My high school wouldn't even let me graduate a semester early because they felt I wouldn't be adequately prepared for college. I think the most AP credits one could get was 20 or so. Now it's not uncommon to hear stories of teens and pre-teens going to college or kids skipping the first year or two because of AP credits. However, I don't think they're geniuses; I think school is just getting to lax on the standards. The "No Child Left Behind" has become "Every Child Pushed Out the Door".
The states are more concerned about making sure the kids are able to pass a standard test to prove they deserve federal money. So the schools teach for the test rather than making sure kids know how to function in the "real world". I know this because my daughter was a year behind when we transferred schools; her original school taught all kids in grade school for a state-mandated test in fourth grade. When we moved to an area that didn't have such a test, we found out just how much teaching for a test can affect real-life performance.
Why stop now? They've been doing things like this for years, especially to the military. Anthrax shots, nuclear testing, yellow fever, etc. Since at least 1943 they've been biological tests on people, typically without their knowledge.
Luckily I never had to take any of the anthrax shots while in the Navy, but I remember talking to another Navy guy who said part of the enlistment contract requires service members to accept drug testing on them. That's why the anthrax shots were so debilitating; they were using the military to test it. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I certainly wouldn't put it past our government.
(Man, I was submitting this to/. when I saw it already posted. I need a faster keyboard.)
Reuters, an international news wire service, caught heat by publishing a Beirut battle photo that contained an extra plume of smoke for dramatic effect. (Farid's software helped reveal that enhancement.)
Like we really needed the software to show that a Photoshop clone tool was used. Nearly every person who saw it said it looked fake; even people who don't know how to use Photoshop said it looked "wrong".
True. It kinda defeats the purpose of playing the game if someone does it for you. Okay, so your a level 60 badass. Did you have fun getting there? Oh wait, you wouldn't know.
If the game means enough to you to want to get a high level, then it should mean enough to earn that level. Otherwise, why are you playing? If the game play sucks at the low-levels, then why bother continuing?
My God, you just described some of the people I work with. One guy has probably 25+ years experience on Unix and procedual programming models. Learning Python is kicking his butt because he can't get OOP (granted I didn't get OOP the first time I learned it in Java and C++; it wasn't until I learned Python that I figured it out).
However, both him and another lady are continually talking about how good it was in the old days when you programmed in Assembly cuz you knew exactly what the program was doing. Procedural programming "is da bomb" since it just goes down the line; you don't have to think about encapsulated classes and all that other jazz.
I'm not denying they have a lot of knowledge and they have nothing to teach us "young 'uns", but trying to get the useful knowledge from all the dead-weight can be tiresome.
Do you accept "I don't know, but I know where to find the answer" as a valid response? Unless I use something every day, I tend to not remember it (like calculus). I may know the basic principles and can give you a broad but vague answer but I can't tell you the "right" answer without double-checking.
I agree with this. I noticed that SUSE 10.1 hides the install process too. All it shows is a little spinning circle or splash pages that tell you nothing. Maybe some people don't want/need to see what all is going on behind the scenes, but at least let me know progress is being made and the system hasn't locked up.
My favorite distro that I've tried is Gentoo. Sure, it's a pain in the butt and I wouldn't recommend it for most Windows-converts, but I learned so much about how Linux works and how everything interfaces that I actually enjoyed the experience. Windows tells you nothing and hides everything in the Registry. Hacking the Registry is worse than editing a config file, which is why there are so many GUI-driven Registry hacks.
Sure, Windows is "dumbed-down" enough that casual users can reasonably work with it, but when something breaks they have no idea what to do.
INAL, but if I recall correctly, a warrant has to state what the police are expecting to find and what they can/can't search. If you have a safe and it's not listed on the warrant, I believe they have to get a new warrant. However, if they can get a judge to issue a suitably vague warrant, then they're okay. And it would probably apply to an encrypted computer.
The sad thing is that it's far easier to commit an "intellectual crime" like copyright or patent infringement without knowing you're committing a crime. It's even worse when the corporations push Congress to keep increasing the length of time a product is covered by copyright, patent, etc. It almost becomes a crime like murder, where there is no statue-of-limitations.
According to some religions, thinking about an act is the same as actually committing the act. Hence, if you're married but you still eyeball the "hot chicks" at the mall, you may as well pick up a hooker while your at it, because you've already commited adultery.
I'm curious how they came to such an accurate "violence rating" of 64%? Do they have a list that they check off as they play? If it was a TV show, how would they classify it? TV13, TV7, TV7-FV(Fantasy Violence)?
I think the whole ratings system needs an overhaul, and it needs to stay out of Congress. They can't even describe the Internet correctly or decide on a definition of "pornography"; how can they decide how violent something is?
I was discussing the merits of how nearly every GNOME app has a "competing" KDE app, usually for no apparent reason other than out of spite. Personally I think it's a hold over from when the Qt license wasn't open, so you had people make libre software under the GNOME project and people who didn't really care about the Trolltech license restrictions making software under KDE.
Having a choice is a good thing, but I think it's better when there are significant differences to be made. For example, I prefer running GQview vs. Kview because GQview has better random viewing features. But I run the KDE desktop because I prefer it over GNOME. Living in an MS world, the choices are made for you, which is rarely a good thing.
Actually, that's what I was really curious about. Since you can run nearly any Gnome app under KDE and vice versa, it's pointless to have two different apps. Heck, it's almost pointless to have two different environments (not counting schemes like Fluxbox, Enlightenment, etc.). Sure, having choices is good but if the effort made in making different apps was put towards making one "great" app, how much better would that one app be?
I do agree that a unified Linux would go a long way to helping make Linux more "mainstream". How often do people ask you which Linux to use, meaning not only which distro but also which desktop environment to install?
So, to beat the system just get a job w/ the law enforcement or homeland security communities. That way you can find out what information they are collecting on you.
Wouldn't it be ironic if you were tasked w/ investigating yourself?
Self: It seems you've been looking for the goat.se man again. Self: Honestly officer, I was looking for new toner cartridges. Self: Uh huh. You also have a lot of traffic to Asian servers. Looking for counterfeit cartridges? I'm going to have to take you in for violating the DMCA.
I don't expect privacy simply because of how our government works. However, I don't believe it's an unreasonable expectation/hope to have. Unfortunantly the Constitution doesn't give us the right to privacy; that's an Amendment that truly needs to be added. I remember reading an article right after the Tiannamen Square incident that the students had drafted a new Constitution. One of the things they added to their 1st Amendment was guaranteeing the right to privacy.
Sadly you can probably have more privacy in the real world vs. the digital one. Set up a mail drop or use General Delivery (if it still exists) for your mail, pay cash for as much as you can, use money orders for mail-order products, use pay phones for your calls, etc.
I've been using Tor from the EFF for several weeks now. To use the most common argument against itself, if I'm doing nothing wrong then I should have nothing to hide, right? However, if I'm doing nothing wrong, then there should be no reason to snoop on me and no one should be concerned if I prefer to use onion servers for my personal Internet use.
Additionally, what incentive do I have to make law enforcement's job easier? If they're only going after the bad guys, then they should already have enough legal force to get the job done. Just because I prefer to remain anonymous and encrypt my data doesn't mean I'm a criminal; it just means I like my privacy.
I've been on the 'net since 1994, and it was quite easy to stumble upon child porn back then, especially on the newsgroups. Nowadays I don't run across it. I'm sure it happens but it's more difficult to accidentally find. Even the so-called "lolita" sites/groups don't have kiddie porn.
Sure, sometimes it pops up in newsgroups as spam, but so do viagra ads. And even then it's usually more "artistic" than vulgar. The people passing these around are smarter than they used to be. I'm sure there are still dedicated newsgroups, chat rooms, and web sites for it, but it's just not as visible as it used to be.
Even based on your anectdote, there are probably 1% of websites dedicated to child porn. I'm sure there's a problem, but I wonder just how bad it really is.
The view against child sex and related issues has only been a recent invention (roughly in the last 150 years). Prior to that, there was no real aversion to having sex with children or other "sexual assualt" ideas; the Chinese (circa 18th century) had children that "entertained" guests under the table during dinner. Many cultures encouraged child marriages as a way to lessen the burden on families and ensure the girls would get enough support. Just like prostitution was encouraged in Rome so men wouldn't "harm" families by sleeping w/ married women.
Now, I personally there is a biological reason for wanting to be w/ younger children, i.e. 16+ years, because of the biological "guarantee" that the child is able to bear offspring. Once a women hits ~30 years old, the chances of a successful birth (read: no birth defects, retardation, autism, etc.) start dropping.
Having said that, I also feel that child porn is wrong. Young children have limited knowledge of sexuality (especially in more prudish countries) so can be psychologically affected, leading to poor person skills and hurting relationships. However, I think there needs to be more studies looking at when the psychological damage occurs and possibly lowering the age of consent, especially since minors are engaging in sexual activity at younger ages.
It may not be PC, but it is looking at the changes in culture. If kids are having consensual sex at 11 (or whatever), then how is it worse when a 16 year old wants to date someone just a few years older?
Also being a member of the Navy, I'd like to give my opinion. Yes, we are still considered "American citizens". We don't necessarily lose our Constitutional rights; however, the UCMJ trumps normal civilian laws. Military people are held accountable to the UCMJ and not local laws. If someone gets busted in town for a DUI, the military has the choice to either let the civilian courts have a go or the military can take the case and prosecute the member under the UCMJ.
Where we "lose our rights" is where something violates the UCMJ but in the civilian world it would be considered "acceptable", or at least not illegal. For example, talking back to a superior is a violation of the UCMJ (insubordination), even if it's an E-1 to an E-2. In the private sector you may be fired (if your employer is so inclined) but it's not illegal, nor is a violation of anything (again, depending on your employer). I've been a witness to a Captain's Mast where someone was brought up on charges for insubordination because he told the Leading Petty Officer that the LPO was stupid for wanting to complete a project in a certain fashion. The guy was sent to the Correctional Custody Unit for a month and docked 1/2 pay for another month, simply for "talking back".
Many people would think most differences can be resolved through communications, but I've seen military people prefer to throw paper at the problem rather than actually work it out. I've seen a guy get written up because he showed up for work without shaving. Hell, I was given written counseling because I went to breakfast at 4:30am while we were preparing to refuel; everyone had already reported for duty and we weren't scheduled to even man up for the refueling until 7am. The refuelings normally lasted 4 hours, not counting the cleanup and gear stowage time afterward. So, from dinner the night before we were expected to wait 14-16 hours before we could eat, simply because our division officer wanted everyone to "stand-by". So several of us were counseled because we "violated" his instructions. Would that happen in a civilian job? I don't know, but I know the military allows more power to people than would be allowed in most civilian jobs.
I would beg to differ regarding the military being able to get the job done. There is so much incompetence in the military it's disgusting. Granted, many people love their job, country, etc. and try to do their best, but too many times I've seen blatant disregard for common sense. I'm sure it happens in the civilian sector, but the Peter Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle) doesn't apply to the military, since most promotions are based on guessing correctly on a test. Actually, it's more like people are continually promoted regardless of whether they're competent or not.
I agree completely. The only wasted vote is a vote that was never used.
The fact that you vote for a third party (be it Libertarian, Green, or other) is telling people that you don't like the status quo. That's saying a lot more than simply bitching about "those damn big-money, oil-loving, war-mongering Republicans" or "those stupid, ex-hippie, tree-hugging, tax-and-spending Democrats".
People always complain about who's in office or which party controls Congress but in the end it doesn't matter. Both parties screw up because people let them.
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My high school wouldn't even let me graduate a semester early because they felt I wouldn't be adequately prepared for college. I think the most AP credits one could get was 20 or so. Now it's not uncommon to hear stories of teens and pre-teens going to college or kids skipping the first year or two because of AP credits. However, I don't think they're geniuses; I think school is just getting to lax on the standards. The "No Child Left Behind" has become "Every Child Pushed Out the Door".
The states are more concerned about making sure the kids are able to pass a standard test to prove they deserve federal money. So the schools teach for the test rather than making sure kids know how to function in the "real world". I know this because my daughter was a year behind when we transferred schools; her original school taught all kids in grade school for a state-mandated test in fourth grade. When we moved to an area that didn't have such a test, we found out just how much teaching for a test can affect real-life performance.
Why stop now? They've been doing things like this for years, especially to the military. Anthrax shots, nuclear testing, yellow fever, etc. Since at least 1943 they've been biological tests on people, typically without their knowledge.
/. when I saw it already posted. I need a faster keyboard.)
Luckily I never had to take any of the anthrax shots while in the Navy, but I remember talking to another Navy guy who said part of the enlistment contract requires service members to accept drug testing on them. That's why the anthrax shots were so debilitating; they were using the military to test it. I don't know whether that's true or not, but I certainly wouldn't put it past our government.
(Man, I was submitting this to
Like we really needed the software to show that a Photoshop clone tool was used. Nearly every person who saw it said it looked fake; even people who don't know how to use Photoshop said it looked "wrong".
True. It kinda defeats the purpose of playing the game if someone does it for you. Okay, so your a level 60 badass. Did you have fun getting there? Oh wait, you wouldn't know.
If the game means enough to you to want to get a high level, then it should mean enough to earn that level. Otherwise, why are you playing? If the game play sucks at the low-levels, then why bother continuing?
My God, you just described some of the people I work with. One guy has probably 25+ years experience on Unix and procedual programming models. Learning Python is kicking his butt because he can't get OOP (granted I didn't get OOP the first time I learned it in Java and C++; it wasn't until I learned Python that I figured it out).
However, both him and another lady are continually talking about how good it was in the old days when you programmed in Assembly cuz you knew exactly what the program was doing. Procedural programming "is da bomb" since it just goes down the line; you don't have to think about encapsulated classes and all that other jazz.
I'm not denying they have a lot of knowledge and they have nothing to teach us "young 'uns", but trying to get the useful knowledge from all the dead-weight can be tiresome.
Hell, if I ever have to start dating again, I plan on handing out resumes to my dates. At least that way you can cut through much of the small talk.
How about doing the same thing but using a barcode system so the database is self-updating? (Of course, that's probably what you were implying).
Do you accept "I don't know, but I know where to find the answer" as a valid response? Unless I use something every day, I tend to not remember it (like calculus). I may know the basic principles and can give you a broad but vague answer but I can't tell you the "right" answer without double-checking.
How about don't mess w/ confidential or private information when in public? Or maybe we should all just sit with our backs to a wall.
You mean they've got movies about programming languages and IDEs? Neat!
I agree with this. I noticed that SUSE 10.1 hides the install process too. All it shows is a little spinning circle or splash pages that tell you nothing. Maybe some people don't want/need to see what all is going on behind the scenes, but at least let me know progress is being made and the system hasn't locked up.
My favorite distro that I've tried is Gentoo. Sure, it's a pain in the butt and I wouldn't recommend it for most Windows-converts, but I learned so much about how Linux works and how everything interfaces that I actually enjoyed the experience. Windows tells you nothing and hides everything in the Registry. Hacking the Registry is worse than editing a config file, which is why there are so many GUI-driven Registry hacks.
Sure, Windows is "dumbed-down" enough that casual users can reasonably work with it, but when something breaks they have no idea what to do.
INAL, but if I recall correctly, a warrant has to state what the police are expecting to find and what they can/can't search. If you have a safe and it's not listed on the warrant, I believe they have to get a new warrant. However, if they can get a judge to issue a suitably vague warrant, then they're okay. And it would probably apply to an encrypted computer.
The sad thing is that it's far easier to commit an "intellectual crime" like copyright or patent infringement without knowing you're committing a crime. It's even worse when the corporations push Congress to keep increasing the length of time a product is covered by copyright, patent, etc. It almost becomes a crime like murder, where there is no statue-of-limitations.
According to some religions, thinking about an act is the same as actually committing the act. Hence, if you're married but you still eyeball the "hot chicks" at the mall, you may as well pick up a hooker while your at it, because you've already commited adultery.
I'm curious how they came to such an accurate "violence rating" of 64%? Do they have a list that they check off as they play? If it was a TV show, how would they classify it? TV13, TV7, TV7-FV(Fantasy Violence)?
I think the whole ratings system needs an overhaul, and it needs to stay out of Congress. They can't even describe the Internet correctly or decide on a definition of "pornography"; how can they decide how violent something is?
I was discussing the merits of how nearly every GNOME app has a "competing" KDE app, usually for no apparent reason other than out of spite. Personally I think it's a hold over from when the Qt license wasn't open, so you had people make libre software under the GNOME project and people who didn't really care about the Trolltech license restrictions making software under KDE.
Having a choice is a good thing, but I think it's better when there are significant differences to be made. For example, I prefer running GQview vs. Kview because GQview has better random viewing features. But I run the KDE desktop because I prefer it over GNOME. Living in an MS world, the choices are made for you, which is rarely a good thing.
Actually, that's what I was really curious about. Since you can run nearly any Gnome app under KDE and vice versa, it's pointless to have two different apps. Heck, it's almost pointless to have two different environments (not counting schemes like Fluxbox, Enlightenment, etc.). Sure, having choices is good but if the effort made in making different apps was put towards making one "great" app, how much better would that one app be?
I do agree that a unified Linux would go a long way to helping make Linux more "mainstream". How often do people ask you which Linux to use, meaning not only which distro but also which desktop environment to install?
Doesn't the KDE community have a competitive program yet?
So, to beat the system just get a job w/ the law enforcement or homeland security communities. That way you can find out what information they are collecting on you.
Wouldn't it be ironic if you were tasked w/ investigating yourself?
Self: It seems you've been looking for the goat.se man again.
Self: Honestly officer, I was looking for new toner cartridges.
Self: Uh huh. You also have a lot of traffic to Asian servers. Looking for counterfeit cartridges? I'm going to have to take you in for violating the DMCA.
I don't expect privacy simply because of how our government works. However, I don't believe it's an unreasonable expectation/hope to have. Unfortunantly the Constitution doesn't give us the right to privacy; that's an Amendment that truly needs to be added. I remember reading an article right after the Tiannamen Square incident that the students had drafted a new Constitution. One of the things they added to their 1st Amendment was guaranteeing the right to privacy.
Sadly you can probably have more privacy in the real world vs. the digital one. Set up a mail drop or use General Delivery (if it still exists) for your mail, pay cash for as much as you can, use money orders for mail-order products, use pay phones for your calls, etc.
I've been using Tor from the EFF for several weeks now. To use the most common argument against itself, if I'm doing nothing wrong then I should have nothing to hide, right? However, if I'm doing nothing wrong, then there should be no reason to snoop on me and no one should be concerned if I prefer to use onion servers for my personal Internet use.
Additionally, what incentive do I have to make law enforcement's job easier? If they're only going after the bad guys, then they should already have enough legal force to get the job done. Just because I prefer to remain anonymous and encrypt my data doesn't mean I'm a criminal; it just means I like my privacy.
I've been on the 'net since 1994, and it was quite easy to stumble upon child porn back then, especially on the newsgroups. Nowadays I don't run across it. I'm sure it happens but it's more difficult to accidentally find. Even the so-called "lolita" sites/groups don't have kiddie porn.
Sure, sometimes it pops up in newsgroups as spam, but so do viagra ads. And even then it's usually more "artistic" than vulgar. The people passing these around are smarter than they used to be. I'm sure there are still dedicated newsgroups, chat rooms, and web sites for it, but it's just not as visible as it used to be.
Even based on your anectdote, there are probably 1% of websites dedicated to child porn. I'm sure there's a problem, but I wonder just how bad it really is.
The view against child sex and related issues has only been a recent invention (roughly in the last 150 years). Prior to that, there was no real aversion to having sex with children or other "sexual assualt" ideas; the Chinese (circa 18th century) had children that "entertained" guests under the table during dinner. Many cultures encouraged child marriages as a way to lessen the burden on families and ensure the girls would get enough support. Just like prostitution was encouraged in Rome so men wouldn't "harm" families by sleeping w/ married women.
Now, I personally there is a biological reason for wanting to be w/ younger children, i.e. 16+ years, because of the biological "guarantee" that the child is able to bear offspring. Once a women hits ~30 years old, the chances of a successful birth (read: no birth defects, retardation, autism, etc.) start dropping.
Having said that, I also feel that child porn is wrong. Young children have limited knowledge of sexuality (especially in more prudish countries) so can be psychologically affected, leading to poor person skills and hurting relationships. However, I think there needs to be more studies looking at when the psychological damage occurs and possibly lowering the age of consent, especially since minors are engaging in sexual activity at younger ages.
It may not be PC, but it is looking at the changes in culture. If kids are having consensual sex at 11 (or whatever), then how is it worse when a 16 year old wants to date someone just a few years older?
Also being a member of the Navy, I'd like to give my opinion. Yes, we are still considered "American citizens". We don't necessarily lose our Constitutional rights; however, the UCMJ trumps normal civilian laws. Military people are held accountable to the UCMJ and not local laws. If someone gets busted in town for a DUI, the military has the choice to either let the civilian courts have a go or the military can take the case and prosecute the member under the UCMJ.
Where we "lose our rights" is where something violates the UCMJ but in the civilian world it would be considered "acceptable", or at least not illegal. For example, talking back to a superior is a violation of the UCMJ (insubordination), even if it's an E-1 to an E-2. In the private sector you may be fired (if your employer is so inclined) but it's not illegal, nor is a violation of anything (again, depending on your employer). I've been a witness to a Captain's Mast where someone was brought up on charges for insubordination because he told the Leading Petty Officer that the LPO was stupid for wanting to complete a project in a certain fashion. The guy was sent to the Correctional Custody Unit for a month and docked 1/2 pay for another month, simply for "talking back".
Many people would think most differences can be resolved through communications, but I've seen military people prefer to throw paper at the problem rather than actually work it out. I've seen a guy get written up because he showed up for work without shaving. Hell, I was given written counseling because I went to breakfast at 4:30am while we were preparing to refuel; everyone had already reported for duty and we weren't scheduled to even man up for the refueling until 7am. The refuelings normally lasted 4 hours, not counting the cleanup and gear stowage time afterward. So, from dinner the night before we were expected to wait 14-16 hours before we could eat, simply because our division officer wanted everyone to "stand-by". So several of us were counseled because we "violated" his instructions. Would that happen in a civilian job? I don't know, but I know the military allows more power to people than would be allowed in most civilian jobs.
I would beg to differ regarding the military being able to get the job done. There is so much incompetence in the military it's disgusting. Granted, many people love their job, country, etc. and try to do their best, but too many times I've seen blatant disregard for common sense. I'm sure it happens in the civilian sector, but the Peter Principle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle) doesn't apply to the military, since most promotions are based on guessing correctly on a test. Actually, it's more like people are continually promoted regardless of whether they're competent or not.
I agree completely. The only wasted vote is a vote that was never used.
The fact that you vote for a third party (be it Libertarian, Green, or other) is telling people that you don't like the status quo. That's saying a lot more than simply bitching about "those damn big-money, oil-loving, war-mongering Republicans" or "those stupid, ex-hippie, tree-hugging, tax-and-spending Democrats".
People always complain about who's in office or which party controls Congress but in the end it doesn't matter. Both parties screw up because people let them.