still have plausible deniability. That's the problem with you conspiracy theorists...you don't think of the simplest solutions. Occam's Razor...
Because it is their system of laws.
Apparently, they can't even officially charge someone with a crime until they have met in person with the prosecutors.
I personally think it is a good idea to not charge and convict someone in abstentia -- even if they agree to it. It isn't good for ANY open and honest judicial system.
Yes, some of us are really that naive.
Sweden is very liberal about the protection of women and what should constitute sexual abuse. He was a big name, and he broke the law to the point he used his influence to do things that would get other men arrested too. And then instead of answering the charges, he fled the country. Over something that might get him $1000 in fines and told not to come back to the country.
In most countries, what he did would be considered douchebaggery of the highest proportions. In Sweden, they find it criminal...even if it is pretty much a slap on the wrist. When a big name does it, they need to make an example...and the example is he pays a fine much smaller than he has wasted in lawyers so far and goes home. He could have taken care of this months ago, but he wanted to stay in the public eye and pretend that he was oppressed. I wish I could fuck one woman, convince her to drop me off at another woman's home. Fuck her without a condom after telling her I was wearing one, and then go back to the first and pull my condom off halfway through and brag about it...while having half the world look at me as if I'm a political prisoner for doing so...and probably fuck another dozen women in the process.
Gotta hand it to him...he knows how to play others. Are you so naive to think that a man so skilled at manipulation isn't manipulating you?
(BTW I think the US would LOVE to have him in custody, but we all know that he committed no crimes in the US. Treason is not a crime if you aren't a citizen...regardless of what Republicans would like to have you believe)
You mean like Dropbox?
Oh wait, Dropbox has been on iOS and OSX for years...and integrates nicely into software sold through Apple's iStore and the Mac AppStore.
With the exception of having to follow the rules and not sell electronic access through the application unless Apple is handling the transaction (a rule from day one), Dropbox has long been accepted by Apple (when Apple lawyers dropped this rule on Dropbox after DB started the dropbox store in their API, they came to an agreement in a day...the agreement was to follow the rules that Dropbox had originally agreed to.)
So is that what you mean by believing that Apple would allow a third party to set up rival iCloud servers? Because there are several companies that do just this and give APIs and developer kits to integrate their software into apps. Off the top of my head, Dropbox, Box dot Net, Skydrive, Google (docs / Drive), and I know I'm forgetting a few more.
Yeah, Apple wouldn't allow this...oh wait...if they follow the rules, they don't care.
I designed a system like this years ago (the other large company doing essay scoring as part of their big college entrance exam)...and part of the methodology was that the other raters were never supposed to know what the computer rated the paper. If the computer and the humans were within 1 point (6 point scale...pretty much if they were within one standard deviation)...the essay was assigned the average score. If not, it went to two other humans, and the score was averaged.
The biggest thing we had to work with the raters was that they were NOT to rate content. They were to rate writing. This was an uphill battle because raters wanted to have their opinion built into the score, and after rating 5000 papers on specific subjects, they felt they were an expert on the field. However, I specifically had to tell them over and over that content was not to be rated. It could be gibberish...most of these essays were intended to have a student come in blind and write about a subject (or a choice between a few subjects) and may not know a damn thing about any of the subjects at hand. And yet were being rated on their knowledge by these people.
I know this was the instruction I heard most ignored from the Pearson team competing with us (this world is a small small world...most of us would talk about how ours worked and confident enough that ours world better that we didn't care what we said to others).
So yeah, as long as it was well written gibberish, the computer would rate these higher.
That said, I don't know any team that is intending computers to be the sole arbiter of the grade. Augmented rating, yes...sole rater? No.
And I know within my system, I had a 70%+ chance of my system in agreeance with the group mean (6 point scale...Pearson used a 4 point and bragged about the same agreeance rates). And close to a 90% of within a standard deviation. If you took any single rated from a 4 person team and put them against the mean? You'd realize the computer was more accurate than the humans.
In the end, I wanted to use out system to help educators assign more writings, and would allow students to submit their work to test it, and write against it. We also had a way that students could ask our experts to help with writing if they didn't like the ratings (we also had a much expanded scale for non-ratings purposes...the last model I trained it on was the 6+1 system -- http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/949 to allow for not just overall score, but subscores...in addition to all the boring spelling, grammar and all that bullshit). It allowed students to write more, and write in a more self-directed manner. It also allowed the teacher to grade with a scalpel as opposed to a hatchet and fix the writings before things were turned in for the final grade.
Back to the parent poster's message...your wife probably wasn't supposed to be rating content. Then again, I found entire teams over the years that had their own rules that had nothing to do with the carefully crafted directions I created...and I would imagine that other large assessment teams at different orgs would have found the same (especially when you are actually using these in a production setting as opposed to a sterile lab setting).
Wait? You don't buy from China? You buy from Taiwan (officially known as the Republic of China) and is the home of Foxconn? And even though Taiwan and China are separate gov'ts, they both treat their employees almost the same...and one can claim their products are made in Taiwan even if it is made on the mainland?
Here is news for you, HTC is primarily built AND DESIGNED by Foxconn. It isn't hard to look this up. Go on, I'll wait.
So while you are being snarky about how much above everyone else you are, you are buying a phone that actually has more to do with Foxconn than the Apple's do...
You can negotiate over it.
However, considering both paid for that space, and if one wants to be a dick and not negotiate over it, they have every right to be a dick.
I wouldn't want to be a roommate with this person either. I'm not arguing in ANY way that they are good people. I'm arguing that a shared space is free game for both participants unless they agree otherwise. I have exactly one dick roommate and I moved out. I complained for a day or two, and then realized he had just as much right to do whatever as I did, so long as it didn't infringe on my rights. Right to privacy is one you give up in a shared living arrangement, and its one I'm not willing to ever give up again.
"The guy is a dickhead who violated another persons very reasonable expectation of privacy and then spread it around. "
I may get vilified for this, but what the fuck expectation of privacy do you have when you sleep in the same room as someone else?
I lived in a shared dorm room 20 years ago and it was fucking brutal. I don't want my roommate watching me change, and I certainly didn't want my roommate seeing be getting my dick sucked, so I went elsewhere for both of these activities. I know some people believe you can do things like put signs up or otherwise, but that is just as fucking rude...if its my room, I come and go as I feel free. Anything that happens in that room, is fair game.
And again, it was fucking hell.
Personally, I don't think two people should ever have to share a single room together unless they are romantically involved. Why? Because you give up every expectation of ANY privacy. My girlfriend would come over if my roommate was gone and stay, but if he walked in...that was our problem. If he walked in with a dozen frat bros and they all made comments...that was also our problem...when someone else is paying for the same amount of access, you don't have a right to tell them to stay out of the place they live and sleep.
Beyond that, I find it absolutely reprehensible when people decide they can have sex in a shared room. I don't care if it is heterosexuals or homosexuals. I'm sorry if it is the only place you have private...go get a motel room. I didn't have my girlfriend come over for anything intimate if I knew my roommate was around at all...I found it to just be fucking rude. We got a motel room or stayed at a friends place that had a spare room. And then the next semester, I traded up to a single dorm room (the girl and I split the price even though she still had her own dorm room that was shared).
All this said, the guy that video'd it is a dick. I have no doubt he is a homophobic asshole. And regardless of how rude it is to have sex while a roommate is living with you, its a fucking dick move. In a shared space, nothing is private, but you still don't do shit like this. Being a dick is not a criminal act -- regardless how much you are. I find it horrible what happened to the kid that killed himself, and I think society needs to better help kids like him...and honestly, the schools honor code should kick out any little asshole that posts videos like this...but thats the schools code -- not the law. A school should be able to have rules against being an asshole, the gov't shouldn't.
Either that, or we realized that a lot of the shit that AT&T did sucked, but you could see that it sucked far less with AT&T and thus lifting both brands.
Honestly, what did Apple ever have to blame anyone else for? The signal strength? Ohes noes...I get shitty reception if I hold it wrong, how many millions of dollars can I spend to get this fixed. Oh wait...I can just hold it differently like using a different hand.
This is the only real PR fiasco Apple encountered with their product outside of the nerd crowd screaming BUT ITS DRMWARE!@!@!@! Which most of the pragmatic nerds like me just said Yup, I'll Jailbreak It and never thought twice about it (Ironically, the first person to help me break DRM on an Apple product is now an Apple VP.)
Why would you want to install something like computrace on a $400 tablet (thats how much my institution pays for them)? Get insurance and be done with it. If you are talking the Fire, its a $200 device. If its lost, its lost...on the iPad, you can do a remote wipe just as easily as you can Computrace if something is lost. However, not sure why you'd allow FERPA protected data on a tablet anyways, and thus its a moot point. With the Kindle, you can sideload almost anything you want. If you are with a school system, you most likely have access to a consortium that allows you to get etexts straight from the manufacturer at a huge discount without ever dealing with Amazon, and load it up from there.
As for AS, I'm assuming you mean Active Directory...who the fuck actually needs this except for managing PCs. Oh yeah, PC nerds that can't think outside of the Microsoft paradigm...I use to develop student testing software (as well as psychological testing) and it was amazing when I actually talked with any school techs. By and far, they were the most basement of dwellers I'd ever met. They weren't just nerds, but by and far they were MICROSOFT NERDS. I developed both the psychological side of things, as well as the technical backend, so I could actually address the needs of school nerds, but honest to god, I think most of them just made up rules and regulations because either they weren't smart enough to do anything new -- or they were the SYSOP FROM HELL and needed to protect their job so they kept things as byzantine as possible so no one could ever take their jobs away. Granted, the most computers I've ever had to manage myself (well, and two assistants) was about 1000, and these days, I only have about 100 to deal with...but really...off the shelf technology that really didn't take much time to deal with. For some reason school nerds never understood simplicity and everytime I heard any of them talk, it pretty much sounded exactly like you...EVERYONE ELSE IS SO RIGID, THEY WON'T FOLLOW MY RULES, FUCK THEM...I'M BUYING WINDOWS!!!
Ok, that was over the top...I don't know you and you may not be this bad. I realize I'm being an asshole, but your post brought back way too many bad memories.