This was once true. It was once true that heavy equipment was needed to do some design work. I use apature on MacBook Air. I never felt the need to upgrade from my over 3 year old MacBook Pro 17" as it will edit and burn movies onto DVD as good as anything else. What the big machines you is storage and security, and, for a very few, really high end speed that may be cheaper to acquire though multiple machines.
My concern with the move to Intel was that after years of Wintel mediocrity, with high clock rates but slow buses, they would not be able to supply the high quality chips to MS. It turned out that they were ready to knock AMD out, and the Apple money provided funding for the chips there were in fact ready to make. It was a nice surprise.
Chips are fast enough. We were seeing great leaps in speed for while. From the Mac Classic to the last Mac II we saw sped increase from a few MHz to over 30, a 10X increase, in 8 years. The PPC jumped to over 100 MHz to well over 2 GHZ also in around 10 years. But heat became an issue, so Apple went to Intel, starting at less than 2GHZ, and the current processor has only gone up to around 3Ghz, a 50% increase in 6 years. Clearly the configuration of the computer, not the basic 'speed' or the chip is becoming the critical factor. This is really the story of the Mac. How fast is the machine overall, not the fastest component.
Right now, from what I read, a A6x is runs around 1.5GHz. This is in the ball park or what most of the Intel machines run. Some consumer machines are over 2GHz, the pro desktops, as stated, are over 3GHz. I assume the A6x is clocked on the low side to conserve power and minimize heat in the tablet, so in a laptop is should be able to go quite a bit faster, even 50%. I wonder if 3GHz is outside the realm of possibility. I read that many android tablets run chips at around 70%.
My real concern here is storage and graphics. One nice thing about Macs is that one never had to skimp on storage. Back in the mide 90's I had a 200MB optical removable drive. I have running 4GB of ram or more for several years. A terrabyte has not been a problem since such drives became viable for the desktop. So I suppose Apple has this set up. I don't think moving to the new chip is an issue, as Apple has done this twice with no hiccups.
A few ago I was buying a few PC laptops. I want one to be like an ultrabook, and actually found one that was a good price, and had what I thought was a 64 GB. My first Macbook Air had a 64 GB SSD, and though it was tight, the system, library, and applications are about 25 GB, it was workable even with iPhoto, though I never ran iMovie or Aperture on it. However, the sales person told me that since we were going to install full version of MS Office and do photo editing it would not work well.
So this was always my assumption of putting a full OS on a tablet. It simply would not have enough power or memory to really make it work, even using something like the simplified interface that was so-recently-called-Metro. Even the 64 GB iPad is getting insufficient. I am not going to buy another until there is 128GB.
So, big surprise, building a table to meet a price point is not going to result in a high end experience, no more than buying the cheapest laptop allows one to create a feature film. In this case, however, we may find that bloated software may not even allow one to write a memo in MS Word. I suspect we will find the low end solution is still going to be Android and Google Drive.
This is not just about working on your car in a driveway. It is knowing if there is a problem, and if the problem need to fixed now or later, and what the fix should involve. For instance, my car will tell me when anything is wrong in many parts of the car, but when something is wrong in the engine, all that will happen is the 'check engine light'. Even with a scanner, and I have one for my talbet, there is precious little information to be had. The information should be there, but the car computer will not give it up. So when I take it to the shop i don't really know what to expect. Furthermore I don't know if I can take it to one of the 10 autopart stores around me and fix it myself(not in the driveway) or if I have to take to my mechanic, who is trustworthy, reliable, and not incredible expensive, which means there is also always a line.
The fact that developers do not have unions has nothing to do with the idealized geek fantasy. It has to do with developers being able to change jobs as needed and increase salary over time. It has to do with so many on H1B visa programs that would be terminated if unions were to be an issue.
Unions, like corporations, provide value through stability and well known brands and point of contact. For instance, if one needs a crane operator, a union can insure a business acquires a skilled person who will be accepted by the insurance company. The union provides predictability in budgeting. Some workers complain about paying fees, and some employers complain about paying living wages, but like Governor Christie, are appreciative of the service when disaster strikes.
So I am not surprised that developers are looking at unions. More developers have families, so they want to be judged on efficiency rather than hours at the office. Many don't want the inefficiencies caused by frequent job moves, in which much of the costs are shifted to the employee, so want to know that job stability is a possibility. Many are getting to retirement age, and realize the party is over.
What is true is that polling has never won an election. What wins elections is voting, and if we are to have a government for the people and by the people we must vote. A non representative government, such as that fought by the founding fathers is simply not in the best long term interest of the country.
So, no, polling is not going to win an election. The most famous example is the Dewey/Truman race in which polling gave Dewey the win, and the Chicago Tribune wrote it up as such. The accepted reason for this is that they only polled people with telephones, which skewed the results. This is of course the result in all polls. If is impossible to get a representative sample or voters because no one knows who is going to vote on the day. There are likely voters, and registered voters, but the magic to use this get a reliable poll is simply that, magic.
Now what polls can do is direct campaign efforts and misdirect the populous about the election. In a tight race any form of voter suppression is going to help someone like Romney, and polls can be useful, although such forms of voter suppression, i.e. the attack on Acorn, obviously did not help McCain. So again we see that polling is not going to help in the case of a well funded competitors. If Rasmusen was the most cited poll, then it likely many would stay home. However in the light of other polls, Rasmusen may in fact encourage voters for Obama that might stay home given his lead in most states.
This is seen in New Hampshire with Romney. If Romney gets 70% of the white non hispanic vote he wins the popular vote, but likely will lose the electoral college. This is why he is spending so much time in New Hampshire. It is his most likely path to a win. But the polling shows him losing, so many of his supporters might stay home. New Hampshire is 90% white non-hispanic, but 33% college educated, which traditionally is less supportive of Republicans. So Romney is fighting the polls by hanging out there. White voters are not usually suppressed, but can be discouraged. There is a ballot measure that would appeal to Romney supports, which might help on turnout.
What physical? You mean the additional $120 a year for blu ray? For older movies I think Hulu plus offers a better supplement, given the Criterion Collection. Amazon does provide a good overall value. The studios are clearly not seeing value with netflix. If MS buys it, and does not need to show a profit, then things might turn around. As it is they lost their edge when physical media became an added cost.
But it should vary based on driving conditions. When I first got my current car I pretty much got the stated 16/23mpg. However as I learned to drive it I found I could get 20/25mpg. Sometimes if i do a lot of stop and go surface road driving I will get 18mpg. OTOH, if I take a drive on the open road for 2-3 hours I can approach 30 mpg. I don't think we are in the world of the 70's or 80's where the prediction technology is not there. For instance I rented a Subaru legacy to drive around the mountains and on the way down, a 50 mile trip, I used just over a gallon. On the way up I did not get much worse than the rated efficiency. You mileage may vary, but if it is by much it is pretty much at the point where it is fraud.
False analogy. First, most people unlock phones and if you give it to a service person it is under the understanding that they are to help, not steal data.
Second, as Bruce Schneier argues in his latest book, Liers and Outliers, society functions on the assumption that most people are honest, and so we don't have to waste a lot of time on excessive sucurity. For example, if we extend the coffe shop example, if you don't always have you car in a secured garage with armed patrol, it is your fault if it gets stolen? I think so, based on the example.
These people got fired because they violated the assumption of trust that Verizon depends on to grow it's business. If I am worried that Vernon reps are primarily there to stea personal data, I will go elsewhere. The fact that the personal data is nude pics is a judgemental viewpoint that has more to do with the confort Jon's own body than the issue at hand.
Tomorrow I will see all these people in these large building just leaving thier cars in unprotected oparking lots, letting thier children run around without proper supervision, letting the public in with no security. I suppose if something happens it will be thier fault, not the malice of the perpetrators. I would hate to live in the world where one is afraid of everything.
It is interested that practicing and promoting Christian sharia law while accepting taxpayer handouts is acceptable, even mandatory, by the wing nut right, and considered protected speech, but any other religious law is considered illegal activity. Case in point. We have holiday parties because some don't want taxpayer money to be used to indoctrinate their kids into the some Christian ideal that physical gifts, not love or the acceptance of the savior is the critical parts of Christmas. We see this in the fact that many Christians want Christmas sales, not holiday sales, to cement the connection between manufactured secular good and a very important, at least to some, Christian festival. This promotion is to such a point that many have called such separation between religion and the money changes a 'war on Christmas.' It seems simple enough to say we don't like sharia law, and it is cause for termination to promote it, but obviously if one is Christian wasting taxpayer money to annoy your workers is a god given and constitutional right.
many people in line are not fluent in English and are either Asian immigrants or visitors.'
Are we getting a start on next weeks complaints from the Tea Party vote suppression brigade? 'Oh, theres a bus of voters that aren't the same color as us.' 'Oh theres a bus of votes who don't speak english.' I bet when the bus of voters from the church comes, and their minister tells them vote for the anti-christ or go to hell, the tea party people aren't going to be complaining. I understand that this statement was put in to make people believe that no one except scalpers are buying the iPad, but that is simply not true no matter how much one wants it to be true. Facts are not based on personal beliefs. I am sure if you went into any major shop many of the people purchasing would be visitors. That is what NYC run.
Second, if one is without power, a tablet is the way to go. This is from someone who spent two weeks without power back when all we had was an iPhone. A full size computer is not going to charge quickly or be usable for a long time. A computer with 8-10 charge is very useful. Charge it every couple days, use it sparingly, and you can still get all the news and information and email. After a huge storm the cell connections are not reliable for synchronous communications, but are often ok can be used for light browsing and text and email.
And life still goes on after a disaster. UPS is delivering to home, so ordering online is a possibility when local stores are not available. Some restaurants are up on a limited basis, so go and get food and charge the phone. A solar powered battery can also recharge devices.
I feel for these guys though. When a big storm hits it usually is really nice outside for several days after, so sleeping without electricity is no problem, and if one can't get to work we just all hang out and read and play. It is nice. I can't imagine have a storm and then have 40-50 degree temperatures. That sucks.
Just that $1 a phone is cheaper than court. Apple seems to willing to pay to get rid of pests.
As far as "what has been offered' to others, then why does not Samsung give $2.50 to Apple. After all most Android devices pay 10-15 dollars to MS per device because MS owns *nix and all smartphone patens, so everything that is going make a call is going to have pay MS. money. OTOH, instead of just paying Apple, who also claims to own everything smartphone, they fight.
This is pretty much just a fight over who is going profit off the crumbs of the people who actually do the work to bring an innovative product. Google has yet to bring a product to market that the market really wants. The same with MS. Samsung has a leg to stand on, but because it has caved and paid money to MS, who has no real claim to it, they are kind of screwed, It is like paying for black mail. One you pay, you are stuck.
This is may be a best case scenario. Whedon can write and direct and has been known to put a good scene on film. As much as everyone likes to say that Lucas can't really do anything, there are are some really good shots, and some passable dialog, in Star Wars. The opening shot of the ships, Luke looking over the desert, the first time we see Darth Vader, are all excellent. Lucas did define the technology we expect to see in a special effect film.
That said the world has left Lucas behind, and it was one reason that the prequel was disappointing. What was acceptable in 1977 is simply not where we are in the 21st century. We know what technology can do, and just showboating technology does not a movie make. There are times when a little bit of fx can go far, and this is what Whedon can do as he worked on very tight budgets.
But that still leaves a problem with episode 7-9 in that there is a lot out there that defines what happens after Jedi. One can do what they did in Star Trek and make anything outside the live action content non-cononical, but that risks making the biggest fans really unhappy as the books defined Star Wars for so long, and there can anything more than a cameo from the original stars would be likely to be problematic. Who own the right to the Skywalker kids?
My impression was that the third set of three films was go be the rebuilding of the empire. Now we probably have a rebuilt empire, with one Skywalker-Solo child at the lead as a good Jedi, and another as the bad Sith. But this is pretty much episode 1-3, except with the no annoying child. What could be interesting is grand child who we actually see trained as Jedi and tormented by his duty to his parent, uncles, and aunts. After all, the Jedi training is supposed to be so great, but it has never really be fully explored.
As an aside, I will remind people that anything with "A New Hope" or "Episode" in it is not the original Star Wars.
So you are equating baseball to the devine. If that is the level that one thinks of the almighty, simply a passby created by bored humans, then I don't disagree
But I think the poster is attempting to denigrate and delegitimize those who believe differently using two old tactics. The first is say people are 'ignorant' and need 're-education' rather than just acknowledging that not everyone believes in the same stuff. The ignorance ploy is used in Mormonism, with young people like Mitt Romney spending their days telling other christians that just believe and acknowledging Jesus as their savior is not enough. One must accept Joseph Smith as a Prophet who tells us what Jesus wants us to do. Likewise, we know that people who for political reasons promote the idea of reeducation. For instance there are documented reeducation camps in North Korea where it is important to believe that the leader is superior and others are sorted into castes by birthright.
The second is by validating by assumption that everything must has a controlling entity. Sure, if we limit ourselves to a certain outcome or certain rules then yes someone needs to construct and control the framework. For instance, MLB has to have very heavy management and referees because it is all about TV ratings, and if anything, like real fun, interferes the money might be gone. But one can imagine a game like baseball, where the only people involved are the players, and they are just play the game itself, not worrying about ratings, or paychecks, or who wins, or if a someone who touched someone else was cheating, just playing and having fun, might exist in an alternate universe. It is pretty to think so.
And I am sure that wonderful game, without excessive regulation, without pimps trying to score easy cash, just the players playing, would be incredible offensive to many. After all someone has to be in control. The rules have to be followed. We can't just let people have fun, live their lives, enjoy their families and each other,without someone who is better than them telling how. If people have choice and freedom from excessive regulation, chaos will ensue. People wil have new ideas. Someone, somewhere, might be having more fun than me, which absolutely is the fundamental value of too many religions. To make sure that no one, anywhere, is doing something i can't.
The issue is that it is not really economical to put together a computer from scratch, adding OS later, even if the OS if basically free. When the first personal computers came out, the IBM and the Apple , these were tightly integrated systems that the use could turn on, put some software on, and then use. The IBM used a new software, MS DOS, because it could not get a deal to use CP/M, the predominate software of the day. But MS was made to run on one computer, just like Apple. CP/M, which could run across processors, lost out.
For a short time, after Compaq reversed engineered the IBM BIOS and cheap components because available, it was cheap to buidl your own, but that was only because the markup on IBM and Compaq machines were very high and MS liscensing was very liberal. But you still had limited hardware. When MS cracked down on licensing, charging huge prices for single purchases, and subsidizing the OEM machine in exchange for exclusivity, that time ended.
Which is to say we are not going to see a fully open source desktop anytime soon. Consumers want a unified experience that can only come form a corporate design. That is MS, Apple, Google. Users expect the hardware to be subsidized, and is not going to pay the full price up front for a sophisticated piece of hardware. This was the problem with the original mac and newton. The hardware was expensive, almost no one had a GPU, not that sophisticated a BIOS, but was too expensive.
That said, increasing parts of the OS an user experience are open source. Of course MS has little OSS in it's operating system, and that may leave a path open for some entrepreneur to create a MS compatible system with an OSS core. Of course since people who use MS products think everything should be free, it seems that as soon as an OSS core is out there, there will be few takers to pay for it since MS is 'free' with purchase of a computer.
Which leves that application and utility software. OSS has had an effect we see on software prices. OSS software is available and widely used by those that don't get MS for free through corporate or pirate channels. In fact, IMHO, the best way to push OSS is to let the anti-pirated software people win. If software piracy is really no longer possible, then MS is either going to have to cave in pricing, or face the fate of DVD, Bluray and Blockbuster.
So in the imperfect world we go out and meet people, listent to them, try to get a feeling of who they are and how they might fit into our lives. When we are younger we interact in groups and observe how others interact, learn to do so ourselves. We try to believe what we see and feel more than what others tell, but will listen to what other trusted friends say if we are in a emotional state to do so.
But instead we are to google potential friends/mates/bed mates/spouses and believe what we read. Believe that what they posted is more of a truth that what they tell us. That what some stranger wrote about them should effect our feelings. Sure, one can argue that 'if I had only googled I would not be married to a serial rapist', but really was there no clue in conservations or actions. Would accusations on line really have overcome the desire for partnered life that all so often clouds all other good judgement?
And the reason that doing a background check on a friend or whatever is considered in bad taste, and google has just made this easier, not possible, is that it is a violation of trust. When one has a person sitting there, why not just ask? Why do we need to go to our smart phone? Is it that we won't trust the answer? In that case there are problems that a background check won't solve. Linked in and facebook, those are for people in our lives who are strangers or perhaps who have become more strangers than friends. It is for young people who have not developed any significant relationships. It is for parents who want to keep track of their kids, who are moving from a dependency where the parent knows everything to a dependency where secrets are kept. Or for keeping up with people who you have sex with on an occasional basis.
But in now way is google going to let us have better friends. A good friend is not going to be based on total recall. A good salesman who can maximize purchases needs this. Perhaps if one just uses friends for cash and rides this would be useful. But people like genuine interest that falls from genuine interaction, even if that interaction is not always authentic. Maybe search engines will let us have more friends, one for each specific situation. Maybe it will let us have encounters without wasting money on drinks that do not produce desired results. Maybe, in some abstract technical sense, we can be matched up with a friend that is our perfect companion. But what fun would that be.
Sometimes it is maturity. I have seen situations where someone did not seem to know very much, but give them a few years in life and work experience, and the the knowledge seems to manifest. It is like a a pre-adolescent. They can spout facts about all sorts of stuff, but how much do they know? Not that much really until their brains organize as the move through adolescence. Once they approach adulthood, the knowledge and experience can finally integrate. Some are more mature so can do this at an earlier age. What is clear is passing a test is simply about knowing how to pass a test, that is thinking like the test maker.
I agree with the fact that we in the US need to learn to compete better, that more of the workforce needs to take work seriously and not just sit back waiting to be given a job while blaming the government for their unemployment. I believe there should be more done to encourage self employment, more taught in school so that students come up as versatilely skilled young people who also have the management basics to create a profitable business. I do not think there is a problem that a small business fails in 5 years, as that may be what is necessary to meet market needs. That said, there are many people who probably are only qualified to work for other people and cannot really change jobs frequently.
That said i also think the lawyers and US HR departments are colluding to make sure qualified persons are not being hired, even those willing to work for a reasonable salary. It is easy to say that no one is qualified to do the job. I think the falacy here is thinking the reason is simply money. Sometimes it is qualification. If one can afford to hire the top 10%, then why not go for the top 10% in the world and not just a country. But sometimes it is about indentured servitude and choices. When we can't get US citizens to work a piecewise basis picking fruit, that is because we in the US have a choice between extremely hard work or government assistance. When a school imports workers, it is not about money, but about if that teacher will be there for a few years, or even to the end of the year, or whether they might leave in the middle of the year. When a tech firms hires H1B visa people, it might be about the relation between keeping the job and being deported.
So it may be much more than money. It may be about limiting the choices of the employee, and thereby limiting the need of the employer to be responsive to employees needs.
If we say that all interesting content is going to be covered, that all edits are going to be reverted, then we are also saying that we are going to judge Wikipedia the same as an idealized print encyclopedia, then we are missing the whole point. First, encyclopedias were never only about facts and figures. If we look at older editions, all encyclopedias have biases, fallacies and outright lies. They were, arguably, an important cultural artifact documenting a specific time and set of values.
Of course print encyclopedias are quite irrelevant, but in an effort keep them relevant the embedded interests tried to create this idealized encyclopedia in which facts were pristine and perfect as they could be. Any error was a temporary misunderstanding of other facts that would soon be corrected by the magical editors who were superior to anyone else in the world. This of course never existed, and if Wikipedia is going to reach it's full potential it has to be very clear about this.
The value of wikipedia is that if reflects a culture that can change more quickly that the print cycle of a encyclopedia, and a world that can be interested in more things that can fit in 30 volumes. Note that changes in the way we related to knowledge occurred prior to the widespread use fo the Internet and Wikipedia. My Brittanica was from the 60's. In the 70's it because a much more pop encyclopedia with much less of the scholarly focus we say from 1900-1970. This included shorter articles.So Wikipedia responded to a market forces that were well in effect by the turn of the century.
So if we say that wikipedia is something new we see that it will never be 'complete' as there will always be some piece of history, some trivia, some event that can be added as soon as someone want to take charge. Even now, there are stub articles that can filled in only someone had the context and knowledge. In that Wikipedia is still run by the people, and therefore it is something old, there is always going to be the element of the pages being a product of the current editors with their biases, which means that it won't be a pristine representations of facts. however, as certain people are going to have interested in certain pages, the biases will be varied. For instance Google will make sure that it's pages continue to look like marketing copy, but that does not mean that other pages cannot have an alternate point of view.
There was a study done a few years back where scientist went in the deep Amazon are gave a geometry test, in picture form, to the natives. They did as well on it. There are some details I am forgetting, but pretty much it indicates that much that when it comes to IQ it is a combination between the life experience we all share and the specific things we are taught by our culture. For instance, some might think it perfectly reasonable to give the following question on an IQ test: What is the best way keep a cows from crossing a driveway over a ditch without using a gate. Do a) use a retractable brige, b)put a grate over the ditch c) put a scarecrow in the ditch or d) none of the above.
I assume that everyone can get this answer correct, because anyone who is civilized should have life experience of driving into ranches and seeing the grates. But of course not all do. Which is to say that one reason the IQ increases is that with TV and the internet the cultural differences are becoming less pronounced.
However teaching does play a role. Leopold Mozart developed and wrote about ways of teaching children the violen. 30 years ago the only students in high level high school courses were those that would behave and could learn from a textbook. Now almost anyone with an interest can be in higher level high school course, both because the current generation of adults are more educated, and also we have better methods of teaching. It is more likely than every that a student is going to be exposed to higher math, science, literature, before they are 18.
It is not that these classes are special, but they do teach high level sustained thinking and mental discipline, which means that these students are more likely to make an effort and tolerate a test. Practical people, who correctly do not see a point in inauthentic testing, are going to be less likely to take a test seriously. Kids who have had 20 years of testing will be more likely. We see this around here a lot. Give me a problem to solve that will generate a years worth of billing, and I will do it. Give me a game or a test that does nothing, and why spend my time on it?
I liked Anathem a lot. The housekeeper and the professor is also really good. Then we have the last theorem by Clarke and pohl which is strange but engaging. Some say the dispossessed counts, but I don't know. The difference Engine by Gibson and sterling is a must read. If you get a chance to see Proof it is well worth it.
They are not netbooks, that is the difference. Increasingly we have a workforce that simply needs to connect to a database, do email. Firms are buying expensive computers, repairing them, reimaging them after virus attacks, basically paying for functionality that is not needed. A *nix machine can provide only needed functionality, but can be more expensive to implement.
With this machine you are looking at $300 per workstation, google apps included. For certain uses, you are talking about a a complete cubicle farm for what one could put on a credit card. And if a computer breaks, just swap it out.
I can see these used in call centers. I can see these use in certain school situations. I can see this for use in the home for small kids. I can't see a laptop matching this price point, at least not one that is going to last a few years.
No, MS Windows is irrelevant because people have open standards. Take MS Windows 7. When I put a new USB in it installs a driver and a couple times wanted to reboot. I don't have this issue on my mac. External media, cameras, video, are usable immediately due to open standards. Most any printer can do basic work using a generic driver for PS or HPGL.
In addition to this we have open standard for contacts, email, pictures, web pages. An Apple or Android device is going to leverage those open standards to maximize productivity. MS has traditionally not leveraged those standards.
For the most part people don't care or know if something is OSS. They know if they have to pay for it. I bet a year ago people did not know that Google Maps had to be licensed and was closed. Most people don't know how much a MS WIndows or MS office licensee cost because those costs are hidden. It is often a free part of cheap computer or something gotten through work.
So, yes, given that people are going to bring Chromebooks and Galaxy Tabs and iPads to work, it is an issue if standards are not used. And don't think that MS legacy misbehavior is not an issue. I am still running some web apps that require IE. Telling a new prospective hire that they can't use their tablet is a not a great way to hire the best.
Presumably this was not done prior to know because the profits from these sales to the cc companies far exceeded the costs of the charge backs, services customer complaints, and the values of the lost good will.
I am going to second this. Stuff on the internet is like candy to kids. There is no imposed consequence that is going to stop them, and no technology to prevent it. The only real way to stop it is the authentic consequence of not having a computer. Back up the computer, store files online, and let the kid go. When the kid breaks the computer, have a rule that it will be fixed the next weekend. Don't want to have to go days without a computer, then don't break it. Software will not break the computer. The computer can always be reimaged to the original state.
That said, install MS security essentials. That is it. If you want to filter, filter through the router.
I wonder how many of us have complained about non US call centers. I wonder why US call centers are preferred. Not only because of the language, but because we have a shared expectation created by the public school system. This goes into all nature of our country. The US school system trains kids to work and live in such a way that we can pretty live next to each without major conflicts breaking out. Working with many people not educated int he US, I can tell you that the learning curve is significant, for all involved.
As far as nurturing genius, public schools are pretty good at doing this, if one is in a city district that is well funded, and one has parents that are interested in more than a fast and easy graduation. The comprehensive high school simply has trouble dealing with anyone outside the middle standard deviations. My friends who grew up in the suburbs had to deal with this. There was no place for them to go. Those of us who grew up in the city had special schools to go to and did not have to deal with teachers that were trained to deal with the middle, and not the exceptional cases.
Of course as has been increasingly realized, there are many forms of genius, but one thing is central to all of them, at least those that most would recognize as genius. That is a work ethic, often sn internal locus of control, often unable to deal with external schedules. So the big problem becomes managing the often non linear workflow while making sure things get down. One consequence of this is if a child does not have a work ethics, and most of the time is spent dealing with behavior or the antagonistic games, then their is little time to teach. Genius or not, a student who does not focus that genius to productive goals cannot blame anyone other than themselves.
But one cannot expect a genius to behave and sit still while nonsense is going on at the front of the room. One cannot expect a genius to tolerate long schools days where nothing is going on and sitting in a corner because their curiosity has caused then to do something that was against the rules. And this is why I think so many of these new concept schools, are useless. They exist only to siphon off the kids who are cheap to educate and generate a profit, or to segregate a population. The expensive kids are then left to the taxpayer. Guinness are expensive to educate, so not benefit from longer formal classes, do not need rules that are tightly enforced, They need space, room to explore, and advanced classes.
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My concern with the move to Intel was that after years of Wintel mediocrity, with high clock rates but slow buses, they would not be able to supply the high quality chips to MS. It turned out that they were ready to knock AMD out, and the Apple money provided funding for the chips there were in fact ready to make. It was a nice surprise.
Chips are fast enough. We were seeing great leaps in speed for while. From the Mac Classic to the last Mac II we saw sped increase from a few MHz to over 30, a 10X increase, in 8 years. The PPC jumped to over 100 MHz to well over 2 GHZ also in around 10 years. But heat became an issue, so Apple went to Intel, starting at less than 2GHZ, and the current processor has only gone up to around 3Ghz, a 50% increase in 6 years. Clearly the configuration of the computer, not the basic 'speed' or the chip is becoming the critical factor. This is really the story of the Mac. How fast is the machine overall, not the fastest component.
Right now, from what I read, a A6x is runs around 1.5GHz. This is in the ball park or what most of the Intel machines run. Some consumer machines are over 2GHz, the pro desktops, as stated, are over 3GHz. I assume the A6x is clocked on the low side to conserve power and minimize heat in the tablet, so in a laptop is should be able to go quite a bit faster, even 50%. I wonder if 3GHz is outside the realm of possibility. I read that many android tablets run chips at around 70%.
My real concern here is storage and graphics. One nice thing about Macs is that one never had to skimp on storage. Back in the mide 90's I had a 200MB optical removable drive. I have running 4GB of ram or more for several years. A terrabyte has not been a problem since such drives became viable for the desktop. So I suppose Apple has this set up. I don't think moving to the new chip is an issue, as Apple has done this twice with no hiccups.
So this was always my assumption of putting a full OS on a tablet. It simply would not have enough power or memory to really make it work, even using something like the simplified interface that was so-recently-called-Metro. Even the 64 GB iPad is getting insufficient. I am not going to buy another until there is 128GB.
So, big surprise, building a table to meet a price point is not going to result in a high end experience, no more than buying the cheapest laptop allows one to create a feature film. In this case, however, we may find that bloated software may not even allow one to write a memo in MS Word. I suspect we will find the low end solution is still going to be Android and Google Drive.
This is not just about working on your car in a driveway. It is knowing if there is a problem, and if the problem need to fixed now or later, and what the fix should involve. For instance, my car will tell me when anything is wrong in many parts of the car, but when something is wrong in the engine, all that will happen is the 'check engine light'. Even with a scanner, and I have one for my talbet, there is precious little information to be had. The information should be there, but the car computer will not give it up. So when I take it to the shop i don't really know what to expect. Furthermore I don't know if I can take it to one of the 10 autopart stores around me and fix it myself(not in the driveway) or if I have to take to my mechanic, who is trustworthy, reliable, and not incredible expensive, which means there is also always a line.
The fact that developers do not have unions has nothing to do with the idealized geek fantasy. It has to do with developers being able to change jobs as needed and increase salary over time. It has to do with so many on H1B visa programs that would be terminated if unions were to be an issue.
Unions, like corporations, provide value through stability and well known brands and point of contact. For instance, if one needs a crane operator, a union can insure a business acquires a skilled person who will be accepted by the insurance company. The union provides predictability in budgeting. Some workers complain about paying fees, and some employers complain about paying living wages, but like Governor Christie, are appreciative of the service when disaster strikes.
So I am not surprised that developers are looking at unions. More developers have families, so they want to be judged on efficiency rather than hours at the office. Many don't want the inefficiencies caused by frequent job moves, in which much of the costs are shifted to the employee, so want to know that job stability is a possibility. Many are getting to retirement age, and realize the party is over.
So, no, polling is not going to win an election. The most famous example is the Dewey/Truman race in which polling gave Dewey the win, and the Chicago Tribune wrote it up as such. The accepted reason for this is that they only polled people with telephones, which skewed the results. This is of course the result in all polls. If is impossible to get a representative sample or voters because no one knows who is going to vote on the day. There are likely voters, and registered voters, but the magic to use this get a reliable poll is simply that, magic.
Now what polls can do is direct campaign efforts and misdirect the populous about the election. In a tight race any form of voter suppression is going to help someone like Romney, and polls can be useful, although such forms of voter suppression, i.e. the attack on Acorn, obviously did not help McCain. So again we see that polling is not going to help in the case of a well funded competitors. If Rasmusen was the most cited poll, then it likely many would stay home. However in the light of other polls, Rasmusen may in fact encourage voters for Obama that might stay home given his lead in most states.
This is seen in New Hampshire with Romney. If Romney gets 70% of the white non hispanic vote he wins the popular vote, but likely will lose the electoral college. This is why he is spending so much time in New Hampshire. It is his most likely path to a win. But the polling shows him losing, so many of his supporters might stay home. New Hampshire is 90% white non-hispanic, but 33% college educated, which traditionally is less supportive of Republicans. So Romney is fighting the polls by hanging out there. White voters are not usually suppressed, but can be discouraged. There is a ballot measure that would appeal to Romney supports, which might help on turnout.
What physical? You mean the additional $120 a year for blu ray? For older movies I think Hulu plus offers a better supplement, given the Criterion Collection. Amazon does provide a good overall value. The studios are clearly not seeing value with netflix. If MS buys it, and does not need to show a profit, then things might turn around. As it is they lost their edge when physical media became an added cost.
But it should vary based on driving conditions. When I first got my current car I pretty much got the stated 16/23mpg. However as I learned to drive it I found I could get 20/25mpg. Sometimes if i do a lot of stop and go surface road driving I will get 18mpg. OTOH, if I take a drive on the open road for 2-3 hours I can approach 30 mpg. I don't think we are in the world of the 70's or 80's where the prediction technology is not there. For instance I rented a Subaru legacy to drive around the mountains and on the way down, a 50 mile trip, I used just over a gallon. On the way up I did not get much worse than the rated efficiency. You mileage may vary, but if it is by much it is pretty much at the point where it is fraud.
Second, as Bruce Schneier argues in his latest book, Liers and Outliers, society functions on the assumption that most people are honest, and so we don't have to waste a lot of time on excessive sucurity. For example, if we extend the coffe shop example, if you don't always have you car in a secured garage with armed patrol, it is your fault if it gets stolen? I think so, based on the example.
These people got fired because they violated the assumption of trust that Verizon depends on to grow it's business. If I am worried that Vernon reps are primarily there to stea personal data, I will go elsewhere. The fact that the personal data is nude pics is a judgemental viewpoint that has more to do with the confort Jon's own body than the issue at hand.
Tomorrow I will see all these people in these large building just leaving thier cars in unprotected oparking lots, letting thier children run around without proper supervision, letting the public in with no security. I suppose if something happens it will be thier fault, not the malice of the perpetrators. I would hate to live in the world where one is afraid of everything.
It is interested that practicing and promoting Christian sharia law while accepting taxpayer handouts is acceptable, even mandatory, by the wing nut right, and considered protected speech, but any other religious law is considered illegal activity. Case in point. We have holiday parties because some don't want taxpayer money to be used to indoctrinate their kids into the some Christian ideal that physical gifts, not love or the acceptance of the savior is the critical parts of Christmas. We see this in the fact that many Christians want Christmas sales, not holiday sales, to cement the connection between manufactured secular good and a very important, at least to some, Christian festival. This promotion is to such a point that many have called such separation between religion and the money changes a 'war on Christmas.' It seems simple enough to say we don't like sharia law, and it is cause for termination to promote it, but obviously if one is Christian wasting taxpayer money to annoy your workers is a god given and constitutional right.
many people in line are not fluent in English and are either Asian immigrants or visitors.'
Are we getting a start on next weeks complaints from the Tea Party vote suppression brigade? 'Oh, theres a bus of voters that aren't the same color as us.' 'Oh theres a bus of votes who don't speak english.' I bet when the bus of voters from the church comes, and their minister tells them vote for the anti-christ or go to hell, the tea party people aren't going to be complaining. I understand that this statement was put in to make people believe that no one except scalpers are buying the iPad, but that is simply not true no matter how much one wants it to be true. Facts are not based on personal beliefs. I am sure if you went into any major shop many of the people purchasing would be visitors. That is what NYC run.
Second, if one is without power, a tablet is the way to go. This is from someone who spent two weeks without power back when all we had was an iPhone. A full size computer is not going to charge quickly or be usable for a long time. A computer with 8-10 charge is very useful. Charge it every couple days, use it sparingly, and you can still get all the news and information and email. After a huge storm the cell connections are not reliable for synchronous communications, but are often ok can be used for light browsing and text and email.
And life still goes on after a disaster. UPS is delivering to home, so ordering online is a possibility when local stores are not available. Some restaurants are up on a limited basis, so go and get food and charge the phone. A solar powered battery can also recharge devices.
I feel for these guys though. When a big storm hits it usually is really nice outside for several days after, so sleeping without electricity is no problem, and if one can't get to work we just all hang out and read and play. It is nice. I can't imagine have a storm and then have 40-50 degree temperatures. That sucks.
As far as "what has been offered' to others, then why does not Samsung give $2.50 to Apple. After all most Android devices pay 10-15 dollars to MS per device because MS owns *nix and all smartphone patens, so everything that is going make a call is going to have pay MS. money. OTOH, instead of just paying Apple, who also claims to own everything smartphone, they fight.
This is pretty much just a fight over who is going profit off the crumbs of the people who actually do the work to bring an innovative product. Google has yet to bring a product to market that the market really wants. The same with MS. Samsung has a leg to stand on, but because it has caved and paid money to MS, who has no real claim to it, they are kind of screwed, It is like paying for black mail. One you pay, you are stuck.
That said the world has left Lucas behind, and it was one reason that the prequel was disappointing. What was acceptable in 1977 is simply not where we are in the 21st century. We know what technology can do, and just showboating technology does not a movie make. There are times when a little bit of fx can go far, and this is what Whedon can do as he worked on very tight budgets.
But that still leaves a problem with episode 7-9 in that there is a lot out there that defines what happens after Jedi. One can do what they did in Star Trek and make anything outside the live action content non-cononical, but that risks making the biggest fans really unhappy as the books defined Star Wars for so long, and there can anything more than a cameo from the original stars would be likely to be problematic. Who own the right to the Skywalker kids?
My impression was that the third set of three films was go be the rebuilding of the empire. Now we probably have a rebuilt empire, with one Skywalker-Solo child at the lead as a good Jedi, and another as the bad Sith. But this is pretty much episode 1-3, except with the no annoying child. What could be interesting is grand child who we actually see trained as Jedi and tormented by his duty to his parent, uncles, and aunts. After all, the Jedi training is supposed to be so great, but it has never really be fully explored.
As an aside, I will remind people that anything with "A New Hope" or "Episode" in it is not the original Star Wars.
But I think the poster is attempting to denigrate and delegitimize those who believe differently using two old tactics. The first is say people are 'ignorant' and need 're-education' rather than just acknowledging that not everyone believes in the same stuff. The ignorance ploy is used in Mormonism, with young people like Mitt Romney spending their days telling other christians that just believe and acknowledging Jesus as their savior is not enough. One must accept Joseph Smith as a Prophet who tells us what Jesus wants us to do. Likewise, we know that people who for political reasons promote the idea of reeducation. For instance there are documented reeducation camps in North Korea where it is important to believe that the leader is superior and others are sorted into castes by birthright.
The second is by validating by assumption that everything must has a controlling entity. Sure, if we limit ourselves to a certain outcome or certain rules then yes someone needs to construct and control the framework. For instance, MLB has to have very heavy management and referees because it is all about TV ratings, and if anything, like real fun, interferes the money might be gone. But one can imagine a game like baseball, where the only people involved are the players, and they are just play the game itself, not worrying about ratings, or paychecks, or who wins, or if a someone who touched someone else was cheating, just playing and having fun, might exist in an alternate universe. It is pretty to think so.
And I am sure that wonderful game, without excessive regulation, without pimps trying to score easy cash, just the players playing, would be incredible offensive to many. After all someone has to be in control. The rules have to be followed. We can't just let people have fun, live their lives, enjoy their families and each other,without someone who is better than them telling how. If people have choice and freedom from excessive regulation, chaos will ensue. People wil have new ideas. Someone, somewhere, might be having more fun than me, which absolutely is the fundamental value of too many religions. To make sure that no one, anywhere, is doing something i can't.
For a short time, after Compaq reversed engineered the IBM BIOS and cheap components because available, it was cheap to buidl your own, but that was only because the markup on IBM and Compaq machines were very high and MS liscensing was very liberal. But you still had limited hardware. When MS cracked down on licensing, charging huge prices for single purchases, and subsidizing the OEM machine in exchange for exclusivity, that time ended.
Which is to say we are not going to see a fully open source desktop anytime soon. Consumers want a unified experience that can only come form a corporate design. That is MS, Apple, Google. Users expect the hardware to be subsidized, and is not going to pay the full price up front for a sophisticated piece of hardware. This was the problem with the original mac and newton. The hardware was expensive, almost no one had a GPU, not that sophisticated a BIOS, but was too expensive.
That said, increasing parts of the OS an user experience are open source. Of course MS has little OSS in it's operating system, and that may leave a path open for some entrepreneur to create a MS compatible system with an OSS core. Of course since people who use MS products think everything should be free, it seems that as soon as an OSS core is out there, there will be few takers to pay for it since MS is 'free' with purchase of a computer.
Which leves that application and utility software. OSS has had an effect we see on software prices. OSS software is available and widely used by those that don't get MS for free through corporate or pirate channels. In fact, IMHO, the best way to push OSS is to let the anti-pirated software people win. If software piracy is really no longer possible, then MS is either going to have to cave in pricing, or face the fate of DVD, Bluray and Blockbuster.
But instead we are to google potential friends/mates/bed mates/spouses and believe what we read. Believe that what they posted is more of a truth that what they tell us. That what some stranger wrote about them should effect our feelings. Sure, one can argue that 'if I had only googled I would not be married to a serial rapist', but really was there no clue in conservations or actions. Would accusations on line really have overcome the desire for partnered life that all so often clouds all other good judgement?
And the reason that doing a background check on a friend or whatever is considered in bad taste, and google has just made this easier, not possible, is that it is a violation of trust. When one has a person sitting there, why not just ask? Why do we need to go to our smart phone? Is it that we won't trust the answer? In that case there are problems that a background check won't solve. Linked in and facebook, those are for people in our lives who are strangers or perhaps who have become more strangers than friends. It is for young people who have not developed any significant relationships. It is for parents who want to keep track of their kids, who are moving from a dependency where the parent knows everything to a dependency where secrets are kept. Or for keeping up with people who you have sex with on an occasional basis.
But in now way is google going to let us have better friends. A good friend is not going to be based on total recall. A good salesman who can maximize purchases needs this. Perhaps if one just uses friends for cash and rides this would be useful. But people like genuine interest that falls from genuine interaction, even if that interaction is not always authentic. Maybe search engines will let us have more friends, one for each specific situation. Maybe it will let us have encounters without wasting money on drinks that do not produce desired results. Maybe, in some abstract technical sense, we can be matched up with a friend that is our perfect companion. But what fun would that be.
Sometimes it is maturity. I have seen situations where someone did not seem to know very much, but give them a few years in life and work experience, and the the knowledge seems to manifest. It is like a a pre-adolescent. They can spout facts about all sorts of stuff, but how much do they know? Not that much really until their brains organize as the move through adolescence. Once they approach adulthood, the knowledge and experience can finally integrate. Some are more mature so can do this at an earlier age. What is clear is passing a test is simply about knowing how to pass a test, that is thinking like the test maker.
That said i also think the lawyers and US HR departments are colluding to make sure qualified persons are not being hired, even those willing to work for a reasonable salary. It is easy to say that no one is qualified to do the job. I think the falacy here is thinking the reason is simply money. Sometimes it is qualification. If one can afford to hire the top 10%, then why not go for the top 10% in the world and not just a country. But sometimes it is about indentured servitude and choices. When we can't get US citizens to work a piecewise basis picking fruit, that is because we in the US have a choice between extremely hard work or government assistance. When a school imports workers, it is not about money, but about if that teacher will be there for a few years, or even to the end of the year, or whether they might leave in the middle of the year. When a tech firms hires H1B visa people, it might be about the relation between keeping the job and being deported.
So it may be much more than money. It may be about limiting the choices of the employee, and thereby limiting the need of the employer to be responsive to employees needs.
Of course print encyclopedias are quite irrelevant, but in an effort keep them relevant the embedded interests tried to create this idealized encyclopedia in which facts were pristine and perfect as they could be. Any error was a temporary misunderstanding of other facts that would soon be corrected by the magical editors who were superior to anyone else in the world. This of course never existed, and if Wikipedia is going to reach it's full potential it has to be very clear about this.
The value of wikipedia is that if reflects a culture that can change more quickly that the print cycle of a encyclopedia, and a world that can be interested in more things that can fit in 30 volumes. Note that changes in the way we related to knowledge occurred prior to the widespread use fo the Internet and Wikipedia. My Brittanica was from the 60's. In the 70's it because a much more pop encyclopedia with much less of the scholarly focus we say from 1900-1970. This included shorter articles.So Wikipedia responded to a market forces that were well in effect by the turn of the century.
So if we say that wikipedia is something new we see that it will never be 'complete' as there will always be some piece of history, some trivia, some event that can be added as soon as someone want to take charge. Even now, there are stub articles that can filled in only someone had the context and knowledge. In that Wikipedia is still run by the people, and therefore it is something old, there is always going to be the element of the pages being a product of the current editors with their biases, which means that it won't be a pristine representations of facts. however, as certain people are going to have interested in certain pages, the biases will be varied. For instance Google will make sure that it's pages continue to look like marketing copy, but that does not mean that other pages cannot have an alternate point of view.
I assume that everyone can get this answer correct, because anyone who is civilized should have life experience of driving into ranches and seeing the grates. But of course not all do. Which is to say that one reason the IQ increases is that with TV and the internet the cultural differences are becoming less pronounced.
However teaching does play a role. Leopold Mozart developed and wrote about ways of teaching children the violen. 30 years ago the only students in high level high school courses were those that would behave and could learn from a textbook. Now almost anyone with an interest can be in higher level high school course, both because the current generation of adults are more educated, and also we have better methods of teaching. It is more likely than every that a student is going to be exposed to higher math, science, literature, before they are 18.
It is not that these classes are special, but they do teach high level sustained thinking and mental discipline, which means that these students are more likely to make an effort and tolerate a test. Practical people, who correctly do not see a point in inauthentic testing, are going to be less likely to take a test seriously. Kids who have had 20 years of testing will be more likely. We see this around here a lot. Give me a problem to solve that will generate a years worth of billing, and I will do it. Give me a game or a test that does nothing, and why spend my time on it?
I liked Anathem a lot. The housekeeper and the professor is also really good. Then we have the last theorem by Clarke and pohl which is strange but engaging. Some say the dispossessed counts, but I don't know. The difference Engine by Gibson and sterling is a must read. If you get a chance to see Proof it is well worth it.
With this machine you are looking at $300 per workstation, google apps included. For certain uses, you are talking about a a complete cubicle farm for what one could put on a credit card. And if a computer breaks, just swap it out.
I can see these used in call centers. I can see these use in certain school situations. I can see this for use in the home for small kids. I can't see a laptop matching this price point, at least not one that is going to last a few years.
In addition to this we have open standard for contacts, email, pictures, web pages. An Apple or Android device is going to leverage those open standards to maximize productivity. MS has traditionally not leveraged those standards.
For the most part people don't care or know if something is OSS. They know if they have to pay for it. I bet a year ago people did not know that Google Maps had to be licensed and was closed. Most people don't know how much a MS WIndows or MS office licensee cost because those costs are hidden. It is often a free part of cheap computer or something gotten through work.
So, yes, given that people are going to bring Chromebooks and Galaxy Tabs and iPads to work, it is an issue if standards are not used. And don't think that MS legacy misbehavior is not an issue. I am still running some web apps that require IE. Telling a new prospective hire that they can't use their tablet is a not a great way to hire the best.
Presumably this was not done prior to know because the profits from these sales to the cc companies far exceeded the costs of the charge backs, services customer complaints, and the values of the lost good will.
That said, install MS security essentials. That is it. If you want to filter, filter through the router.
As far as nurturing genius, public schools are pretty good at doing this, if one is in a city district that is well funded, and one has parents that are interested in more than a fast and easy graduation. The comprehensive high school simply has trouble dealing with anyone outside the middle standard deviations. My friends who grew up in the suburbs had to deal with this. There was no place for them to go. Those of us who grew up in the city had special schools to go to and did not have to deal with teachers that were trained to deal with the middle, and not the exceptional cases.
Of course as has been increasingly realized, there are many forms of genius, but one thing is central to all of them, at least those that most would recognize as genius. That is a work ethic, often sn internal locus of control, often unable to deal with external schedules. So the big problem becomes managing the often non linear workflow while making sure things get down. One consequence of this is if a child does not have a work ethics, and most of the time is spent dealing with behavior or the antagonistic games, then their is little time to teach. Genius or not, a student who does not focus that genius to productive goals cannot blame anyone other than themselves.
But one cannot expect a genius to behave and sit still while nonsense is going on at the front of the room. One cannot expect a genius to tolerate long schools days where nothing is going on and sitting in a corner because their curiosity has caused then to do something that was against the rules. And this is why I think so many of these new concept schools, are useless. They exist only to siphon off the kids who are cheap to educate and generate a profit, or to segregate a population. The expensive kids are then left to the taxpayer. Guinness are expensive to educate, so not benefit from longer formal classes, do not need rules that are tightly enforced, They need space, room to explore, and advanced classes.