Well, it's highly unlikely they'd admit it was a technology mistake. So, a head will roll, a chair will be thrown, and full faith in Microsoft technology will return to normal in Ecuador.
Better yet, with the rising trend of diabetes with all of its complications, Sony stands to make a small fortune manufacturing the urine-powered Walkman (with SmartPowerCatheter Technology(TM)).
So, as I understand it, this was written by an unattractive British science geek as a pickup line to use in bars full of attractive women.
"Hi. We analysed the historical genetic diversity of human populations in Europe at the mtDNA control region for 48 ancient Britons who lived between ca AD 300 and 1000, and compared these with 6320 modern mtDNA genotypes from England and across Europe and the Middle East. We found that the historical sample shows greater genetic diversity than for modern England and other modern populations, indicating the loss of diversity over the last millennium. The pattern of haplotypic diversity was clearly European in the ancient sample, representing each of the modern haplogroups. There was also increased representation of one of the ancient haplotypes in modern populations. We consider these results in the context of possible selection or stochastic processes. So, you understand... you... must have... sex.... with me."
"Are you trying to tell me that the genetic diversity of Britain is at stake if I don't hop into the sack with you?"
Certain people who use the internet are dangerous, for sure. Certain website might expose children to things (Sex, violence, etc.) that parents might not want them to see, for sure. But in and of itself the internet has not killed, raped, or assaulted anyone. (Apart from goatse and tubgirl)
Speaking as a teacher and future school administrator, schools are legally and morally obligated to protect the children in their care. No principal wants to be known as the "Porn Principal" who allows high school students to surf for pornography. No principal wants to have to answer calls from the media regarding why little Amber was allowed to chat with a previously-convicted pedophile from the school library and ended up kidnapped and molested as she walked home (What do you mean you don't know why? What kind of unsafe place is this?) The odds of these things happening is small, but it's a simple risk analysis. What do school administrators have to gain from granting students total access to the internet? Sadly, not much, really. So, sometimes they go a little overboard.
Children, however, have to be taught responsibility in a controlled environment. Generally, most school buildings can be rather well-controlled (doors locked, visitors checked, metal detectors, etc.). The internet, however, opens up access to the school and reduces the control of the administration, which is something most administrators are very afraid of. Combined with the slight possibility of things going terribly wrong, we pay to have the filters block out most "objectionable" content.
What the hell are you talking about? Between your rant about IQ and then switching to sex-preference in toys to brain slices... does this have anything to do with what I posted? As with most criticisms, they tend to reveal far more about the critic than they do the subject.
Never did I think I would somehow get around to submitting a story that would be accepted by the editors. Never in a thousand years did I think any comment of mine would be cited in a story... especially by CmdrTaco himself. I am truly honored.
Seriously, the irony (or technosocial fiasco if you prefer to look at it that way) of electronic talking Barbie back in 1994 was one of those memorable moments for me because I had just started teaching. Between "Math is hard" and "Let's go shopping" my students and I shared many classroom discussions over related topics (stereotyping, bias, patronizing comments, etc.).
Last night I went out to dinner with two close friends. As we watched, a mother semi-ignored her 4 or 5 year old girl as she cried and screamed and jumped up and down in a royal temper tantrum. It seems mom was too busy chatting with her friend to notice as the girl bellowed at the top of her lungs even as one of the waiters came over and offered the girl a balloon to silence the child. The mother occasionally glanced at the girl and said things like "It's okay." and "What's wrong?" then went right back to gossiping with her friend about what was going on at her job. This went on for 15-20 minutes until she finished her conversation and then all three left.
It's bad enough that some parents think that television is a babysitter. It's even worse that some feel the Internet is a more interactive babysitter. Now, it seems, your cell phone and ipod are capable of acting as babysitters.
Sadly, judging from my experience in the restaurant, technology might actually be a better babysitter than some parents...
Perhaps Google, Yahoo, and other bastions of the Internet will get right on this if they're asked nicely. They've got a proven track record when it comes to assisting oppressive governments.
If the uncontrollable desire to play games of chance (gambling) is classified as an addiction, how is an uncontrollable desire to play games of any other sort not? Can online gambling be considered an addiction?
The only meaningful difference is the money involved. And even then, between gold farming and monthly fees for WOW, is it really that different?
Any organization that uses the word "internaut" to refer to people who use the Internet is doomed to failure, regardless of its intentions. Combined with the fact that it's a French, governmental organization working with MicroSoft, how could it possibly succeed?
Seriously, how long until the zombie networks retaliate? I'd like to have some marshmallows ready for the server fire that follows.
It's bad enough that humanity is littering the upper atmosphere with by-products of space travel. This is a necessary evil if we are to explore the universe.
Now, it seems, we're intentionally (and symbolically) bringing our trash with us up into space.
You have little idea of what you're talking about, and your anti-school agenda is clearly showing. Sentence by sentence:
1) "But you don't understand." - Sophistry. 2) "The schools aren't about the students, they are all about the teachers unions." - Opinion. 3) "In exactly the same way the big three automakers slowly morphed from being about making cars into social programs for union autoworkers." - Exaggeration and opinion. The Big Three are having issues for many reasons, one of which happens to be the unions. 4) "It is what unions do, and when it is a union in control of a government monopoly like education it gets insane." - Opinion. 5) "The schools now exist for the benefit of the teachers, students are at best a useful prop for lobbying for more money." - Opinion. Sorry to hear you feel this way. 6) "Reality has long been divorced from what goes on inside government schools." - Opinion. 7) "Untested fads by fashionable marxists intellectuals get rolled out into classrooms nationwide without any sort of testing, political correctness runs rampant, etc." - Opinion. While you might have the basis for some sort of legitimate argument here, I'd argue you've got the same thing in most corporations. What's the latest management fad or catchphrase these days? 8) "Accountability is almost non existant." Groundless opinion. You have almost no idea what you're speaking of with this one. Read up on NCLB and learn some. 9) "Unless a teacher gets caught in a politically incorrect belief or having sex with a student their odds of being fired for malpractice isn't measurable." - Opinion, although close to reality. More of the problem with teaching comes from the fact that teaching and administrative jobs are often political in nature, which is the heart of the problem. Most good unions will work with administrators to get bad teachers out of the classroom, but they will insist that the administrators do it the right and legal way. More than a few administrators, though, because they're incompetent political hacks, don't know how to build a case to fire a teacher. Before a teacher receives tenure, he's got little protection, and administrators should do a better job of culling the bad ones sooner. 10) "And yet the beauracy is so wretched that no sane person wants to teach even with the fairly good pay (and it IS fairly good pay in most states for the hours worked and the level of education required) in most states and the all but certain job security mentioned above," - Opinion. I'm quite sane. I enjoy teaching. I love my job despite some of the stupidity that goes on. However, I hear similar complaints from friends and relatives in the corporate world, so it's a wash. I will not argue that the pay is bad because it's not. Still who wouldn't want to be paid more for what they do? 11) "A doctorate in math or science is not good enough to qualify one to teach unless you can first endure a couple of semesters of mind numbing 'teaching' courses designed to both indoctrinate politically correct views and raise an artifical barrier to entry into the profession." - Opinion. Terribly misguided opinion. Just because you know "math" doesn't mean you know how to teach it. Just because you've got a PhD in Molecular Biology doesn't mean you should be in a classroom with special education or ESL students. A few semesters of 'mind-numbing teaching courses' along with some child/adolescent psychology can do wonders for adults who have never worked with children before.
You've written nothing that petulant high school students haven't written before (all you needed to include was "boring teachers" and you'd have pegged yourself as a 17-year old whose Republican or Libertarian daddy filled his head with ideas about evil unions and abolishing government.
Whoever is pushing the latest, greatest technology into school classrooms needs to stop. Taxpayers are picking up the bill for this unproven nonsense just because schools feel obligated to be on the cutting edge of technology, where they simply do not need to be.
Slashdot Mirror
"Microsoft said it was a human mistake."
Well, it's highly unlikely they'd admit it was a technology mistake. So, a head will roll, a chair will be thrown, and full faith in Microsoft technology will return to normal in Ecuador.
George Bush sends Jack Thompson to Guantanamo
Better yet, with the rising trend of diabetes with all of its complications, Sony stands to make a small fortune manufacturing the urine-powered Walkman (with SmartPowerCatheter Technology(TM)).
So, as I understand it, this was written by an unattractive British science geek as a pickup line to use in bars full of attractive women.
"Hi. We analysed the historical genetic diversity of human populations in Europe at the mtDNA control region for 48 ancient Britons who lived between ca AD 300 and 1000, and compared these with 6320 modern mtDNA genotypes from England and across Europe and the Middle East. We found that the historical sample shows greater genetic diversity than for modern England and other modern populations, indicating the loss of diversity over the last millennium. The pattern of haplotypic diversity was clearly European in the ancient sample, representing each of the modern haplogroups. There was also increased representation of one of the ancient haplotypes in modern populations. We consider these results in the context of possible selection or stochastic processes. So, you understand... you... must have... sex.... with me."
"Are you trying to tell me that the genetic diversity of Britain is at stake if I don't hop into the sack with you?"
"Umm... yes."
"Yes, then. For Britannia and the queen!"
Certain people who use the internet are dangerous, for sure. Certain website might expose children to things (Sex, violence, etc.) that parents might not want them to see, for sure. But in and of itself the internet has not killed, raped, or assaulted anyone. (Apart from goatse and tubgirl)
Speaking as a teacher and future school administrator, schools are legally and morally obligated to protect the children in their care. No principal wants to be known as the "Porn Principal" who allows high school students to surf for pornography. No principal wants to have to answer calls from the media regarding why little Amber was allowed to chat with a previously-convicted pedophile from the school library and ended up kidnapped and molested as she walked home (What do you mean you don't know why? What kind of unsafe place is this?) The odds of these things happening is small, but it's a simple risk analysis. What do school administrators have to gain from granting students total access to the internet? Sadly, not much, really. So, sometimes they go a little overboard.
Children, however, have to be taught responsibility in a controlled environment. Generally, most school buildings can be rather well-controlled (doors locked, visitors checked, metal detectors, etc.). The internet, however, opens up access to the school and reduces the control of the administration, which is something most administrators are very afraid of. Combined with the slight possibility of things going terribly wrong, we pay to have the filters block out most "objectionable" content.
What the hell are you talking about? Between your rant about IQ and then switching to sex-preference in toys to brain slices... does this have anything to do with what I posted? As with most criticisms, they tend to reveal far more about the critic than they do the subject.
I guess you posted as an AC for a reason.
Never did I think I would somehow get around to submitting a story that would be accepted by the editors. Never in a thousand years did I think any comment of mine would be cited in a story... especially by CmdrTaco himself. I am truly honored.
Seriously, the irony (or technosocial fiasco if you prefer to look at it that way) of electronic talking Barbie back in 1994 was one of those memorable moments for me because I had just started teaching. Between "Math is hard" and "Let's go shopping" my students and I shared many classroom discussions over related topics (stereotyping, bias, patronizing comments, etc.).
Back in 1994, Barbie thought differently.
Math is hard!
Last night I went out to dinner with two close friends. As we watched, a mother semi-ignored her 4 or 5 year old girl as she cried and screamed and jumped up and down in a royal temper tantrum. It seems mom was too busy chatting with her friend to notice as the girl bellowed at the top of her lungs even as one of the waiters came over and offered the girl a balloon to silence the child. The mother occasionally glanced at the girl and said things like "It's okay." and "What's wrong?" then went right back to gossiping with her friend about what was going on at her job. This went on for 15-20 minutes until she finished her conversation and then all three left.
It's bad enough that some parents think that television is a babysitter. It's even worse that some feel the Internet is a more interactive babysitter. Now, it seems, your cell phone and ipod are capable of acting as babysitters.
Sadly, judging from my experience in the restaurant, technology might actually be a better babysitter than some parents...
Perhaps Google, Yahoo, and other bastions of the Internet will get right on this if they're asked nicely. They've got a proven track record when it comes to assisting oppressive governments.
If the uncontrollable desire to play games of chance (gambling) is classified as an addiction, how is an uncontrollable desire to play games of any other sort not? Can online gambling be considered an addiction?
The only meaningful difference is the money involved. And even then, between gold farming and monthly fees for WOW, is it really that different?
Any organization that uses the word "internaut" to refer to people who use the Internet is doomed to failure, regardless of its intentions. Combined with the fact that it's a French, governmental organization working with MicroSoft, how could it possibly succeed?
Seriously, how long until the zombie networks retaliate? I'd like to have some marshmallows ready for the server fire that follows.
It's bad enough that humanity is littering the upper atmosphere with by-products of space travel. This is a necessary evil if we are to explore the universe.
Now, it seems, we're intentionally (and symbolically) bringing our trash with us up into space.
It's a new Vista feature reminding you to switch to Windows Media Player.
was a couple of days ago.
You have little idea of what you're talking about, and your anti-school agenda is clearly showing. Sentence by sentence:
1) "But you don't understand." - Sophistry.
2) "The schools aren't about the students, they are all about the teachers unions." - Opinion.
3) "In exactly the same way the big three automakers slowly morphed from being about making cars into social programs for union autoworkers." - Exaggeration and opinion. The Big Three are having issues for many reasons, one of which happens to be the unions.
4) "It is what unions do, and when it is a union in control of a government monopoly like education it gets insane." - Opinion.
5) "The schools now exist for the benefit of the teachers, students are at best a useful prop for lobbying for more money." - Opinion. Sorry to hear you feel this way.
6) "Reality has long been divorced from what goes on inside government schools." - Opinion.
7) "Untested fads by fashionable marxists intellectuals get rolled out into classrooms nationwide without any sort of testing, political correctness runs rampant, etc." - Opinion. While you might have the basis for some sort of legitimate argument here, I'd argue you've got the same thing in most corporations. What's the latest management fad or catchphrase these days?
8) "Accountability is almost non existant." Groundless opinion. You have almost no idea what you're speaking of with this one. Read up on NCLB and learn some.
9) "Unless a teacher gets caught in a politically incorrect belief or having sex with a student their odds of being fired for malpractice isn't measurable." - Opinion, although close to reality. More of the problem with teaching comes from the fact that teaching and administrative jobs are often political in nature, which is the heart of the problem. Most good unions will work with administrators to get bad teachers out of the classroom, but they will insist that the administrators do it the right and legal way. More than a few administrators, though, because they're incompetent political hacks, don't know how to build a case to fire a teacher. Before a teacher receives tenure, he's got little protection, and administrators should do a better job of culling the bad ones sooner.
10) "And yet the beauracy is so wretched that no sane person wants to teach even with the fairly good pay (and it IS fairly good pay in most states for the hours worked and the level of education required) in most states and the all but certain job security mentioned above," - Opinion. I'm quite sane. I enjoy teaching. I love my job despite some of the stupidity that goes on. However, I hear similar complaints from friends and relatives in the corporate world, so it's a wash. I will not argue that the pay is bad because it's not. Still who wouldn't want to be paid more for what they do?
11) "A doctorate in math or science is not good enough to qualify one to teach unless you can first endure a couple of semesters of mind numbing 'teaching' courses designed to both indoctrinate politically correct views and raise an artifical barrier to entry into the profession." - Opinion. Terribly misguided opinion. Just because you know "math" doesn't mean you know how to teach it. Just because you've got a PhD in Molecular Biology doesn't mean you should be in a classroom with special education or ESL students. A few semesters of 'mind-numbing teaching courses' along with some child/adolescent psychology can do wonders for adults who have never worked with children before.
You've written nothing that petulant high school students haven't written before (all you needed to include was "boring teachers" and you'd have pegged yourself as a 17-year old whose Republican or Libertarian daddy filled his head with ideas about evil unions and abolishing government.
How long until someone invokes the DMCA to shut this horrible infringement down? Any guesses?
I suppose that there's only so much love that can be had for Blizzard, and WoW was a no-brainer.
It's less expensive and has pretty much the same effect.
Is this intended to be a warning for children?
It's more likely to be a how-to for perverts and pedophiles than anything else since children won't go near it.
Apart from a layer of security, just how complex does the software have to be?
(Clear all variables)
Enter selections
Hit accept/enter
Accumulate values for all selections
Clear screen
(Repeat)
Export at end of election
Why the hell does something of this level of incomplexity even need to be closed source?
My Kingdom (Hearts 2) for a horse!
Do they plan on using Bluetruth technology?
Why does this always seem to be asked as an either-or question? Judging from experience, all too often, the two seem to go hand-in-hand.
Please.
Whoever is pushing the latest, greatest technology into school classrooms needs to stop. Taxpayers are picking up the bill for this unproven nonsense just because schools feel obligated to be on the cutting edge of technology, where they simply do not need to be.