This is ridiculous. I moved to California a year ago to be with my wife will she attends grad school and I have been appalled at the insanity that regularly occurs in this state as compared to anywhere the East coast.
1) Freely available educational material is fantastic. 2) Having the government pay for freely available educational material that will not necessarily be used by the college courses they are intended for is bad. 3) Forcing professors to use the state-sponsored books would be even worse. The Government can't get anything right, so I certainly wouldn't want some bureaucrat deciding what books were going to be used in a course I was taking. 4) This state doesn't need to spend any more money on anything. Period. They need to get their spending under control before trying to enhance things. 10%+ sales tax? Very bad! And I can hardly wait to see my income taxes for the past year.
Summary: This is a terrible idea. The CA state government needs to start thinking about NOT defaulting rather than blowing money on ridiculous schemes with no payoff. There are already some freely available texts anyway, from programs pioneered by top universities. Why not incentivize things like that rather than trying to take more under the government umbrella?
I, for one, have thought about most of those consequences and STILL DO NOT WANT A NANNY STATE.
I don't pay for health insurance because I will not give one penny to our overpriced healthcare system unless my life is in immediate danger. If that meant I had to die in the street, so be it. I'll stand up for my principles with my life.
Supporters of the Nanny State would expect the State to step in and protect them when they will stand up for something with their lives. Yet another choice they apparently aren't grown-up enough to make on their own.
For millions of years nature has naturally weeded out individuals that made poor decisions. Why should we fight against that so strongly rather than accepting that some people make bad choices (e.g., eating entirely too much) WHILE KNOWING THAT IT IS A BAD CHOICE and will pay the price?
Personally, I don't give a crap about what my idiot friends "liked". I want search to find things that are relevant- not necessarily just popular. I hope his view isn't shared by google.
And unfortunately the number of idiots living in the world far exceeds those that use their brains to think about the world around them. I fear for the future of nuclear power. We'll soon be in some backward world where the crazies have forced us to use "renewable" resources that damage the environment far worse than nuclear power would ever be likely to. And how will people ever support fusion if they've rid the world of fission power through their ignorance?
I think the best solution was provided by one of the above posts-- burn the stupid people to power the world! It will provide power *and* reduce power consumption at the same time!
I love my RX-7! The rotary engine is really an engineering marvel. Too bad they never had the resources to work on the efficiency like everyone did with piston engines.
I was saving for years to be able to buy an RX-9 if/when it hit the market (Which has been rumored for years, and supposedly was coming near to release in the next few years... guess that wasn't the case).
So long, wankel! (I'll still continue to love and drive my RX-7, of course...)
Interesting stuff. I don't know how active and interesting the conversations are (as I understand there are relatively few people that do this) but from a technical perspective I think it's interesting to bounce a signal off the moon and listen to the result...
I've been told that his medium sized dish (approx 10' I suppose) worked best for this purpose...
I'm no expert on this; have only run into it before at that job...
Netflix benefits from less frequent mail delivery. (Lower costs for them) Amazon loses big from less frequent delivery (I frequently choose them because I can have a package here before I'd have time to go get the item in Manhattan myself).
As for the postal service, I frequently find myself waiting in 20 minute lines, at any time of day, to pickup a package that they were incapable of delivering correctly to my residence. I'd love to see someone that has a clue about business run the postal service rather than it being run with the competence level of the DMV.
Keep the Saturday delivery or go the way of the dodo, guys. (add Sunday delivery and be super-cool)
There are really only two major options (ATT,Verizon) in the US.... add Sprint and T-Mobile if OK coverage is acceptable... and then slowly get into all the little guys.
So what if I want a modern phone with good coverage? What voluntary choice should I make that keeps ATT and Verizon in line?
I began with some silly things with my [saltwater] fish tank, building a circuit that would keep the water level topped off and reporting to a database when it did so... Have slowly been progressing toward temperature, lighting, and salinity controls for the tank, I've begun branching toward thermostat and lighting control for the house (next step possibly integration with google calendar so it knows when I'm going to be around)
For the most part there's a huge amount of open source hardware and software out there for doing individual bits and pieces. Look toward the Arduino controllers for interfacing with about anything, and possibly Sheeva plugs for running the whole mess. (I've had a sheeva talking to an arduino for quite a while now and it's been very stable)
I think the open hardware scene is where it's at right now; As for Misterhouse, I think I'll be doing some reading this evening...
Anything even close to properly run would screen out those who cry wolf.
Yes, and I know we've all had experience indicating that programs designed to police massive populations are always properly run- no abuses ever occur. </sarcasm> Thus the slippery slope argument.
+1 interesting, but ultimately unrealistic. Sifting through that much footage to demonstrate something that such a large number of people had done would be a monumental task. OTOH, it's easy for Joe Blow to have The Game up on his second flatpanel at work watching last night's footage of his favorite creepy spot to report people for troublesome behavior. I've been stopped by police because I looped around the block twice with my car in a neighborhood where there was a known drug dealer. Apparently the fact that I had $2k+ worth of camera gear for night photography (of the artistic variety, not surveillance) with me did not lessen their concern (this is after *returning* to the car having conducted said photography). Imagine the ease with which our friend Joe Blow could have reported me simply when I was in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to indulge my hobby.
Anyone who argues against the "slippery slope" argument for More Cameras == Bad should be shot. Now. So anybody can be challenged for anything now, just because somebody who's trying to win a chunk of money thinks they saw something wrong?
"They don't teach you crap!" ---- As opposed to my younger sister's experience where she takes written tests in gym class? I was always under the impression that gym class existed in order to ensure that as we grow up we are making good habits in using our bodies-- not knowing the ins and outs of every retarded sport the world has come up with. (American football, anyone?)
Personally, I never had much use for the class. I don't really care to learn how to play basketball, soccer, "football". I prefer biking, kayaking, climbing, etc. as enjoyable ways to maintain a healthy body. The administration never seemed to understand that pre-college though.
I can't see any reasonable reason to be monitoring students' heart rate either-- Whatever their supposed purpose is, it only is a detriment to the ability of the gym class instructor to do their job-- and at worst will leave that individual (or group of people) even more lazy about their jobs.
I'd rather have incentives for people to work harder and do a better job than using technology to be lazy.
Asia has been doing this for years. It's nice to see places in the West starting to do it. (I think last time I went through DTW they did this... but certainly in Beijing, Taipei, and Osaka...)
As long as they don't start taking away basic rights because you have a bit of a high temperature.
1) "The most proprietary hardware vendor"? Are you serious? Have you ever heard of Apple Corporation?
2) IIRC XP came out a year and a half or so after 2k.
If Windows couldn't autodetect the hardware and make it work, wouldn't that be a Microsoft problem rather than Sony?
If I tried to install Linux on my Sony laptop (which I have) and had driver problems (which I did) I would blame Linux, not Sony. (And my driver problems were all fixed with a minor amount of effort.) There is a sensible argument that manufacturers should help the OSS world by providing specs to make open software support more hardware, but at the same time, that would not be a Sony issue, that would be a problem with the manufacturers of the individual components.
3) Slightly more on topic; Who cares? Sony made what appears to be a sound business decision affecting a very small number of people, relatively speaking. I'm a huge advocate that people should be able to run whatever software on whatever hardware they like, but that doesn't mean that the hardware manufacturer should lose money to continue to support free software for those of us who prefer to use it. It sounds like linux on PS3 was terrible anyway. (though to be fair, I've never tried it)
So, when I watch the news or read the paper, the only good stuff to read is international news anyway.
Will they be offering a cheaper or more expensive option to ignore all of the BS stories that they ram down our throats? (swine flu? little girl saves cat from tree?)
I have become so bored by general news that I literally only pay attention to international news and major US politics stories (being a US resident.)
I hope some of News Corp.'s competitors have a more forward thinking attitude about the matter, because Murdoch won't be getting one penny from me for the crap that I usually see portrayed as something I should care about.
I think one of the primary issues is the general lack of interest by the general public in maintaining freedom.
I've had extended conversations with people about why the requirements for air travel are such a bad thing and had them tell me they have no problem bearing their entire lives when they go through the airport -- they even have no problem with people monitoring them by video 24 hours a day if it means that they will be "safe".
Honestly, the general population is so unaware of their circumstances and has so little imagination that they have no idea how bad it can get.
If you find someplace better (I certainly wouldn't move to the UK from the US but it isn't so good here either) let me know.
I see a connection to my virtual server in Chicago from a T3 here in Hoboken, but my residential Comcast ("Optimum") connection never connects. So, not only do they block incoming connections to port 80 on my home connection (And deny it) but they also block outgoing port 53?
My 1.5 year old Vaio TZ17TN works fantastic. I have used it nearly every day for those 1.5 years- and nearly all day long. 1" thin, 2.7lbs. And I can swap the battery.
I have owned lots of sony products, from CD players and MiniDisc units to laptops and televisions and have never had a problem. I don't know where the myth of sony as a terrible product comes from. They are frequently ahead of their time in design and they have had a level of technological innovation over the years that Dell dreams they could have. Have you ever been to Japan? Apple looks like shit. Any laptop sold in Japan looks infinitely better than even the slickest apple product sold in the US.
I managed to catch this one before the site went down.
Cool stuff. The author says that these were originally designed to have each processor operate on a record in a database. All concurrently.
I imagine the speed of such a system would be staggering... though tough to implement for large data sets. Still pretty cool.
The Python library apparently implements machine code functions so he can debug in real time from the command line. Not my cup of tea, but cool for people that like to fiddle with machine code.
I'm glad someone pointed this out. I opted out of roadrunner's "feature" and I just opted out of this new cablevision "feature".
Why can't these companies leave well-enough alone? I pay for this internet connection- I don't see why they need to skim extra money off the top with advertising revenue.
Pfft. As if it wasn't enough that network advertisements on Fox take up 25% of the screen when I'm watching House!
I own a Vaio VGN-TZ17TN which started smelling like smoke a couple months ago. When I turned it off I found a melted area on the bottom of the case near the hinge. It looked to me like a power regulator's heat sink had overheated in a big way, but when I got the machine back the paperwork said they had replaced lots of wiring harnesses. I can't help but wonder if I experienced the issue that the recall is for.
That said, I can't find a real press release about exactly which models are affected. Mine is a Taiwanese model, as is my girlfriend's (a TZ-16). I suppose I'll have to contact sony directly to see if hers needs to be repaired and if the issue I experienced was related.
In regard to Sony's quality, I have long been a sony fan- everything from minidisc through laptops and tvs and with the exception of my melting computer this summer I have never had an issue with their quality. I think their design aesthetic tops every other competing brand- even apple (who has copied a number of sony's design innovations)- and I think they produce a good product, albeit overpriced.
I love my TZ, and I like Sony. I just wish their recalls were easier to find.
FYI, The technology you are referring to is called a "Switching power supply". This is the same technology used in modern theatrical dimmers. (I work with those everyday)
Slashdot Mirror
This is ridiculous.
I moved to California a year ago to be with my wife will she attends grad school and I have been appalled at the insanity that regularly occurs in this state as compared to anywhere the East coast.
1) Freely available educational material is fantastic.
2) Having the government pay for freely available educational material that will not necessarily be used by the college courses they are intended for is bad.
3) Forcing professors to use the state-sponsored books would be even worse. The Government can't get anything right, so I certainly wouldn't want some bureaucrat deciding what books were going to be used in a course I was taking.
4) This state doesn't need to spend any more money on anything. Period. They need to get their spending under control before trying to enhance things. 10%+ sales tax? Very bad! And I can hardly wait to see my income taxes for the past year.
Summary:
This is a terrible idea. The CA state government needs to start thinking about NOT defaulting rather than blowing money on ridiculous schemes with no payoff.
There are already some freely available texts anyway, from programs pioneered by top universities. Why not incentivize things like that rather than trying to take more under the government umbrella?
I, for one, have thought about most of those consequences and STILL DO NOT WANT A NANNY STATE.
I don't pay for health insurance because I will not give one penny to our overpriced healthcare system unless my life is in immediate danger. If that meant I had to die in the street, so be it. I'll stand up for my principles with my life.
Supporters of the Nanny State would expect the State to step in and protect them when they will stand up for something with their lives. Yet another choice they apparently aren't grown-up enough to make on their own.
For millions of years nature has naturally weeded out individuals that made poor decisions. Why should we fight against that so strongly rather than accepting that some people make bad choices (e.g., eating entirely too much) WHILE KNOWING THAT IT IS A BAD CHOICE and will pay the price?
Thanks for your intelligent comments.
This will help me a lot when I make the transition soon...
Personally, I don't give a crap about what my idiot friends "liked". I want search to find things that are relevant- not necessarily just popular.
I hope his view isn't shared by google.
Yup.
And unfortunately the number of idiots living in the world far exceeds those that use their brains to think about the world around them.
I fear for the future of nuclear power. We'll soon be in some backward world where the crazies have forced us to use "renewable" resources that damage the environment far worse than nuclear power would ever be likely to. And how will people ever support fusion if they've rid the world of fission power through their ignorance?
I think the best solution was provided by one of the above posts-- burn the stupid people to power the world! It will provide power *and* reduce power consumption at the same time!
I love my RX-7! The rotary engine is really an engineering marvel. Too bad they never had the resources to work on the efficiency like everyone did with piston engines.
I was saving for years to be able to buy an RX-9 if/when it hit the market (Which has been rumored for years, and supposedly was coming near to release in the next few years... guess that wasn't the case).
So long, wankel!
(I'll still continue to love and drive my RX-7, of course...)
My boss at the last place I worked had a number of extremely large dishes that he used for moon bounce: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EME_(communications)
Interesting stuff. I don't know how active and interesting the conversations are (as I understand there are relatively few people that do this) but from a technical perspective I think it's interesting to bounce a signal off the moon and listen to the result...
I've been told that his medium sized dish (approx 10' I suppose) worked best for this purpose...
I'm no expert on this; have only run into it before at that job...
Netflix benefits from less frequent mail delivery. (Lower costs for them)
Amazon loses big from less frequent delivery (I frequently choose them because I can have a package here before I'd have time to go get the item in Manhattan myself).
As for the postal service, I frequently find myself waiting in 20 minute lines, at any time of day, to pickup a package that they were incapable of delivering correctly to my residence. I'd love to see someone that has a clue about business run the postal service rather than it being run with the competence level of the DMV.
Keep the Saturday delivery or go the way of the dodo, guys. (add Sunday delivery and be super-cool)
I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on that.
There are really only two major options (ATT,Verizon) in the US.... add Sprint and T-Mobile if OK coverage is acceptable... and then slowly get into all the little guys.
So what if I want a modern phone with good coverage? What voluntary choice should I make that keeps ATT and Verizon in line?
I began with some silly things with my [saltwater] fish tank, building a circuit that would keep the water level topped off and reporting to a database when it did so... Have slowly been progressing toward temperature, lighting, and salinity controls for the tank, I've begun branching toward thermostat and lighting control for the house (next step possibly integration with google calendar so it knows when I'm going to be around)
For the most part there's a huge amount of open source hardware and software out there for doing individual bits and pieces. Look toward the Arduino controllers for interfacing with about anything, and possibly Sheeva plugs for running the whole mess. (I've had a sheeva talking to an arduino for quite a while now and it's been very stable)
I think the open hardware scene is where it's at right now;
As for Misterhouse, I think I'll be doing some reading this evening...
Anything even close to properly run would screen out those who cry wolf.
Yes, and I know we've all had experience indicating that programs designed to police massive populations are always properly run- no abuses ever occur. </sarcasm> Thus the slippery slope argument.
+1 interesting, but ultimately unrealistic. Sifting through that much footage to demonstrate something that such a large number of people had done would be a monumental task. OTOH, it's easy for Joe Blow to have The Game up on his second flatpanel at work watching last night's footage of his favorite creepy spot to report people for troublesome behavior. I've been stopped by police because I looped around the block twice with my car in a neighborhood where there was a known drug dealer. Apparently the fact that I had $2k+ worth of camera gear for night photography (of the artistic variety, not surveillance) with me did not lessen their concern (this is after *returning* to the car having conducted said photography). Imagine the ease with which our friend Joe Blow could have reported me simply when I was in the wrong place at the wrong time trying to indulge my hobby.
Anyone who argues against the "slippery slope" argument for More Cameras == Bad should be shot. Now. So anybody can be challenged for anything now, just because somebody who's trying to win a chunk of money thinks they saw something wrong?
"They don't teach you crap!" ---- As opposed to my younger sister's experience where she takes written tests in gym class? I was always under the impression that gym class existed in order to ensure that as we grow up we are making good habits in using our bodies-- not knowing the ins and outs of every retarded sport the world has come up with. (American football, anyone?)
Personally, I never had much use for the class. I don't really care to learn how to play basketball, soccer, "football". I prefer biking, kayaking, climbing, etc. as enjoyable ways to maintain a healthy body. The administration never seemed to understand that pre-college though.
I can't see any reasonable reason to be monitoring students' heart rate either-- Whatever their supposed purpose is, it only is a detriment to the ability of the gym class instructor to do their job-- and at worst will leave that individual (or group of people) even more lazy about their jobs.
I'd rather have incentives for people to work harder and do a better job than using technology to be lazy.
Asia has been doing this for years. It's nice to see places in the West starting to do it. (I think last time I went through DTW they did this... but certainly in Beijing, Taipei, and Osaka...)
As long as they don't start taking away basic rights because you have a bit of a high temperature.
1) "The most proprietary hardware vendor"? Are you serious? Have you ever heard of Apple Corporation?
2) IIRC XP came out a year and a half or so after 2k.
If Windows couldn't autodetect the hardware and make it work, wouldn't that be a Microsoft problem rather than Sony?
If I tried to install Linux on my Sony laptop (which I have) and had driver problems (which I did) I would blame Linux, not Sony. (And my driver problems were all fixed with a minor amount of effort.) There is a sensible argument that manufacturers should help the OSS world by providing specs to make open software support more hardware, but at the same time, that would not be a Sony issue, that would be a problem with the manufacturers of the individual components.
3) Slightly more on topic; Who cares? Sony made what appears to be a sound business decision affecting a very small number of people, relatively speaking. I'm a huge advocate that people should be able to run whatever software on whatever hardware they like, but that doesn't mean that the hardware manufacturer should lose money to continue to support free software for those of us who prefer to use it. It sounds like linux on PS3 was terrible anyway. (though to be fair, I've never tried it)
So, when I watch the news or read the paper, the only good stuff to read is international news anyway.
Will they be offering a cheaper or more expensive option to ignore all of the BS stories that they ram down our throats? (swine flu? little girl saves cat from tree?)
I have become so bored by general news that I literally only pay attention to international news and major US politics stories (being a US resident.)
I hope some of News Corp.'s competitors have a more forward thinking attitude about the matter, because Murdoch won't be getting one penny from me for the crap that I usually see portrayed as something I should care about.
I think one of the primary issues is the general lack of interest by the general public in maintaining freedom.
I've had extended conversations with people about why the requirements for air travel are such a bad thing and had them tell me they have no problem bearing their entire lives when they go through the airport -- they even have no problem with people monitoring them by video 24 hours a day if it means that they will be "safe".
Honestly, the general population is so unaware of their circumstances and has so little imagination that they have no idea how bad it can get.
If you find someplace better (I certainly wouldn't move to the UK from the US but it isn't so good here either) let me know.
Same thing here in NJ.
I see a connection to my virtual server in Chicago from a T3 here in Hoboken, but my residential Comcast ("Optimum") connection never connects.
So, not only do they block incoming connections to port 80 on my home connection (And deny it) but they also block outgoing port 53?
wtf?
My 1.5 year old Vaio TZ17TN works fantastic. I have used it nearly every day for those 1.5 years- and nearly all day long. 1" thin, 2.7lbs. And I can swap the battery.
I have owned lots of sony products, from CD players and MiniDisc units to laptops and televisions and have never had a problem. I don't know where the myth of sony as a terrible product comes from.
They are frequently ahead of their time in design and they have had a level of technological innovation over the years that Dell dreams they could have.
Have you ever been to Japan? Apple looks like shit. Any laptop sold in Japan looks infinitely better than even the slickest apple product sold in the US.
US notebook makers have a lot to learn.
I managed to catch this one before the site went down.
Cool stuff. The author says that these were originally designed to have each processor operate on a record in a database. All concurrently.
I imagine the speed of such a system would be staggering... though tough to implement for large data sets. Still pretty cool.
The Python library apparently implements machine code functions so he can debug in real time from the command line. Not my cup of tea, but cool for people that like to fiddle with machine code.
I'm glad someone pointed this out.
I opted out of roadrunner's "feature" and I just opted out of this new cablevision "feature".
Why can't these companies leave well-enough alone? I pay for this internet connection- I don't see why they need to skim extra money off the top with advertising revenue.
Pfft. As if it wasn't enough that network advertisements on Fox take up 25% of the screen when I'm watching House!
I own a Vaio VGN-TZ17TN which started smelling like smoke a couple months ago. When I turned it off I found a melted area on the bottom of the case near the hinge. It looked to me like a power regulator's heat sink had overheated in a big way, but when I got the machine back the paperwork said they had replaced lots of wiring harnesses. I can't help but wonder if I experienced the issue that the recall is for.
That said, I can't find a real press release about exactly which models are affected. Mine is a Taiwanese model, as is my girlfriend's (a TZ-16). I suppose I'll have to contact sony directly to see if hers needs to be repaired and if the issue I experienced was related.
In regard to Sony's quality, I have long been a sony fan- everything from minidisc through laptops and tvs and with the exception of my melting computer this summer I have never had an issue with their quality. I think their design aesthetic tops every other competing brand- even apple (who has copied a number of sony's design innovations)- and I think they produce a good product, albeit overpriced.
I love my TZ, and I like Sony. I just wish their recalls were easier to find.
FYI,
The technology you are referring to is called a "Switching power supply".
This is the same technology used in modern theatrical dimmers. (I work with those everyday)
I recently read that SGI was to be claiming the world's most powerful supercomputer record from the Earth Simluator...
Does this mean that IBM leapfrogged SGI or does this mean that the SGI machine (to be built for NASA) wasn't all that exciting?
http://www.sgi.com/features/2004/oct/columbia/