In case you haven't looked into it, I highly recommend C3R (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus#Corneal_collagen_crosslinking_with_riboflavin). I also have keratoconus and unfortunately it has now pretty severely degraded my vision. If C3R had been available when I was first diagnosed (about 12 years ago) my corneas would be doing much better right now. The procedure is becoming more common in North America. I had mine done in Toronto (www.bochner.com) but I know that more and more places are starting to do it.
And, regarding the story, I too and very excited by the prospects of it. While C3R has halted the progression of keratoconus, an artificial cornea could greatly improve my vision.
As someone who worked closely with a high school, its administration, and its tech staff I don't have a lot of promising advice. First and foremost, there's nothing you're going to be able to do on your own, directly.
That aside, get a teacher with you. Obviously, it's best to get one from the tech department of your school, and preferably someone who is actually teaching. The best would be a department head or someone with political clout in your school. Look for union people. Talk to them and get them interested.
If you want a course devoted to it, good luck but suggest they propose it. Most schools work in such a way that once a year (usually around this time) they take proposals from teachers for new courses and one gets selected for the year. If you want curriculum to include the GPL and free software, talk to the teachers who teach those classes, or the head of that department. COnvince them of your point of view first, then suggest the curriculum change.
All that being said, I'll reiterate that you don't have a good chance at getting anything done. Most schools technology programs are so pathetic in the first place. Many are merely token gestures to satisfy grant requirements and are taught by teachers who took a summer or night course and were told they were qualified to teach the course. Most of them aren't.
If you want, you could always try selling it to the schools IT department (if you have one). The arguments you use will change depending on the situation, but there are three key things to keep in mind.
First, support. Take some time and find out details (cost, response time, etc) for your school to get a support contract for Linux or whatever free OS you want to advocate. This is a HUGE issue for most school IT departments because typically they're run by people who used to be teachers but took some courses and got elected sys admin. For the most part they bank on support services.
Secondly, of course, cost. Schools love cheap. They're often so tightly funded that they spend large percentages of their budget on software and support. Then they get criticized because "look at all this money we give you, and where are the new computers?" Just a tidbit though, don't overly stress cost to administration if they look like they'll go for it. If administration think they can cut money from IT by doing something, they will and IT will be no better off.
And finally, of course, is stability, performance, etc. Be sure to mention it's ability to run on older hardware. A lot of schools, because of stupid regulations on state, federal and grant money, tend to have computers sitting collecting dust, or thrown in dumpsters. If they're NT/Netware shops stress stability and reliability. Particularly the "once you get it working, it doesn't break for no reason." (The netware admin at my school would love to hear this given the trouble he's been having with Netware 5.1 recently.) Also, compatability is a good touch to add in. Netware and NT both rely on proprietary technology and software for some of the things they do, particularly Netware.
Well, thats enough from me. Good luck. Feel free to email me with questions or whatever.
Alright, so you're equating Christianity with Darwinism? How nice. Well, since Christianity and the Constitution, and various other sets of laws all make dictates about how we can and can't live, well, I suppose teaching of those should be optional as well and viewed as a religion.
If making teaching the best scientific theory we have in this area optional is a "good move", I suppose it would be an ever better move make science all together optional. Or hell, why not just say fuck it and make eduction optional.
No one said that children were required by law (or even that they should be) to accept modern evolutionary theory (which at this time is slightly beyond Darwin). But I believe it is the right of all students to be given evolutionary theory in the context of "our best guess right now".
Just do it via IDE-SCSI Emulation and it should work just like it does with a SCSI changer. It changes discs automatically. As far as conflicts go, I believe it will switch to fulfill the next request as soon as the first is complete, but don't quote me on that. I'm not a kernel/hardware wizard, but I have worked with a SCSI CD changer (Pioneer 604x) and am looking at getting a few IDE changers.
The signal loss on an analog line over most long runs is terrible, particularly without properly shielded cable, which costs signifigantly more. Unless you were using an outboard DAC and running the digital signal to it, it could be problematic. Plus, someone like myself who is looking at DJing with MP3s would find something like this more convienient than lugging my computer to all of my jobs. I'll buy one.
If what these people are doing is flaming then it is, to a degree justified. I've read poorly translated Nietzsche that was more comprehensively written to an audience like slashdot. I think this guy has potential to write some good stuff, he just needs to understand better *who* he is writting for. If that isn't the slashdot community, then perhaps he should post his writting somewhere else. It's not that it's particularly BAD, it's just written for a different audience.
You do have a point when you say that if people don't like it, they can just not read them. Particularly with the new preferences stuff Rob has added (Go Rob!). But this is a writting style that just does *not* fit the majority of the slashdot readers.
Not really. I would think it was just a stupid, inane, and moronic if it was done by any other company. The fact that it happens to be Microsoft just reinforces the idiocy and monopoly of Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
In case you haven't looked into it, I highly recommend C3R (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratoconus#Corneal_collagen_crosslinking_with_riboflavin). I also have keratoconus and unfortunately it has now pretty severely degraded my vision. If C3R had been available when I was first diagnosed (about 12 years ago) my corneas would be doing much better right now. The procedure is becoming more common in North America. I had mine done in Toronto (www.bochner.com) but I know that more and more places are starting to do it.
And, regarding the story, I too and very excited by the prospects of it. While C3R has halted the progression of keratoconus, an artificial cornea could greatly improve my vision.
As someone who worked closely with a high school, its administration, and its tech staff I don't have a lot of promising advice. First and foremost, there's nothing you're going to be able to do on your own, directly.
That aside, get a teacher with you. Obviously, it's best to get one from the tech department of your school, and preferably someone who is actually teaching. The best would be a department head or someone with political clout in your school. Look for union people. Talk to them and get them interested.
If you want a course devoted to it, good luck but suggest they propose it. Most schools work in such a way that once a year (usually around this time) they take proposals from teachers for new courses and one gets selected for the year. If you want curriculum to include the GPL and free software, talk to the teachers who teach those classes, or the head of that department. COnvince them of your point of view first, then suggest the curriculum change.
All that being said, I'll reiterate that you don't have a good chance at getting anything done. Most schools technology programs are so pathetic in the first place. Many are merely token gestures to satisfy grant requirements and are taught by teachers who took a summer or night course and were told they were qualified to teach the course. Most of them aren't.
If you want, you could always try selling it to the schools IT department (if you have one). The arguments you use will change depending on the situation, but there are three key things to keep in mind.
First, support. Take some time and find out details (cost, response time, etc) for your school to get a support contract for Linux or whatever free OS you want to advocate. This is a HUGE issue for most school IT departments because typically they're run by people who used to be teachers but took some courses and got elected sys admin. For the most part they bank on support services.
Secondly, of course, cost. Schools love cheap. They're often so tightly funded that they spend large percentages of their budget on software and support. Then they get criticized because "look at all this money we give you, and where are the new computers?" Just a tidbit though, don't overly stress cost to administration if they look like they'll go for it. If administration think they can cut money from IT by doing something, they will and IT will be no better off.
And finally, of course, is stability, performance, etc. Be sure to mention it's ability to run on older hardware. A lot of schools, because of stupid regulations on state, federal and grant money, tend to have computers sitting collecting dust, or thrown in dumpsters. If they're NT/Netware shops stress stability and reliability. Particularly the "once you get it working, it doesn't break for no reason." (The netware admin at my school would love to hear this given the trouble he's been having with Netware 5.1 recently.) Also, compatability is a good touch to add in. Netware and NT both rely on proprietary technology and software for some of the things they do, particularly Netware.
Well, thats enough from me. Good luck. Feel free to email me with questions or whatever.
Regards,
Marcus
jghrfa@home.com
Alright, so you're equating Christianity with Darwinism? How nice. Well, since Christianity and the Constitution, and various other sets of laws all make dictates about how we can and can't live, well, I suppose teaching of those should be optional as well and viewed as a religion.
If making teaching the best scientific theory we have in this area optional is a "good move", I suppose it would be an ever better move make science all together optional. Or hell, why not just say fuck it and make eduction optional.
No one said that children were required by law (or even that they should be) to accept modern evolutionary theory (which at this time is slightly beyond Darwin). But I believe it is the right of all students to be given evolutionary theory in the context of "our best guess right now".
Just do it via IDE-SCSI Emulation and it should work just like it does with a SCSI changer. It changes discs automatically. As far as conflicts go, I believe it will switch to fulfill the next request as soon as the first is complete, but don't quote me on that. I'm not a kernel/hardware wizard, but I have worked with a SCSI CD changer (Pioneer 604x) and am looking at getting a few IDE changers.
The signal loss on an analog line over most long runs is terrible, particularly without properly shielded cable, which costs signifigantly more. Unless you were using an outboard DAC and running the digital signal to it, it could be problematic. Plus, someone like myself who is looking at DJing with MP3s would find something like this more convienient than lugging my computer to all of my jobs. I'll buy one.
If what these people are doing is flaming then it is, to a degree justified. I've read poorly translated Nietzsche that was more comprehensively written to an audience like slashdot. I think this guy has potential to write some good stuff, he just needs to understand better *who* he is writting for. If that isn't the slashdot community, then perhaps he should post his writting somewhere else. It's not that it's particularly BAD, it's just written for a different audience.
You do have a point when you say that if people don't like it, they can just not read them. Particularly with the new preferences stuff Rob has added (Go Rob!). But this is a writting style that just does *not* fit the majority of the slashdot readers.
Marcus
Not really. I would think it was just a stupid, inane, and moronic if it was done by any other company. The fact that it happens to be Microsoft just reinforces the idiocy and monopoly of Microsoft.