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  1. Re:See how destructive unions can be? on Unions Urging Actors Not To Work On Hobbit Movie · · Score: 1
    Except the this case the purpose of movies is to employ actors and support staff. Even the producers agree with this when they put the cry baby stunt man on whining about his losing his job due to piracy. Whether a particular movie is made or not is relevant only to the executives who are refusing to make a movie because they will not make enough money, or to the creatives who think they are doing art, but, like the executives, are primarily concerned with the cash that comes up front with the contract.

    The union is simply saying that doing this movie may result in long term loss of income, so perhaps it is better not to do it. The actors still have the right to chose to do the movie.Hell, they could bring the script to Texas and give itto Robert Rodriguez and he could get the movie done without all the whining.

  2. Re:Oversaturated degree market on You Are Not Mark Zuckerberg, So Stay In School · · Score: 2, Interesting
    A few quick points. First, on average there does appear to be a widening income disparity between those with less education and those with more, particularly a college degree. This may indicate the employers are willing to pay for a more educated workforce, even if the education has little to do with the job. My hypothesis is a college degree indicates an ability to problem solve and work without supervision.

    Second, getting a college degree to get a specific job is not necessarily the best thing to do. This is why half of an undergraduate education s often in general courses, there just to make students more educated. Other than a pre-med program, college is not typically low level job training. Hopefully a college degree is a general education that provides a background for a number of different careers. A corollary to this is that is not wise for all students to build up large debts in hopes of gaining future employment. Reputable universities do not push the idea of building huge debt.

    Third, as the world becomes more educated, it will be more important to have a higher education. Sure maybe all one can get is a tech support job, but in the US, where we are approaching 30% of the adults with a college degree, perhaps such a job would not be attainable without a college degree. It is almost the prisoners dilema. if no one has a college degree, then the employers are forced to hire and train high school screw ups. If enough people capitulate and go to college, this save firms money with a higher skilled labor force.

    And lastly, not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Even if Zuckerberg did steal the idea or some of the code, even if was one of a thousand who had the idea and wrote code, he is the one who brought it to market. It is like Edison and Marconi. Who invented what is lost to the fact of who was able to sell what. Not everyone can start and run a business. If they could we would not be at 10%+ unemployment in the US. People would not be looking for jobs. People would be hustling. Within a mile of me is a huge amount of affordable retail space with high traffic flow. One would think that with more than 1 out of 10 people unemployed, some would go to the SBA and get a loan. A few are. There are some kids who did so and are installing speakers in cars. I am told that another is planning on selling cards. At the very least one would think that some of these 10% would try to compete with the immigrants that everyone is complaining about by getting a truck and doing some manual labor. Instead they just stay a home and collect unemployment, which is their entitlement as US citizens who previously did some work.

    This is all just to say that a college degree is often useful as most people do not have the motivation to take a risk or put into the effort to start a business, or, for that matter, capitalize on a good idea when they hear it. For the people who are motivated and have some ability, they will succeed no matter what. One can anecdotally give a case of a high school drop out who is now a millionaire, or the son of millionaire who dropped out college and is now a billionaire, but it is just anecdotal, if not apocryphal.

  3. Re:Yes on Should I Learn To Program iOS Or Android Devices? · · Score: 1
    Apple, in my experience, has always been in some sense harder to develop and deploy. The advantage is the apps tend to be slicker.

    Objective C is not a huge issue if one knows C or C++. The advantage is one has a more transferable basis than Flash. As mentioned, there are going to be increasingly cross platform solutions.

    The only danger with Android is that the platform becomes so fractured that apps will not run on all phones. While this could be handled through proper header files, but I suspect that we may see enough varied functionality to cause an issue.

    Phone 7 will be as much a player as every other previous Mobile OS. Blackberry has the business market, and iPhone and Android are making enough inroads that IT is forced to deal with them. The idea that one has to have a common OS from the server to the offsite mobile device is so 1990's. Interoperability and choice is the key. I can't imagine giving a kid a MS phone and expecting them to accept the Job. Look at the amount of money MS spent to promote the Kindle to the kids, and how few were sold.

  4. Re:The reason is? on CD Sales Continue To Plummet, Vinyl Records Soar · · Score: 1
    Vinyl just plain sounds better most of the time.

    There is a lot of romanticization on this topic, and the growth in vinyl sales it related to this subjective romanization. It is just like those people who wear bell bottoms even though they are hideous.

    Most of what we consider 'better' is a result of the current technological capability. What we now cal vinyl probably became very popular because it could record a previously unheard amount of music, could work the the relatively new so-called hi-fi format, was durable, and sounded ok through the cheap kit most people owned. For hi quality kit, a good vacuum tube amplifier, with very large speakers, it was phenomenal. at least with records that were quality recording and presses. In my experience most of the mass produced albums were niether. Even the good recording, running at 33 RPM, were too slow for good sound reproduction.

    In any case, as mentioned, most people did not have the kit to produce excellent sound reproduction, so even the good recording were wasted. Most peopel did not buy a turntable, but a record player. Most poeple looked at the amplifier with the ost features instead of the best frequency response, and this is even at high end. In any case, the integrated circuits had none of the warmth of the vacuum tube.

    The real innovation of the CD was not simply to provide a recording compromise between the disc and cassette, but to provide a format that would reliable reproduce sound on equipment people owned. The first time I put a CD in my car using stock speaker, it was amazing for such a system. I heard components of the audio I have never heard. The reproduction was superior. And this is the point of purely digital recordings. Most popele do not have the fine turntable, vacuum tube amplified, and 6 foot high speakers that I had as a kid. They has 1 cm headphones 4" midrange speakers, probably with no credible tweeters.So the recordings, and playback are set to as accurate reproduce sounds in that reality. Now, if we start revitalizing the vacuum tube industry, and people all of sudden have 3K to buy a real hi-fi stereo system, and go back to changing record every 5 minutes(for a real RPM), then vinyl will be great. Otherwsie, go back to yelling at kids to get out your yard.

  5. Re:Paper and pencil on iPads On American Campuses? Maybe Next Year · · Score: 1
    I never really never got the idea of using a computer to take notes. When I was in college I was one of the few with that capability since I did have a a laptop computer that I could have used for many classes, but, as mentioned, the purpose of note taking is not just to write down everything the professor says or puts on the board. It is to comprehend, analyse, and output a meaningful sequence or marks that summarizes the topic. Some people do not even use notes, the process of listening and writing is enough. Some people benefit from rewriting notes, and it is at this point that it can be helpful to put notes in a computer. As it is a computer does not allow the rich organization structure that a pen and paper allows. I always had my portable with me, but did not use it for notes during class.

    An iPad is a second or third computer. I have a big machine that I use to edit pictures and movies and technical design work. I can carry this around, and used to, but noticed most of my work was writing, not heavy graphics. So I bought a small machine that is slow, but also light. It is fast for web browsing, email, typesetting, and presentations. There are things I can't do, but like my portable all those years ago, it is light and functional.

    I think most campuses have computer labs to allow students access to full machines, such as if they wanted to graphics work or other CPU intensive work. I cannot think of anything I did for clases in college that I could not have done with an iPad and keyboard. The iWork updates improved that suite quite a bit, and Google Docs are supposed to be available real soon now. There is even a terminal application that is superior to any I have used.

    Of course the university often forces people to use certain application, and I can see B-School profs failing students for not using the holy MS products. But that is not an issue with machine, just a limitation of imagination.

    I would not say that iPads should be required for school, just that they are likely a good option for students who just want to get work done without carrying a large machine.

  6. Re:competing with the roaches on Australian Schools Go iPad-Crazy · · Score: 1
    Actually, I would say the novel is the source of the dumb and lazy craze. I mean, really, what could be less appealing than lying in your bed reading about life instead of going out and living life and maybe finding someone to share your bed. And what does on learn in a novel. A limited set of vocabulary with a limited set of metaphors and allusions? At some point it is time to create your own allusions instead of copying existing, often outdated, ones.

    As far as the iPad and other flat screen keyboard less devices, the benefits are great. The iPad runs the kindle software, which is an awesome book reader. I am highlighting and learning more using it than I ever was with a paper book. The games are useful to introduce content, what is called engagement in the pedagogy biz. An external keyboard with Google Docs, which should run imminently, takes care of office applications with nearly zero cost wrt MS office. I can imagine OO.org running on any Java based pad. Testing can be more secure if we get a secure browser, like we have for Moodle on the PC. No more paper tests, no more grading.

    People tend to fear technology, mostly because they are incapable of learning anything new. We still teach using slightly upgraded black boards, all we did was turn then white, not because computers and projectors and laptops are expensive, but because such devices will give the kids the power learning at the expense of control of the teachers.

  7. Re:Floppy drives anyone? on The Surprising Statistics Behind Flash and Apple · · Score: 1
    I think the assumption is that The One technology in fashion is the One and Only Best Solution. When Apple left Floppies, I was already using magneto-optical drives. I already had replaced the drive in my Powerbook 5300 with an MO drive. I bought a similar unit for my Power Mac that shipped without removable media(CD were, and still are primarily WORM). Floppy drives were useless because of they did no have the storage space one needed, particularly as we entered the late 90's, and networks still did not allow fast remote storage(itools was 2000, and it was useful in that regard).

    I also see this as a kind of IE only thing. For a long time people developed IE MS Windows only web app front ends. People thought this was the best solution, so getting a Mac was stupid. In reality this situation only lasted a few years, was declining by 2000(the web app I worked on at the time only had one component that was IE only), and by 2005 only the most backwards organizations, particularly government organizations, were IE only. People found equal or better solutions that did not limit their customer base.

    Flash is the same way. There are some things for which flash does make a very good solution, but there are many things for which flash is just gratuitous. Given the number of iPads firms depending on using flash to make sales are going to have to make the same decision that firms the previously required IE. Is the solution superior enough to offset the lost sales. Face it, Apple is a small market, but big enough to drive changes to the computer market. It has always been a player. The dropping of Flash from iPad is not so much Apple moving too fast, as much as Apple saying if Adobe does not play nice, it has the power to injure it. Right now Apple has blinked, and Adobe has the opportunity to make a Flash that works, but I think we can read something into the fact that after a year it has not so done.

  8. 90's OS on Looking Back At OS X's Origins · · Score: 3, Insightful
    In the 90's, all OS sucked. Networking and the internet made them look old. Mac OS still sucked less because of the way it interacted, and continued to interact, with standard compliant devices. The primary problem was that the motorola chips were becoming dated, which Apple fixed in the Mid 90's with the power PC.

    It is interesting to note that at that time MS also released their first real GUI OS, Windows NT. By 1996 MS has a credible OS, which remain useful until 2000, when XP became a reasonable successor. Like Mac OS 9, however, NT was not that consumer friendly.

    In a world where the web has reached a point where social media consumption and creation is what most people do, neither Mac OS X or Windows 7 will be the solution. As much as pundits want to say that people spend their days typing reports, creating powerpoints, that is not what people to. They post to video blogs and watch videos and text. We will see machines that run Windows 7 for business, and Mac OS X for software development and creative content creation, but the that is going to be an increasing niche market. People will be buying iOS and Android devices, because these are going to let them do stuff for $300. An external keyboard and google docs will let them do anything they need for school. Windows Mobile is not going to do it. We have seen the succor to Mac OS X, and it is iOS.

  9. Re:"Competing" like WWF on Stewart and Colbert Plan Competing D.C. Rallies · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If we are going to be pedantic, the tea party movement and the general republican party are funded by the same people. Corporations like Koch industries fund both. Any competitions between the two are a dog and pony show. It is becoming unfashionable to be employed and intelligent, so the tea party is there to put nude models, unemployed carrer politicians, and sex deviants so that people can relate to their officials. I mean look at the half term governor who everyone loves. She allows us to live vicariously through her. Most can't afford to shop at neiman marcus, or wouldn't put the unwed daughter on TV, but we can live through her and hope that one day someone will reward us for our jackass like behavior.

    And it would be nice to know some rational Tea Part leaders. It is those that want to cut taxes, without a plan to fund the war and protect our citizens. Or is the one's that want to ban sharia law, but are happy to continue to force free enterprise to shut down on sundays. Is it those that waste tax payers money to see a birth certificate that is already on line, Or those that want to ban Mosques, but allow christian to gloat next to the centennial olympic park. Or perhaps it is palin and her death panels.

    Honestly, if the Tea Party would official expel Palin and Beck, most of my problems with them would evaporate. Most everyone else are mostly rational.

  10. hallelujah on First Google Voice App Hits the App Store · · Score: -1, Troll
    We are now free from the Apple supplied phone application for the phone we chose to $500 for instead of buying a cheaper Android phone and can now use a phone application not integrated into the phone. I know that google voice gives us free calls, but Skype already does that. It seems like if google voice was a critical feature, one would buy an android phone that had it built in.

    Not that I don't understand the issue of choice. Just that I use skype o the iphone, and the issue is that it is not well integrated. Given that I don't use my minutes as it is, the inconvenience of skype simply is not worth the trouble. Now Skype for iPad, that will be something I want, especially if the iPad can work with my earbud.

  11. Re:Econ 101 on BSA's Latest Piracy Claims 'Shockingly Misleading,' Says Geist · · Score: 1
    What we need is a study to determine the number of net jobs that would be created is if we moved to OOS where licensed software was not fully valid. For instance, if an small office replaced MS software, which the may not have fully licensed, that could solve two problems. By removing the unlicensed software the business would no longer be guilty of grave crime of piracy. With the money they previously spent on licensing costs, they could hire productive workers. Rather than MCSE, they could hire professionals that actually understand how computers and networks and software works, rather than just how MS believes these things should work. The business could hire more employees that focus on sales and brand development and web site usability. Sure a couple overpaid MS employees might be lost, but many more people could be hired, helping to reduce overall unemployment.

    So, I absolutely agree with the BSA report. Licensing software does cause huge harm, and the solution is not to use software the must be licensed unless absolutely necessary.

  12. Re:Cognitive dissonance on Meet the Virginia-Built 110MPG X-Prize Car · · Score: 1

    Materials are not necessarily the biggest expense in a car. A Dodge Dart was 2900 lbs and the Honda Civic replacement was 2300 pounds, but the materials was not the primary discriminant. The Honda won points on price and quality. The Honda was designed from the ground up to be a reliable fuel efficient car, not to support a bloated management structure. Likewise, many cars are now designed to support a bloated distribution network that must sue to stay in business. One can imagine that if a car was designed to minimize fuel consumption and cost, rather than provide excessive pay to dealers, it might only cost $20K. Of course we don't know if the car is reliable or street legal.

  13. Re:Seems rather contradictory on Will Android Flavors Spoil the Platform? · · Score: 1
    My argument against Android was that even though it might give end users more freedom that they have on the iPhone, the effect would that the telcos would merely use the Android platform to lock the users into specific patterns of use to maximize recurring costs, and that software would still be limited by incompatibility among the releases. A true open platform, meaning that user could easily replace the OEM version of Android with an arbitrary version off the net, would be unavailable to most users.

    We saw that right off. Not all that we would consider 'Android' was open source, and not all the add ons were available to end users. Newer Android OS were not available to most older phones, even one that were quite new, and almost no one could just download a version of android that was not customized for their phone. Android defenders said that one could not arbitrarily down iOS for an iPhone, there was a version for each, but at least iPhone users will be able to use the latest iOS for the duration of the contract.

    Which is why there is no contradiction. Android is clearly an open source tool for the wireless companies to deliver products that continue to focus on the revenue needs of the wireless company, not the end user needs. This is not always bad for the end user. What is true there are real incentive to differentiate Android phones in such a way that overall Android branding might be hurt. In particular if OEMs force certain default Apps and limit the use of others, this would hurt the brand. Since Android is not iPhone, it should not matter if the phone ships with IE. Any end user should be able to put any browser on the phone and make it the default.

  14. Re:The viewpoint from two worlds on HDCP Master Key Revealed · · Score: 1
    The philosophical question here is there an inalienable right to happiness, or merely the pursuit of it. It is not a subtle point. Is a person who does an honest days work entitled to a livable wage, and who determines that wage. Is the 'content creator' entitled to livable wage, and who determines what that livable wage is. Is there not a point where the wage requested is so outlandish that alternative

    This so-called content piracy thing is predicated on the idea that a person is entitled to compensation, as determined by the person, not the market, for doing work. This is a radical idea that has no historical or cultural basis. In the US we are perfectly willing to let people do an honest days work and then let them live in squalor. Why should the rules change just because a person has a popular crafts project?

    OTOH, we are not entitled to any unlicensed content we wish. I do agree with either side calling out the national guard to enforce a sense of entitlement. What is true is that, in a free market, if a demand is created, and the product is not offered at market value, which could be free, then alternative products or avenues of acquisition will be created.

  15. Re:No calculators on Preventing Networked Gizmo Use During Exams? · · Score: 1
    The difference between my engineering and physics exams, and the reason I preferred physics, it was frequently sufficient to set up the problem. Sometimes, for practice, one had to run through the process of solving something like a surface integral, but by and large the irrelevant and tedious process of long numeric calculations were absent. If one had solve a quadratic, the roots were often simple integers.

    So I agree the way to go a no calculator exam. If all the are going to do is put the integral into Wolfram|Alpha, where is the fun in that? I often wondered what was the pedagogical advantage of giving a kid that knew how to put a matrix into a calculator and regurgitate the numbers the calculator devised a much better grade than a student who did all but that work. It seemed that many of physics professors agreed. For the current generation of student, a calculator is like a security blanket. Not something that really helps, only something that makes them believe they can do better work. Like cocaine.

    As far as the language issue, I would say that looking at some ESL techniques might work. The vocabulary for a test might be limited, with many of the important words actually words that a student was supposed to learn from the chapter. Furthermore many professors merely modify questions the students have already been given. This means that the english language learner who has studied is already familiar with the test, and only needs to comprehend the new numbers. As such I am not sure how useful a translating device would be. For such a student I would propose extra time.

    This does not really answer the question, and really there is no real way to prevent network access. If the access to the school network it cut, then they move to cell phone coverage. You can ask that all network access be turned off, but it hard to monitor that. In my classes, I do monitor, but mostly use the honor system. I tell the students that the test is a critical part of the learning process, and the issue is not grades. They will get a good grade. It is challenge, which is also not a popular concepts. So kids cheat, and if one is trying to run a uber valid assessment of what the student knows, then all the student should have is a pencil and the test.

  16. Re:18% on Geocentrists Convene To Discuss How Galileo Was Wrong · · Score: 1

    About 20% of people in the US will believe anything. That a former nude model would make a good conservative leader. That electing official that run away from office when the going get tough will reduce, not increase the chance of foreign attack. That a the united states government, that is incompetent to even read a bill, can engage in conspiracies that would require the administrative skills of Hermes Conrad.

  17. This is reality. It was done in the 90's to help MS understad how they could atempt dominate the internet market. Many companies used MS technology back then. MS Windows NT provided a real OS for many tasks. The then flexibility of licensing allowed one to buy machines, get them up and running, and then acquire licenses as one could. In general this worked well and everyone made money. It was beneficial to MS because IE-only meant much of the web was a MS only product.

    Then near the end of 90's, with the internet strategy not working as well as MS would like, and sales not growing as fast as MS would want, MS cracked down. Came into offices. Made sure that all licenses were valid. Licensing was something businesses were just learning, so recording keeping was not always up to date. Gave MS an excuse to sniff around, steal ideas. One of the reasons so many businesses, even those with products and conservative business plans failed. Using MS products quickly became a liability.

    I think this is one reason why so many internet businesses now run on OSS. First, it is an evolutionary things. Many of the MS shops were licensed out of existence. What was left were the small agile businesses that were able to use any products necessary. With OSS people know what tools you are using, and one has to put some code back to the community, but at least MS is not stealing your innovation, at least not anymore than anyone else.

    Of couse some firms use forms of proprietary software, like Sun or IBM. But unlike MS, which merely sells seats and then lets the firm sink or swim, Sun and IBM sells systems. This is a bit different. Apache, which could run on MS products, is pretty steadily at least half the web severs.

  18. Advertisements on GoDaddy Up For Auction · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I don't normally complain about advertisements posing as articles, but as many of us know Godaddy is well known for board line ethics in the drive for profits and no regard for customers. There is nothing wrong with this, but I simply choose not to do business with them. All my domains have been resisted elsewhere for years. This sale, I suspect is the result of such shady er edgy, business practices.

    What practices? The most telling is the holding of domain names hostage. Any expired domain is held hostage for an amount of time until someone pays the release fee, above and beyond the registration fee. Some business will fall for this tric, but I suspect it is mostly the small user that gets hurt, losing a domain because in the pressures of family and work a domain was not renewed prior to expiration. What same person would work with such a company? Is it any wonder they are selling?

  19. Re:Jettison ChromeOS on Why Google Isn't Pushing Android For Tablets · · Score: 1
    It seems to me that what killed *nix on the netbook was that there was no development work done to make a *nix for the netbook. Someone just said we it would be cheap to mash up and we will sell it until we don't. MS did some work to put windows on a netbook, but since it had to discount product to make MS Windows work in the netbook market, there was no momentum there other than to kill the netbook market.

    I think that chrome was kind of made to work in this space, and I have chrome installed in a virtual machine, but can't really see why I would need it. It is like iPhone OS 1.0. Seriously, when want to back to ought seven. Dumb terminals are not so cheap that we will compromise to use them instead of a smart terminal. Dumb terminal, BTW was what Apple was selling with iPhone 1.0.

    There is a fair amount of things one can do an iPad. One assumes that with some work, google docs will work just as well on Android. What we see is that Android is stil for those want a keyboard, while the benefit of an iPad is the touch interface. If one were just to put Android on a tablet, it might end up like *nix on a netbook. Without thinking of the interface, it wil not compete.

  20. Re:mythtv... on GoogleTV, AppleTV and the Battle For The Living Room · · Score: 1
    The recording thing pretty much killed TV for me. For me, TV was recording shows, then watching them when I had time. The VCR made this simple. TiVo could have replaced this, but honestly by that point other people were recording the programs and I could just borrow them. It no longer became necessary for me to have my own kit.

    The networks have finally caught up with demand and get some revenue from me through Hulu and Netflix and iTunes. My issue with iTunes, AppleTV, or GoogleTV for that matter, is how the shows are going to be funded. The cable model never really worked for me because I was paying to watch commercials, and there was barely two nines reliability. The shows on iTunes are not outrageously prices, and I probably spend les on Netflix and iTunes than I would on cable.

  21. astroturfing on Big Brother In the School Cafeteria? · · Score: 1
    Kids have had to keep track of such things for a very long. When I was a kid it was a punchcard. Now most kids have IDs or other things, which they must use unless they pay full price for lunch, in which case they probably bring a lunch or buy something on campus.

    Keeping track of food consumption, and maybe supplying that information to parents, sounds like a good idea. It is not like a school, especially in the lower grades, don't already know what kids eat.

    This is clearly an attempt by the fast food people to stem this rise of healthy eating that the schools are trying to promote. 'Let the kids eat whatever they want so we will have fat happy customers in the future. Keeping track of what your child eats is facism. They want the fruit roll ups and skittles. If we fortify them with vitamins and minerals can we serve those for lunch. Sure if nobody is looking.'

    The rational person might assume that new options are to try to give kids choices so it is more likely that they will eat the food instead of throwing it away. Since the diet is not preplanned to insure it meets federal requirements, such data must be taken to insure that the lunch program meets guidelines.

    It is like the customer affinity card at your supermarket. If you don't want them to know what you eat, then don't use the card.

  22. for those laughing on School Swaps Math Textbooks For iPads · · Score: 1
    Textbook expenses are obnoxious. Not only does one have the cost of the book, but one must pay for storage to hold the books. At the central facility one must pay for people to manage the books. Check in and check out of text books is generally a multiday process that take an administrator, so just in pay we are talking at a couple thousand dollars per year per school. Books get lost and there is really no way to get kids to pay for books anymore. It is voluntary. You see this in the school library. Many kids only check out one book a year, the book that their english teacher makes them check our at the beginning of the year, which they promptly lose.

    There are an increasing number of open source textbooks that are quite suitable for the classroom. Most of the classics taught in school can be downloaded for free or very cheap. Many libraries have electronic books, which reduces the loss at the library.

    Why an iPad instead of a Kindle? The iPad has tools the kids can use. For instance, some schools use individual white board for in class assessment. The iPad will do that. Some schools give out calculators, at the cost of thousands of dollars to replace damages and lost machines. The iPad will do this, only need calculators maybe for testing and practice for testing. I would love to see the 9th grade kids play Gravity HD, or use Osmosis for end of the year. There is even a circuit simulator that can be used in any number of classes.

    Of course the kids will lose them, break them, and sell them. But we have to not be so afraid of new things that we are held hostage by the old. Ideally, kids would be asked to buy the iPads through fund raising activities so they have some interest. Make them available to everyone, but not everyone has to have one. It is like other supplies. Lose it, then have to do things by hand.

  23. Re:Netbooks kill themselves on Can NetBooks & Tablets Co-Exist? · · Score: 1
    I would tend to agree, and think it is going to be a matter of developing the user interface that does not use the keyboard. In this way it is like asking if the command line and GUI coexists. Yes, but most will use one over the other.

    The big problem with netbooks, IMHO, is that they use the OS a desktop. While a mainframe OS can be kludged into a desktop, or a desktop into a laptop, kludging a desktop OS into a netbook is going to feel like a kludge. It is a different experience. So the OS is going to have be in some way different. In this was just having a tablet, with an tablet OS, is likely going to provide a better experience. it may not be a major content creation experience, but it can create content. Perhaps not a million word major work of fiction, but certain photos and short movies.

  24. Re:Academics on Stanford's Authoritative Alternative To Wikipedia · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I completely agree. Wikipedia has gotten a bad rap on two accounts. First, it is compared with Brittanica, and not the average piece of trash 'encyclopedia' that the average person might use or, at one time, buy for their kids. Being a Britannica user from a very early age, I was shock what they expected us to use at school. Wikipedia as a replacement for the 'door to door' encyclopedia, as opposed to the encyclopaedia, is excellent.

    But there is more fundamental reason why Wikipedia is not only an acceptable, but preferable, replacement to a printed encyclopedia. Encyclopedias should never be trusted as a reliable secondary source for research. They will always contain factual errors, misinterpretations, and misprints, as any source will. Therefore they are to be used as a way to get a general overview for a new topic, which will then propel a researcher to more reliable sources. An encyclopedia should not even be allowed as a counted source in a class, though it should be cited if used. Wikipedia, in the current cited form, therefore is superior as it more likely that researches will read the primary and trusted secondary sources rather than rely on an untrusted source.

    An online encyclopedia that merely attempts to mimic the offline form which grew from the vagaries of the publishing industry is not doing anything useful, even if free. A mid 20th century paper edition of the britannica, which is still useful, is under $100, which is cheap. An online encyclopedia is by necessity going to look different and have different priorities. Wikipedia is one increment of that evolution.

  25. "under one meg" on M2Z's Free, Wireless Broadband Killed In Advance · · Score: 1
    Depends how under. If they consistently give users 900K, that is not so bad, and I see why the other wireless carriers are so afraid.

    A half mile away from an antennae, 4G becomes all but useless. Since in my area antennas are spaced more than one mile apart, such a situation is common. Many areas of the US do not have 3g or 4g. If we can get a uniform coverage of just under 1mb/sec, this will force the wireless companies to compete, something they obviously do not want to do, preferring to run borderline fraudulent ads.

    Most users won't be happy with this service because youtube videos and flash won't work well. Many companies won't be happy with people using this service because of the bloated pages that will take forever to load the ads. However, for organizations that want to reach these consumers, it will provide a new market. Again, the incumbents are afraid of any tech that will allow new competition.

    Of course such users will have to have computers, which are still expensive. $2K a month, which I have seen quotes as the 2nd quintile, does not leave much expendable income after food and board.