Drones to do aerial photos isn't that scary. If those photos were live, or nearly live, that might be scary.
Now I'll have to wonder about every plane circling a sports stadium towing an advertisement. The Google Ad Drones will probably swarm and have self-changing ads. And they'll never fly away since there is no pilot to need a break.
For photos, it might make sense to use drones when they can get closer without attracting attention. Or maybe they can be flying early and late in the day for those people-free photos. Weird to see a campus with so few people. That skynet thing must be Photoshopping the people out where it can. The people behind the joystick can work a regular 8-hour day and still get bathroom breaks. Or maybe Google is somehow harnessing strangers on the net to get good photo instructions (too cloudy, too many people, people-free, and um, embarrassing... over-exposures.)
The splicing at the edges of map/photo sections seems weird. The shadows change direction, the buildings seem slanted on side of a street and straight on the other side.
If the law firms take more than 50% of the settlement, could we reason that the law firm is now working in its own interest, not the client's interest?
Of course most of us know we can't just pay a law bill, win or lose, and big organizations could just out-spend us into bankruptcy, so we have to make those percentage deals. Sad state of affairs really.
Who gets to write off the $425,000 on taxes? The families or the school district?
It might be more productive if we could chip in to a single non-profit company that would buy up the absurd patents or the entire company that holds them.
The company could put them into the public domain, or just blanket-license them for members at low cost.
Here is a definition I've built over the past few years with the help of teachers and parents. I'm open to suggestions for improvement.
Education is: any process a student uses to improve skills, knowledge and character within themselves, with the help of others.
"Student" - the person who is improving. It is important to note that only the student can cause the student to change.
"Skill" -It is important to remember that only the person who will posses the skill can build or improve that skill, and only by practice. Others can watch and tell a student how well they are doing, and how they might improve, and what to practice more. But the student must do the work of practicing.
"Knowledge" - is about data. Skill allows a student to use data to solve problems. Math is primarily problem-solving skill which is applied to data. It can be easy to confuse the two sometimes. Since Math is a skill, it too is improved by practice.
"Character" - includes confidence, opinion, manners, ability to delay gratification, ability or desire to work with others and much more.
"With the Help of Others" - this phrase refers to anyone else involved, directly or indirectly. This can include teachers, professors, coaches, authors, film-makers, mentors and many more. Virtually anyone who can share advise on building skill, share knowledge, and help build character through any means is included.
An important difference though: these are public employees. The parents of the children with whom they are employed to work should be able to participate in the evaluation process.
And how have we felt when we were reviewed by people NOT qualified to judge our results? By inviting every opinion into play, you invite EVERY opinion into play. By saying that all opinions are equal, you grant equal status to every opinion, despite the qualifications or biases of the source.
What teachers do IS important. Thus we should want good teachers.
However, if we make the work conditions intolerable, many good teachers will prefer other jobs. Since we don't have enough good teachers now, we can only conclude that we will have fewer after reducing working conditions.
And with the absolutely abysmal state of the education system in the United States, neglecting to improve it is suicidal.
That is a "Straw Man" argument. (A logical fallacy. See Wikipedia.)
Keeping reviews confidential does not mean that no reviews are being done. It also does not mean that parents have no participation. It also does not mean that no one is accountable. And it does not mean that no one is working to improve things.
It is popular to assume that the state of education is "abysmal". But that emotional assertion does nothing to back your argument that public-school teachers (if not all public employees) should have publicized performance reviews. You don't even know HOW that would make things better, so that the odds are equal that it would make things WORSE.
I do volunteer work at more than one local school. What are you doing to improve the things you find so unacceptable?
Someone is doing the job they like, but under conditions they don't like. If you can't relate to that, then you must have had an easy life.
On the flip side, if you believe that no one should accept poor working conditions, and you believe that all teaching jobs have poor working conditions, then you believe that no one should accept a teaching job. What chance do the students have then?
We've all known real reasons as employees to keep some confidentiality in the review process.
- How many of us would invite a high-visibility public debate of our personal, individual performance reviews? - How many of us would STAY if high-visibility public debates of our personal, individual performance reviews were added to the job description?
"Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" is a favorite book recommendations in the computer industry, but it applies to so many industries. (Finally available as an eBook from http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/PW-ebook.html ) Their long-researched conclusion required review confidentiality to keep the data-gathering process functioning. Without it, the whole process would break down and become meaningless.
Its always bugged me that patents seem to be written to gain ownership of the problem instead of the solution.
With a decent set of problem-solving skills, its easy to think about likely solutions to particular problems. Simple application of commonly-known problem-solving techniques leads quickly to certain solutions.
Finding that a single patent somehow manages to cover all applications of all techniques is frustrating. That is more like patenting the problem.
Finding that a patent-holder never actually built anything that ever worked is even more frustrating. Fiction is supposed to be limited to copyright and trademark.
Since the granting of a patent is the establishment of serious rights under the law, the granting process should be equally serious.
Patent the patent, then cease-and-desist the US Patent Office. Then when the patent office revokes the patent of the patent, the news media can run headlines of "Patent Office Revokes Itself".
Since "spam" is basically defined by most people as "email I don't want", this company must have created technology to read a human mind and read human email then the tech properly categorizes messages and dump out the ones their humans "don't want". Given that human "wants" and "don't wants" change from moment to moment, tracking them is a pretty big task.
Heh, I can confess to using classical music as a sleep-aid occasionally.
For your maximum laugh at my expense, I offer the story of taking my wife to an Christmas performance of our local orchestra. The music was so soothing I did fall asleep. The moment I snored, she promptly woke me with a well-applied backhand to the shoulder. I awoke the sound of snickers around me. I guess they knew what "snore-whack" meant.
I'm definitely not any kind of high-minded music person. I was introduced to some of the better aspects of it by a college roommate who was studying music and I began to appreciate the difficulty and hard work of making good music with so many people.
Lots of people have been introduced to classical music through the animation of Chuck Jones and others.
Some people, including myself, have thought there were words to "Barber of Seville" thanks to Chuck's "Rabbit of Seville". And don't forget the Oscar-winning "What's Opera Doc?' with the ever-famous "Kill the Wabiit" song.
Tom & Jerry usually have their wordless antics backed by wordless orchestra music too.
I know many teachers and hear their problems. One of the problems is motivating students. It can be quite an effort to make some science seem relevant and interesting.
Introducing games and peer competitions might provide some of the motivating force that schools can't provide. After all, haven't DARPA, NASA and others gotten progress made by making a competition out of certain challenges?
Education: any process a person (student) uses to improve their skills, knowledge or attitudes, with the help of others. thus: School: institution that supplies an opportunity for a student to educate themselves (for free or for fee) "Others" include: game-maker, parent, teacher, professor, sensei, leader, author, writer, blogger, film-maker, podcaster, speaker, friend, etc Test: feedback mechanism for student to assess progress, skill level, etc in this case, game score and peer response
Slashdot Mirror
Or Apple's "Knowledge Navigator" concept machine.
Drones to do aerial photos isn't that scary. If those photos were live, or nearly live, that might be scary.
Now I'll have to wonder about every plane circling a sports stadium towing an advertisement. The Google Ad Drones will probably swarm and have self-changing ads. And they'll never fly away since there is no pilot to need a break.
For photos, it might make sense to use drones when they can get closer without attracting attention. Or maybe they can be flying early and late in the day for those people-free photos. Weird to see a campus with so few people. That skynet thing must be Photoshopping the people out where it can. The people behind the joystick can work a regular 8-hour day and still get bathroom breaks. Or maybe Google is somehow harnessing strangers on the net to get good photo instructions (too cloudy, too many people, people-free, and um, embarrassing ... over-exposures.)
The splicing at the edges of map/photo sections seems weird. The shadows change direction, the buildings seem slanted on side of a street and straight on the other side.
Somehow it reminds me of part of the prophecy in the Harry Potter series: "the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal".
If the law firms take more than 50% of the settlement, could we reason that the law firm is now working in its own interest, not the client's interest?
Of course most of us know we can't just pay a law bill, win or lose, and big organizations could just out-spend us into bankruptcy, so we have to make those percentage deals. Sad state of affairs really.
Who gets to write off the $425,000 on taxes? The families or the school district?
It might be more productive if we could chip in to a single non-profit company that would buy up the absurd patents or the entire company that holds them.
The company could put them into the public domain, or just blanket-license them for members at low cost.
Here is a definition I've built over the past few years with the help of teachers and parents. I'm open to suggestions for improvement.
Education is: any process a student uses to improve skills, knowledge and character within themselves, with the help of others.
"Student" - the person who is improving. It is important to note that only the student can cause the student to change.
"Skill" -It is important to remember that only the person who will posses the skill can build or improve that skill, and only by practice. Others can watch and tell a student how well they are doing, and how they might improve, and what to practice more. But the student must do the work of practicing.
"Knowledge" - is about data. Skill allows a student to use data to solve problems. Math is primarily problem-solving skill which is applied to data. It can be easy to confuse the two sometimes. Since Math is a skill, it too is improved by practice.
"Character" - includes confidence, opinion, manners, ability to delay gratification, ability or desire to work with others and much more.
"With the Help of Others" - this phrase refers to anyone else involved, directly or indirectly. This can include teachers, professors, coaches, authors, film-makers, mentors and many more. Virtually anyone who can share advise on building skill, share knowledge, and help build character through any means is included.
An important difference though: these are public employees. The parents of the children with whom they are employed to work should be able to participate in the evaluation process.
And how have we felt when we were reviewed by people NOT qualified to judge our results? By inviting every opinion into play, you invite EVERY opinion into play. By saying that all opinions are equal, you grant equal status to every opinion, despite the qualifications or biases of the source.
What teachers do IS important. Thus we should want good teachers.
However, if we make the work conditions intolerable, many good teachers will prefer other jobs. Since we don't have enough good teachers now, we can only conclude that we will have fewer after reducing working conditions.
And with the absolutely abysmal state of the education system in the United States, neglecting to improve it is suicidal.
That is a "Straw Man" argument. (A logical fallacy. See Wikipedia.)
Keeping reviews confidential does not mean that no reviews are being done. It also does not mean that parents have no participation. It also does not mean that no one is accountable. And it does not mean that no one is working to improve things.
It is popular to assume that the state of education is "abysmal". But that emotional assertion does nothing to back your argument that public-school teachers (if not all public employees) should have publicized performance reviews. You don't even know HOW that would make things better, so that the odds are equal that it would make things WORSE.
I do volunteer work at more than one local school. What are you doing to improve the things you find so unacceptable?
"Because I love it!"
"!??!!!?!!?"
Someone is doing the job they like, but under conditions they don't like. If you can't relate to that, then you must have had an easy life.
On the flip side, if you believe that no one should accept poor working conditions, and you believe that all teaching jobs have poor working conditions, then you believe that no one should accept a teaching job. What chance do the students have then?
We've all known real reasons as employees to keep some confidentiality in the review process.
- How many of us would invite a high-visibility public debate of our personal, individual performance reviews?
- How many of us would STAY if high-visibility public debates of our personal, individual performance reviews were added to the job description?
"Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams" is a favorite book recommendations in the computer industry, but it applies to so many industries. (Finally available as an eBook from http://www.dorsethouse.com/books/PW-ebook.html ) Their long-researched conclusion required review confidentiality to keep the data-gathering process functioning. Without it, the whole process would break down and become meaningless.
Not even close. The biggest problem in the US educational system is shitty parenting.
The biggest single problem in education is that everyone involved do not agree on the definition of the term "Education".
Since they don't agree on what it is, they can't agree what a "good" one or "bad" one is. They also can't agree on the roles of the people involved.
Its always bugged me that patents seem to be written to gain ownership of the problem instead of the solution.
With a decent set of problem-solving skills, its easy to think about likely solutions to particular problems. Simple application of commonly-known problem-solving techniques leads quickly to certain solutions.
Finding that a single patent somehow manages to cover all applications of all techniques is frustrating. That is more like patenting the problem.
Finding that a patent-holder never actually built anything that ever worked is even more frustrating. Fiction is supposed to be limited to copyright and trademark.
Since the granting of a patent is the establishment of serious rights under the law, the granting process should be equally serious.
Patent the patent, then cease-and-desist the US Patent Office. Then when the patent office revokes the patent of the patent, the news media can run headlines of "Patent Office Revokes Itself".
Since "spam" is basically defined by most people as "email I don't want", this company must have created technology to read a human mind and read human email then the tech properly categorizes messages and dump out the ones their humans "don't want". Given that human "wants" and "don't wants" change from moment to moment, tracking them is a pretty big task.
Do advertisers know about this yet?
Heh, I can confess to using classical music as a sleep-aid occasionally.
For your maximum laugh at my expense, I offer the story of taking my wife to an Christmas performance of our local orchestra. The music was so soothing I did fall asleep. The moment I snored, she promptly woke me with a well-applied backhand to the shoulder. I awoke the sound of snickers around me. I guess they knew what "snore-whack" meant.
I'm definitely not any kind of high-minded music person. I was introduced to some of the better aspects of it by a college roommate who was studying music and I began to appreciate the difficulty and hard work of making good music with so many people.
Lots of people have been introduced to classical music through the animation of Chuck Jones and others.
Some people, including myself, have thought there were words to "Barber of Seville" thanks to Chuck's "Rabbit of Seville". And don't forget the Oscar-winning "What's Opera Doc?' with the ever-famous "Kill the Wabiit" song.
Tom & Jerry usually have their wordless antics backed by wordless orchestra music too.
"He who pays the piper is calling for a low-quality tune" - Tom DiMarco and Timothy Lister in their book PeopleWare: Productive Projects and Team
I know many teachers and hear their problems. One of the problems is motivating students. It can be quite an effort to make some science seem relevant and interesting.
Introducing games and peer competitions might provide some of the motivating force that schools can't provide. After all, haven't DARPA, NASA and others gotten progress made by making a competition out of certain challenges?
Education: any process a person (student) uses to improve their skills, knowledge or attitudes, with the help of others.
thus:
School: institution that supplies an opportunity for a student to educate themselves (for free or for fee)
"Others" include: game-maker, parent, teacher, professor, sensei, leader, author, writer, blogger, film-maker, podcaster, speaker, friend, etc
Test: feedback mechanism for student to assess progress, skill level, etc in this case, game score and peer response