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User: whizbang77045

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Comments · 248

  1. What, the Obama administration is actually going to take a sensible position on something? I can't believe it!

  2. Trash what you have and buy more! on How Tesla Batteries Will Force Home Wiring To Go Low Voltage · · Score: 1

    Here's the latest gimick to get us to buy new appliances! Throw away everything you have - washing machine, dryer, oven, cooktop, TV, and stereo. Buy new ones; you don't need the old, outmoded units. Hurry, be the first on your block! Err. By the way, how are they going to send the power cross-country to keep all these batteries charged?

  3. A merger made in Gehenna on ATT, DirecTV Mega-Merger May Go Through · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Directv's internet is so bad, that I don't see how AT&T could make it worse. I wonder if they may not really be after a way to distribute content.

    But regardless of what they are after, I don't believe we need any more mega-communications companies. Neither of these companies has any serious record of operating in the public interest, This is a marriage like the daughter of Dracula and the wolfman. Whatever is born of the union will howl at the moon, suck our blood with every bill, and snarl at us when we call the help line,

  4. What we need now... on The Poem That Passed the Turing Test · · Score: 1

    What we need now is a poem written by a collecge student that sounds like it was written by a computer. No, wait. That's aready been done lots of times.

  5. Yup, some of them are foregin, all right. on Washington May Count CS As Foreign Language For College Admission · · Score: 1

    They must be talking about C or ADA. They certainly qualify as foreign languages.

  6. No single right answer... on Ask Slashdot: Pros and Cons of Homeschooling? · · Score: 1
    The value of home schooling appears to depend on many factors. What sort of school would the child attend if he/she weren't home schooled? Some school districts are so bad that almost anything would be better.

    Converesely, are the parents capable of conducting the home school? Do they have the temperment and training necessary? Home schooling a kid or kids is a significant contribution in time. You can't just say you're going to do this, and not commit a significant amount of your time to the task each day, and provide the structure needed.

    Do you really understand the subjects, and are you able to convey them to others? It's one thing to be able to do something as simple as add, and quite another to effectively explain this to someone else, particularly someone who has a limited attention span. Schools, particularly universities, are jammed with subject matter experts who cannot communicate effectively.

    What is the personality and mind set of the child? Do they need significant social interaction? In many cases, they simply won't get this at home. Will they take acadenic instruction as seriously from mom and dad as they would in a school?

    We home schooled two of our kids for a while. Our daughter had serious health problerms, and simply could not keep up with the school structure. Our son, a year and a half younger, seemed to feel his sister was getting more attention, and requested home schooling. Both had been in a private Christian school prior to this, and, after a couple of years, went to a public school. Both were far ahead of their classmates when they returned to school, and remained so for several years.

    My wife has a doctorate in what I'd call teaching teachers to teach (it has a formal name, but I can never remember it). I have a BS and MS in physics, with minors in math and computer science. We both taught some at the university level (particularly my wife) prior to trying home schooling. I still had reservations about our ability to teach subjects in which we had minimal background, but it should be obvious that we were probably slightly better qualified than some.

    This is one of those areas in which I don't feel there is a universal answer, As stated previously, it depends too much on the circumstances. Given the circumstances we had, I feel we did the right thing. But this is something that no one can really answer for someone else. You are responsible for your kids, not someone else (perhaps especially third parties who really don't know the circumstances). You will need to make the decision, and live with the result. My wife and I wish you well in making a good decision.

  7. Retch on Microsoft Announces Windows For Raspberry Pi 2 · · Score: 0

    Gagg! Choke! Is there no sacred place where we can escape Windows?

  8. Other possibilities.... on Texas Boy Suspended For "Threatening" Classmate With the One Ring · · Score: 1

    Thank goodness he didn't make himself invisible! Think of all the mischief he could create then!

  9. It's technology for the sake of technology. on UHD Spec Stomps on Current Blu-ray Spec, But Will Consumers Notice? · · Score: 1

    Sony and the other set manufacturers need some sort of excuse to force us to all run out and buy new sets. UHD is the latest marketing campaign of many. With BluRay, I could argue that we now had a format that would let us have all the Charlie Chan movies on a single disk. I'm afraid I can't make such a claim for significant technology advance for UHD disks over Blu Ray.

  10. You can't get rid of it. on IRS Warns of Downtime Risk As Congress Makes Cuts · · Score: 1

    You can't get rid of frauds as long as the IRS is involved. An organization with a license to steal should be talking about others' fraud.

  11. Useless on Time For Microsoft To Open Source Internet Explorer? · · Score: 1

    Who would want this thing? Why invest time in an open source project that's doomed from the start?

  12. Who needs any Windows? on Microsoft Ends Mainstream Support For Windows 7 · · Score: 1

    I'm not nostalgic for any version of Windows. Each new release is packed with features I neither need nor want. If they had focused on updating one of the earlier versions, they might have something of value to me. The way it's going, I forsee a day when they no longer have a functionl version of any value to me, and I migrate everything to a different operating system. Glitzy and complex is not better.

  13. This sounds screwy! on Putting Time Out In Time Out: The Science of Discipline · · Score: 2

    Why do I suspect that this person is neither married nr has any children? Only those with no direct experience in chiuld rearing are likely to propose nutty ideas like these.

  14. Knowledge is the key..... on Comcast Kisses-Up To Obama, Publicly Agrees On Net Neutrality · · Score: 1

    Know what to kiss and when.

  15. Re:I'll take that bait on Ask Slashdot: Where Do You Stand on Daylight Saving Time? · · Score: 1

    Yes! Do it or don't do it, but quit coinfusing the foo out of us twice a year. I wonder what impact on the GNP these twice a year changes have?

  16. Re:good to have backups on World War II Tech eLoran Deployed As GPS Backup In the UK · · Score: 1

    Boy, do I ever agree with you on that! There needs to be a backup system, preferably with distributed assets, so if the worst happens, planes and shipos can still navigate.

  17. Yes! on NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew · · Score: 1

    Women are from Mars, as any married man can attest. It only makes sense to send a few back. Besides, what would the Martians make of a buch of alien men, when they could relate so much better to women.

  18. Will Microsoft ever learn? on More Eye Candy Coming To Windows 10 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder when Microsoft will learn that a lot of us would rather use our CPU and GPU cycles for something other than eye candy? While computers can be used for fun purposes, we shouldn't all be left with the feel that what we have is little more than a technotoy.

  19. An alternate use on As Prison Population Sinks, Jails Are a Steal · · Score: -1, Troll

    There's an obvious use for empty prisons. Use them for summer church camps.

  20. Easy! on Linux Foundation Launches Open Source Dronecode Project · · Score: 0

    That should make it a lot easier to hack, and sieze control of the drones!

  21. How stupid can you get? on Department of Defense May Give Private Cloud Vendors Access To Top Secret Data · · Score: 1

    How stupid can you get? Oh, it's the Department of Defense, Never mind...

  22. It's been done before... on A Production-Ready Flying Car Is Coming This Month · · Score: 1

    Flying cars have surfaced many times since at least the 1950s, and several have made it to production. The problem is, everybody thinks its a good idea, but almost no one will actually buy one. Molt Taylor's "aerocar" is a prime example.

  23. Re:No redundancy? on Nearly 2,000 Chicago Flights Canceled After Worker Sets Fire At Radar Center · · Score: 1

    Unless somebody has changed the rules since I last looked, center handles all enroute IFR (instrument flight) traffic in a larger area, not just that above 10,000 feet. There are significant numbers of remoted radio transmitters and receivers so center can talk to all the aircraft over a wide area. Relocating the whole thing to another area doesn't just mean re-routing the radar replies, and coming up with another fully manned center, it means rerouting the audio and control to all those transmitters and receivers. It's not a trivial job at all.
    To give an example of just how far away center can be, I live in far west Texas, about 70 miles from the Mexican border. When I call up center, I'm talking to people in a room in Albuquerque, NM. I believe their remote transmitter for this area may be in Ft. Stockton, TX, about 70 miles from here.
    A nasty problem it is, and quite possibly one with no affordable solution.

  24. iT'S FINE UNTIL.... on FAA Clears Movie and TV Drones For Takeoff · · Score: 1

    All this drone stuff will be fine until one manages to crash into an airliner, bringing it down. Then the FAA will be swamped with people demanding to know why the drones were allowed in the first place.

  25. More fun.. on TechCentral Scams Call Center Scammers · · Score: 1

    Sometimes I ask them which specific machine they have in mind, as there are several. That usually addles them fairly well. Alternately, I tell them all our machines run Linux.