Each web surfer can only update the webcam 5 times and change the lights 3 times withen 5 minutes - this limits the load on my server/Internet connection and I'm concerned about this being (ab)used too much...
So naturally, we posted it on Slashdot. Maybe a limit of switching the lights 3 times withing 5 minutes TOTAL FROM ALL USERS would have been better. Very cool though.
Well, I have no expirence with this, but it obviously works the same way as DirecPC. These services may have fast downloads, but the uploads are obviously very slow. For people doing e-mail and surfing the web, this is just fine.
But for people like me (and I'd guess most/.ers), this wouldn't work well. I'd rather be stuck behind an ISDN line than use something like that (which I did for about 2 years). The big difference is the ping time. Using a dish has very high latency for obvious reasons, and radio would only be a bit better. So while this works for downloads, when you want to do anything with uploads or where pings matter (such as online gaming, which is one of my favorite things) you wouldn't get much of a ping (10,000,000,000 msec maybe;)
My Impressions
on
Taken?
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Well, I have to say that I was wondering when this would be on Slashdot. So here is what I have to say on the series.
Taken
I liked it alot. Yes it had it's flaws, yes there are better things, but it was very entertaining. That they got me to devote 2 hours a night to watching it, to using my VCR to tape my normal favorite shows to watch later (instead of tapeing "Taken" to watch later) shows that was good. The events themselves were well paced, and the show moved along untill the last 2 or 3 episodes, which seemed like they were stretching for time.
I think that they did a very good job overall. I didn't think that the special effects were rediculous. Many times movies/miniseries/etc have special effects that are so over the top that you stop being "in" the movies, and get taken back to reality. That didn't happen here. I also think that Matt Frewer (the guy who played Edison Carter on Max Headroom) was perfect for his role. The little girl was great too. Nothing else seems to stand out that much acting wise. I also have to say that the switching between the 3 families was pretty confusing at first, before I got to know the characters. It seemed like they spent very little screen time on one family before moving to the next in some of the early episodes.
The story was pretty good overall. There were lots of good "it makes you think" type things, or just new twists on old ideas. For example, I loved the idea that the craft that crashed in Roswell crashed BECAUSE OF a weather balloon. I don't think I've ever heard that before. That was just such a perfect idea. I do have a few problems though. First of all, things like the little alien implant being some kind of centipede looking thing which causes people to go insane (or whatever) bothered me. It's not the idea, it's that it wasn't really explained, AT ALL. Also, the whole thing of the burial site in the woods had next to nothing to do with the story, except as an excuse to kill people.
So overall it was quite good. My biggest complaint can be derived from above. I think that there were a few things that they needed to spend more time on, and a number of things that they spent way to much time on (for their impact on the story). Overall, I'd give it a 4.5 or so out of 5. It was very intertaining.
Spielberg
Some have said above that he's "over the hill", "past his time", etc. Well, I think it's hit and miss. "Taken" was good, and I'm glad it was a miniseries because it wouldn't have worked as a movie, or just a 1 hour a week series. "AI" was pretty good, but it was LONG. A good chunk of that movie could go and it would be better. It reminded me ALOT of "Bicentennial Man," with a little bit of an "Outer Limits" episode thrown in. As for "Minority Report," I'm looking forward to seeing it. I always wait 'till things come out on DVD to see 'em, so I can't comment on it.
Sci-Fi Channel
I think they did great with this. It was heavily promoted so it didn't end up flying under the radar. And I'm glad that Spielberg's name was attached, because if that wasn't emphisized, I'm not sure I would have watched. I heard that it got over 6 million viewers one night (or something), which is the largest share any cable show has gotten ever (from what I heard, ignoring pay-per-view events); even outdoing the Sopranno's season primere. I do have two complaints for Sci-Fi though:
Ditch the new logo - It's very distracting and anoying. The old dark blue one was much better. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't contantly on screen. It contrasts too much with dark scenes (which is alot of what you show).
Get more commercials when you do something like this! It's not so bad when you watch normal TV, but after spending 2 hours a night for 2 weeks, I think I had every commercial memorized by the 4th day or so. It just got so repeditive. All I'm asking is to get more commercials, instead of the same 5 over and over and over. This is a common problem on many cable networks now, IMHO.
Two suggestions. First of all, many laptops make it easy to swap drives, or at swap a second one in and out, so you could use that or a external drive.
So how do you boot the drive? Well, you have a few options. If the drive is internal (like the second drive, since booting the 1st is easy) you could put a bootloader (GRUB, LILO, etc) on the main drive. Your second option is that you can use programs (I think that one is called loadlin) that let you load Linux from windows. You just pass it a kernel and initrd if needed, etc and you can boot. So if you just built firewire, firewire HDs, and such into the kernel, you should be able to use a firewire drive as your Linux drive (initrd should make this easier). This way even if the BIOS won't let you boot a firewire drive, you can still do it.
When I first started using Linux a few years ago, I did it just to see what it was about. At that time, I thought it was interesting, but didn't know that you could really DO anything on it other that use it as a server. Sure you could surf the internet, but...
It was only later that I found out you could wordprocess, play games, and do many other things. I would suggest showing how to do everyday stuff, as a comparison to Windows and/or OS X. I don't mean a "see Linux is better 'cause it doesn't crash and it does this and doesn't crash and..." kind of stuff. I mean showing that you can play MP3s and they work just as well as under windows. And that they sound just as good as under windows. Show a wordprocessor or two. Show some web browsers. Show it can play shockwave flash, java, and other things. Show Quake III and UT2k3. And make sure to point out that the performance is always like in windows, if not better. I don't mean braging, but more of "see we're just as good." Show how Linux can be used for many things. Play a DVD, burn a CD, etc.
Other than the above "practical" things, show some neat stuff. Show a few windowmanagers. Sure there is GNOME and KDE, but what about showing Enlighenment, WindowMaker (my fav), and other cool ones. Show Quake III in one window, UT2K3 in another (or maybe just two Quake III connected to eachother) and have something else up doing something; to show that Linux is good at juggleing things.
I know you've shown at least one of these things in the past (MP3s) but I don't get to watch much TV lately. And of course, these are just my ideas. I'm sure the other posters have come up with some cool ideas by now.
This is good to see. Not only are they doing this for security, but this means it won't have too many bugs when it's released (which doesn't seem to be the case with alot of software these days).
In other news, uppon reading this, Microsoft declared a company wide day of laughing, stating "...this is the most rediculus strategy we've ever seen! Why if we did this, we'd still be working on DOS 4 or 5." Later in the conversation, the spokesperson asked to take back that statement and said if we printed it the BSA would come after us for liscenses.
Well, as an INTP (as stated above) I was something like that. I tended not to apply myself, for that teachers didn't like me. But almost every teacher I've had liked me, because when I actually did work, it was very bright. The notes my parents would get from teachers every year were usually the same. "Nice, bright, insightfull, but doesn't apply themself." What can I say, I was bored.
As for the Mac thing, the first computer I really got into was a Mac. I still like Macs alot, but I use PCs because I like to tinker with everything, and Macs don't let you do that. OS X is changing that, and I like that alot. But I don't have the $1500+ to get myself a new Mac, so I'll stick to PCs. I agree, eMacs are nice. When they start to hit e-bay used I'll snap one up. I plan to do that with iMacs when they start to come down.
I can understand your points. Here is my response, and I'd love to get your response to those.
A) That would be true, but AD(H)D is a catch-all diagnosis these days. It's almost like saying anyone with a headache and is acting a little 'odd' must have some brain tumor (ignoring X-Rays, MRIs, etc). Sorry but that's the best example I can come up with;)
B) This is more of a general idea. Public schools have many MANY problems. Studies show that kinds learn better in unisex classrooms than in bisex ones. Also, kids tend to do better in religous schools than in non-religeous ones. This sugestion is largely based on the fact that most public schools are nothing but "brainwashing interment camps." Obviously, that's hyperboly, but the fact is that many radical left wing groups push the agendas into the classroom. The books in my.sig talk about this alot.
C) If I said something like "go ask Al Gore" I would agree. But the fact is Dr. Laura is a liscensed family therapist, among other things. Obviously, counseling and such would probably benefit the kid better; but in just asking for some sugestions (like the asker did) she's very good at. I have heard a few calls along this line and she has very good advice. But for realy therapy (if needed) and such, you're correct. That can't happen on the air.
PS: Slightly off this topic, but notice how for every "intersting", "insightfull", or "informative" moderation I've gotten, I've gotten an "offtopic" or a "troll".
I'm an INTP and I agree with this. I have almost always gotten something right away, and so sitting through many classes became a major trial. Some things like history, it wasn't as bad, but things like math where you'd do the same thing over and over and over untill the dumbest kid in the class (who would have been heald back if the school wasn't afraid of a lawsuit or if they just had the guts to tell the parents litte Johnny was no Einstein) could do it in his sleep. My parents moved around alot as a kid, so I've been in many private and public schools, and I can tell you that I usually did better in private schools. They would do discipline (if they were good), they wouldn't hold the whole class back for one kid. Of all the schools I was in, a religeous school was the best. As I said in my comment below, I think that a religeous/private school would be best. A single sex school might go along way too. Girls and boys learn diferently, and if the school isn't teaching in a way like she learns, that could be a big part of the problem.
I personally am sick of these 'fad' diagnosies and the idea that the solution is to medicate the kids. What you describe sounds alot like what I was like as a little kid (although a bit more severe). Calling a kid ADHD is more common with boys (check the second book in my.sig), but it's common these days to assume that any kid with energy or who doesn't find what's going on interesting has ADHD. If this is what your family doctor told you, go to a good psychotherapist who specializes in children. Even then, I'd get a second or third opinion. Get her checked out by more than one person. That aside, here is what I have to say:
First of all, there is a reason why you kid isn't paying attention. She's bored. I'm still this way to a large degree. It's best if she just lears to put up with it. I seem to have solved this by becomming good at multitasking. I'm not great at doing only one thing at a time. In school, I'd pay attention to the lecture. If I was interested in it, it wasn't a problem (as I'm sure it is for most people). If I found it boring, I would listen (and if the teacher called on me, I was ready with the answer) but at the same time I might be doodleing, or thinking about how you would go about programming something, or just anything else.
As for a fix, here is what I have to say. I'm going to assume that you live in the US and that your child is going to public school. My number one suggestion would be to take your kid OUT of public school. Find a good private school. Religeous schools and single sex schools are best. Uniforms are very good too. One of the most import things is to make sure they are good on disciplin, not week like the public schools. If tuition is a problem, many schools will lower it if you do a certain ammount of volunteering. Infact, being involved is very important.
If boredom is truely the problem (as I suspect it is), you might want to conisder having her skip a grade later in life when the social development isn't as rapid. Putting her straight into 1st grade probably isn't a good idea.
Lastly, I have one more suggestion: Call Dr. Laura. I don't want to get flamed for this, or modded down, etc, but I think that she could help you on this if you get on the air.
What matters in the bottom line. For most people, who just want to e-mail their friends and surf the web, the machines are more than powerful enough. And the fact that they cost so little goes a LONG way. Most people are willing to sacrifice some things for massive savings, and that's what we're seeing here, IMHO.
But my other question is this: I wonder how many of the computers have copies of windows installed on them by the end user? Be it transfered (old PC doesn't work, so put Win95 on this new one) or coppied.
I think that you underestimate the size of my SUV. Heavy tanks are green machines compared to it, and they get five gallons to the mile (yeah, you read that right).
I was paying nearly $75 a month for a ISDN line just last year. A standard 128k line. That, of course, doesn't include the outrageous price I had to pay for internet over it, or the fact that there is only one place in my area that has ISDN internet, so it was a local monopoly. When I was finally able to switch to cable, things got MUCH faster, MUCH cheaper, and MUCH more reliable (which isn't saying alot). THAT's what's wrong with ISDN, above all else.
There are a few differences under the hood (ignoring things like "apt vs. rpm" etc). Note that this is x86 specific because that's all I know about. Distros seem to fall into 3 categories to me:
Optimised Distros- This includes RedHat, Mandrake, Suse (I think) and many others. The software in these distros is compiled with optimisations for CPUs (usually for Pentiums, sometimes PPros (which is Athlon, PII/III/IV)).
Unoptimised Distros - This is Debian. I don't know of any others like this, although I assume they exist. Debian is compiled to run on a 386. The kernel is avaliable with optimisations, but if you want an optimised version of X, you have to compile it yourself.
Source Distros - This includes Gentoo (which I use along with Debian) and many others. These distros allow you to build EVERYTHING to your specific processor. So instead of using a i686 package on your P4, you can build it with P4 specific support. You can even build it so it will run ONLY on a P4 (makes smaller code this way).
Other than that, the major difference would be that distrobutions are compiled with different versions of GCC. Most distros are based on 2.95 (or something in the 2s). Some distros (like Gentoo, I'd assume other source distros) use GCC 3.x which is supposed to make faster, smaller, and more efficent code (or something like that). The only other "guts" differences are things how the filesystem is layed out, which filesystem they like by default, etc.
Wow. What more is there to say? It's very clean and nice looking. I really wasn't expecting much, I mean how often do new ideas for how to make a desktop actually work? But this really looks like it would work well. Like I said, it's clean. It reminds me of aqua, but "less", which is a good thing. I've got to say that if this doesn't make it into KDE, I hope someone makes a new window manager that uses this idea, it looks handy. I've been useing WM lately because it uses less resources on my little system, and I've got to say that I really like it. If my system was more powerfull, with things the way they are today, I would probably stick with WM. But if my system were morepowerfull, I'd be willing to switch over to that system. I'm sorry that I don't quite know how to describe my reaction. It seems like a very intelligent evolution that would be very functional and doesn't clutter things up. I'd love to give it a try.
PS: As for comments like "Why is copying WinXP by rounding things considdered new?", it's not. The fact that the edges are rounded is NOT the point, that wouldn't be new. Why don't you try looking at the forest once in a while. That said, I think that rounded things look better than square boxes. The use of curves instead of straight lines seems natural now that graphics cards are better equipped to deal with it than they were back in Win 3.x days.
Wow, I must have timetraveled or something. Today is September 25! Maybe I can pass that Calc test now!
Seriously though, this is kind of neat. It will be interesting to see how this works out. For all who want to know without reading, the mile stones are:
Alpha release
Release that does realtime 3D interpolation
Release that can tell you which movie you're most likely to hate but watch anyway.
OK, so maybe they don't tell what the 2nd and 3rd milestones are on the front page.
For all the MS bashing here on Slashdot (which I'm usually a part of) I've got a few things to say about this. First off, we all know that it's their right to do this, it's in the EULA (along with giving them your first born son, etc, etc) and it's OK for them to do this. And with more and more games going online and being mostly online (as we'll most likely see in the future) this will be a major deturent. I would expect Nintendo and Sony to do the same thing if they setup online gaming the same way. I do think that you should get one warning first though. Just as a question, I believe that there is a mod chip that can be switched on/off, can they detect that when it's off? Just wondering.
As for the implication about swearing, GOOD! I don't mind a "Damn" when something happens now and then, but if I want to hear non-stop-increadibly-vulgar-peel-the-paint-off-eve ry-single-thing-within-ten-miles swearing, I'm sure I could go find that somewhere. But I don't want to hear it when I'm trying to play on online game. If you can't deal with not doing good in a stupid game without shouting enough obscenities to make all nuns on your contenant have a heart attack, then you need some serious help. I've been using Live a little (I got into the beta) and I haven't heard much of it, but I am expecting a certain level of maturity when I play online (about age 7). The constant idiotic trashtalking is anoying too, and people who make tons of sexual references and innuendo. I HOPE MS bans people who do this repeatidly. Considering that they are positioning this as something for kids, they most definatly should controll that sort of thing.
Just image in a beowulf cluster of these! It'd fit on your arm and have enough power to emualate a REAL PDA at about 1/10th speed! Of course, it'd be cool to put five on and get super-micro-wide-screen.
How can other companies hope to compete, or even break into that market?
Of course, because the video game arena was profitable and easy to get into BEFORE MS entered. Well, except for Sega, they lost too much on the hardware and had to leave that part of the business. But, that must have been for some other reason. Neo-geo has done great in the US. Well, I guess they've failed before MS got into the market. There have been a LOT of companies over the years that have tried to get into this market before, and most all have died. Even veterans like Sega have had problems pre-MS.
In fact the only company in recent times that I can think of to successfully break into the video game business was Sony. Why was that? They had the money to make a great product and keep it afloat untill it really took off. MS is doing the same thing. For all the MS bashing here on/. (which I'm usually part of) you have to admit that the XBox is a great piece of hardware compared to the other consoles on the market. And being MS, they can afford to entice publishers and devote resources to helping them make the games look/run better.
It seems to me that games should see some benefit, although that isn't panning out right now. Don't you think performance would jump in games if you could devote an ENTIRE processor to one, so it didn't have to worry about sharing with other processors, not having it's stuff in the cache, etc? The other processor would handle dealing with the hard drives, NIC, and other 'mundane' things that would just 'tie down' the other CPU.
Because games do many things at once (sound, graphics, input, AI) if they are well written to use SMP, they would see a large benifit. But even in the situation I gave above, there should be a benefit.
True. Maybe the x86-64 processors (Hammers) will get it soon after launch (or at the next major die change). That said, I think that Intel could wipe the floor with AMD performance wise easily. They already have a great processor. If they could just get it's FPU performance near that of the Athlons (or faster), then AMD would only have the price arguement on their side. IMHO, of course.
I think you're wrong about the average user seeing no performance increase. I think that that's exactly who WILL see the increase. Developers might not. It's the guy who sits there surfing the web, playing MP3s, and ripping a CD who will benifit from this. A dual 600 feels zippy doing things that a much faster computer has problems with, because it's got a second processor to help process UI clicks, etc.
Hyperthreading is a good concept. I don't know about you, but I'd pay a slight increase in price to get it over an equivelent CPU. This is, when you're using multiple apps, free performance. That said, I agree with you. If the price is similar, I'd rather have a true SMP rig that was slower than a faster HT CPU.
What this boils down to is this: if given the choice between two CPUs of near equal speed and they cost nearly the same, what would you rather have? The one with or without HT?
Besides, let's face it, this is for marketing. It does give benefit, but this gives Intel the ablility to say "things are more responsive with Intel Pentium 4 than the other guys". Not only that, but now people can market P4 computers and say "Sure it costs more, but it's like getting a free second processor. That's worth like $700 right there." It wouldn't be the first less-than-half-truth we've heard from people in the PC industry before...
To read about how the work (exactly), look here. As for the point, light guns shouldn't work (at least traditional ones). He's right that they depend on timing information. Interesting to see how House of the Dead III on the XBox gets around this, since the XBox can put out progressive scan. Anyway, it's the same reason (I think) that Timex Datalink watches only work with CRTs.
Of course, light guns are based on technology almost as old as arcade games are (70's at least) so maybe someone will come around and develop a new one soon that will work with LCDs. I think we can all agree that LCDs are going to become common: they use less electricity, less space, and are 'cooler';)
Slashdot Mirror
So naturally, we posted it on Slashdot. Maybe a limit of switching the lights 3 times withing 5 minutes TOTAL FROM ALL USERS would have been better. Very cool though.
PS: Have we ever slashdotted a X10 system before?
But for people like me (and I'd guess most /.ers), this wouldn't work well. I'd rather be stuck behind an ISDN line than use something like that (which I did for about 2 years). The big difference is the ping time. Using a dish has very high latency for obvious reasons, and radio would only be a bit better. So while this works for downloads, when you want to do anything with uploads or where pings matter (such as online gaming, which is one of my favorite things) you wouldn't get much of a ping (10,000,000,000 msec maybe ;)
Taken
I liked it alot. Yes it had it's flaws, yes there are better things, but it was very entertaining. That they got me to devote 2 hours a night to watching it, to using my VCR to tape my normal favorite shows to watch later (instead of tapeing "Taken" to watch later) shows that was good. The events themselves were well paced, and the show moved along untill the last 2 or 3 episodes, which seemed like they were stretching for time.
I think that they did a very good job overall. I didn't think that the special effects were rediculous. Many times movies/miniseries/etc have special effects that are so over the top that you stop being "in" the movies, and get taken back to reality. That didn't happen here. I also think that Matt Frewer (the guy who played Edison Carter on Max Headroom) was perfect for his role. The little girl was great too. Nothing else seems to stand out that much acting wise. I also have to say that the switching between the 3 families was pretty confusing at first, before I got to know the characters. It seemed like they spent very little screen time on one family before moving to the next in some of the early episodes.
The story was pretty good overall. There were lots of good "it makes you think" type things, or just new twists on old ideas. For example, I loved the idea that the craft that crashed in Roswell crashed BECAUSE OF a weather balloon. I don't think I've ever heard that before. That was just such a perfect idea. I do have a few problems though. First of all, things like the little alien implant being some kind of centipede looking thing which causes people to go insane (or whatever) bothered me. It's not the idea, it's that it wasn't really explained, AT ALL. Also, the whole thing of the burial site in the woods had next to nothing to do with the story, except as an excuse to kill people.
So overall it was quite good. My biggest complaint can be derived from above. I think that there were a few things that they needed to spend more time on, and a number of things that they spent way to much time on (for their impact on the story). Overall, I'd give it a 4.5 or so out of 5. It was very intertaining.
Spielberg
Some have said above that he's "over the hill", "past his time", etc. Well, I think it's hit and miss. "Taken" was good, and I'm glad it was a miniseries because it wouldn't have worked as a movie, or just a 1 hour a week series. "AI" was pretty good, but it was LONG. A good chunk of that movie could go and it would be better. It reminded me ALOT of "Bicentennial Man," with a little bit of an "Outer Limits" episode thrown in. As for "Minority Report," I'm looking forward to seeing it. I always wait 'till things come out on DVD to see 'em, so I can't comment on it.
Sci-Fi Channel
I think they did great with this. It was heavily promoted so it didn't end up flying under the radar. And I'm glad that Spielberg's name was attached, because if that wasn't emphisized, I'm not sure I would have watched. I heard that it got over 6 million viewers one night (or something), which is the largest share any cable show has gotten ever (from what I heard, ignoring pay-per-view events); even outdoing the Sopranno's season primere. I do have two complaints for Sci-Fi though:
So how do you boot the drive? Well, you have a few options. If the drive is internal (like the second drive, since booting the 1st is easy) you could put a bootloader (GRUB, LILO, etc) on the main drive. Your second option is that you can use programs (I think that one is called loadlin) that let you load Linux from windows. You just pass it a kernel and initrd if needed, etc and you can boot. So if you just built firewire, firewire HDs, and such into the kernel, you should be able to use a firewire drive as your Linux drive (initrd should make this easier). This way even if the BIOS won't let you boot a firewire drive, you can still do it.
It was only later that I found out you could wordprocess, play games, and do many other things. I would suggest showing how to do everyday stuff, as a comparison to Windows and/or OS X. I don't mean a "see Linux is better 'cause it doesn't crash and it does this and doesn't crash and..." kind of stuff. I mean showing that you can play MP3s and they work just as well as under windows. And that they sound just as good as under windows. Show a wordprocessor or two. Show some web browsers. Show it can play shockwave flash, java, and other things. Show Quake III and UT2k3. And make sure to point out that the performance is always like in windows, if not better. I don't mean braging, but more of "see we're just as good." Show how Linux can be used for many things. Play a DVD, burn a CD, etc.
Other than the above "practical" things, show some neat stuff. Show a few windowmanagers. Sure there is GNOME and KDE, but what about showing Enlighenment, WindowMaker (my fav), and other cool ones. Show Quake III in one window, UT2K3 in another (or maybe just two Quake III connected to eachother) and have something else up doing something; to show that Linux is good at juggleing things.
I know you've shown at least one of these things in the past (MP3s) but I don't get to watch much TV lately. And of course, these are just my ideas. I'm sure the other posters have come up with some cool ideas by now.
In other news, uppon reading this, Microsoft declared a company wide day of laughing, stating "...this is the most rediculus strategy we've ever seen! Why if we did this, we'd still be working on DOS 4 or 5." Later in the conversation, the spokesperson asked to take back that statement and said if we printed it the BSA would come after us for liscenses.
Gotta go, there is a knock on the door...
As for the Mac thing, the first computer I really got into was a Mac. I still like Macs alot, but I use PCs because I like to tinker with everything, and Macs don't let you do that. OS X is changing that, and I like that alot. But I don't have the $1500+ to get myself a new Mac, so I'll stick to PCs. I agree, eMacs are nice. When they start to hit e-bay used I'll snap one up. I plan to do that with iMacs when they start to come down.
A) That would be true, but AD(H)D is a catch-all diagnosis these days. It's almost like saying anyone with a headache and is acting a little 'odd' must have some brain tumor (ignoring X-Rays, MRIs, etc). Sorry but that's the best example I can come up with ;)
B) This is more of a general idea. Public schools have many MANY problems. Studies show that kinds learn better in unisex classrooms than in bisex ones. Also, kids tend to do better in religous schools than in non-religeous ones. This sugestion is largely based on the fact that most public schools are nothing but "brainwashing interment camps." Obviously, that's hyperboly, but the fact is that many radical left wing groups push the agendas into the classroom. The books in my .sig talk about this alot.
C) If I said something like "go ask Al Gore" I would agree. But the fact is Dr. Laura is a liscensed family therapist, among other things. Obviously, counseling and such would probably benefit the kid better; but in just asking for some sugestions (like the asker did) she's very good at. I have heard a few calls along this line and she has very good advice. But for realy therapy (if needed) and such, you're correct. That can't happen on the air. PS: Slightly off this topic, but notice how for every "intersting", "insightfull", or "informative" moderation I've gotten, I've gotten an "offtopic" or a "troll".
I'm an INTP and I agree with this. I have almost always gotten something right away, and so sitting through many classes became a major trial. Some things like history, it wasn't as bad, but things like math where you'd do the same thing over and over and over untill the dumbest kid in the class (who would have been heald back if the school wasn't afraid of a lawsuit or if they just had the guts to tell the parents litte Johnny was no Einstein) could do it in his sleep. My parents moved around alot as a kid, so I've been in many private and public schools, and I can tell you that I usually did better in private schools. They would do discipline (if they were good), they wouldn't hold the whole class back for one kid. Of all the schools I was in, a religeous school was the best. As I said in my comment below, I think that a religeous/private school would be best. A single sex school might go along way too. Girls and boys learn diferently, and if the school isn't teaching in a way like she learns, that could be a big part of the problem.
First of all, there is a reason why you kid isn't paying attention. She's bored. I'm still this way to a large degree. It's best if she just lears to put up with it. I seem to have solved this by becomming good at multitasking. I'm not great at doing only one thing at a time. In school, I'd pay attention to the lecture. If I was interested in it, it wasn't a problem (as I'm sure it is for most people). If I found it boring, I would listen (and if the teacher called on me, I was ready with the answer) but at the same time I might be doodleing, or thinking about how you would go about programming something, or just anything else.
As for a fix, here is what I have to say. I'm going to assume that you live in the US and that your child is going to public school. My number one suggestion would be to take your kid OUT of public school. Find a good private school. Religeous schools and single sex schools are best. Uniforms are very good too. One of the most import things is to make sure they are good on disciplin, not week like the public schools. If tuition is a problem, many schools will lower it if you do a certain ammount of volunteering. Infact, being involved is very important.
If boredom is truely the problem (as I suspect it is), you might want to conisder having her skip a grade later in life when the social development isn't as rapid. Putting her straight into 1st grade probably isn't a good idea.
Lastly, I have one more suggestion: Call Dr. Laura. I don't want to get flamed for this, or modded down, etc, but I think that she could help you on this if you get on the air.
But my other question is this: I wonder how many of the computers have copies of windows installed on them by the end user? Be it transfered (old PC doesn't work, so put Win95 on this new one) or coppied.
I think that you underestimate the size of my SUV. Heavy tanks are green machines compared to it, and they get five gallons to the mile (yeah, you read that right).
We all knew this would be posted ;)
I was paying nearly $75 a month for a ISDN line just last year. A standard 128k line. That, of course, doesn't include the outrageous price I had to pay for internet over it, or the fact that there is only one place in my area that has ISDN internet, so it was a local monopoly. When I was finally able to switch to cable, things got MUCH faster, MUCH cheaper, and MUCH more reliable (which isn't saying alot). THAT's what's wrong with ISDN, above all else.
Other than that, the major difference would be that distrobutions are compiled with different versions of GCC. Most distros are based on 2.95 (or something in the 2s). Some distros (like Gentoo, I'd assume other source distros) use GCC 3.x which is supposed to make faster, smaller, and more efficent code (or something like that). The only other "guts" differences are things how the filesystem is layed out, which filesystem they like by default, etc.
PS: As for comments like "Why is copying WinXP by rounding things considdered new?", it's not. The fact that the edges are rounded is NOT the point, that wouldn't be new. Why don't you try looking at the forest once in a while. That said, I think that rounded things look better than square boxes. The use of curves instead of straight lines seems natural now that graphics cards are better equipped to deal with it than they were back in Win 3.x days.
I think that Mosix has something like that. I want to say it's called mosixfs, but it could very likely have a different name.
Seriously though, this is kind of neat. It will be interesting to see how this works out. For all who want to know without reading, the mile stones are:
OK, so maybe they don't tell what the 2nd and 3rd milestones are on the front page.
As for the implication about swearing, GOOD! I don't mind a "Damn" when something happens now and then, but if I want to hear non-stop-increadibly-vulgar-peel-the-paint-off-eve ry-single-thing-within-ten-miles swearing, I'm sure I could go find that somewhere. But I don't want to hear it when I'm trying to play on online game. If you can't deal with not doing good in a stupid game without shouting enough obscenities to make all nuns on your contenant have a heart attack, then you need some serious help. I've been using Live a little (I got into the beta) and I haven't heard much of it, but I am expecting a certain level of maturity when I play online (about age 7). The constant idiotic trashtalking is anoying too, and people who make tons of sexual references and innuendo. I HOPE MS bans people who do this repeatidly. Considering that they are positioning this as something for kids, they most definatly should controll that sort of thing.
Just image in a beowulf cluster of these! It'd fit on your arm and have enough power to emualate a REAL PDA at about 1/10th speed! Of course, it'd be cool to put five on and get super-micro-wide-screen.
Of course, because the video game arena was profitable and easy to get into BEFORE MS entered. Well, except for Sega, they lost too much on the hardware and had to leave that part of the business. But, that must have been for some other reason. Neo-geo has done great in the US. Well, I guess they've failed before MS got into the market. There have been a LOT of companies over the years that have tried to get into this market before, and most all have died. Even veterans like Sega have had problems pre-MS.
In fact the only company in recent times that I can think of to successfully break into the video game business was Sony. Why was that? They had the money to make a great product and keep it afloat untill it really took off. MS is doing the same thing. For all the MS bashing here on /. (which I'm usually part of) you have to admit that the XBox is a great piece of hardware compared to the other consoles on the market. And being MS, they can afford to entice publishers and devote resources to helping them make the games look/run better.
Because games do many things at once (sound, graphics, input, AI) if they are well written to use SMP, they would see a large benifit. But even in the situation I gave above, there should be a benefit.
I think you're wrong about the average user seeing no performance increase. I think that that's exactly who WILL see the increase. Developers might not. It's the guy who sits there surfing the web, playing MP3s, and ripping a CD who will benifit from this. A dual 600 feels zippy doing things that a much faster computer has problems with, because it's got a second processor to help process UI clicks, etc.
What this boils down to is this: if given the choice between two CPUs of near equal speed and they cost nearly the same, what would you rather have? The one with or without HT?
Besides, let's face it, this is for marketing. It does give benefit, but this gives Intel the ablility to say "things are more responsive with Intel Pentium 4 than the other guys". Not only that, but now people can market P4 computers and say "Sure it costs more, but it's like getting a free second processor. That's worth like $700 right there." It wouldn't be the first less-than-half-truth we've heard from people in the PC industry before...
(*cough* netburst *cough*)
Of course, light guns are based on technology almost as old as arcade games are (70's at least) so maybe someone will come around and develop a new one soon that will work with LCDs. I think we can all agree that LCDs are going to become common: they use less electricity, less space, and are 'cooler' ;)