Forgive me if this is off-topic, but does any geologist here know why we have volcanic flows whereas when we refer to icebergs we have floes. The reason for the spelling difference isn't immediately apparent in any of the dictionaries.
I'm a graduate student, forgive me for this triviata.
Well I was a librarian for a short time and all of our meetings seemed to center on copyright. True, there are disclaimers that we adhere to regarding photocopying, and the like, but the publishing industry has always attempted to put some restrictions on libraries themselves regarding how their products are sold. For example, a personal subscription to Nature costs around $70 (US) a year, while an Institutional subscription costs well over $300 (US). I'm sure a lot of copies of academic journals on library shelves were "donated" by someone with a "personal" membership.
Libraries create a muddle for copyright. Who is to say that every book ever checked out from a library isn't reproduced in some form by someone in some form? Personally, I think the example of the Library is how we should best view copyright, and I certainly hope the Supreme Court views it the same way.
While it's true that many of the "tech support" jobs that have been outsourced to Asia have been windows-specific, it may well be the case that Intel is focusing more on its potential for servers which are not, or should not (generally) be Microsoft based. so they may seem more willing to work with hardware issues and opening up a broader market for increasing their presence on *nix based servers? Just a thought.
I was one of those who opened up my big mouth last Thanksgiving and the hostess asked me to look at her computer. So while everyone else was having a good old drunken fest, I was the one hunkering over the machine, diagnosing that her 2nd hard drive was dead, trying to fix it, when after a while she came in asked how I was doing. I told her it was dead and she said: "Yeah, it keeps giving me an error on the E: drive and I never even use it!". I yanked out the dead drive and re-booted the machine and it was all good. All of that work and all I got was leftover Turkey. Good times.
Those are truly valid points, but how often have we seen a particular band, literally "shoved down our throats" on commercial radio (Clear Channel, I'm looking at you). Companies such as BMI obviously have the leverage to promote bands in such a way such that Creed, for example, sells umpteen million albums, and a band that no one's ever heard of, like Evanescence suddenly appears and sells millions more.
Maybe it's my circle of friends, but I've never met anyone who actually liked either of these bands, yet they've always gotten huge airplay. (Don't get me started on Altar Bridge.)
For what it's worth, I believe companies like BMI are behind getting sub-standards like those I mentioned (and certainly many others) airplay, while many other bands who are more sophisticated, never see the light of day....or the airwaves, or whatever.
I think this raises a good point. As an example, I teach at a Community College and I'm required to hold a certain number of office hours/week for students to meet me in person. Do they do that? Of course not. I mostly sit around and surf the Internet. However, when I sit down to check e-mails in the evening (at home, of course), I have bunches from students demanding an immediate response from them on occasion.
Frankly, what takes us several e-mail communiques later, could have been solved if they'd simply made the time to meet face to face.
There does seem to be a perception that technology makes things more "productive" when in fact, it could just be making all of us busier, it seems.
As companies attempt to move into more global markets (Microsoft certainly isn't the only one, obviously), this demonstrates, again, the need to recognize the political climates in those areas. While it's an amusing, comforting example, the "Nova" thing is just an urban legend. (cf. snopes.com)
What's needed is actual cooperation and integration with other countries rather than plopping down a plant there and paying members $1.00 hour without regard to their welfare (cf. Union Carbide in India).
Microsoft has the capability to capture a global marketplace, unfortunately, yet they seem to remain inconsiderate to what actually happens in other countries.
Having received e-mails from a friend in Iraq....I think this a great idea. Their time is often limited when they can gain any kind of Internet access and the access points are few. I was happy just to hear a few words from him when he was able to have access.
The logistics and security of a WiFI system obviously would take a lot of work; let's hope independent developers can work it out instead of our ummm "thrifty" federal government.
One of the corollaries to Mandelbrot-type thinking is that one could, look at a particular "graph" generated via the Mandelbrot set and generate an equation to explain how it got there.
Granted this would include a huge number of variables, even on a mathematical level, but theoretically, so they say, it is possible.
When thinking of it in terms of Economics, there would be even more variables to consider (ever play Sim City?) but again, it's possible, theoretically, if only on a small scale.
Another issue is that many libraries pay twice for these journals. They will pay once to obtain the online services for journal access (via services such as EBSCO or Lexis-Nexis, Medline, etc.,) and another for other subscription services (often the same ones) to gather the print versions.
The Federal Government has for years provided for free research information from organizations such as The Smithsonian and will provide for free plenty of other information such as soil surveys (from the USGS) and from other gov't funded organizations.
Many libraries catalog these and make them freely available to the public. I still think it's time to take the next step and provide equal access for anyone, without cost, for any information that has been funded by the government/taxpayers.
It's amazing that Congress, of all organizations, has caught on to the problems that have been going on for years. Most Academicians are required to publish something occasionally, even outside the sciences. Some journals will actually demand payment just to get an article published.
Since the issue at hand is that most scientific research is funded by the government, why should a Library (public or private) be paying back these publishers for something the taxpayers/government already paid for?
When I worked in a Library, I was a member of professional organizations that I'd never heard of simply so I could get the "individual" subscription rate (usually 1/4 of the "institutional" rate) then "donate" my copies to the same library I worked at.
In my opinion, the publishers have been getting away with a lot for a while and again, it's nice to see someone other than a lowly librarian noticing it.
With all of the press that's been run lately about the security holes with IE/OE this could not be better news for Gecko, Netscape and Mozilla. While I agree that most people will still ignore it and click on their little IE button, I would not be surprised if a lot of organizations' IT departments begin implementing Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, what have you.
I only say this since I run a small newsgroup (not even tech related, though I field all the tech questions) and have convinced several users to use anything other than IE. While the transition for some of them was rough, they realized it was just as good, just different.
I'm sure this has been said before, but it all depends on the context. If I am doing coding, I prefer something familiar, say Radiohead. If I'm just chatting, I'll surf through whatever have (all legally downloaded mind you...hehe).
I'f I'm reading on something, I'll prefer classical music.
If I'm building a machine or repairing one, I won't listen to anything, but I'll let the theme from "Mission: Impossible" roll through my head 99% of the time.
One of the subtexts of Kay's commentary seems to be that most operating systems train you how to use them, whereas I think he would like to see the actual person make the computer perform the functions that they would like them too.
A subtle distinction, I know, but I remember helping teach a class on LOGO a long time ago (ok I was a geek at age 12), and that was the advantage of it for little kids.....they were in charge of the computer, not the other way around. I don't see that philosophy as much today in the widely distributed programs.
I think it's important to view that this film does have a lot to do with technology, however you consider it. The serious cutbacks Moore mentions to several administrative organizations, the obvious kickbacks to Halliburton while neglecting alternative energy are some important things to consider.
Another thing to think about is that while Clinton (whom Moore dislikes just as much as he did Bush) presided over the greatest technology growth in our history, W. seems indifferent to fostering the industry as all of those jobs we used to have float to India.
...has figured things out. Trading images that contain their copyright has been allowed by a lot of sites as they consider it free advertising and they know it works.
So the RIAA should recognize that most people don't have the time/patience to download 10 or more songs for an album, but hearing one or two might make them go out and by it.
I would have to agree with other posters who've noted the white noise benefits that the fans provide. I have the biggest, baddest office in the building, but it's located directly over the heat exchangers in the building. As a result, I have nice, smooth, background noise, which helps to drown out external noise, which provides a strong sense of privacy for me.
What I don't like is when my laptop fan keeps going on and off; that interrupts the stream of my little white noise festival.
Actually, I sleep with a regular box fan running all night, too. I suppose if you work around computers all the time, you become adjusted to the noise and find total silence somewhat eerie.
The ISS is a good example of how each country has screwed up. First, most of the cost of the ISS was underestimated (intentionally) by the US just so they could get something into orbit. Then, the bankrupt Russian Space program couldn't get their modules into orbit quickly enough, thus increasing the burden on the US to use their (very expensive) mechanism of delivery, the Space Shuttle.
The Russians have the right idea with using expendable rockets & modules like the progress to deliver supplies; let's hope the US is trying to do that as well.
I actually taught, in a college honors course, a section of this book by Stoll (I think it was this one), and I was surprised by the class' reaction.
Why? Me, being a techie, figured: "well all these damn-ass smart freshman should love computers and want to use them in the classroom 24/7! w00t!!" Interestingly, most of them hated the idea of having computer-mediated instruction (guess they didn't know the class was computer-mediated) at any level of education.
Conversely, less-adept college freshman like the computers, until they realize I can shut off their AIM remotely.
Point is, computers are by no means a panacea to real or perceived educational ills (a la Stoll), at least not until educational technologists figure out the best way to use them, and that may never happen.
= smart people who can negotiate them. By the time any kind of control for the pool filtering & lighting system reaches it, it's gone through so many physical and electrical insulations, that it should be completely safe. Heck, I could control the Atlantic ocean if my blender ran more than Redhat 4.0 and I had the right kind of seals.
Seriously.... from what I saw on this page (before it got/.'ed), this is a pretty neat idea, as it would elminate all of those stupid manual timers (which generally keep very poor time) and eliminate the need for continuous monitoring of pool chemical levels.
Conclusion: Nick's behavior is an effect of his parents' occupation.
BBBZZZZZZT. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. In other words, correlation does not equal causation. It's the same logic that says: "You watch a violent movie, you're going to be a violent person." Really? How do you make that link? You can't. There are too many other factors involved, just like in little "Nick's" case.
This is just like The Hunt for Red October. So all we need is Alec Baldwin, and we'll just hope that Sean Connery is the Russian captain, and we have their ship and nothing to worry about here in the U.S.
I'm fairly certain there's a law that if an automobile manufacturer discontinues a model/goes out of business, they have to provide parts/support for that vehicle for ten years. Is this true or simply an urban legend?
I only ask this question since M$ seems to ignore things like my 5-year-old laptop which could never handle anything above Win98, but works fine with Win95
I work around a bunch of poetry MFAs (Masters of Fine Arts. I mean...Mother-f-ing A-holes), and quite frankly, they could learn a thing or two from these spammers. The idea of teaching someone to write good poetry just seems random to me, so my hats off to the PoetrySpam to expose these wannabe poets for what they are.
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Forgive me if this is off-topic, but does any geologist here know why we have volcanic flows whereas when we refer to icebergs we have floes. The reason for the spelling difference isn't immediately apparent in any of the dictionaries.
I'm a graduate student, forgive me for this triviata.
Well I was a librarian for a short time and all of our meetings seemed to center on copyright. True, there are disclaimers that we adhere to regarding photocopying, and the like, but the publishing industry has always attempted to put some restrictions on libraries themselves regarding how their products are sold. For example, a personal subscription to Nature costs around $70 (US) a year, while an Institutional subscription costs well over $300 (US). I'm sure a lot of copies of academic journals on library shelves were "donated" by someone with a "personal" membership.
Libraries create a muddle for copyright. Who is to say that every book ever checked out from a library isn't reproduced in some form by someone in some form? Personally, I think the example of the Library is how we should best view copyright, and I certainly hope the Supreme Court views it the same way.
While it's true that many of the "tech support" jobs that have been outsourced to Asia have been windows-specific, it may well be the case that Intel is focusing more on its potential for servers which are not, or should not (generally) be Microsoft based. so they may seem more willing to work with hardware issues and opening up a broader market for increasing their presence on *nix based servers? Just a thought.
I was one of those who opened up my big mouth last Thanksgiving and the hostess asked me to look at her computer. So while everyone else was having a good old drunken fest, I was the one hunkering over the machine, diagnosing that her 2nd hard drive was dead, trying to fix it, when after a while she came in asked how I was doing. I told her it was dead and she said: "Yeah, it keeps giving me an error on the E: drive and I never even use it!". I yanked out the dead drive and re-booted the machine and it was all good. All of that work and all I got was leftover Turkey. Good times.
Those are truly valid points, but how often have we seen a particular band, literally "shoved down our throats" on commercial radio (Clear Channel, I'm looking at you). Companies such as BMI obviously have the leverage to promote bands in such a way such that Creed, for example, sells umpteen million albums, and a band that no one's ever heard of, like Evanescence suddenly appears and sells millions more.
Maybe it's my circle of friends, but I've never met anyone who actually liked either of these bands, yet they've always gotten huge airplay. (Don't get me started on Altar Bridge.)
For what it's worth, I believe companies like BMI are behind getting sub-standards like those I mentioned (and certainly many others) airplay, while many other bands who are more sophisticated, never see the light of day....or the airwaves, or whatever.
I think this raises a good point. As an example, I teach at a Community College and I'm required to hold a certain number of office hours/week for students to meet me in person. Do they do that? Of course not. I mostly sit around and surf the Internet. However, when I sit down to check e-mails in the evening (at home, of course), I have bunches from students demanding an immediate response from them on occasion.
Frankly, what takes us several e-mail communiques later, could have been solved if they'd simply made the time to meet face to face.
There does seem to be a perception that technology makes things more "productive" when in fact, it could just be making all of us busier, it seems.
As companies attempt to move into more global markets (Microsoft certainly isn't the only one, obviously), this demonstrates, again, the need to recognize the political climates in those areas. While it's an amusing, comforting example, the "Nova" thing is just an urban legend. (cf. snopes.com)
What's needed is actual cooperation and integration with other countries rather than plopping down a plant there and paying members $1.00 hour without regard to their welfare (cf. Union Carbide in India).
Microsoft has the capability to capture a global marketplace, unfortunately, yet they seem to remain inconsiderate to what actually happens in other countries.
Having received e-mails from a friend in Iraq....I think this a great idea. Their time is often limited when they can gain any kind of Internet access and the access points are few. I was happy just to hear a few words from him when he was able to have access.
The logistics and security of a WiFI system obviously would take a lot of work; let's hope independent developers can work it out instead of our ummm "thrifty" federal government.
One of the corollaries to Mandelbrot-type thinking is that one could, look at a particular "graph" generated via the Mandelbrot set and generate an equation to explain how it got there.
Granted this would include a huge number of variables, even on a mathematical level, but theoretically, so they say, it is possible.
When thinking of it in terms of Economics, there would be even more variables to consider (ever play Sim City?) but again, it's possible, theoretically, if only on a small scale.
Sorry to reply to my own post.
Another issue is that many libraries pay twice for these journals. They will pay once to obtain the online services for journal access (via services such as EBSCO or Lexis-Nexis, Medline, etc.,) and another for other subscription services (often the same ones) to gather the print versions.
The Federal Government has for years provided for free research information from organizations such as The Smithsonian and will provide for free plenty of other information such as soil surveys (from the USGS) and from other gov't funded organizations.
Many libraries catalog these and make them freely available to the public. I still think it's time to take the next step and provide equal access for anyone, without cost, for any information that has been funded by the government/taxpayers.
It's amazing that Congress, of all organizations, has caught on to the problems that have been going on for years. Most Academicians are required to publish something occasionally, even outside the sciences. Some journals will actually demand payment just to get an article published.
Since the issue at hand is that most scientific research is funded by the government, why should a Library (public or private) be paying back these publishers for something the taxpayers/government already paid for?
When I worked in a Library, I was a member of professional organizations that I'd never heard of simply so I could get the "individual" subscription rate (usually 1/4 of the "institutional" rate) then "donate" my copies to the same library I worked at.
In my opinion, the publishers have been getting away with a lot for a while and again, it's nice to see someone other than a lowly librarian noticing it.
With all of the press that's been run lately about the security holes with IE/OE this could not be better news for Gecko, Netscape and Mozilla. While I agree that most people will still ignore it and click on their little IE button, I would not be surprised if a lot of organizations' IT departments begin implementing Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, what have you.
I only say this since I run a small newsgroup (not even tech related, though I field all the tech questions) and have convinced several users to use anything other than IE. While the transition for some of them was rough, they realized it was just as good, just different.
There's also a German service that offers 1.5 GB e-mail with POP and SMTP for free. I've not checked it out personally, but here is the link:
http://www.directbox.com/
I'm sure this has been said before, but it all depends on the context. If I am doing coding, I prefer something familiar, say Radiohead. If I'm just chatting, I'll surf through whatever have (all legally downloaded mind you...hehe).
I'f I'm reading on something, I'll prefer classical music.
If I'm building a machine or repairing one, I won't listen to anything, but I'll let the theme from "Mission: Impossible" roll through my head 99% of the time.
Just my 2cents
One of the subtexts of Kay's commentary seems to be that most operating systems train you how to use them, whereas I think he would like to see the actual person make the computer perform the functions that they would like them too.
A subtle distinction, I know, but I remember helping teach a class on LOGO a long time ago (ok I was a geek at age 12), and that was the advantage of it for little kids.....they were in charge of the computer, not the other way around. I don't see that philosophy as much today in the widely distributed programs.
I think it's important to view that this film does have a lot to do with technology, however you consider it. The serious cutbacks Moore mentions to several administrative organizations, the obvious kickbacks to Halliburton while neglecting alternative energy are some important things to consider.
Another thing to think about is that while Clinton (whom Moore dislikes just as much as he did Bush) presided over the greatest technology growth in our history, W. seems indifferent to fostering the industry as all of those jobs we used to have float to India.
Just some food for fodder.
...has figured things out. Trading images that contain their copyright has been allowed by a lot of sites as they consider it free advertising and they know it works.
So the RIAA should recognize that most people don't have the time/patience to download 10 or more songs for an album, but hearing one or two might make them go out and by it.
Just my 2 cents from a pr0n freak. LOL.
I would have to agree with other posters who've noted the white noise benefits that the fans provide. I have the biggest, baddest office in the building, but it's located directly over the heat exchangers in the building. As a result, I have nice, smooth, background noise, which helps to drown out external noise, which provides a strong sense of privacy for me.
What I don't like is when my laptop fan keeps going on and off; that interrupts the stream of my little white noise festival.
Actually, I sleep with a regular box fan running all night, too. I suppose if you work around computers all the time, you become adjusted to the noise and find total silence somewhat eerie.
The ISS is a good example of how each country has screwed up. First, most of the cost of the ISS was underestimated (intentionally) by the US just so they could get something into orbit. Then, the bankrupt Russian Space program couldn't get their modules into orbit quickly enough, thus increasing the burden on the US to use their (very expensive) mechanism of delivery, the Space Shuttle.
The Russians have the right idea with using expendable rockets & modules like the progress to deliver supplies; let's hope the US is trying to do that as well.
I actually taught, in a college honors course, a section of this book by Stoll (I think it was this one), and I was surprised by the class' reaction.
Why? Me, being a techie, figured: "well all these damn-ass smart freshman should love computers and want to use them in the classroom 24/7! w00t!!" Interestingly, most of them hated the idea of having computer-mediated instruction (guess they didn't know the class was computer-mediated) at any level of education.
Conversely, less-adept college freshman like the computers, until they realize I can shut off their AIM remotely.
Point is, computers are by no means a panacea to real or perceived educational ills (a la Stoll), at least not until educational technologists figure out the best way to use them, and that may never happen.
= smart people who can negotiate them. By the time any kind of control for the pool filtering & lighting system reaches it, it's gone through so many physical and electrical insulations, that it should be completely safe. Heck, I could control the Atlantic ocean if my blender ran more than Redhat 4.0 and I had the right kind of seals.
/.'ed), this is a pretty neat idea, as it would elminate all of those stupid manual timers (which generally keep very poor time) and eliminate the need for continuous monitoring of pool chemical levels.
Seriously.... from what I saw on this page (before it got
Ok, work with me:
Premise: "Nick" is acting weird.
Premise: His parents are software engineers.
Conclusion: Nick's behavior is an effect of his parents' occupation.
BBBZZZZZZT. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. In other words, correlation does not equal causation. It's the same logic that says: "You watch a violent movie, you're going to be a violent person." Really? How do you make that link? You can't. There are too many other factors involved, just like in little "Nick's" case.
Watch out for bad research and its conclusions.
This is just like The Hunt for Red October. So all we need is Alec Baldwin, and we'll just hope that Sean Connery is the Russian captain, and we have their ship and nothing to worry about here in the U.S.
I'm fairly certain there's a law that if an automobile manufacturer discontinues a model/goes out of business, they have to provide parts/support for that vehicle for ten years. Is this true or simply an urban legend?
I only ask this question since M$ seems to ignore things like my 5-year-old laptop which could never handle anything above Win98, but works fine with Win95
I work around a bunch of poetry MFAs (Masters of Fine Arts. I mean...Mother-f-ing A-holes), and quite frankly, they could learn a thing or two from these spammers. The idea of teaching someone to write good poetry just seems random to me, so my hats off to the PoetrySpam to expose these wannabe poets for what they are.
But that's just me ranting.