A great way to keep people around (Other than treating them nicely, paying them well, and making sure they feel appreciated) is stock options. The trick of giving stock options is to make sure that if you give say 500 options to the employee that they are actually earned on a graduated plan, 50 the first year, 50 more the next, and on and on. Now, if they want all 500 of their stock options, they need to stay 10 years.
Something that I try to keep in mind whenever thinking about Apples supposedly cutting edge design and artistic approach to computing, GE designed the look of the cube, iMac and possibly even the G4. It seems that Apple is as it always was, really good at taking credit for other people's work.
Your post says that you will be using a cashless payment system and a 'smart card'. How are these cards distributed? If they are distributed by your company wouldn't it be simple enough to simply restrict the sale of these cards to adults? If these same cards are used to run the laundry machines this might pose a problem, but this shifts the responsibility to where it should be, on the parents.
If a child is viewing the internet at the laundromat using a smart card, then they must have gotten it from an adult. If the adult gave it to them they have given the children permission to surf as they see fit, you can even reinforce that as part of the signup process. If the child took it without permission, well then seeing porn is the least of their problems.
I used to be the technical consultant for a laboratory at SUNY Albany that studied multimedia learning and its effects on learning as a whole. I worked with that group for 4 years and still keep up with the research that they are doing. Here is what we found: Multimedia (including computer based training) works best when it is part of a curriculum, especially a regimented one. However, the classic classroom (With the teacher up front and the students arranged in rows facing the teacher) is not the best environment for this type of learning. The classroom should be set up like a lab, where students can sit at a computing station and the teacher can move freely between stations. The other thing to note is that this form of learning works even better when the student is self motivated. These things being taken into consideration, it is my belief that while the theory of multimedia learning is a good one it is very difficult in practice. Most schools have problems maintaining a good student to teacher ratio, paying for books, and maintaining physical infrastructure. As always, if the government were spending more on education, this would not be an issue. Since multimedia learning works very well for self-motivated students, the type of learning could be particularly useful as an adjunct to home schooling, montessori schools, etc. There are an enormous number of social issues wrapped up in this as well, such as: how to allow access to the big bad (porn) internet, how to prevent students from downloading software, mp3's and other licensed products, how to prevent students from intentionally or accidentally breaking their machines... the list goes on and on but pretty much breaks down to the same issues being grappled with in the business world.
There is a company in Latham NY called plug power that has set up a house in our area that is entirely powered by fuel cells and claims to be the first of its type. There web page is at http://www.plugpower.com (Surprisingly enough). They have a pretty interesting description of residential fuel cells. There technology is proprietary, butll still worth a read.
Does the DMCA make it illegal for me to quote a document as part of a term paper, thesis or other academic paper? I would hope not. These posts were properly quoted (in that all it should be obvious to all readers that the quoted material is owned by Microsoft). When I quote Toni Morrison in a paper I do not expect her or her attornies to contact me to remove the quote from a paper, even if I post it to an online archive that I do not have 'moderator rights' to. As for the remainder of the posts, which contain links to the full content of the license, Microsoft has no right to ask that these be removed. This would be akin to prosecuting a person who gave a bank robber directions to the bank.
I was always told that a 1:50 was the perfect ratio between administrators and nodes. I help to manage a 2600 node, 25 server enterprise. We have 3.11, 95, 98, NT, 2000, Solaris, Irix, HP-UX and Redhat Linux machines, making us a pretty darn diverse research center. We use a tiered administrator system, with the first tier of analysts knowing the least and the third tier analysts being what might be considered 'true systems administrators.' Our max capacity is 12 tier one analysts, 15 tier two analysts, and ~25 tier three systems administrators, splitting their responsibilities between desktop, server, network, and dba duties. We have managed to get along with a smaller team (in fact we are doing so now) but find that these numbers help us to maintain the current environment while still allowing for time to plot the future of this IT infrastructure.
Demagoguery and the perception of ideological majority will sway the public opinion of a group of humans. This is a basic precept of human nature that has been recognized for centuries. Tyrants and autocrats have used it to their advantage. The founders of the American democratic institution saw it and attempted to plan around it by creating a bicameral legislature, with a Senate to act as a filter to the will of the American people. Journalism used to act as the senate of the media. Ones journalistic integrity dictated what was appropriate to be reported. There was an invisible line between the public eye and the private life. Modern media, however, is a far cry from the journalism that existed previously. The finest in yellow journalism is presented to us daily at 6 and 11. The average American falls for it every day. Acting in horror and dismay over the shooting of children in Columbine and bemoaning the dangers that the average teen faces in the modern, drug infested, violence saturated, chaotic world of today. What we seem to forget is that 150 years ago those same children would have fought in wars, would be parents, would be adults. The superficial, expose aspect of the media and the ambient voice of culture have made it easy for most people to ignore the real flaws in our society, and instead get righteous and indignant about the effects of these flaws. And shame on a big business like Pinkerton to take advantage of this. I doubt that Pinkerton has invested any money in studying the effects of such a draconian program. I doubt even more that they take into consideration that the primary reason for education is to teach children the skills that they will need when they are adults. If they have, I am sure that they consider these skills to be Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. How wrong can they be? Schools should provide this education, but they should also teach other skills that might not be available at home, communication, diversity awareness, and the ability to get along with others. Instead of attempting to make money off of our cultural insecurities wouldn't their efforts be better placed trying to educate? For centuries Americans of all colors, sizes, sexes, religions and dispositions have fought for the freedom to simply be themselves. It's the reason that many of our ancestors fled to this continent. Our authors (Orwell, Huxley) have warned us about being complacent to the hand of big business. It has been said that a king is like a giant, and he must always be careful where he places his feet. This is true of corporations and governments of all forms. While I applaud Pinkerton for their efforts to reduce violence in our schools, I hope that they will keep in mind that they are this proverbial giant. Weeding out the 'weirdos' may solve school shootings, but at what cost? Anyone seen a picture of Einstein lately? How about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or any of the other CEO's driving the information revolution? Being weird is a right of being American. This right brings along its disadvantages but I would rather have these bumps along the way. After all, it is often said that the trains did run on time under Hitler. What do we value more, A uniform and orderly culture, or one of diversity and individual freedom?
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A great way to keep people around (Other than treating them nicely, paying them well, and making sure they feel appreciated) is stock options. The trick of giving stock options is to make sure that if you give say 500 options to the employee that they are actually earned on a graduated plan, 50 the first year, 50 more the next, and on and on. Now, if they want all 500 of their stock options, they need to stay 10 years.
Something that I try to keep in mind whenever thinking about Apples supposedly cutting edge design and artistic approach to computing, GE designed the look of the cube, iMac and possibly even the G4. It seems that Apple is as it always was, really good at taking credit for other people's work.
Wow, just think of the ventriloquist act I could have with this technology... Look out Howdy Doody, here I come!
Your post says that you will be using a cashless payment system and a 'smart card'. How are these cards distributed? If they are distributed by your company wouldn't it be simple enough to simply restrict the sale of these cards to adults? If these same cards are used to run the laundry machines this might pose a problem, but this shifts the responsibility to where it should be, on the parents. If a child is viewing the internet at the laundromat using a smart card, then they must have gotten it from an adult. If the adult gave it to them they have given the children permission to surf as they see fit, you can even reinforce that as part of the signup process. If the child took it without permission, well then seeing porn is the least of their problems.
I used to be the technical consultant for a laboratory at SUNY Albany that studied multimedia learning and its effects on learning as a whole. I worked with that group for 4 years and still keep up with the research that they are doing. Here is what we found: Multimedia (including computer based training) works best when it is part of a curriculum, especially a regimented one. However, the classic classroom (With the teacher up front and the students arranged in rows facing the teacher) is not the best environment for this type of learning. The classroom should be set up like a lab, where students can sit at a computing station and the teacher can move freely between stations. The other thing to note is that this form of learning works even better when the student is self motivated. These things being taken into consideration, it is my belief that while the theory of multimedia learning is a good one it is very difficult in practice. Most schools have problems maintaining a good student to teacher ratio, paying for books, and maintaining physical infrastructure. As always, if the government were spending more on education, this would not be an issue. Since multimedia learning works very well for self-motivated students, the type of learning could be particularly useful as an adjunct to home schooling, montessori schools, etc. There are an enormous number of social issues wrapped up in this as well, such as: how to allow access to the big bad (porn) internet, how to prevent students from downloading software, mp3's and other licensed products, how to prevent students from intentionally or accidentally breaking their machines ... the list goes on and on but pretty much breaks down to the same issues being grappled with in the business world.
There is a company in Latham NY called plug power that has set up a house in our area that is entirely powered by fuel cells and claims to be the first of its type. There web page is at http://www.plugpower.com (Surprisingly enough). They have a pretty interesting description of residential fuel cells. There technology is proprietary, butll still worth a read.
Does the DMCA make it illegal for me to quote a document as part of a term paper, thesis or other academic paper? I would hope not. These posts were properly quoted (in that all it should be obvious to all readers that the quoted material is owned by Microsoft). When I quote Toni Morrison in a paper I do not expect her or her attornies to contact me to remove the quote from a paper, even if I post it to an online archive that I do not have 'moderator rights' to. As for the remainder of the posts, which contain links to the full content of the license, Microsoft has no right to ask that these be removed. This would be akin to prosecuting a person who gave a bank robber directions to the bank.
I was always told that a 1:50 was the perfect ratio between administrators and nodes. I help to manage a 2600 node, 25 server enterprise. We have 3.11, 95, 98, NT, 2000, Solaris, Irix, HP-UX and Redhat Linux machines, making us a pretty darn diverse research center. We use a tiered administrator system, with the first tier of analysts knowing the least and the third tier analysts being what might be considered 'true systems administrators.' Our max capacity is 12 tier one analysts, 15 tier two analysts, and ~25 tier three systems administrators, splitting their responsibilities between desktop, server, network, and dba duties. We have managed to get along with a smaller team (in fact we are doing so now) but find that these numbers help us to maintain the current environment while still allowing for time to plot the future of this IT infrastructure.
Demagoguery and the perception of ideological majority will sway the public opinion of a group of humans. This is a basic precept of human nature that has been recognized for centuries. Tyrants and autocrats have used it to their advantage. The founders of the American democratic institution saw it and attempted to plan around it by creating a bicameral legislature, with a Senate to act as a filter to the will of the American people. Journalism used to act as the senate of the media. Ones journalistic integrity dictated what was appropriate to be reported. There was an invisible line between the public eye and the private life. Modern media, however, is a far cry from the journalism that existed previously. The finest in yellow journalism is presented to us daily at 6 and 11. The average American falls for it every day. Acting in horror and dismay over the shooting of children in Columbine and bemoaning the dangers that the average teen faces in the modern, drug infested, violence saturated, chaotic world of today. What we seem to forget is that 150 years ago those same children would have fought in wars, would be parents, would be adults. The superficial, expose aspect of the media and the ambient voice of culture have made it easy for most people to ignore the real flaws in our society, and instead get righteous and indignant about the effects of these flaws. And shame on a big business like Pinkerton to take advantage of this. I doubt that Pinkerton has invested any money in studying the effects of such a draconian program. I doubt even more that they take into consideration that the primary reason for education is to teach children the skills that they will need when they are adults. If they have, I am sure that they consider these skills to be Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. How wrong can they be? Schools should provide this education, but they should also teach other skills that might not be available at home, communication, diversity awareness, and the ability to get along with others. Instead of attempting to make money off of our cultural insecurities wouldn't their efforts be better placed trying to educate? For centuries Americans of all colors, sizes, sexes, religions and dispositions have fought for the freedom to simply be themselves. It's the reason that many of our ancestors fled to this continent. Our authors (Orwell, Huxley) have warned us about being complacent to the hand of big business. It has been said that a king is like a giant, and he must always be careful where he places his feet. This is true of corporations and governments of all forms. While I applaud Pinkerton for their efforts to reduce violence in our schools, I hope that they will keep in mind that they are this proverbial giant. Weeding out the 'weirdos' may solve school shootings, but at what cost? Anyone seen a picture of Einstein lately? How about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or any of the other CEO's driving the information revolution? Being weird is a right of being American. This right brings along its disadvantages but I would rather have these bumps along the way. After all, it is often said that the trains did run on time under Hitler. What do we value more, A uniform and orderly culture, or one of diversity and individual freedom?